Hollywood Needs to Get Over The 2016 Election Already

I used to love watching awards shows. Growing up, I was obsessed with Hollywood and I dreamt of becoming a movie star. I even had an Oscars-themed bar mitzvah.

Clearly, I’m not a movie star, but things changed, time went by, and I’ve moved on with my life just like most people do. That hasn’t happened with Hollywood, however, at least since the 2016 election.

Just like the D.C. establishment and the mainstream media, it seems that the vast majority of Hollywood did not want Donald Trump to become president and they did all they could to prevent that from happening from countless star-studded PSAs, the nonstop ridiculing from late-night comedians, to all the endorsements and money they gave to Hillary Clinton. In the end, it wasn’t enough to sway enough voters in the swing states a presidential candidate needs to win. Apparently the thousands that showed up to the free Beyoncé and Jay Z concert the Clinton campaign organized showed up for the free entertainment and not to support the candidate.

It has now been over ten months since Trump shocked the world with his election victory and Hollywood is still traumatized. They’re suffering from political PTSD and award shows have become group therapy sessions. The Golden Globes, the Grammys, the Oscars, the Tonys, and most recently the Emmys have become less about the art they’re supposedly celebrating and more of a soapbox to air their grievances about Trump, something they’ve been doing since the summer of 2015 when he announced his candidacy.  I mean, how many times to we have to hear jokes about award winners being chosen by a popular vote? I guess Stephen Colbert didn’t get the memo on Sunday that Jimmy Fallon made the same joke at the Golden Globes last January.

I thought there was hope that Hollywood was starting to turn the page from the election because we went nearly 45 minutes without any Trump references at the Tony Awards earlier this summer. Those 45 minutes felt like a breath of fresh air after two years of unrelenting Trump-bashing. This year’s Emmys barely lasted 45 seconds. Colbert, the host of the show, had an opening musical number and a monologue that were dominated by Trump. Several winners like John Lithgow, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Alec Baldwin, Donald Glover, and presenters like Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin all had to squeeze in their jabs towards the president.

If you hate Trump with a passion, then you found this award show — like every other award show since 2015 — enjoyable. But if you either support Trump or even feel indifferently about him, it seems like you’re not exactly welcomed. Prior to Trump, award shows didn’t really go out of their way to get political besides from the occasional acceptance speech. We all know they supported President Obama and they weren’t fans of President Bush but they never really alienated Republicans, conservatives, or even moderates during those presidencies. Now, these award shows don’t give a damn if Trump supporters tune in or not because Hollywood’s mental health problems have yet to be treated. And it seems like until Trump loses his reelection or gets impeached, it is humanly impossible for them to keep him out of their award shows.

The timing of this year’s Emmys was impeccable because while Hollywood is evidently still mourning the loss of the 2016 election, their failed candidate Hillary Clinton just launched her book tour of her memoir What Happened, which also mourns the loss of the 2016 election.

Clinton is still devastated for losing to someone as bombastic and eccentric as Trump. Honestly, as a former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State, she ought to be embarrassed that she lost to a reality show host. So the fact that she wants to relitigate the entire election with this endless blame game of hers is quite remarkable.

But something dawned on me. Clinton has blamed James Comey, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Matt Lauer, Anthony Weiner, Russia, sexism, the media all for her defeat, but do you know who she hasn’t blamed (or at least not yet)? Hollywood.

Apparently she thinks the celebrities in La La Land did nothing to hurt her campaign. In reality, it’s quite the opposite. For over a year, Middle America was being lectured by millionaire liberals whose luxurious lifestyles wouldn’t have been affected no matter who became the next president. A-list actors, musicians, and comedians that live in Los Angeles and New York City pretended like they knew what was best for people living in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Iowa. Like the Democratic Party, Hollywood embraced identity politics and shamed those who didn’t think like they did. And the more outrageous they became with their hatred for Trump during the election (along with the D.C. establishment and the mainstream media), the more support he got simply because average Americans were resenting the condescension.

The question now is whether or not Hollywood can accept the fact that Donald Trump is our president. Like when we watch the Emmys during Trump’s third year in office, will we still hear jokes that he didn’t win the popular vote?

The people who hate Trump will go on to treat the 2016 election like a tragedy on the level of Pearl Harbor or 9/11, but they only have themselves to blame for making the alternative to Trump someone that was even more hated than him. To his day, Hillary Clinton polls worse than Trump and her book tour is definitely not going to change that.

Hollywood and Hillary Clinton can learn a thing or two from me. I had aspirations, they didn’t pan out the way I dreamt they would, but I moved on with my life to pursue other passions without any regrets. They ought to do the same and save themselves the humiliation.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.