Where was Meryl Streep when Obama was prosecuting whistleblowers & bombing weddings?

Danielle Ryan is an Irish freelance writer, journalist and media analyst. She has lived and traveled extensively in the US, Germany, Russia and Hungary. Her byline has appeared at RT, The Nation, Rethinking Russia, The BRICS Post, New Eastern Outlook, Global Independent Analytics and many others. She also works on copywriting and editing projects. Follow her on Twitter or Facebook or at her website www.danielleryan.net.

Published time: 10 Jan, 2017 10:51

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Actress Meryl Streep accepts the Cecil B. DeMille Award. © Paul Drinkwater / Courtesy of NBC / Reuters

Okay, first let’s get one thing out of the way: I adore Meryl Streep. Judge all you want, but The Devil Wears Prada is a classic and I won’t apologize for saying it.

Streep’s anti-Trump speech on Sunday night at the Golden Globes was a sublime performance. It was delivered with emotion and grace. A real tear-jerker for anyone worried about the oncoming era of Trump.

And yet... it also stank. It reeked, in fact. Of pure, unadulterated hypocrisy. Because Streep, sadly, is that common breed of liberal Hollywood hypocrite. You know, the ones whose bleeding heart credentials are suddenly nowhere to be found when the occupant of the White House is a cool Democrat who’s besties with Beyonce.

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In her impassioned speech, Streep called on her peers and fans to join with her in donating to the Committee to Protect Journalists: “We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call them on the carpet for every outrage. That's why our founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in our constitution,” she said.

She’s right, of course. But one wonders is Streep even aware, for instance, that the Obama administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all of his predecessors combined? It’s a tradition Trump is likely to continue, of course, but it’s rather strange that the issue never crossed her mind until now.

And where was Streep — only suddenly concerned about how “violence incites violence” — when Obama was helping Saudi Arabia level Yemen, bombing funerals and wedding parties? Or when his“humanitarian intervention” in Libya went so disastrously wrong that it turned the country into a failed state, allowing the terrorist group ISIS to flourish? Or when the great uniter earned himself the nickname ‘The Drone King’ as he expanded the US drone program and conducted ten times more strikes than George W. Bush? Also a tradition Trump will likely be only too happy to uphold.

Where was Streep as the Nobel Peace Prize winner bombed not one, two or three — but seven different countries? To be fair to Streep, she probably didn’t notice because the “principled press”didn’t seem to either. Funny thing about that too, since Streep and her friends are worried about Trump’s apparent disdain for foreigners: All of the countries bombed by the Obama administration were Muslim countries.

And where was Streep when Obama’s administration was negotiating on behalf of Al Qaeda-linked“moderate” rebels in Syria? In fact, where were all the hypocrites in the room, as Obama spent 2016 dropping 26,171 bombs?

Oh that’s right, they were partying in his house!

Look, these people have a right to air their grievances about Trump — and they should. There are legitimate grievances to air. But when they bury their heads in the sand this deeply, they don’t deserve a round of applause and adulation from the masses. They deserve to be called out and woken up. Their moral outrage is empty and meaningless unless they are consistent in applying it.

As for Trump, his easily bruised ego was on display in his response to Streep’s speech when he called her an “overrated” actress — which is unlikely to hurt her feelings the way she apparently hurt his. For him, it might be time to realize he’ll get very little done during the next four years if he responds to every insult and perceived slight on Twitter.

The fact is, many of the outrages that Streep and the Hollywood elite are now up in arms over are not Trump-specific — and they’re not new. They’re already happening. Hollywood hero Obama has made it even easier for Trump to go after journalists and whistleblowers and to bomb innocents if that’s the path he chooses. Time to wake up.

You’re great at acting Meryl. The best, some say. You could at least pretend to care about that, too.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.