National Cinemedia, Inc. (NCMI)

[Harry Winston]

This is the complete text of a Washington Times editorial published yesterday titled TV networks, Hollywood movies and the Democrats: reruns and reboots

Hollywood has given us countless classic movies over the decades including The Wizard of Oz, Rocky and ET. Television brought I Love Lucy, The Brady Bunch and Seinfeld into our living rooms. The land of make believe however, seems to have run out of fresh ideas. While Friday nights in the 80s showcased the latest trends in clothes, music and cars on Miami Vice, it’s difficult to name a single show on network television now that will serve as such a time capsule for future generations.

In short, contemporary Hollywood appears to have a dearth of original stories. Numerous television shows are simply adapted from movies instead. Among them are The Exorcist, Taken, Limitless and Lethal Weapon.

Not to be outdone, movie writers are scouring TV archives to inspire their celluloid work. Films such as The A Team, 21 Jump Street and Charlie’s Angels all came from the small screen.

Is it laziness on the part of the writers, is it a lack of creative talent or is it simply trying to maximize a “brand” the public recognizes to rise above the din of all the entertainment choices now available to viewers? Probably all of the above.

This column began by referring to Hollywood as the land of make believe, but Washington may be spewing out just as much fiction in 2019 as the left coast. Democrats are generally recognized as having a very cozy relationship with the Hollywood elite, which may explain why they appear to be using the same strategy of depending on reruns and reboots of old stories rather than offering any fresh ideas in their fight against Donald Trump.

In the hours following Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in November 2016 Congresswoman Maxine Waters began calling for his impeachment (apparently not understanding that impeachment is reserved for offenses that occur during the term of office, which in Trump’s case wouldn’t begin until January 20 of the next year). She was clearly dissatisfied with the outcome of the election process and wanted to use impeachment as a tool. She was not successful.

Representatives Al Green and Brad Sherman introduced a House resolution for impeachment in late 2017 citing “Associating the Presidency with White Nationalism, Neo-Nazism and Hatred” as the basis for their resolution. Trump is no Nazi and their impeachment effort went nowhere.

For the better part of two years the Trump presidency was the under the cloud of the Mueller investigation, looking at allegations (which as it turned out came solely from a Hillary Clinton/DNC generated dossier) that Trump had colluded with the Russians in order to win the election. During the duration of the investigation a wide variety of high profile congressional Democrats joined ex-intelligence sources in saying they knew of “mountains of evidence” that Trump had indeed worked with the Russians and should be impeached. After interviewing more than 500 witnesses and spending more than $30 million dollars however, The Mueller Report found no evidence that Trump nor his campaign worked with the Russians. The red-faced ex-intelligence officials squeaked “Oops” and impeachment talk faded. Briefly.

2018 also featured the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation circus and a plethora of unsubstantiated wild claims about alleged misbehaviors in his high school and college years. Julie Swetnick fabricated stories of witnessing Kavanaugh and his buddies drugging and gang-raping girls at “about ten high school parties”. When questions were raised as to why she, at that time a college student, continued to attend these parties and why she never said a word to anyone about them, Swetnick began to back pedal. It turned out she had a long history of lying including to her previous employer and to the IRS.

A Rhode Island man claimed an acquaintance of his had been raped by Kavanaugh on a boat way back when. Upon further questioning he admitted he had made it up.

Judy Munro-Leighton lied about being sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh. She turned out to be a left-wing activist who was actually decades older than the Supreme Court nominee and eventually admitted she lied in a ploy to grab attention. She also admitted she lied about sending a hand-written note to Senator Kamala Harris with the details of her fictional rape.

Why the rehash of all this old news? Because the Democrats in Washington have decided, much like Hollywood, with an absence of new ideas, they will spend their time and effort repackaging the old stories. As we prepare to enter the fourth quarter of calendar year 2019 House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler is pressing impeachment of the President. What offense has Trump committed? Staying true to the previous story line, Nadler isn’t sure, but he is certain it is impeachable. Dems want Trump’s tax records. There is no specific allegation about his financial history, they just want to go fishing in hopes of coming up with something to exploit.

Also making a return to the donkey channel are accusations against Brett Kavanaugh. Trumpeted this past week in much of the mainstream media as “new” charges, the salacious allegations had actually been raised during his hearings a year ago and had so little credibility they were dismissed by law enforcement at that time. The short version is that a former Clinton lawyer, Max Stier, said that he heard of an unsavory incident at a college party when both he and Kavanaugh were attending Yale. Stier offered graphic detail. The primary problem with his story is that even the alleged victim says it didn’t happen. The Democrats and their compliant publisher of record, The New York Times, left that detail out.

Not content to simply revisit the meritless cries for impeachment of President Trump and disappointed that the rerun of the Kavanaugh crucifixion didn’t gain traction, Senator Kamala Harris has tossed in one new plot twist. She is conflating the two stories and now mixing in her own empty proposal for impeachment of a Supreme Court Justice. Despite the fact the accusation was dismissed during the Senate confirmation hearings and debunked publicly within 24 hours of resurfacing this year, Senator Harris is calling for the impeachment of Justice Kavanaugh because of it. The California Senator seems to have learned nothing from the Judy Munro-Leighton fiasco. It’s a desperate cry for attention from a flailing Presidential candidate.

Is it laziness on the part of the Democrats, is it a lack of creative talent or is it simply trying to maximize the “impeachment brand” the public recognizes to rise above the din of all the news/entertainment choices available to Americans? Probably all of the above.

Hollywood is well aware that television viewership is declining and movie ticket sales are down. Both can be traced to a limited supply of new ideas. The Democrat party may wish to make a note. Their insistence on reruns and reboots of the same failed narratives are likely to cause a decline in their support as well.