From domestic goddess to MAGA madness - Roseanne Barr stuns a crowd & shocks the New York Post
I come neither to bury Roseanne Barr nor to praise her. I bring her up because she is a famous person whose descent into MAGA madness is an exemplar of the pernicious effects of political cultism. We all know someone — a relative or friend — lost to MAGA. Barr is familiar to everyone.
It is easy to mock her. But America would benefit if she — and the millions of other MAGAs lost to alternative facts — could return to reality. Sadly, I think that ship has sailed. The 20th-century fascist experiment only ended with the destruction and economic ruin of the countries that tried it — and millions dead.
Barr has always been outspoken. It is part of her shtick. From 1988 to 1997, she coined it as the strong-willed, no BS, loudmouth domestic goddess on her eponymous TV show, Roseanne. She reached the heights. She received $40 million per season for the show’s last two years - making her the second highest-paid female TV personality after Oprah. Barr won an Emmy, a Golden Globe, a Kids' Choice Award, and three American Comedy Awards for her efforts.
Her behavior has always been jagged. And she seemed to welcome notoriety. Yet her conduct, while it might have been manic and self-destructive, was within the pale. Unfortunately, she went from controversial to bizarre. ABC fired her from a Roseanne reboot after a hateful tweet accusing a Parkland shooting survivor of giving a Nazi salute at a gun control rally. A move she called a “witch burning.”
Now, her public utterings have become grotesque. She is so unmoored she is shocking even MAGA audiences into silence.
So why was she on stage this weekend haranguing the crowd at the Turning Point USA's AmericaFest event in Phoenix? In short, name recognition. She continues to receive speaking invitations because the right wing does not have a surplus of celebrities to sex up their repertoire of star speakers. And the ones they have are retired, on the downside of their careers, or less than A-list.
Barr’s rant at TP’s hatefest has gone viral. Predictably, left-wing media is relishing yet another example of “can you believe that” right-wing insanity. But even conservative media has either ignored her or reported her actions derisively.
The New York Post, for one, described her antics under the headline, “Roseanne Barr leaves AmericaFest crowd stunned with unhinged rant about communists, Nazis.”
In a video posted by Ron Filipkowski (click here) and viewed over 2 million times, Barr offered her take on current events and explained why she supports Trump. She started with the standard RW paranoia that “they” (I am guessing she means the Deep State) are going to lock her up. And with an allusion to “takers.”
“I just wanna say that, I’m just all in … Because I know if I ain’t all in, they’re going to put my ass in a gulag. If he loses, I know what they’re gonna do. And I don’t wanna go to a re-education camp and have to give all my money to a bunch of losers that never know how [to] get a job. I don’t care about them.”
At first, the crowd was receptive to her message. But as the pauses between her yelling got longer, silence engulfed the room. She threw out the usual slurs. Implored the crowd to listen. And declared she wanted the truth — which, of course, is the antithesis of what MAGA actually wants.
“If we don’t stop these horrible communists, do you hear me? I’m asking you to hear me!”
“Stalinists! Communists! With a huge helping of Nazi fascists thrown in. Plus one caliphate to replace every Christian democracy on Earth now! Occupy! Do you know that?”
“I just want the truth — we deserve to hear the truth! That’s what we want! We want the truth!”
She then wandered off-script — if there ever was a script — by characterizing the GOP as no better than the Democrats. This accusation left the crowd stunned and wondering how they should react.
“We don’t care which party is wrong, we know they’re both nothing but crap! They’re both on the take! They’re both stealing us blind!”
She revisited her demand for the truth and congratulated the crowd for its “service.”
“We just want the truth about everything we fought and died and suffered to protect!”
I do not know the military background of her audience. But let us note there are 18 million veterans, representing c.7% of the US adult population. A further 1.4 million (0.5%) currently serve. The math leaves 92.5% of the population as military bystanders. So, I am not sure how most of her audience fought and suffered. However, stolen valor is a thing — while the truth is a stranger to MAGA.
I suspect Barr will not get too many more invitations to speak at these events. Although Michael Flynn’s Christian nationalist “Reawaken America” tour would probably welcome her. After all, while she was born into a Jewish family, Roseanne is a committed antisemite and Holocaust denier.
During a recent episode of the podcast “This Past Weekend with Theo Von.” she claimed that “nobody died in the Holocaust.” And added:
“That’s the truth. It should happen. Six million Jews should die right now because they cause all the problems in the world. But it never happened. It never happened.”
I have changed my mind. I would like to bury Roseanne Barr (metaphorically).