Speaking Out of Turn Off-World

I sat on my bed last night watching a YouTube Interview with actor Richard Dean Anderson (RDA) filmed at a science fiction convention held in Canada recently.  The end of this interview can be found at the following link:

Now while I am somewhat ambivalent about the TV show MacGyver, I did find the interview Q&A entertaining.  Before McGyver I had only seen RDA on General Hospital back in the last 70s.  But I am a huge fan of his character, Colonel Jack O’Neill, on Sci-Fi’s Stargate SG-1, where he played the lead character as well as acted as an executive producer. 

If you’re unfamiliar with Stargate SG-1, it was about a team of explorers, who were mostly U.S. Air Force military personnel (but included one civilian and one alien).  They traveled to different worlds via a device called a stargate and encountered various alien species and societies while fighting against two great enemies of Earth who were known as the Goa’uld (who were, in the story-line, the ancient gods of Egypt), and the Ori, (an advanced technology religious cult).  It was a very story-adaptive series, almost positive in its outlook, and one thing I loved about it was you always knew who the good guys were (i.e., the U.S. Air Force team).  It was great and imaginative TV (even if most of the aliens oddly spoke perfect English).

In that TV series, RDA took over actor Kurt Russell’s movie portrayal of Jack O’Neill  and adapted the character for TV (adding an extra L in the name to differentiate his character from Russell’s).  In order to stay sane, RDA had to lighten O’Neill up a lot and give him a sense of humor, making him a person his team appreciated having around (plus, RDA said he could never get his hair to do what Kurt Russell’s did in the film).  So, over the period of about 7 years, we saw Jack O’Neill lead the SG-1 team in a series of exciting adventures that always portrayed our greatest societal values (and the ethics of the U.S. Air Force in particular) in a good light that was very pro-American (even though it was shot almost exclusively in Vancouver, British Columbia and with a cast that included several talented Canadian actors portraying Americans).

So, before I complain about RDA here, let me clarify my personal feelings about him.  I think RDA is a wonderful actor.  While I don’t know him personally, I perceive him to be a very nice guy; a kind gentlemen and a funny, witty, irreverent guy, the type who would keep you in stitches laughing all night at a cocktail party.  His flippant and irreverent sense of humor is endearing.  So, don’t think I hate the guy, because I don’t.  There is much I admire about him.  But I don’t really know Richard Dean Anderson, because I’ve never met or spent any time with him.  Doggone it, I want to like him completely, because he seems like the kind of guy I would find to be a fun human being, but I realize this is primarily because he has played a character I have liked very much for many years.

So, while I don’t know RDA at all, I have spent a lot of time with his fictional character, Colonel Jack O’Neill, who has literally been in my living room for hundreds of hours over the last 22 years.  I know I like Jack O’Neill, because–being in addition to being a retired Air Force officer myself–I am very much like his character in my basic outlook.  Jack O’Neill, fictional though he may be, I am comfortable with.  I know him, just like I do all of the other SG-1 characters (as opposed to the actors who play them).  I’ve great affection for Jack, for I’ve been with him for many years, watching as he suffered for a lost a son, was cloned as a teenager, went back in time to the 1960s, and, in one episode, lived to be an old man.  In another he relived one day over and over again, Groundhog Day-style.  I’ve been with him when he was tortured, killed and revived by the System Lord Ba’al.  I’ve watched his uncomfortable relationship with Samantha Carter ebb and flow with unrequited love.  I saw him always put the mission first, and place duty and honor above his life and career.  O’Neill is noble character.  He always does the right thing, even with all of his flaws, matter what it costs him.  He is a great fictional character that deserves admiration.  And the Air Force apparently appreciated SG1 too, enough that it stationed an actual active duty captain on the set to make sure the show got all of the Air Force details (jargon, uniforms, procedures) correct, which was very unusual support for a TV series.  The USAF apparently approved of RDA’s portrayal too, for they gave him the rank of “honorary general” at an Air Force Association dinner.

That said, let’s turn back to my current beef with RDA.  I watched this interview at a Canadian sci-fi convention on YouTube and I was having a great time listening to RDA try to remember particular episodes and providing insights on them.  Some of them were pretty funny, like his gastrointestinal challenges with fellow actor Christopher Judge (Teal’c).  Those stories helped make RDA and his fellow actors seem like the real people they are, who don’t take themselves too seriously, which allows viewers to relate to them through humor. 

But then–as many in the entertainment business are prone to do–RDA ruined the moment by crossing the line into politics.  He destroyed all of the fun I was having up until that point.  Why?  He apologized to the Canadian audience for the actions of the President of the United States. 

My first thought was “what actions does he mean?”  I hadn;t seen anything Trump had done to Canada that needed apologizing for.  Then it occurred to me that he simply meant because Trump is Trump.  No matter what Trump did or did not do, RDA would still feel compelled to apologize for and bash him because it became obvious that he hates Trump.  In short, RDA is another liberal progressive who is apparently arrogant enough to believe that anyone who doesn’t agree with his political opinion is an idiot. 

Now I fully support RDA’s right to have his own personal opinions and to state them in pubic, but I found his comments to be extremely crass in that particular setting, and it was extremely disappointing to me as a long-time fan, and the fact he said them in Canada really irked me.

Look, Trump was not my first choice for president, either.  But when it narrowed to him or Hillary Clinton, he became the ONLY choice for me.  Why?  Because Hillary Rodham Clinton had openly sworn to destroy the 2^nd Amendment.  The instant she did that, she became my enemy.  At that moment, she declared an intent to destroy an amendment to the United States Constitution, a document that I am—as an actual retired USAF officer (as opposed to a make-believe one)–sworn to protect and defend with my life. 

The fact that I’m retired from active duty does not absolve me of my oath.  Hillary’s statement made her my enemy as much if she had declared to destroy the 1^st Amendment or any other amendment to the Constitution.  By my oath, if she threatens any part of the Constitution, I must consider her a domestic enemy of the United States, and therefore my enemy.  To threaten the Constitution is a threat to the United States itself, and those threats I am sworn to stop, even if I must die in the attempt. 

That’s pretty serious mojo, friends.  So, when Hillary promised in public to destroy the 2^nd Amendment to the Constitution, she was not only off the table permanently as a candidate for me, she also became my actual enemy.  That is why I had to vote for Trump, because given the choice between a tough-talking, non-politician businessman and a pathologically lying criminal who is an enemy of the United States, there was no other choice possible.  I voted for Trump, I am happy with that decision, and I sleep soundly at night with my choice, for Donald Trump has never once threatened to destroy any part of the U.S. Constitution.  As a side plus, he is also not a lying, stinking politician, either.

Here’s my rub with RDA.  He can like or hate Trump all he wants and I don’t really care.  He also has the right to say what he thinks.  Just as I thought Obama was a very charismatic and well-spoken president, but also a Marxist America-hater, I have the right to say so.  I am not a fan of Obama (though, in fairness, I thought he had a great sense of humor at times).  I can say all of these things; it is my right.  But just because I can, doesn’t always mean I should, particularly if I am not aware of where I am when I say it.

See, despite my dislike of President Obama’s policies, which I found absurdly Marxist, distinctly racist in many ways, and maddeningly treasonous in others (e.g., the Iran Deal and the release of known terrorists from Guantanamo, etc.)–I would never, EVER go to a foreign country and apologize for the actions of my president, no matter his politics.  The president, love him or hate him or her, is freely-elected by the American people, and I WILL NOT apologize for America.  I can call a conference or start a media blitz or whatever IN AMERICA.  That is one thing.  That is how we make our feelings known.  But I will not go in front of a foreign audience and do that.  I don;t think kanyone should.  Such behavior is crass and un-American.  That violates a no-go line for me.  This was precisely what got the Dixie Chicks drummed out of love with their country music audience—not because they dissed President Bush at a time we were going to war (bad enough if your audience is country music fans) but because they did so on foreign soil.  And despite how much we love them, Canadians are still foreigners where the United States is concerned.  They are not part of the United States of America.  This is also true of Australians and Brits and other close allies. 

But there’s RDA apologizing to Canadians about MY president, who, love him or hate him, I helped elect.  So, the effect is to convey the appearance of disunity to our alliews and to slap me in the face as someone who voted for Trump…by an actor whose profession is to entertain folks by playing people he is not.  Sure, RDA has made enough money now that he’s retired, so maybe he doesn’t have to care if he pisses people off.  But any working actor who did this would have just cut his fan base in half, and that half would then boycott his product (RDA).  That’s money out of his pocket and out of his studio’s pocket.  His job, you see, is to entertain, not preach.  And to preach on foreign soil, in a way that denigrates America in any way, is simply unacceptable to me.  This was a terrible insult to the American people.  I don’t need RDA apologizing for America or the president.  That’s a slap in my face…and yours, too.

So why did he do it?  I think I can figure it out.  He’s a progressive.  He believes in all the socialist PC garbage, at least until it gets in his way.  He’s an environmentalist (so what, so am I).  He hates guns (despite the fact he has used them effectively on TV for years to make a career for himself, and freely admits shooting them is great fun—he just doesn’t want anyone else to have that ability).  In one recent interview in Australia, RDA openly advocated his dislike of the NRA and his personal hatred of then NRA-president Wayne La Pierre.  I’m an NRA member.  Another slap to a fan’s face.  So, he obviously doesn’t like the part of the Constitution that supports Americans’ rights to be armed and therefore must agree with Hillary Clinton in wanting to destroy it.  Now RDA never actually said that he would destroy the 2A—something Clinton did—so he is not my enemy, but he did side with my enemies and obliquely against me as a U.S. citizen. 

It is not a new pattern for RDA.  In 2012, at DragonCon in Atlanta, he ended a Stargate Q&A session by telling everyone in the audience to get out and “vote for Obama.”  I know, because my son’s father-in-law got up and walked out on him when he said that.  RDA noticed, because his next question, in an attempt to be funny, was “was it something I said?” Yes, it was, Rick,and it shows you know you are offending people.  You just don’t care.  His presumptive arrogance in assuming (a) we agree with his political position and (b) that he is qualified to tell us what to think, is truly galling to me.  I have no problem with RDA having his own or even a different opinion than mine.  I have a problem with him telling me what to do when I never asked for such advice from a guy who fakes being people for a living.  But my biggest problem with his comments are doing that in front of a Canadian audience.

Rick apparently can’t help but let his politics slip out.  Hey, he’s old enough, rich enough and retired enough now that he probably just doesn’t care anymore.  But for those of us who are fans of his character, Jack O’Neill, such behavior is both insulting (since it assumes our opinions don’t count) and disappointing (because we have put RDA on a pedestal because of Jack O’Neill).  All because Jack O’Neill was a noble character who supported the U.S. Constitution and the American way of life.  Now we find out that Rick, whom we believed was at least in part like Jack O’Neill, is not really like Jack O’Neill at all.  In fact he would probably be a real irritant to O’Neill if he were real.  And that realization burst the bubble of warm affection I had given RDA because of Jack O’Neill.  Yes, I know it is called acting (i.e., pretending), but it was still offensive..

Look, if RDA wants to go into politics now, that’s fine with me.  I can respect that.  If he has the courage of his convictions to get into the political arena and argue his case—and take the public consequences for his political statements—I can respect that, even if I disagree with his position. 

But it takes absolutely no guts to make a provocative president-bashing political statement in front of a bunch of foreign sci-fi fans.  That’s gutless, and it panders to the crowd, especially the nutcase progressive youngsters, who want anything and everything legalized.  Now, Rick, take your arguments and go stand in front the annual NRA convention and argue with them; now that would be courageous.  Argue your points before the Senate or Congress.  I could respect the courage of that, even if I disagree with the particular argument.  But doing so before a bunch of Canadian sci-fi fans, that’s just safe and cowardly pandering.  But do it as a politician in a political setting, not as an actor from a beloved sci-fi series.

And don’t ever, EVER, apologize for America or its president outside of the country.  You’re an entertainer, Rick, and a good one.  But while you’re being that entertainer, consider pandering to both sides of your audience.  People from both sides watch you, follow your shows and chipped in money and time to support your various TV franchises and appearances.  If you want to get into politics, fine, but do it in a political setting, not a sci-fi convention.

 Don’t make America have to apologize for your behavior.