Way back in the innocent days of spring, two actresses got in a fight on Twitter. In one corner: longtime activist, progressive voice, and Bernie Sanders supporter Susan Sarandon. In the other, longtime activist, progressive voice, and with-her-er Debra Messing. Sarandon was under fire for implying in an interview that she would rather see a Trump presidency than a Hillary one; Messing was ready to throw a couple of (albeit fairly reasonable) 140-character uppercuts in response. All in all, the level of enmity never rose above “terse parents at a PTA meeting,†albeit on a national-interest scale.
Fast forward to the present day, and things are getting testy again. This time, it’s because Ms. Sarandon recently tweeted that the left needs to “reach out in dialogue to those who voted 4 him. We can’t afford a blanket judgement of them. We need allies in that camp. Possible.†And so it began again:
For her part, Sarandon has stayed pretty cool — especially considering that there has been a veritable social media blame-storm headed her way since Trump’s victory. Messing, on the other hand, has been slightly more voracious (an ear-biter, if you will). And like any good Twitter fight, it’s officially past the initial messy punctuation stages and the subsequent back-and-forth, and is on to full cause-baiting passive-aggression — in this case, Sarandon’s plea for Messing to join the #NODAPL fight:
Interesting tactic. Classy or distracting? Your move, Messing. This one ain’t going to be over until America is done blaming someone for this mess we’re in.