Susan Sarandon

In Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Freidman penned the then controversial but now status quo thought on the relationship between economic freedom and political power.

Viewed as a means to the end of political freedom, economic arrangements are important because of their effect on the concentration or dispersion of power. The kind of economic organization that provides economic freedom directly, namely competitive capitalism, also promotes political freedom because it separates economic power from political power and in this way enables the one to offset the other.

Competitive capitalism may have created a third power, celebrity.  People with high profiles that evolves into public fascination gain celebrity status.  Michael Jordan has it, Karl Malone who had more points, more rebounds and almost as many assists did not.  Barak Obama has it and Mitt Romney does not.

Susan Sarandon has managed to turn her celebrity into political power and has brought attention to many causes she has supported over the years, but that celebrity has hit a political wall.  A friend of democrats and the left, she claims that she has been subject to government surveillance and that she has been a denied clearance to visit the White House.  I will assume that the her claims are true. 

Celebrity does not usually translate to expertise and my libertarian leanings often put me on different sides of causes that she has supported but I am mystified as to the threat she posses to the government.  As Voltaire taught, “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”