Since 1987 when R. Lee Ermey portrayed the iconic Marine Corps Drill Instructor in Full Metal Jacket, he has been in numerous film and television roles. And then Hollywood found itself in a situation that rivals the “non-person” erasure of critics of the Soviet system. Like Charlton Heston before him, John Wayne and other icons who find themselves on the wrong side of revisionist history, Ermey has no invitations to appear in anything produced in Hollywood.
In publicly disagreeing with then-President Obama in 2010, by expressing the opinion that it was the Administration’s aim and policy to change the United States into a socialist state, Ermey ran counter to the whole industry. It was also his association with the NRA, this one-time supposed Liberal ( a Marine Vietnam veteran), that after a long career, he found himself on Hollywood’s blacklist. The irony, for those who do not recall it, in the 1950’s Hollywood actors and producers were being investigated by the House Un-American Activities committee for communist sympathizers within their industry. The never forgave the Republican party for this. At some point, the campus revolutionaries and anti-war protestors took possession of the cultural institutions, college campuses, bureaucracies and political offices. As both corporate entities and even states have learned during the Obama Presidency, un-approved views and policies, are subject to commercial asphyxiation and shunning.
From several of the Marines I served with and got to know during my 25 years in the military, I know that all of them might have different views on politics, leadership and our role in the world, but have first and foremost been champions of their fellow Marines and the services, Though I have known and respect certain men and women who pursue a career in Hollywood, I also know that as a Christian, that environment, so much about image, appearance and so little based on substance and tolerance -to differing views -would be toxic.
Truths, Half-truths, and Sea Stories 