WASHINGTON: As far as anyone knows, “The Donald” never punched anyone during an altercation over a New York City parking space. But 60-year-old actor Alec Baldwin, famous for his mocking portrayal of the president on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”, was arrested after allegedly punching a man in the face for taking a parking space the aging thespian believed was his and his alone.
Alec Baldwin portrays President Trump on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” NBC screen capture.
Liberalism’s fists of fury
Alec Baldwin confronts a reporter. ABC News screen capture.
Baldwin, hauled off to the NYPD’s 6th Precinct in Greenwich Village, is booked on misdemeanor assault. He cooled his heels in a cell for several hours before his release.
Baldwin gets into trouble for being a Smart Alec on a bike in Manhattan
According to the New York Post’s Page Six, one of their reporters was waiting outside the precinct when Baldwin was released. The intrepid reporter asked:
“What kind of example are you setting for your kids with your little temper tantrum? Can’t you afford a garage at this point with all the money you make?”
Uncharacteristically, Baldwin refrained from lashing out verbally or with his fists, choosing instead to walk away and hop into a waiting car.
Last April, the hotheaded actor was arrested after a heated exchange with New York City’s finest. It happened after Baldwin was stopped for riding his bicycle against traffic on a one-way street.
A Baldwin-free America?
Former President George W. Bush. C-SPAN screen capture.
Back in 2000, Baldwin turned his innate anger to things political when he said he would leave the United States if the country rejected Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore in favor of Republican rival George W. Bush.
But eighteen years later, he’s still in America, fighting for his little piece of the “land of the free and home of the brave”: A parking spot outside his 4,137-square-foot, $11.7 million penthouse atop the Devonshire House in New York’s fashionable West Village.
Very nice digs for a member of the so-called “resistance.”
Shortly after Trump won the 2016 presidential election, UC Santa Cruz psychology professor Thomas Pettigrew published a paper in the Journal of Social and Political Psychology. It attempted to describe the mindset of Americans attracted to Donald Trump’s political agenda. Dr. Pettigrew states that Authoritarian Personality Syndrom:
“… is a state of mind that is characterized by belief in total and complete obedience to one’s authority. Those with the syndrome often display aggression toward outgroup members, submissiveness to authority, resistance to new experiences, and a rigid hierarchical view of society. The syndrome is often triggered by fear, making it easy for leaders who exaggerate threats or fear monger to gain their allegiance.”
That hardly describes Trump. In fact, “resisters” like Baldwin, who literally live in ivory towers and engage in the verbal and physical abuse of ordinary folks – the “little guy” – perfectly fit Dr. Pettigrew’s diagnostic description of the aforementioned autocratic disorder.
For example, during an interview with Gentleman’s Quarterly, Baldwin told Stuart McGurk:
“What you see with Trump is how Hitler got elected. Someone who will say anything to people because of their economic interest.”
He mocked Trump for promising to “bring back coaaaal… there’s gonna be sooo much coaaal…”
Getting in touch with his inner Hitler
German dictator Adolph Hitler. Screen capture from documentary “Hitler in Color.”
And this is when Baldwin drops the mask to reveal the authoritarian progressive within. According to McGurk:
“Baldwin recalls a sociology class in college where the point was made that if the planet was an island of 100 people and ten people were going to cut down all the trees, ‘the other 90 would incarcerate and murder those people… Now, I’m not saying we incarcerate or murder people in the coal industry… [but] They definitely need to be silenced. They need to be put in their place.’”
And there you have it. The progressive liberal’s irrational anger, “often triggered by fear” and a “rigid hierarchical view of society,” coupled with a deep seeded need to put “outgroup members” in “their place.”
And that place just happens to be under a heavy thumb… or ultimately at the business end of an angry, clenched fist.
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Top Images: Actor Alec Baldwin is released from jail, NBC News screen capture.
Baldwin as President Trump on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” screen capture.
