The Patriot Post® · Hollywood's Confederacy of Cowards

They all knew — and said nothing.

For decades, an army of progressive celebrities, politicians and their Leftmedia accomplices protected serial predator Harvey Weinstein. Make that serial predator and possible rapist. An explosive report published by The New Yorker reveals three women have now come forward with that allegation, and four others have alleged forcible touching that could be classified as criminal assault. Another half dozen essentially said Weinstein was an arrogant pig who did as he pleased, knowing full well the power he had to make or break their careers would ensure silence on the part of his victims.

Even now, there is an effort to shape the narrative as one of fear conquering all. And while that take may apply to the “little people,” such as aspiring actresses, or those directly employed at Weinstein’s various companies, it rings exceedingly hollow for the likes of prominent celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck (who now has his own groping scandal to deal with) and many others.

It rings even hollower for prominent politicians. Hillary Clinton waited five days before deciding she was “shocked and appalled” by Weinstein’s behavior, even as she said nothing about the funds Weinstein bundled for her 2016 election campaign. Bill Clinton, who received contributions from Weinstein for his legal defense fund when he has his own “issues” with sexual predation, has said nothing.

Weinstein was also a bundler for Barack Obama, who waited longer than Hillary to finally declare that “Michelle and I have been disgusted by the recent reports about Harvey Weinstein.” Obama also spoke about the need “to build a culture — including by empowering our girls and teaching our boys decency and respect — so we can make such behavior less prevalent in the future.”

What about the past? Obama’s 19-year-old daughter, Malia, began interning for the Weinstein Company right after the former president left office. And Michelle Obama, who recently dismissed female Trump voters as self-hating women incapable of thinking for themselves, referred to Weinstein in 2013 as a “wonderful human being, a good friend and just a powerhouse.”

The Obamas and the Clintons were hardly outliers. Since the 2000 election cycle, Weinstein donated nearly $1 million in his own name and collected another $1.5 million in “bundled” donations for Democrat politicians, reports Business Insider. Beneficiaries of Weinstein’s largesse include Sens. Chuck Schumer, Martin Heinrich, Patrick Leahy, Richard Blumenthal, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Al Franken and Kirsten Gillibrand.

Many of them are ostensible champions of women’s rights. But as Jeb Bush communications director Tim Miller aptly noted, “Hollywood and the Democratic Party tend to look the other way when there’s misogynistic behavior exhibited by people who contribute to Democratic causes.”

In other words, money, not fear, trumps principles.

Feminism has taken a fatal hit as well. Actress Ashley Judd, who helped break the story, epitomizes the hypocrisy that engenders selective indignation. The woman who excoriated President Trump in front of an adoring crowd of pu—y hat-wearing fans during her speech at the Women’s March on Washington last January, based on what Trump said during a private conversation with Access Hollywood co-host Billy Bush in 2005, maintained silence about what Harvey Weinstein did for two decades. Compounding the hypocrisy, she told The New York Times that women “have been talking about Harvey amongst ourselves for a long time, and it’s simply beyond time to have the conversation publicly.”

Why not have that conversation during the major platform you were given last January, or any other time during the last 20 years, Ms. Judd?

Judd’s not the only hypocrite. A media currently congratulating itself for breaking the story also avoided the conversation when it suited their purposes. The same New York Times that broke the story last week had a version of it back in 2004, courtesy of former Times reporter Sharon Waxman. She put together a story about a man running Miramax Italy whose real job, according to sources, was procuring “favors” for Weinstein. After pressure from Weinstein, who also enlisted actors Matt Damon and Russell Crowe to lobby on his behalf, “the story was gutted,” Waxman explained.

Rebecca Traister is another columnist who reveals why Weinstein’s odious track record remained under wraps, despite him calling her a c—t and putting her boyfriend in a headlock and dragging him into the street while “dozens of camera flashes” recorded the assault. “Back then, Harvey could spin — or suppress — anything; there were so many journalists on his payroll, working as consultants on movie projects, or as screenwriters, or for his magazine,” she writes.

Entire networks were apparently also part of Harvey’s “entourage.” Tuesday it was revealed that NBC passed on the aforementioned New Yorker report.

The real reason for everyone’s silence? Weinstein’s fortress was “quarried from the misshapen material of human vanity, ambition, and greed,” writes Weekly Standard columnist Lee Smith. “Writers and journalists — the intellectuals, in his mind — were nearly as contemptible as actors. They wouldn’t dream of crossing a guy who could turn them into culture heroes with a phone call.”

Smith believes the only reason Weinstein was exposed is because “the media industry that once protected him has collapsed.” In fact, he says, “Facebook and Google have swallowed all the digital advertising money that was supposed to save the press as print advertising continued to tank.”

No doubt. But it is also possible we are witnessing the beginning of a paradigm shift in the national ethos. President Trump’s election was about many things, but one of the biggest was about millions of “deplorable” Americans being fed up with being held in progressive contempt. Trump’s victory also revealed the ideological bankruptcy of the “smart set,” from their insufferable arrogance, to their endless assertions of moral superiority and tolerance.

So much so that maybe someone we’ve yet to hear about found the courage to expose Harvey Weinstein.

And it could get even worse for leftists because their biggest mistake — hopefully fatal — is believing millions of Americans will continue to tolerate being totally immersed in a pool of self-serving virtue-signaling, currently contaminating every entertainment venue from football games to awards shows. Virtue-signaling pitched by an army of progressive Hollywood hypocrites, Democrat hacks, and media frauds now revealed as the confederacy of cowards they truly are.

Weinstein, fired by his company and left by his wife, is headed to sexual rehab. And as TMZ reports, he “still believes he can get help, come back and make a fresh start.”

Something more believable? Courage, no matter how belated, is contagious. The bet here is Weinstein won’t be the only low-life celebrity held to account. And whether progressives like it or not, it looks like draining the swamp won’t be restricted to the city limits of Washington, DC.