I’m probably older than most Hot Air readers. I’m significantly older than everyone else on the Hot Air writing staff, except for Jazz, and … well, no one’s older than Jazz, so that’s not much comfort. Jazz and I are old enough to remember when the entertainment industry produced a long string of tedious retrospectives — documentary and allegorical — about The Most Awful Period In American History, by which I mean the Hollywood blacklist era. There was nothing more evil and un-American than to fire people and keep them from making a living because of their personal or political beliefs, these turgid productions instructed, especially in the entertainment industry.

Good times, good times. After watching GLAAD nearly get Phil Robertson fired for his own take on 1 Corinthians (a mainstream evangelical view, for that matter), an endorsement in the California gubernatorial race has resulted in the termination of a well-known actress from a San Francisco stage production:

A famed actress is facing backlash in San Francisco’s Latino community, after she voiced support for a conservative candidate for California governor.

Maria Conchita Alonso starred in a campaign ad for Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of San Bernardino County, a Tea Party favorite who is seeking the Republican nomination. …

The actress was to perform next month at the Brava Theater Center in San Francisco’s Mission District in a Spanish-language version of “The Vagina Monologues,” scheduled for a run from February 14th through 17th. The show is being produced by none other than Eliana Lopez, wife of San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi.

“We really cannot have her in the show, unfortunately,” Lopez told KPIX 5. She said Alonso abruptly resigned from the cast on Friday, given the backlash on the immigration issue.

“Of course she has the right to say whatever she wants. But we’re in the middle of the Mission. Doing what she is doing is against what we believe,” Lopez said.

Of course audiences can’t tolerate a Tea Party conservative in San Francisco! Why, that would be just as ridiculous as film audiences being forced to be exposed to Communists in the 1950s. Or even people suspected of being Communists, because you just can’t take any chances with that sort of thing. Glad Lopez clarified that process for us.  Of course, it’s probably a good time to point out that we’re not in the middle of a Cold War with a heavily-armed libertarian empire, but you never know when that will happen.

(Libertarian empire? I know, I know, but just work with me, okay?)

Glenn Reynolds gets to the point succinctly: “They told me that if I voted Republican, we’d see McCarthy-style blacklists. And they were right!” Our friend Rick Moran elaborates:

But Alonso’s endorsement of Tea Party candidate Tim Donnelly proved to be a bridge too far for San Francisco Latinos. After Alonso cut an ad with the colorful Donnelly, the local Hispanic community went ballistic. This led to Alonso being forced to quit a production of The Vagina Monologues that was set to open next month. …

Oh, dear. We musn’t have that, must we? After all, there’s only one belief system among all Hispanics and if you don’t agree, good luck getting a job, sucker.

Yeah, I seem to remember the entertainment industry and the Left rejecting the “only one belief system among all” argument from the end of the blacklist until very recently, and they were right to do so, too. What happened? It turns out that they’re not interested in tolerance and diversity after all, and like the idea of silencing people.  As long as they’re the people the Left and the entertainment industry doesn’t like. Heck, we even have the governor of a highly-populated state telling his opponents that they’re not a legitimate voice in the political arena. So much for tolerance.

The most ironic item in this story is the ad itself. It’s a web ad, far too long at 3+ minutes to run on television even for the most well-funded campaign. It’s hilarious, but pay particular attention to what happens at the 1:54 mark:

What? A Tea Party candidate’s ad allows for another point of view from its endorser? Why, that looks a lot like … tolerance to me. But maybe by this point, only Jazz and I are old enough to recognize it.