The Polanski scandal: Return of the limousine liberal

Great art, and film especially, is accessible to everyone, whereas great artists are much scarcer. The incarceration of Roman Polanski would not stop anyone from renting his films from Netflix, but it would require that he sit out the annual festivities at Cannes. That would undoubtedly disappointment the class of people who thrive on such exclusive company. The rush of so many wealthy and powerful liberals to defend Polanski reeks therefore of self-preservation, borne from the belief that a certain amount of wealth and accomplishment should exempt them from the American penal system.

This is, of course, one of conservatives’ favorite attacks on the left’s elites…

Now Polanski’s defenders are reminding us that, maybe, Nixon had a point. They have given the Michelle Malkins and the Rush Limbaughs another log to throw on the populist flame—and a particularly combustible one at that. Conservative talk-show hosts have been reduced to making up issues out of whole cloth—myths about death panels, and fantasies about President Obama’s birth certificate. So why give them a real issue to work with? When Rush describes Polanski’s defenders’ logic as, “IT’S OK TO ANALLY RAPE A GIRL IF YOU MAKE GOOD MOVIES,” he is right.