Mike Rowe, the host of the Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs,” recently showed more common sense about democracy in America than pretty much the entire rest of the entertainment industry.
A fan wrote him asking what people can do so “their vote counts.” Rowe replied in a Facebook post that upended the question.
For starters, “I can’t encourage millions of people whom I’ve never met to just run out and cast a ballot, simply because they have the right to vote. That would be like encouraging everyone to buy an AR-15, simply because they have the right to bear arms.”
Then he went after “my friends in Hollywood,” noting: “Every four years, celebrities and movie stars look earnestly into the camera and tell the country to ‘get out and vote.’ They tell us it’s our ‘most important civic duty’ . . . as if the very act of casting a ballot is more important than the outcome of the election. This strikes me as somewhat hysterical.”
Indeed: “Does anyone actually believe that Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen DeGeneres and Ed Norton would encourage the ‘masses’ to vote, if they believed the ‘masses’ would elect Donald Trump?”
“Voting is a right, not a duty, and not a moral obligation,” Rowe notes. “Like all rights, [it] comes with some responsibilities.”
No, he’s not an A-list celebrity. Too bad.



