Okay, yes, I am a big fan of the Hallmark Channel. After watching one of its Christmas movies a couple of days ago, which I recorded back in December, an important question has to be asked: Is the Hallmark Channel libertarian?
The movie is entitled “’Come Dance with Me,” starring Andrew McCarthy and a Canadian actress named Michelle Nolden. Since it’s a Christmas movie, you’re probably unlikely to see it on tv until, maybe, next December. But the good news is that it’s available in DVD format at Amazon here.
Jack (McCarthy) works at a financial firm, where he is romantically involved with the owner’s daughter, Demi (Stephanie Mills). To surprise his girlfriend, he decides to take ballroom dance lessons, specifically waltz, in preparation for the firm’s Christmas party.
A big problem arises: Jack begins falling for his dance instructor Christine (Nolden), who just happens to be a much nicer, more attractive person than Demi.
Jack is ultimately faced with an enormous decision: money or love. I won’t ruin it by telling you which woman he ends up with.
An even bigger problem arises: Christine receives notice from a financial firm that she is being evicted from the building in which her dance studio, which was established many years earlier by her dance instructor father. As you can imagine, she is terribly upset.
Biggest problem: The firm that sent her the notice is Jack’s firm, but she doesn’t know that. When she tearfully tells Jack about her plight, he commiserates with her but fails to tell her the truth about where he works because he’s afraid that she’ll throw him out and never talk to him again.
Actually, someone has posted the entire movie on YouTube but it’s very dark and unclear and so I highly recommend getting the DVD instead.
But we’ll use the YouTube version for purposes of exploring whether Hallmark is a libertarian channel.
Go to the movie here. Start at 24:50 and watch for 5 minutes until 29.50. To set the scene, Christine telephones the financial firm that sent her the notice of eviction (where Jack works but she doesn’t know it). She asks for Jack Pressman (but doesn’t know that he’s the guy she’s giving dance lessons to and who just commiserated with her over the eviction notice). Jack answers the phone and immediately recognizes that it’s Christine calling.
Do you notice anything libertarian about that scene?
Check out the pictures in Jack’s office. Specifically, go to 25:31 and freeze the frame. Who do you see? That’s none other than libertarian icon Thomas Jefferson.
No, that’s not the only reason to wonder whether the Hallmark Channel is libertarian. Keep watching carefully. Specifically, go to frame 28:40 and freeze the frame. Who do you see in the background photos?
On the left is libertarian economist Milton Friedman, who won the Nobel Prize in economics.
Who is that in the middle? That’s none other than libertarian Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, the greatest economist who has ever lived.
Now, aren’t those three pictures, considered together, enough to ask whether the Hallmark Channel is libertarian?
Unfortunately, the answer is still not perfectly clear. That’s because the guy on the right is John Maynard Keynes, the economist whose statist economic policies have led so many countries to economic ruin. But hey, it’s just possible that the Hallmark Channel threw him into the mix so as not to offend their statist (read: conservative and liberal) viewers.
This really is a great movie. I’m not the only one who says that. The 181 commenters at Amazon give it 4.6 stars out of 5. Spoiler alert: This particular Hallmark movie has a happy ending.