Ellen DeGeneres often contends that she doesn’t “get political,” by which she means she won’t do a set of skewering political jokes. I’m clarifying that because Ellen is a political person, clearly. But she speaks to politics in her own, unique way. She often has political figures on her show, but not all of them, normally just those she supports. She is very outspoken about the rights of the LGBTQ community. Recently she made a definitive statement by disinviting singer Kim Burrell to her show after Burrell made homophobic comments. But most of the time, Ellen presents her politics wrapped inside a joke. The results are both charming and effective.

Yesterday, Ellen joked about the protests going on across the country due to the Travel Ban and then on Sunday, Trump screened Disney’s Finding Dory at the White House for his and his staffs’ families because, you know, the mood was so flipping light in the country on Sunday. Ellen joked she didn’t want to discuss politics so instead, she’d talk about Finding Dory and proceeded to give a funny yet pointed summation about an outsider trying to join her family in a foreign place with the help of strangers. Here is the clip:

There are so many people I want to watch that clip with so I could point at them and shout, “YOU HATE DORY!” I didn’t really care for Finding Dory but now I might buy it. As I said before, it gets her point across nicely. Even though you may not, many people see Ellen as the Queen of Nice. And they are people from all walks of life because the general consensus is: Ellen is safe. Safe can get a message to those who wouldn’t normally listen. Who remembers the 1985 Senate hearings for the Parents Music Resource Center to get warning labels on records? The opposition’s key witness was John Denver because he was safe. (Shout out to Dee Snider and Frank Zappa who gave incredible testimonies). If Ellen wants to gently walk her more conservative fans across the aisle, great. Go Ellen.

I was beginning to think I didn’t “get political” anymore either. My days of Marching on Sacramento and sit-ins has evolved into phoning my reps, signing petitions and, of course, voting. Last Friday I spent four hours trying to get through on any of Sen. Feinstein’s five phone numbers without any luck. But then Bannon and his orange marionette played Mad Libs with the Constitution so I wrote a check to the ACLU. Sunday I put on my sh-tkickers and walked to LAX with The Mister. When we got home, we realized our little two-person presence probably didn’t make a big splash in the huge sea of people there but were still glad we’d gone. My husband teaches at USC and the majority of his students are not from the US. We bumped into a few at the protest. Monday morning, they told him it meant something to see their professors out there speaking up for them. My point: all messages matter right now. Whatever or however you are saying it, it matters. Maybe someone will listen to a joke but not an argument. Maybe a student will feel valued. Maybe Congress will realize that all of those people who voted against the current president will also vote against people who do nothing about him. However you can convey your message, do it. And that’s why I, decades-registered Republican, stands with CB in our commitment to speak against this administration.

Photo credit: WENN and Fame/Flynet Photos