Actor Richard Dreyfuss said in an interview last week that the U.S. is in trouble if the American people do not become more educated on history and basic civics.
Dreyfuss — who is known for “What About Bob?,” “American Graffiti,” “Jaws,” “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind,” and more — made the remarks during an interview with podcast host Dave Rubin on “The Rubin Report.”
“We got so far away from that in such a short amount of time,” Dreyfuss said of the core values that America’s founders had. “By not knowing the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration [of Independence], by not knowing the birth tale of America, we cheat ourselves tremendously, and we change the values that are so important and so unique to us. Opposing views—what other country cherishes opposing views like we do?”
Dreyfuss said that both sides of the political spectrum were “equally nuts” and that hyper partisanship makes everyone “bitter and ignorant.”
“For us to deny that or walk away from that, or feel in some way compelled for either side, conservative or liberal, to have to put down the other side, it’s not enough to disagree with people, you are called upon to put them down personally,” he said. “There are people who wouldn’t consider it a good day if they hadn’t put down some liberals as idiots.”
“That’s nonsense. It’s horse-s**t,” he continued. “We should grow up and stop it.”
“I found at a very early age, that most of the partisanship in American politics was nonsense, and I’ve always felt that way,” he said. “At the height of my partisan politics I was a Democrat or a liberal. But I wasn’t really, and would never have voted a straight party ticket.”