TOTO: Dear Hollywood: Hate Won’t Change a Single Heart, Mind

Hollywood weaponized everything in its creative arsenal to deny Donald Trump the Oval Office in 2016.

Speeches at the Democratic National Convention. Celebrity-packed PSAs. Social media rants. Late night television skits. And, of course, a far less creative asset — cold, hard cash.

Does anyone doubt they’ll do it again to make Trump a one-term president? Their tactics didn’t salvage Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and there’s a reason they’ll fail a second time aiding the eventual Democratic nominee.

Hate isn’t a good look on anyone, especially La La Land types.

Celebrity rage energizes the progressive base and fuels laugh-free monologues. The upcoming election, though, is a battle royale for independent voters. Will they be swayed by potty talk, nude protests and calls for violence?

It might just have the opposite effect.

Fran Lebowitz is a prime example. The famed author recently appeared on “Real Time with Bill Maher” Friday and broke a land-speed record for public apologies. She started her shoe-in-mouth shtick by evoking the Mueller Report fallout.

“Certainly, [Trump] deserves to be impeached. I mean, impeachment is just the beginning of what he deserves. Not even scratching the surface of what he deserves,” Lebowitz said. “Whenever I think about this and what he really deserves, I think, ‘We should turn him over to the Saudis, you know, his buddies. The same Saudis who got rid of that reporter, you know. Maybe they can do the same for him.'”

She referred to journalist Jamal Khashoggi, allegedly tortured and killed with the Saudi government’s blessing.

The show’s producers told her, mid-show, the comments caught heat on social media. That coaxed her to cough up a weak mea culpa before the program wrapped.

If only Lebowitz’s comments stood as the exception to the celebrity rule.

Director Rob Reiner of “This Is Spinal Tap” fame rages against Trump on a near-daily basis. His tweets sound unhinged, clinging to conspiracies that might make even Resistance members cringe.

“Fact: Trump colluded with Russia. He did it in plain sight…” he tweeted following headlines absolving the president of election tampering.

Fact: Trump colluded with Russia. He did it in plain sight. Mueller was charged with looking for the crime of conspiracy and said he didn’t find enough evidence for that. Counter intelligence investigations can take years to unravel. Mueller was shut down by Barr. #ReleaseReport

— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) March 27, 2019

Late night hosts hammer Trump virtually every night, and they often do so in the crudest ways possible. “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert’s infamous “c*** holster” comment about Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is just one stark example. TBS’s Samantha Bee cursed First Daughter Ivanka Trump out in a way that would have gotten her fired had the target been an Obama offspring.

The list of stars wishing, or imagining, Trump’s death grows, and grows. Start with Kathy Griffin, Johnny Depp, Ellen Barkin and Snoop Dogg.

Comedy maestro Judd Apatow (“Knocked Up”) and comedian Kumail Nanjiani (“The Big Sick”) both slammed President Trump as a Nazi. Director Joss Whedon of “Avengers” fame predicted Trump would start rounding up gay Americans for execution.

The president just gave Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s gay marriage his unabashed approval and sent out a friendly tweet in time for LGBT Pride Month.

Sometimes stars let their art do the talking, or shrieking, as it were.

The upcoming zombie film “The Dead Don’t Die” mocks Trump supporters as racist. Co-star Steve Buscemi’s bumpkin character dons a red “Make America White Again” hat.

Subtle.

What’s an independent-leaning soul to think after absorbing a fraction of these messages? This isn’t 2016. President Trump has been in charge for some time now, and while his bruising rhetoric and clumsy connection to reality remain, the country is prospering in ways his detractors said wasn’t possible.

The economy is strong. No new wars are sending our men and women into harm’s way. ISIS remains a threat but its collective numbers are dwindling. Blacks and Hispanics are enjoying record employment figures.

The dystopian America painted by Hollywood has yet to materialize. It’s one thing to say, like Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence did, that Trump’s election would be “the end of the world.”

It’s another to look around Trump’s America and note it looks like Obama’s America, but with more red hats

Celebrities say they want change. Their collective actions, though, are more temper tantrum than change agents.

The irony is that Lawrence is one of the few Hollywood souls attempting to win hearts and minds. She’s toned down her rhetoric in recent months. She even poured her energy toward a bipartisan plea to fight government corruption.

No name calling. No mudslinging. Just data capped by a plea for support.

She might even win some converts. Does anyone think her hard-charging peers will come even close to doing the same?