We Americans love our celebrities. From Perez Hilton to TMZ to Access Hollywood, we just can’t get enough. As evidenced by the eleven-million (yeah, I said million) dollar sale of the first pictures of Branjelina’s newborn twins, Americans are often fixated if not obsessed with tinsel town’s brightest stars. From what they’re wearing, to what they’re eating, to whom they’re dating, we always want to be in the know when it comes to our favorite celebs. So why is it then, that when it comes to what they think about politics, celebrities’ opinions are to be seen as blasphemous? Year after year, come election season, political pundits and doctors of spin tell us we should encourage celebrities to just “shut up and sing”, with even celebrity-besotted Perez Hilton posting detractions of Sean Penn on his blog for trying to get involved. We spend so much time and effort trying to invade celebs’ lives, why is it that when they finally want to use their celebrity for an important cause, we avoid it like the plague?

Granted, a lot of the time their gushing, over-zealous laudations of certain candidates border on hyperbole, and make us distrustful of the messages they are trying to convey, but when was the last time we looked past their over the top “concerts for change” and their dramatic rallies and really analyzed what they were trying to say? If we looked closely, we would realize that celebrities often divorce themselves from their personal politics and just try to encourage some of the young people for whom they are role models to get out and vote.

It’s no secret that most of the cool kids in Hollywood are left-leaning to say the least, but when was the last time we heard any of them discussing the nuances of Obama’s economic stimulus package as opposed to McCain’s? Let’s face it, when it comes down to the political nitty gritty, celebrities habitually reveal themselves to be lacking in knowledge of the actual issues at hand. That’s why celebrities don’t often make it a sticking point in their arguments for people to vote one way or another. They often readily acknowledge that they are no authorities on politics in any sense of the word. Also, there is no guarantee that their fan bases are going to share their politics (see Dixie Chicks). That is why recent campaigns such as Rock the Vote, Declare Yourself, and Citizen Change among others, feature celebrities trying to encourage people to get informed and register to vote so when the time comes, they are able to make educated decisions.

While some critics may contend that these campaigns are thinly veiled liberal propaganda organizations, and revile celebs for their involvement in them, I posit that instead of deriding the outspoken stars and starlets, we should be thanking them. In a country where over 40% of the voting aged population chose not to vote, even in an election as pivotal as the last one, we should be looking to celebrities and their easy access to national and international media outlets to spread the word, and encourage citizens to vote. Not only is it okay for them to be getting involved, but it is their duty as role models to the youth of our nation to try to get them involved in the democratic process. In fact, m any not for profit organizations, whose sole missions are to increase civic participation and engender a genuine interest in the political process among America’s youth, could not survive were it not for the highly visible, celebrity-driven public ad campaigns that they employ. So who are we to be telling arguably the most influential people in our society to sit down and shut up about political involvement when over 63 million of us voted to decide the last American Idol and just 66 million of us voted for President Obama? Hey, I love Ruben Studdard’s velvety voice as much as the next guy, but if I were a celebrity and saw this alarming trend of passiveness from the American electorate, I’d do everything in my power to change it too.

Is it so unfathomable to suggest that maybe, just maybe, celebrities actually mean what they are saying? Is it so crazy to assume that they actually just genuinely care about getting out the vote and are using their unique positions of influence within our society to act as catalysts for its betterment? Because regardless of who the winner is in most elections, celebrities will carry on living the glamorous lives that we so love to keep track of. They’ll still eat at the Ivy, and sit courtside at Lakers games, and enjoy all the other excesses that only exorbitant amounts of money can bring them (in fact, Democrats’ higher taxes for the super wealthy makes you wonder why Hollywood isn’t the most conservative town out there). So instead of harrying and hounding celebs about why they’re trying to get involved, let’s try to accept their help and get the youth of America to actually go out and rock the vote for once, because what’s the point of living in the most democratic country on earth if we’re not going to take advantage of our unalienable right to choose our leaders. Agreed, celebrities can often be garish and over the top when trying to spread the word about getting out the vote. But even if it’s not as dramatic as “Vote or Die”, the next time you see celebrities out in force trying to make a difference, before you write them off, just think to yourself: What have I done for my country lately?