Politics

Actor Clint Howard, brother of director Ron Howard, in new video for Heritage Action

Font Size:

Clint Howard, long-time character actor and brother of the more liberal director Ron Howard, is displaying his conservative stripes in a new advertisement for Heritage Action for American, the new grassroots advocacy arm of The Heritage Foundation.

The video calls attention to the propensity of politicians with unpopular voting records to avoid townhall meetings. The video, titled “August Recess Excuses,” aims to raise awareness about the disconnect between the issues that concern congressional leaders and those that concern their constituents.

“The ‘August Recess Excuses’ video highlights the lengths our so-called representatives will go to avoid their constituents,” Heritage Action’s CEO Michael A. Needham told The Daily Caller. “Town hall meetings are crucial to America’s representative democracy. We’re disappointed that many Members of Congress have elected to skip this important American tradition.”

Clint Howard told TheDC that he got involved with the project when an acquaintance of his, Eric Peterkofsky, approached him with the idea. “This is something that is right in my wheelhouse, both as an actor and as a conservative minded citizen,” Howard said. “I’d been looking for opportunities to do something like this and when it come up it seemed like a no brainer.”

Howard has no illusions of grandeur. According to him, celebrities who get too heavily involved in political activism can become tiresome. He hopes to avoid this pitfall and act soley as a concerned American.

“I understand that show business people can wear the public a bit thin when it comes to politics. I know they wear me thin,” Howard said. “I’m not a policy wonk and I don’t dream of being a political operative. My goal as a citizen is to do what I can to help the causes that I personally believe in. To me, it is the same as walking the precinct.”

E-mail Caroline May and follow her on Twitter