Editing Roger Ebert (section)

=== Politics ===
A supporter of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cooke |first=Rachel |date=November 6, 2011 |title=Roger Ebert: 'I'm an optimistic person' |url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/nov/06/roger-ebert-cancer-life-cinema |access-date=February 13, 2022 |website=[[The Guardian]] |language=en |archive-date=February 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220213093759/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/nov/06/roger-ebert-cancer-life-cinema |url-status=live }}</ref> he wrote of how his [[Catholic]] schooling led him to his politics: "Through a mental process that has by now become almost instinctive, those nuns guided me into supporting [[universal health care]], the rightness of [[labor unions]], fair taxation, prudence in warfare, kindness in peacetime, help for the hungry and homeless, and equal opportunity for the races and genders. It continues to surprise me that many who consider themselves religious seem to tilt away from me."<ref name="EbertCatholic"/>

Ebert was critical of [[political correctness]], "a rigid feeling that you have to keep your ideas and your ways of looking at things within very narrow boundaries, or you'll offend someone. Certainly one of the purposes of journalism is to challenge that kind of thinking. And certainly one of the purposes of criticism is to break boundaries. It's also one of the purposes of art."<ref>{{cite video| title=Siskel & Ebert Advise Young Movie Critics| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__L9DzZIkwI}}</ref> He lamented that ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' "has regrettably been under fire in recent years from myopic advocates of Political Correctness, who do not have a bone of irony (or humor) in their bodies, and cannot tell the difference between what is said or done in the novel, and what Twain means by it."<ref>{{cite news| author=Roger Ebert| title=The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn| date=April 2, 1993| work=Chicago Sun Times| url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-adventures-of-huck-finn-1993}}</ref> Ebert defended the cast and crew of [[Justin Lin]]'s ''[[Better Luck Tomorrow]]'' (2002) during a [[Sundance Film Festival]] screening when a white member of the audience asked “Why, with the talent yup there and yourself, make a film so empty and amoral for Asian Americans and for Americans?” Ebert responded that "What I find very offensive and condescending about your statement is nobody would say to a bunch of white filmmakers, ‘How could you do this to 'your people'?...Asian-American characters have the right to be whoever the hell they want to be. They do not have to represent 'their people'!"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.filmthreat.com/festivals/737/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150311235020/http://www.filmthreat.com/festivals/737/ |archive-date=March 11, 2015 |date=January 19, 2012 |website=[[Film Threat]] |title=When Audiences Attack at Sundance}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Davis |first=Erik |url=http://www.movies.com/movie-news/about-that-time-roger-ebert-fought-heckler-over-justin-lin39s-39better-luck-tomorrow39/11338?wssac=164&wssaffid=news |title=About That Time Roger Ebert Fought a Heckler over Justin Lin's 'Better Luck Tomorrow |website=Movies.com |access-date=January 27, 2017 |archive-date=October 19, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019215808/http://www.movies.com/movie-news/about-that-time-roger-ebert-fought-heckler-over-justin-lin39s-39better-luck-tomorrow39/11338?wssac=164&wssaffid=news |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Harris |first=Dana |url=http://www.indiewire.com/article/this-video-shows-exactly-what-we-lost-with-the-death-of-roger-ebert |title=This Video Shows Exactly What We Lost With the Death of Roger Ebert |website=[[IndieWire]] |date=April 4, 2013 |access-date=April 4, 2013 |archive-date=April 6, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130406061932/http://www.indiewire.com/article/this-video-shows-exactly-what-we-lost-with-the-death-of-roger-ebert |url-status=live }}</ref> He was a supporter of the film after the incident at Sundance.

Ebert opposed the [[Iraq War]], writing: "Am I against the war? Of course. Do I support our troops? Of course. They were sent to endanger their lives by zealots with occult objectives."<ref>{{cite news| last=Ebert| first=Roger| date=November 4, 2008| title=This land was made for you and me| url=https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/this-land-was-made-for-you-and-me| access-date=May 6, 2024| archive-date=March 27, 2023| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327045924/https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/this-land-was-made-for-you-and-me| url-status=live}}</ref> He endorsed [[Barack Obama]] for re-election in [[2012 United States presidential election|2012]], citing the [[Affordable Care Act]] as one important reason for his support of Obama.<ref name=90days90reasons>{{cite web |first=Roger |last=Ebert |title=Reason 02: President Obama faced down the GOP and the health industry to finally reform American healthcare |url=http://90days90reasons.com/02.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120813211002/http://90days90reasons.com/02.php |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 13, 2012 |publisher=90days90reasons.com |access-date=October 25, 2012}}</ref> He was concerned about income inequality, writing: "I have no objection to financial success. I've had a lot of it myself. All of my income came from paychecks from jobs I held and books I published. I have the quaint idea that wealth should be obtained by legal and conventional means–by working, in other words–and not through the manipulation of financial scams. You're familiar with the ways bad mortgages were urged upon people who couldn't afford them, by banks who didn't care that the loans were bad. The banks made the loans and turned a profit by selling them to investors while at the same time betting against them on their own account. While Wall Street was knowingly trading the worthless paper that led to the financial collapse of 2008, executives were being paid huge bonuses."<ref>{{cite news| last=Ebert| first=Roger| title=The One Percenters| date=April 9, 2011| url=https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/the-one-percenters}}</ref> He voiced tentative support for the [[Occupy Wall Street]] movement: "I believe the Occupiers are opposed to the lawless and destructive greed in the financial industry, and the unhealthy spread in this country between the rich and the rest." Referring to the [[subprime mortgage crisis]], he wrote: "I have also felt despair at the way financial instruments were created and manipulated to deliberately defraud the ordinary people in this country. At how home buyers were peddled mortgages they couldn't afford, and civilian investors were sold worthless 'securities' based on those bad mortgages. Wall Street felt no shame in backing paper that was intended to fail, and selling it to customers who trusted them. This is clear and documented. It is theft and fraud on a staggering scale."<ref>{{cite news| last=Ebert| first=Roger| title=Where I stand on the Occupy movement| date=December 7, 2011| url=https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/where-i-stand-on-the-occupy-movement}}</ref> He was also sympathetic to [[Ron Paul]], noting that he "speaks directly and clearly without a lot of hot air and lip flap".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mcdevitt |first=Caitlin |title=Roger Ebert gives Ron Paul a thumbs up |url=https://www.politico.com/blogs/click/2012/01/roger-ebert-gives-ron-paul-a-thumbs-up-112544 |access-date=November 14, 2022 |website=POLITICO |date=January 27, 2012 |language=en |archive-date=November 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221114000613/https://www.politico.com/blogs/click/2012/01/roger-ebert-gives-ron-paul-a-thumbs-up-112544 |url-status=live }}</ref> In a review of the 2008 documentary ''[[I.O.U.S.A.]]'', he credited Paul with being "a lonely voice talking about the [[National debt of the United States|debt]]", proposing based on the film that the US government was "already broke".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |title=I.O.U.S.A. movie review & film summary (2008) {{!}} Roger Ebert |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/iousa-2008 |access-date=November 14, 2022 |website=www.rogerebert.com/ |language=en |archive-date=November 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221114002113/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/iousa-2008 |url-status=live }}</ref> He opposed the [[war on drugs]]<ref>{{cite news| last=Ebert| first=Roger| title=Traffic| date=2001| work=Chicago Sun-Times| url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/traffic-2001| access-date=May 3, 2024| archive-date=April 19, 2008| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080419071411/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20010101%2FREVIEWS%2F101010301%2F1023| url-status=live}}</ref> and [[capital punishment]].<ref>{{cite web| last=Ebert| first=Roger| date=January 12, 2012| title="Nobody has the right to take another life"| url=https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/nobody-has-the-right-to-take-another-life| access-date=May 3, 2024| archive-date=May 3, 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240503172535/https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/nobody-has-the-right-to-take-another-life| url-status=live}}</ref>

Laura Emerick, his ''Sun Times'' editor, recalled: “His union sympathies began at an early age. His father, Walter, worked as an electrician, and Roger remained a member of the [[Newspaper Guild]] throughout his career — though after he became an independent contractor, he probably could have opted out. He famously stood with the Guild in 2004, when he wrote to then publisher John Cruickshank that ‘it would be with a heavy heart that I would go on strike against my beloved Sun-Times, but strike I will if a strike is called.'”<ref>{{cite web| title=Remembrances of Roger| date=April 9, 2012| url=https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/remembrances-of-roger}}</ref> He lamented that "Most Americans don’t understand the [[First Amendment]], don’t understand the idea of freedom of speech, and don’t understand that it’s the responsibility of the citizen to speak out." Regarding his own freedom of speech, he said: "I write op-ed columns for the Chicago Sun-Times, and people send me e-mails saying, 'You're a movie critic. You don't know anything about politics.' Well, you know what, I'm 60 years old, and I've been interested in politics since I was on my daddy's knee.... I know a lot about politics."<ref>{{cite magazine| title=Roger Ebert Remembered| last=Rothschild| first=Matthew| date=April 4, 2013| magazine=[[The Progressive]]| url=https://progressive.org/op-eds/roger-ebert-remembered/}}</ref>