Republicans must win the U.S. Senate in 2014. Yet Democrats are hoping Ashley Judd can appeal to the same shallow voters who re-elected Barack Obama. Judd is only 9 percentage points behind Mitch McConnell, according to a Republican polling firm Harper Polling. At this early stage of the Kentucky U.S. Senate race, 9 points down means Judd might gain traction over the next 20 months.

Ms. Judd's fame comes from a Country-Western musical family. In normal times, a Senate Minority Leader would be immune from serious challenge. But her mother Naomi Judd was born in Ashland, Kentucky. "U.S. Senator Al Franken" should sober up those who scoff. If a Saturday Night Live comedian can be elected U.S. Senator, Republicans should assume nothing. Celebrity is especially powerful with voters who don't pay attention to politics. Nowadays, people feel they know a celebrity but put little weight on policy and facts. A Country-Western family might rival even a Senate Minority Leader.

Obama's powerful new database system might energize voters who normally wouldn't vote. Republicans have been demonized in an increasingly-partisan mainstream media. Obama fooled low-information voters in 2012. Republicans were blindsided.

So on March 1, Ms. Judd gave her first campaign appearance at George Washington University. You know... the kind where candidates pretend they're not campaigning yet and haven't yet announced. But they are building up momentum for later hitting their forehead a la V-8 juice and deciding "Hey! I should run for Congress!"

Most of her appeal consists of very pleasantly staking out positions that everyone already agrees on -- conservative and liberal alike -- and then implying that only enlightened Democrats share her beliefs. This is a typical liberal scam. Liberals demonize conservatives through caricatures. But Judd does it subtly and extremely well. The gullible listener will agree with her and feel those Republicans must be horrible. It won't dawn on the low-information voter that Judd is trying to claim as exclusively her own universal values shared by everyone.

We learned that Ashley Judd is today's Jane Fonda. Make no mistake: Judd is a very charismatic, attractive, well-spoken, polished, and beautiful Hollywood liberal. She is a walking cliché of far-left, male-bashing, gender studies, blame-America ideas. But she is very, very good at it. She spouts off details and specifics. You will believe she is well-informed if you don't think about it too much. The empty calories sure go down smooth.

Yet Ashley Judd is brainwashed. Mineral extraction is "abusive" in the mineral-rich Congo, as a negative for the economy, Judd believes. (4:27 PM on the C-SPAN video.)  So is mineral extraction in Kentucky also "abusive?" She claimed that the average age of women entering into prostitution in this country is 12 years old (4:27 PM) and "all of them" are survivors of sexual abuse. An average age of 12 would mean that roughly as many first-time prostitutes are significantly younger than 12 as they are significantly older than 12.

Ashley Judd appears to have very considerable natural intelligence. But she has chosen to limit herself to only a fashion show of Hollywood clichés, rather than making full use of her obvious smarts.

Ms. Judd argues that women in the military will be raped more often now because women have greater potential for promotion by being in combat. (4:10 PM.) Judd agreed that "sexual violence" happens "a lot" in the U.S. military. Judd highlighted the syndrome of "military sexual trauma" as a major systematic pattern. Judd answered "Absolutely, absolutely! Thank you for bringing that up" at 4:07 PM.

Kentucky values Christianity. Yet on March 1, Ashley Judd gave a back-handed swipe at Kentucky's Christian religion. She was asked point-blank by student Meredith Waters how to employ her Christian faith in social work (at 3:59 PM). Judd described how she repeatedly "fired" God upon witnessing difficult circumstances.

Of course everyone struggles with understanding God's role in the ugly incidents in life. Life's injustices can be terribly heart-wrenching, distressing and disorienting. But Judd clearly sees God as causing life's evils, not as the solution to evil caused by humans. And her religion is a program of good works in which God plays little role.

She said she developed a new kind of faith that will work everywhere, because the Christian God is not adequate to help us in the real situations of life. Judd's new religion is "Whatever works for you," which she explained from a nurse's comment that "public health is my religion." Judd described how she goes about receiving people's "sacred narrative" of their hardships and suffering (evoking a Catholic priest's role in hearing confession).

Judd argued that "subtle" and "covert" violence are being perpetrated by men (around 4:08 PM on the C-SPAN video). Most people understand "subtle" as the exact opposite of "violence." "Covert" is mutually exclusive with "violence." Judd sees violence against women as the main theme of public health studies. (See 4:26 PM on the tape.) She argues that women have to stick together "because their lives depend on it."

Ashley Judd argued that lack of respect for women is an example of "gender violence"  (around 4:07 PM). This is a common feminist scam. A vast spectrum of unrelated experiences are smelted together to create a false narrative of how horrible men are. Hype is seen as necessary to accomplish change. Judd argued that gender violence stretches across a wide spectrum.

Judd's speech gave voice to the male-bashing, Andrea Dworkin school of feminism. That is, only men are to blame. Judd believes sexual violence comes from "trauma bonding" in which female victims are dependent upon the men who abuse them. In fact, crime statistics reveal that women physically attack men more often in domestic violence.  In the real world, violence is an inexcusable individual failure in which gender is irrelevant. But feminists want to sell violence as a socially-approved cultural construct of systematic patriarchal oppression. Ironically, liberalism's hostility to personal accountability and certain punishment creates the breeding ground for the violence they obsess about.

Judd argued (at 4:14 PM) that male conversations amongst men encourage rape and violence against women. (This author has been mysteriously excluded from those conservations.) A tearful student broke down crying (at 4:11 PM) with the logical result of feminist hysteria, asking "How do I keep going?" after being convinced that the entire culture is a giant conspiracy against her.

Judd will not be competing for the thoughtful, well-informed voters that Republicans pay attention to. If the Obama machine could identify, contact, and energize misguided voters in Virginia in 2012, Democrats hope that Ashley Judd's star power can turn out gullible voters in Kentucky.

Judd has said some silly things. However, she is infinitely more skillful and persuasive in saying nutty things than Republicans are willing to admit. Like Obama, Judd can dish out liberal goofiness and make it sound fabulous. Therefore, she can do more than win one U.S. Senate seat. She can confuse and deceive gullible voters all across the country.