celebrity endorsements, a post-script
the chances of negative polarization are low but never zero
Taylor endorsed about a month before I thought she would—and it drove a lot of voter registration, which is great. Given that Harris / Walz friendship bracelets were instantly for sale, I would guess this endorsement was pretty carefully timed, giving Harris an additional post-debate boost.
And Taylor’s statement is good. As always, she knows how to treat the reader like a peer instead of somebody who is beneath her; so she says, I did my research and here’s my conclusion, but you should do your research and come to yours (and make sure you’re registered to vote). It’s a message addressed from one adult to other adults. And it puts the emphasis where Taylor really does have a lot of influence—driving up voter registration.
All of this basically fits with what I already thought would happen when she eventually endorsed. It doesn’t mean she can hand the election to Harris. The only person who can win Kamala Harris’s election is… Kamala Harris.
But what I did not bet on, and should have in retrospect, was how the world of very online conservatives would react. I assumed they would respond the way Trump has—that is, oh, Taylor Swift is a Democrat, well, fork found in kitchen.1 Because… everybody knows that Taylor Swift is a Democrat, except for a particularly weird part of her fanbase that is always hunting for ways she can disappoint them.2 She has always been a Democrat. You can see her in this video at what was probably the precise moment she decided to get the hell out of country music:
So to be dismissive like yeah, we knew that, is the correct play. Because what you really, really, really do not want is to turn conservative messaging into “we hate Taylor Swift.” If you do that, you will in fact activate her fan base! Which you do not want to do. Instead, stick to, fork found in kitchen. Easy. Yeah, she’s a lib, we all knew, yawn.
Instead, you get….
From Elon Musk: I’ll make you pregnant.
From Dave Rubin: Enjoy getting raped by Venezuelan gangs.
If this reaction to Taylor’s endorsement keeps up, it will probably negatively polarize Swifties who can vote (which, according to one poll, is most of them). Taylor can’t do that. But Republicans can absolutely do it to themselves. Would that matter? Again, probably not—that Musk deleted his tweet signifies to me some of them are rethinking this angleETA: guess who did not delete his tweet lol—but… it might.
Anyway. I don’t have anything particularly insightful to say here. It’s just another data point of a group of people that have completely lost touch with what it’s like to be normal while also fervently believing themselves to be the representatives of normal people.3 But I got an email about one podcast appearance yesterday (didn’t work out), and then another about a radio appearance today, and, frankly, I do not want to do them. So here is my post-script, for posterity.
ETA 09/15/2023: lol… one might even say… lmao
See “ETA 09/15/2023” for further updates on this matter.
Another common assertion you see from this type of fan is that Travis Kelce is MAGA or MAGA-adjacent. How quickly we forget Mr. Pfizer.…
You could see this watching the debate, too, or at least the thirty minutes I managed to get through. Part of Trump’s weird debate magic previously was his ability to say things without getting tangled up in the shibboleths that Republican politicians used to have to jam into all of their answers. Now he’s just stuck with a new set.
Good distinction about only endorsing vs. also urging her fans to vote.
The Elon statement didn't shock me because the man thinks he's some sort of genetic white knight (meant both ways). Shouldn't my lady just accept his bounty?