“F you, Taylor Swift!” shouted Megyn Kelly, “and f all of the people who want to see these children have body parts chopped off.”
For those not fluent in Republican crazy-speak, Kelly’s meltdown was triggered by Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris the night before, barely one hour after Trump all but face-planted on the debate stage. Kelly was especially triggered by Swift highlighting her appreciation for vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s support of LGBTQ+ rights.
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Other right-wing commentators, like Ben Shapiro, took another approach: making fun of Swifties. “Note: if you vote for a particular candidate because your favorite singer is doing so, please don’t vote. You are too stupid to vote,” wrote Shapiro on X. Meanwhile, Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, threatened to impregnate her.
I disagree. Celebrities are paid for movies, music, tv, ads, etc, and at any time, they can say they only did that one thing you didn’t like because someone paid them money. They take a chance by endorsing a candidate because they could potentially lose lots of money, jobs, friends, or more. The type of people that do vote for candidates based on endorsements are also the type of people that don’t generally follow politics, but when you talk to them, you’ll find they are for the same issues as the candidate.
That endorsement could be the one that made some 18-21 year old go and look up the endorsed candidate. When they look up the candidate, they may not be really interested, but then they may find something that the candidate supports, and that makes them want to vote. They never would have voted if they didn’t find that information, and they wouldn’t have looked up the information without the endorsement.
Have you ever bought something that you saw an influencer endorse on social media? Have you ever gone to a new place because someone else recommended it? Have you ever found a new friend because one of your friends was friends with them? What about dropping thousands of dollars into a stock because someone said you should? All of these are just other forms of endorsements from people you pay attention and listen to. Maybe someone recommended a show on Netflix that you passed on previously but decided to watch because of the endorsement, and you really loved it?
Don’t forget, Shapiro didn’t just say you shouldn’t base your vote off of an endorsement. He said that people who do should have their rights stripped. What does that mean? Does he want your Google searches to be checked to see when you started looking things up? He also wants to raise the voting age to 21. He wants voters to be tested to even qualify.
Look at what conservatives scream about during elections. Voters where their signature is slightly different, when their name matches a dead person, when purged voters try to vote because they haven’t voted in awhile, illegals voting in mass, voting by mail, voting at the wrong location, etc. They’re trying to stop people who most likely won’t vote for them. They push wild conspiracies, but if you believe their conspiracies, they think you are good to vote. Problems exist on both sides, then again, if two cars caught fire in opposite sides of the same city on the same day and one of them was a Tesla, which one would be all over the news the next day?
The moral here is never let anyone tell you that your inspiration is wrong. Ordinary individuals are inspired to do extraordinary things every day, and all it takes is that spark of inspiration. Now, go out and do something cool or something!