I don’t think so. But she may be valuable getting out the youth vote. Still, no.
Of course if she wrapped those legs around my ears I’d vote for whoever she asked me to.
https://newrepublic.com/article/1758...vatives-brains
Taylor Swift Has Broken Conservatives’ Brains
The singer’s recent appearance at a Kansas City Chiefs game mostly caused a delightful stir—except among those on the grievance-sozzled right.
Conservatives have this thing where they get older but never wiser. It was on full display after the most terminally online among them lost their marbles amid the Taylor Swift discourse that hit a fever pitch this past weekend, when a social media firestorm kicked off because Swift went to a football game. As with all things Swift, this rattled the firmament of fandom, but for various figures on the right, the whole uproar seemed to touch off a simmering mess of male conservative insecurity.
Here’s what went down: On Sunday, Swift attended the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Chicago Bears at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Swift had previously been rumored to be in the early stages of a relationship with Travis Kelce, the Chiefs tight end—and one of the team’s best-known stars. Coincidentally, Kelce had recently drawn the ire of Republicans for doing something that’s not even remotely controversial in normal circles: He posted an ad for Pfizer to his Instagram account on Saturday, encouraging people to get their Covid-19 booster shots.
As Swift watched the game from a private box along with Kelce’s mother, millions of viewers tuned in to watch—and it was hard to dismiss the possibility that her mere presence might be contributing to a sudden surge of interest. Despite the fact that the game was a 41–10 blowout, a stunning 24.3 million viewers watched from home, making it the most watched game this week on any network. Eventually, Fox switched away from the Kansas City game to a more competitive matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and the Arizona Cardinals. It’s unclear if the switch was made because the Chicago Bears were just objectively more pitiful to witness or if Swift was becoming some kind of distraction, but either way, Fox made the decision to pass on a huge influx of viewership.
But the Swift-borne cultural froth continued to fizz long after the game ended. Throughout Sunday night and into the beginning of the week, X (the site formerly known as Twitter) erupted in excitement over the superstar sighting, but it wasn’t only Taylor’s fans who were weighing in. Conservatives, already aggrieved over Kelce, quickly merged into the mob of people discussing Swift—and they brought their own limply misogynist takes with them.
Some, like right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, speculated that Swift would do damage to Kelce, the same way he imagines a booster shot might.
Others, like the surprisingly still-around Tomi Lahren, wondered if Taylor Swift was to blame for Kelce’s socially responsible ad in the first place
Conservative commentator Roger Kimball also weighed in to comment on her appearance, a favorite of Swift critics with nothing to say:
Kelce’s support for Covid vaccines seemed to add catalyst to this outrage cycle. White nationalist and antisemitic Rumble host Stew Peters went so far as to run a segment calling for Swift and Kelce’s execution, on the grounds that Kelce’s Pfizer ad was “leading people to their slaughter.” Part of Peters’s shtick is to call for the killings of his perceived enemies—pretty sick stuff that you might have never heard about had he not added the woman who wrote “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” to his hit list.
Swift is no stranger to conservative backlash, though there are countless celebrities who spend more effort specifically courting it. While political activism is part of her curated aesthetic, she hasn’t made any discernibly partisan political moves in quite a while. She isn’t well known for throwing sharp elbows, either; her quietness on the political issues of the day often brings disappointment to her fans.
But on those rare occasions when she does weigh in, it usually isn’t to the benefit of Republicans. In 2018, Swift broke her silence on politics to criticize then-Tennessee Representative Marsha Blackburn. In an Instagram post, she said that Blackburn’s voting record “appalled and terrified” her. In 2019 she condemned former President Donald Trump, calling him a wannabe “autocrat.” She also went after him over a tweet he posted in the wake of the George Floyd protests. She has also spoken out in favor of LGBTQ+ rights and incorporated that issue into the material of her album Lover. “Shade never made anybody less gay,” she sang in her single “You Need to Calm Down”—in which she rather controversially compared her experience as a famous person to the persecution faced by queer people.
Nevertheless, it’s hard to fathom that these occasional forays into partisan scrapping are the driving force behind the increasing animus of conservatives. So what is it about her that has triggered such intense vitriol? It’s less about the content of her political worldview and more about her vast, earth-moving popularity, the likes of which can seemingly convince people to spend their Sunday watching the Chicago Bears get trounced.
Taylor Swift targeted by RWW fear mongers
