{"id":10487,"date":"2024-10-23T17:24:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T17:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/?p=10487"},"modified":"2024-10-23T17:40:51","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T17:40:51","slug":"opinion-celebrities-should-be-able-to-talk-about-politics-that-does-not-mean-we-should-listen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/2024\/10\/opinion-celebrities-should-be-able-to-talk-about-politics-that-does-not-mean-we-should-listen\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Celebrities Should Be Able to Talk About Politics. That Does Not Mean We Should Listen."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Days after President Joe Biden announced that he would not be running for reelection, historians and professors were already speculating which celebrities would endorse Vice President Kamala Harris and when they would do so. The biggest name on everyone\u2019s lips was, of course, Taylor Swift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, celebrity endorsements have played a large role in elections. In the 2008 presidential election, Oprah Winfrey\u2019s endorsement of Barack Obama led to a million additional votes<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, celebrity endorsements of Hillary Clinton in 2016 from Beyonce, LeBron James, Jay-Z and many others were not deal-breakers; she still lost. Additionally, in a poll on YouGov<\/a>, a mere eight percent of respondents said an endorsement from Swift would make them more likely to support her chosen candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swift\u2019s public political activism began in 2018 when she supported Democrat Phil Bredesen for the Senate. She criticized his opponent, Marsha Blackburn, for her \u201cvoting record in Congress,\u201d explaining, \u201cthese are not MY Tennessee values.\u201d Later, Swift endorsed Biden in the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fans hoped Swift would endorse Harris in 2024 the same way she embraced and endorsed Biden. With the largest fandom in America, democrats anticipated her endorsement might move the needle in one of U.S. history\u2019s closest elections. As the days passed and Swift remained silent, democrats grew anxious. Would Swift\u2019s endorsement be too late?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Swift finally endorsed Harris following the Sep. 10 presidential debate, she received mixed reactions from the public. Democrats applauded Swift\u2019s \u201cexquisite\u201d timing, which many said added the perfect end to a successful debate. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Taylor Swift posted on Instagram that she supports Kamala Harris because \u201cshe fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.\u201d (Source: Taylor Swift Instagram)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not all Americans wanted Swift to endorse. In 2020, her endorsement of Biden and Harris sparked outrage among the conservative community that pushed Swift to keep her political beliefs out of her career. Conservatives shared similar sentiments in 2024. Following her endorsement of Harris, Former President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social, \u201cI HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many fellow singers felt Swift was out of line for using her platform to promote a candidate. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, singer Pharrell Wiliams, known for hits \u201cHappy\u201d and \u201cGet Lucky,\u201d expressed his displeasure with celebrity endorsements. He explained, \u201cI don\u2019t do politics. In fact, I get annoyed sometimes when I see celebrities trying to tell you [who to vote for].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But music has and always will be, deeply tied to politics. Singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and John Lennon have used lyricism to discuss social justice issues. It is impossible for an artist to be completely apolitical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celebrities like Swift often find themselves in a limbo of people who push them to share their political positions and those who relentlessly harass them once they do. The push and pull creates a double standard that disproportionately affects women. Male celebrities often receive little to no criticism for posting controversial political opinions while their female counterparts receive intense backlash. With the competing standards surrounding celebrities\u2019 political opinions, countless artists have succumbed to the pressure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September, singer Chappell Roan said in an interview with The Guardian<\/a> that she would not endorse a candidate due to \u201cproblems on both sides.\u201d Many fans and LGBTQ+ activists criticized her for the way her comment supported \u201cboth sides,\u201d arguing that her neutrality was a \u201cprivilege.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roan later released a TikTok clarifying her position. \u201cObviously, f— the policies of the right, but also f— some of the policies on the left,\u201d said Roan. \u201cThat\u2019s why I can\u2019t endorse. That\u2019s why I can\u2019t, like, put my entire name in my entire project behind one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The backlash eventually caused Roan to cancel her set at the \u201cAll Things Go\u201d festivals in NYC and Washington D.C. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swift, Roan and all other celebrities should not be forced to share their political positions, nor should they be harassed for them. Although public figures may seem larger than life, celebrities are humans and citizens. As such, they have the right to free speech. It is well within the power of a singer to use their platform to share the candidate they will be voting for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just because celebrities should feel free to share their political opinions does not mean that their beliefs should have more weight than any other person\u2019s. Singers should not be treated like political saviors who can change an election with an Instagram post. It is delusional, and even insulting, to believe that some voters value what their favorite singer thinks over issues like personal freedom, immigration policies and gun violence that will be decided this November.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Days after President Joe Biden announced that he would not be running for reelection, historians and professors were already speculating which celebrities would endorse Vice President Kamala Harris and when they would do so. The biggest name on everyone\u2019s lips was, of course, Taylor Swift. In recent years, celebrity endorsements have played a large role in elections. In the 2008 presidential election, Oprah Winfrey\u2019s endorsement of Barack Obama led to a million additional votes.  However,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341,"featured_media":10489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[319,435,318,321,320],"tags":[],"coauthors":[597],"class_list":["post-10487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-culture","category-news","category-opinion","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-2024-10-22-at-9.47.23-PM-e1729704208927.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10487"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10491,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10487\/revisions\/10491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10487"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}