Popular Politics

We are approaching a new era in politics where the popularity of a candidate far outweighs any education or experience in the field. We saw it with Trump who was a popular reality TV show personality who became President and won the election over probably the most experienced person in America who knew the laws of the land as an ivy league lawyer, spent her life on health care issues, First Lady and Secretary of State. Would you see a doctor who has never practiced medicine? Well we elected a President who has never governed before in his life. Now many of seasoned lawmakers are dropping out from their bid to challenge Trump in the next election. They are even being denied a spot in the next debate not over their lawmaking but over their popularity.

At the Video Music Awards which is a fan based voting award ceremony, Taylor Swift won a few more popularity trophies for her popular song and video. Her acceptance speech was all about her disgust with the political arena and we all know that her songs are always about what is on her mind and America loves her for that. She won for her video and song called "You Need to Calm Down" as the video of the year. She pointed out that America wants a world where all are treated equally regardless of how we identify. She pointed out that at the end of the video there is a petition and still is , for the Equality Act that basically says we all deserve equal rights under the law. She pointed out that it now has $500,000 signatures which is 5 times the amount needed to warrant a response from the White House. Trump is ignoring her unless he insults her which of course he did because that is what he does.

So, can now popularity only fight popularity in politics over experience and education? It seems to be working for her and she isn't even running for President. Taylor Swift donated $113,000 to a Tennessee LGBTQ Advocacy Group called the Tennessee Equality Project. She wrote an open letter to her Senator from her home state of Tennessee asking her to protect people from discrimination in their place of work and home by supporting the Equality Act. Her recent work around social and political issues are making her be noticed in a different popular way. 

She must be an influencer because Trump took the time out to insult her and say that "he liked her music 25% less" after she endorsed two Democrats in her home state. She wrote on her Instagram " As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me." And she spelled everything correctly unlike Trump who can't spell often in his excessive Tweets. And what does her political preferences have to do with the likability of her music Donald?

This is significant because Taylor has $112 million Instagram followers. What she says CAN sway a voter. Do we need celebrity to win an election again? Afterall Taylor is using her voice to endorse Democrats and is encouraging her fans to vote. Kanye is wearing MAGA hats and calling Trump his "brother". Is there any respect in politics anymore?

After her recent VMA Award speech her platform has been linked to VOTE.org that is experiencing a huge surge in voter registration. 65,000 people registered in a 24 hour period. It is significant because in August they only had 55,000 new registered voters. Her voice excelled those numbers in just one day. In her home state of Tennessee more than half of new voters registered in that state alone. So can she have the Bernie effect that Sanders had who registered so many college students during his last campaign? One thing for sure is that popularity has taken over politics.