Resisting the urge to open this article with a Taylor Swift lyric is just about as tough as it must have been for Swifties to hold out for her endorsement of a presidential candidate in the 2024 American election season.
In 2018, for the first time, she broke her manicured silence on all things politics and, in 2020, she made a documentary (Miss Americana) about being so brave about it all. There are entirely sincere opinion articles flooding American (and non-American, clearly, albeit with a little less sincerity) media houses debating whether Swift owes the US an endorsement and some much-needed clarity. A New York Times article published shortly after the Democratic and Republican National Conventions and right before the presidential debate, or more importantly, before Swift’s public support for Kamala Harris, reads: “There’s a highly anticipated event in this election season that’s yet to happen and could occur at any moment: an endorsement from Taylor Swift.”
Few figures in American or world history enjoy Fandom — with a capital F — the way she does. And with her famous cats and empty nest (“Guess I’ll just stumble on home to my cats (Ugh) alone/Unless you wanna come along (Oh),” Swift sings in ‘Gorgeous’), the fit is just right this election season — full of single-cat-lady misogyny. It’s the exact brand of sexism Swift advocates against, and exactly as feminist as the Democratic (read: American, White, liberal) audience can get with a more-or-less consensus.
But all of this is comically tragic if one zooms out. Lest we forget, American politics has been at the centre of the world for far too long. And lest we forget, there is an ongoing massacre bankrolled by the US, in large part, and an apartheid project they’ve helped engineer and uphold. To be specific, this is about Palestine and Israel’s war in Gaza, not the 100 other places American exceptionalism has marched itself into. The US can decide the war on Gaza is only “one policy issue” and that domestic affairs ultimately should count for more. But, Harris continues to authorise shipments of weapons claiming innocent lives in the Strip as she girlbosses her way through the campaign trail with massive “liberal” support, and yes, supposedly, calls for a ceasefire. This is why Taylor Swift is the perfect face for the Democratic party — and American politics in general: Posturing as progressive, taking themselves too seriously, watching the world revolve around them, and yet, stopping short of creating any real impact or challenge to the status quo.
For the Democratic party, she is the perfect voter. She personifies Harris and Tim Walz’s target audience — the White liberal who cares about women’s rights, gun violence, terrorism and other evils that bring down the glory of the America they know. Those who don’t question US hegemony and find wars a “necessary evil” or at the very least “too muddy” a topic to contend with. She encapsulates the American liberal — progress in one’s own backyard, even if it comes at the cost of those some oceans apart.
Even so, for large swathes of the American public, this is not just another war. The country has seen large-scale, loud and disruptive mobilisation by students, community leaders, and civilians against the US’s role in West Asia, and its support to Israel. In swing states, there is growing concern that this could be the make-or-break factor. An Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) report concluded that 78 per cent of Democrats support a permanent ceasefire; 91 per cent of Muslim voters in swing states said a lasting ceasefire would make them more likely to vote for a candidate in the American election (Many are looking at independent candidates or complete abstention).
Celebrities have played a crucial role in this, too. There has been rarely-seen public pressure to speak up on the issue and many have. More than a few articles pop up with a casual search for “Has Taylor Swift said anything about Gaza yet?” She hasn’t, by the way. So far, all the articles swearing by her influence and the absolute necessity for her to speak out only extend the argument to her voting preferences; the war on Gaza is not even a part of the equation.
For a population that has remained so doggedly out of touch with anything not American, how massive this issue has already become is no small thing. Yet, look beyond the memefication of Trump and Harris and the Twitter (sorry, “X”) trends lending the cool factor to one side or the other, depending on what corner of the internet one finds themselves in, Gaza has barely figured as a relevant issue on the campaign stage. And if the tweets and memes and political conventions and campaigns are any indication, there are plenty in America still willing to engage with domestic politics as they unsee the obvious. That privilege to project liberal values, to be conveniently, on the grounds of identity alone, progressive, is a quality so frustratingly unique to the US that it makes the comedy of these oaths to freedom and liberation and America saving the world abundantly apparent.
This may well be another 2016. (Remember when everyone thought Hillary Clinton had already clinched victory?) There may be a heavy price to pay for the deliberate oversight on matters the American public has shown they are moved by. What Harris and Co are essentially trying to do is cloak the upheaval this assault on Palestinians has evoked in the common American — a Reuters survey and many others attest to the fact that most in the public disagree with the US’s foreign policy approach, especially with regard to Gaza. But shaking up the structure is not what Harris is in the game for. Just a mild projection of empathy and vapid promises of attempts at peace should suffice — that’s the idea. And it is not a new one. Whether or not it will work is to be seen.
So, for now, the picture that Harris and the Democrats want to paint is a pretty shade of Taylor ‘Red’ and TS is the perfect PR campaigner for the Democratic Party. Reproductive health, BIPOC representation, LGBTQ+ allyship — all within and only for America. All the rest of us can do is watch on, stare at the Sun on Earth, with adoration or cynicism. Dealer’s choice.
sukhmani.malik@expressindia.com
