LETTER FROM WASHINGTON
If Taylor Swift were a verb, Republicans would decline it all the time. If it were a perfume, it would be called ” Obsession “. In the drift of the American right, the 34-year-old pop singer represents a particular disruption. Especially since she was on the cover of the magazine Time as Personality of the Year 2023, confirming his incomparable status. His comments are studied, his associates spied on, his outfits imitated. Taylor Swift is an artist whose voice extends well beyond her repertoire.
For a long time, she had stayed away from the political scene, to avoid alienating part of her audience. But starting in 2018, in her home state of Tennessee, she began speaking out in defense of sexual and racial minorities. In 2020, Taylor Swift took a position in favor of the Biden-Harris ticket. “America has a chance to begin the healing process it so desperately needs,” she explained. At the end of June 2022, the singer reacted strongly to the removal of abortion as a constitutional right by the Supreme Court. “I’m absolutely terrified that we’re at this point”she wrote on Twitter for the attention of its 94.9 million subscribers. But apart from these one-off positions, Taylor Swift develops her career on consensual bases.
Today, as the country appears to be heading toward a rematch between Joe Biden and his predecessor, the singer is more popular and influential than ever. Politics is not at the heart of his life at all. It entertains and makes tens of millions of “swifties” dream. The latter are almost equally men and women, 55% Democratic, three-quarters White, and more than half residents of peri-urban areas where the next presidential election could be decided, according to a Morning Consult poll carried out in March. 2023.
Registration on the electoral lists
The star’s Eras Tour was an incredible success, imploding online ticket platform Ticketmaster when it launched. In September, Taylor Swift called on her fans on Instagram – 272 million subscribers – to register to vote, causing an immediate influx of 35,000 young people. Her love story with Travis Kelce, star player of the Kansas City Chiefs American football team, mobilizes the entire tabloid and general press.
On January 28, Taylor Swift went down to the pitch at the Baltimore stadium with her lover, transported with joy, kissing him in front of the cameras. The Chiefs had just qualified for the Super Bowl, the championship final, which will pit them against the San Francisco 49ers on February 11. While the star’s fans fan themselves over the images of this cosmic love, the MAGA (Make America Great Again) world respects its fundamentals: it suspects a conspiracy. Several versions are circulating, very complementary: fake couple, sports manipulation, rigged presidential election. “What’s happening with Taylor Swift is not natural”noted on X in early December a veteran advisor to Donald Trump, Stephen Miller. “Is Taylor Swift a Pentagon asset? »said a banner on Fox News on January 9, while host Jesse Watters wondered who told the singer to call young people to the polls.
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