Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang’s Comments on Politics Are Dividing Fans
Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers are in hot water with fans after some controversial comments about Representative Jasmine Crockett.
Right now, the lawmaker is in the race for a Senate seat down in Texas. But Yang and Rogers made it clear that they don’t think she has a chance to really win that seat. During their most recent episode of the Las Culturistas podcast, the host called donating to Crockett’s campaign “wasting your money.” It’s a frankly bizarre look for these two performers to come out so strongly against a Democratic hopeful.
Rogers said, “Any time a politician is making it too obviously about themselves, I’m already done. And don’t waste your money sending it to Jasmine Crockett. Do not do it. Don’t do it, you’re going to waste your money.” Yang promptly agreed before his co-host continued on.
“Let me just qualify the Jasmine Crockett thing. She’s not going to win a Senate seat in Texas, you guys. If Beto O’Rourke couldn’t do it, Jasmine Crockett is not going to do it,” Rogers added. “It’s nothing against her, it’s just that she is a politician, in that she is very well-defined already, and it’s my opinion that we’re going to need someone who is less defined at this moment that rises up.”
Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang criticise Jasmine Crockett
Now, there is a line of thinking here that some long time liberal voices might agree with. Texas has been notoriously hard to change on the ground for multiple election cycles now. ( A lot of these criticisms gloss over the fact that the state has been gerrymandered into relative gridlock and the massive media apparatus that right wing forces have concocted around the state as it pertains to things like immigration economy and culture.) But, really, at the heart of things, a lot of fans are pointing to race as the defining factor here.
Pointing out Beto O’Rourke’s failed bid for Texas is probably the most damning piece of what Roger said. As if that one politician not succeeding in that moment will translate to failure across the board. In the Internet time scale, the Beto campaign was an eternity ago. Things aren’t even the same as they were two weeks ago in the United States. So, the criticism was flowing fast and freely on social media. Things really hit a snag when Rogers singled out James Talarico for support.
“I haven’t seen him before. It would be hard for them to define him as anything other than what he is, which is a rising Democratic politician from some place like Texas who is, yes, speaking a little bit to the middle, but at least he’s someone we can’t define already,” Rogers continued. “Gavin Newsom is defined. I believe Jasmine Crockett is defined. I’m just trying to win, here, and I really feel differently than we did in 2016. The way to win now is to go with the energy.”
Positives and negatives from Matt Rogers & Bowen Yang’s thoughts
One of the only positives from a moment like this is how it illustrates the moving landscape of United States politics. Rogers is correct about the uncertainty that plagues our political arena at this time. However, because of that very uncertainty, you don’t know what’s going to happen. In a lot of ways, politics functions like fandoms now. Which means that Crockett’s profile is actually an asset rather than having her be a blank slate for voters to project onto.
One massive negative would be that we just saw a massive groundswell movement around a politician that prided itself on personality in Zohran Mamdani’s election in New York to the office of Mayor. Every single one of those Tik Tok videos centered on his unique viewpoint about the state of the city and how he could improve it. So, how could you critique Crockett’s media saturation in a post-Zohran world? It just doesn’t make sense.
Because of the larger turbulence in the United States and abroad. Expect more thorny conversations like this to pop up weekly. Well, until the country gets its stuff together. But, maybe we can lay-off the celebrity political theory in the meantime.
(featured image: Jemal Countess/Getty)
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