The last year has truly shown just how immensely powerful Taylor Swift is. In the last 17 years of her career, Swift has earned a tremendous amount of social, economic, and cultural power, with a huge army of die-hard fans supporting her, and that terrifies a lot of conservatives.
Swift is one of the most influential women of our time. Don’t take my word for it, Forbes also wrote a piece on the artist’s cultural impact after she soared from 79th place to 5th on their World’s Most Powerful Women list between 2022 and 2023. Along with economic power (her Eras Tour granted her billionaire status and was believed to have generated close to $5 billion for local economies in the United States), Swift has huge cultural and social clout, with an army of die-hard fans, Swifties, who hang on her every word. But, as with the infamous words of Uncle Ben, with great power comes great responsibility.
Now, conservatives are attacking Swift in the lead-up to the general election to discredit her and tarnish her name given that her political leanings could sway voters towards Democratic candidate current President Joe Biden. In the past election, Swift did endorse Biden, and Republicans are watching closely to see if she will do so again.
Super Bowl conspiracy theories
Those Republicans have a right to be worried, as Swift has proven herself a true soft power when it comes to politics. After she posted on Instagram encouraging fans to register to vote last September, the nonpartisan nonprofit Vote.org recorded a staggering 35,000 new registrations. Now both Democrats and Republicans are keeping watch of the singer, but while the Democrats are trying to curry favor through the artist, Republicans are trying to discredit her with wild conspiracy theories. You know the old adage, if you can’t beat them, make shit up about them with a smear campaign.
In the run-up to the Super Bowl, in which Swift’s partner Travis Kelce will be playing for the Kansas City Chiefs, Republicans are claiming that the whole thing has been staged so that Swift and Kelce can endorse Biden.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a former presidential candidate and MAGA fog horn, took to X to stir up controversy crap ahead of the game.
He isn’t the only one leaning into this ridiculous conspiracy theory. Many Republicans are jumping on the ludicrous idea that Swift’s appearance at the game will be staged to endorse Biden, going as far as to suggest that the Chiefs—a wildly successful team who have played in three of the last four Super Bowl games and won two of those—are playing in the championship game for just that purpose.
These right-wing conspiracy theorists are also going after Kelce, derisively calling him “Mr. Pfizer” after he appeared in a commercial for the pharmaceutical company last fall to spread awareness of getting a COVID-19 booster shot alongside a flu jab. Oh no! Not a vaccination against a disease that killed millions and shut down human society globally for months on end! How dare he!
Fox News has gone into full meltdown over the couple, particularly Swift, calling the whole thing a “psyop”—a psychological operation—meant to turn Americans away from the Republican party.
Swift’s political influence
In the past, Swift has been reluctant to share her political beliefs, but during the 2018 Tennessee Senate race she backed Democratic candidate Phil Bredesen over Republican candidate and sitting U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn. In a long post on Instagram Swift wrote:
“In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now. I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country”
Blackburn still won that race but since then, Swift has supported the Democratic party, endorsing Biden in 2020. In her documentary Miss Americana, she voiced regret over not having publicly spoken out against Trump, telling her publicists, who were concerned with her condemning Trump, “I don’t care if they write that. I’m sad I didn’t say it two years ago.”
Republicans and Democrats alike know how much social power Swift has, but, in a tactic that has become the norm for the Republican party and its many mouthpieces, coming up with crazed controversies to discredit her is the best (and stupidest) defense they have.
(featured image: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
