Taylor Swift: Voter Registration Spike Follows Star’s Political Awakening

[phands]

Excellent news....

New voter registrations are up following Taylor Swift’s unprecedented social media blast.




Taylor Swift’s first foray into politics appears to have produced impressive results. The non-partisan advocacy group Vote.org reports tens of thousands of new voter registrations nationwide in the wake of Swift's Instagram post which urged her 112 million followers to vote for the Democrats in November’s midterm elections.


Swift’s post directed fans to “go to vote.org.” The site had 155,940 unique visitors in the last 24 hours against this year's daily average of 14,078.


“We are up to 65,000 registrations in a single 24-hour period since T. Swift's post,” Kamari Guthrie, director of communications for Vote.org, told Buzzfeed, which reports, for context, that 190,178 new voters registered nationwide in the entire month of September, while just 56,669 signed on in August.


There was a particular bump in registrations in her home state of Tennessee, where Swift, who has previously maintained a strict silence on political questions and had been widely claimed by the right, gave a ringing endorsement to two Democratic candidates running in this year's midterms, and trashed Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/taylo...ke-follows-stars-political-awakening?ref=home

 

[Tom Sawyer]

While your need to register to vote in the first place is a little weird and backwards, anything which gets more people involved in the electoral process is a good thing.

 

[thebeave]

The question is are Taylor Swift's mindless follower bots going to actually read and understand about the issues and form their own freethinking-based opinions once registered, or are they just going to go the easy route and vote for whoever TS says to vote for? I kinda expect its the latter, unfortunately. And if TS was pushing for a right wing agenda would we still be praising her "call to action"? I think not.

This reminds me. I need to go talk to my neighbor down the street who sells hot dogs from his cart in the Costco parking lot and see what his political views are.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

The question is are Taylor Swift's mindless follower bots going to actually read and understand about the issues and form their own freethinking-based opinions once registered, or are they just going to go the easy route and vote for whoever TS says to vote for? I kinda expect its the latter, unfortunately. And if TS was pushing for a right wing agenda would we still be praising her "call to action"? I think not.

This reminds me. I need to go talk to my neighbor down the street who sells hot dogs from his cart in the Costco parking lot and see what his political views are.

If she were calling for right wing action to get people out to the polls, I'd still agree with her just as much. The biggest problem in the US political system is the lack of engagement on the part of the population, thus allowing fringe movements to have more power than they warrant because they actually give enough of a shit to get involved.

The solution to that is to get people more engaged. Not all (or even most) of them are going to be doing it for sensible reasons, but the larger the voter base, the more single issue fringe ideas are diluted in their power.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Here in Travis County, they're estimating that 93% of eligible voters are registered.

 

[poster]

The question is are Taylor Swift's mindless follower bots going to actually read and understand about the issues and form their own freethinking-based opinions once registered, or are they just going to go the easy route and vote for whoever TS says to vote for? I kinda expect its the latter, unfortunately. And if TS was pushing for a right wing agenda would we still be praising her "call to action"? I think not.

This reminds me. I need to go talk to my neighbor down the street who sells hot dogs from his cart in the Costco parking lot and see what his political views are.

First you'd need to make a compelling argument that this sort of thing of any magniture never happens on the right. Calling her followers "mindless" makes you sound somewhat elitist. Trump lies to his followers constantly, and yet they support him.

Most people of any political persuasion actually do not research on their own, they mostly support the candidates and issues that the majority in their given group of friends or relatives support, assuming there is any kind of dialogue.

My family members ask me about my thoughts on political issues since I do a lot of research and thinking on the subject since they don't have the time to do it as well as I can. What I say to them will most likely hold a lot of sway with how they vote. Are you telling me they are mindless as well?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Taylor Swift makes a stand... right-wing gets all uppity. Ted Nugent threatens life of Obama, applause.

I am personally tired of celebrity involvement in politics. Sadly, America seems to be devolving into this type of crap.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Taylor Swift makes a stand... right-wing gets all uppity. Ted Nugent threatens life of Obama, applause.

I am personally tired of celebrity involvement in politics. Sadly, America seems to be devolving into this type of crap.

I disagree with this. Celebrity involvement in politics can be one of the only good things about celebrity culture.

For better or worse, people pay attention to what celebrities have to say. If they can use that for positive ends, then good for them. Swift had a very detailed and well thought out reason as to why she thought it was important for people to get engaged, especially in her own state, and people responded to that. Granted, 95% of them would likely have responded in exactly the same way if she'd said "Get out and vote to stop Donald Trump's illegal war against the pineapple industry!" but at least she's trying to do something good with the fact that she's able to cut through the disengagement in American society and get people to pay attention to something.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

While your need to register to vote in the first place is a little weird and backwards, anything which gets more people involved in the electoral process is a good thing.

Good point.

And hmmm... Taylor Swift... Tom Sawyer.... TS.... Coincidence?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Taylor Swift makes a stand... right-wing gets all uppity. Ted Nugent threatens life of Obama, applause.

I am personally tired of celebrity involvement in politics. Sadly, America seems to be devolving into this type of crap.

I disagree with this. Celebrity involvement in politics can be one of the only good things about celebrity culture.

For better or worse, people pay attention to what celebrities have to say.

And Gwenth Paltrow got into trouble selling things woman were to place into places where such things shouldn't go because New Age. The risk of celebrity is the celebrity can be clueless. Like the people that would listen to them about politics.

In the Taylor Swift case, this is a bit less dramatic as her involvement is coming from an alleged sexual assaulter being put onto the Supreme Court with the speed a football team that tries to snap the ball in order to keep the previous play from being reviewed.

And sure, we don't many celebrities weighing in on foreign trade policy, but it makes me a bit uneasy.

 

[ZiprHead]

While your need to register to vote in the first place is a little weird and backwards, anything which gets more people involved in the electoral process is a good thing.

Good point.

And hmmm... Taylor Swift... Tom Sawyer.... TS.... Coincidence?

Actually, TSwizzle is our right wing Taylor Swift fan. TSwizzle is the right's nickname for her.

 

[Ford]

Taylor Swift makes a stand... right-wing gets all uppity. Ted Nugent threatens life of Obama, applause.

I am personally tired of celebrity involvement in politics. Sadly, America seems to be devolving into this type of crap.

I disagree with this. Celebrity involvement in politics can be one of the only good things about celebrity culture.

For better or worse, people pay attention to what celebrities have to say. If they can use that for positive ends, then good for them. Swift had a very detailed and well thought out reason as to why she thought it was important for people to get engaged, especially in her own state, and people responded to that. Granted, 95% of them would likely have responded in exactly the same way if she'd said "Get out and vote to stop Donald Trump's illegal war against the pineapple industry!" but at least she's trying to do something good with the fact that she's able to cut through the disengagement in American society and get people to pay attention to something.

It is also notable because - although she transitioned to pop - Nashville/country artists are usually loathe to dive into politics, especially on the liberal side. There are exceptions (Willie Nelson) but in general the rule is "wave the flag, support the troops, and otherwise keep your mouth shut." Plus, unlike Nugent, Swift has a huge following on social media and her audience is mostly younger. Yeah, old Uncle Ted might get in front of a few million older eyeballs appearing on Hannity, but Swift has over 100 million followers on Instagram and the overwhelming majority of IG users are between 18-49.

So even if only a few percent of her fans are motivated enough to get involved and vote, that would be huge.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Taylor Swift makes a stand... right-wing gets all uppity. Ted Nugent threatens life of Obama, applause.

I am personally tired of celebrity involvement in politics. Sadly, America seems to be devolving into this type of crap.

I disagree with this. Celebrity involvement in politics can be one of the only good things about celebrity culture.

For better or worse, people pay attention to what celebrities have to say.

And Gwenth Paltrow got into trouble selling things woman were to place into places where such things shouldn't go because New Age. The risk of celebrity is the celebrity can be clueless. Like the people that would listen to them about politics.

In the Taylor Swift case, this is a bit less dramatic as her involvement is coming from an alleged sexual assaulter being put onto the Supreme Court with the speed a football team that tries to snap the ball in order to keep the previous play from being reviewed.

And sure, we don't many celebrities weighing in on foreign trade policy, but it makes me a bit uneasy.

Why shouldn't celebrities weigh in on foreign trade policy? The fact that someone is famous doesn't mean that their thoughts and opinions are somehow less valuable or that they lack meaningful insights.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

And Gwenth Paltrow got into trouble selling things woman were to place into places where such things shouldn't go because New Age. The risk of celebrity is the celebrity can be clueless. Like the people that would listen to them about politics.

In the Taylor Swift case, this is a bit less dramatic as her involvement is coming from an alleged sexual assaulter being put onto the Supreme Court with the speed a football team that tries to snap the ball in order to keep the previous play from being reviewed.

And sure, we don't many celebrities weighing in on foreign trade policy, but it makes me a bit uneasy.

Why shouldn't celebrities weigh in on foreign trade policy? The fact that someone is famous doesn't mean that their thoughts and opinions are somehow less valuable or that they lack meaningful insights.

Have you seen Alec Baldwin try to talk policy? They are free to talk, I just don't think people should give a darn unless said celebrity shows actual knowledge on the subject. Otherwise, it is an appeal to authority fallacy.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

And Gwenth Paltrow got into trouble selling things woman were to place into places where such things shouldn't go because New Age. The risk of celebrity is the celebrity can be clueless. Like the people that would listen to them about politics.

In the Taylor Swift case, this is a bit less dramatic as her involvement is coming from an alleged sexual assaulter being put onto the Supreme Court with the speed a football team that tries to snap the ball in order to keep the previous play from being reviewed.

And sure, we don't many celebrities weighing in on foreign trade policy, but it makes me a bit uneasy.

Why shouldn't celebrities weigh in on foreign trade policy? The fact that someone is famous doesn't mean that their thoughts and opinions are somehow less valuable or that they lack meaningful insights.

Have you seen Alec Baldwin try to talk policy? They are free to talk, I just don't think people should give a darn unless said celebrity shows actual knowledge on the subject. Otherwise, it is an appeal to authority fallacy.

If they can get people interested and engaged in a conversation about foreign trade policy, then I'm totally in favour of them speaking up about it. The alternative isn't all of those followers tuning into a more educated and informed opinion about the matter but rather their not knowing or caring about it at all and leaving the details of the policy wholly up to the corporate interests who had the most cash in the dump truck they drove up to Congress.

I'd rather see people give a shit while acting on misinformation than not giving a shit and not acting at all. Misinformation can be corrected. Apathy cannot ... or maybe it can an I just can't bring myself to give enough of a shit to find out.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Have you seen Alec Baldwin try to talk policy? They are free to talk, I just don't think people should give a darn unless said celebrity shows actual knowledge on the subject. Otherwise, it is an appeal to authority fallacy.

I'd rather see people give a shit while acting on misinformation than not giving a shit and not acting at all. Misinformation can be corrected.

Have Cable TV not caught up to the 2016 election in Canada?

Misinformation CAN'T be treated. Studies have been done that indicate that a person is more likely to hold towards misinformation when presented a level and reasonable presentation of how the misinformation is wrong. Misinformation in the US has been so bad that in 2016, Trump supporters believed​ despite what the information said, that the economy was worse in 2016 than in 2008.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Have you seen Alec Baldwin try to talk policy? They are free to talk, I just don't think people should give a darn unless said celebrity shows actual knowledge on the subject. Otherwise, it is an appeal to authority fallacy.

I'd rather see people give a shit while acting on misinformation than not giving a shit and not acting at all. Misinformation can be corrected.

Have Cable TV not caught up to the 2016 election in Canada?

Misinformation CAN'T be treated. Studies have been done that indicate that a person is more likely to hold towards misinformation when presented a level and reasonable presentation of how the misinformation is wrong. Misinformation in the US has been so bad that in 2016, Trump supporters believed​ despite what the information said, that the economy was worse in 2016 than in 2008.

Right. They believed and got engaged while the left was apathetic and sat back and did nothing. That's why the Trump supporters are punching so far above their weight class and getting everything that they want while the left are ineffectually making snitty tweets and doing nothing else.

If celebrities can get people to be engaged, then that's great news. They might be wrong about the details of what they're passionate about, but at least they're passionate and engaged and part of the process as opposed to letting other people decide things for them.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm no fan of Trailer Hitch, but when you consider what happened to the Dixie Chicks, you gotta admit she's got some cojonés.

I generally don't take my stances based on what my favorite artist says any more. I'm not 19 any more, either. If this helps younger people get registered and into the booth, I'm all for it.

 

[thebeave]

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY4tBwKaSSY[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Angry Floof]

While your need to register to vote in the first place is a little weird and backwards, anything which gets more people involved in the electoral process is a good thing.

Good point.

And hmmm... Taylor Swift... Tom Sawyer.... TS.... Coincidence?

Actually, TSwizzle is our right wing Taylor Swift fan. TSwizzle is the right's nickname for her.

Is that true?