A Sweet Echo: A Chorus of Rejoicing Fills The Harris Camp

More than 60 million people watched Donald Trump get shredded by a Black woman…and then swatted down again for good measure by a White woman.  Republican pollster and former strategist Frank Luntz confessed to a broadcast network that Trump’s campaign is over:  “I think that he loses because of this debate performance.”

And in what has been called ‘the most important celebrity endorsement ever’, more than 283 million Taylor Swift fans just got their wish: a long-awaited thumbs-up from Ms. Swift to vote for Kamala! 

Swift said she is voting for Harris “because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”

Ms. Swift’s support stands out as a practical as well as meaningful gesture.  Last year, her post encouraging Americans to vote racked up 35,000 new registrations on Vote.gov.  This time, Ms. Swift made her endorsement six days before National Voter Registration Day on Sept. 17, and included a link to Vote.gov to nudge her supporters to register.

A recent poll found that 55% of voters overall, including 68% of Democrats, said they had a favorable view of Swift. An expert on how pop culture influences American politics noted that “The fact that these fans so closely identify with stars, there are few examples we can find in pop culture right now with that kind of strong relationship.”

Jimmy Kimmel said the debate was like watching the Lorax debate the Grinch. 

Donald Trump does not like Taylor Swift or the Swifties. This did not stop his people from using AI to put Swift’s image on a Trump campaign ad – but she quickly made him take it down.  Trump said he doesn’t even want her endorsement.  Even though he has said multiple times in the past that he did.

The Swifties do not want him to like them, so they were not too devastated by the news.

As one online wit succinctly put the Taylor-Trump relationship:  she swan, you frog.

If it hadn’t already been forecast as a Harris win by election guru Allan Lichtman, Swifties by themselves had enough power to make this election.

Not that she would ever think of it in these terms, but Trump really has no idea who he is dealing with.

She is a self-made billion-plus income star who has given $55-million in bonuses to those she has worked with.  She has helped thousands of people, and she is good to her fans.  There is a bit of an ethical difference between Trump and Swift.  Taylor Swift's donation to the Cardiff Foodbank provided 10,800 meals -  the largest donation ever made by an individual. #ErasTour.  Trump rarely gives to charities.

Normally, we could be skeptical that an endorsement would trigger a voting up-tick, but her fans are very devoted to her.  At the very least she will have an influence on the turnout.  And her fanbase is a varied demographic: some 45% of her avid fans are millennials - people between the ages of 27 and 42 - while 23% are baby boomers, 21% are Gen Xers and just 11% are members of Gen Z—those 26 and under.  Many are devoted to the cause of abortion law reform.   Taylor Swift's influence, combined with her thoughtful approach, makes this a significant moment in politics. Celebrity endorsements are rarely this authentic or potentially impactful.

One concerned parent in Texas wrote that she was undermining democracy by encouraging more people to vote.  I did not get a feel for whether this was intentionally funny.

An upside for some Swifties is that any Republican-leaning Swift fans might feel like selling their tickets to her tour, in which case there will be room for more of her devoted fans.

A Harris campaign official said the endorsement was not coordinated with the campaign.  But within 20 minutes of the endorsement post, the Harris campaign was selling “Harris-Walz friendship bracelets” on its website.  A campaign aide had come up with the idea and officials drew up plans within minutes. By midday Wednesday afternoon, the bracelets were sold out.

Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz reacted to the endorsement in real time on air with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. Walz put his hand to his heart, moved, when Maddow read out Swift’s pledge to vote for the ticket in 2024, and smiled through her reading of the caption, mouthing, “Wow, wow!” when she finished, then saying, “All those things I am incredibly grateful, first of all, to Taylor Swift. I say that also as a cat owner, a fellow cat owner.”

The “Swifties for Kamala” political organizing group, which is not officially affiliated with Swift, did not feel they needed to wait for an official endorsement from Swift to get moving.  It has more than 3,500 active volunteers, and has raised close to $200,000 for Harris’s campaign. The group’s kickoff call featured speakers such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand, with music icon Carole King performing a version of Swift’s “Shake It Off.”

Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Taylor Swift will “probably pay a price” for endorsing Harris.

I attached a set of memes that were racing around the Internet to provide a taste of the direction of the campaign so far.  Sometimes, words do not have the same visceral impact of fan-generated art…

Donald Trump has announced if he wins, he will lift sanctions on Russia and Iran. This is why Putin was paying millions to Republican influencers.  It is helpful to Trump’s supporter in Hungary, Victor Orban…

Other messages popped up around the world, expressing happiness…

One concerned webizen wrote that “Losing a debate to Kamala Harris would be excellent practice for when he loses the election to her.”

The overall flavor came out in a few choice memes:

A new spirit of fun and hope has entered the campaign.  I will not lose sight of the fact that much of it is owed to the nobility of Joe Biden – a man who understands the democracy of America, and was able to stand down when he thought his time had been called.

The spirit is conspicuously missing in the leaders of Russia, China and North Korea.  It will be interesting to see how they spin this American rejuvenation.  It must be an amazing sight to people who live under an autocracy: that a man stepped down for the common good.

And then something amazing happened – a younger woman of a relatively ‘foreign’ appearance and background rose to be the top contender, like a strawberry in champagne. 

Media announcers in Moscow looked on bewildered as “their man Don” got eviscerated. They limply blamed fact-checking…which of course would not be allowed in Russia.

So in November in America the cork goes ‘pop’ and the world pours a new and refreshing beverage.

And that’s how it is in a democracy.

Cynics can weep.  It happens sometimes.