Donald Trump’s Swiftian nightmare
It’s no mystery that what Donald Trump refers to as the “Hollywood elite” are people with well-deserved reputations for liberalism. Entertainers are among the intelligentsia of our creative culture, and liberalism is the natural preserve of clever people. For centuries entertainers have recognised the superiority of broad-minded liberalism.
Exceptions like Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, Jon Voight and James Woods immediately spring to mind because they are such rare exceptions. It’s also no accident that among the creative elite they represent the least creatively gifted. Great talent is the cradle of great enlightenment.
Talent also has its mysteries, and I am the first to acknowledge that Taylor Swift is one such mystery to me. But then she isn’t for my generation and I’m perfectly fine with that. She belongs to the youthful generation of this century, and she has used her phenomenal celebrity better than most of the best talents of mine. That’s why, in part, Time Magazine has chosen to award her the coveted prize of my generation and named her 2023’s “Person of the Year.”
It is an accolade much deserved. She has used her music and her 151-show “Eras Tour” in part to unabashedly support Joe Biden for a second term. It’s a measure of her incredible star power that, a mere 24 hours after she used her phenomenal celebrity to urge her fans to register to vote, vote.org recorded a 65,000 person spike in new voter registrations.
Another barometer of Taylor Swift’s brilliant liberal power is that the cretins of MAGA detest her, yet the youth of MAGA find her seductively hard to resist. Even so, the very idea that a powerful young woman could represent such a potent voice for democracy has the Trump-licking claque positively apoplectic with terror. The Trump-Goebbels propaganda machine is working overtime to invent new lies about her. They’re wasting their time. They might as well try bailing the Pacific Ocean with a spoon.
Taylor Swift is part of the massive groundswell of support for Joe Biden, a tsunami that is even now gathering force for November. She has marshalled the passions of collective effervescence into an unstoppable storm of young people sick and tired of Donald Trump and his putrescent army of fuddy duddies. She has brought a new definition to “Swiftian,” replacing cynical satire with refreshing enthusiasm.
As I said, this old man doesn’t fully understand her. But then, I don’t need to. I’m more than happy to set aside this time approximately near the anniversary of the birth of Beethoven and lift my (non-alcoholic) beer to her. Here’s to you, sister. Well done. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.