A spoke in the GOP wheel — Taylor urges 300 million Swifties to vote today

[jserraglio]

Call it Super Tuesday (Taylor’s Version) — Taylor Swift Wants You to Vote Today, Though She’s Not Saying for Whom

In a post on Instagram, the pop superstar encouraged her 282 million followers to vote in the primaries on Tuesday, though she did not endorse a specific candidate.

NYT
By Rebecca Davis O’Brien
March 5, 2024, 12:26 p.m. ET

After months of anticipation, Taylor Swift made her first foray into the 2024 election on Tuesday morning, encouraging her 282 million followers on Instagram to make a plan to vote in the presidential primaries.

The message was brief and nonpartisan, and did not include any endorsements. It was directed at voters in the more than a dozen states and territories — including Tennessee, where she owns at least one home — that are holding primaries on Tuesday.

“I wanted to remind you guys to vote the people who most represent YOU into power,” she wrote. “If you haven’t already, make a plan to vote today.”

The message has the potential to provoke outrage on Fox News and among the fringes of the Make America Great Again contingent, which in recent months have promoted theories that Ms. Swift is part of an elaborate plot to spread Democratic propaganda — or rig the Super Bowl, or force people to be vaccinated against Covid-19, or do something else that is not entirely clear.

A person familiar with Ms. Swift’s plans said she had already voted, by mail, ahead of Tuesday’s contests, and that she is registered to vote in Tennessee.

Ms. Swift, known for hiding cryptic “Easter eggs” in her liner notes, lyrics and music videos, includes one mystery in her post. She refers to Tennessee “and 16 other states and territories” holding primaries on Tuesday. Technically speaking, 15 states (and one territory) are holding primaries on Tuesday — but one could, in theory, count Iowa, which is holding a Democratic caucus. (Vote.org also counts Iowa as a voting state on Tuesday.)

Ms. Swift, 34, has not endorsed a candidate in the 2024 election. In 2020, she endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr., and she is high on his aides’ wish list for another endorsement this year.

For much of her career, Ms. Swift avoided politics or political statements. But in 2018, she endorsed two Tennessee Democrats: former Gov. Phil Bredesen, who was running for the Senate against Marsha Blackburn, who was then a U.S. representative; and Jim Cooper, another House member who has since retired. At the time, she also began to speak out in support of L.G.B.T.Q. rights.

Last September, on National Voter Registration Day, Ms. Swift took to Instagram to encourage her followers to register to vote, linking to Vote.org, the same nonprofit organization that she linked to on Tuesday. That earlier post, which came as her “Eras” concert tour was lifting her to untold heights of superstardom, led to a surge of 35,000 registrations, many of them from young voters, the group reported.

[Rach3]

She may be subtle enough to be encouraging voting for any non-Trump candidates in any GOP primaries while also discouraging voting for any non-Biden candidates in Dem primaries ?

[Rach3]

NYT today, in part:

"But even though the early polls aren’t necessarily predictive, they’re still worth taking seriously. Voters know these candidates very well. Biden is the president, Trump is a former president, and both candidates have been in public life for decades. And based on all that voters have seen, they are saying they do not like Biden and don’t think he’s a very effective president. This is not a small matter."

[jserraglio]

She may be subtle enough to be encouraging voting for any non-Trump candidates in any GOP primaries while also discouraging voting for any non-Biden candidates in Dem primaries ?

Her subtlety is lost on me. She voted for Biden in 2020 and has supported Dems. But simply by encouraging young people to vote she helps progressives which is why Fox News has gotten its jock straps in a twist over it.

[diegobueno]

The MAGAnauts, and Republican party in general, know they are in the minority. They know they cannot get elected if everybody votes. That's why they introduce all these restrictive voting measures.

[Holden Fourth]

I've just done the Maths and someone's got something wrong.

US Population is 341 million. Taylor Swift claims (or someone does) that 282 million of them are part of her fan base? That's 83% of all Americans from the ages of 0 to those celebrating their centenaries that are claimed as part of that fan base? This must includes Hip Hop, Rap, heavy metal fans etc etc (add deep house, EDM, classical,). I don't think so.

[jserraglio]

Obviously Swifties are not all Yanks nor are they all young. I won’t reveal her age on a public forum, but my wife is a Swifty.

Ms. Swift has been known to perform in Oz to sold-out venues, and I think as I write this she is touring SE Asia — the Republic of Singapore?

Dividing 8 billion into 282 million should result in slightly less than 83%.

. . . someone's got something wrong.

[Belle]

Still the one-man band with the finger in the dyke trying to push back against the unpush-backable. Absolutely priceless. As one of my sons says when the Left gets precious and ideological, "watch me rev up my V8 Porsche then eat my dust!" We've got a saying in our family that when the Left goes feral we all need to win and keep winning!!)

Dr. Eric Weinstein tells it exactly like it is: 'we're getting Donald Trump because we've failed'.
Bingo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzt0IsSkBsg

[jserraglio]

Still the one-man band with the finger in the dyke trying to push back against the unpush-backable . . . We've got a saying in our family that when the Left goes feral we all need to win and keep winning!!)

Right, unpush-backable, when maintaining your “winning” streak entailed condemning Liberal PM ScoMo on this very forum two years ago.

Talk about a summer soldier and a sunshine patriot.

“You can’t love your country only when you win.” — Joe Biden

With fickle loyalists like you, who needs an opposition??!!

(It's neither here nor there, but you are aware that in American English, suggesting that a man puts his in a dyke would be construed as an obscenity, digitally speaking. Ask Donald Trump, he was just convicted of doing so by a jury in New York!!)

Bottom line, I think I’m gonna have to join the Swifties now, just to get shut of all the pesky Unwokies!