As we have demonstrated time and time again over the last year-plus, few people are capable of being normal about Taylor Swift. Her fans are rabid. The media is obsessive. Her haters, apparently, are full-blown conspiracy theorists with a tenuous grip on reality. The latest talking point gestating in the cesspits of right-wing ideology is that Swift is a “Pentagon asset” and her relationship with football star Travis Kelce is a “government psyop” on behalf of liberalism. Now that President Joe Biden is reportedly chasing Swift’s endorsement for the 2024 presidential election, there is an equal and opposite vitriolic reaction from conservatives against her.
- Off
- English
Right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec is on the forefront of this conspiracy. Here’s how he sees the Swift/Kelce situation play out, per Twitter/X: “1. Recognize that this is a PR driven celebrity relationship 2. NFL will exploit that for profit and brand equity 3. Democrats already have the data that their highest % of demographic support is white liberal, unmarried women that overlaps directly with Taylor’s audience, which is now multi-generational. Ergo, converting low-propensity voter Swifties is a critical ballot harvesting strategy for the Democrat operation in swing states.”
Although Posobiec may be the most extreme, he’s far from the only conservative figure preoccupied with Taylor Swift at the moment. Failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy implied that the Super Bowl would be rigged in favor of Kelce’s team in exchange for Swift’s endorsement. Fox News mainstays like Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, and Jesse Waters have used up valuable airtime on the pop star. And allies inside Donald Trump’s camp are reportedly plotting a “holy war” against her.
It’s not hard to connect the dots as to why right-wing conspiracists are not just threatened by Swift’s involvement in political discourse but find her organic endorsement of Democratic candidates so unbelievable that it must be manufactured in a government lab. It’s the same reason that, before Swift established herself as politically left, neo-Nazis were eager to claim her as their Aryan princess. She’s a beautiful sometime country singer in a relationship with a handsome football player. This is a superficial image of Americana that conservatives would love to claim (white, affluent, clean-cut) that has instead been turned against them. Kelce is one of the celebrity faces of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine. Swift is an established Democratic voter who previously endorsed the Biden/Harris ticket. In the twisted thought process of the right-wing pundit, these couldn’t possibly be two people who naturally developed values that differ from conservatives; this must be the work of sinister, shadowy forces using the pair as pawns to do their political bidding.
An argument has been made, over the years and in light of her recent skyrocketed popularity, that the reason everyone behaves so bizarrely about Taylor Swift is that she’s an empty vessel for anyone to project anything onto. Whether it’s gay conspiracy theories, or straight conspiracy theories, or Democratic conspiracy theories, or neo-Nazi conspiracy theories, her mystifying mix of diaristic oversharing while rarely ever taking a public stance about anything at all allows the imagination of the public to run wild. Given her history, Swift likely will endorse Biden—or if not, she’ll at least continue to encourage her followers to vote, as she’s done in previous elections. Mobilizing Swift’s enormous fanbase will undoubtedly be beneficial for Democrats, but here’s that equal and opposite reaction again: a Swift endorsement “would be more fuel thrown onto the culture-war fires,” an official “working on the Trump reelection efforts” told Rolling Stone. “Another left-wing celebrity who is part of the Democrat elite telling you what to think.”
Drumming up a culture war could be nearly as valuable to Republicans as an endorsement would be for Democrats. As a lightning rod for discourse and conspiracy, Swift will likely find herself right in the middle of it, no matter what she does.