Taylor Swift’s Innate Decency Drives MAGA Warriors Crazy

Some of them feel betrayed that she didn’t turn out to be a secret Nazi

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Taylor Swift was not always persona non grata among the sort of people who worship Donald Trump. In fact, some of them adored her. “In 2015, conservative lawmakers invited Swift for personal tours of the Capitol and offered donors tickets to her concerts,” reported USA Today. Trump once called her “terrific” and “fantastic.” The white supremacist Daily Stormer gushed:

Taylor Swift is a pure Aryan goddess, like something out of classical Greek poetry. Athena reborn. … Taylor Swift is secretly a Nazi and is simply waiting for the time when Donald Trump makes it safe for her to come out and announce her Aryan agenda to the world.

But lately she has become anathema on the right, where she is reviled for her liberal views, her unapologetic feminism and, perhaps worst of all, her intrusion into the NFL, long the preserve of wealthy white men, such as Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Her current romantic interest is Travis Kelce, a mountain of muscle who has two Super Bowl rings and may be the best tight end ever. On Sunday, he was seen kissing the pop star on the very turf where his Kansas City Chiefs had just vanquished the Baltimore Ravens to advance to the Super Bowl. Lovers of romance swooned with delight. But Fox News’ Jesse Watters, Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk, and other right-wingers exploded in fits of lunacy. 

Watters intimated that the smashing success of her Eras Tour was the result of a Pentagon psychological operations plot. “Have you ever wondered why or how she blew up like this?” he asked, as if her songwriting talent, singing chops, and virtuoso performances couldn’t explain her ability to sell out stadiums week after week, at home and abroad. Vivek Ramaswamy speculated that the Super Bowl has been fixed for the Chiefs to pave the way for “a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple.” 

Artificially propped-up? Kelce was a nine-time Pro Bowler who was raking in millions on product endorsements long before he and Swift became an item. She, of course, was already one of the biggest pop stars of all time, with 200 million records sold and a collection of awards that could fill an Amazon warehouse. 

The recent right-wing outcry is a classic case of sour grapes. If Swift had endorsed Trump or sported a MAGA cap, you can be sure the right would have embraced her with a passion. She would be portrayed as a model of femininity, a small-town girl who connects with salt-of-the-earth folks, a brilliant entrepreneur who exemplifies the boundless potential of American capitalism. She would be celebrated as ringing proof that a conservative woman can be strong, independent, and wildly successful. 

But Swift, though generally reserved on political matters, has made it clear where her sympathies lie. In 2018, she endorsed a Democratic candidate running against GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee (where Swift has two homes), declaring in an Instagram post that “her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me.” She also noted that she stood for human rights and opposed discrimination of all kinds, including against LGBTQ folks, all issues on which Blackburn is awful. Conservatives howled when she urged her hundreds of millions of Instagram followers to register to vote, instantly spurring tens of thousands of them to do so. That was in 2018—a bad year for Republicans. Right wingers now seem to have convinced themselves that Swift will endorse Joe Biden, lift him into a second term, and usher in a thousand years of woke socialist enslavement. 

But maybe what really gets under the skin of conservatives is the jarring contrast between Swift’s virtues and right-wing vices. She’s made her fortune not by selling her soul but by baring it, sharing insecurities and disappointments that resonate with her fans, especially young females. She’s revealed vulnerability, as when she acknowledged succumbing to an eating disorder because she worried she looked fat. She’s shown that truth and authenticity are priceless. She’s demonstrated courage, choosing to come out against Blackburn even as her father and others warned that the decision could wreck her career and put her in physical danger. She’s not willing to bite her tongue to avoid the wrath of Trump. In the Netflix documentary on her, Miss Americana, she is shown telling her publicist and mother: “Fuck that. I don’t care,” when they worry that her breaking her silence on politics through her endorsement would cause him to attack her. Her concerts are joyous festivals of good will and positive energy that transcend barriers of age, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

In all this, she’s a living rebuke to the incessant lying, divisive fear-mongering, and raging malice on exhibit every day in MAGA World—not to mention the cowardice of Republican politicians who have capitulated to Trump. The former president and his accomplices prosper by exploiting the worst human traits, while doing their damnedest to erase the distinction between good and evil. They are also likely terrified that her connection with her fans is so deep that she can move them against him if she chooses. 

Taylor Swift, by contrast to them, brings to mind what George Orwell wrote of Mahatma Gandhi: “How clean a smell he has managed to  leave behind!” She’s no Gandhi, but she has planted herself firmly on the side of the angels. Given the moral bankruptcy of those who dominate American conservatism, it’s no wonder she drives them crazy.

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