How elite celeb culture doomed the Democrats

By means of Suzanne BowdeyOpinion Contributor Saturday November 16, 2024

If there’s anything more satisfying than watching conservatives win, it’s watching celebrities lose. The spoiled, out-of-touch A-listers who voted for Kamala Harris haven’t fared well since Tuesday’s results (as the threat of Death-by-Drano are an indication).

But in every crisis, one thing is clear: Their despair is not just that the vice president has failed, but that the country is too stupid to understand that famous people know best. It’s the same condescending campaign that led to the demise of woke companies. And with any luck, celebrity endorsements will suffer the same fate.

Of course, as many news sources point out, the use of star power in politics is not new. More than 100 years ago, “Al Jolson led a march of fellow actors through the streets of Ohio in support of Republican Warren G Harding’s bid,” The Guardian explains. “The endorsements of Babe Ruth, Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand are all coveted by the candidates of their time.” But that was before the vast majority of Hollywood and professional athletes became an arm of the socialist left and lost all contact with the average American.

“Even though Harris’s slogan was ‘We’re not going back,’ the campaign was firmly in the opposite direction,” said Kirsten Fleming of the New York Post. insists“Taking the DeLorean to 2008… (b)ack when Hollywood A-listers meant something… Before the Democratic Party completely abandoned the working class. I talked to them. They said they were racist or bigoted because they didn’t put their pronouns in their bios.”

Receive our latest news for FREE

Subscribe to receive daily/weekly email with the best stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.

They put down their caviar and step off their private jets, fully expecting their cache of celebrities to replace any person’s opinions, values, or lived experiences. Ricky Gervais mocked this idea last summer before Harris introduced her cast of star surrogates. “As a celebrity, I know everything about science and politics, so trust me when I tell you who to vote for,” says Gervais imitated. “If you don’t vote the right way, it’s a hate crime and that makes me sad and angry and I’ll leave the country – and you don’t want that!”

A caravan of actors and NBA players may have worked in the glamor days of the Obamas, who seemed like celebrities themselves but always managed to resonate within the normal family. The difference now is that the Democratic Party is so far out of the mainstream ideologically (try Jupiter) that the stars endorsing them seem even more unreliable. Not only are they rich and beautiful with huge platforms and industry accolades, but they also embrace an agenda of extremism that never made sense to begin with.

Oprah, Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Harrison Ford, Taylor Swift, Cardi B, LeBron James, Jennifer Aniston, Beyoncé, Anne Hathaway, Sally Field, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts, Martha Stewart, Steph Curry, George Clooney, Spike Lee, Ariana Grande, Eminem, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert De Niro and all of Ben Affleck’s former wives and girlfriends have the luxury of worrying about the peripheral issues because they don’t have to live on a budget, fear crime, or lose jobs and housing to migrants. They are too removed from reality to understand what America wants or needs. And despite their ability for great acting, they never bother to put themselves in the role of the average person.

That is what makes the popularity of Donald Trump, a billionaire who owns sixteen golf courses and lives in gold-plated houses, such a paradox. But the 45th president never suggested that Americans couldn’t think for themselves or prioritize what’s important. He did not reduce them to their educational status, skin color or reproductive organs. He made it his job to listen to the country – not to preach. And unlike the leftist elites, who reek of moral superiority and contempt for hardworking families, he embraced them.

Of course, the former president had done that too his own famous friends. And like the enigma they threw their support behind, these expressions of support were different – ​​and possibly more effective. In our cruel media culture, it took courage to stand behind Trump, and Americans know it. Unlike Harris’s supporters, who were treated like heroes for accepting a no-risk offer to step into the political spotlight, Trump’s public allies — people like Mel Gibson, Danica Patrick, Brett Favre, Joe Rogan, Buzz Aldrin, Dr. Phil, Roseanne Barr, Paula Deen, Elon Musk, Harrison Butker, Brittany Mahomes, Kelsey Grammar and Kid Rock – understood that they would not only face extreme ridicule and backlash, but also potentially career consequences. In a battle between the fearless and the smug, it’s not hard to see who would deserve more respect.

Ultimately, the country objects to Hollywood’s moralization for the same reason the country objects to that of corporate America: it’s snobbish and patronizing, yes, but it doesn’t suit them either. If you throw a football, throw a football. If you sing, sing. But stop telling us that eradicating “white privilege” or banning plastic straws is more important than global stability, decent schools, or feeding our families.

And practically speaking, at least when it comes to politicians, this glitzy echo chamber does nothing to move the needle. Professor Margaretha Bentley of Arizona State University, whose classes have studied Taylor Swift’s “social significance,” says: “In the academic literature, research has shown that while celebrity endorsements can increase civic engagement and voter registration, it has not been proven that this has an effect. direct impact on the way people make their voting decisions.”

Or if it does, it moves them in the wrong direction. When the world’s biggest pop star endorsed the vice president, a YouGov poll found that “only 8% of voters were ‘somewhat’ or ‘a lot more’ likely to vote for Harris – with a surprising 20% ​​saying (the support of Swift) actually made them less likely to vote for her.” In other words, it backfired. Not only was Harris worse off, but Swift lost one too good piece of the goodwill of her fans.

That includes Cardi B, who, like most of these personalities, aren’t exactly graceful losers. “I hate you all so much,” the rapper complained after Election Day. She responded to someone who asked if she would appear at Trump’s inauguration by saying, “I’m tired of you! Burn your damn hats, motherfucker. I’m really sad. I swear to God I’m very sad.’ Singer Christiana Aguilera ordered fans to “unfollow me if you voted against women’s rights… Unfollow me because what you did is unreal. You don’t want these kinds of followers. So yes. Finished. Even after today I will close this fan account that I have had for so many years because it is sick.

All this contributes to the country’s growing distaste for its isolated and aloof celeb scene. The reality is, Joseph Backholm of the Family Research Council told The Washington Stand: “It is normal for people to respect and admire another person, but if we do not know them personally, our respect for them is generally limited to that for which we know them. . I can respect a musician or an athlete for their top talents, but I need a lot more information about them before I start taking parenting advice from them,” he said. “The left seems to assume that because we like someone’s music or movies, we will defer to their judgment of what is good for us. Most people may believe that Taylor Swift is better at writing songs than she is, but that doesn’t mean they believe she’s better at deciding what’s best for their family.

Some on the left are waking up to this reality for the party in general. Democrat Chris Cuomo flat out accused wokeism for the loss of Harris. “You are imposing new social norms on the people of this country. “No, I’m not” (they insist). ‘We just do what is fair. Transgender people also have rights.’ Yes, but if it is communicated as if you should be forced to accept ideas and be indoctrinated with ideas you do not share – is that fair? “That’s not what we did.” That’s how they felt you treated them with it,” Cuomo argued. ‘These are women in sports. It’s not that it happens often… (but) the fact that it happens at all is for them a gross violation of norms and unacceptable. And you think it’s okay, and they believe this is wokeism run amok.”

What you see, Rasmussen lead researcher Mark Mitchell told FRC President Tony Perkins on ‘Washington Watch’ is that these people “who are running from the Democratic Party and the Republicans, the Donald Trump movement, are really starting to become the core culture of the counterculture… The mainstream media is on the jumped the shark, have lost his credibility, lost his power. And look at all the actors and actresses and authority figures who supported Kamala Harris, and none of them moved the needle because people just don’t care anymore. So I think this trend will continue.”

And for Americans tired of being lectured by woke politicians, corporations, actresses and athletes, that may be one of the greatest election victories of all.

---

Originally published on The Washington Stand.