By
Conservatives have yet again placed Taylor Swift in their conspiratorial crosshairs following her recent unveiling as TIME’s “person of the year.”
Swift has been a target for right-wingers since at least 2018, when she broke from her largely apolitical persona and endorsed Phil Bredesen as Tennessee’s Democratic Senate nominee, who was running against then-Rep. Marsha Blackburn. In her endorsement, Swift said that Blackburn’s voting record “appalls and terrifies me,” citing Blackburn’s anti-LGBTQ views and her opposition to renewing the Violence Against Women Act. And footage from Swift’s 2020 Netflix documentary shows her upset over Blackburn’s eventual victory, with the artist saying “[Blackburn] gets to be the first female senator in Tennessee, and she’s Trump in a wig.”
That Swift has used her Eras Tour to register voters has drawn conservative ire, too. (More examples of the hate directed at Swift here.) Liberals, for their part, seem to love that conservatives are trying to pick a fight with one of the most popular stars on earth.
So that helps to explain the conniption pitched by Republicans on social media this week, which has featured right-wing pundits fueling baseless theories that Swift’s selection as Time’s “person of the year” is some sort of political manipulation campaign.
There was Donald Trump’s white nationalist adviser Stephen Miller:
Ain’t it funny? During the years when Swift was largely absent from politics — yet still massively popular — no Republicans were out here claiming she was a "psyop." Now that she’s embraced politics Republicans don’t like, her popularity is mischievous to them.
Then there was right-wing activist Jack Posobiec:
Even former DOJ official and fellow Trump RICO co-defendant Jeffrey Clark got in on the action:
A slew of other social media accounts known to spread misinformation took up the rumor that Swift is some nefarious agent of propaganda as well.
The right-wing response here underscores a problem conservatives have struggled with for decades now, which is that their widely unpopular politics often place them at odds with pop culture figures. Not all pop culture figures, of course. But certainly the ones who endorse the tenets of a democratic society, like voting rights, bodily autonomy for abortion-seekers and trans people, and freedom from discrimination. In fact, House Speaker Mike Johnson railed against liberal pop culture figures in a recent campaign email describing America's "depraved" culture.
"[Y]ou don’t even want to see the filth that passes for popular culture these days," Johnson said. (Fact check: I do.)
And this might explain why Republicans are so willing to overlook the mediocrity of the pop culture figures who do embrace them. Sure, they may not have a chart-topping megastar like Taylor Swift in their corner. But they can count on the support of the likes of lukewarm rapper Lil’ Pump and "Deuce Bigelow" star Rob Schneider. Seems like they’re reclaiming culture in their own way, one C-list celebrity at a time!