by AUDREY YUKEVICH
STAFF WRITER
Should the line between politics and the arts be crossed?
This question is being thrown around constantly during the current presidential campaign, in political and social forums. Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris on Sept. 10, immediately following the second presidential debate, stirred up conversations about whether celebrities should speak up about their political views.
For some historical context, you can travel back 104 years to the 1920 presidential election. Al Johnson, a well-known entertainer at the time, showed his unwavering support for Republican candidate Warren G. Harding. He later led a march through Ohio, singing “Harding You’re the Man for Us.” This song was quickly adopted by the Republican Party and became a staple in the campaign. The song worked itself into the public’s consciousness, as Harding won the election.
Through the years, support for political candidates poured in from all sorts of celebrities. From baseball star Babe Ruth backing President Woodrow Wilson to Frank Sinatra on the stage of Carnegie Hall sharing his praise for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Singer Judy Garland participated in the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles alongside presidential nominee John F. Kennedy. Throughout history, support for a party or candidate has been publicly expressed by celebrities.
Thus, celebrity endorsement is not a new concept brought on in 2024 by social media or the internet. History shows that the entertainment industry and art itself have been interlaced with politics for a very long time. Today, the political climate is different, but overarching similarities can still be found between endorsements for the 2024 and 1920 presidential elections. This year, Harris was endorsed by English singer/songwriter Charli XCX, who took to the internet to say “kamala IS brat.”
The reference originated from her popular album Brat, which was released in June. Harris’ PR team quickly aligned their candidate with the album. Similarly, Harding’s Republican team took on Johnson’s song. This shows that no matter the political affiliations, the Democratic and Republican parties both use pop culture and celebrity endorsements to boost their campaigns.
The choice of whether to endorse a candidate for an election seems like an easy one, but don’t forget that no matter who you choose, you are alienating a group of your fans. After the second presidential debate, Swift endorsed Harris. It came, however, with a considerable uproar of both support and disdain. Said sophomore Smiley Zou, “She has 283 million followers; that’s a really large influence.” Another Chadwick student who wished to remain anonymous said, “If Taylor Swift endorsed Donald Trump, would we still be saying endorsements from celebrities are good?”
To that point, endorsements could be a good or bad thing; it just depends on your perspective and political stance. What gets lost in these theoreticals is that these celebrities are real people expressing their real opinions. No matter how high the public puts a celebrity on a pedestal, they still deserve the same rights and freedoms to voice their opinions as anyone else. The moment we start to exclude people from conversations, we lose their multifacetedness.
Thus, to say that a celebrity should “just shut up and make art” is to ignore their humanity. Conservative commentator Laura Ingraham famously told NBA superstar LeBron James in 2018 to “Keep the political comments to yourselves. … Shut up and dribble.” Even if celebrities are alienating some fans with their thoughts, they should be allowed space, especially on their personal platforms, to express their opinions.
When people say, “Well, what if they influence a fan to vote just because they like the celebrity?” they ignore the fact that some people are not voting at all. Even though the original message posed bias for a certain candidate, the person receiving this information has the opportunity to take another step. They have the chance to start actually doing research on policy and truly learn about each candidate more than they ever would have before that push.
Politics and art fuel each other, and it is no surprise to me that the celebrities making the art want to comment on politics or other issues. No matter how many albums they want to sell, movies to pitch, or awards they want to win, they deserve to have a say.
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