Singer urged US fanbase to use their ‘powerful’ voices by taking action on National Voter Registration Day
Taylor Swift managed to drive record-breaking numbers to voter registration website Vote.org after urging her 232 million followers on Instagram to take action.
On Tuesday (19 September), hours after the pop star, 32, called on her US fanbase to register to vote in honour of National Voter Registration Day, Vote.org’s communication director, Nick Morrow, announced that “our site was averaging 13,000 users every 30 minutes”.
“Fun fact: after @taylorswift13 posted on Instagram today directing her followers to register to vote on @votedotorg, our site was averaging 13,0000 users every 30 minutes,” Morrow wrote on X/Twitter.
“13! Let’s just say her reputation for being a mastermind is very well-earned.”
Earlier that day, the “Anti-Hero” singer had posted to her Story, asking followers: “Are you registered to vote yet?
I don't listen to her music, not a huge fan in that regard - but I love this woman none the less for having a voice loud enough in the current political climate.
Now if she'd just leave the personal jet in it's hangar.
Well let's be hoping she doesn't turn weird like JK Rowling. It seems there's something in the air that makes billionaires turn rather right wing
I've avoided saying things like fascist, nazi, bigot, because there's been a history of JK Rowling litigating people who call her a fascist, transphobic, bitch and I don't want to do that yet
There was a video I saw a while back of a look-alike getting swarmed by fans, fans who were bawling about meeting her, it's just fucking nuts. I saw Harrison Ford once from a distance, and I was like "hey cool, I saw Harrison Ford", but some people just go apeshit.
I wonder how many voters have registered so far as a result of that. Assuming it's been 24hrs since her post, and assuming an average of 13,000 every 30min for the full 24hrs, it'd come out to 624,000 people!
That's a lotta voters
I've never been a fan of her music, but I'm kinda becoming a fan of her as a person.
I don't agree with that line of thought. The taste of hospital food is also very neutral but I wouldn't say I'm a fan of it. I also wouldn't say I'm actively opposing it, and if served it in a situation where I can't get anything else I wouldn't snub my nose at it, but it wouldn't be my first choice.
Generally speaking, because Republicans are a minority, the more people that show up to vote, the worse it is for Republicans. That's why they work so hard to suppress voters. Anything that gets more people to vote is good for Dems even if you're not asking people how they're going to vote.
Unless she follows it up with a message about "remember to schedule some time on election day to vote" a few days before election day and another message on actual election day to remind people to go out and vote that day, all she has done is increased the available voters not the successful 2024 voters.
She released a whole anti Trump/Republicans song a while back called Only The Young:
And the big bad man and his big bad clan
Their hands are stained with red
Oh, how quickly, they forget
They aren't gonna help us
Too busy helping themselves
Well given that her fans skew young and female, why would they? The Republican party is just 3 world-ending death cults in a trenchcoat and their staunchest supporters openly brag about abusing and oppressing women.
Fuck I'm going to laugh if Taylor Swift takes their guns though.
She used to not discuss politics. At all. Once she transitioned fully to pop and had a wider audience, we got Trump, and she finally decided to go full tilt anti-regressive.
There's footage of her, all planned I am sure, arguing with her dad and other business managers about it. They said she'd lose fans and she said she didn't care, and that it was the right thing to do. Again, the cameras were rolling, and I can't imagine it was truly a spur of the moment, candid discussion, but still...she's building the narrative that celebrities have a responsibility to the society that supports them.
I really appreciate the work she's been putting in. She also acquiesced to all the writers' demands during their strike, so they were able to work on her Eras documentary. She's been crushing it.
It's sad that so many didn't consider what it means to be able to vote and weren't already registered. It's even worse that they only did it after a celebrity told them to. I'm not sure I like the thought of those kinds of people voting.
What do you mean "those kinds of people"? This is a democracy, everyone (over 18) is entitled to vote, and every vote is valid. Maybe they just needed a friendly reminder or an extra push from someone they look up to.
The 18-30 demographic in this country is notorious for not voting. It’s been a thing for a long time. Which is part of the reason politics is so conservative*.
MTV was running the “Rock the Vote” campaign 30 years ago, in attempts to get younger people to vote. This is not a new situation at all.
*There are younger conservatives, but the younger demographics tend to skew liberal/progressive.
All generations are groomed to be good little worker drones that don't question their parents rulers.
Part of becoming a functioning adult is learning to rebel in healthy ways. Voting never feels effective, so it's not ever viewed as a viable path of expression for young people.
Therefore it's a bit stupid to say only recent youngins have been raised that way. Most western kids are groomed that way. Always have been. It's by design.
Voter turnout has always sucked, and especially among the youth vote. I think it's sad to throw stones at any effort that moves the needle in that regard.
Registration isn't the same as voting, sure, but there is a correlation between degrees of registration numbers and turnout. The below article focuses primarily on differences from automatic registrations, but covers the details pretty well I think.
I don't particularly enjoy her music, but I don't think there's any substantive reason to think her fans are all racist conservatives. Why would you think that?
Her views are not, and her fanbase is so broad I doubt they are all anything specific, but she has pissed off some right wingers over the years for sure.