With passions burning like an acetylene torch in this closely contested presidential race, it’s no wonder both candidates seek high-profile celebrity endorsements. Whether or not they move the needle in a meaningful way is debatable, but the fact remains that there’s a vast swath of eligible voters under the age of 30 known for not showing up. Pop stars with social media followings in the tens of millions from this demographic are a mouth-watering temptation to any self-respecting political operative.
What this says about failures on multiple levels to energize this group regarding its participation in self-governance is a long-overdue conversation, especially as they’re the ones with the most at stake. One of the more peculiar conundrums of American-style representative democracy is the inability to scale the critically important understanding that changing the system requires engaging in it.
It’s no wonder they feel disconnected and overlooked by the process. President Biden was born in 1942. Former President Donald Trump was born in 1946. Full retirement age for Social Security kicks in for folks born in 1959. For voters born between 1994 and 2002, the Cold War is ancient history, and smartphones are ubiquitous. The option was two old white dudes with their best years in the rear-view mirror who inhabit a different space-time reality.
Boomers, on the other hand, can be equally un-relatable. When it comes to grumbling about how much better it was back in the day, one might hear similar statements from the most progressive old-school feminist to a MAGA true believer. (At least there’s one thing they have in common.)
However, the option changed dramatically when Biden dropped out. Vice President Kamala Harris was born in 1964, and while she’s a generation or two removed from the under-30 crowd, her youthful energy brings relatability. Coupled with years in Bay area politics and rubbing shoulders with tech overlords, she understands and relates to the modern world in ways Trump and Biden can’t.
Nevertheless, both campaigns realize that reaching this group at scale is daunting. Trump, being the huckster at a reptilian-brain level that he is — and masterful in his own right where social media is concerned, went for his usual play: insinuate and lie and let the chips fall where they may. So, he started floating the riff that Taylor Swift would probably endorse him because he’s done so much for her career, or something.
It backfired, of course. Because you don’t fuck with Taylor. She kept her powder dry and only weighed in on the importance of voting. But then came the insanity of cat ladies and “They eat the dogs” and Trump’s post of her endorsing him in a shoddy AI-fake image. In other words, Trump threw one down the middle of the plate and dared her to take a swing. To his chagrin, Taylor knocked it out of the park.
In a random fit of pique days later, he posted “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” on Truth Social.
Meanwhile, Chappell Roan is launching into orbit. She has a lot on her mind, to say the least. And she is, without question, relatable to a vast army of eligible voters. In addition to dealing with her life being upended by sudden mega-superstardom (which is different by an order of magnitude to sudden fame), she’s forced to deal with what is projected onto her. Unlike Swift, Roan is getting hit from the left. It’s doubtful anyone on the right knows what to make of her.
Because she’s out as a lesbian, this includes the LBGTQ+ community. But she turned down an invitation to the Pride Celebration at the White House. In her October cover story for Rolling Stone, she said, “You don’t necessarily need to be out-loud out. … It’s like, look, I love being gay. I just don’t want to talk about it every second of every day.” In what could be considered a shift away from identity politics, she goes on to say, “It’s so nice that people have started to take queer artists seriously outside of their queerness.”
During a September interview with The Guardian, Roan said, “I have so many issues with our government in every way. There are so many things that I would want to change. So I don’t feel pressured to endorse someone. There’s problems on both sides. I encourage people to use your critical thinking skills, use your vote — vote small, vote what’s going on in your city.”
Controversy followed both comments. While Biden was still in the race, Roan, like many of her generation, expressed her horror over the carnage in Gaza and took to task the administration’s ongoing willingness to supply Israel with weapons.
She answered the criticism in a recent TikTok video: “Endorsing and voting are completely different. I don’t agree with a lot of what is going on with policies. Honestly, fuck the policies of the right — but also fuck some of the policies on the left. That’s why I can’t endorse. That’s why I can’t put my entire name, my entire project behind one. There is no way I can stand behind some of the left’s completely transphobic and completely genocidal views. So, yeah, there are huge problems on both. You know what is right and wrong, and so do I.”
She goes on to say: “Fuck Trump for fucking real. But fuck some of the shit that has gone down in the Democratic party that has failed people like me and you — and more so Palestine and more so every marginalized community in the world. No, I’m not gonna settle for the options that are in front of me. And you’re not gonna make me feel bad for that. So yeah, I’m voting for fucking Kamala. But I’m not settling for what has been offered, because that’s questionable.”
It isn’t difficult to see why accusations of “both sides-ism” abound, even though she made her position clear in the Rolling Stone interview: “Right now, it’s more important than ever to use your vote, and I will do whatever it takes to protect people’s civil rights, especially the LGBTQ+ community. My ethics and values will always align with that.” She added, “I feel lucky to be alive during an incredibly historical time period when a woman of color is a presidential nominee.”
Even so, the full-throated endorsement of Harris many folks had hoped for wasn’t to be. Maybe they’re missing the point.
Buried and overlooked within the controversy surrounding Roan’s statements lies a clue to understanding what her generation grapples with. Reconciling firmly held values with the fact that no candidate will ever be an exact match to those values often feels like a Faustian bargain, which was played out in real-time in a very public way by an artist who is “of” her generation.
By saying, “Use your vote — vote small, vote what’s going on in your city,” Roan directs her audience towards participating in their community. Engaging in the electoral process at the local level is a time-honored way to develop the “critical thinking skills” needed to understand how our representative democracy works. It can also produce a feeling of empowerment because the change is visible and it’s easier to connect the dots.
Political compromise doesn’t negate one’s values. Intransigence and checking out do. However imperfect it may seem, using the democratic process is the most effective way to give voice to those values so firmly held and be the change you want to make happen.
If you haven’t done so, please Register to Vote. More information about voting in Nashville is available at the Davidson County Election Commission page on the Nashville.gov website.
