Useful Celebrity Contributions
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Taylor Swift’s decision to jump into politics over the weekend, announcing her support in an Instagram post for two Democrats in Tennessee and urging her 112 million followers to register to vote, appears to have contributed to a flurry of last-minute registrations before deadlines in many states.
In the hours after Ms. Swift shared her political views on Sunday, the voter registration site Vote.org recorded a flood of requests, both nationwide and in the pop superstar’s adopted home state of Tennessee.
More than 166,000 people across the United States submitted new registrations on Vote.org between Sunday and noon on Tuesday, with about 42 percent of the registrants falling between the ages of 18 to 24, officials at the site said.
People have had plenty of reasons to rush to fill out voter applications this week: 18 states have some type of registration deadline on Tuesday, including Tennessee. Many other states have deadlines later this week or later in the month, ahead of Election Day in November. Registrations usually surge as deadlines approach.
If people who can command public attention, particularly young people, can provide information that allows people to navigate the bureaucracy that prevents people from voting, this is just an unambiguously good thing.
And to echo Erik, even if arbitrary “dealbreakers” weren’t a dumb concept in voting — which they certainly are! — “Bredesen issuing a statement with no policy consequences whatsoever” would be a particularly dumb one. Look, when you need to win states that Trump carried by 26 and 40 points, you’re unlikely to find politicians who agree with coastal liberals about everything; you’re not seeing a bunch of Republicans refusing to vote for Larry Hogan because he doesn’t govern like a national Republican. And the only “message” staying home would send it to Mitch McConnell, and the content of the message is “more 40-year-old neoconfederate judges and tax cuts and many fewer people with health insurance, please.”