<s announced that Taylor Swift had officially ended her apolitical position to endorse Tennessee Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections, I rose quite a bit from the mental low I hit when Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the highest court in the nation. I don’t quite consider myself a fan of Taylor. I listened to her more often in middle school, and if one of her songs came on the radio while I was driving nowadays, I would let it play, but she would not be my top choice. Regardless, my preadolescent fascination with her came back to me when I found out she was breaking her silence. Sorry white supremacists. My hope for our country elevated even more when it was announced that dozens of thousands of people registered to vote within the day of Taylor’s statement. Whether you like it or not, celebrities play a huge role in how we engage in our contemporary political system. Of course, not all of them are Democrats (I’m looking at you, Kanye West and Roseanne Barr), but the fact that Taylor abolished her long-standing neutrality so shortly after a horrifying Supreme Court confirmation shows that many of us in this country are pissed off by the Republicans.
If Donald Trump has done anything valuable during his presidency, it would be how his absurd agenda has led people to realize who they are and what they should stand for. For far too long, the right of Israel to defend itself and in practice occupy Palestinian land has been a bipartisan matter. Because of the obnoxious Israel lobby in this country, it would almost be like a death sentence for a lawmaker who is progressive in all other ways to openly oppose the occupation. With Trump’s moving of the embassy to Jerusalem and cutting of aid to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, there has been a realization among many that Palestinian rights do matter and that the US should not just blindly feed resources into Israel’s blooming dictatorship. Recently several candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, particularly Rashida Tlaib, who is running in Michigan and could be the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress, have openly spoken out against this occupation. These baby steps are changing dynamics in the Democratic party for the better.
Furthermore, Trump’s policies have made many devout Christians in this country realize that there is nothing biblical about a Muslim ban or child separation at the U.S.-Mexico border. I read a New York Times article the other day titled, “Beto O’Rourke May Benefit From an Unlikely Support Group: White Evangelical Women.” For anyone who doesn’t know, Beto is a progressive Democrat hoping to unseat the current Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a move not common in the state’s deeply red history. The article details how despite the typical association between Evangelicals and the Republican Party, many of the women in this article, despite being longtime Republicans, are realizing that their core values relate more to the Democrat at hand. The Kavanaugh confirmation played a significant role in this change of mindset, considering how even some of the most conservative women in this country see danger in a new justice who has been accused by several people of sexual violence.
One of the few Republicans on my Facebook friends list the other day shared a video about how women’s fears for their safety are significantly more founded, despite Trump’s concerns for false accusations. I’m not sure how she plans to vote this November, but I definitely did not expect that video from her.
My overall point is that our irritation over the Trump presidency and Republican domination of Congress is exploding onto this election in a beautiful way. So go vote! There is truly no better manifestation of the collectively forming anger.