Right-wingers sure like to have their shorts in a knot.
The examples seem endless, but the latest is particularly hilarious. The conspiracy theorists have set their sights on Taylor Swift.
Failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is pushing a conspiracy theory that next Sunday’s Super Bowl is rigged, and that the Kansas City Chiefs — the team that employs Swift’s paramour, Travis Kelce — will win and that Swift will use the occasion to endorse President Joe Biden for reelection.
Seriously. He said that.
Now, Swift did, indeed, endorse Biden in 2020. She might very well do so again. But she didn’t need a Super Bowl boyfriend to do it last time.
As for Kelce, I was unable to find any indication of his politics.
Nonetheless, Ramaswamy, who never got enough votes to justify his standing next to Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis or Chris Christie on a debate stage, insinuated that Swift and Kelce’s relationship had been “artificially culturally propped-up” by the media, and that, as America’s current favorite sweethearts, would stand amid falling confetti and tell us all to vote for Biden.
Forget the Super Bowl star proclaiming, “I’m going to Disney World!” The new celebration, at least in Ramaswamyland, is, “I endorse the president and so does my pop star girlfriend!”
Of course, that depends on the Chiefs bating the San Francisco 49ers and Kelce, not Patrick Mahomes or someone else, being named MVP. Outside of Ramaswamy and the MAGA faithful, those things are still to be decided.
For what it’s worth, I’m no Swifty. I’ve heard some of her songs, though not many since my daughters grew up and left the house. I have a television, though, and I watch football, so I’m aware of all the hype around the power couple. I place the blame for that hype on the appetite of the masses, not on two successful people who really seem to like each other.
I guess, if I were trying to get Donald Trump elected, I might fear Swift’s influence, too.
I’m not sure anyone can get young voters excited about a candidate old enough to be their great-grandfather, but if that person exists, it’s probably Swift. In September, She posted a short message on her Instagram account encouraging her followers (272 million of them!) to register to vote. More than 35,000 did so at the nonpartisan Vote.org. Honestly, that’s not a great percentage, buy it doesn’t seem Tay-Tay was trying very hard. Maybe a concerted effort would swell the Democratic Party ranks and infuse some much-needed youth.
I guess we’ll see if Swift actually cares enough to do that, and if it makes any difference. Whether she wades in or not, it’s silly to think the conservative billionaires who own the NFL teams are in on it.
Of course, Kelce has incurred the wrath of the right on his own, appearing in television commercials for COVID and flu vaccines manufactured by Pfizer.
Remember when not dying of preventable viruses was not considered a political issue? I miss those days.
It was nice to see some conservative politicians call out the nonsense.
As reported by POLITICO, Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the Republican and former college football coach who held up hundreds of military promotions because he wanted to change abortion policy in the military, said, “There’s no truth whatsoever. Football is football. Hopefully we stay closer to that than we can all this social media.”
Chiefs fans in the Senate echoed that.
“If they’re both in love, good for them, and I have a 13-year-old that’s a huge Taylor Swift fan,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), a staunch Chiefs fan. “She’s a pop star and she’s got a boyfriend who plays for the Chiefs, and I don’t probably [need to] overcomplicate things.”
“That’s all nonsense,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) told POLITICO. “Everyone should embrace the Travis and Tay-Tay story. I think it’s a great story, an American love story, something that Walt Disney wrote. So we just wish them the best. I think it’s great for the NFL.”
Enjoy the game — the football game, not the one being played by Ramaswamy and his ilk.