Los Angeles:
A raft of celebrities from Taylor Swift and Beyonce to George Clooney and Harrison Ford proved unable to forestall Kamala Harris’s crushing defeat within the US election, underlining the restricted impression of sweeping star endorsements on voters.
As an alternative, it was Donald Trump and the Republicans — who acquired scant assist from the leisure trade at massive, however tapped right into a focused subset of well-known, hypermasculine influencers — who gained comfortably.
So, did the Democrats’ long-standing Hollywood and music trade connections, together with last-minute rally appearances from Girl Gaga and Jennifer Lopez, make any distinction in any respect in the long run?
“Not on this election, clearly,” mentioned New York College arts professor Laurence Maslon.
“On the finish of the day, individuals most likely understand that Beyonce and George Clooney do not have to fret about the price of fuel or the price of eggs — so perhaps they’re type of irrelevant,” he instructed AFP.
Superstar endorsements have lengthy been a part of the material of US elections, paying homage to the times when Frank Sinatra wrangled the “Rat Pack” to assist John F. Kennedy in 1960.
Even this yr, Hollywood-led fundraisers helped increase tens of tens of millions of {dollars} for Harris’s record-breaking marketing campaign conflict chest.
However their impression in truly influencing votes has all the time been a “blended bag,” mentioned Arizona State College affiliate professor Margaretha Bentley, who teaches a public coverage course on Taylor Swift.
“It is by no means going to be the golden ticket that everyone’s searching for,” she mentioned.
Mark Harvey, creator of “Superstar Affect: Politics, Persuasion, and Concern-Primarily based Advocacy,” agreed that we “should not be terribly stunned” by the dearth of superstar impression.
“There is not an actual robust science behind this concept that celebrities can affect individuals to vote for candidates,” he mentioned.
– ‘Macho’ –
Well-known supporters have solely ever been efficient when advocating on very particular points on which they’re broadly considered knowledgeable, added Harvey.
As Donald Trump delivered his victory speech early Wednesday, the brand new president-elect was flanked by — and showered reward on — well-known names from the world of sport.
UFC boss Dana White was lovingly hailed as “powerful” and “a chunk of labor,” whereas golfer Bryson DeChambeau was celebrated as “implausible” and even having a “barely longer” drive than the golf-loving Trump.
Loud cheers — and a good portion of Trump’s handle — had been dedicated to his best-known supporter of all, tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Trump additionally acquired a last-minute endorsement from Joe Rogan, the influential host of one of many world’s high podcasts.
The Republican could have benefited from these associations as a result of, in an election “largely pushed by cultural points, one of the vital potent cultural points was masculinity,” mentioned Harvey.
“This type of ‘be an actual man,’ the Trump ‘macho’ type of factor… it is the form of factor that Joe Rogan performs on a regular basis.”
– ‘Shocked’ –
For the Democrats, this newest scarring expertise would require a “deep self-analysis… of what they did and did not do, and what may need been profitable,” together with with superstar endorsements, mentioned Bentley.
Ashley Spillane, creator of the report “Celebrities Strengthening Our Tradition of Democracy,” agreed there was “debate” in regards to the “worth and impression of superstar endorsements of candidates.”
However there’s nonetheless “strong proof that celebrities do have an actual impression in selling total, nonpartisan civic engagement,” she wrote through electronic mail, pointing to Swift’s endorsement of Harris, which was credited with driving 400,000 individuals to a voter registration web site.
Even when their endorsements failed, Hollywood celebrities confirmed no indication Wednesday that they might stay silent.
Waking as much as the information of Trump’s victory, a number of well-known figures took to social media to vent their frustrations.
Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis mentioned Trump’s win would usher in “a certain return to a extra restrictive, some worry draconian time.”
“Fascist with complete energy… That will have been the final free election,” wrote actor John Cusack. “Horror is coming.”
Pop singer Cardi B, who appeared at a Harris rally final Friday, merely wrote: “I hate yall dangerous.”
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)