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The power of Taylor Swift’s politics Miss Americana can't afford to alienate Republicans


September 12, 2024   5 mins

It’s an important lesson for politicians: never give your enemies a name. Hillary Clinton did it, disastrously, with her off-the-cuff announcement about a “basket of deplorables”. Did it cost her the election? On its own, no, but it certainly didn’t help. Trump supporters, on the other hand, embraced it. Female fans labelled themselves “adorable deplorables” and hand-embroidered the slogan on baseball caps.

Eight years later, the Republicans are suffering from the same mistake, although this time the fatal phrase emerged years before the campaign. In 2021, J.D. Vance (then a Republican candidate for the Senate) gave an interview to Tucker Carlson (then a Fox News host), in which he attacked what he had described as the “childless Left”. The USA, Vance told Carlson, was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too”.

Childless cat ladies. Regrettably for Vance and the Republicans in general, it is a great phrase: pointed, memorable — and ripe for the reclaiming. Which is why, when Taylor Swift declared her backing for the Democrats on Tuesday, she did it by posting a picture to Instagram of herself holding one of her three cats (the cat in question is Benjamin Button, a ragdoll). And she signed off: “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.” Elon Musk responded on X with a gallant offer to impregnate her, which will do little to diminish accusations that Trump supporters are weird.

Her announcement was hardly surprising. Swift backed Biden/Harris in 2020 and has previously lent her support to liberal causes including gun control and abortion rights. But it was an anxiously awaited one. Other pop stars had declared their affiliation long ago: Charli XCX tweeted “kamala IS brat” almost as soon as the vice-president declared her run for the White House. And hours before Swift’s post, The Guardian published “Is Taylor Swift a secret Trump supporter?” The evidence for this was a photograph of her hugging a friend who had liked a Trump post on Instagram. (McCarthyism, apparently, can change its shape but never die.)

And it is a significant move. Swift’s cultural heft makes her a fearsome political force. When she shared a link to a voter registration site in 2023, there were 35,252 new registrations that day; notably, this included a 115% increase in 18-year-olds, who are more likely to vote Democrat. Swift’s audience also skews female, which is significant for an election held in the shadow of the Dodds Supreme Court decision which undid Roe vs Wade. Bluntly, the more women vote, the harder it becomes for Trump to win.

But even though Swift has embraced her electoral power now, she’s historically been cautious. As a young singer-songwriter on the Nashville scene, she cultivated an apolitical stance. One of the country acts she had first been inspired by as a child were the Dixie Chicks (now simply called the Chicks): in 2003, their career was all but destroyed after a member of the band criticised George W. Bush during a concert. “They were made such an example that basically every country artist that came after that, every label tells you, ‘Just do not get involved, no matter what,’” said Swift in 2019.

Five years on, Swift is much more comfortable pinning her colours to the mast. But she still carries some of the burden of being — as the title of her 2020 film tagged her — Miss Americana. Nashville may be behind her now, but the similarly conservative-leaning National Football League is firmly in her present. That’s thanks to her boyfriend, the footballer Travis Kelce, who has become more established in her public life than any of her previous partners. They are a formidable team: between them, they cover the worlds of sports and pop music, male and female, Right-coded and Left-coded. A homecoming king and queen for the nation.

“Five years on, Swift is much more comfortable pinning her colours to the mast.”

But Swift is more than an individual. She’s a business. Michael Jordan’s truism that Republicans still buy sneakers holds in the music industry too: Republicans stream songs and buy concert tickets and merch as well. For Swift, the art is to cultivate her own positions without alienating half her potential US market. It’s a problem that other, more explicitly political artists have been learning to navigate since Swift’s own political coming-out. Chappell Roan, for example, is all-in for LGBTQ causes. But in interviews, she has stressed her Midwest roots and compassion for people with opposing views: “I know where they’re coming from. It’s just not that black-and-white.”

For Swift, a crack along the lines of “basket of deplorables” would probably be even more calamitous than it was for Clinton — and absolutely devastating for her other half. Hence what looks like the careful orchestration of the announcement. That hug with her problematically pro-Trump friend, fellow NFL WAG Brittany Mahomes? The rune readers were wrong to see it as an endorsement of Mahomes’s politics, but probably right to see it as a deliberate announcement of something. The message of the hug is that friendship comes before partisanship. In Swiftworld, you can have your beliefs without needing to cancel people from life for having different ones.

I hesitate to read too much into a paparazzi shot, but maybe this is a good sign for American democracy. Back in Swift’s days of silence, there wasn’t much pressure for her to speak out on politics, because there wasn’t a strong expectation in the Noughties and early Tens that a teen pop star would have any politics to speak of. Their job was to look pretty and be air-headedly inoffensive: nobody expected to know how Britney Spears was going to vote.

That changed with the great politicising of everything that happened in the mid-tens. First, “feminist” went from suggesting an alarmingly confrontational woman to sounding new, exciting, even sexy: Beyoncé danced in front of the word in 2013. Slogans like “silence is violence” came into popular use, insisting that anything less than outright campaigning amounted to complicity with evil. More importantly, social media meant that silence had become perilously easy to detect. Lending your support to the Black Lives Matter cause, for example, was as simple as posting a black square to your grid — so how much of a closet racist would you have to be if you couldn’t even do that much?

Personal relationships began to be treated as a battleground. Patronising Left-wing guides on how to handle Thanksgiving began to proliferate after Trump was elected: “It’s our responsibility to go home and have the hard conversations with our family members, because, in many cases, only we have the power to reach them and begin the long work of rooting out bigotry in our communities,” said one cringingly solemn article on the website Mic. But these had their match from the Right: the Daily Signal, an offshoot of the conservative Heritage Foundation, offered tips on “how to be persuasive about politics with your liberal relatives”.

As strongly as Swift’s history had compelled her to hold her tongue, the new order dictated that she should speak out. She described herself as a feminist for the first time in 2014. Just two years earlier, she’d answered a question about whether she was a feminist by saying “I don’t really think about things as guys versus girls”; perhaps significantly, between those two points, she was sexually assaulted by a DJ, against whom she later won a civil suit. From there, her political evolution evolved steadily, bringing us to the present day, when a Swift endorsement was coveted enough for Trump to share fake images implying he had her backing.

Vance’s jibe at “childless cat ladies” is the nonsensical endpoint of the era in which everything was politicised by default — even pet ownership, even whether or not you have procreated. Anti-feminist claplines might play well to a tame audience such as Tucker Carlson, but in the wild, a lot of women are going to hear this as the Republicans rejecting them: if being a “childless cat lady” makes them liberal, then so be it — they will cast their vote accordingly.

Swift’s response is mindful and demure and resolute. It shows a grasp of political messaging that Vance and co. have failed to get anywhere close to: pop stars have learned the power of the big tent, while right-wing politicians flail around for the pleasure of their fandoms. This is, of course, the opposite way round to how it ought to be, but there’s hope for the US in Swiftian politics. Maybe, it’s time to stop putting people into baskets.


Sarah Ditum is a columnist, critic and feature writer.

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Y Chromosome
Y Chromosome
13 days ago

Overall good article. The title, however, is an absurdity. TS can “afford” pretty much anything she wants.

Martin M
Martin M
16 days ago

Elon Musk responded on X with a gallant offer to impregnate her, which will do little to diminish accusations that Trump supporters are weird“. Trump is weird, but Musk makes him look like an amateur in that department.

Graham Stull
Graham Stull
15 days ago
Reply to  Martin M

Musk has redefined the electronic payments industry, the automotive industry, the space industry and who knows what else he’ll take on?
In the past, we used to champion men like him as leaders and heroes. Now people call them ‘weird’, because ‘normal’ is a soy-boy feminist who works for the civil service and triple masks.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
15 days ago
Reply to  Graham Stull

Exactly – imagine a world without the likes of Swift, Kamala or the car ladies….the others wouldn’t even notice their absence.

Now imagine a world without the likes of Elon Musk and their work…..

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

There would be someone else to invent things.

Gregory Hickmore
Gregory Hickmore
15 days ago
Reply to  Graham Stull

Is redefining the “electronic payments industry” a completely great achievement insofar as it has hastened the explosion of “consumerism,” which, for example, Pier Paolo Pasolini predicted in the mid-sixties would be the worst type of fascism the world could develop (something many now deplore as “globalization”)? As for redefining “the automotive industry,” hasn’t Musk merely helped perpetuate the tunnel-visioned idea that the biggest threat from cars is their tail-pipe emissions when in fact the more serious danger from automobiles is the disintegrating tire particulate (which the heavier EVs produce more of)? And the reinvigoration of the space industry may be laudable, except to my mind the goal seems to be launching more ways to aid the electronic payment industry and information control (while incidentally failing to find a way to revolutionize lithium-powered rocket-launch techniques). For the record, I am not a fan of soy and as a man, not a boy, would never be ashamed because someone noted my sympathies for feminism (though, being a man, I would never presume to call myself a feminist). However, I will admit your use of the term “soy-boy” did somewhat revealingly remind me of the term “fan-boy.” Not that “boy” is necessarily pejorative—here in Canada, we often use it to refer to the “boys” on our hockey teams.

Rob N
Rob N
13 days ago

I, on the other hand, would call myself a feminist: women should do with their lives what they want. However what they should want is to have children and help make the world a better place.

laurence scaduto
laurence scaduto
15 days ago
Reply to  Graham Stull

I could swear that a lot of the young guys in my neighborhood have been shaving their legs. Panty-waisted jazz dancers.
Oy vey!!

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  Graham Stull

Are you honestly saying you don’t think Musk is weird? If I was writing the next James Bond film, or Marvel superhero film, and needed a creepy villain, I’d just write in Musk as he actually is (although obviously I’d change his name so as not to get sued).

Rob N
Rob N
13 days ago
Reply to  Martin M

Don’t worry Marvel beat you to it. He was the role model for Stark/Iron Man.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  Graham Stull

Musk has the arrogance to think the world needs countless mini-Musks. That’s what’s scary.

El Uro
El Uro
14 days ago
Reply to  Clare Knight

Don’t worry. Quote:
.
“We have identified a Y-chromosomal lineage with several unusual features. It was found in 16 populations throughout a large region of Asia, stretching from the Pacific to the Caspian Sea, and was present at high frequency: about 8 percent of the men in this region carry it, and it thus makes up about 0.5 percent of the world total (20,000,000 men!). The pattern of variation within the lineage suggested that it originated in Mongolia about 1,000 years ago. Such a rapid spread cannot have occurred by chance; it must have been a result of selection.
The lineage is carried by likely male-line descendants of Genghis Khan, and we therefore propose that it has spread by a novel form of social selection resulting from their behavior.
.
Musk still has a lot of work to do.

Micael Gustavsson
Micael Gustavsson
14 days ago
Reply to  Graham Stull

He was called weird for offering to impregnate Taylor Swift, not for inventing stuff.

Rob N
Rob N
13 days ago
Reply to  Graham Stull

Neuralink, Boring Company, risks of AI, public debate via X/Twitter. The list is incredible.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
15 days ago
Reply to  Martin M

Real people, the real world, happens to be weird.

The problem with the “progressive” class, – the college educated, “office job”, no kids crowd – is precisely that what they say, what their “views” are, is a bit like supermarket vegetables – unnatural, carefully screened and artificially cultivated, and tasteless at it’s core.

Hence, they will express views that are “correct”, they will never say “weird” things…….but they are also the worst, most bigoted, genuinely weird people around.

Real world, especially working class people, or on the other hand the likes of Musk, are weird – they say things that can be construed as “sexist” or “racist”. But they are much less likely to support third trimester abortions, allowing strange men into girls bathrooms or sports, letting in illegal immigrants, being soft on criminals. They will accept you even if your opinions and politics differ, and accept free speech.

So, who exactly is weird here?

John Tyler
John Tyler
15 days ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

In answer to your question: both Musk and Swift are out of the ordinary!

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

So, who exactly is weird here?” Musk is. I just said that in my previous post.

Johann Strauss
Johann Strauss
15 days ago
Reply to  Martin M

Musk may be weird (as was Steve Jobs) but the fact remains that Musk is the most successful entrepreneur on the planet, and it is rumored he is about set to become the first trillionaire! The fact is that most genius’ are weird, and that would include Newton, probably the greatest mind who ever lived.

Graham Stull
Graham Stull
15 days ago
Reply to  Johann Strauss

Johann Strauss was also, by all accounts, a bit of an odd-ball – a hypochondriac and an obsessive.
Best known for his waltzes and operettas, he was also a lively contributor to UnHerd’s comments section.

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  Graham Stull

Not as lively as UnHerd Reader though.

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  Johann Strauss

Albert Einstein was probably a bit weird, but he wasn’t deeply unpleasant like Musk.

Duane M
Duane M
15 days ago
Reply to  Martin M

The funniest part about Musk’s offer is that all of his kids have come through IVF. AFIK, Musk is still a virgin.

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  Duane M

Too much information….

Micael Gustavsson
Micael Gustavsson
14 days ago
Reply to  Duane M

That doesn’t mean Musk is a virgin. He could have had lots of protected sex. Or do you believe condoms keep peoples virginity intact?

Chris Whybrow
Chris Whybrow
15 days ago

Never mind the politics, that cat is adorable.

Amelia Melkinthorpe
Amelia Melkinthorpe
15 days ago
Reply to  Chris Whybrow

and deserves better than the talentless Swift creature as a guardian.

John Pade
John Pade
15 days ago

Swift is a smart woman. When celebs like Tom Brady were endorsing Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto fraud, she investigated it and said no thanks. Her endorsement of Harris is the same way. She looked at the positions and picked the candidate who’s more closely aligned with hers, or what she thought was best for the country.
The cats of Ohio might disagree, but she’s doing a better job than most voters.

El Uro
El Uro
15 days ago
Reply to  John Pade

Smart and wise are two different things. It may be smart to care so much about the LGBTQIA+ community, but it’s not wise.

Bret Larson
Bret Larson
15 days ago
Reply to  El Uro

You mean self serving.

El Uro
El Uro
14 days ago
Reply to  Bret Larson

“Smart” here means to get modern public approval. To be with crowd.
“Wise” here means to think about future of your children, your community, your nation.
Swifties care about her next tour, business leaders care about next quarter account, politicians about next election in 2-4 years and only parents care about 2 generations ahead. Feel the difference

David Shipley
David Shipley
15 days ago

She can do what she likes; she’s a billionaire.

Laura Pritchard
Laura Pritchard
15 days ago

I love the way posters on this forum seem to think having a child or not is always a personal choice. And that on the occasion that it might be, it’s a purely selfish one.
Anyway all the people I’ve seen commenting on Taylor Swift’s message seem to think all her fans are teenage girls. I think they might be somewhat wrong.

El Uro
El Uro
15 days ago

…all of her fans are teenage girls – undoubtedly in terms of their level of emotional development, at least those who fly from America to Europe to see her show
.
…having a child or not is always a personal choice
Forgive me for God’s sake, dear Laura, but I have long noticed that as soon as men say anything to women other than compliments, women start whining, “You don’t understand… There are circumstances…”
You know, we understand more than you think. We know that there are circumstances. But we see how modern women, with the egoism that is always inherent in women (biologically, female egoism is justified and necessary!), prefer the most carefree and childless life, and then complain to everyone about their suffering, refusing to understand that it is a consequence of refusing to have children. Having children is the dominant instinct in a female’s life. Not sex, not the love of a male, but children – that’s the main thing for her. This is the only thing that makes her suffer and rejoice and live life to the fullest.
I am always ready to sympathize with women who do not have children due to real difficult circumstances, but we are not talking about such women here.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  El Uro

Such arrogance! Do you think we care whether you sympathize or not?!

El Uro
El Uro
14 days ago
Reply to  Clare Knight

Do you think I care about your opinion? I’m not an Internet influencer to collect “likes” and I hope you won’t be offended by the fact that a “like” from you won’t make me happy, but rather will offend me

Micael Gustavsson
Micael Gustavsson
14 days ago
Reply to  El Uro

I guess you are female, since you seem very sure about what they feel. Also, once more, have you heard about nuns?

El Uro
El Uro
13 days ago

Yes, I have heard about this and I think that denying your human nature is not the best idea, although circumstances may vary.
I have never heard that all women should become nuns, but I hear all the time that a career is more important for a woman than children.
Do you feel the difference?

Martin M
Martin M
11 days ago
Reply to  El Uro

“…egoism that is always inherent in women.” Men, by contrast, are devoid of ego.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago

Exactly. Her fans chose all the demographics incuding the young royals.

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago

They were teenage girls a decade ago, but they’re twenty-somethings now.

Bret Larson
Bret Larson
15 days ago

Childless cat people need to understand the constraints. If they want to eat past a certain point they need to support society having children. It’s not rocket science. And yes Swift, as far as I know, is a childless cat person.

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  Bret Larson

I suppose they could eat the cats like the immigrants apparently do.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
15 days ago
Reply to  Martin M

Exactly, cats are just a clump of cells anyway, just like 34 week old “foetuses”.

Duane M
Duane M
15 days ago
Reply to  Bret Larson

“If they want to eat past a certain point they need to support society having children.”

Right. Because…childless cat people eat children?

Bret Larson
Bret Larson
15 days ago
Reply to  Duane M

Precluding habitat is the same thing as eating them so you do have a point.

Micael Gustavsson
Micael Gustavsson
14 days ago
Reply to  Bret Larson

Yes, that was what she said.

Christopher Barclay
Christopher Barclay
15 days ago

The weirdest thing is Guardian journalists thinking hugging someone means endorsing all of their political opinions.

Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
15 days ago

It’s called being ‘shallow, divisive & tribal’. All good reasons not to subscribe to The Guardian.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
14 days ago

Yes – but then Guardian journalists think a man can become a woman and that you can have anything you want if the government prints enough pound notes to pay for it.

Andrew R
Andrew R
15 days ago

When will Taylor create her “Rust Belt” album?

Tyler Durden
Tyler Durden
15 days ago

Vance set up the lines for next-wave conservative vs liberal cultural contestation but Trump is of the wrong generation to grasp it:
Republican female voters tend to be older and Christian, frequently home-makers or retired one. The cultural opposition are female college graduates who put off marriage and family, sometimes perpetually; since this groups also push the woke values in education and corporations, they are the beating heart of the modern Democratic Party.
Miss Swift is an icon of the female Democrat voter favouring the late-term abortion: 34, childless and unmarried, trumpetting modern US corporate and progressive values.

El Uro
El Uro
15 days ago
Reply to  Tyler Durden

Miss Swift is an icon of the female Democrat voter favouring the late-term abortion: 34, childless and unmarried, trumpetting modern US corporate and progressive values.
.
Excellent. You have listed everything a nation needs to commit suicide.

Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
15 days ago

The author ends with, “Popstars have learned the power of the big tent”.!?! Not if Swift declared her allegiance to a particular candidate. This essay is inconsistent to say the least.

El Uro
El Uro
15 days ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

John & Yoko waiting for the maid to make the bed so they can continue protesting against the system, 1969
.
https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/9kyoyo/john_yoko_waiting_for_the_maid_to_make_the_bed_so/

Brett H
Brett H
16 days ago

The “power” of her politics. What exactly is this “power”? This:
”When she shared a link to a voter registration site in 2023, there were 35,252 new registrations that day; notably, this included a 115% increase in 18-year-olds, who are more likely to vote Democrat.”

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
16 days ago

Good luck with the Taylor Swift fantasy.

Brett H
Brett H
16 days ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

This is the level of political discussion today.

Caradog Wiliams
Caradog Wiliams
15 days ago
Reply to  Brett H

Yes, and you have had to point it out to everyone. As I argue in another string, we now have two worlds, the Real World and the Dream World and, as you say, politics seems to be moving towards the latter. It is all about responsibility and trying to evade it.

Edward McPhee
Edward McPhee
15 days ago

Test comment

Chris Whybrow
Chris Whybrow
15 days ago
Reply to  Edward McPhee

Was the test successful?

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  Chris Whybrow

It convinced me!

David Lindsay
David Lindsay
15 days ago

Find me a person of voting age whose mind has been made up by Taylor Swift. Come on. Produce this creature.

Thanks to Donald Trump, I now yearn to travel to Guangdong, Canton as was, and sample the very high end dragon-tiger-phoenix soup, which is in fact made with snake, cat and chicken.

Ralph Hanke
Ralph Hanke
15 days ago

“Maybe it’s time to stop putting people into baskets.”

Yes. Please!!

Maria Borisof
Maria Borisof
15 days ago

Swift has shown time and again that she makes the wrong choice when it comes to relationships and that she never learns. Announcement of the next breakup is expected to arrive before the end of this month. Why should people trust her opinion about Kamala then?

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  Maria Borisof

Taylor Swift doesn’t make the “wrong choice” when it comes to relationships. She has relationships, breaks up, writes songs about the breakup, and makes billions.

Bryan Dale
Bryan Dale
15 days ago

If Harris wins, Swift had better keep a close eye on her cats.

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
15 days ago
Reply to  Bryan Dale

So good you had to say it twice?
Nope.

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  Bryan Dale

That was worth saying twice.

Bryan Dale
Bryan Dale
15 days ago

If Harris wins, Swift had better keep a close eye on her cats. The Haitians might eat them.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  Bryan Dale

Why did you choose to subscribe to unherd, for god’s sake.

El Uro
El Uro
14 days ago
Reply to  Clare Knight

Micro-aggression? Feel unsafe? My condolences…

Rob N
Rob N
13 days ago
Reply to  Bryan Dale

And if Swift has kids she will need to be very careful or Harris, and her ilk, will kidnap and mutilate them when they are struggling with their sexuality or growing up.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
15 days ago

when the article begins by taking the Vance comment grossly out of context, there is little point in reading the rest of the article, so apologies if I miss something. Swift and Dems in general do not care about alienating Repubs. She’s not Michael Jordan, who realized that people of ALL political strips buy sneakers. She’s simply the celebrity version of what leftist politics has become – an endless parade of scapegoating the other side in rather grotesque terms.
From bitter clingers to deplorables to the dregs of society, THAT is how Dems view half the country. These are the same people who cheered as people lost their jobs for refusing to take those horrid jabs whose legacy will continue creating health issues for years. If people truly want to experience a Harris administration that will take the existing issues that are plainly evident and magnify them, then I truly they get everything they asked for.

Micael Gustavsson
Micael Gustavsson
14 days ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

“No wonder they cling to their guns and Bibles” said Obama with, admittedly patronizing, empathy.

Raul Duke
Raul Duke
15 days ago

If karma is a real thing then one would think Taylor would be among the first to have a billion or two in “unrealized gains,” confiscated by her government.

Jae
Jae
15 days ago

I don’t really care what the topic of the article is, I have a burning question.

When is Unherd going to fix their crappy comments section!??? It’s the worst, most clunky, user unfriendly comments section I’ve ever used. Even hitting Like is annoying as it doesn’t respond. I did reach out and they told me they’re working on it but they verify you every time for “Security” purposes. Are others experiencing this?

Please do something Unherd!!

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  Jae

I tried to hit Like, but it didn’t respond.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
15 days ago

How very brave of a now billlionaire entertainer to put her future earnings on the line by alienating the people who spend their hard earned money on her product. Perhaps when those deplorables see their taxes skyrocket, their streets become more dangerous after dark and the cost of basic necessities rise, they might reconsider and vote for sanity vs. the single issue of killing their unborn children.

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

I don’t think Ms Swift is going to have any trouble paying her rent in future, no matter what she does.

El Uro
El Uro
15 days ago

I’ll be honest. This article left a depressing impression on me.
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CXj0AGuh4c

Bret Larson
Bret Larson
15 days ago

On a side note, a stat I would like to see is the CO2 per childless cat person. Come to think of it, maybe a different accounting of climate change is in order. CO2 per child.

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  Bret Larson

That is a good point. I myself have no children, but drive a V8 car, and take four overseas holidays a year. The Green Left never thank me for pointing out that their children mean that their CO2 emissions are far higher than mine.

Bret Larson
Bret Larson
14 days ago
Reply to  Martin M

Yours would be infinite though.

Martin M
Martin M
11 days ago
Reply to  Bret Larson

I used to have a t-shirt that said “My carbon footprint is bigger than yours”. It proved to be surprisingly controversial….

jan dykema
jan dykema
15 days ago

childless by choice dog lady voting for Trump

Bret Larson
Bret Larson
14 days ago
Reply to  jan dykema

Big dogs or small dogs?

Saul D
Saul D
15 days ago

I’m actually surprised at how testily the description ‘childless cat lady’ has been taken. I thought it was a pretty mild, throw-away line, particularly as I’ve known women describe themselves as ‘cat ladies’ in a very self-deprecating way. But it’s like it hit a nerve among a particular cohort of women. Understanding why would be more interesting…

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
15 days ago
Reply to  Saul D

Comical misunderstanding of what is going on here! JD Vance couldn’t hit a nerve if his life depended on it – he is being mocked for his inanity. Entirely appropriate that he said it to Tucker Carlson.
The only ones testy about it are Vance and the sinking campaign that he is part of!

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  Saul D

Could it be because describing oneself as a “cat lady” is a world away from being described as one by an unpleasant, entitled right-winger with a stupid beard?

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  Saul D

Everyone knew what JDVance really meant.

David L
David L
15 days ago

Swift is the perfect icon for far too many ypung western women these days. Shallow, materialistic, arrogant, and as dumb as a second coat of paint.

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
15 days ago
Reply to  David L

“Swift is the perfect icon for far too many ypung western women these days”
The unintentional irony is absolutely delicious! How long til David the dumbo tries to fix this? I really doubt that Swift or her fans care much about what grumpy old fools like him think of them!

Roberta P
Roberta P
15 days ago

But she’s not. The term obviously refers to those beyond child bearing age, usually single – it’s an insult to people who NEVER had children, not to women who own a certain pet! Elon Musk’s reply, though disgusting and rude, points that out. Taylor Swift is still fertile. She’s in a high profile relationship. She may yet have children. She can post whatever she wants but the attempt to critique and criticise JD Vance’s point was ineffective and falls flat. One could say, impotent.

Peter Lee
Peter Lee
14 days ago

70 years on, I would have thought we would a almost complete understanding of CO2 and climate change by now, how it works to effect climate change. The sad thing is that we are no further ahead than when it was first posited. This makes me doubt whether man-made climate change really exists at all.

Bret Larson
Bret Larson
14 days ago
Reply to  Peter Lee

The technical details are accurate. But the expected affects 40 years from now is in question. A warming world may provide more benefit than expected. Really just being used to buy votes in metro jurisdictions where they are not cognizant of their foot print and don’t think their standard of living is based on resources.

Mark Royster
Mark Royster
13 days ago

Let the disease run its course. The survivors will be stronger. The future belongs to those who will be there for it, i.e. the fertile and the strong. TS is a vapor.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
15 days ago

There is a difference though.
The people referred to as “deplorable” in 2016, are the class of people who built America and it’s industry, fought WW2….

“Childless cat lady” on the other hand, is a term that’s staggeringly accurate, and the key thing here is not the lack of children – it’s the implied lack of any responsibility or hardship in their lives. Soft, easy degrees, soft jobs, never take financial responsibility for a family or kids, life has always been on “easy” mode.

And that’s what this article also misses – their idols and leaders are a perfect reflection of themselves. A presidential candidate who, well, we know how she got her “start”, got VP despite crashing and burning at the debates, candidate despite a horrible track record as VP in every way – even the debate was on “easy” for her as well saw.

And that’s why Swift is the perfect icon for their class, whether she comes out openly or not. Average singer whose repertoire of songs is based on string of bad relationship choices, never had to struggle or do anything worthwhile, who else really?

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

Excellent points relating to Kamala Harris. By contrast, Donald Trump was an orphan tyke who struggled his way up from the streets, often with an empty belly, armed only with his good humour, modesty and kindness.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
15 days ago
Reply to  Martin M

Trump, for all his obvious and admittedly major flaws, isn’t a lifelong DEI appointee like Kamala.

And the implied suggestion that Trump got everything on a plate….that’s a big problem of having a large class of “Swiftie progressive” people who have never run a business, never taken any responsibility, never taken any risks or did anything worthwhile….. no clue, no insight into the life and struggles of someone in the real world, whether Donald Trump or a small store owner or cab driver.

Duane M
Duane M
15 days ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

Right, Trump is not at all a DEI appointee, because that could never happen to an Anglo-Saxon male. Trump is simply the favored son of a wealthy, grasping real estate baron and would have trouble finding the milk and eggs in an ordinary grocery.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
15 days ago
Reply to  Duane M

Is that how he managed to build a multi-billion dollar empire, by lacking the ability to find grocery items? Yes, Trump’s father did well. The son then took the business to another level. Swift, meanwhile, was not exactly a child of poverty.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

Swift got wealthy by being artistic and bringing pleasure to millions of people all over the world. She’s well-liked, doesn’t flaunt her wealth and is kind to others. No one can really find fault with her as hard as they may try. The same can not be said of Trump.

Jae
Jae
15 days ago
Reply to  Duane M

You sound like most Trump haters, never bother to properly research your biases, simply spew the left wing rhetoric you’re fed.

That’s how left wing people vote, and why we’re in the black hole we’re in, explains a lot.

El Uro
El Uro
15 days ago
Reply to  Duane M

When he was shot, he shouted “Fight, fight, fight”.
Can you or any of your male friends do that?

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  El Uro

Do what? Shout “fight, fight”?

El Uro
El Uro
14 days ago
Reply to  Clare Knight

Cheap argument

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
15 days ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

When had Donal Trump ever struggled?

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
15 days ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

Read the 40 years of news reports: plenty. Look at the struggle of being vilified and slandered and dépersonnalisation he has been targeted with for over 8 years. And the murder attempt just a few weeks ago. Biden folded like the empty suit he is after 1 bad debate. Kamala literally cut and pastes “her” policies from the Biden website. Trump, imperfections acknowledged, has done more responsible things throughout his life than any other figure in public life. And his interviews from the 1980s and 90s are remarkably consistent with his statements today. Neither Biden or Kamaala can honestly say that.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

Exactly. Or suffered?

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

I have read a few books about him, and I suspect that growing up in Fred Trump’s household wouldn’t have been a bed of roses.

Micael Gustavsson
Micael Gustavsson
14 days ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

Non-whites are not by necessity DEI appointees. Or do you think every non-white person is so stupid and untalented that they only can get jobs through DEI?

Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
12 days ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

Unfortunately the modern “real world” doesn’t just consist of taxi drivers and small business owners, much as I admire them

El Uro
El Uro
15 days ago
Reply to  Martin M

Try better next time

Jae
Jae
15 days ago
Reply to  Martin M

Trump’s never professed to being anything but a rich kid. Regardless of his wealth he’s a hard worker, built an empire and became US president against all the odds stacked against him. He’s also a generous giver, many people have stories to tell of his kindness. Survived a bullet to the head, too. You wouldn’t know that though, probably never bother to find out either.

Tell me, how does that compare with Harris?

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
15 days ago
Reply to  Jae

Trump was given a million dollars from his dad. Harris on the other hand held public office for over 20 years, chosen by voters for each of her jobs.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  Jae

It’s not exactly hard work to become a billionaire. Hard work is done by the people who physically built Trump Tower.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
13 days ago
Reply to  Clare Knight

And he didn’t pay them—plumbers, electricians, tile workers—all small businesses.

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago
Reply to  Jae

I can’t work out whether you are being serious or not.

Konstantinos Stavropoulos
Konstantinos Stavropoulos
15 days ago
Reply to  Martin M

Cheer up Martin..!

Martin M
Martin M
15 days ago

I am having a great time! I am after all childless (although unfortunately some immigrants ate my cat)!

laurence scaduto
laurence scaduto
15 days ago
Reply to  Martin M

Interesting story about Trump:
Years ago I was in construction; mostly renovations, sometimes in rental apartments. I worked a few times for tenants of Trump owned buildings. They all said that the buildings were very well run, the staff was friendly and helpful, and they didn’t mind at all that he was on the cover of the Post every other day. A good landlord was hard to find in Brooklyn.

Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
12 days ago
Reply to  Martin M

I think the only response to that is “Lol”!! Good to have a chuckle!

Adam P
Adam P
15 days ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

I like Taylor Swift, I dont care about her politics and I agree with JD Vance that a whole generation of people who dont want kids but who are shouting about the future are an inherent paradox. The phrase caused a massive fuss not because of its condescension to the working classes who built America, its industry and fought its wars (as you’re right to point out), its because it exposes a deeply jarring psychological flaw in screaming about climate change but not caring enough about the future to actually have children. Its because it smacks so hard that the Dems have tried to weaponise it.

Brett H
Brett H
15 days ago
Reply to  Adam P

I agree with you, though not having children and caring about climate change could suggest caring about the children of others.

Adam P
Adam P
15 days ago
Reply to  Brett H

Well obviously but that doesnt feel very coherent or thoughtful does it? Breaking it down makes it sound absurd. ‘I care so much about the future of humanity that i am a social justice and eco warrior yet the future of humanity is not important enough for me to invest in it personally’. You can posit what you did but having thought about that, I ended up saying to myself ‘no, JD Vance is spot on’.

Brett H
Brett H
15 days ago
Reply to  Adam P

Seems fairly coherent to me. I don’t support climate change, but because someone doesn’t have children doesn’t mean they have no concern for the children of others. The way you break it down is absurd.

David Kingsworthy
David Kingsworthy
15 days ago
Reply to  Brett H

I used to be a bit of a tree hugger, I definitely felt that having children was morally wrong, the moral offense being proportional to the number of children one produced. I think it’s unlikely that many of the current eco-warriors are motivated to act on behalf of children.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  Brett H

Exactly. Completely illogical.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  Adam P

I don’t think you thought it through. People don’t have children as a civic duty they have them because they want them, because they think it will bring them happiness they don’t have without them. that the children will give them the love they never had. They don’t care what kind of a world they’re bringing the children into. It’s a selfish act, not an unselfish one.

Brett H
Brett H
14 days ago
Reply to  Clare Knight

“they think it will bring them happiness they don’t have without them. that the children will give them the love they never had.”
You’re right about people not having children as a civic duty, but the rest, just doesn’t make sense. I don’t know how you’ve come to this conclusion. So all parents (a huge number of people) were never loved and yet they’re able to give love to their children and the children of others.

Adam P
Adam P
14 days ago
Reply to  Clare Knight

I have thought it through because unlike you and Brett here, i am a parent and understand what it means to be a parent and why i became one, what it means to me and how it frames the way i look at the future. For example, being parent makes you naturally more conservative because how do you nurture a child to succeed and be happy in the complex structures and institutions of the modern world if we are tearing them down and reforming them? Your instinct, like the instinct in your genes to proliferate, is to conserve a known model within broad parameters so that you can guide them towards a future with some certainty in it.
You can logically posit that caring about the environment is an altruistic concern for the welfare of the offspring of others. There is nothing illogical about that in principle. There is also absolutely no evidence that the young have ever been motivated in such a way ever in the history of humanity. Old philantrophists, with a view on their death bed maybe. No, the most plausible hypothesis is virtue signalling incoherence.

Brett H
Brett H
14 days ago
Reply to  Adam P

I don’t know why you assume I’m not a parent.

Adam P
Adam P
13 days ago
Reply to  Brett H

My apologies, there was no need for me to say that.

Duane M
Duane M
15 days ago
Reply to  Brett H

Yes, the absence of children is not absence of caring. And there are a whole lot of reasons that young adults are having fewer children in America (and elsewhere). It’s complicated; there’s no simple answer.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
14 days ago
Reply to  Duane M

The principal reason is that feminism has removed any incentive for attractive men to be monogamous and women don’t want the relatively unattractive ones. Single parenthood is the only option that remains. And most middle class women don’t want that either.

El Uro
El Uro
15 days ago
Reply to  Brett H

Are you saying that other people’s children should take care of these childless, selfish women when they become evil old women?

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  El Uro

Really? Did you really write that? Don’t you realize what it says about you?

El Uro
El Uro
14 days ago
Reply to  Clare Knight

Yes, I do. I’m not sure you do. Childlessness never makes a woman smarter or wiser.

Micael Gustavsson
Micael Gustavsson
14 days ago
Reply to  El Uro

Tell that to Hildegard of Bingen or Theresa of Avila.

El Uro
El Uro
13 days ago

I can say this to anyone because I said “smarter” instead of “smart”, “wiser” instead of “wise”.
.
Please read the comments more carefully next time.

Brett H
Brett H
14 days ago
Reply to  El Uro

What hasn’t been made clear about the falling rate of children, the women not having them, is whether it might also be the men that don’t want children. In that case it’s over for the women.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
14 days ago
Reply to  Brett H

“it might also be the men that don’t want children. ”
Very likely. With the way divorce and child custody works….

Micael Gustavsson
Micael Gustavsson
14 days ago
Reply to  El Uro

What about childless selfish men? Or nuns?

El Uro
El Uro
13 days ago

Childless selfish men never were a problem because males are always in excess

Micael Gustavsson
Micael Gustavsson
19 hours ago
Reply to  El Uro

Still no answer about nuns.

Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
15 days ago
Reply to  Brett H

That said, the only childless cat lady I know, votes Democrat and is a single issue voter – her Social Security check.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

You mean you only know one and you’re basing your judgment on that?

Jae
Jae
15 days ago
Reply to  Brett H

Please explain how?

Brett H
Brett H
14 days ago
Reply to  Jae

How what?

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
15 days ago
Reply to  Brett H

“Caring about climate change” is like csring about tea laves or entrails.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  Brett H

It is possible to care about climate change and not be selfish enough to have children, since we are already overpopulated which is the cause of climate change in the first place.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
14 days ago
Reply to  Clare Knight

By what measure are we ‘overpopulated’? The vast, vast majority of the 9 billion people alive today are better fed and housed and in better health than most of the 1 billion people alive a century ago.

Douglas Redmayne
Douglas Redmayne
15 days ago
Reply to  Adam P

Having children will make climate change worse. There is no contradiction.

Jim Veenbaas
Jim Veenbaas
15 days ago

This is silly and unserious. Children do not contribute to climate change. CO2 does. Furthermore, we have unlimited, emission free energy at our fingertips, yet those same people telling you to feel scared about the future are unwilling to support nuclear energy. And on top of that, people like Taylor Swift create more emissions than an army of her fans.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  Jim Veenbaas

Children are people. In order to feed the world’s 9 billion people we need food and energy. In the process of providing that CO2 is created.

El Uro
El Uro
14 days ago
Reply to  Clare Knight

If you care so much about Global Warming, why haven’t you committed suicide or moved to Africa and started living like they do there? You know, I’m always amazed by such extreme hypocrisy. “Change your life” for others, I’m the other deal. Greta Thunberg spent more CO2 in her 21 years than few ordinary people during their whole lives. Do you know how much it cost to ship her from Europe to America on a carbon fiber yacht with an escort vessel? The yacht was build especially for her

Lancashire Lad
Lancashire Lad
15 days ago

What utter nonsense. Not having children in the ‘first world’ will simply cede the planet to those countries with fewer scruples about the environment.

I’m far from being an eco-warrior, but believe intelligent solutions are required, not withdrawal from the fray by selfish adults.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  Lancashire Lad

Your definition of selfish is absurd.

Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
15 days ago

That’s just so cynical. We need new generations to become educated enough to solve the world’s problems.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
15 days ago

D.R. One of the most unhinged comments yet.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

No it’s not.

Jae
Jae
15 days ago

We have population collapse. How is it that you don’t know this?

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago

Exactly.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
14 days ago

Worse in what way? You can just as easily argue that a warmer climate will be beneficial. Climate change as a catastrophe is a political narrative promoted by people who want more elite control. It has little to do with what’s good for the rest of us.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
15 days ago
Reply to  Adam P

Oh please, the phrase wasn’t even about the voters, it was about Trump’s team and personal handlers, people like Stephen Miller

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
15 days ago
Reply to  Adam P

There will be enough women giving birth to children they don’t want, because they can’t get an abortion, to satisfy you, old chap.