Breaking Down Taylor Swift’s First Ever Political Statement

Until recently Taylor Swift has stayed silent on political issues, but because of “several events” in her life and in the world in the last two years, she has broken that silence.

She starts off by describing her decision to finally speak up. One can only wonder about what the events are that she mentioned. But given the time frame (past two years), they may be related to Donald Trump who has been in office for almost two years at the time of her writing.

She states that she has always voted for those who will protect and fight for the human rights she believes we all deserve in this country. So what “human rights” does she believe we all should have? She’ll give us a few hints so let’s keep reading. She then says she believes in the fight for LGBTQ rights. But what could this mean? They have marriage rights across all 50 states and they have the right to serve openly in the military. Those were the big ones they didn’t have just a few years ago. The issues now is whether someone will want to design their wedding cake or whether they can use the bathroom of there choice (I . But surely she doesn’t include the right to a cake among the “human rights” she mentioned earlier? And if so wouldn’t that undermine the human rights of free association and religion, if not an outright violation of property rights? She goes on to say that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is wrong, “WRONG”, rather. But our public institutions do not discriminate on those bases. If she is implying that individuals do then that’s a cultural problem, not a political one. And I’m going to guess that she didn’t mean this literally. Of course *all forms* of discrimination aren’t wrong (discrimination in choosing a sexual partner, for example). She then describes the “systematic racism” that she sees in this country is “terrifying, sickening, and prevalent”. It would have been nice to put this in the context of criminal justice reform, which is much needed. But nothing of the sort is mentioned. And racism in America is an issue that even some black people themselves disagree on.

Taylor Swift goes from abstract ideas to get down to business and begins discussing actual candidates. She gives 4 specific policy reasons for opposing Marsha Blackburn.

1. She voted against equal pay for women
2. She voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act
3. She believes business owners have the right to refuse services to gay couples
4. She’s opposed to gay marriage

She then says the above are not her “Tennessee values”. But what about her Pennsylvania values? Or her Connecticut values? Or her New York values? Or her Massachusetts values? Or her Rhode Island values? Or her California values? Are they consistent with those values? She lives so many places now, where exactly does she get her values from? Are we really to believe that she’s voting based on values she specifically got from Tennessee, or is “Tennessee values” just a meaningless trope? At any rate, let’s take a look at these issues one by one.

Equal Pay for Women

Equal pay for women was codified into law 55 years ago as of the time of this writing. Today the gender pay gap is negligible, as women earn 98 cents for every dollar a man earns when relevant variables are controlled. The inherent risk of hiring a woman of child-bearing age and their general hesitation to ask for raises as aggressively as men could be a big part of the remaining 2% of the gap. It’s also may be worth mentioning that for those in their 20s and 30s, the pay gap is actually the other way around. At any rate, the idea that any two groups would or should have the exact same pay has always been puzzling to me.

Reauthorization of Violence Against Women Act

Taylor Swift described the bill as one that “attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape”. All of which is already illegal. A bill that “attempts” to protect people from things which are already illegal is probably useless at best, and harmful at worst, but given the $630 million dollar price tag and Taylor’s own admission that it merely “attempts” to protect women, we can probably assume the latter. Any conservative (the dominant political demographic in Tennessee) would expect their representative to vote against such bills.

Right to Refuse Service to Gay Couples

This topic was covered earlier, but let’s clarify what the issue here is. It’s one thing to refuse service to someone because they are gay, it’s another thing to respectfully refuse to be a part of things that you don’t believe in. It’s a distinction that isn’t made by Taylor Swift and those that believe like her. I personally would not withhold my services from being a part of a gay wedding, but as someone who has been forced to violate their conscience at a previous job, I know firsthand what that can be like. It’s not fun and it’s not necessary. While Swift encourages us to “vote our values” we should consider the values of others. The issue here has never been that gay couples can’t get wedding cakes, it’s always been about making “bigots” (a term that, imo, more appropriately describes those wanting to force Christian bakers to partake in gay weddings) conform. This is wrong. And certainly not the job of the federal government. And let’s be clear about what “vote your values” means. Voting is not a poll on values. It’s electing people that will have an immense power over us. My values are probably way different than your values and that of my neighbor, even more so compared to the person across the country. “Voting your values” is a nice way of saying “forcing your values on others”.

Opposition to Gay Marriage

Gay marriage rights gets a lot of support around the country, most people would side with Taylor Swift, but since it was decided by the SCOTUS, it’s unlikely to change even if there were 100 Marsh Blackburn’s in the Senate.

I don’t want to say this issue is unimportant, but at a time when we are incarcerating more people than any other country in the world, and are killing droves of innocent people around the world, it certainly pales in comparison.

As a life-long Taylor Swift fan, I was very disappointed in her statements. I always supported her decision to stay out of politics as it is a polarizing subject. If she were to break her silence I would have hoped for a more unique rant. She could have made big waves by coming out against the U.S. backed Saudi war on Yemen that has caused tens of thousands of children to die. There are serious issues like this that don’t get enough attention that she could have brought up. She could have stood out by endorsing an Independent candidate that offered different views that could radically change the status quo for the better. But instead she said the same things that 99% of vocal Hollywood elites say and gained her the label of NPC among many.