Prepare For Pop Culture To Shove Cool Kamala Down Your Throat
August 14, 2020 By Emily Jashinsky
It took Debra Messing 18 exclamation points to express her excitement about Kamala Harris. Chrissy Teigen used a comparatively mild two, but the point still stands: an army of celebrities leapt to lend Harris their support this week. Hollywood loves her. (Just like Wall Street!)
The star-studded industry’s embrace of Harris means the Democratic ticket will benefit from extra elite enthusiasm—Biden may not excite liberal celebrities like Barack Obama, but adding Harris as a running mate will amp up Hollywood’s enthusiasm for the ticket. That, in turn, means the Democratic Party’s narrative will be reinforced through the power of celebrity megaphones—on social media feeds, in glossy magazines, during talk show interviews.
In 2020, Hollywood’s moral authority is eroded to the point that celebrity support will backfire with an increasing number of voters. The industry has been tainted by the revelations of Me Too complicity, and suffers more broadly from declining institutional confidence. Liberal Hollywood is a trope, but the populist moment has more and more voters rightfully convinced the powerful industry’s reflexive Democratic politics are a joke, and even evidence of a particular politician’s corruption.
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https://thefederalist.com/2020/08/14/prepare-for-pop-culture-to-shove-cool-kamala-down-your-throat/