No wonder GOP lost it: Taylor Swift registered 65,000 voters in 1 day

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10-09-2018, 09:21 PM
FORD

No wonder GOP lost it: Taylor Swift registered 65,000 voters in 1 day

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No wonder GOP lost it: Taylor Swift registered 65,000 voters in 1 day
Eric Boehlert
10-09-18

The pop star ended her silence on politics — and Republicans completely melted down.

Fans are heeding pop star Taylor Swift’s political call to action for November.

Following an impassioned Instagram post to her army of fans on Sunday night, where she stressed the need for equality, and urged fans to vote Democratic and register to vote, 65,000 people did just that in a 24-hour period.

The eruption of activism will likely only further enrage conservatives who lashed out at Swift after she posted her first-ever political message. There, she specifically condemned the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Taylor’s home state of Tennessee.

“I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love,” Swift stressed in her social media post.

After imploring fans to “go to vote.org,” the site landed 155,000 unique visitors in a 24-hour period, up from its normal daily traffic of 14,000. Of those visitors, 65,000 registered to vote.

That one-day total is more than the site registered for the entire month of August.

The conservative media movement is still aching from the development.

Turning Point USA Executive Director Charlie Kirk seemed to be especially crushed by Swift’s endorsement, taking to Twitter for an extended public meltdown on the subject, claiming the global superstar had “no idea” of what she was talking about.

He then continued his whining on Fox News and Fox Business, where he bitterly denounced the singer as a know-nothing charlatan.

For some strange reason, white nationalists had convinced themselves Swift was secretly one of them.

“Users on 4chan, the online message board popular with the white supremacists and white nationalists who make up the alt-right, had long used Swift’s silence about politics to push a baseless theory that she was secretly a white supremacist, hailing the blond-haired, blue-eyed pop star as ‘the Aryan princess,'” Business Insider notes.

The National Republican Senate committee also felt the wound acutely, and lashed out on Twitter.

Quote:

NRSC press release: "If you haven’t heard, multimillionaire pop star Taylor Swift came down from her ivory tower to tell hardworking Tennesseans to vote for Phil Bredesen."

— Sam Stein (@samstein) October 8, 2018

The Taylor-led voter surge is playing out as signs multiply that Republicans are facing a very bad November, especially in the House.

“The Republican House majority continues to show signs of collapsing, with Democrats steadily gaining ground toward erasing the 23-seat margin and ending eight years of GOP control,” Politico reports.

Taylor’s move also comes as rapper Kanye West is expected to visit the White House this week. An unlikely Trump supporter, West has bewildered the hip-hop community with his vocal support of the Republican.

But unlike Swift, West doesn’t seem to be leading any sort of organized, grassroots campaign to get followers involved in the electoral process.
10-09-2018, 11:50 PM
FORD

Taylor Swift's political advice isn't all that great either. While the Republican candidate for Senate in TN, Marsha Blackburn is truly horrible, her so-called "Democratic" opponent Bredesen is another weak assed DINO who said just last week that he would have voted FOR Rapey Brett's confirmation if he had been in the Senate.

Not sure why Taylor (the kid of a Wall Street stockbroker) feels she has to live in Nashville now that she's no longer pretending to be a country singer. Perhaps if she wants to support Democrats she might consider moving to a state where there is actually one on the ballot?
10-10-2018, 12:46 AM
twonabomber

It was also the last day to register in a lot of states. Could just be a coincidence.
10-10-2018, 09:52 AM
ZahZoo

It will be interesting to see what the actual voter turn-out is on election day... typically mid-term elections tend to have fairly low voter turn-out.

It's one thing for Swift to send a tweet with a link to a voter registration website... thousands of minions click/tap the link and register. Now how many of those folks will take time off work, go stand in line and cast a vote on November 6th..?

You can't vote from the comfort of wherever your ass is planted on a smartphone... it's an inconvenience, held at a boring place, no party, no cool kids having a good time... Almost as exciting as going to the DMV to renew your drivers licence or paying your taxes in person. Most folks will avoid it unless there's no alternative, convenient choice.
10-10-2018, 11:09 AM
private parts

Quote:

Originally Posted by FORD

Not sure why Taylor (the kid of a Wall Street stockbroker) feels she has to live in Nashville now that she's no longer pretending to be a country singer. Perhaps if she wants to support Democrats she might consider moving to a state where there is actually one on the ballot?

Nashville is now All Music City. If you are a musician, you move to Nashville. Justin Timberlake, Kid Rock, Vince Neil, Mick Mars,
Brad Whitford, Sheryl Crowe, Jack White, Ed Sheeran, and others have recently moved to Nash-vegas. But I would agree- she needs to leave the state and take Justin with her.
10-10-2018, 10:26 PM
Seshmeister

Quote:

Originally Posted by twonabomber

It was also the last day to register in a lot of states. Could just be a coincidence.

So weird how difficult it is made to vote in the US compared to the rest of us...could that just be a coincidence?

In almost every other democratic country in the world you are automatically registered to vote because the system of government is a democracy which means you want people to vote...
10-10-2018, 11:45 PM
FORD

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZahZoo

You can't vote from the comfort of wherever your ass is planted on a smartphone...

Sure I can. This is entirely a vote-by-mail state now. Don't vote with a smartphone (nor would I want to) but I can do sitting comfortably on a couch while watching a Dawgs game. Or the Seahawks, if they aren't playing horribly that day. :gulp:

I was actually voting from home long before it became the default up here in Cascadia. Registered for "permanent absentee ballot" status way back in 1990, since I was moving so often at the time that I couldn't keep up with where the Hell I was supposed to go to vote. Ironically, I have now lived at the same address for almost 20 years and could easily walk 2 blocks to the local elementary school to vote.... but now everybody gets their ballot in the mail just like I do.
10-11-2018, 08:22 AM
ZahZoo

Absentee ballots have been around forever... how many Taylor Swift fans have a clue on how the postal system works..?
10-11-2018, 08:51 AM
twonabomber

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seshmeister

So weird how difficult it is made to vote in the US compared to the rest of us...could that just be a coincidence?

In almost every other democratic country in the world you are automatically registered to vote because the system of government is a democracy which means you want people to vote...

I don't think it's that difficult. Not sure what other states do, but here, one can register at the BMV when they get their driver's license. The registration form can be downloaded and dropped off at a high school, library, BMV, or the county BOE and treasurer's offices.

Registering to vote and having a valid driver's license puts one on the list of potential jury members, and there are some that won't register to vote because of that.
10-11-2018, 08:56 AM
Seshmeister

What if you don't drive?
10-11-2018, 11:49 AM
private parts

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seshmeister

So weird how difficult it is made to vote in the US compared to the rest of us...could that just be a coincidence?

In almost every other democratic country in the world you are automatically registered to vote because the system of government is a democracy which means you want people to vote...

It ain't difficult! You would think someone might want to put in a little effort with something as important as the right to vote and have some say in how your life is governed.
What does it take to be "automatically registered to vote" in your country?
10-11-2018, 11:59 AM
Seshmeister

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank...ped-countries/

U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout

MAY 21, 2018
BY DREW DESILVER

Nearly 56% of the U.S. voting-age population cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election, representing a slight uptick compared with 2012 but less than in the record year of 2008. While most Americans – 70% in a recent Pew Research Center survey – say high turnout in presidential elections is very important, what constitutes “high turnout” depends very much on which country you’re looking at and which measuring stick you use.

...

The 55.7% VAP turnout in 2016 puts the U.S. behind most of its peers in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), most of whose members are highly developed, democratic states. Looking at the most recent nationwide election in each OECD nation, the U.S. placed 26th out of 32 (current VAP estimates weren’t available for three countries).

http://assets.pewresearch.org/charts...7701083243.png

The highest turnout rates among OECD nations were in Belgium (87.2%), Sweden (82.6%) and Denmark (80.3%). Switzerland consistently has the lowest turnout in the OECD: In 2015, less than 39% of the Swiss voting-age population cast ballots for the federal legislature.

One factor behind Belgium’s high turnout rates – between 83% and 95% of VAP in every election for the past four decades – may be that it is one of the 24 nations around the world (and six in the OECD) with some form of compulsory voting, according to IDEA. (One canton in Switzerland, also an OECD member nation, has compulsory voting.)
10-11-2018, 04:09 PM
twonabomber

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seshmeister

What if you don't drive?

There's plenty of unlicensed drivers, too.