Is The Taylor Swifte Endorsement of Kamala Harris the Cultural Zenath for the 2024 Election?

 

With the 2024 Election Campaign coming at us like an astroid, the endorsement of Kamala Harris for president the night of the Trump - Harris debate has sparked the question of how much impact such an endorsement can have on a national campaign. 

We know per recent polling that the race is very tight.  We know that Swife has a whole army of fans out there. Not all are voting age, but even those who are not, in most cases have parents that have likely shelled out money for Taylor Swift tickets of merchandise and I think even these young swifties can play an influential role getting parents on board. 

Is there another celebrity that could offer as much star power out there?  What would it take for Trump to find a counter to Swift? Does it even make a difference. 

There are plenty of other  cultural influencers out there that have heave lesser fanfair to offer but still bring some unique quark to the campaign.  This election is unlike any I have ever witnessed. 

Recently Liz Cheney and her father the former Vice President, both Republicans icons historically, have announced that for the sake of the country, they will not support the Republican nominee but instead, vote for Kamala Harris. The day I saw this, I though hell had frozen over. Then on Friday, famous conservative columnist, baseball enthusiasts and author George Will did the same.  Again, it was a nod to the importance of saving our democracy from Trump as opposed to any more ideological position on issues.

If this election campaign is unorthodox for any reason, it is because the threat of our democratic republic is in so many people's view trumping other issues. No pun intended. 

How Much Difference If Any Will Taylor Swift Make?

Swift commands a significant following - as of Aug 7, 2024 — Taylor Swift – 550.5 million followers on all her social media platforms. Reuters reports that Taylor Swift's Harris endorsement drew 9 million 'likes.' 

The thing about Swift is she has a very positive image. Further, those that don't care for her are often a result of cultural issues they disagree with her on, and the general feeling she represents an opposition to Trump so they automatically don't care for her. 

The latter fact probably means that she is not going to likely caust Harris votes on these issues because they are already zoned in on those issues and were not going to vote for her anyway.

There is an ongoing number of new 18 year olds every day. This added youth vote offers a whole new pool of voters. They are likely influenced by many things including Taylor Swift. But additionally in the scheme of courtural war issues, they are more likely to lean Harris then Trump.  Harris has been making a plea to young people to register to vote, so that opens  a door to many 18 and older that were not registered. 

We won't likely know till after the election how much Harris may have been helped by this endorsement, and even then, it. will likely be speculative based on the turn out of  young people, even though her fan base is quite expansive in terms of age. I can personally attest to that. 

#culturalwars  #Haeeis. #Trump. #election2024. #TaylorSwift #endorsements

We Must Stop The Genocide Now!

Innocent Civilians -- including women and children are being killed daily.  Stand with Artists 4 Cease Fire 

#Gaza  #StopTheKilling.  #Genocide   #EthnicCleansing 

A Moon by any other name --

Photo by Dominik Fischer on Unsplash 

What poet has not been lured in by the moon? A mystical luminary overhead. 

The moon is known by so many names - New Moon, Full Moon, Crescent Moon, Gibbous Moon, Quarter Moon, Blue Moon, Supermoon, Micromoon, Beaver Moon, Harvest Moon, Hunters Moon, Buck Moon, Pink Moon, Blood Moon, Black Moon, Wolf Moon, and Strawberry Moon, to name a few. There are a number of them that named for various mythological Goddesses of the moon. 

Also there are any number of geographical variation of some of their moon names listed above and many names given in non-english languages.

There, you have a whole host of writing prompts - write a poem using each of these moons in it.

#moonnames  #Moon 

Has A Poem Had Such A Profound Impact on You as to Change Your Life?

 Not everyone is keen on poetry and I realized that almost as far back as I became aware of poetry.  I guess when I first learned of it realizing what it was, I would hear people from time to time dismissing it as boring, or irrelevant, or too hard to understand was maybe the most common. 

Obviously over the years none of this dissuaded me. I crossed over the bridge from being a reader to being a poet as well as a reader myself.  So this weekend I was sitting here with things flowing through my head as the tend to do on weekends, and I wondered how many could say that they have read a poem that truly changed their life.  If that is the case for you, I'd love to hear about it. What the the poem and how did it change your life? 

Since most of my readers are poets themselves, My second question is, have any of you written a poem that changed your life? This could be changing your attitude of life in such a way to modify your life in some way. I suppose it could be a poem you wrote that won a prize and how that might have impacted you. 

Anyway, don't be shy. Le's give it up for poetry-- What's the poem that made a difference to you. Even if it was one of your own poems. 

#poemschangelives #lifechangingpoems #poetry 

We Hold These Truths - That ALL men & women ARE CREATED EQUAL

 

The Fourth of July  is an important part of the heritage and the history of this country.  You may be asking what the difference is.  History is a chronology of something from the past towards the present.  Heritage is altogether different.  Heritage is defined this way:

 1.property that descends to an heir.  My parents were American and by birth I therefore inherit an ownership in American and all it's freedoms and responsibilities. That is my inheritance. 

2. a special or individual possession; an allotted portion. As an immigrant, upon naturalization I may be allotted a portion of those freedoms afforded us under our constitution and laws.   

Yes, I know the 4th is all about fireworks, and BBQ, and apple pie, and beer, and so on.  But I believe it is important to focus on the word FREEDOM, because that is what the colonies were in search of.  Freedom from the King of England.  Freedom of religion, to name perhaps the most significant causes.

After our fight with Great Britton to free us from the British commonwealth, we established a Constitution that  guarenteed we would have self rule. That we would not  be beholden to any King, be it the King of England or one established here in the colonies. 

Further, people were free to worship as they so wished. They were not beholden to the King and the Anglican Church, or any other, Catholic or Protestant rite, or Judaism, or Muslim, or Hindu, or Buddhist church. 

These are founding principles that have guided us for all these hundreds of years.  I think it is important on the things that. have made our Democratic Republic the envy of so many.

We are not by any means perfect. but the phraseology "a more perfect union" underscores what we have been striving for. It has been long and it has not been easy, but we have continued to be committed to this quest that our forefathers started us on.  Our strength is in our diversity. And though we can be many, we can also be one.  

Remember tonight, what an awesome responsibility we have to our nation, to the preservation of a democratic republic, and to be an example to the free world.    

Imagine

Photo by Kristaps Ungurs on Unsplash

Imagination pulls us up, out of our grounded self and allows us to reach the sky.

We breath deep and fill ourselves with the hope and magic of tomorrow. 

It will be different - it will be new & we will be a part of it  

M.A.W.

 

AWP24 - KANSAS CITY CONFERENCE REVIEW -- As I Experienced it

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2024 AWP Conference review

Tie for best thrown together display on Bookfair tables,

Homemade sign for a Lit Journal table that read, “Most of our poets are not dead.”

Another was a table in which the cloth covering was anchored down by two 5 lbs bags of C&H Sugar, primpting me to ask, “Why graze from table to table on the free candy, when you can just infuse 5 lbs of sugar here?”

Other fun stuff- a metal box with window, random word magnets -complete your best poem in 6 to 8 words. They you have them framed in a little framed window box.

Keynote address by poet Jericho Brown was awesome. He was funny, charming, and raged against the danger and stupidity of book banning.

Biggest downfall of conference - no bags at registration, no program books. Signage about the convention center was poor/lacking which was exacerbated by not having the program books this year.

Persons I missed seeing Mary Biddinger, who was in attendance but elusive, Susan Rich, also present but I missed. Kelli Russell Agodon, who cancelled at last minute, Katie Manning, who I missed to see a competing poetry reading and now wish I had gone to the one she was having. Amy Leigh Davis, who I heard was coming but I did not see, and a host of others that I often get to see only at conference.

It was especilly nice run into Erin Schaaf Robertson, another alumnus if the Spring 2017 Writer to Writter Session and catch up on her work.

A mammoth thank you to Peace Keenen for all her work on the Writer 2 Writer Conference reading.

New poet’s work I was introduced to: Elise Paschen. Her words rang with a cadence that not only touches you, but clings with you long afterwords. I hope to see much more of her in the future.

Overall, the conference was positive, though it did feel a lot different than in the past. Maybe some of that was that I was in my home turf. Hard to put my finger on it for sure.

#AWP24. #AWPKC