Taylor Swift: A sweet story of love and football? Or a plot against democracy? | Anderson

During semester, my Sunday afternoons consist primarily of tuning up “Canvas,” and grading, with the occasional ride for a break in the action.

I haven’t watched football in more than five years. I saw that awful movie about concussions on a plane ride once and decided to cut it out of my system. But I watched last Sunday – absolutely. And we all know why.

I lived in the Kansas City area (a lovely, enchanting zone in many other ways, I’ll attest) in the midst of the longest drought in Chiefs history. They’d managed to stay out of the serious end of the playoffs entirely from 1993 to 2018. Coming back was a little weird, but it wasn’t about the football, anyway. The game was almost irrelevant. It because of Taylor Swift.

Swift is not usually on my playlist, but she’s on the playlist of an awful lot of folks I know – primarily young, but she’s captured some older hearts, too. She hits the sweet spot of heartache and redemption in a way that drills into you. She’d had plenty, I guess, and a lot of other folks had, too. Her songs just hit ‘em.

Appealing to unreason: Donald Trump's lawyers argue he can't be prosecuted? | Anderson

She’s also one of the hardest working musicians out there: her Eras tour did 145-plus shows from March until November. She’s not only massively popular, she’s a nice person, too. She gives big bonuses to her workers. She contributes to food pantries.

And she’s in love. With a football player. Which means she goes to his games, hangs out with his family and cheers on the team in their apparently unstoppable drive to yet another Super Bowl.

So how is it that this harmless sidenote is “political” news?

Taylor Swift also registers voters. Young voters. New voters. Billboard reported that a single Swift Instagram post urging registration caused a surge of 35,000 new voter signups on Vote.Org.

“I’ve heard you raise your voices, and I know how powerful they are…” she wrote.

And the nervous nellies of the GOP suspect these voters might not be Republicans. Though Swift’s voter registration effort was non-partisan, she has endorsed Democratic candidates in the recent past. Swift is not known to be a fan of Donald Trump, and she’s young, talented and sings beautifully, so she’s suspicious.

The coverage of her fandom has dominated the story – if not the timeline – of this year’s NFL playoff wars. It’s charming, fun and light. Americans love a love story.

As the Chiefs wrapped up a stunning upset of the favored Ravens for the AFC championship, Swift and boyfriend Travis Kelce kissed on the field, and every warped keyboard mutant and an army of Russian bot farms screamed into a high-pitched, shattering internet shriek.

“X” was aflame with trolls, rat-scurrying to load up and fire every possible conspiracy thread — no matter how idiotic or nut-hatched — into the ether in a wretched, pathetic effort to sling swill in Swift’s general direction.

It was completely unhinged, but impressive in its sheer output. And in its absurdity. They tied together the DNC, the Kelce brothers, Travis’ mom, RINOs, Swift, Chinese communists and the insidious National Football League in one vast cabal that had somehow subverted football itself for their evil plots. Sigh.

Florida Governor: DeSantis ends his bid for president, and Florida awaits | R. Bruce Anderson

Swift is a force of nature, heart and hard work. She has attracted a massive army of fans who could very quickly turn into an intense political force majeure, should she decide to enter the fray in a serious way. She does not strike me as a particularly vengeful person, even after this barrage of slander. But perhaps (after the Super Bowl, of course) all that might change.

But for the stodgy GOP, there’s hope. My understanding, enlightened by a famous Republican “influencer,” is that they’ve got an answer. Even as we fret, the GOP has closeted Ted Nugent, Kid Rock and Jon Voight in the caddy’s locker room of Mar-a-Lago, to plan the inevitable star-studded counter-punch. I, for one, can’t wait to see that matchup.

Its “Karma.”

R. Bruce Anderson is the Dr. Sarah D. and L. Kirk McKay Jr. endowed chair in American history, government and civics and Miller distinguished professor of political science at Florida Southern College.  He is also a columnist for The Ledger and political consultant and on-air commentator for WLKF Radio in Lakeland.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Political trolls try to ruin story of Taylor Swift, love and football