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Worse than alienating swifties it could potentially alienate Swift herself. While I get the sense that the value of an individual celebrity endorsement is near zero, I believe that the impression that all socially desirable people support the Democrats is probably worth a great deal (but not enough to carry an election on its own of course). I believe that left to her own devices Swift would likely come around to supporting conservatives in time. She's rich, she's white, she's heterosexual, she has a white meathead boyfriend.
Look at Lana del Rey, in 2016 she was a witch putting a hex on Trump. In 2024 she married an obvious Trump supporting, camo wearing boat guide from Louisiana. Look at her Instagram now, she has made no political posts and all the comments are from people berating her and assuming that her silence tacitly implies support for Trump. Swift will come around too, just give her time and don't be too mean.
The idea that Taylor Swift’s endorsement was going to sway the election was always stupid. Anyone who would be swayed to vote for Kamala Harris because Taylor Swift told them to was already going to vote for Harris. Her country music fans wrote her off some time around 2012. And it really didn’t help with the grim impression that all the oligarchs were closing ranks around Harris the chosen political industry plant.
Regarding your second point, I know slobbering over TayTay is the Motte’s favorite pastime, but she’s a mercenary. She’s never going to genuinely “come around” to anything. She will go with whatever Current Thing makes her the most money.
You could apply this reasoning to any individual instance of something meant to persuade. Advertising doesn't do any good, for instance; who's going to buy Coke instead of Pepsi because they heard an ad?
Each instance of persuasion affects some people at the margin, and pushes more people closer to the margin so they can be affected by the next thing that affects people at the margin. The fact that the number is small doesn't mean that it's zero or that a lot of such things can't be significant.
For Coke and Pepsi, advertising is defensive. If you aren't wooing your fans with ads, you're losing them to upstart companies that are. It's not possible to bank supporters, not for brands and not for political parties.
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I mean... I'm pretty sure that's true though. Advertising is obviously useful if you are a company nobody has ever heard of (or if you are an established company with a new product). But it is pretty clearly a waste of money for Coke to run most of their ads, and it only persists because nobody is brave enough to stick his neck out and try to not run them.
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She just did a land acknowledgement before a concert, and yes, it was as cringe as expected.
Swift is following the normal trajectory of what is expected of white women in America; signal being socially progressive, be a striver, support neolib Democratic Party candidates.
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