American Idols

On the Taylor Swift “psy op.”

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Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce celebrates with Taylor Swift after defeating the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game on January 28, 2024, in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

The difference between The Dispatch and every other publication in America is that our editors beg us not to find excuses to write about Taylor Swift.

We’re a sober source of political news and commentary, they reminded me this morning. We don’t chase shiny objects or seek to optimize our search engine results. We’re above such things.

That’s true. We are. But I am not.

Not yet, at least. When you spend 16 years, day and night, blogging every breaking news story that might conceivably be mentioned around an office watercooler, you develop a certain Pavlovian response to buzz. That response is slowly being conditioned out of me since joining the staff here, but an old dog takes time to learn new tricks.

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  1. GenZConservative

    And now that the Chiefs won...

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    Ben Connelly

    This one made me laugh

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    Angie

    I know I am late, but, loved this piece

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    Stephanie

    This was the first I heard or read of the Taylor Swift/ Travis Kelce fantasy. Since reading this, I’ve read of it in two more places, and heard about it on a podcast.

    Doesn’t it seem fated to totally disappear after the Super Bowl is done with?

    As for analyzing what caused it, could it not have been just that Benny Johnson, Charlie Kirk, Jack Posobiec and other bottom-feeders are just trying to duplicate their “success” with Bud Light and Dylan Mulvaney. They were very full of themselves after that.

    As far as I know, Anheuser-Bush is still doing very well, and I’m sure Taylor Swift will not have her reputation destroyed by these bozos.

    They’re disgusting for trying to interfere with the success of a performing artist, though.

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      Ben Connelly

      Anheuser-Busch took a pretty good hit. Bud Light lost its spot as the best-selling beer in America and never got it back. I think more important than the ad with Mulvaney itself was the interview the marketing director gave where she said she wanted to pivot away from the beer’s “fratty” image. Sure, as insults go, it doesn’t even register. But if you tell your customers you don’t want them, they’re going to get the message. If someone wants me to buy something from me and they insult me, I may not be offended. But I’m not going to buy from them.

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    Chris

    With the fight over the border, I was afraid American politicians might have begun acting as adults and addressing the problems their constituents continually highlight. Thankfully, I was reassured that we continue to elect the dumbest, least intellectual people we can find when hearing about the Taylor Swift PSYOP.

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  6. Michael Meek

    For people dependent on clicks and views, the couple is mana from heaven. Fame, good looks, the country’s most popular sport, a fake conspiracy and especially outrage.

    Doesn’t get any better.

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  7. Stephen Clay Settle

    American political categorizations - which is to say American politics itself - never cease to astound me.

    Are Kelce and Swift prepared to take to the jungles of Cuba and Bolivia to resist the brutal "imperialism" of a rich and landed oligarchy? Che Guevara was.

    But are Kelce and Swift?

    Not so much, methinks.

    They are nothing more than products of a cult of personality we revere as pop culture, just as is true of their arch-antagonist Donald Trump. As such they reflect caricatures of our ultimately bourgeois sensibilities and no more deserve to be thought of as "left" in any revolutionary sense than Trump, that poster boy for self-indulgence and moral anarchy, should be thought of as "right."

    All three embody the apotheosis of that unholy trinity of me, myself, and I spawned by the celebrated era of Enlightenment - and, as George Will approvingly notes, America is "the firstborn of the Enlightenment."

    In other words, our problems are fundamentally congenital. All the same, it's time we put aside our defining infantilism to undertake the arduous process of growing up.

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    1. Hikingguy

      Sorry you despise the Enlightenment. Some of us prefer liberty over servitude. Some of us prefer knowledge over ignorance. Some of us prefer evidence from the rocks over ancient stories of things that never were. Some of us were born all right the first time. Some of us prefer to worship, other of us prefer to not worship, and that is just dandy. Liberty. It's a good thing. Embrace your medieval chains if you like, but don't hand them to me. They won't fit. Liberty.

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      1. Stephen Clay Settle

        Read "Liberty: The God That Failed" by Chris Ferrara. It's available on Amazon.

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    2. Peter T

      "...no more deserve to be thought of as "left" in any revolutionary sense..." - does someone think they are?

      It seems you are trying very hard to conflate a nationalist-populist political movement with...some celebrities that flash their political alignments.

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      1. BPhillips

        I live in KC, I listen to the Kelce brothers podcast. Travis isn't a political creature, I can assure you. He comes off as a basically nice, immensely talented, 30ish guy who is loving life at the moment.

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  8. GAL

    This was an excellent column; clever and insightful. The bonkers hate rants about Taylor going around the MAGA/Christian circles are astonishing - they are insulting her looks, her talent, her reproductive potential, etc. I'm a big fan of Taylor Swift - she is enormously talented, and seems to be a genuinely good, kind person. Very illuminating to see who/what they despise so much.

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    Cheerio

    Honestly, I am not understanding the MAGA mindset. Last I was aware about the relationship between the Trump loyal was that they were banning the NFL. Banning it d/t Kaepernick of the SF 49ers kneeling. So... are they rooting for the 49ers now? I think being a MAGA must be a mind blown every morning and mass confusion by the end of the day unless there is a directive from Truth Social... kind of like Congress.

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    1. Peter T

      Pffft, nah, only mammals with memory and thought would get confused by the whiplash.

      Think goldfish. :-)

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    Linda Siegel

    Written by Linda’s husband Joe.

    As much as I despise DT’s buffoonery, (my wife and I contribute to NH’s campaign), still a Biden reelection will be far worse. Although DT didn’t finish the wall, didn’t reform the IRS, and didn’t attempt to start a balanced budget process or amendment, he did defeat ISIS, reduced fed. regulations, started a VA reformation process, and reduced corp. taxes. (His indifference towards debt was the most regrettable part of his term, far more than his juvenile tweets.)

    None of these types of “conservative instincts” will come to pass without an R president. Any R president. Should he win the nomination, we will wince and vote for DT. In our opinion, a “principled” stand against DT by withholding your vote is a lever pull for liberal/socialist disaster.

    PLEASE consider the alternative by holding your nose and pulling the lever for DT if he (hopefully not) beats NK.

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    1. BPhillips

      No problem with the attempted insurrection? That's not a problem??

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    2. Marc Whipple

      You have no concern with Trump's celebration of January 6th as some kind of patriotic exercise? No concern with his treating classified documents like a third grader at show and tell? No concern with statements by officials in his first administration regarding his manifest unfitness for office? No concern with 91 felony indictments?

      Somebody as crazy and unfit as Trump should not not be anywhere near the nuclear codes. We got lucky he had good advisors and staff during his first term. This election transcends policy preferences. It is a matter of civic virtue and good citizenship to vote for Biden, should Trump be the GOP nominee.

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    3. Peter T

      If you'd indulge me, I'd really like to explore this topic with you.

      I've seen many on the right raise various forms of this "policy" argument. I have some questions for you.

      1 - Let's stipulate that a few generally good (i.e. generally good for the nation - e.g. NAFTA 1.1) and several more narrow (only good from the perspective of certain folks on the right) results happened during Trump 1.0. How do you think those things came to be? Was it because of the personal interest and involvement of Trump? Or people in his admin?

      2 - What happened to the "adults" in his first admin? Do you think anyone that's not a grifter or delusional will have anything to do with him a second time around?

      3 - What has Trump stated policy-wise during his campaign that excites you? Do his top priorities of retribution and revenge excite you or concern you?

      4 - Does the basic premise of your position seem right to you? Namely, that trading fundamental freedoms (e.g. free speech, right to vote, seek redress via protest) for some policy wins is a good trade?

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    4. Hikingguy

      No way in hell will I vote for that fascist son of a bitch. May he rot in hell.

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      Cheerio

      Sell out.

      Why not value your Constitution and your Country over some narcissistic amoral sociopath? He is a criminal lunatic.

      Biden has delivered some key legislative victories, an economic soft landing after the trainwreck we experienced from Trump's handling of the pandemic that was global in nature but he just decided to turn states against each other and then denied the results of an election and spearheaded an insurrection. Some years later the slow process of justice has crawled into a situation where he has been indicted by grand juries for 91 indictments along with his fellow sycophant travelers. He does not deserve the highest office of the land. He is not fit, he lacks the moral underpinnings and the belief in the promise of this great nation of ours. He is just in it for himself and his revenge. I sincerely hope that Karma blocks a few carotid arteries so the nation can mourn him.

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      1. BPhillips

        It's a shame some can't see the obvious things you listed.

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