Daley-Harris is the author of “ Reclaiming Our Democracy: Every Citizen’s Guide to Transformational Advocacy ” and the founder of RESULTS and Civic Courage. This is part of a series focused on better understanding transformational advocacy: citizens awakening to their power.
When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, nearly 100 million Americans didn’t vote. And even though the 2020 election, won by Joe Biden, saw the highest voter turnout in 120 years, 80 million Americans still didn’t vote. In 2022 we saw the second highest youth vote in a midterm election, but only 23 percent of youth voted that year. What motivates Americans to engage in that most basic of civic duties and what moves them to go beyond voting?
Taylor Swift’s Netflix documentary, “Miss Americana,” features a soul-searching conversation describing her journey into activism and her liberation from repeated warnings to avoid politics. The documentary includes the song “ Only the Young,” an anthem aimed at consoling and encouraging young voters. Swift’s journey to civic engagement might mirror our own inner debates about how much we should embrace active citizenship. Of course the main difference is that few of us have 283 million followers on Instagram.
Throughout the earlier part of her career, Swift was warned not to get involved in politics.
“Part of the fabric of being a country artist is don’t force your politics on people,” Swift explained. “Let people live their lives. That is grilled into us.”
Motivated, in part, by a harrowing experience of being groped by a DJ in Denver and the trial that followed, Swift abandoned those warnings. After the DJ was fired, he sued Swift for millions of dollars, and she countersued for one dollar.
“You walk into a courtroom,” Swift recalled, “and then there’s this person sitting in a swivel chair staring at you like you did something to him. … Then he has a lawyer get up and just lie. There were seven people who saw him do this, and we had a photo of it happening. And I was so angry. I was angry that I had to be there. I was angry that this happens to women. I was angry that people are paid to antagonize victims.”
“I really couldn’t stop thinking about it,” Swift said after winning the case. “And I just thought to myself, ‘Next time there is any opportunity to change anything, you had better know what you stand for and what you wanna say.”
Swift’s team wasn’t happy with her growing resolve to get involved in the 2018 midterm election in Tennessee.
“It’s not that I want to step into this,” Swift said. “It’s just, I can’t not at this point. Like, something is … completely and unchangeably different since the sexual assault trial last year … and no man in my organization or in my family will ever understand what that was like. … This is something I know is right,” she told her team. “I need to be on the right side of history.”
She let them air their concerns: You’ve never gotten involved with politics or religion. Your audience will be cut in half. What about your safety and security? But nothing weakened her resolve.
“It really is a big deal to me,” Swift said to her team, her voice breaking. “[Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn ] votes against, against fair pay for women, she votes against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which is just basically protecting us against domestic abuse and stalking — [now pointing to herself, Swift repeats] stalking. [Blackburn] thinks that if you are a gay couple or even if you look like a gay couple, you should be allowed to be kicked out of a restaurant. It’s really basic human rights, and it’s right and wrong at this point.”
And then came the moment Swift breaks free: “Dad, I just need you to forgive me for doing it, ‘cause I’m doing it.”
Swift endorsed Blackburn’s opponent and the re-election of Tennessee Democrat Jim Cooper. She’s essentially told her story of self: sharing what happened in her life and the decisions she’s made that got her to this commitment. Think about your own story of self. What prompted your own involvement in politics and strengthening our democracy?
My next article will examine the result of Swift’s decision and the song that it inspired.
