Sex sells, as everyone knows. But it also can be used to promote our sometimes struggling democracy, as two recent examples illustrate. Literally.
The first comes in the shapely form of Kylie Jenner, the 23-year-old member of the Jenner-Kardashian entertainment-celebrity industrial complex.
Jenner posted a pair of bikini-clad photos of herself on Instagram this week, with a link to vote.org, asking fans if they were registered and inviting her 197 million followers: "let's make a plan to vote together." She posted something similar on Twitter, where she has more than 35 million followers.
The response: Vote.org reports her link boosted traffic by 1,500 percent and resulted in 48,000 people registering to vote.
The moment "speaks to an energy among young Americans who want to make sure their voices are heard this election," Vote.org chief Andrea Hailey said in a statement.
Alternatively, it may just speak to people who want to appreciate what Kylie Jenner's wearing while soaking in the California sun.
The second example comes from much less warm Pennsylvania, where a few local politicians have shed even more clothing to focus the electorate's attention on so-called "naked ballots."
These are absentee votes that get delivered to election offices inside the pre-addressed outer return envelope — but not sealed inside the required second, secrecy envelope.
This happened thousands of times in the June primary, but the state Supreme Court ruled those naked ballots should be counted anyway. The court has taken a different position for the presidential election: Anyone who makes the same mistake this fall will be out in the cold, without a vote that counts.
Democrats are now working hard to educate voters in one of the premier presidential battlegrounds about the importance of "clothing" their mail ballots in the inner sleeve — especially because so many are expected to be voting by mail for the first time this year because of the pandemic. One party official has sounded the alarm that 100,000 ballots will otherwise get discarded because of their nakedness, twice President Trump's margin in the state last time.
In the most dramatic gesture of this education effort, two members of the Allegheny County Council in Pittsburgh and an incoming state legislator posed for a waist-up group photo — apparently unclothed but for the absentee ballots covering their chests.
They tweeted the shot with panels of text explaining the three easy steps for properly returning a mailed-in ballot.
"Immediately when I heard the term naked ballots, and being a woman in the male-dominated environment of politics, where they are always trying to control our bodies, I thought, 'Why not take some control back? And also get the voters' attention," one of the council members, Bethany Hallam, told the Guardian.
The gesture has worked, sort of: More than 1,500 retweets and 3,600 "likes" so far. Not Kardashian-class numbers, but still.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on August 14, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Long Island to tour law enforcement facilities in Nassau County and rally support for local Republican candidates ahead of the upcoming midterm elections
Travel Far Enough, You Meet Yourself
Is it possible that our President has simply not traveled enough?
Born and raised in Queens and attending Fordham University in the Bronx, Donald Trump has no record of traveling outside New York until he was over 20, when he transferred to a college in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. Were his formative years amiss, then, in his learning about other places and other people?
Is his view akin to the famous New Yorker cover by Saul Steinberg, an illustration of the United States with New York City as the epicenter of the country and the Hudson River the border of the known world? We can now at least add Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago to the map of “the realm.”
Our President has now traveled some, but what we recommend is another kind of travel. Not a state-sponsored trip or a venture to scout locations for future Trump Towers. This would be a genuine travel experience, enriching and eye-opening, showcasing other cultures and ways of living.
It will extend far beyond viewing military parades, hobnobbing with such “understanding” world leaders as Kim Jong Un, or taking tea with the King.
WHERE, then, should the President go? As Elon Musk’s Starship spacecraft is not yet ready to take passengers to Mars, perhaps he could explore our own vast country?
Maybe he could travel to “flyover country,” the farming states, where his ying-yanging tariffs and trade restrictions have played havoc with rural economies. Or possibly to California, number one in homeless U. S. citizens, and while there, regale homeless veterans (approximately 32,500 nationwide) with tales of his brave exploits invading and bombing foreign countries.
Or he might tour the Great Lakes, and rename the other four?
WHEN should he go? This will be tough, as he is very busy building his ballroom and renaming bodies of water.
How about a trip in early November, around the midterm elections? Despite the long-discredited accusation of widespread voter fraud, it would be reassuring to know he might be so caught up divvying out ladles of soup in a soup kitchen somewhere that he wouldn’t remember to deploy the military for “election security.”
HOW will he travel? He should definitely not take his Qatari-donated, newly renovated 747, especially after last time, when he had to be smuggled off clandestinely in a catering truck. It’s unlikely any traveling companions, like the Secretary of State or of the Treasury, are going to fall for the ruse a second time. Besides, we may need those people. No more decoys!
Perhaps the President could fly commercially, although this likely would expose him to undue suffering. Without gold bathroom fixtures and maple wood floors, the trip will be no “Luxury Experience.” If only he still had his “Trump Shuttle,” bought with a massive loan he later defaulted on, saying then, “I’m smart. I got out at a good time.”
Considering the potential pitfalls, maybe it’s best the President travel incognito, disguised perhaps as an elderly woman wearing a lot of bronzer.
Wherever, whenever, however: our President needs a vacation.
Moreover, we need a vacation from him.
If the President refuses our travel suggestions, here’s another idea:
Let’s get him a pet! He has never owned a pet. As we know with our children, pets teach essential life lessons: compassion and empathy; they instill a sense of responsibility. There is a well-established connection between those who can care for a pet and those who can care for people.
So, which pet should we choose? A puppy? A kitten? A boa constrictor?
Imagine, the President may even decide he likes having a pet. After all, what is more obedient than a well-trained dog, besides possibly the Cabinet? And what is more docile than a sweet kitten, other than plausibly the Supreme Court?
The President may even become more mellow with a pet afoot and less likely to slap tariffs on our allies, or attempt to annex our neighbors, or bully our Congress. (Realizing, of course, a bully requires active participation from the bullied to maintain his status.)
Maybe we should do both: get the President a pet and devise a travel plan for him. (Do you think we could possibly convince him to leave his phone at home?)
Let’s go for it! After all:
Travel far enough, you meet yourself. (David Mitchell)
And for our President, that would likely be the most profound discovery of all.
Amy Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."