Opinion: Turnout of Swifties may be what Biden needs

Random thoughts on the political year ahead:

• Will Taylor Swift be the Oprah Winfrey of this year’s election?

You might remember what Oprah did for Barack Obama back in 2007, giving a pop culture endorsement of great consequence in his winning bid for the White House. Maybe Taylor will do the same for Joe Biden this year.

She did throw her support behind Biden four years ago, but then old Joe publicly confused her with Britney Spears. He’d better hope she’s not too sensitive about that.

As far as I can tell, very few voters have changed their minds since the last Biden-Trump showdown in 2020, so a strong turnout of Swifties could be just what Biden needs. Such is the depth of our elections these days.

• Old people don’t get the respect we deserve anymore. I mean, we boomers created the modern world in which we all live, but we get more blame for that than credit.

The technology we now carry around and can’t live without was our invention, so when AI does take over, you can thank us for opening Pandora’s box.

Plus, we created the modern environmental movement, and the first environmental alarmists — who, as it’s sadly turning out to be, were right all along.

• And speaking of the environment, it might also turn out to be a pivotal issue in the election year. It’s sort of like abortion, which will be on the ballot even where it’s not on the ballot. Extreme weather, which climate change is causing with more and more frequency, is a lot more serious when it hits close to home. It’s an especially big issue for younger voters — if they haven’t given up on the system already.

• Biden is the Rodney Dangerfield of this election year. He gets no respect. Sure, he got the biggest bill ever passed for a clean-energy infrastructure, but it’s not sexy enough to get our attention. At least not yet.

And yeah, he’s been a little busy managing America’s role in a couple of wars, but so far World War III hasn’t started, so that’s a good thing. But do you think old Joe will get the credit? Certainly not from the Republicans, who are more into trivial pursuit than credit where credit’s due.

• Speaking of trivial pursuit, the GOP’s impeachment inquiry against Biden because of his son’s misdeeds reminds me of the burden of family on previous presidents. Jimmy Carter had his brother Billy using his new-found redneck celebrity to market Billy Beer — mighty embarrassing, I’d say, for a Baptist family.

And Bill Clinton had his little brother Roger and all his cocaine-fueled misdeeds to dead with.

Of course, President Trump has his own mischievous family — his son-in-law Jerod Kushner’s father is a convicted felon, you know — but I guess they paled in comparison to Donald’s own shady dealings.

And speaking of shady dealings, this will be a good year to learn more about America’s judicial system. Donald and a small army of prosecutors and judges will make quite a show of it.

But they still can’t keep up with Taylor Swift.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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