Pop stars play to their base too
The Democratic debate over whether or not to impeach President Trump has hinged in large part on prudence. If impeachment is doomed to fail in the Republican-controlled Senate, the reasoning goes, why not instead focus on winning big in 2020?
Today plenty of Democrats are pushing for both. It’s National Voter Registration Day
and
as of this morning,
more than 160
House Democrats plus one Republican-turned-independent now support some sort of action on impeachment, following the
report
last week of a whistleblower complaint about Trump pressuring a foreign leader to investigate a political rival’s family member.
In this week’s issue, the Trump campaign rolled out its own poster by an-up-and-coming conservative artist, Facebook still has a problem with IRA memes, and your opinion on art can predict your political beliefs.
Yours,
Happy National Voter Registration Day
If you or someone you know isn’t registered yet, or if you want to double check that you are registered, you can do so here.
Art has long played a role in encouraging Americans to make their voices heard, from the above “Votes for Women” poster by Bertha Margaret Boyé in 1911, to the more contemporary Kendall Jenner Rock The Vote poster, shot by Kenny Wassus for Independent Journal Review, and Sub Pop Record’s poster, both from 2016. I’ll be posting up voter registration posters on the Yello Twitter and Instagram accounts today to celebrate, so you can follow along and spread the word. 🗳️
The Trump campaign is now selling posters
Las Vegas artist Keith Tomczyk created the poster, which the Trump campaign is selling for $24. Tomczyk, an Air Force veteran, has drawn super hero-themed posters for special needs kids as well as depictions of Republican politicians and conservative media figures. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) has a portrait Tomczyk drew of him, and Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale previously used one of his drawings as his Twitter avatar. 🖼️
Trump signed a border wall slat
Most of the graffiti and art on the U.S. border wall that I’ve seen tends to be the sort that Trump wouldn’t appreciate, but last week he added his own. Trump signed a slat during a visit last Wednesday. The portion of the wall he visited was part of a $147-million replacement project near San Diego, and not new fencing. During his visit, Trump claimed 20 “world-class mountain climbers” had tried to climb prototypes of the wall, but none of the nation’s top mountain climbers contacted by the Daily Beast said they had climbed it or knew anyone who had. 🖊️
There are still foreign-controlled Facebook pages out here sharing IRA memes
A Facebook page called “I Love America” with more than 1.1 million followers that posted patriotic, pro-Trump, and pro-military memes has been shut down after the newsletter Popular Information reported Monday it was managed by Ukrainians.
Among the memes posted by “I Love America” were some previously posted by pages run by the St. Petersburg, Russia-based Internet Research Agency, which was indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into interference in the 2016 campaign. “I Love America” was part of a larger network of pages that also posted dog photos and Christian content and got more engagement than news outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post. 👾
Whether or not you think this is art can predict your views on Trump
A survey by YouGov and Data for Progress asked whether the above “Coffee Thyme” is art or not. Respondents who said it is art were more likely to disapprove of Trump’s job performance while those who said it isn’t art were more likely to approve of Trump’s job performance.
You can read more about the survey in Vox, which wrote that the results match findings that people who score high on the personality attribute “openness to experience” tend to lean left politically.
“Coffee Thyme” was created in 1980 by artist Sam Gilliam, who’s associated with the abstract expressionist Washington Color School movement. 🖍️
Pop stars play to their base too
Ever since Taylor Swift said Lover would have political undertones, I wondered how that would play on the road for a musician whose fan base has been shown to be strong in Trump country. Turns out we may never know. Swift announced last week in lieu of a nationwide tour, she’ll be holding a pair of festivals, both of which just so happen to be held in states that Trump did not win in 2016.
Lover Fest West will be held in Inglewood, Calif., on July 25 and 26, and Lover Fest East will be held in Foxborough, Mass., on July 31 and August 1. That would seem to free up Swift for all of fall 2020, should she want to perform on the campaign trail in support of the eventual Democratic nominee.
In other T. Swift news, the singer told Rolling Stone she voted for Barack Obama both times and talked about Democratic unity.
“My first election was voting for him when he made it into office, and then voting to re-elect him,” she said. “I think a lot of people are like me, where they just didn’t really know that this could happen. But I’m just focused on the 2020 election. I’m really focused on it.”
As to who she backs in the Democratic primary, Swift seems to be in the anybody-but-Trump camp.
“I do think, as a party, we need to be more of a team,” she said. “With Republicans, if you’re wearing that red hat, you’re one of them. And if we’re going to do anything to change what’s happening, we need to stick together. We need to stop dissecting why someone’s on our side or if they’re on our side in the right way or if they phrased it correctly. We need to not have the right kind of Democrat and the wrong kind of Democrat. We need to just be like, ‘You’re a Democrat? Sick. Get in the car. We’re going to the mall.’” 🎸