Harvard Study: Celebrities Have a Big Impact on Politics

Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

This is certainly depressing if it's true and I don't really have any reason to doubt it is true. A new study by researchers at Harvard found that celebrities do have a lot of power to influence things like voter participation.

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A new study by Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, shared exclusively with CNN, found that celebrities do play an influential role in promoting civic participation.

“While some polling shows that people claim they aren’t influenced by celebrity voices when it comes to politics, more rigorous evidence indicates that these voices are incredibly powerful,” according to the Harvard study...

“Celebrities are uniquely positioned to empower everyday Americans to use their voices and exercise their civic rights,” the report states. “Celebrities are an unparalleled force in American culture, informing what we buy, what we wear, and what we talk about. With their significant influence and reach, they are powerful advocates for social and political causes.”...

“This study focused on nonpartisan civic engagement and the ways to help empower young people to make their voice heard at the ballot box,” Ashley Spillane, the study’s author and co-founder of the Civic Responsibility Project, told CNN, adding that celebrities can help create “a culture around participation, making it fun and making it something you should care about doing.”

Officially this is only a study about get out the vote efforts but I think we all know that 95% of Hollywood and music celebrities are left-leaning. Celebrities mentioned in the story include Kerry Washington, Billie Eilish, Hailey Bieber, Trevor Noah, David Dobrik, Questlove and Taylor Swift.

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David Dobrik is a YouTuber who is not a citizen and can't vote but I'm pretty sure everyone else mentioned in the story endorsed Joe Biden in 2020. So these get-out-the-vote campaigns probably aren't very non-partisan in practice. 

In fact, Wikipedia has a ridiculously long list of actors, singers, sports stars and other assorted celebrities who endorsed Biden in 2020. You can scroll through it if you have a lot of time on your hands and a strong index finger. Here are just the actors and actresses whose names being with the letter A:

A. D. Miles

Aasif Mandvi

Adam Kantor

Adrienne Warren

Alan Alda

Alec Baldwin

Alex Boniello

Alex Brightman

Alfre Woodard

Ali Ewoldt

Ali Stroker

Alison Brie

Alison Pill

Allison Janney

Ally Maki

Alma Cuervo

Alysia Reiner

Alyssa Milano

Amanda Bearse

America Ferrera

Amy Brenneman

Amy Okuda

Amy Poehler

Andrew Barth Feldman

Andrew Keenan-Bolger

André De Shields

Angela Sarafyan

Anna Chlumsky

Anne Hathaway

Annette Bening

Anson Williams

Anthony Rapp

Armie Hammer

Art Evans

Ashley Park

Ashley Tisdale

Aubrey Plaza

Audra McDonald

Ayesha Curry

Ayodele Casel

If you're looking for evidence that the entire culture is controlled by the left in this country, this list is it. There's probably more diversity of political opinion at a Chinese politburo meeting then there is in Hollywood. You'd be hard pressed to find five genuine celebrities willing to support any conservative candidate and most of the ones you could name are so old that young voters have never heard of them.

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Last month CNN published a related article about the pop stars who are russing to support Kamala Harris:

Hear that? That’s the sound of a wave of young pop artists powering Vice President Kamala Harris on TikTok.

A video shared this week by the Harris campaign on the platform, set to pop star Chappell Roan’s song “Femininomenon” from her 2023 album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” paints her in stark contrast to former President Donald Trump. It has already garnered more than 35 million views...

Now, with Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee, celebrities who were reluctant to publicly endorse Biden have been coming out in full force to support Harris. And no class of celebrity will be more important to her campaign than the superstars who can rally young Americans to get out and vote.

The left has enormous and mostly unchallenged cultural power in our society. And when you look at the political opinions a lot of these people hold, the fact that their voices have a big impact on voters definitely isn't great news.

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 20, 2024
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