politics
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Presidential politics has been its own form of pop stardom for decades — certainly since Bill Clinton worked the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show, and probably since actor Ronald Reagan won the White House. At some point during that time, the party conventions became less like political meetings and more like pop concerts — staged presentations, usually in arenas that also host concerts, where icons perform their greatest hits. This year former president Barack Obama even came out during the Democratic National Convention to present a sly remix of his own tag line as a tribute to vice president Kamala Harris: “Yes she can.”
Like most remixes, this requires some knowledge of the original, so it’s not aimed at everyone — a 25-year-old voter would have been nine when Obama’s “Yes we can” campaign slogan first got big. The point is to rally superfans, excite influencers and inspire enough enthusiasm to pull in some undecided voters. It’s politics as cinematic universe — now with blinking LED wristbands and the “politics of joy.”
Increasingly, the modern way of expressing a worldview is to join a fan army, of a musician, a content creator, or even a politician. Now that pop culture has swallowed everything, fan relationships help people define what tribe they belong to, the way class or place of origin did before the Internet made those things so much less relevant. Supporting former president Donald Trump isn’t so much about favoring his policies, whatever they are, as about liking his frankness (or his insanity) or sharing his sense of grievance. (Isn’t everything rigged?)
The idea of a fan “army,” as opposed to a “club,” implies some kind of tension — or at least a tendency for devotees to define themselves against other tribes. Part of supporting Trump is condemning the media and “the deep state,” just like part of loving BTS is bemoaning that journalists just don’t get how great they are. Sides have always been chosen — think about the Beatles and the Rolling Stones — but now who fans don’t like is as important as who they do.
Not so long ago, politics involved… well, it involved more actual politics. Democrats wanted a bigger role for government, while Republicans like Grover Norquist wanted to drown it in the bathtub. Obama and Trump made it more about personality and worldview — “Yes we can” or “Make America great again.” (To Obama, the arc of history was bending toward justice; to Trump, everything was just going downhill.) Obama had plenty of policy ideas, but he campaigned on hope and change, which are hard to be against — who could run on despair and stasis? Besides, it’s harder than ever to pass ambitious legislation these days.
The conventions, which started as actual meetings and then became appointment viewing for people interested in politics, are now aimed more at fans of a certain party. And they deliver. Most people I know, most of whom are Democrats, think Harris did great, and I agree. But how could she not? She had an enthusiastic audience, good warm-up acts, even nice lighting. Most important, she has the momentum of momentum. The real question is how she’ll do with journalists and how she’d fare in a debate against Trump.
The closest thing to an open question was the potential for disruptive protests over the war in Israel and Gaza, which seemed like they could echo the ones that took place during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, also in Chicago. (With Hamas and Hezbollah firing rockets at Israel daily, it seems weird to refer to this as a war in Gaza.) Back then, anti-war protesters in Grant Park chanted “the whole world is watching” — a line from a Bob Dylan song — as police beat and arrested them. Recently, some did the same, but these days the whole world can now see everything on social media, though they can sometimes struggle to tell if it’s real or generated by AI.
After every big pop culture moment comes the fan army drama. In this case, that means Harris supporters have to convince far-leftists that they’re better off voting for her than staying home. Robert Kennedy plans to endorse Trump, because maybe he can get a look at the Roswell files. And Trump will complain that he’d be much more popular if only the charts were tabulated differently.
In November, we’ll figure out who’s No. 1. Until then, we have to wait and see if Taylor Swift will endorse a candidate — and whether either one will be half as effective as she is at using her dedicated fans to generate mainstream attention.
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D.L. Hughley delivered remarks on the final night of the Democratic National Convention and used the angle of humor to show his support for Vice President Kamala Harris. During his appearance, D.L. Hughley threw a few jabs in the direction of Donald Trump, much to the approval of the attendees.
D.L. Hughley, who formerly had strong critiques of Vice President Kamala Harris, leaned into his comedic talent and didn’t waste time while setting up his larger point with jokes. He then apologized to Vice President Harris for his past views of her.
“I don’t blame Donald Trump for not wanting to debate Kamala,” Hughley said early in his remarks. “I’ve been married to a Black woman for 40 years and I ain’t won one debate. I’m 0-93,000.”
With the audience in line with his phrasing and jokes, Hughley began chipping away at Trump and his supporters attempting to question Harris’ Blackness.
“I guarantee you this, Kamala has been Black a lot longer than Trump has been a Republican,” Hughley said, sparking uproarious laughter. And the Trump haymakers didn’t end there. Hughley made mention of Trump’s polling numbers, a subject he touts as a mark of superiority, and then tied in Trump’s infamous 1973 racial discrimination lawsuit for failing to offer housing to Black New York residents.
“If he keeps sliding in the polls the way he is, the only thing to keep Kamala out of the White House is if he buys it and refuses to rent it to her,” Hughley said.
The crowd erupted in laughter.
The full DNC speech from D.L. Highly can be viewed below, courtesy of PBS NewsHour.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: The Washington Post / Getty
Every election year, and in all the years in between election years for that matter, all we hear from the GOP is about how they’re the job-creating party and how terrible Democratic leadership has always been for the American economy.
Well, a funny thing happened during day three of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Wednesday: former President Bill Clinton pulled the rug from under what is arguably Republicans’ biggest lie excluding their “big lie” about the 2020 election being rigged against their MAGA messiah Donald Trump.
“You’re going to have a hard time believing this, but so help me, I triple-checked it,” Clinton said during his half-hour-long DNC speech. “Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, America has created about 51 million new jobs. I swear I checked this three times. Even I couldn’t believe it. What’s the score? Democrats 50, Republicans one.”
Now, I know what you’re thinking because I was thinking it too: “Oh, come on now, Billy Clint, there’s just no way those numbers are right.” Most of us aren’t actually gullible enough to believe Republicans are the white saviors of American jobs that they purport to be, Still, it’s difficult to believe the gap between Democrat-created new jobs and Republican-created new jobs is really that wide.
Fortunately, we don’t need to take Clinton’s word for it that he “triple-checked” his math on this, because the Washington Post and several other fact-checking sites have already done the homework for us and come with receipts.
“There have been six presidents since 1989, three from each party,” Phillip Bump, a fact-checker for the Post wrote. “Under the three Democrats — Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden — there was a cumulative increase of 50 million more people working between the starts of their terms and the ends. Under the three Republicans — George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Trump — the cumulative total was, in fact, only 1 million.”
(Don’t let Trump read that. He’ll get so flustered and angry that his butthole-shaped mouth will recede into his actual butthole.)
November is coming up fast, y’all. Go into that voting booth with the right information.
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Source: Alex Wong / Getty
All day on Thursday, August 22 rumors were circulating that Beyoncé would be making some sort of appearance at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Yeah, that didn’t happen.
In fact, Bey was never even on the schedule. That’s according to her longtime publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure. Guess no one bothered to ask her if Bey was going to be there?
The Hollywood Reporter was the first to confirm that Beyoncé could be anywhere in the world, but it wasn’t going to be at the United Center on Thursday night. “Beyoncé was never scheduled to be there,” her rep told The Hollywood Reporter. “The report of a performance is untrue.”
And that’s that on that.
Vice President Kamala Harris did walk out to “Freedom” before delivering her speech where she accepted the DNC’s nomination for President of the United States, though. We’d still bet good money that Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift, are going to make a campaign appearance on Harris and Tim Walz sooner than later.
Until then, be sure you vote in November.
Oh, and it was TMZ that said Bey was going to be there. So it’s getting really ugly for them on these Internets.
10. Who that?
P!nk assembled her own powerful girl group at Thursday’s (Aug. 22) final night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, joining daughter Willow Sage Hart, three backup singers and one acoustic guitar to perform an unplugged version of her top 20 Billboard Hot 100 hit “What About Us.” The septet hit the stage at Chicago’s United […]
The Chicks hit the stage at the 2024 Democratic National Convention on Thursday night (Aug. 22) to play “The Star Spangled Banner,” on the fourth and final day of the DNC at Chicago’s United Center before a crowd fired up and waiting for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris to speak. Introduced as the winners of […]
Dear Doug,
When I got the call in June to join you at my local NY deli, Russ & Daughters, to riff for an hour on Big Oil, music and copyright in a tiny Secret Service swarmed kitchen I wanted to grab a bagel! Who knew that within weeks Kamala’s trajectory would change, and soon you’ll hopefully become America’s 1st First Gentleman. Congratulations Doug!
Learning you had been playing “You Get What You Give” hundreds of times since 2020 as your campaign “walk on song” touched me deeply — particularly when you told me you had selected the song merely as a music fan, not even being aware of the Biden family’s emotional connection to the song via Beau.
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Needless to say, we were thrilled to get your personal invite to once again play our song live (as we did in January 2021 for the Biden inauguration), this time at the DNC just before Kamala’s introduction accepting the VP nomination. Of course, Kamala suddenly had bigger fish to fry becoming the presidential candidate, but thanks for blasting the record as your “walk-on” song at the DNC instead!
I’m writing this letter to you to send out an S.O.S. to all the artists and music people across America that the clock is truly ticking for us to save our democracy.
The time is clearly NOW for all to jump in and use whatever influence for the greater good and endorse the candidate who doesn’t “weirdly” (love that Coach Walz!) advocate taking away women’s rights and everyone’s freedoms. Or brags he’ll cancel America’s Presidential election in 2028!?
In that spirit, if we can talk music a moment, we are releasing the first New Radicals music in 25 years to rally the cause of democracy and encourage all artists to get out the vote. This isn’t some “comeback”; this is us doing our small part to support the fight for freedom!
As a musical gift to you, Doug, and our other fans, we’re releasing our version of “Murder On The Dancefloor,” plus our version of the Oscar-nominated hit, “Lost Stars,” from John Carney’s biggest music film Begin Again. It’s co-written by New Radical Danielle Brisebois who gave the world “Unwritten” and our film and Keira Knightley’s character’s songs their powerful female POV.
Listen to the New Radicals’ “Lost Stars” here and listen to “Murder On the Dancefloor” here.
Interestingly, we even learned through our mutual friends that Begin Again is headed to Broadway. We’re honored that co-star Adam Levine’s friends in Train are adapting what Adam declared the “perfect song,” and hoping Train adds more for Carney’s Broadway follow-up to Once!
Many people may not know that “Murder On The Dancefloor” was nearly our debut single, but then debuted as Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s bawdy hit which went Top 10 globally twice (this year from that dancing naked end scene in the often sadly “true to life” Saltburn).
When we spoke in NY, it was clear that you’re a family man of conscience who cares about his country and its people. It’s what makes Kamala and you true “new radicals” of the best kind. And anyone knowing Hall & Oates covered our “Someday We’ll Know” or king of critics, Robert Christgau, gave our album an “A” is pretty cool in my book!
In an era where a third of “Pizzagate” Republicans believe Taylor Swift is a Democrat Psy Op (who knew!?), it will be a breath of fresh air when the Harris administration passes critical things for the middle class. Like funding family and “frenemy” Village Troll mental health care in the states it’s most needed, or limits overpriced prescriptions that often “cost” more than a teacher’s salary.
For the record, New Radicals turn down every request from drug companies or anyone asking to change our lyrics (never!) and our publishers support that by saying “no problem.” We’d never morally support any type of industry that might contribute to an opioid epidemic that has already killed a million Americans.
Doug, I wonder what song these Silicon Valley jingle masseuses will try diseasing next, “Celebrex Sadness”? Well just a month past our July 12th, 25th anniversary — to any FDA Big banker Pharma’s out there…come around we’ll STILL kick your ass in!
We’re grateful our music is still inspiring some young “new radical” athletes and musicians who are jumping in too. Like BRAT Charli XCX who loves Kamala’s politics (and we beyond love Charli’s “1999” New Radicals video homage!), or Travis Kelce who tweeted “I’ve got the Dreamers Disease!”, which choked me up because that just means fighting for what you believe!!
In closing, Doug, sadly violence from toxic politics, BPD “biz con abuse bros” and Covid isolation has catalyzed much of today’s mental health crises leading to conspiratorial family criminality. But if anyone can heal or “prosecute” that, President Kamala Harris can — starting with RFK and Donald J Trump! Sorry, I had to sneak in a joke.
Democracy is at stake, not just in the USA but also in much of the world watching closely. With grieving artistic flourish for my own beloved Korean War vet Dad who tragically wrongfully passed mid-May, and my immobile, fragile Mom in memory care in Florida—don’t let the darkness shake down the light from the mothers and grandsons we’ll lose in the fight. Save democracy for the next generation and vote with your soul!
And to any DJs or TikTokers out there around the world, always feel free to play and use these songs to support and celebrate women’s, minority and LGBTQ+ rights and the spirit of freedom thriving and surviving around the globe!
Doug, Kamala—You got the Music in you. Go Lions!! Gregg
P.S. Doug, Since Broadway’s next to our favorite deli, if you’re in New York when Begin Again opens let’s grab that bagel and walk over with Adam and Train, Keira and John, Kamala and Danielle to all sing “Lost Stars” together!
P.P.S. VOTE!!!
“Lost Stars,” out on Flatiron Records, pre-save is here; “Murder On The Dancefloor” pre-save is here. Both are out on DSPs at midnight ET tonight.
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Source: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / Getty
Gus Walz is the son of Minnesota Governor and VP candidate Tim Walz. The 17-year-old won the hearts of millions when during the Democratic National Convention he displayed raw emotion, clapping “That’s my dad!” during his father’s speech on Wednesday (August 21) night.
While the goodwill was already flowing, Gus Walz’s legend only grew when many then learned that when he was becoming a teen he was diagnosed with a nonverbal learning disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. As you would guess, the Walz family was nothing but supportive, telling People magazine, “It took time, but what became so immediately clear to us was that Gus’ condition is not a setback — it’s his secret power.”
Nevertheless, people on the conservative right proceeded to show their asses on social media and actually mocked Gus Walz for daring to show emotion during his father’s stirring moment when he accepted the VP nomination. The worst of the bunch was easily Ann Coulter, who wrote “Talk about weird…” as a caption of a picture of Gus in tears. Of course, Coulter eventually deleted her tweet after immense backlash, but nothing is ever wiped away on the Internets.
Coulter was not an anomaly, with many a troglodyte co-signing her foolishness with similar attacks. But despite Elon Musk’s X becoming a cesspool of hate, the overwhelming reactions have been nothing but support and love for Gus Walz and his family. Social media is filled with people smacking down the attacks with accounts about their own lives with neurodivergent children and while disparaging the lack of human decency Coulter and her ilk routinely display.
See some of the more passionate reactions in the gallery.
3. Never forget.
7. Posting for archival purpose because they will deny it.
8. It’s personal.
9. We won’t condone everything written here, but we understand.
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Source: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / Getty
Gus Walz is the son of Minnesota Governor and VP candidate Tim Walz. The 17-year-old won the hearts of millions when during the Democratic National Convention he displayed raw emotion, clapping “That’s my dad!” during his father’s speech on Wednesday (August 21) night.
While the goodwill was already flowing, Gus Walz’s legend only grew when many then learned that when he was becoming a teen he was diagnosed with a nonverbal learning disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. As you would guess, the Walz family was nothing but supportive, telling People magazine, “It took time, but what became so immediately clear to us was that Gus’ condition is not a setback — it’s his secret power.”
Nevertheless, people on the conservative right proceeded to show their asses on social media and actually mocked Gus Walz for daring to show emotion during his father’s stirring moment when he accepted the VP nomination. The worst of the bunch was easily Ann Coulter, who wrote “Talk about weird…” as a caption of a picture of Gus in tears. Of course, Coulter eventually deleted her tweet after immense backlash, but nothing is ever wiped away on the Internets.
Coulter was not an anomaly, with many a troglodyte co-signing her foolishness with similar attacks. But despite Elon Musk’s X becoming a cesspool of hate, the overwhelming reactions have been nothing but support and love for Gus Walz and his family. Social media is filled with people smacking down the attacks with accounts about their own lives with neurodivergent children and while disparaging the lack of human decency Coulter and her ilk routinely display.
See some of the more passionate reactions in the gallery.
3. Never forget.
7. Posting for archival purpose because they will deny it.
8. It’s personal.
9. We won’t condone everything written here, but we understand.
Donald Trump is sharing how he feels about artificial intelligence after re-posting a doctored series of photos to his Truth Social account that appeared to show an endorsement from Taylor Swift. “I didn’t generate them,” Trump said during an interview with Fox Business Network’s The Evening Edit. “Somebody came out. They said, oh, look at this. […]