Trump v. Swift

Photo credit: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times

According to Rolling Stone, Taylor Swift has been marked for destruction by MAGA extremists who are threatened by the pop superstar’s potential to impact the Trump restoration. They have promised “holy war” or jihad against her. This is precisely what happened to Mike Mohn, a 68-year-old federal government employee from Levittown, Pennsylvania. His son, Justin Mohn, released a YouTube video yesterday, which has now been taken down, with this message:

The federal government of America has declared war on America's citizens and the American states. America is rotting from the inside out as far left woke mobs rampage our once prosperous cities, turning them into lawless zones.

Taxpayer dollars are printed and used for anything but the taxpayers with little to no accountability, which has inflated the economy to near destruction and has made it so most Americans can no longer afford the American Dream.

Next, Justin Mohn looked into the camera, held up a plastic bag, and said the following:

This is the head of Mike Mohn, a federal employee of over 20 years and my father. He is now in hell for eternity as a traitor to his country.

It certainly appears the MAGA message is breaking through in eastern Pennsylvania. In fact, Justin Mohn has the talking points down perfectly. 

The intimations towards violence are real. Millions of Americans have absorbed the malice. Some of those people are as twisted and sick as Justin Mohn, and Trump knows that. When he first incited the Proud Boys on national television during a presidential debate in front of tens of millions of Americans, Trump said, “Stand back and stand by.” They did precisely as he asked. 

Apparently Trump has become consumed by Swift and obsessive about comparing his popularity against hers. According to the magazine:

Trump has also privately claimed that he is “more popular” than Swift and that he has more committed fans than she does, a person close to Trump and another source with knowledge of the matter tell Rolling Stone.

Last month, the source close to Trump adds, the ex-president commented to some confidants that it “obviously” made no sense that he was not named Time magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year — an honor that went to none other than Swift in December.

All of this insanity is apparently linked to Trump’s primal fear that Swift may dare endorse Joe Biden like she did in 2020. This is her absolute right as an American. 

There is much loose, sloppy and apocalyptic talk about the collapse of American democracy that could happen in a Trump second term. There is a sense of doom that pervades much of the political commentary, chatter and green room banter that shapes America’s looming choice. Yet, democracy won’t end like a light being flipped off by a switch. The United States is the most complex society that has ever existed on Earth. Its resilience should not be underestimated — just as the danger the system faces shouldn’t be trivialized. 

No American should ever face intimidation because they want to practice citizenship. Trump’s obsession with Swift, and his campaign’s malice towards her is thuggish and un-American. Make no mistake, it is aimed at stifling Swift, taking her voice away and silencing her with threats of retaliation.

Please understand this next point. If this can happen to Taylor Swift it can happen to ANYONE in America. This is the point. Welcome to Trump’s epoch of humiliation, retaliation and punishment. 

Here is Fox News crackpot Judge Jeanine Pirro warning Swift to stay hushed, or else:

It is despicable. It is also premeditated, purposeful and precise. Taylor Swift occupies a place in American culture that is antithetical and oppositional to Trumpism. 

She is big, while Trump is small. She is kind, while he is cruel. She is decent, while he is maliced. She is truthful, while he is a liar. She is empathetic, while he is callous. She is patriotic, while he is seditious. She is a good American, while he is a terrible one. 

Last summer, I went to a Swift concert with my 11-year old-daughter at the SoFi stadium in Los Angeles. I have never seen a show like that — ever. It was a remarkable experience, which I wrote about at the time:

Think about it. Donald Trump couldn’t sell out a football stadium, let alone 60 or more. Taylor Swift can. Last night, I joined my youngest daughter and 85,000 screaming fans enveloped in good spirit and happiness. I watched in wonder as thousands of young women traded friendship bracelets and complimented each others’ outfits.

What I witnessed was a celebration of American happiness, fun and freedom, which is precisely the point of all of the malice directed against Swift. 

President Kennedy talked about the role of the artist in American society in a speech honoring Robert Frost at Amherst College in October of 1963, shortly before his assassination. Here is an excerpt from what he said:

If sometimes our great artists have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our Nation falls short of its highest potential. I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. 

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth. And as Mr. MacLeish once remarked of poets, there is nothing worse for our trade than to be in style. In free society art is not a weapon and it does not belong to the spheres of polemic and ideology. Artists are not engineers of the soul. It may be different elsewhere. But democratic society--in it, the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation. And the nation which disdains the mission of art invites the fate of Robert Frost's hired man, the fate of having "nothing to look backward to with pride, and nothing to look forward to with hope." 

I look forward to a great future for America, a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose. I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty, which will protect the beauty of our natural environment, which will preserve the great old American houses and squares and parks of our national past, and which will build handsome and balanced cities for our future. 

I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well. And I look forward to a world which will be safe not only for democracy and diversity but also for personal distinction. 

Robert Frost was often skeptical about projects for human improvement, yet I do not think he would disdain this hope. As he wrote during the uncertain days of the Second War:

Take human nature altogether since time began . . .
And it must be a little more in favor of man,
Say a fraction of one percent at the very least . . .
Our hold on this planet wouldn't have so increased.

Because of Mr. Frost's life and work, because of the life and work of this college, our hold on this planet has increased.

One day, the same will be said of Taylor Swift who is just getting started at age 34. Trump senses this, and he doesn’t like it. The opposite of a Trump event in 2024 America isn’t a Biden rally, it is a Swift concert. 

The biggest thing that the national media gets wrong about American politics is the flawed premise that politics exists at the headwaters of culture. This is false. Politics is downstream from the headwaters of culture.

There is a great cultural contest underway in America, and Trump knows exactly where the danger lies. He knows better is lethal against him politically, and Taylor Swift is bigger and better than Trumpism in every way imaginable. 

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