new writing: celebrity endorsements don't matter
at the new york times
At The Times, A Pet Peeve: Celebrity political endorsements don’t matter. They just don’t. They don’t win elections. They don’t change people’s minds! And that is because the relationship we have with celebrities is… an entirely different category of relationship than the one we have with politicians:
The fact that so much celebrity wattage produces so little social change might be at least in part because celebrities exist for us as aspirational figures, not practical ones. I might try Jane Fonda’s aerobics program because I envy her physique or join Reese Witherspoon’s book club because it will make me feel like we’re friends. But political candidates are ultimately public servants. They work for us; we’re not their fans, we’re their employers.…
[Celebrity] voices, in practical terms, should count for just as much or as little as any other individual’s voice. We shouldn’t look to them to solve politics for the rest of us — and it’s for th…