Taylor Swift releases beautiful new anti-GOP song inspired by 2018 election, encouraging youth vote

Swift has huge influence, especially with youth. She started out as a Christian country singer from Tennessee, and has retained much of her fan base in red and purple states.  I’m glad she is on our side and increasingly eager to use her influence to help defeat Republicans.

Taylor Swift has been voting for Democrats since she first turned 18; she voted for Obama twice, and in 2016 she supported Hillary Clinton but kept quiet about it and just focused on encouraging youth to vote without saying who they should vote for, because she scared of the political backlash while she was dealing with difficult personal, professional, and emotional issues, and because she was afraid that her music world enemies (foremost among them Trump supporter Kanye West) who were calling her a “snake” and their fans would transfer their hatred to Hillary Clinton if she endorsed Clinton. Swift says she now regrets not endorsing Hillary.

In 2018, when she tried to help Democratic nominee Phil Bredesen defeat Republican Marsha Blackburn in Swift’s home state of Tennessee and tried to help Democratic nominee Jim Cooper win re-election in her home district of Nashville, Tennessee; voter registration nationwide spiked almost immediately after Swift posted her endorsement on her Instagram account, which had 112 million followers.  Some of Swift’s Republican fans turned against her for that, but many of them stayed with her, which means she will be very valuable for helping to win swing voters.  Prior to 2018, she carefully avoided revealing her political leanings. There are rumors that she was a Republican as a child, which wouldn’t be surprising given that she was a white Christian country singer in Tennessee, but this background only makes her a more convincing and influential campaigner for Democrats, especially in red and purple states.

According to Variety, “Only the Young” was inspired by the 2018 election: 

“I wrote it after the midterm elections, when there were so many young people who rallied for their candidate, whether it was a senator or congressman or congresswoman,” Swift tells Variety. “It was hard to see so many people feel like they had canvassed and done everything and tried so hard. I saw a lot of young people’s hopes dashed. And I found that to be particularly tragic, because young people are the people who feel the worst effects of gun violence, and student loans and trying to figure out how to start their lives and how to pay their bills, and climate change, and are we going to war — all these horrific situations that we find ourselves facing right now.”

It won’t be any secret to anyone watching the documentary just how crestfallen she was when the senatorial candidate Swift had declared stood in opposition to women’s issues and gay rights lost.

“I was really upset about Tennessee going the way that it did, obviously. And so I just wanted to write a song about it. I didn’t know where it would end up. But I did think that it would be better for it to come out at a time that it could maybe hopefully stoke some fires politically and maybe engage younger people to form their own views, break away from the pack, and not feel like they need to vote exactly the same way that people in their town are voting.”

Lyrics:

It keeps me awake, the look on your face
The moment you heard the news
You're screaming inside and frozen in time
You did all that you could do
The game was rigged, the ref got tricked
The wrong ones think they’re right
You were outnumbered this time

But only the young, only the young
Only the young, only the young
Can run
Can run
So run, and run, and run

So every day now
You brace for the sound you've only heard on TV
You go to class, scared
Wondering where the best hiding spot would be
And the big bad man and his big bad clan
Their hands are stained with red
Oh, how quickly they forget

They aren't gonna help us
Too busy helping themselves
They aren't gonna change this
We gotta do it ourselves
They think that it's over
But it's just begun

Only one thing can save us
Only the young (Only the young)
Only the young (Only the young)
Only the young (Only the young)
Only the young
Only the young (Only the young)
Only the young (Only the young)
Only the young (Only the young)
Only the young
Only the young (Only the young; Don't say you're too tired to fight)
Only the young (Only the young; It's just a matter of time)
Only the young (Only the young; Up there's the finish line)
Only the young
Can run

Don't say you're too tired to fight
It's just a matter of time (Can run)
Up there's the finish line (So run, and run, and run)
Don't say you're too tired to fight
It's just a matter of time (So run)
Up there's the finish line (And run, and run, and run)

Only the young
Only the young
Only the young

The video ends with the best line of all: 

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The 2018 election also inspired Swift to write a song comparing Republicans to high school bullies and herself and other Democrats to young women who are bullied in high school:

According to her interview with Rolling Stone:

How did you come to use high school metaphors to touch on politics with “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince”?
There are so many influences that go into that particular song. I wrote it a couple of months after midterm elections, and I wanted to take the idea of politics and pick a metaphorical place for that to exist. And so I was thinking about a traditional American high school, where there’s all these kinds of social events that could make someone feel completely alienated. And I think a lot of people in our political landscape are just feeling like we need to huddle up under the bleachers and figure out a plan to make things better.

You sing about “American stories burning before me.” Do you mean the illusions of what America is?
It’s about the illusions of what I thought America was before our political landscape took this turn, and that naivete that we used to have about it. And it’s also the idea of people who live in America, who just want to live their lives, make a living, have a family, love who they love, and watching those people lose their rights, or watching those people feel not at home in their home. I have that line “I see the high-fives between the bad guys” because not only are some really racist, horrific undertones now becoming overtones in our political climate, but the people who are representing those concepts and that way of looking at the world are celebrating loudly, and it’s horrific.

Below are the lyrics. “Miss Americana” represents Taylor Swift and young Democrats like her, and “The Heartbreak Prince” represents the America that she loves but let her down by electing Trump:

You know I adore you, I'm crazier for you
Than I was at 16, lost in a film scene
Waving homecoming queens, marching band playing
I'm lost in the lights
American glory faded before me
Now I'm feeling hopeless, ripped up my prom dress
Running through rose thorns, I saw the scoreboard
And ran for my life (Ah)

No cameras catch my pageant smile
I counted days, I counted miles
To see you there, to see you there
It's been a long time coming, but

It's you and me, that's my whole world
They whisper in the hallway, "She's a bad, bad girl" (Okay)
The whole school is rolling fake dice
You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes
It's you and me, there's nothing like this
Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince (Okay)
We're so sad, we paint the town blue
Voted most likely to run away with you

My team is losing, battered and bruising
I see the high fives between the bad guys
Leave with my head hung, you are the only one
Who seems to care
American stories burning before me
I'm feeling helpless, the damsels are depressed
Boys will be boys then, where are the wise men?
Darling, I'm scared (Ah)

No cameras catch my muffled cries
I counted days, I counted miles
To see you there, to see you there
And now the storm is coming, but

It's you and me, that's my whole world
They whisper in the hallway, "She's a bad, bad girl" (Okay)
The whole school is rolling fake dice
You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes
It's you and me, there's nothing like this
Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince (Okay)
We're so sad, we paint the town blue
Voted most likely to run away with you

And I don't want you to (Go), I don't really wanna (Fight)
'Cause nobody's gonna (Win), I think you should come home
And I don't want you to (Go), I don't really wanna (Fight)
'Cause nobody's gonna (Win), I think you should come home
And I don't want you to (Go), I don't really wanna (Fight)
'Cause nobody's gonna (Win), just thought you should know
And I'll never let you (Go) 'cause I know this is a (Fight)
That someday we're gonna (Win)

It's you and me, that's my whole world
They whisper in the hallway, "She's a bad, bad girl"
Oh, I just thought you should know (You should know)
It's you and me, there's nothing like this (Like this)
Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince (Okay)
We're so sad, we paint the town blue (Paint it blue)
Voted most likely to run away with you
And I don't want you to (Go), I don't really wanna (Fight)
'Cause nobody's gonna (Win), I think you should come home
And I'll never let you (Go) 'cause I know this is a (Fight)
That someday we're gonna (Win), just thought you should know

It's you and me, that's my whole world
They whisper in the hallway, "She's a bad, bad girl"
"She's a bad, bad girl"

Swift has also supported LGBTQ rights with “You Need to Calm Down,” 

Lyrics:

You are somebody that I don't know
But you're takin' shots at me like it's Patrón
And I'm just like, damn, it's 7 AM
Say it in the street, that's a knock-out
But you say it in a Tweet, that's a cop-out
And I'm just like, "Hey, are you okay?"
And I ain't tryna mess with your self-expression
But I've learned a lesson that stressin' and obsessin''bout somebody else is no fun
And snakes and stones never broke my boned
So oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh
You need to calm down, you're being too loud
And I'm just like oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh (Oh)
You need to just stop, like can you just not step on my gown?
You need to calm down

You are somebody that we don't know
But you're comin' at my friends like a missile
Why are you mad when you could be GLAAD? (You could be GLAAD)
Sunshine on the street at the parade
But you would rather be in the dark ages
Makin' that sign must've taken all night

You just need to take several seats and then try to restore the peace
And control your urges to scream about all the people you hate
'Cause shade never made anybody less gay

So oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh
You need to calm down, you're being too loud
And I'm just like oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh (Oh)
You need to just stop, like can you just not step on his gown?
You need to calm down
And we see you over there on the internet
Comparing all the girls who are killing it
But we figured you out
We all know now we all got crowns
You need to calm down
Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh
You need to calm down (You need to calm down)
You're being too loud (You're being too loud)
And I'm just like oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh (Oh)
You need to just stop (Can you stop?)
Like can you just not step on our gowns?
You need to calm down

I love Swift’s political turn. I suspect we’re going to see her drop some more songs that will help Democrats win before November 2020.