Celebrities ability to influence voters

By Kate Bauer
@katemareebauer

Twitter was up-in-arms throughout Wednesday night’s debate. Like I’ve said before, I was not able to vote in the last presidential election, so I was not as clued in to what was happening on social media in the last election, but things are out of control on social media in this one and they were especially so during the final debate. Sure, voters may be more informed because of things they read and see online, but how much of the information they’re consuming is factual?

It has become very common during this election for celebrities to post videos on YouTube and write posts on Facebook and Twitter expressing their support for a certain candidate or political issue. As a Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy super fan, I follow many of the cast and crew members of these Shondaland shows on Twitter. Before Hillary Clinton received the nomination in this presidential election, creator Shonda Rhimes expressed her support for Clinton on social media. She even went as far as to create a campaign advertisement for Hillary starring the show’s three leading ladies. It seems these women are using their celebrity-status as a way to influence their followers to vote a specific way. Yes, these celebrities are entitled to their opinions just as the rest of us commoners are, but I do find it comical that following the election, these celebrities will go back to tweeting about the red carpet and other events taking place in Hollywood.

The third question brought up by moderator Wallace in Wednesday’s debate focused on the topic of abortion and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Trump made the claim that he would appoint justices to the supreme court that are pro-life and that would make abortion a state issue, rather than a national one. After Trump’s claim Twitter went up-in-arms. Shonda Rhimes tweeted “this man, [Trump] is a medically ignorant scare-monster.” Yes, this is evidently her opinion on the subject, but Trump has the right to believe that this should not be a nationally funded and supported topic. Also, from a pro-life standpoint, Trump’s claims are factual, he just omits details about these abortions being medically necessary to save the life of the mother. I would not go as far to say Trump is “medically ignorant.”

Yes, Shonda Rhimes’ instances of tweeting in support of a celebrity are just one example, but I find it interesting that voters in my age demographic can have civil conversations with one another despite voting for opposing candidates. I have noticed an extremely immature side of these celebrities, who many of us choose to look up to, throughout both candidates’ campaigns. The fact that these celebrities refuse to drop it and tweet negative things about the other opponent on a daily basis is astounding to me.

I, for one, am ready for the election to be over and done with. I want my television to go back to the way it was, without the Trump-bashing campaign ads, my Pandora stations to go back to the way they were, and for my Twitter feed to consist of nothing but memes and song lyrics. In two weeks, we will hear America’s choice, and the uninformed Twitter talking heads will go back to the way they used to be.

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