In 1990, in the midst of a heated — and racially charged — U.S. Senate race in North Carolina between Republican Jesse Helms and Democratic challenger Harvey Gantt, Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan delivered one of his most famous lines.
Jordan, who grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina, and won a national championship in 1982 with the University of North Carolina’s renowned basketball program, was asked whether he would endorse Gantt. Jordan’s memorable response, which OutKick founder and network radio host Clay Travis later adopted as the title of his book, was: “Republicans buy sneakers, too.” In other words, Jordan refused to politicize his brand and risk sacrificing sales of his iconic Air Jordan sneakers, which Nike had introduced six years earlier.
It was an admirable assertion of political neutrality — a refusal to bow to those who enforced a stifling, homogenous political correctness. As Jordan would later tell ESPN during the filming of the documentary series “The Last Dance,” [A Última Dança, em tradução livre]which aired in 2020, “I never considered myself an activist. I considered myself a basketball player.”
Jordan’s decades-old neutrality was criticized during the ESPN miniseries by someone who knows a lot about exacerbating race relations: former President Barack Obama. In response to that criticism, Jordan restated his position, effectively giving the 44th president a middle finger: “It’s never going to be enough for everybody, and I know that. Because everybody has a preconceived idea of what I should do and what I shouldn’t do.”
As a longtime college basketball fan of the University of North Carolina’s archrival, Duke, and a 1990s pro basketball fan of the Bulls’ perennially hapless Eastern Conference rival, the New York Knicks, I’m reluctant to give Michael Jordan credit. But in this instance, “MJ” was right. In today’s hyperpoliticized age, this raises an obvious question: Do Republicans still buy sneakers?
Taylor Swift seems to think not. In a viral Instagram post earlier this week, the megastar singer-songwriter endorsed Kamala Harris for president. Citing a number of left-wing causes, including IVF and the pro-abortion euphemism of “a woman’s right to her own body,” Swift concluded that Harris is a “talented, steady-handed leader” who has earned her vote.
Swift is the music industry’s first billionaire, so perhaps she has cynically concluded that she simply doesn’t need conservative or Republican patronage. It’s been at least a decade and a half since Swift has sung anything approaching country music, and she may simply no longer care about alienating the Southerners and churchgoers who disproportionately make up country music’s fan base.
Swift, who is dating tight end Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Travis Kelce was on hand in Las Vegas in February to watch Kelce’s Chiefs win a thrilling Super Bowl overtime victory over the San Francisco 49ers. She stood offstage as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell recognized Kansas City star quarterback Patrick Mahomes as MVP for the third time this decade. [sigla em inglês para Jogador Mais Valioso] of the Super Bowl.
Mahomes is an evangelical Christian who has spoken about how he prays before every game to “thank God for these opportunities.” Mahomes’ wife, Brittany, also “liked” an Instagram post last month from former President Donald Trump. So it’s no well-kept secret that Kelce’s own quarterback, Mahomes, as well as Mahomes’ wife, Brittany, are a contemporary Christian conservative couple.
All of which makes it all the more remarkable that Mahomes, when asked at a press conference earlier this week what he thought of Swift’s high-profile presidential endorsement and whether he would make an endorsement himself, maintained Jordan’s neutral stance. As Mahomes put it: “I don’t want my role and my position to be used to endorse a candidate. … I think my role is to inform people to register to vote. It’s to inform people to do their own research and then make the best decision for themselves and their families.” Hear, hear.
Mahomes — like Jordan before him — intuitively understands something that Swift does not. Americans routinely watch sports games on TV and listen to music on the radio as a distraction from the chaotic news cycles and political turmoil of the day. This isn’t just a business proposition — that Republicans can buy Air Jordans and pro-lifers can buy Swift albums. It certainly is that. But it’s also a matter of basic decency — of using one’s significant position to defuse, not exacerbate, the domestic tensions that have brought politics to a frenzied pitch. Swift’s endorsement won’t change that. But it is reprehensible.
Let’s look for celebrities who lift us up and inspire us to be better — not those who divide us and tear us down.
Copyright 2024 Daily Signal. Published with permission. Original in English: The Political Chasm Between Taylor Swift and Michael Jordan
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