Throughout American history, and quite frankly all of political history, every major politician is going to have their diehard supporters. The people who love everything they do, and follow their every word. Politicians having followers isn’t a new concept, but the age of the internet has added a new level to politics that borders on something close to fandom spaces.
If I had to place it, I’d say it probably started in part with Obama, which makes sense considering his presidency is when online spaces really started kicking off into the super mainstream. If you were online – well, ever – you’ve seen an Obama meme. You’ve probably seen edits of him that make him say something odd, or skits where someone imitates his voice, but all around there wasn’t really anything all that odd about the way the internet treated Obama, at least in terms of public figures. It was young people on the internet making jokes, just like everything else.
This kind of light, joking fandom space shifted massively with Donald Trump’s first campaign. Whether you love him or hate him, there is no denying that the online and offline culture surrounding Donald Trump is intense and passionate. I’m just saying, during his campaign, I never saw a truck covered in Obama flags and stickers driving down my street.
From the beginning, the following surrounding Donald Trump has seemed different than political followings in the past. It’s the same thing that happened with Ronald Reagen to an extent, where the nation fell in love with him from his past AS a celebrity, and it continued into his career as a politician.
There’s this idolization of Trump that I’ve only really seen with career celebrities before, where no matter what Trump says or does, it must be true and he must be right and if you say otherwise you should burn in hell. Obviously. Everybody’s seen the infamous red MAGA hats everywhere since 2016, with people wearing them to the county fair or the grocery store like throwing on a band t-shirt. Hell, I’ve seen small children walking around in Trump merch.
(Design by Robin MacArthur)
It isn’t just the Trump campaign though, the 2024 presidential election has seen the parasocial relationships with politicians go through the roof in a way that’s beyond t-shirts, flags and shitpost memes. I am of course talking about the Kamala Harris campaign. For God’s sake I literally saw nipple pasties the other day that said “Kamala is Brat” on them in the colors of the Charlie XCX album. I don’t feel like it’s being a prude to think that thats fucking weird is it?
No matter your political leaning or how charismatic you find her, I think it’s wrong to idolize her like she’s a celebrity. Supporting a candidate is one thing, but the worship that we as a nation have made the norm for our political candidates only serves to further polarize us in this left vs right battle.
Treating politicians like we treat our favorite musician puts them up on a pedestal that makes them increasingly difficult to criticize without oddly emotional backlash. I’m not saying not to be vocal about your support of a political candidate, but it is important to understand that left vs right, democrat or republican, politicians are not our friends. Politics will always be about having your own best interest in mind, and that goes for them too. When we treat politicians like we treat Taylor Swift, we put our blinders up to any wrongs they may do to us.