Worldwide sensation and pop star Taylor Swift broke her career-long political silence on October 7th by uploading a post on Instagram encouraging young adults and teens to register and vote.
Swift’s post caused a lot of controversy, many people upset with her for using her platform to speak out against a candidate. Others praised her decision to encourage new voters to be educated about their candidate.
“I think that she’s on the right track and people should have the right to vote for what they believe,” said Nico DeArcangelis, a junior at Middletown High School. “She definitely has the right to [express her opinion]… I believe that even though it’s one vote out of millions of people in the United States that your vote still counts.”
DeArcangelis isn’t the only one in agreement with Swift’s post.
Louis Hu, a MHS junior, thinks that it’s great that influential pop stars are reaching out to young people. He believes that many things mentioned in Swift’s post are “an important issue to fight for.”
Given her large following, Hu agrees that Swift’s post would be an incentive for young people to vote, but there are still going to be people who are “too lazy to go out and vote.”
“I don’t think anyone should be too offended or hurt by it,” said Ali Watt, a MHS senior. “She can think what she wants to think even if you don’t agree with her, it doesn’t really matter… She has a large platform so she does kinda have to be careful with that.”
Anna Watters, a freshman at MHS, was in agreement with Swift’s post. Watters also added that the politician mentioned in Taylor’s post, Marsha Blackburn, was entitled to her own opinion.
Some people found Swift’s post interesting, given her country background. Serena Shirsekar, a MHS junior, says that “a lot of people associate her with being southern.” Shirsekar added that the more liberal beliefs expressed may come as a surprise to some. For those who don’t agree with Swift’s post, “that everybody should have a voice and everybody should be able to vote for what they believe in.”
