The Cardinal Sin

Taylor Swift reflects on 2017: "I couldn't have asked for a better year." https://t.co/m1tKqWJLhx pic.twitter.com/FvWH28vH7O — billboard (@billboard) December 14, 2017

December birth baby Taylor Swift is finishing 2017 in grand fashion. She just turned 28 and has the best-selling album of the year, a feat that was accomplished just one week after its release.

Young, rich, talented, and the world is hers…what’s not to be happy about?

According to liberal America, everything.

The young pop sensation has been under fire for a very long time because she refuses to offer her political opinions on anything.

While it is true that there is a long history of musicians mixing art and politics, it has never been something that’s required in order to be respected by peers or the media. Pop stars, whose music tends to be lighter fare anyway, have never been expected to be ultra-political.

Swift has done nothing proactively or outwardly to offend anyone; hers is an error of omission only. So why the hatred?

There are a number of reasons worth exploring.

2016 Lesson Not Learned

Whether they want to admit it or not (most of them don’t), the Democrats’ main strategy in 2016 was to deploy celebrities and hope that they made Hillary Clinton seem more human. What they lacked in coherent plans to win Wisconsin, they made up for in smarmy celebrity love.

To a dispassionate observer, this was one of the more glaring strategic failures from the 2016 contest. On the final night of the campaign, a hoarse Trump was speaking to a crowd of voters in a swing state while Hillary was at her umpteenth celebrity concert gala of the cycle.

More than a year after the election, the Democrats are still desperate to prove that it was Russia that made their Chosen One lose, and not anything they did. If you follow social media at all, you know that the left still finds great value in the fact that most celebrities are knee-jerk liberals. They feel that leftist politics are validated because extraordinarily wealthy, insulated people are liberal. Never mind that most aren’t deep political thinkers and “became” liberal merely because that is the path of least resistance in the entertainment industry. There is happiness in numbers and they certainly have them in Hollywood and the music industry.

It isn’t enough for the greedy leftists that they have most entertainers on their side, they want ALL of them. Taylor Swift is the biggest prize out there and the fact that she won’t join their political reindeer games will forever irritate them.

Thou Shalt Not Leave The Hive Mind

Collectivism isn’t just a political way of life for leftists, it permeates every aspect of their beings. Members aren’t just expected to think the same things, they are supposed to be emotionally homogeneous as well.

It comes as a surprise to no one that the eternally aggrieved American left has been even more miserable since President Trump has been in office. To say that they’ve been overreacting would be exploring new levels of understatement.

It’s so overwrought that the likes of Rob Reiner are exhorting people to “take to the streets”:

Make no mistake,by attacking Mueller,DT's state run TV(Fox) is pushing US to a constitutional crisis. Be prepared to take the streets. — Rob Reiner (@robreiner) December 16, 2017

I’m not clear on what Reiner and his ilk are going to fight with if this does spill into the streets. Maybe they’re bringing quivers of late-night talk show monologue barbs.

When you truly believe we are on the verge of violent insurrection, there isn’t a lot of room for good moods.

Liberals also believe that believing or feeling differently than they do is just plain wrong. In that light, Taylor Swift’s happiness in 2017 is not only offensive in the minds of liberals, but borderline evil. How could she dare be happy when the right thing to do is wallow in hysteria-driven misery whether it is reality based or not?

That mindset led to this, which got a lot of attention:

is there anything more annoying than Taylor Swift talking about what a great year 2017 has been while everyone else is fighting for our lives under Trump? ugh… — Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) December 14, 2017

I don’t know what a Kevin Allred is, but if he truly is fighting for his life under President Trump I will have to assume it’s because he has led a life riddled with unfortunate choices. I couldn’t stand Barack Obama but never once did I feel that I might die because he was president. Then again, I’m a rational grown-up.

People like this don’t understand how someone could possibly feel differently than they do. That’s largely because they surround themselves only with people who think, act, and feel alike. It’s a safe bet that Allred hasn’t been within 500 yards of someone who doesn’t agree with him in at least two years. His irritation is genuine. Swift is a celebrity. Celebrities are supposed to think like he does. His entire worldview is rocked because one doesn’t.

Now apply that to every coastal liberal in America and you can see that Taylor Swift’s happiness really is the lump of coal in their secular shame stockings this holiday season.

You Will Be Made To Care

The pressure has been on Swift to say anything at all about politics since long before Trump was elected. She was treated like a gender traitor for not perfunctorily supporting Hillary Clinton.

In the time that has since passed, the media reaction to Swift’s non-committal approach to politics has grown more hostile, almost certainly in an effort to peer pressure her into joining the narrative. There is no reason to think that this will let up while Trump is in office, and there is no telling how long the rabid leftist hive will remain angry with Swift afterwards.

There is, however, every reason to hope that Swift never capitulates to the mob.

There is no sin in being either apolitical or private about one’s politics, no matter how politically charged the times are. In keeping her opinions to herself, Taylor Swift is exhibiting independence and maturity beyond her years. Parents everywhere hope that their daughters will find the resolve to not yield to peer pressure and bullying once they are out in the real world. Swift endures both on a scale that the average person couldn’t dream about.

Today’s hyper-charged, often nonsensical political climate doesn’t need another celebrity voice barking out leftist talking points. If they can’t win with the near hegemonic control they have over the entertainment industry at the moment ,they don’t deserve to win.

It’s hypocritical for the people who claim to be champions of women’s rights and independence to be angry with a young woman who refuses to be bullied or harassed into saying something that she doesn’t want to say.

And it’s refreshing to see someone who is willing to be in a good mood no matter how ridiculous any given news cycle is.

Happy 2017, Taylor Swift. I hope 2018 is even better for you.

Maybe think of running for office one day too.