Now that the changes Apple has made thanks to Taylor Swift’s open letter to them is trending, I think it’s time to share with the world an idea I’ve had since I was fourteen: TAYLOR SWIFT FOR PRESIDENT
I am completely serious. While I know at this point Taylor Swift is only 25 and you must be 35 to be President of the United States, I have a point I promise and you keep reading I’ll try not to fangirl too much.
Although you may believe all US Presidents must be men who attended an Ivy League college before law school, are married with 3.5 kids (and 3.5 extra-marital affairs) and follow a nonspecific protestant religion, if you go back to your 3rd Grade Social Studies class you might remember that there are actually only FOUR qualifications to be president of the United States.
- You must be at least 35 years old. (Taylor Swift does not meet this requirement, if you were wondering she was born in 1989.)
- You must be a natural born citizen. (Everyone and their mother knows Swifty was born in PA, where they signed the Declaration of Independence and named for James Taylor… if being named for a well known baseball fan who sings about “a young cowboy who lives on the range” isn’t American, I don’t know what is.)
- You must be a permanent resident for at least fourteen years. (The paparazzi that have stalked her since 2006 can attest for more than half those years, after that we can check Facebook.)
- No one can be president for more then two terms. (Would she even need to?)
Okay so Taylor Swift will, in ten years, meet all of the qualifications and be legally eligible to run for President. If she decided to do so, here are my top four qualifications she meets and why I would vote for her:
She is her own woman.
Neither her Daddy, her brother, or her husband were president before her – you can say that being related to a former president shows experience but it reminds me of a monarchy or a dictatorship. Don’t Americans pride ourselves on saying “this king is a fool, peace out England!”? (No disrespect to Ed Sheeran) P.S. If we are talking about countries where rule stays in the family my first thoughts would be… I don’t know Cuba, North Korea – do you really want to have a leader whose biggest accomplishment is being the villain in a Seth Rogen movie? (And not even his best!) More importantly, she made her money herself; no mob connections, no black market drug deals, or sketchy payoffs to offshore accounts. You see her songs on ITunes and see how many people bought that song, you see her concert tickets on sale and that they are sold out. There it is, her money in front of your eyes legally and honestly. I wish the political party system worked better so someone wouldn’t need to be a millionaire to have an honest campaign, but can you imagine how amazing it would be to have a president who didn’t have investors to answer to? Who had the power to serve all citizens equally? “Instead of giving a huge tax break to Millionaire X for paying for my campaign commercials I’m going to give it to Millionaire Y, so he can afford to keep his factories in the United States, keeping a million people employed, not on welfare and paying taxes and it will stop him from outsourcing to China, so we can pay the Chinese for things we could have made here even though we are already owe them trillions of dollars in debt.”
She is a True Feminist.
She is Fierce. TS has recently made headlines criticizing the sexism that currently exists in the music industry as well as the media that surrounds it, but she also is a wonderful example of positive feminism with her star studded fierce female friendships.
We are at our best when we cheer each other on and build each other up.
She is intelligent.
Whether or not you like her songs she has built an empire with an army of celebrity galpals and diehard fans. Swifties Unite! Just think about the fact that she has 5 albums of music and that she wrote or co-wrote every song and also did a great deal of producing.
She is honest.
Have you heard one of her songs? Yes they are girly-pop and country but how refreshing is it to hear a song that you can tell is about a real person “twin fire signs, four blue eyes” not the “oh, your nice smile and nice eyes” generic song that we’ve heard a million times. Besides pouring her heart into her lyrics TS is extremely open with her fans, taking to tumblr to let them know about her mother’s cancer diagnosis. Obviously she’s not 100% detailing her personal life to the media, but would you? My favorite piece of TS honestly is the song “Back to December” with lyrics stating, “this is me swallowing my pride, standing in front of you saying I’m sorry.” Can you imagine a president who took responsibility for their own mistakes instead of blaming and firing a lower level government employee? Or even crazier yet a president who knew how to apologize?
100% Disclosure: I’m a SuperSwifty- I have loved since 2006, I saw the video for “Tim McGraw” on CMT and was mesmerized. She is my absolute favorite musician and she seems to be living life two years ahead of me so that her albums come out just in time to help me through my life – she taught me I was better than that boy who hurt me in the cruelest and quietest way; “every smile you fake is so condescending counting all the scars you’ve made.” She helped me survive my first best-friendship-breakup; “I can’t breathe without you but I have too.” She’s the reason I forgave someone I really didn’t want to forgive; “who you are is not what you did, you’re still an innocent.” She let me know I wasn’t alone in how destroyed I was by truest loss of my life; “I’d like to be old self again but I’m still trying to find it,” and as cheesy as it may sound (and I know this article is very cheesy already) life is a million times better after you learn to “shake it off!”
The thing is… I wouldn’t really want Taylor Swift to be president, I don’t want her to be an astronaut, or a hibachi chef – I selfishly want her to stay her amazing self, rocking out and helping me. I want her song about getting married at my wedding, her song about having kids playing while I am going into labor. BUT, I wanted to start this conversation because Taylor Swift has qualities we need in a president, qualities we DESERVE. We need a fierce president. What are we doing when we ask a pop star for things we don’t ask a president?
So whether you vote for Hillary, Jeb, Donald or the lesser-known super candidate I’m hoping for. I hope you ask them for what I find in Taylor Swift.
Honesty. Integrity. Intelligence. Creativity. Charity. Feminism… Fierceness.
I know we have time before the election but I was inspired to Speak Now.
Rea McCarthy
Rebecca Anne “Rea” McCarthy is a writer and actress currently “feeling 22″ and unsure about anything else. She loves reading, painting, dancing, cooking, kids, and dogs. There is serious reason to believe she was a Disney Princess in a former life. (She tends to be irrational.)
Be the first to comment