In her new documentary, Taylor Swift has some harsh words for Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
“She’s Trump in a wig,” Swift laments after Blackburn beats Swift’s pick, Democrat Phil Bredesen, for a spot in the Senate. Swift complains that Blackburn won by being “the kind of female males want us to be in a horrendous 1950s world.”
It’s a less-than-enthusiastic endorsement, but, in Miss Americana, Swift’s harsh words for Blackburn don’t start there. When the 2018 midterm election convinces Swift to finally grow vocal about politics, Swift says she basically has no other choice.
“It’s not that I want to step into this,” she says. “I just — I can’t not at this point.”
What exactly is Swift so concerned about? She explains:
This sounds pretty damning for Blackburn, whom Swift calls “a homophobic racist,” but this characterization is not exactly accurate.
When Blackburn voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2013, she was in the House of Representatives. She voted for the House Republican version but against the Senate version, which she said had been diluted. She complained that the bill had been changed to divert resources in the Office on Violence Against Women, previously limited to biological women, to gay men and transgender women.
“When you start to make this about other things, it becomes an ‘Against Violence Act’ and not a targeted, focused act that is there to address the issue of violence against women,” Blackburn said at the time on MSNBC.
Despite Blackburn’s disapproval, the bill passed.
For context, the Violence Against Women Act was first passed in 1994, but it must be renewed every few years to ensure federal funds continue to help women who have been victims of domestic abuse and other forms of violence. Each year, the act is modified with provisions, to which members of the GOP object. Last year, the House passed a bill closing the boyfriend loophole but also including language that would entitle transgender women to share shelters with biological women. The Senate has not yet voted on the bill.
As for the rest of Blackburn’s record, she has been rated poorly by the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, and by the NAACP for being anti-affirmative action. In 2008, she co-sponsored a bill to define marriage in the Constitution as the union of one man and one woman.
Blackburn’s record in Congress may not be one that neatly coincides with Swift’s left-wing politics, but it’s not at all unusual for a conservative politician. So, no, Blackburn does not appear to be “a homophobic racist,” and if she’s “Trump in a wig,” that’s just because she’s not one of the liberals in Swift’s ideological bubble.
Blackburn must have anticipated this treatment in Miss Americana. A day before the documentary aired, she released a statement. “Taylor is an exceptionally gifted artist and songwriter, and Nashville is fortunate to be the center of her creative universe,” she said, adding, “I wish Taylor the best — she’s earned it.”
With her opposition to Blackburn, Swift argues that she simply needs “to be on the right side of history,” but, by slamming a political opponent as a racist and a homophobe, Swift just makes our polarized political climate even worse.
