Political Standards vs. Celebrity Standards

The difference may well decide this presidential election.

I recently wrote how I no longer get worked up over celebrities weighing in on politics. I listed a few reasons for my change of heart. One of them had to do with the issue of influence:

Maybe it’s because I realized that celebrities, at least the ones shouting from the sidelines, didn’t have as much political sway as I’d thought.

The “sidelines” qualifier was important because, as Donald Trump and others before him (like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Clint Eastwood) have proven, celebrities who actually enter politics do inherently command an inordinate amount of political influence.

Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson wrote an interesting piece last week for the New York Times, in which she further explored this topic. But she took things a step further, examining an even greater advantage celebrities-turned-politicians enjoy: even after they’re elected, the public, in large part, still holds them to the dirt-low standards of a celebrity… rather than the much higher ones appropriate for an individual serving in public office.

Let’s face it. When you’re a celebrity, you can get away with a whole lot… at least with the public. Everything from infidelity, to drug addiction, to physical and sexual assault is a mostly forgivable and rehabilitative offense. The same goes for felony convictions and prison time. I mean, just look at Mike Tyson.

But one would think — or at least hope — that once a celebrity vies to serve in public office as an elected representative, he or she would be held to the same standards we commonly hold every other politician to. Standards of leadership and governing philosophy. Standards of character. Standards of competency and intelligence. Standards of policy.

But that’s not so much the case, concludes Anderson.

Anderson conducted a focus group with women who voted for Donald Trump in 2020, and asked who else they’d like to see run for president in the future. The immediate answer she received was… Oprah Winfrey.

“I doubt Ms. Winfrey and Mr. Trump share much in the way of policy preferences, values, or opinions these days,” writes Anderson. “But the notion of a Trump-Oprah voter is a strong reminder of the power of celebrity to shape public opinion. Policy considerations, ideological positioning, and partisan cues all warp around the gravitational pull of megastardom in America.”

Anderson continues:

The criminal allegations, the trials, Jan. 6 — why does none of it seem to affect Mr. Trump’s standing? Each week seems to bring something that, were it any other candidate, would horrify and disqualify. This week it is a video with a faux “unified Reich” headline, next week could be a jury handing down a guilty verdict in a criminal case; both could easily fail to move the polls.

I believe that nearly a decade since his first campaign, Mr. Trump retains the sort of shield that only celebrity can provide.

…

As “The Apprentice” fades farther in the rear view mirror, it is a mistake to forget that Mr. Trump is a celebrity first and politician second. Nearly a decade later, he still isn’t affected by the same political laws of gravity that govern nearly every other political figure — including his Republican imitators and impostors.

The fall of Kristi Noem is a recent reminder of that last point. The governor’s story about shooting her dog effectively ended her national political hopes, while Trump, as I wrote a few weeks ago, could strangle a hundred puppies with a porn-actress’s thong, and not lose a point in the polls.

None of this is to say that Trump isn’t a rare case even among celebrities. Not even international pop-culture icons like Schwarzenegger and Eastwood, at the top of their Hollywood stardom, could have gotten a pass on the things Trump has. I don’t think Oprah could have either.

Trump may have ridden into politics on fandom, but his base has largely been transformed into a servile, unquestioning cult. “Trump-Oprah voters,” as Anderson calls them, aren’t necessarily part of that cult, but they’re nonetheless deeply influenced by the magnetism of celebrity… which, on the issue of standards, may amount to a distinction without a difference.

This is an extraordinary political advantage, of course — one that President Biden has never enjoyed. But it is an insurmountable one?

Clearly not. It's difficult to make the case that a majority of Americans are powerless to the allure of celebrity when Trump lost the popular vote twice, and never experienced above-water approval ratings as president. The Democrats didn’t need to draft Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to defeat Trump in 2020. They did it with someone as glaringly unimpressive as Joe Biden, who has nothing in his arsenal resembling fandom, let alone a cult.

There were multiple reasons why Biden won, but I think a big one is that after eight months of suffering through a global pandemic that the vast majority of Americans recognized Trump handled miserably, millions of persuadable voters decided it was time to hold him to political standards… not celebrity ones. I think they were even more willing to do so, as evidenced by the 2022 midterms, after watching a violent insurrection consume the U.S. Capitol.

But it’s been over three years since January 6, and over four since the start of pandemic — a lifetime in today’s politics. Memories fade. Republican leaders, voters, and right-wing media personalities have put in long, exhaustive hours rehabilitating the former president and white-washing his political legacy. Being out of office, he hasn’t had to answer for high inflation (though he contributed to it) or any other national or international woes. Trump’s cult has remained intact, and though it’s not large enough to guarantee him a victory in November, it was plenty large enough to win him the Republican primary. The election rematch that 75-80% of the country didn’t want, but will decide, is upon us.

Biden is, of course, struggling to run on his own record — a record marred with big policy missteps, poor judgment, nagging inflation, questions of mental fitness, and a terrible sales record. If Democrats would have wised up well over a year ago, and successfully pressured Biden to commit to stepping down after one term, the party’s presumptive nominee would probably be leading Trump by double-digits right now.

Instead, like the last two presidential elections, it’s a close race between two deeply unpopular candidates. And in this close race, one candidate is appropriately being held to political standards, while time has helped the other settle firmly back into celebrity standards. That’s not good news for Joe Biden.

“If Mr. Biden is to win in November, his team will need to get voters thinking about Mr. Trump as a politician once more,” writes Anderson. “For now, Mr. Trump is still playing by Oprah rules.”