Fin: The Democrats need to break their celebrity addiction

Plus: A new (maybe?) Star Wars trilogy, RIP Quincy Jones, a dubious Kanye documentary and more in this week's notes column.

The election, of course, is over; my overarching thoughts on what happened, and the way forward, can be read over at Political Tribune. 

Because This is a Movie Newsletter, a few thoughts on a relevant aspect of the vote and how it went: 

In an election night moment on MSNBC that went viral, that network’s host Joy Reid said the following, about Kamala Harris’ campaign, once it was clear that she was going to lose: 

“Nothing that was true yesterday about how flawlessly this campaign was run, is not true now. I mean, this really was a historic flawlessly run campaign. Queen Latifah never endorses anyone. She came out and endorsed her. She had every prominent celebrity voice. She had the Taylor Swift -- the Swifties, she had the B-hive. You could not have run a better campaign in that short period of time. I still think that's true.”

If political campaigns were run on the sole criteria of how good they are at wrangling A-list celebrities, I suppose Harris-Walz would earn the “flawless” label. But they’re not- they have to persuade, strategize, and win. Those things, as I think Tuesday proved, are way more important. 

Celebrities rule the Democratic Party, they have for a long time, and going to fundraisers with them is a big part of being a Democratic candidate. The Democrats, in this election, gained the support of the world’s biggest pop stars (Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry), as well as various sports figures (LeBron James, Steph Curry, Steve Kerr), and even the entire core cast of The Avengers. 

After all of that, though, I’ve seen zero indication that such figures are able to deliver their fan bases to the Democratic Party or help move the electoral needle in any appreciable way. Taylor Swift posted an endorsement and dropped a voter registration link, but whether she succeeded in getting Swifties to vote for Harris in big numbers is another question entirely.

There were celebrity hosts every night of the Democratic convention, from Kerry Washington to Mindy Kaling, and the proceedings were frequently interrupted by musical numbers- so often, in fact, that Joe Biden’s speech got pushed back past midnight. 

Robert De Niro showed up last Sunday at an Eagles tailgate. Numerous casts of popular old TV shows revisited their old material, to shill for Harris. Saturday Night Live, each week, does a long cold open in which the “joke” is that big stars are dressed up like political figures. Those “White Dudes for Harris” calls were just one movie actor after another providing long-winded pro-Kamala testimonials. 

In the fall campaign, A-listers like Beyonce, Eminem, and Jennifer Lopez headlined rallies for Harris. The final rally of the campaign, which was beamed, Wrestlemania II-style, across multiple locations, featured the likes of Fat Joe, Jon Bon Jovi, and Lady Gaga. 

(A Trump rally could never do such a thing, mostly because Trump’s the only one in that orbit who matters, and no one would come to any of the other rallies. And sure, the Trumpers have their own celebs, like Hulk Hogan and Dr. Phil, but they’re not at the center of everything, mostly because no one but Trump can ever be.) 

I mean, I keep going to these events, so I guess I’m part of the problem. I saw Bruce Springsteen play a rally for Harris, along with John Legend and Barack Obama, a couple of weeks ago. In the last 20 years, this was the fourth different Democratic presidential candidate I’ve seen Springsteen perform on behalf of. And three of the four (all except Obama) went on to lose. 

There was one Democratic celebrity who did make a big impact in this race, and it wasn’t with an endorsement: When it came time for a major Democratic Party figure to write a New York Times op-ed calling for Joe Biden to drop out of the race, that task fell not to any elected official, but rather to George Clooney. Clooney’s a smart guy who turned out to have pretty good political instincts, but that shouldn’t be his job. 

In the months to come, the Democrats will have a million discussions about the best way forward, and they might even land on a winning answer. But I think one thing that certainly needs a rethink is the idea that having the biggest celebrities on hand is going to make any difference at all. 

And besides- that Joy Reid monologue was the first I even heard about Queen Latifah endorsing Harris.