Political Celebrities: Helpful or Hurtful?

Barbra Streisand has recently made it known that she supports Hillary Clinton’s bid for the Presidency, while Oprah has been on Barack Obama’s bandwagon for some time now. Pro wrestler Ric Flair hearts Mike Huckabee and John Edwards recently toured Iowa with singer Bonnie Raitt in tow. Celebrities are citizens just like the rest of us, and the beauty of Democracy is that we all get to vote for whomever we please. But…is it okay for celebs to be so showy in their support for this candidate or that?

There’s a lot of party politics out there, and sometimes the Democratic and Republican sides seem fairly cut and dry. But it’s the people who remain “on the fence” that really turn the tide – the independents, the soon-to-be-registered voters, the people who claim a party but often vote against their own. What moves these people, what sways them? What might inspire them to go out there and cast a vote in favor of a particular politician?

Did the public reaction to Stephen Colbert’s Presidential campaign not teach us anything? In less than one week after his announcement, Colbert shot ahead of other campaigners with a quick 2% jump – more than Chris Dodd and Mike Gravel have amassed in months and months of hard-core campaigning. Celebrities are on TV for one reason and one reason only – because they sell. They sell us everyday on entertainment, on their ideas, on their looks and their skills. So it’s not an incredible leap of faith to assume they’re going to try and sell us on their politics, too.  But should they?

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