For a long time, people were able to speculate that Taylor Swift was a “God-fearing” Republican. Her ties to the country music genre, paired with a staunchly apolitical nature, made it easy to opt for that assumption. Especially for the audience (mostly male) that wanted to believe Swift was their Aryan goddess. Those fantasies were shattered in 2018, when Swift made the first political statement and endorsement of her then twelve-year career. Her declaration of support for Democratic candidate Phil Bredesen in the midterm elections for Tennessee was accompanied by urging youths who hadn’t yet registered to vote to do so immediately, with Swift concluding, “So many intelligent, thoughtful, self-possessed people have turned 18 in the past two years and now have the right and privilege to make their vote count. But first you need to register, which is quick and easy to do. October 9th is the LAST DAY to register to vote in the state of TN. Go to vote.org and you can find all the info. Happy Voting!”
It was not “happy voting” for Swift, in the end, though. Because Blackburn won that midterm election and continues to be the senator for that state as of 2024, amid the release of Swift’s eleventh album, The Tortured Poets Department. On said album, there are many songs to pick at in terms of “problematic lyrics” (not least of which is: “We would pick a decade/We wished we could live in instead of this/I’d say the 1830s but without all the racists and getting married off for the highest bid”), but one that stands out in particular is “Florida!!!” featuring Florence + the Machine (a.k.a. Florence Welch). As track number eight on the album, it falls appropriately between “Fresh Out the Slammer” and “Guilty As Sin?” Both titles evincing images of Florida in that everyone seems to be prison material and most people who live there are guilty as sin (no question mark)—not just of drug-addled misdeeds, but the crime of effectively supporting the state’s increasingly discriminatory policies.
Thus, for Swift to romanticize the state at a moment in its history when it has implemented among the most, let’s just say it, 1830s-inspired laws out there (Swift’s dream come true!) feels like a return to her being billable as an Aryan goddess for white supremacists. A category that Florida’s führer, Ron DeSantis, falls into based on his consistent support for extremely prejudicial legislation. “Luckily,” the U.S.’ clusterfuck of a justice system has prevented DeSantis from getting certain constitutionally-violating laws to stick (at least not entirely), including 2022’s comically named Stop Woke Act, which “banned employers from providing mandatory workplace diversity training.” A key portion of that law was blocked by a federal court of appeals earlier this year, indicating the rampant disgust for many of the laws that have passed under DeSantis’ encouragement. This includes, but is certainly not limited to, approving a measure that allows Florida residents to carry a concealed loaded firearm, supporting one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation and, of course, the notorious Don’t Say Gay law, which restricts Florida teachers from discussing gender, sex and sexuality. Such Orwellian laws are also in line with DeSantis and his Republican brethren banning trans people from using public bathrooms that affirm their identity and trying to limit the performance of drag shows under the measures proposed in the incongruously titled Protection of Children Act.
All of this is to say, again, it’s a weird time for Swift to be promoting Florida as a place of escape, rather than, in truth, a place people should be trying to escape from. Unless, of course, they’re white and heteronormative like Swift. To that point, Swift remarked of her “inspiration” behind the song, “I think I was coming up with this idea of like, ‘What happens when your life doesn’t fit or your choices you’ve made catch up to you and you’re surrounded by these harsh consequences and judgment, and circumstances did not lead you to where you want to be and you just want to escape from everything you’ve ever known. Is there a place you could go?’” It seems odd that the state that would jump out at her for that is fucking Florida. Because, to reiterate, Florida is where you receive said harsh consequences and judgment in the first place. And yet, with Swift having no real concept of what that would actually mean as a result of her long-standing privileged situation in life, maybe she really does have no clue that Florida offers nothing resembling “refuge.” Except, as mentioned, to people who look like her. And share her hetero “values.”
Nonetheless, Swift continued to prattle on about writing this tourism ad for one of the worst states, “I’m always watching like Dateline—people, you know, have these crimes that they commit. Where do they immediately skip town and go to? They go to Florida, you know?” Do they? That seems like a real “imagination” stretch on her part. Even so, she insists, “They like try to reinvent themselves, have a new identity, blend in [to reemphasize, one can only “blend in” in Florida if they possess Swift’s, er, aesthetic]. And I think when you go through a heartbreak, there’s a part of you that thinks, ‘I want a new name, I want a new life, I don’t want anyone to know where I’ve been or know me at all.’ And so that was the jumping-off point behind, ‘Where would you go to reinvent yourself and blend in? Florida.’” Oof. Absolutely not. Maybe she could have gotten away with the idea of Florida being a place for “reinvention” in the 90s, back when South Beach and Miami Beach were beacons of hedonistic gay nightlife to the point where even Madonna and Gianni Versace wanted to live there. But, at present, those days of “anything goes” acceptance are clearly long gone.
Even so, Swift and Welch adamantly declare, “Florida/Is one hell of a drug/Florida/Can I use you up?” Not if it doesn’t use you up first, which it definitely will. Elsewhere, they sing, “I’ve got some regrets, I’ll bury them in Florida/Tell me I’m despicable, say it’s unforgivable [it is…to champion Florida in such a way at this moment in history]/What a crash, what a rush, fuck me up, Florida.” Oh Florida will fuck people up all right—just not people like Swift. And her blithe promotion of this state as some kind of “oasis” for “starting over” is sure to help DeSantis’ cause in continuing to pass whatever dystopian laws he wants. After all, Taylor Swift still thinks it’s “the place to be” regardless.
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