6 Taylor Swift Songs That Relate To Today's Political Climate
If you’re anyone like me, you’re not feeling too hot about the Trump Administration, or the things that are occurring after barely a week of enduring him in office. In fact, if you’re anything like me, you’re actually rather anxious about it. The feeling of looming dread that cascaded over you back in November has finally materialized and despite all your preparations…it’s somehow even worse than you expected. You’re probably feeling a mixture of guttural rage, sorrow, and frustration that gives way to anger-inducing cries and anxious fears about the impending future. It’s a lot to be a politically aware woman during this time, especially in Texas of all places.
Sometimes when I get like this I gravitate more toward my favorite punk artists, but for some reason, this time around Taylor Swift has been the best way for me to process everything that’s gone down. So here are 6 Taylor Swift songs that have allowed me to really feel, grieve, and understand the current political climate, and just how infuriating it all is.
1. I Hate It Here
We have to start here, don’t we? “I Hate It Here” from Swift’s most recent album The Tortured Poets Department is the true escapism anthem. With lyrics like “I hate it here so I will go to secret gardens in my mind” and “I'm there most of the year cause I hate it here” it’s difficult not to relate this to our current political climate. Since Trump's inauguration, the news has once again become an all-consuming space of dread. It’s so easy to be sucked into the endless devastation of doomscrolling that I’ve found myself bouncing between letting it overtake me and trying to enjoy my time by doing the polar opposite. Watching mushy gushy rom-coms, escaping into worlds like Drag Race. It’s a hard line to tow between being politically aware and needing a break from the emotional toll that can take, and Swift ponders on this beautifully.
2. The Man
This one hurts. In case you weren’t on TikTok during the months leading up to the election, Taylor Swift’s song “The Man” became the song for Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris. People made edits to the song, T-shirts, and signs, and Harris even left a post-debate party to the song. So for anyone unaware, the song “The Man” imagines a world where Taylor Swift did everything she’s ever done in her career, only she was a man, and how that one detail would change the public perception. People say she’s dated too many men? “They'd say I played the field before I found someone to commit to. And that would be okay for me to do. Every conquest I had made would make me more of a boss to you.” People think she’s annoying, and therefore don’t value any of her works? “They'd say I hustled. Put in the work. They wouldn't shake their heads and question how much of this I deserve.”
Perhaps the most painful, especially in reference to Harris, is the simple line “If I was a man, I’d be the man.” I fully believe if Kamala Harris was a man she would have won. And after a year of Barbie and what turned out to be faux feminism, it is so disheartening to discover that people would rather a rapist win than a woman. It is more confirmation that there still is a ceiling on what women can achieve. When I’m in the car, this song is no longer a cute feminist bop. It is a gutting reminder of the misogyny that runs rampant in our culture, and the limits society places on women, specifically women of color.
3. Death By A Thousand Cuts
For some swifties out there, I’m sure this song is a surprise. In the days after the election, I found myself viewing this song in a whole new light. “Death By A Thousand Cuts” is a breakup song, but rather than mourning love, I view it as grieving what could have been. “Saying goodbye is death by a thousand cuts, flashbacks waking me up.” It physically hurt to come to terms with how much this world hates women. Saying goodbye to such a remarkable candidate was so difficult. More disturbing was the way my mind related to the bridge “My heart, my hips, my body, my love. Trying to find a part of me that you didn't touch,” reminded me all too well about the abortion bans all over the country, all the ways Trump's rhetoric has touched my own life indirectly or otherwise. Then there’s that one line “Our country, guess it was a lawless land.” And yeah. I guess it was.
4. Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince
If you know anything about this song then this one is pretty obvious. It’s rare to get such a hyper-specific song and the fact that a song discussing the devastation of seeing a woman lose to that man in an election exists is honestly wild. “Miss Americana” is about the political climate after Trump's win in 2016, and relates American politics to a high school. “American glory faded before me. Now I'm feeling hopeless, ripped up my prom dress. Running through rose thorns, I saw the scoreboard, And ran for my life.” It's honestly a brilliant song. Her lyricism is incredible as she weaves motifs found in high school throughout the track with political commentary. She references Hilary Clinton being called a Nasty Woman in the line “They whisper in the hallway, "She's a bad, bad girl", but the lines that really stick out to me are “My team is losing, battered and bruising I see the high fives between the bad guys” and “I'm feeling helpless, the damsels are depressed. Boys will be boys then, where are the wise men?”
She also uses the cheerleading chant Go Fight Win on the bridge as a rallying cry for people to continue fighting despite their disappointments. It’s truly phenomenal, go listen to it right now if you haven’t, but for my purposes, it is pretty cathartic to sing a song that is directly about the situation you’re experiencing with a feminist perspective.
5. Cassandra
Another late addition from The Tortured Poets Department, Cassandra is such a brilliant concept. In Greek Mythology, Cassandra was a prophet who was cursed with incredibly accurate predictions that were so devastating that people would refuse to believe them. God if this doesn’t relate to what it felt like telling people how bad things were going to be under Trump, only for them to say “he’s not actually going to do that.” “When the first stone's thrown, there's screaming. In the streets, there's a raging riot. When it's ‘Burn the bitch,’ they're shrieking. When the truth comes out, it's quiet.”
The most haunting line, especially given Trump's demographic, has to be the bridge:
“They knew, they knew, they knew the whole time
That I was onto something
The family, the pure greed, the Christian chorus line
They all said nothing
Blood’s thick but nothing like a payroll
Bet they never spared a prayer for my soul
You can mark my words that I said it first
In a morning warning, no one heard.”
6. Only The Young
You know, I think many people, myself included, didn’t fully appreciate this song when it was released. “Only The Young” is a motivational song discussing the realities of living in a post-Trump world and how the younger generation can be the ones who change things. It really wasn’t until the day after the election that I allowed myself to listen to this song and just feel the weight of everything that had happened.
“It keeps me awake
The look on your face
The moment you heard the news
You’re screaming inside
And frozen in time
You did all that you could do
The game was rigged, the ref got tricked
The wrong ones think they’re right
You were outnumbered this time”
That verse remains in my head, and I’m so happy to have a song I can come back to that allows me to grieve. It really perfectly encapsulates just how devastating it was to be aware of how bad things were going to get when half of the people in this country didn’t seem to comprehend the ramifications.
There are plenty of other songs I could mention. “Eyes Open” from the Hunger Games soundtrack, “Change”, or the song “The Albatross” with this haunting lyric “Wise men once read fake news, and they believed it. You were sleeping soundly when they dragged you from your bed, and I tried to warn you about them.” I mean, if that’s not giving Latinos For Trump I don’t know what is. But if you’re like me and you’re looking for some music to grieve everything that is happening too, try Taylor Swift. It might surprise you just how eerily accurate some of these songs are.
