There is no question that this past political race was daunting, stressful, and frustrating for everyone. Most of us heard about Mike Pence's trip to Hamilton, Kanye expressing his support for Trump, Green Day's protest chants at the AMA's, and a plethora of other celebrity rants revolving around the results of the 2016 election. Each one of these occasions caused our Facebook feeds and Twitter timelines to reignite in furious passion. But why?
Most of these expressions of political party opposition or support are not surprising. Of course, the cast of Hamilton is not roaming the streets of New York City in "Make America Great Again" hats. They are a cast of various different races, religions, and sexualities. Their production is literally displaying the greatness of immigrants. It is no secret that Donald Trump can be offensive and threatening to the diverse communities of the world. We've all heard about Mike Pence's support for conversion therapy. They refrained from violence and crude language when addressing the vice president-elect, yet were still heavily scrutinized on social media for conveying their hope that the future president simply protect and respect their inalienable rights. This then led the supporters of Hamilton to lash out in defense of the words of the cast. It became a mess.
There was a coagulation of surprise and disappointment when Kanye West announced that he would have voted for Trump...had he voted. Now, two things about this one: a) does anyone ever see anything Kanye does coming? And b) so what? Yes, the man has a large fan base. But if you meet someone solely getting their political views from Kanye West, do the country a favor and implore them to further educate themselves. At the end of the day, he, like the rest of us, has the right to vote for whoever he wants. He is a man who has a single vote to cast (should he ever decide to act upon that). It is our own fault for making his words mean more than they are and for making his thoughts mean more than the rest of ours. But it doesn't have to be that way.
Honestly, the fact that Green Day chanting, "No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA!" during their performance at the AMA's caused outrage is outrageous in itself. It's practically like storming to Twitter to express how appalled you are that a duck quacked. Green Day has been a liberal, anti-establishment, punk rock band since their formation in 1986. They have an entire album (and hit single) called American Idiot. It would be naive to think they wouldn't take advantage of an international performance to express their discontent with the state of the nation. I can assure you that scolding the band on Twitter will neither hurt them nor change their beliefs.
These flare-ups of political expression after each time a celebrity even hints towards their personal views have very little to do with the celebrities themselves. These media superstars have become pawns in the dividing game our country has begun to play. Even if they are simply expressing their apprehensions about the president-elect and mean well, their words become twisted and regurgitated in a morphed tone to make it seem malicious. Whether these galvanized citizens are saying words you praise or words you reject, their words have become branded upon each person who voted the same as them. The fact of the matter is, if we are ever to see our country greater than it is, we can't keep kicking each other, especially when we're down. We need to listen to each other, we need to educate each other, and we need to act with each other.
