She may be young, but she is also actively a part of a party that elevates people not because of their ability, but because of their commitment to Sparkle Motion. She knows this. This is what Republicans like about their party.
Indeed. Say the magic words, win prizes.
Don’t take away her agency. It was not a mystery to her who these folks are and what they stand for. To be sure, 19 year olds are not the most sophisticated, but to simplify this relationship as her being “used” simply because she’s 19 is infantilizing and not a little bit paternalistic/patriarchial.
Yes, I feel an element of compassion for anyone who is lead to believe that success is just about saying the right magic words and joining the right club, and then occasionally runs hard into the fact that sometimes that club can’t protect you from the consequences of not actually being very good. Those are going to be startling and uncomfortable moments.
But that compassion applies equally to this woman and to the likes of Rick Perry. They’re cut from the same cloth, chasing the same dreams.
If I can call out other Republicans for being clearly inadequate to the task of their jobs, in a party that clearly doesn’t value competency, I sure as heck can call out this woman for the same reasons.
Come on. When you were that age, the evidence wasn’t as obviously plastered on every surface it can stick to, with big red arrows and words that read “Republicans Stand Together with Proud Boys and Nazis”.
And, that’s exactly what Octopus’ single . . . contribution to this thread is. Won’t someone protect this person from the online mob of bullies!!!
This. This a thousand times. This was my experience watching American Idol. I will not watch the show because of the cruelty they show.
The direct parallel here is that CPAC is like American Idol. They are the ones who deserve ridicule. They may not have intentionally put up a singer who couldn’t perform, but they did, and they absolutely should have known better. I feel sorry for the singer, but she should have known better, too.
I play a lot of acoustic music w/ some pickers whom I consider quite talented. Over the past few months, we’ve been sharing personal clips of ourselves singing/playing. It has been an eye opener! When you see how reasonably accomplished amateurs sound, you really gain more respect for competent pro solo acts.
When we play as a group - even a duo - we are able to cover up each others’ inadequacies. But by yourself - man, each nanosecond pause, each slightly missed pitch, really is magnified. Discussing w/ my wife, she commented that is why choirs sound so good. The whole is definitely better than the parts.
Having said that, boy, someone really fell down on the job if they thought this young woman had what it took to belt out this song in this forum. IME, it is not uncommon for performers to overestimate their own ability. Also in many instances, people around a performer - family, friends - may cause the performer to think they are more talented than they are.
Singing the banner a capella is quite challenging, but I would imagine the top few singers in just about any midsized high school could do much better than this.
I was talking with my daughter the other day - she’s a high school choir member - about this performance, and I said something along the lines of “for something like this in front of a national audience, they should have done a better job finding someone who can sing the anthem acapella.”
She said “Maybe they couldn’t find anyone willing to sing for them. I wouldn’t.”
“Oh, come on. It’s a paying gig.”
“Nope. Wouldn’t do it.”
“You mean, if they were to pay you $20,000, fly you out there, put you up in a nice hotel, etc., you wouldn’t do it?”
“Nope. Not for them.”
Quite frankly, I’m proud of her, sticking to her morals. If they offered me $20,000 etc., I’d have a hard time turning it down. Then again, I would look at it as a paying job, not as promoting the ideals espoused there.
She’s even posted the CPAC video, with the heading
Star “Mangled” Banner- the botched CPAC national anthem by yours truly, Sailor Sabol
and the comment:
Go ahead. Laugh. Get it out of your system. I know this is what y’all’re here for. Hey, say what you will, but at least I was successful at being an entertainer. That’s for sure.
She’s been responding to some of the comments on the video, and giving conciliatory replies to comments that say ‘never mind about the singing, what about the politics?’
She comes across as ultra naïve, but not a bad person.
I think she’s capable of growing and changing. She doesn’t seem stupid, or fanatical. She simply didn’t understand what she was getting into. I’m not inclined to judge her harshly. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if in ten years time she was a media personality (not a singer!) with liberal views, laughing ruefully at her 18 year old self.
She says she can’t read music, has never had any vocal training, and had sinus problems on the day.
The real question for the people who chose her to sing at CPAC, is why they didn’t watch any of the other videos of her singing, because they are just as bad.
It’s not really a question, it’s just utter incompetence.
The question should really be, when they can’t even be trusted with such a small trivial task, why should they be trusted to have any part of running the government?
Respect to her for reopening her social media feed, though if she were my kid I might’ve advised that she let it rest a little while longer. But the way that social media and self-perception intermingle for a lot of teenagers these days probably means it was going to happen sooner or later either way.
Her mom‘s responses do deepen the mystery a bit – “she doesn’t want to be a singer, she was delighted to be selected” - it’s still not clear how it ended up being her.
I think this is a bit of a risky argument. You just happened to invoke it, so I don’t mean to pick on you for raising it, but …
In most places, it’s easy to say the Motor Vehicles (or whatever they call the license plate/driver’s license office) is horrible, painful, and inefficient – the worst example of government in action.
From which, it’s easy to extrapolate that government is inherently bad.
And wasn’t that ‘proof positive’ that Democrats – incapable of running their own elections – shouldn’t run the country ?
Somebody totally screwed the pooch on picking this young lady to sing for CPAC. While I have a nearly unlimited list of reasons why I don’t think their party ought to be running the country, I’m hesitant to add this particular screw-up to that august list.
