We look towards celebrities for inspiration regarding culture and the arts, but when it comes to politics celebrities cause problems that can manipulate voters .

Kanye West is one of the most important celebrities in politics today and for good reason. Not only is he a cultural icon of the 2000s, but he has an immense amount of money and influence on America’s markets.

He is also running for president in the 2020 election. However, none of these are good reasons to listen to what he says.

His ludicrous amount of money is vastly different than that of the majority of the American people and holds unpopular views that mostly only benefit him. Even though Kanye doesn’t really have any electability or influence on the electorate, the GOP sees him as a major political tool.

The GOP believes that by putting Kanye on ballots in battleground states like Wisconsin that they will siphon votes away from Joe Biden because he will take away the Black vote. However, Black voters don’t vote for a candidate just because they are Black.

Many Black voters recognize that both parties put on the image of supporting racial justice, but when Democrats or Republicans are actually in office they do very little for the Black community. 

Kanye isn’t the only celebrity that the GOP has taken advantage of with vast differences from the American people. Popular Hip-Hop artist 50 cent recently endorsed Donald Trump, most likely due to Joe Biden’s tax plan, which only affects the extremely wealthy.

50 cent is voting for Donald Trump, probably because he wants to keep his vast amount of wealth. The GOP may also think that 50 cent’s endorsement helps win support of Black voters, but just like Biden’s taxes, this doesn’t impact the majority of Black voters. 

The only reason why the GOP thinks this is effective is because they don’t see the difference between 50 cent and the majority of Black people, they only see skin color. This further cements the GOP’s racist identity politics and their ignorance of the wealth gap between working people and the 1%.

The GOP’s racist election tactics also occurred with other celebrities like Ice Cube, another popular Hip-Hop artist that has a vast amount of wealth and influence. Within the last month, Ice Cube reached out to the Trump administration seeking support for his “Contract With Black America.” Once Ice Cube got intact with Trump, the contract was absorbed by the Trump administration into the “Platinum Plan”, which according to the administration seeks to  “increase access to capital in black communities.”

The White House doesn’t actually care about going through with Ice Cube’s plans, they only want the image of a famous Black person working with Trump. All the GOP wants from these wealthy Black celebrities is an increase in Black voter support. 

Economic differences aren’t the only thing separating celebrities from the general populace either. Social differences make up a great amount of divergence, and Kanye plays into this idea more than any other celebrity because of his candidacy.

With every ballot that Kanye is put on and every vote he receives, it gives him delusions of grandeur in his already extremely prosperous life. His ego is so massive because of all of his success and is more concerned about himself than the American people.

This isn’t to say that generally successful people don’t have egos either, but that Kanye’s is to the extreme with his outrageous behavior. Another celebrity who has been in the limelight with Kanye in recent memory is Joe Rogan.

Rogan hosts a popular podcast called “The Joe Rogan Experience.” It garners millions of listeners every time a new episode is released. He also shares just as much similarities with the majority of his listeners as Kanye does with the American people, making $30 million a year according to Forbes Magazine.

In one of his most recent podcasts, Rogan talked with Kanye about his place in politics where they both went further into their delusions about reality.

Kanye repeatedly talks through the podcast about how he was told by God to run for president or about how all of the world is secretly against him. He even stated that he is afraid to go to hospitals because someone will kill him, like what he believes happened to Bob Marley or Brandon Lee.

Clearly this isn’t someone that people should vote for or believe in. Rogan’s support of these celebrities raises questions about Rogan’s motive regarding his podcast. He is willing to take advantage of extremely delusional people so he can make money off of his podcast, while also spreading Kanye’s propaganda.

However, Rogan claims that Kanye is merely “misunderstood” and that he is a genius, comparing him to someone like Elon Musk, who is extremely problematic in his own right. This puts Rogan’s own mental state and judgement into question with the misinformation he spreads and believes in.

Although spreading Kanye’s ideas isn’t what makes Rogan dangerous alone, his podcast puts alt-right commentators on a pedestal to millions of gullible listeners. In the past Rogan interviewed alt-right media personalities like Gavin McInnes, Alex Jones and Ben Shapiro. Rogan even claims to have great friendships with these perpetrators of alt-right fake news.

Rogan’s podcast reaches millions of ordinary people everyday. This isn’t just endorsements by 50 cent or Lil Pump, but an actual establishment of celebrity politics that impacts the general electorate.

This podcast also spotlights the very celebrities that are a problem with social and economic politics. None of these celebrities live in the reality of the everyday American and have no right to tell the country who to vote for.

One of the great constants among all of these variables is someone like Kanye West, who represents all of the problems with celebrity politics. He is a billionaire with private interests separate from those of the American people, and his social beliefs are born out of conspiracy theories.

Kanye’s chaos only gives the GOP a greater advantage in the election year. They can take advantage of him using racist identity politics to manipulate state ballots and further cement their goals of voter suppression. 

To stop the problem of cultural disinformation through celebrities or the political institutions that promote them, people need to fact check their favorite celebrities and acknowledge the fact that celebrities have no authority over their political decisions.