On July 4, Kanye West announced on Twitter his intention to seek the highest office in the land. It’s not clear what we should make of this. Internet commentators unleashed a biblical deluge of “late registration” puns, pointing out that Mr. West has missed the deadline to make it onto the presidential ballot in at least six states, with the deadline for seven other states coming up in July. It also appears that he has yet to file the requisite paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission. Consequently, most people (though not Elon Musk, apparently) seem to be taking the announcement with a large grain of salt. Some have even put it down to shameless self-promotion, with Kanye’s next album and his new Gap fashion line set for upcoming release. Whatever the case may be — and who can really say, this is Kanye we’re talking about, after all — there is a broader point to be made about the encroachment of celebrity culture into the electoral landscape.
President Trump is the most obvious example. For years, he was beamed into our living-rooms, presiding over the rat-race of American capitalism as the King of the Hill, the incarnation of the success that every sharp-elbowed would-be entrepreneur aspired to. The Apprentice sold Trump to the viewing public as an all-American amalgam of Gordon Gecko and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and it was perhaps naïve for so many to imagine in 2016 that the image created in those years of reality-TV stardom would have no bearing on his electoral chances once he threw his hat into the ring.
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