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The Importance of Jello Biafra

- April 27, 2010

A reporter from Alternative Press asked me these questions:

bq. Do you think voters are more/less likely to vote for a candidate who has gained notoriety in an entertainment field, whether it’s music, film, etc?

bq. If a musician or actor runs for office, does that affect voter turn out?

bq. Do you think music is generally an effective means of political change? Are there any example of this?

bq. Do you have an opinion on someone like Jello Biafra who attempted to transform a music career into a political one? Can running for office after writing highly politicized songs be construed as “putting your money where your mouth is”?

And I responded:

bq. The quick answer to the first two questions is “we don’t know.” There’s just no good data on entertainment personalities per se. There is work on political “amateurs” more generally — particularly David Canon’s book _Actors, Athletes, and Astronauts_ — and it suggests the hurdles that they face. First of all, experienced politicians are choosy about which races they enter. They are likely to run for offices when and where they have a decent chance of winning. Amateurs are then more likely to be “pushed out,” meaning that they don’t run, or, if they do run, likely to lose to the experienced candidate. So, other things equal, it is probably going to be harder for amateurs — including musicians — to be successful. The only thing going for entertainment personalities is that, if they are famous enough, voters will have heard of them, which helps them overcome one barrier that candidates face: becoming familiar to voters. This could make it more likely that voters would vote for them, but, again, we simply don’t know whether this is true.

bq. On the question of music as an effective means of change: I think of it as a small factor, at best. Music is sometimes used by political actors — citizens, candidates, social movements, etc. — to symbolize their cause. But the most important factors are really the organizing and hard work of these actors themselves, combined with the circumstances that facilitate or impede political change. That is to say, political change happens when the time is right and when people work for it. Music can be a part of that but it’s hard to say that music itself causes much change.

Alas, I had no thoughts on Biafra himself.