Joe Rogan

After Trump’s victory many of those who wished it had not been so asked ‘why in the name of all that’s holy did Kamal not do the Rogan podcast?’If the name of the game in politics is ‘persuasion’ did Kamala and the Democrats fail to understand the realities of the new media landscape?

Rogan’s podcast is a media phenomenon. His audience dwarves the mainstream media with regular viewing/listening numbers of 15 million plus.  He is a Walter Cronkite for the internet age, trusted by millions as a guy who seeks the truth with an open mind and the sensibilities of middle America. His podcast format is the long-form interview, a simulated chat between friends. Rogan is gently skeptical and at times innocently amazed or appalled by the revelations or assertions of his ‘expert’ guests. Interviews range from comics and musicians to politicians to authors and scientists. The mix of guests blurs the distinction between journalism and entertainment in the manner of many news and magazine programmes on mainstream media, but his language of moderation and moral equivalence reassures with familiarity and masks his profoundly libertarian agenda. Rogan also projects optimism and an endearingly naïve quest to know the truth as well as a drive to succeed. He’s ‘Joe’ the big guy who’s fun to banter with, who can shed a tear, someone guys can admire and above all he’ll never talk down to you even if you think microwaves are turning people gay or Trump won the in 2020 or vaccines are part of a liberal conspiracy.

The Joe Rogan message, heard by millions loud and clear, is simple, those we once trusted, the media, the politicians the academics are now not to be trusted. This is the politics of anti-establishment, it ranges from a healthy desire to ‘know for myself’ to the upside-down world of paranoia and conspiracy theories, it travels there by way  resentment of those elites and intellectuals who talk down to the common man. In the final weeks of the campaign Kamala’s nonappearance on Rogan’s podcast contrasted with Trump’s lengthy interview. It wasn’t so much that the gentle chat Trump had with Rogan showcased anything admirable in Trump or exposed anything new and troubling,  it was its reassuring effect which seemed to neutralise the ‘threat to democracy’ rhetoric coming from Kamala. When Trump chuckled at Rogan’s suggestion that  he benefited from so much publicity because. ‘You’ve said a lot of wild shit,’ they both seemed to acknowledge and celebrate the game he was playing. Although Kamala did interviews  on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast and   Howard Stern’s radio show as well as  sharing a beer with Stephen Colbert on his late-night show, and  on Whoopi Goldberg’s The View  where she announced that, if she won, Medicare would pay for home care, she could not escape that even without saying a word, she articulated  an accusation that if you did not support her you were racist or sexist and when she spoke, her appeals to our better instincts, sounded like moralising. Trump’s and Rogan’s shared joke seemed so much more appealing, so much more honest.

The richest man in the world endorsed Trump but the most famous woman in the world endorsed Kamala. Elon Musk whose credentials for being a commentator on our times is entirely based on his monumental wealth, was interviewed by Joe Rogan, endorsed Trump, appeared at Trump rallies and gave away millions in a doubtfully legal lottery scheme which bordered on campaign bribery. Musk donated an estimated $132m to Trump and other Republicans in the run-up to the election, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Two of the biggest donations – $43.6m and $75m – went directly into the Trump campaign machine, notably the America PAC (political action committee) established by Musk himself. However,  since Kamala’s campaign outspent Trump’s it doubtful the money was decisive. If Musk has a significant impact it was what Musk represented. Like Trumpism, Musk presents the same image of the limitless possibility of the unfettered individual, free of wokery. In an age of extended childhood Musk is a kind of superannuated adolescent, a child-man, unashamed to play with mega toys, rockets and superfast tunnel trains. While like Trump the reality of Musk’s business acumen is doubtful and largely a fabrication,[74] he is as the owner of X formally Twitter,  a self-appointed media mogul of the internet age and a champion of free speech who will restrict access to X at the behest of the Indian or Chinese governments in the interests of profit. Musk appeals to white men and promotes fear of immigrants and election conspiracy. In this way Musk reinforced and burnished  the Trumpian message. Taylor Swift was prompted to support Kamala by J D Vance’s crass ‘cat lady’ comments and her Instagram post was followed by a spike in voter registrations. However a poll from YouGov found just eight percent of voters said Swift’s endorsement would see them “somewhat” or “much more likely” to vote for Harris, while 20 percent said they would be less likely to vote for her.[75]  Professor of Media Robert Thompson made the point that celebrity endorsements are most likely overvalued. “I think it’s a lot harder to have a celebrity, even one that you admire, completely overturn all of that complex identity-building that has taken place over time.”[76] Celebrity endorsements make for easy journalism and are clickbait but their impact is probably unmeasurable and while Taylor Swift is a cultural phenomenon  her  endorsement  may have only added to the perception that Kamala  was the candidate of glitter and celebrity which was a narrative she was struggling to escape.