Dem
47
GOP
53
Conservatives are not happy about Bad Bunny being chosen as the performer for this year's halftime show. That includes Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). He was asked about the pick, and this is how he responded:
I didn't even know who Bad Bunny was. But it sounds like a terrible decision, in my view, from what I'm hearing. It sounds like he's not someone who appeals to a broader audience. And there are so many eyes on the Super Bowl—a lot of young, impressionable children. And, in my view, you would have Lee Greenwood, or role models, doing that. Not somebody like this.
This has produced much derision directed in the Speaker's direction, as well it should, as there are only a few possibilities here. The first is that he's grossly out of touch. Bad Bunny is 31 years old and appeals to young people, many of whom might not otherwise tune into the Super Bowl. Lee Greenwood is 82 years old and the Venn diagram of "people who like his cheesy, two-chord music" and "people who watch NFL football" looks something like this:
The NFL is a business, and it is not going to attract many new viewers (i.e., customers) by giving over the stage to Greenwood. Johnson is a leader of the ostensibly pro-business party. Does he not understand this?
The second possibility is that Johnson pretends to know things when he's actually operating from a position of ignorance. It is hard to imagine that he really and truly thinks that Greenwood is somehow more popular than Bad Bunny. However, just in case, we'll point out that Bad Bunny has been the most streamed artist on Spotify for each of the last 3 years. He's also third of all time, with 107.6 billion streams (behind only Taylor Swift and Drake). Also in the top 3,000 are Green Day (#169), Mrs. Green Apple (#648), CeeLo Green (#832), Riley Green (#1,234) and Al Green (#1,893). But no Lee Greenwood.
The third possibility is that Johnson is a racist. He admits that he doesn't know Bad Bunny or his music. And yet, Johnson concludes that Bad Bunny is a poor role model, and Lee Greenwood is not. What could be his basis for that conclusion? Perhaps that Bad Bunny is Latino and brown-skinned and speaks primarily Spanish, and Greenwood is caucasian and white-skinned and speaks only English? If so, that's pretty much the textbook definition of racism.
Whatever explanation we go with, it's not a good look for someone who is ostensibly supposed to be a leader of his party and, at least to some extent, a representative of the American people. Remember, he's second in line to succeed to the presidency.
For a pretty long time, nobody outside of politics junkies knew who Johnson was. Now, a lot of people still don't know who he is (about 30%). However, his prominent role in passing the BBB and, in particular, in the shutdown, has introduced him to a lot of casual politics-watchers, and... they largely don't like what they see. Beyond the fact that Johnson was absolutely scorched on social media this week (admittedly, social media users are a demographic that skews much more Bad Bunny than Lee Greenwood), his approval rating is slipping and sliding downward. His net, across all polls since August 1, is 4.8 points underwater (30.2% favorable, 35% unfavorable). And if you drop a couple of very friendly polls from Republican houses, he slips to almost 10 points underwater.
Johnson is not as far underwater as his colleague Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) across the hall, but Schumer has been aggravating people for more than two decades. Johnson is practically savant-like in his race to the bottom. It would seem that many voters don't like it when you look right at the camera, and say things so dishonest that even Pinocchio would blush. (Z)