§12 —
On the roster
Democrat
Colbert
The other bench, same year: Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Robert De Niro, George Clooney, Olivia Rodrigo, Jennifer Lawrence — endorsements all on the record 12. The needle rests on Stephen Colbert because he is the throughline: the highest-rated voice in late night, who has spent two decades turning the other roster's politics into the country's longest-running punchline. The dial is not a claim that talent votes one way by nature; it is a count of who showed up, and the count is lopsided enough that the right's own outlets keep publishing the list as if length were the point. It isn't. Look who's on it.
Sources
Republican
Kelsey Grammer
The names are real and so are the endorsements. The right's most-cited 2024 celebrity roster runs to Kid Rock, Scott Baio, Roseanne Barr, Jon Voight, Jason Aldean, Hulk Hogan, and Kelsey Grammer — the last a genuinely decorated actor, and the tell is that he is the one they lead with 12. The needle rests on Grammer not as an insult to him but as a measurement of the bench behind him: when the most accomplished name on your A-list is one sitcom lead and the runners-up are a rap-rocker and a reunion-circuit cast, the dial is reporting a fact about the roster, not the man. Culture is a scoreboard nobody agreed to keep, and it keeps itself.
Sources
“The left has Springsteen, Beyoncé, and the man who made America laugh at these clowns for twenty years straight. The right has a reunion special that couldn't get renewed. This isn't a talent gap, it's a talent canyon.”
“Kelsey Grammer did SHAKESPEARE. Kid Rock is the voice of the forgotten man. You people have a pop singer and a football stadium. We have RANGE. Did I say range? I meant gravitas. We have gravitas.”