The massive Democratic turnout in Tuesday’s midterm elections impacts everyone in this country. But the entertainment industry has a special role, given its mission to tell stories, to explain America to itself. And now there’s suddenly a whole new chapter to write about a country that has decided to radically reject the politics of most of the last decade.
But man, that sounds awfully noble. There are much more concrete examples. Here are six areas of entertainment that could look very different after Tuesday’s domination.
Bring money from the cinema?
The federal film tax credit has seen some momentum with Republican lawmakers like Tim Scott, Brian Jack and Nathaniel Moran and Democrats like Adam Schiff, Laura Friedman and Linda Sanchez introducing a bill last month to establish a 20 percent credit for certain labor costs. Where is Tuesday?
Well, the good news is that all of Congress’ key champions were re-elected and will be back to work next session (although Scott may have to spend a few extra minutes in the morning wiping his face for his “unequivocal” assertion that Republicans would maintain control of the Senate).
The question is whether they will be able to rally enough MPs behind this project. On paper, Republicans would like to join the cause, because it is a victory for them at a time when it will not be easy to obtain. This is doubly the case for President Donald Trump, who will be eager to brag about… something, and bringing some jobs back to the United States will allow for some chirping.
The problem is that the tax credit reduces America’s tax base at a time of massive deficits and when many Democrats are promising a restoration of benefits — that is, the kind of thing you need a large tax base for. Proponents will argue that this is tax revenue that would not have occurred anyway if the production had been exported (this is sometimes the case, but not always) and that it will benefit workers (yes, it will trickle down, but the actual rebate goes to producers, some of the largest of whom will not be considered in need of help). On paper, this should still be a good move. But shifts in Congress can disrupt priorities. Put this in the unknown column.
Texan artists have always seen it
No one around the wire could really believe that Texas had elected a Democratic senator for the first time in 38 years or a governor for the first time in 32 years. Harry Enten was so incredulous that he almost struggled with his accent.
We should have paid more attention to creatives. They’ve been telling us from the beginning how it’s possible – they’re telling us about another Texas. Natalie Maines of the Chicks (then Dixie) declared, to the detriment of her career, to a London audience at the start of the Iraq War in 2003 that “we don’t want this war, this violence. And we’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.”
But it also spilled over into the work of many other Texas artists — in the films of Richard Linklater and his 2006 anti-exploitation film. Fast Food Nation and the arched eyebrow at false chauvinism Last flag flying in 2017. Mike Judge, opposing respect for the George W. Bush era in the 2006 retroactive documentary Idiocracy. Or even just the work of an Austinite like David Modigliani and his 2019 nonfiction article Running with Beto. (Actually, Beto walked so James Talarico could run.) We didn’t always pay attention to it.
No doubt we’ll soon hear from other artists across the country that a place is much more Democratic than its Republican politicians want to project. After Tuesday, it’s worth listening.
Anti-media troll
You know you’re going to have a minor medical procedure and the doctor says, “In the short term it will hurt a lot, but afterward you’ll feel a lot better?”
I suspect Trump and members of his administration will go after mainstream media figures after Tuesday’s beating. “Outlets are failing”, “Hosts should be fired”, you know the words. But lame ducks tend to get more lame the longer their term goes on, and once Trump sees how little effect that has — the meager days of Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension he got after the Charlie Kirk joke last year will practically look like a canned Colbert by comparison — I suspect we’ll start to see a more low-key approach or simply his attention turned elsewhere.
Spasms from the FCC are still possible, with Brendan Carr writing letters to this media company or not asking them to stop by for a not-so-friendly visit. But how far do you want to go when – oh yes, you are not a presidential cabinet department but an agency overseen and funded by… Congress? The witch hunts and sabre-rattling of the last two years will become much quieter. Who knows? Maybe media companies will stop shaking and even reinstate a DEI program or two.
The True Colors of David Ellison
For months, Ellison’s defenders – and David Ellison – have told us that the new owner of Warner Bros. wasn’t actually a Trumper; he just played one in UFC fights. Ellison needed Trump to make his deals happen, so it was all realpolitik. Well, now he doesn’t need it — in fact, an association with Trump hurts him with a new Congress. So is he proving to be the pragmatist that his defenders say (or even the liberal on many subjects that he claims to be)? Or, with his Trump coverage fading, will he simply reveal himself as the conservative he always stood for? The first test is the documentary Musk by Alex Gibney, which will be released in a few months on HBO. Is he still releasing it despite targeting the GOP’s top donor? Musk just paid Skydance big money, potentially for HBO doesn’t put it out there, even if he has bigger challenges ahead right now.
And there will be all sorts of other markers – movies to buy, TV shows to stream, news divisions to revamp – for one of the biggest moguls working today. We’ll soon see what it’s really made of. At least John Oliver could rest a little easier today.
Speaking of Musk, and to make things right, Alex Gibney’s idea that if we just pulled back the curtain his weakness would be exposed, was born virtually at the same time on Tuesday as Musk’s half billion went to waste. “The Great and Terrible Oz kept people in check because they were afraid of his face looming over everyone, and he used that power to exert enormous control,” Gibney told THR last month. “But when a little dog parted the curtain and you could see a man of ill repute operating the gears and the levers, suddenly he wasn’t so terrible and he wasn’t so great anymore.” Exactly.
One loser in all this: Rob Bonta and the AGs who got a…modest settlement from Ellison in his acquisition of WBD as pressure mounted from various politicians and executives. If the attorneys general had held out six more weeks, they would have had the whole of Congress and a whole new vibe on their side.
Celebrity…non-activism?
The Hollywood model for this election season has been really interesting. Many people you talk to in the entertainment business and beyond have said that a version of Hollywood is being left behind. But that’s not entirely true. Artists brought a lot of financial muscle to these midterms – see below: every star-launched fundraiser, from Damon Lindelof for James Talarico to Shonda Rhimes for Jon Ossoff, plus all the donations from Chuck Lorre, Sally Field and Casey Bloys. Hell, Don Henley alone gave half a million dollars to various candidates in Texas.
What happened much less is public appearances during the campaign. Celebrities have been doing this non-stop in 2024, and it hasn’t helped them or crushed them (and their Democratic candidates). If your party’s message is to “return power to the people,” then some very rich red carpet types standing around telling you how to do it are somehow muddling the signal and generally casting an elitist cloud over your message. It’s not 2004 anymore.
There is no doubt that in 2028 there will be many big names running for office. People want to help, and famous people want to help famously; nothing wrong with that. But after the stark contrast between 2024 and today, we might see a different approach. Maybe a candidate won’t turn down Beyoncé who wants to appear at a campaign event. But maybe Beyoncé also thinks twice before proposing? It’s also not like being wrong makes celebrities’ lives any easier.
Another change: the idea of celebrities running for office. A centuries-old tradition. But Michele Tafoya just rode it Sunday Night Football popularity for the Republican nomination for the Minnesota Senate – then was defeated by 14 points. I mean, if a celebrity can’t get elected in Minnesota…
That said, if McConaughey scratched his political itch and threw his cowboy hat into the ring for, say, Ted Cruz’s seat four years from now, how many of us would oppose it?
Removal of AI
It remains to be seen what type of regulation we will have on AI. Ed Markey may have promised all these subpoenas for tech executives, and there’s a general air of Big-Tech introduction, but in reality it’s hard to stop Silicon Valley from developing new models and products. It would be like trying to stop politicians from issuing press releases: that’s what they do. Additionally, there is a misalignment of pace as Congress moves slowly and writes laws and tech companies move quickly and write code. Additionally, tech companies have lots of money and lots of lobbyists.
With all these caveats in mind, the winds are blowing differently now. Many of the 259 House Democrats and Senate Democrats (54-56) in the next term have achieved this by promising stricter oversight of AI, particularly data centers, and they will be pushed to take certain actions. And even if Trump didn’t sign any such bills, the numbers are now lopsided enough that Senate Democrats would only need to eliminate a few Republicans to get a 60-vote filibuster. (Josh Hawley, John Curtis…
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