In Conclusion

In working on this project, I originally aimed to evaluate Lady Gaga's use of rhetoric during the 2016 election. Then, I became curious about how responsible celebrity surrogates were for not only actually campaigning for their candidate, but in adding to the false sense of security surrounding this election. I have found that while the best case scenario would have been to use her celebrity to try and convince more people to vote for Clinton, hindsight is always 20/20. I believe that Lady Gaga felt she did her part, and in some ways, she did. She was probably also a victim of the false sense of security created by the media, and unwittingly contributed to it. If she had known there was such a possibility that Hillary would not win, I believe that she may have put more planning into her social media posts throughout the season-such as spacing out fan testimonials. She did in fact even release a song in October that subtly endorsed Hillary's ethos and pathos-perhaps it was too subtle. Perhaps she would have released the song as a lead single. Perhaps she may have just posted more appeals to Hillary's ethos and pathos on social media in an attempt to reach out to skeptical fans. Ultimately, I have come to the conclusion that while Lady Gaga has power as a celebrity, she was just as susceptible as the rest of us to the failed false sense of security-evidenced in the way that she grieved just the same as so many Americans.