If 20 years ago you told America that the Fear Factor host was going to be one of the most powerful voices in public dialogue, pretty much everyone would have looked at you like you were crazy, but here we are at the end of 2024 and the words of Joe Rogan are as influential as anyone’s in media. In fact, more influential.
For any Joe Rogan Experience Fan, his shift politically to the right has been a long time coming, and you could make the case that he hasn’t shifted at all, the Democratic party did. He considered himself to be a “left wing person” until he claims the Democratic Party went radically to the left, leaving him (and many millions of others in the country) feeling politically homeless. The tides began to shift as the Trump campaign brought on a slew of people Rogan has long praised, such as Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, and Robert F Kennedy Jr., and once Rogan finally agreed to have Trump on for a 3 hour sit down, we all saw the writing on the wall.
Rogan officially endorsed Donald Trump just before Election Day, and while the cultural tides had already shifted and the betting markets had Trump as a sizable favorite, that last effort may have proved fruitful, as Trump dominated the so-called “podcast demographic” of men under 50, leading to a landslide victory that will make Trump just the second president ever to serve two non-consecutive terms (The first being Grover Cleveland in 1885 and 1893).
On a recent episode with Josh Dubin, a criminal justice reform advocate, Rogan echoed a sentiment that Jason Aldean expressed after he became vocal about his political beliefs.
During a July episode of the Try That In A Small Town podcast, Jason and his wife Brittany spoke about how many country artists approach them and thank the Aldean’s for saying what they believe they can’t.
Brittany said:
“No one really speaks. Even though they feel it behind the scenes, no one says anything…on the conservative side, in the country music world in particular. Country music, the conservatives, which is a majority of people, don’t say anything…
It’s so funny when we go to an event or an awards show or whatever, when we’re invited, it’s funny the people that come up to you and they’re patting you on your back like, ‘Man, we love what y’all are doing, keep it up, wish we could.’ It’s like, ‘You can, but you don’t.’”
Jason added:
“We don’t expect people to like – like, the way we speak and the things we think, if we voice our opinion on something, it’s our opinion. I don’t expect anybody to jump on the bandwagon.”
Kid Rock echoed a similar sentiment with Tucker Carlson when he was asked if other artists tell him they wish they could speak out like he does:
“Every f**king day… especially the country guys. They have to be understandably careful. You know, the awards and things, radio, corporate interest, they mean a lot in country music, the awards actually help them out. In rock and roll, it’s like, ‘hey you’re getting an award for this,’ and you’re like ‘psh, tell ’em to f***ing shove it up their a**.’ I couldn’t care less about their awards. I never played any of those games anyways.”
Obviously, this speaks to the bigger trend of the “silent Trump voter,” which many say is responsible for the polling errors in the 2016, 2020, and now 2024 elections, all of which underestimated his support.
Now Rogan is talking about his experience after fully entering the political landscape and how those close to him are saying very similar things:
“There’s a lot of people that don’t speak their mind. Do you know how many artists that have reached out to me that are like f***ing hippies man, like artists, like musicians, comedians, that thanked me for endorsing Trump because they can’t do it. They said they want to but they don’t want to be attacked, they can’t say it.
They think the country is going in the wrong direction, they think that this control of social media by the government, which we would have had pretty much fully if it wasn’t for Elon buying Twitter, that this is a dangerous precedent to set. Whether it’s a right wing government or a left wing government.
What you see with people happening in the UK where people are being imprisoned for Tweets and Facebook posts, it’s f***ing crazy…
Trump has vowed to have free speech become a very important part of what he’s standing for and that this censoring of information needs to stop and that we need to stop all government influence in what people have to say.”
Without question, free speech and censorship was a huge part of this election for some core demographics and Kamala’s refusal to participate in the new media landscape of podcasts and internet shows was yet another example of her being out of touch with a good portion of the general public. Trump is not perfect, I think even his most loyal supporters can admit that, but his rhetoric on the First Amendment was so powerful that I truly believe it was the turning point in this race.
Though the election is over, it would still be a good use of time to watch Trump on The Joe Rogan Experience. What it may have lacked in policy details it made up by showing the human side of Trump and the emotional side of where his stances come from.
