Muggles, rejoice!
While this weekend marked a major milestone for fans of the wizarding world when”Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” hit bookshelves at midnight Sunday, everyone’s favorite orphan might also be the key to stopping Donald Trump in November. A study by University of Pennsylvania professor Diana Mutz suggests there might be a correlation between readers of the Harry Potter series and their view of the Republican presidential nominee. “Each book that a person has read lowers their evaluation of Donald Trump by roughly 2-3 points [on a 100-point scale],” Mutz wrote in her study, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Donald?” While Democrats are more likely to have seen Harry Potter movies than Republicans, there’s no significant difference in book reading by party affiliation, Mutz found.
The series, which arrived in the United States in 1998 with “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” has sold more than 450 million copies worldwide, and is the best-selling book series in history. Mutz points out the series isn’t without criticism. Liberals have faulted the series for sexist and patriarchal stereotypes, and for promoting a consumerist society; Conservatives, by contrast, have suggested author J.K. Rowling is trying to indoctrinate children with a “gay agenda.” It’s been almost a decade since Harry defeated Voldemort, but prevailing themes in the Potter series have reemerged in Trump’s campaign, Mutz says.
These themes, tolerance, opposition to violence and the “dangers of authoritarianism,” are viewed as opposed to Trump’s political views, the political science professor points out. So “exposure to the Potter series may play an influential role inaffecting how Americans respond to Donald Trump,” she says.
Trump’s similarities to Voldemort, who called for total extermination of non-wizarding persons in the series, have not gone unnoticed since the candidate announced his campaign, either. Twitter users have dubbed the candidate”Trumpdemort,” wondering how to defeat him:
Trumpdemort. pic.twitter.com/lwsjTc4uZt
— Anıl Hayat (@BandirmaLii) March 23, 2016
The only way to stop Donald Trump is to destroy his Horcruxes. The wig is definitely one. If you need me I’ll be finding the other six.
— TechnicallyRon (@TechnicallyRon) December 7, 2015
“Trump and Pence is basically a Voldemort/Umbridge ticket”-@alexkeepes
— Chloe (@miss_keepes) July 17, 2016
Nothing like Lord Trumpdemort visiting your hometown to really expedite the Facebook Friend Purge Process. pic.twitter.com/Y7sBNUkJ5B
— Melanie Rainone (@MelanieRainone) April 26, 2016
Meanwhile,Rowling tweeted in December that Voldemort wasn’t as bad as Trump:
How horrible. Voldemort was nowhere near as bad. https://t.co/hFO0XmOpPH
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 8, 2015
