Dolly Parton's popularity
Dolly Parton is the most popular person in America, an (actually quite rigorous) poll finds:
Parton has a net favorability of +65, 50 points higher than Barack Obama (+14) or Volodymyr Zelensky (+13), and more than 60 points above the just-barely-positive Taylor Swift (+3). Of course this doesn’t directly translate to popularity; a T-Swift tour will outsell Parton 100 times out of 100. The poll suggests that though Swift may be a juggernaut, nearly as many people loathe her as like her. With Dolly, there’s love everywhere you look.
While it’s just one poll, UMass Lowell is a reputable pollster; Silver Bulletin gives them an A-. Dolly is included in the questions in part because she’s an example of a genuinely beloved figure, which is rare in these often less-than United States. She’s used as a bar that no politicians seem able to reach. Even Swift at +3 far outpaces most national figures in office.
We should never be drawn too much on this, obviously, but I do think it's notable how Dolly is, at the core of it, an unashamed and unequivocating liberal (or what American's consider "liberal," in our absurd times).
She was so pro-Covid vaccine she funded its development. On LGBT rights, she said "We are all god's children, we are who we are. We should be allowed to be who we are."
Has she spoken on all issues? No. But you couldn't accuse of her of not doing her bit to promote some sanity among the madness.