“Rich Men North of Richmond” Angry Anthem of the Forgotten in 2024 Elections Come Hell or High Water

By John Kass

August 16, 2023

There’s a new song out now that is choking the American political establishment with its own rage.

The mincing media ferrets in their employ are eager to use their teeth on Oliver Anthony, the farmer songwriter from Virginia, for exposing the often-hidden side of their face. They’ll try gutting the innocent man for the sin of singing the truth in “Rich Men North of Richmond.”

 

Listen:

 

The country will be ripped up no matter what is done now. The threads of the national unravelling were pulled viciously for years. The left will try to destroy Oliver Anthony. To leave him untouched would be unthinkable, and they would douse him with real or imagined sin and light it on fire. But before they burn him for speaking truth to their power, but first I wanted to mention something that happened years ago.

You might think of it as an  epiphany.

I’m not a songwriter like Oliver Anthony. But on a hot afternoon in August, I went to the movies with Betty and knew America just wouldn’t ever be the same.

There was no stopping the coming change being hinted at. A terrible change with no happy ending. But once you got the hint–and no one who loves America wanted the scent of it–you knew change was inevitable.

The hint was hidden deep in a modern Western “Hell or High Water” with Jeff Bridges as the crusty Texas Ranger and Chris Pine and Ben Foster as Army desperate veterans and bank robbers.

The screenplay was written by Taylor Sheridan, creator of “Yellowstone.”

Hollywood kisses Sheridan’s ass now. His screenplays and shows make money. But his name wasn’t a big name then, and so, the film didn’t pick up the big Oscar. The big Oscar was then was reserved for a coming-of-age movie about a young black gay man. Somehow, I missed it.

Sheridan’s “Hell or High Water” was a great movie nonetheless, one that stays with you for a long time. Even when you think you’ve left it behind, it’s still there, like a wolf or a rat on the edge of your sleep, ready to gnaw some part of you.

Our usual habit after a movie was to go to a pie place for a piece of pie and talk about the picture, about the scenes and surprises and our favorite parts.

But back then I wasn’t in the mood for pie. I wanted to go off by myself for a bit and smoke alone for a bit, sip whiskey and think about what I’d seen. And about what was coming for us all.

There was fine acting and wonderful lines. One of my favorite character actresses, Daley Dickey, who played a hillbilly gangster Meth queen in the superb “Winter’s Bone” was in it. Her dry eyes had seen plenty of pain.

My favorite part of “Hell or High Water” wasn’t even an actor or a line.

It was stray red graffiti, the color of dried blood, spray-painted on a dusty wall of a sun-bleached Texas town:

“3 tours in Iraq but no bailout for people like us.”

That was it. That was the axle of this film, the spine of it, the explainer of motive, the foreshadow, and I’ve yet to see a better modern movie.

But that was 2016 and you know what happened a few months later to the entitled Democrat Hillary Clinton.

And now we’re in August 2023, another election year but this time Democrats keep piling on the Trump indictments without any sense of shame, and something new comes along.

That song by Oliver Anthony. I watched the video a few days ago, as it was going viral with tens of millions of views.

Conservative Republicans like it. Leftist Democrats hate it and prepare the rat (or ferret) cage for Anthony. Corporate legacy media which leans far left is already hating on the song, and  they’re ignoring it the way they tried to ignore Hunter Biden’s laptop from hell and all the brilliant reporting done by The New York Post and Miranda Devine, that was suppressed by media and Big Tech.

The lyrics are forthright, like Americans and direct like Americans. But there is deep anger, if not rage in Anthony’s voice as he sings his song in front of a deer stand:

I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day / Overtime hours for bullshit pay / So I can sit out here and waste my life away / Drag back home and drown my troubles away.

It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to / For people like me and people like you / Wish I could just wake up and it not be true / But it is, oh, it is.

“Oliver Anthony’s beautiful, angry song about the people who run roughshod over ordinary Americans and seek to control their lives is the clearest expression of populism since Donald Trump used his own voice to reshape the Republican Party,” wrote my friend Professor Charles Lipson in his excellent recent essay on Real Clear Politics, “Rich Men North of Richmond is Authentic Voice of Populism.”

The moment I heard Anthony’s voice I knew his was a song for The Forgotten. I had to write about this. But the professor beat me to it. Lipson knows the costs and danger of American populism. He’s studied it for much of his life. He knows that Donald Trump also lives by it, but also that Huey Long died by it. Mr. Trump may be an effective, resourceful and powerful politician, but he’s not my cup of Tea Party.

I just don’t like the way he’s been treated by his political opponents, the Intelligence Apparatus of the Kemalist Deep State, and corrupt corporate legacy media. And I worry for my country.

It might be worth mentioning here that the Republican half of the Washington establishment (or Washington Combine) was threatened years ago by conservatives in the Tea Party and the Rich Men North of Richmond were compelled to send a handler to simmer the Tea Party down. They sent an emissary, U.S. Rep. Dick Armey to talk sense to the country folk and suburbanites, treating the populist fiscal conservatives as so many fools. Armey didn’t need to use a hard Texas twang to tame them. And you could almost see Mitch McConnell off to the side, fishing for straw to chew on like some ridiculous character from “Hee-Haw.”

McConnell survived, but then, roaches always do.

And right now—after all the Democrats have done using the Department of Justice to attack and crush Republicans, criminalizing free speech and reducing the rule of law to the status of a banana republic. The constant pressure does not leave diamonds. It leaves raw wounds. The Democrats and their corporate media allies seem not to care about the consequences of their actions. Sooner or later it will turn and then Republicans, feeling put upon and in righteous rage will demand that their local Republican prosecutors indict Democrat presidents they way Democrat hacks are doing now. The screaming is that of baboon island echoing along the Potomac.

This America is a dry tinderbox just waiting for a spark. Complicating matters is the biased media desperately leaning left, hushing those Americans who want to ask questions about their nation, a media that participates in ridiculing dissent even as media brags that it speaks truth to power.

Living in the new world with an old soul/These rich men north of Richmond

Lord knows that they just want total control/ Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do

And they don’t think you know, but I know that you do

‘Cause your dollar ain’t shit, and it’s taxed to no end, ’cause of rich men, ’cause of rich men.

They’ll do what they have to do to destroy him and they will. They can’t let it slide. They must attack before the people start asking questions.

One I wish they’d ask is “Democrats? What happens after the music stops?”

Does everyone get a chair?

And after the Democrats use the law as their weapon, and criminalize political speech and encouraged by their media cheerleaders, then what? Won’t Republicans demand the same? Of course they will. They’re itching for it now, aren’t they? Grabbing for the tomahawks and war clubs just like our nation’s forefathers did in the French and Indian War.

The way the Bolsheviks devoured the Mensheviks in Russia.

Trump is also pushing for angry confrontation–I’m not saying he wants violent confrontation, just angry–but Democrats and their prosecutors who ignore some violent crimes in big cities are herding the rest with sharp sticks and spears. Pushing Republicans around with sharp sticks might just work in the short term.

People who know me know I love dogs. I’d never hurt a dog. But most dogs will cower if you provide enough pain. Even tough dogs. Sooner or later you’ll run into one dog that obeys instantly and waits. And when you turn your head, that dog is ready for you and you won’t have time to scream.

By then Oliver Anthony’s angry song of American protest will be as soothing as a lullaby compared to what will be raging in the nation. There are no happy endings now, no lullabies. Only pain to come.

There has been too much idle idiotic talk of armed political violence. People who talk like this are worse than fools. They’re demonic. My father lived through such a time after World War II, when one side poked the dogs with spears until the dogs decided not to lie down and take it.

It always starts with politics, and more politics, he said. The streets are full of politics. The people in the coffee houses. Politics and politics. And then blood gets in your eyes.

And you’re so angry. But you can’t see clearly because of the blood.

-30-

 

 

 

 

Comments 68

      1. I’ll call bullshit on this… Woodie Guthrie and Bob Dylan both lamented the system, yet they endure. This poetic young man’s poetic lament will also survive…

  2. John, you make so many great points here, and I do believe there are big troubles on the way.
    One of the worst enablers of the trouble to come is encapsulated in this line:

    “McConnell survived, but then, roaches always do.”

    Mitch McConnell is evil personified.

  4. But not one word about endemic vote fraud, something with which Chicago and Illinois are very familiar. Come November 8, 2024, there may no longer be any recourse for conservatives and other regime opponents and that’s when the real banana republic fun begins.

  5. The anger and desperation in this song is palpable. The tone deaf and cruelty of the ruling elites paved the way from Donald Trump. He was one of them, or tried to be. But he was crude, classless, and every once in a while, he says what everyone knows is true, but know those in charge do not want you to say.

    These forgotten people voted for Trump. In fact, 1 out of 8 voted for Sanders, and when he was knee capped by the DNC, they switched to Trump. Probably just as many voted for Obama before they voted for Trump. We vote for those who are peddling hope, then they usually forget about us after they get in office.

    I wish just electing Republicans was the answer John. They might be a little better right now on cultural issues, but as far as the man in the song working long hours for little pay, I don’t see much difference.

    The Bipartisan Stench in Washington
    While partisans say their opponents alone are at fault, there’s plenty of blame to go around.

    This is the headline from Dr. Lipson’s column on August 10th. We need systemic change John.

    As Cornel West says, Jesus went into the temple and chased out the money changers. Don’t you think corporatism and greed have gotten us to where we are now? As disgusting and hypocritical the leftist politics is right now, most of these people pushing this stuff are phonies, like Pelosi or AOC.

    Trump was POTUS, he didn’t drain the swamp, he didn’t fir Fauci, he didn’t try to balance the budget, he didn’t use his bully pulpit to pressure Congress to act on immigration. He couldn’t get an infrastructure bill through. They let him play president on TV and in social media. Just like they’re doing with Biden now.

    My opinion on Trump has softened. I still would never vote for him, but I can see why so many did. It’s not like the dems offer anything other than talk. The impeachment cases were so weak and the distrust from Russia-gate is so pervasive, now that they may actually have a case against him, at least 40% of the country still supports him. It’s not that he’s so great, it’s that the democrats are terrible and phony as a three dollar bill. We all know it.

    When in the Course of human events John. We need change and we need it now, before things get too out of control.

    Why not step out of the red/blue, left/right bubble and talk about some steps we could take towards systemic change?

    Why not see the forest through the trees and realize this culture war is a diversion tactic to distract us from all the graft?

    Pick your poison:
    Censorship
    LGBTQ
    Affirmative action
    Abortion
    Immigration
    Fentanyl
    Trump
    Covid
    CHINA!

    Guys like the man in the song want a job with decent pay and benefits so they can support themselves and their families. The jobs are gone.

    They want you to look over there, while they’re enriching them selves over here. Dr. Lipson is right. The stench is from both sides.

    What do we do about it?

    3. Interesting article, but why did you limit your list to so few? I would include:

      Biden
      Obama
      Mainstream Media, especially the Chicago Tribune
      Colleges and Universities
      Radical Unions
      Two-Tier Justice System.

      There are more, but this is enough to chew on.

  6. When I was younger, I didn’t pay much attention to politics. Today, I’ve lost some friends and family because of my political views. It seems like every time I see Pritzker, Biden, Harris or Johnson on the news, I want to throw something at the TV. It amazes me that so many voters approved of these people? We are in serious trouble.

    1. I do not believe that so many people “approved” of the people they voted for, as much as their votes were bought and paid for by these elected politicians. These politicians have learned that to get votes you make promises. You do not have to follow through on the promises, you just need to make them. You promise border jumpers a good life with free health care, education, food, cell phones and reduced housing costs along with a job. You promise those who do not want to work, pretty much the same thing. Then the will flock, like good sheep, to the polls and elect you as many times as you care to run.

      There is no honor, integrity, or honesty and truth in politics from those who get elected by those means. They truly hate the average working, tax paying American Citizen. And they turn around and foster hatred among their voters for the same people who arre working to give them all the free stuff. And on and on it goes.

  7. I remember telling friends in 2016 traditional politicians who ignore Trump do so in ignorance of the underlying frustration he gave voice to. All politicians need to take notice of the boiling seething frustration this young man has captured. Perhaps it is not the opposition party who ignores and gets surprised this time. It is the rot of all elected politicians of all stripes who ignore the vote of the overlooked and forgotten and the future of the republic hangs in the balance.

    1. i wonder now if American politics begins and ends at abortion. don’t dare tell the women they can’t kill their babies? is that it? Kyrie Elaison, Lord Have Mercy.

      1. Killing babies is all the Dems have. It gins up women and the younger demographic to vote for them. They’ve lost 60 to 65% of the people with common sense.

        So if the Republicans could be more moderate on abortion, maybe they’d take power.

        The Supreme Court likely made a sound legal decision as the constitutional argument in favor of Roe isn’t very strong, RBG even said so.

        The abortion extremists on the right are the LGBTQ “activists” on the left.

        They both undermine their respective parties.

        1. More Maitano blah, blah, blah! Same shit different day. This fool, Riga Baloney and there’s a new idiot inflicting themselves on this site. One and all probably the same person. Just wondering who sent them here? Best to ignore their idiocy. Like that of a drunk, rambling person sleeping in an alley they babble incoherently. Just keep walking. Nothing intelligent to hear from these lunatics.

      2. So right John!!! I see red when I see or hear women demanding the right to kill their unborn!!! How sick that is, that our society has come to accept that. I worked as a MA in OB/GYN for almost 20 years. It sickened me when women would come in, look at an ultrasound of their unborn child, heartbeat and all, and then decided to “terminate” because they couldn’t “handle it” at that time. When people lose their spiritual mooring and no longer believe in the Bible and it’s truth, this is one of the realities of life today.

        1. No, they should defer to God.
          It’s weird watching people direct their hate towards people telling them the truth and not to those who lied to them.
          We all have to stand before God someday.

      4. Majority of Americans support abortion rights. That’s a fact. The SCOTUS ruling seals the fate of GOP: it will be decades b 4 they win the Presidency. Just talk to young women today, which most old fogeys don’t, and you’ll see were they stand.
        As a Roman Catholic who attends Mass weekly, I hear it from young female attendees. Sorry, but it’s a fact.
        When we have nut jobs who want to ban the birth control pill, you only solidify abortion rights.

  8. HELL OR HIGHWATER is one of the greatest movies I’ve seen. I don’t normally watch movies more than once but I’ve watched it three times. I spent years in Texas so could appreciate many of those scenes. One of its producers told a seminar here in Chicago that it was a “perfect little movie” according to a friend in the class. The deputy was one of my favorite characters. Jeff Bridges is always great.

  9. Like Jason Andean’s “Try that in a small town” this will be crushed, snuffed out by the media and the left. There is a runoff for mayor in my city (red state, blue in 4 metro areas). Comment on next door neighbors blog about voting the same and expecting different results. Totally blasted by the liberals. One poster decried the red voters (from the edges of the metro area) as ignorant country bumpkins!
    Well those of a conservative bent are about fed up with the coddling of criminals, watching video of blitzes in department stores and boutiques across the land, not to mention gun violence increasing, drive down the street minding your own business and end up dead. Like a previous response I fear for the young ones. Our grandkids. What kind of a country will they inhabit. Keep your voice strong John. We need you too much.

  10. What you ate starting to feel up north, in Chicago, is nothing compared to down here in South Carolina. The people here are burning with resentment and the knowledge that the government has abandoned us. Washington can burn (as can all the northern cities) and the loudest sound you’d hear are the cheers of the South.

  11. Damn.

    Just…. damn.

    Elections aren’t going to fix this mess. The Republic is dead.

    It’s not about politics.

    It’s about evil.

    If you’re going to vote, concentrate your efforts on local elections. Get involved at the local level. That’s where this whole thing is coming down.

    And pray to the One True God, pray that He will relent in His anger, pray for your families and friends, pray for forgiveness for all the evil, pray for strength to do the right thing at the right time.

  12. Wise and powerful — both this song by Anthony and this column by Kass. Just try to imagine either piece being permitted on a major national forum now . . . and you can’t. Instead you realize how insular the pro-plutocracy American media have become.

    A newspaper bought by a hedge fund. Government by threat. Marie Antoinette in a gated community.

    Kass’ metaphor of 2023 America as “a dry tinderbox just waiting for a spark” is scary, but we should recognize it: an America where writing that offends the state brings federal agents to your door, as happened to journalist Matt Taibbi — a liberal who opened his eyes as Orwell did — last March.

    Best to keep in mind that the gatekeepers are on both sides of the aisle: illiberal liberals and conservatives who conserve nothing, all of them smiley-faced authoritarians. But we still have strong voices like the ones in this song and this column.

      1. I appreciate that, jk. So what do we need in order to keep writing in the land of Big Brother Light? A back pocket of nerve and a drop of whiskey? I’m in.

        Oh, some version of that strategy probably apples to jkn subscribers as well — and to readers who would contribute to the pushback by becoming subscribers. Don’t let yourselves get terrorized by the likes of Joy Reid and Joyless Joe.

  14. Very powerful column! Very good analogy with the dogs.
    The 2024 elections might be the spark that lights the fire. People are angry and fed-up; nothing makes sense and anything you do is either canceled or taxed to high heaven.
    The 2021 protest was a warning call that scared the Democrats. Its one the Democrats realize that if they don’t actively suppress the people protesting they will lose control of the country; thus the Trump indictments and the dystopian administration.

  15. Good article, but take a step back. The Civil War was a decade in the making and wouldn’t have happened when it did except for the split in the Democratic Party. Remember, Lincoln won in a rare 4-way election. We are not near a civil war, we are in a political realignment. You lived through the last one; Johnson’s decision not to run [’68] to Reagan’s election [’80]. The collapse of the FDR coalition to the Rise of Reagan’s. Reagan coalition’s came to an end in 2008 with the election of Obama and a new one has yet to form. The ‘people of color’ plus college educated whites and young voters group is unsustainable, baby-boomers like us are declining, millenials are reaching their 30s [when perspectives change]. We are a two-term [probably Republican] Administration away from a new coalition and stability. The 2030s, if I live to see them should be nice.

    1. I agree there is hope Mark, but I agree with John it is not just a political realignment, it will be more of an upheaval when the deplorable “old souls” fully get their voice and drive change!

  16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnNJv5yNZjE

    Here’s my new theme song that I’ve been playing for everyone who thinks our country is on the downslope, and they then understand why I continue to “fight” against all of this un-American rhetoric and woke bullcrap.
    Having watched the History Channel series The Booze, Bets, and Sex That Built America, corruption, including brides, backroom deals, fixers, etc. have always been in the US, including a corrupt police force. Get yours before anyone finds out. And now, the media and general public continue to turn a blind eye, which means they must also be getting theirs.

  17. John, excellent piece and observations! Oliver Anthony has hit the populist note spot on. I hope and pray his song gets out strongly despite the media. We are definitely a tinderbox – an apt description. The problem we face is those who want to enrich themselves by maintaining the status quo. They support the big government, deep state and their media and corporate partners in this ongoing crime against order, liberty and freedom. Trump isn’t the answer, he’s now part of the problem for failing to truly comprehend and act against the bipartisan bureaucracy that is the core issue and who are in really in control. They’re the Rich men north of Richmond, and the majority of Democrat and Republican politicians are their greedy enablers, eating money from the political trough. I agree with the good professor Lipson, that Populism is finding a new voice. Until the bureaucratic swamp is truly drained, nothing major will change and they will try to keep distracting the masses with whatever they can. It’s becoming more and more akin to the dystopian book series/movies Hunger Games – the capitol is the Rich Men North of Richmond. I will say, however, that Federalism still lives, and as long as the districts (Oops, I mean states) maintain a degree of independence and continue to challenge the bipartisan bureaucracy and it’s out of control regulatory efforts, there is hope yet for a peaceful resolution, if enough people wake up from the wokeness distractions and realize that change starts right at home, locally, and then state by state (district by district!). It will take a complete makeover of the federal bureaucracy, agency by agency, with a willing Congress and President, hopefully coming before the Rich Men North of Richmond indebt us and our progeny into the global, historical dust heap of failed nation states.

  18. Working in a hospital , I get to see many alcoholics and drug addicts. You think they have hit the bottom but you are wrong almost all of the time. Our country has not hit the bottom yet, and we remain in trouble.

    1. John, as usual you just hit a grand slam with this one. People are now relocating to states that align with their personal politics. It used to be that people retired and moved to states for weather, family and other obligations. Not anymore. Something that hasn’t happened since before the Civil War is happening again. People are relocating to states that align with their political beliefs. As the civil war approached anti-slavery Republicans left the pro slavery Democrat states for The Free Republican States. Far better to be on stuck on the right side of history. The country is now seeing movement like this. Just like you made the move to Indiana, people are fleeing Democrat run cities and states for Red States. This means moving to states with lower taxes, better schools and thriving economies. I escaped Chicago and moved to Texas for those exact reasons. When we first moved here it was like the scene from the “Wizard of Oz” when Dorothys house lands on the witch and she steps outside. We went from dreary black and white to Technicolor. Dark, storm ridden Chicago for beautiful sunny days! People’s politics usually align with mine and if they don’t thats ok too. Texas respects personal freedom and thought. A man from California opened a restaurant over here, pushed his politics on people during the “covid crisis”. He quietly went out of business. No confrontations, violent demonstrations or harrassment. Entitled to his free speech, just as people are entitled to spend where they please. Democrats pump hundreds of millions of dollars trying to turn this Free State blue every election cycle, so far unsuccessfully. People here are those who the Democrats hope to disarm. People who respect freedom.

  19. The American working class has not been forgotten. It is constantly on the mind of the rulers of this nation as they continue to try balance exploiting the working class while either getting or overcoming their votes.

  20. I remember hearing about a time when the Bob Dylans of the world were heralded for their truth telling in folk songs. I remember being told how Woodstock was so important for attendees and musicians to spout free love, anti-war, and anti-establishment. Funny how times have changed and truth tellers who once were praised are now torn to pieces.

    Communism is marching toward us.

    Like the Titanic, we are headed for that iceberg no matter how we suddenly try to reverse course.

    1. Shrewd historical reference here, Ms. Geary. OK with you if I try to expand on it slightly?

      Those ‘60s folky fable-spinners you remember meant well; they just didn’t bother to read history or observe basic economics. If they’d had a hammer, they might have hammered some sense into their soft, druggy heads (all over this land).

      The new fable-spinners do not mean well. They mean to send federal agents to the doors of people singing incorrect songs.

      BTW, EG, I enjoy your writing.

    2. Hmmmmm. Wasn’t it Nixon who tried to destroy the constitution by using FBI, CIA and other branches of govt to assure his re election. Spying on countless Americans, most innocent citizens. Breaking into Dem HQ? The GOP wrote the playbook on govt abuse of its citizens.

  22. The same media scumbags that claim that rappers who rap about killing cops, abusing women and bustin’ a cap on their rivals are just reflecting the reality of our urban environments are piling on top of Anthony claiming he’s a phony, racist, Qanon inspired right wing loon.

  23. John Kass sez: “The big Oscar was then was reserved for a coming-of-age movie about a young black gay man. Somehow, I missed it.”

    Wasn’t that a little early for “The Jussie Smolett Story”?

  24. Oliver Anthony has tapped something deep in my soul – and I’m just a not so rich guy from the North. He’s tapped into my daily seething anger and disgust toward the Bolsheviks that is exhausting to fight every day!
    PS: “Come Hell or High Water” is one of the best films of the last 50 years!

  25. A bit more serious, now…
    John Kass asks: “And after the Democrats use the law as their weapon, and criminalize political speech and encouraged by their media cheerleaders, then what? Won’t Republicans demand the same?”, then answers “Of course they will.”
    I fear that they won’t be able to make those demands, since they (we) will all be in prison by then for the crime of wrongthink. I sure hope it doesn’t get to that, but that hope seems to get less and less as time goes on.

  26. Mr. Kass: You really have only 2 choices in the general election, Republican or Democrat. The Democrats are the party of press censorship, prosecuting people who exercise their 1st Amendment rights and not prosecuting criminals. Democrats sponsored the 2020 Antifa/BLM Riots that killed dozens, injured hundreds and destroyed billions of dollars worth of property in over 120 cities nationwide. The riots were intentional political violence. Democrats are domestic enemies of the Constitution and the rule of law.

    Republicans, no matter how personally repulsive, will never have enough power to abuse it. The legacy news and Big Tech will continue to be hard left for years. Republicans are the only chance we have to escape corrupt dictatorship from the left.

    Given the abuse of governmental power from the left over the past 10 years, I think it’s reasonable to assume that 2024 is a last chance election. If Democrats can win with whatever vote harvesting and court ordered hijacking of election machinery they manage in 2024, they can appoint enough judges to put it out of reach in 2028 and beyond. There is no third party solution. You and yours have to overcome your strong identity voting preferences and vote Republican to save the Constitution and the rule of law.

    2. Hmmmmm. Wasn’t it Nixon who tried to destroy the constitution by using FBI, CIA and other branches of govt to assure his re election. Spying on countless Americans, most innocent citizens. Breaking into Dem HQ? The GOP wrote the playbook on govt abuse of its citizens.

  27. Thank you for this column.
    I am beyond understanding what is happening. Cancel culture has indeed reached a point of being ridiculous.
    How is it that some songs are canceled and others are not?
    What some find enjoyable to others it’s just noise.
    I read a social media post recently where the person was criticizing the lyrics of the Jason Aldean song stating it did in fact encourage hate, violence, and racism. Oh thank god we have the thought police. So I being the little shit I am found a rap song so disgusting I had to post. I then questioned why this song isn’t cancelled? (one can find on YouTube just type in A2M caution warning lyrics are offensive) if you guessed I received no answer you guessed correctly. Perhaps said person is still waiting for the media to answer them.
    What has happened to if you don’t like something move on?
    Thank you again for your words.

  28. Hell or High Water-great picture. I see you skipped over the part where our working class everyman patriot ‘heros’ gunned down numerous civilians and killed three cops, back the blue, right?? The Culture Wars are a figment of imagination for the GOP, in the futile hope that keeping the over 60 and non college-educated aged crowd angry will translate to votes, ask Ron DeSantis how ‘woke’ is playing to a broader audience. Any thoughts on Trump’s FOURTH indictment?? How DARE we hold rich white men accountable!! What is becoming of our country John??

    1. Hey Tony. I see you’re back. I suspected you would not be able to stay away for long. It’s almost like you’re on a mission from God … or should I say Wokeistan?

  29. John I first listened to this a few weeks ago on some West Virginia music platform and thought my this young man is saying something very powerful and poignant that resonates. I shared it with some friends who became connected to it. He speaks for so many. Who will listen?
    Little did I know how quickly it would catch the imaginations of so many. Fortunately,
    X has opened up the possibilities for providing more discussion and debate.
    Thank you and Mr. lips on for sharing it to your audiences and getting reactions.

  30. If you like this song, may I suggest you revisit Woody Guthrie, an American singer-songwriter and composer who was one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism, and he was a lifelong Democrat. Jason Isbell is also a powerful (and current) singer songwriter in the same vein.

    1. Señor Grande:
      Do you own a bar in Mineral Point, Wisconsin?
      Your endless drivel in this column sounds exactly like Riga- Tony, who we believe was banned.
      We suspected he might come back and post under another fake name, like a coward.
      To repeat Riga-Tony’s history, he is actually Tony Cesare, a confirmed identity thief. He’s at it again apparently.
      Earlier, Tony Cesare stole the identity of the of a bar in Mineral Point, WI. We caught him red handed.
      Here are the screenshots from his Facebook profile at the time. He took that town after we identified him:
      Click: https://www.gardendesignquickstartguide.com/2022/09/come-for-our-durp-burger.html

    2. Riga Baloneys back with a new imbecilic identity! Once a liar, always a liar. Guess he got tired of being kicked in the ass on this site so he created another fake identity to receive the kicks. Living proof ya can’t fix STUPID.

  31. “The screaming is that of baboon island…..” , best description of DC I’ve heard in a long time! And you’re right about the simmering anger swelling in Americans including me and so many of my friends and relatives. You speak for us all. Thank you John.

  32. I listened to the song a few times and I think the anger extends to all parties, D,R and I. “They all want control”. The Trump supporters I know like him because he’s not a Republican. Because he’s not part of the establishment. Unfortunately the Dems will exploit this and split their opposition. Almost as if we have a De Facto third party.

  33. Majority of Americans support abortion rights. That’s a fact. The SCOTUS ruling seals the fate of GOP: it will be decades b 4 they win the Presidency. Just talk to young women today, which most old fogeys don’t, and you’ll see were they stand.
    As a Roman Catholic who attends Mass weekly, I hear it from young female attendees. Sorry, but it’s a fact.
    When we have nut jobs who want to ban the birth control pill, you only solidify abortion rights.

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