My initial take is that this is disingenuous at best. Dude’s lyrics (see below) call back to Reagan’s racist “Welfare Queen” lies, and standard Republican bitching about high taxes and federal regulations. I suspect he sees himself as something like a rural libertarian than a MAGA Republican (but frankly these days that is making some pretty fine distinctions between types of snow), and is part of the crowd that is only slightly less angry at mainstream Republican politicians like Mitch McConnel than he is at mainstream Dems like Biden. The equivalent would be a Bernie Sanders Democratic Socialist writing a song criticizing the Police State and Corporate Culture and then denied he was pushing a political agenda because he hates Democrats almost as much as he does Republicans. Perhaps, but his positions are still roughly consistent with those taken by the Democratic Party, and if the song is a surprise hit it is because it is expressing the views of millions of Democrats and fellow-travelers.
“I wish politicians would look out for minersAnd not just minors on an island somewhere Lord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothin' to eat And the obese milkin' welfare Well, God, if you're five-foot-three and you're three-hundred pounds Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of Fudge Rounds(SNIP) These rich men north of Richmond Lord knows they all just wanna have 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 north of Richmond (SNIP)” Sent from Gmail Mobile On Fri, 25 Aug 2023 at 9:45 AM 'Bob Jersey' via TVorNotTV < [email protected]> wrote: > He contends in a new video, released after his song got referenced by Gov > DeSantis at the T***p-less debate, that them rightists are, in fact, his > target... "I do hate seeing that song weaponized"... > > https://themessenger.com/entertainment/oliver-anthony-rich-men-north-of-richmond-republican-debate > (link) > B > > Mark Jeffries, Aug 22nd: > > Hitherto little-known country singer Oliver Anthony (not his real name) > has the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 this week with "Rich Men > North of Richmond," a song that starts out as an attack on the rich but > turns into dog-whistling about "welfare queens" spending their food stamp > money on Little Debbie products--it owes its position to support from > rightwing podcasters and social media and by gaming the iTunes Store > downloads (still a major factor in the Hot 100, despite the fact that more > people are streaming now) to look like it's a big hit (Mediabase's radio > airplay chart shows neither Anthony or the equally-iTunes Store-game Jason > Aldean dog-whistler "Try That in a Small Town" in their top 30, which means > that unless either song is between 31 and 40, Seacrest's not playing them > on "AT40" this weekend): > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/fad60336-abf9-4b8d-9ba9-4d96c3acab2an%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/fad60336-abf9-4b8d-9ba9-4d96c3acab2an%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYLw9%3DgNyPFYhTqJMuWQ336wEd%2BBNwMjNdo-zzLghYfH1A%40mail.gmail.com.
