The January 23rd Austin American Statesman reports on its website that Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee plans a February 9th barbecue/rally in liberal Austin, Texas featuring a performance by country music singer Collin Raye.
I realize that some country acts -- certainly not most -- are of the evanginut stripe, but I thought it was curious positioning on the part of Raye to professionally align himself with such a candidate. Preacher Huck believes the Bible is the inerrant word of God, that wives should submit to their husbands in all decision-making, that creationism should be taught in public schools. That sort of thing.
To find out more about the singer's thinking, I emailed Raye's personal manager in Nashville, Pat Melfi. Pat has served as a board member of the Country Music Association and as director of the Academy of Country Music. He's an established figure, and he emailed back, suggesting that his client is not exactly endorsing candidate Huckabee: "{Raye} is performing at an event and there is a huge difference."
Still not clear as to why Huckabee, I emailed the head of Raye's West Coast-based management, well known industry giant Ken Kragen. No slouch, Kragen managed Kenny Rogers, Trisha Yearwood, The Bee Gees and Lionel Richie at the height of their fame. He's produced numerous film and TV projects over the years, and was anxious to respond to my query. He suggested that Raye's involvement was more than simply a performance:
"Collin and Huckabee are personal friends. Collin was born in Arkansas and has known Huckabee for years. Collin would probably not want to get directly involved in the Huckabee event but I am sure he felt he couldn't turn him down. Collin is, however, very religious and conservative. As a liberal Democrat I certainly don't agree with him but absolutely support his right to his beliefs and opinions. In general I advise my clients to stay away from politics but this situation was personal. Ken Kragen"
So there we have it. It's personal, and everyone is entitled. After all, Bruce Springsteen sang for John Kerry in 2004, and even Frank Sinatra openly campaigned for John Kennedy against Richard Nixon in 1960.
Yet apparently everyone is not entitled. In 2003, the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks made an innocuous comment about George W. Bush, saying merely that she was ashamed he was from her native Texas. Rather than being treated as personal opinion, the offhand remark unleashed a torrent of negativity from both the country music radio industry and right-wingers in the hinterland.
They couldn't touch The Boss or 'Ol Blue Eyes, but beating up on the Chicks was considered fair game. Songs were pulled from rotation on corporate airwaves, conservative talk radio had a field day, and death threats rolled in. It was punishment, in no uncertain terms.
The band was in Europe when the story broke, leading to metal detectors at concerts once they hit the stateside leg of the tour. Big audiences, big tension, too.
There will, of course, be zero fallout from Collin Raye's personal decision to publicly lend his support to an extremist like Mike Huckabee.
Hypocrisy abounds.
What saddens me, though, is some extremist, who by the way was nominated by Country Music Association for Top Male Vocalist like 3 or 5 times again in the 90s, when he had a bunch of million-selling albums, is now endemic of country music. Or this sort of value now disqualifies a lot of music that works for a lot of people.
Seems like the eradication of respect. Is he someone I agree with? No, his views nauseate me (based on that article and it was Q&A, so you can't claim journalistic bias). And his music is pretty wimpy, too. But in the end, it's his First Amendment as much as mine -- and throwing in with Huckabee says everything about who both of them are.
As for country music, in spite of Merle Haggard being a populist back when that meant Dem and Travis Tritt missing the working man's reality in his rush to the Republican National Convention, don't discount the music over something like this. Indeed, just like the candidates, take the singers one-by-one, what you find will be far more shocking than the wholesale dismissal...
What do Tim McGraw, Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, and Garth Brooks all have in common? They are intelligent people, so it should come as no surprise that they are all Democrats. Garth was the only straight male performer to appear at the concert for gay rights in Philadelphia several years ago. Rosanne Cash immediately offered her support to David Byrne's "Win Without War" campaign in an effort to stop the invasion of Iraq. All of these performers would give Huckabee a heart attack (insert your own vicious fantasy here).
DIXIE CHICKS RULE!
The Chicks suffered from the combo of the fascist "clearchanel"and the ignoramus country fans who think W is a great president.
Contrary to his comment, there are no "ultra-liberal themes" in the piece, whatever that means.
I don't distain evangelism or Christianity, or any forms of magical thinking, so long as they're not forced into law by the elected leaders of a free society comprising 300 million people of all faiths...or no faiths. I am not talking about basic notions of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." We all agree with that, whatever our faith. I'm talking about the broad panoply of Huckabee's specific beliefs, a few of which I mentioned in the piece.
Another such Huckabee belief is his very recent demand - and I'm not making this up - that we need to align the U.S. Constitution so that it comports with the biblical word of God as he understands it. This is not American, and it isn't what the Founding Fathers envisioned. It's Taliban-ish, jrockbg, and it is decidedly not "ultra-liberal" to oppose such nonsense.
In fact, it's conservative to oppose it. You should read the recent book by John Danforth, former Republican U.S. senator from Missouri and ordained Episcopal priest. It's titled "Faith and Politics." He writes clearly about the religious right's conflation of their political agenda with their religious agenda.
Beyond that, my broader point was about what happened when the Dixie Chicks spoke their belief that this war was wrong. They were crucified. Collin Raye promotes a candidate who believes that Armageddon may well be near (Huck has recently said so) and this idea will probably get applause from the religious Right. That's frightening, and it is not where we need to be headed in the 21st century. At all.
That said, Huckabee is very populist. He likely wouldn't be any less loose with executive power and federal spending than Pres. Bush.
The level of disdain for Huckabee by liberals is very telling. It shows that for many of them, they wish to attack evangelism and Christianity.
Because thinking people disregard Hucklebee anyway.
Unless he starts doing some original stuff and not sounding like every other singing hat, rising is all he is ever going to do....
I wonder why that is?"
Because Chuck Norris would give them a boot to the head!