PROLOGUE (2003)
The Dixie Chicks are drawing harsh words from country music fans for remarks singer Natalie Maines made about President George W. Bush during a recent performance in London. Maines told the audience earlier this week, “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”
Angry phone calls flooded Nashville radio station WKDF-FM on Thursday, some calling for a boycott of the Texas trio’s music.The group released a statement Thursday saying they have been overseas for several weeks and “the anti-American sentiment that has unfolded here is astounding. While we support our troops, there is nothing more frightening than the notion of going to war with Iraq and the prospect of all the innocent lives that will be lost.”
In a separate statement Thursday, Maines said, “I feel the president is ignoring the opinion of many in the U.S. and alienating the rest of the world. My comments were made in frustration, and one of the privileges of being an American is you are free to voice your own point of view.”
The Dixie Chicks will kick off a U.S. tour in support of their multi-platinum album Home on May 1 in Greenville, South Carolina. The group’s hits include “Wide Open Spaces,” “Ready to Run” and “Landslide.”- FoxNews.com
And, after that, their popularity sank like the Titanic.
That was then. This is now.
FoxNews.com reports that
Taylor Swift — the pop star who notably has strayed from politics — broke that silence on Sunday, writing on Instagram that she’ll be voting for Tennessee Democrats in the midterm elections.
Swift, 28, slammed Republican Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn in an Instagram post.
“As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn,” Swift told her 112 million Instagram followers. “Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me.”
Swift said the congresswoman “voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry.”
“These are not MY Tennessee values,” the “Fearless” singer said online.
Swift concluded she’ll be voting for Democrat Phil Bredesen for the Senate, and also for Rep. Jim Cooper, a Democrat who’s running for re-election.
Bredesen quickly thanked Swift for her support on Twitter, writing he’s “honored” by support from her and “that of so many Tennesseans who are ready to put aside the partisan shouting and get things done.”
Blackburn’s campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment. A recent Fox News Poll found Blackburn was ahead of Bredesen 48 percent-43 percent, which was inside the poll’s margin of error.
Many fans of Swift, who reportedly owns two properties in Nashville, in addition to several other homes throughout the U.S., have urged the international star to voice her political views — particularly to denounce President Trump.
She’s long stayed quiet on her beliefs, but, in March, Swift wrote in an Instagram post that she donated to the March for Our Lives campaign in support of gun reform.
In July, it was rumored on Capitol Hill that Swift was scheduled to make an appearance at the Russell Senate Office Building, but she didn’t show.
In her post Sunday, Swift acknowledged that many people “may never find a candidate or party with whom we agree 100% on every issue, but we have to vote anyway.”
“So many intelligent, thoughtful, self-possessed people have turned 18 in the past two years and now have the right and privilege to make their vote count,” she wrote, urging her followers to “educate” themselves on the upcoming elections.
Guess what, Taylor? Nobody cares.
At least no one who used to listen to you when you were a teenage country music sensation.
Of course, you left all of us ignorant hicks behind with your 2014 album tiled “1984”, when you made the switch over to pop music, officially leaving those who believe in “God and Country” for “The Smartest People in the Room”.
As a former Tennessean now living across the border in the Northwest corner of the Magnolia State. please allow me to clue you in on something: Bredesen’s attempt at still portraying himself as a “Moderate” is fooling no one.
THERE ARE NO MODERATES LEFT IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
Oh, and about “your Tennessee”…Tennessee does not embrace the values of the East and Left Coasts. In fact, the overwhelming majority of those living in “Flyover Country” do not. Otherwise, Hillary Clinton would be the current President of the United States of America.
I remember the summer after I graduated college in December 1980. I bought a brand new 1981 Mazda GLC, had a Pioneer Tape Deck installed to play in all four hidden door speakers (a big thing back then), bought a cassette tape of “The Beatles Love Songs”, and played it until the tape broke.
Music has always affected my life and played a major part. I sang in church choirs, leading services, singing in quartets, and solo, for over 30 years and have played acoustic rhythm guitar since the age of 19…a long time ago.
Music can indeed soothe us. It can inspire us…in both good ways and in bad.
It has the power to bring us to our knees in worship of the Living God…or make our hands “clench in fisteous rage” (American Pie, Don Mclean)
It can advise us to “treat her like a lady” or find us hanging out, “down on Main Street”.
At this time in our country’s history, when morality has become relative, ethics situational and a nation fractured through racial division and poor losers still upset over the 2016 Presidential Election’s Outcome, we find our souls crying out for soothing Music. Positive music which will lift up our spirits and bring a smile to our faces as we drive to work, giving us an earworm for the rest of the day,
Instead, we find Pop Music and “so-called” Country Music, actually manufactured in New York City (pronounced like they do in the Pace Salsa Commercials), advocating meaningless one-night stands and encouraging the debasement of the human soul, instead of its ability to rise above any obstacle in its path that might hinder individual achievement.
And, with Taylor Swift’s proudly proclaiming her embracing of political philosophy of the Far Left Democratic Party, like the rest of the “Cool Kids”, we bear witness to another “Dixie Chicks” moment, in which Taylor Swift has evolved from a fresh-faced country music ingénue into a young lady with a cause, a political sister of the young blonde seen this past weekend at the Kavanaugh Protests dancing around, getting in the face of, and generally harassing a 71-year old man holding up homemade signs in support of Brett Kavanaugh.
Taylor, if that disrespectful heathen is your idea of a fellow “Tennessean”, you either need to come home more often or leave Tennessee completely.
…Because you do not have a clue.
Until He Comes,
KJ
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