As Ronald Reagan might say, “there they go again.”
Mere weeks after the independently released film Sound of Freedom caused the Left to reveal that opposing child trafficking is apparently akin to being a QAnon conspiracy theorist, or a member of some obscure right-wing cult, now the Left has decided that the recent hit song Rich Men North of Richmond is nothing more than an ode to white victimization, racism — and whatever other type of “ism” an out of touch New York Times reporter can come up with — while they wait for their organic Stumptown coffee to aerate from the confines of their eco-sustainable Fort Greene Duplex.
Anyone who has followed politics closely over the last two decades knows that the Left has long had a deep hatred for white, rural working class Americans, or as the “hope and change” president stupidly described them, “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
What is truly remarkable is that even with their stack of useless degrees from Sarah Lawrence, the Left still cannot understand why a film like Sound of Freedom, or a powerful song about a blue collar worker struggling to make ends meet by an obscure high school dropout who calls himself Oliver Anthony (his real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford) — who no one had heard of three weeks ago — has resonated with so many Americans.
Rather than even attempting to understand why millions of people decided to see Sound of Freedom, including former President Trump, or why Rich Men North of Richmond is currently number one on the Billboard singles chart, the Left has decided to resort to their favorite playbook of mocking, impugning, demeaning and denouncing anyone who is responsible for both the film and the song’s success.
This is one of the Left’s favorite rituals. Any form of culture the right celebrates must be destroyed.
Other than ballot harvesting, open borders, high taxes, skyrocketing crime, inflation, disastrous foreign policy decisions, and anti-American education, it might be the only thing the Left is actually good at.
Only the Left could take something that has absolutely nothing to do with race, but really is just about the human struggle, and find a way to assassinate the integrity of anyone who promotes what they view as a threat to their deranged ideology.
Sound of Freedom woke people up to the horrors of child trafficking, while espousing the importance of family and faith. It also highlighted the obvious, which is to say that maybe securing our border and actually paying attention to the type of people we allow to illegally enter our country is something the government should prioritize.
In the case of Rich Men North of Richmond, the message is simple. The ruling class in Washington does not care about working class Americans. They only care about rewarding their cronies and asserting their power over everyone else. Anyone who has watched the destructive policies of the current administration knows this is undeniably true.
As Anthony’s lyrics articulate:
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.
Livin’ in the new world / With an old soul / 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.
I wish politicians would look out for miners / And 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.
A normal person would listen to these lyrics and appreciate that not everyone has the luxury of a college degree, or well connected parents who can line their children up with a lucrative private equity position as soon as they graduate.
But for the Left, apparently criticizing Jeffrey Epstein and his enablers is one of the worst things you can possibly do.
Anthony, or the character in the song also makes it clear that he is not asking for a handout, he’s simply asking for the corrupt Washington establishment and elected officials to pretend to care about improving the lives of their constituents, including the coal miners who do 12 hour shifts, but can’t afford to vacation in the Hamptons.
But evidently criticizing elitists and lazy people, who refuse to work while demanding the taxpayers foot the bill for them, is nothing more than “dog whistling.”
It’s certainly a lot easier to call someone a racist, then it is to have any sort of self-reflection.
The Left’s hysterical reaction to Sound of Freedom and Rich Men North of Richmond makes one thing very clear: these are not rational people.
Anything that has the support of Trump, or anyone else on the right must be deemed morally abhorrent, even if it forces them to take the untenable side of Colombian sex traffickers and corrupt tax and spend politicians who are accountable to no one.
The only films or music the Left considers worthy of celebrating are the ones that advance their distorted agenda while depicting Christians, conservatives and straight white men in the worst possible light.
Carpe Diem is the pseudonym for a writer who was a speechwriter in the Trump Administration.