July 25, 2023

Succès de scandale: "Try That in a Small Town."

"Initially, the track got relatively little notice, landing at No. 35 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. That changed last week, after the song’s music video became a culture-war battlefield, with some accusing Aldean — one of country’s biggest hitmakers for nearly two decades — of employing racist dog-whistle tactics and the singer defending himself as the latest victim of an out-of-control 'cancel culture.'... As the debate over 'Try That in a Small Town' boiled last week, the song’s consumption metrics spiked...."

I'm reading "Jason Aldean, Decrying ‘Cancel Culture,’ Has a No. 2 Hit/'Try That in a Small Town' went from overlooked to almost topping the charts after a week of controversy" (NYT). 

This got me reading the Wikipedia entry "Succès de scandale":
Succès de scandale (French for "success from scandal") is a term for any artistic work whose success is attributed, in whole or in part, to public controversy surrounding the work.... This concept is echoed by the phrase "there is no such thing as bad publicity"....

That entry quotes Mae West, who got arrested in 1927 for a play titled "Sex": "I expect it will be the making of me."

64 comments:

tim in vermont said...

I hear that his song is "banned in Boston."

When somebody uses the term 'dogwhistle' they are admitting that they are mind reading others, people for whom they have neither empathy nor sympathy; in other words, they are claiming to have done the impossible. It's cult-style mind guard stuff.

RMc said...

employing racist dog-whistle tactics

If you can hear the dog whistle, then you're the dog.

tim maguire said...

I think Streisand Effect is more apt. There isn’t anything scandalous about the song or the video. People are trying to suppress it and that act of suppression is making it famous.

tim maguire said...

“Dog whistle,” of course, is not so much a complaint as a tactic. Someone wants to be outraged but can’t find anything to be outraged about. So they pretend it’s there, you just can’t hear it because it’s in code.

iowan2 said...

No mention of the Streisand Affect?

Most of these cancelling events that accomplish the opposite, are siloed elite, ignorant of how real people actually see the world. Dixie Chicks, and Budweiser, Failed to grasp, that shitting on their customer base might have the wrong results. These educated idiots speak of exclusivity, but seem only to be able to denigrate one group while promoting a second group. Not smart enough to find the similarities held by multiple groups.

They don't mix with a wide swath of differing cultures. Only silo their exposure to people that believe exactly like themselves.

Mark said...

Yeah, it's totally irrelevant that Aldean dressed in blackface for Halloween in 2015. Nothing to see here, everyone wears blackface these days.

Enigma said...

The contemporary American English term is "the Streisand Effect." Thanks to Barbra's overreaction against innocuous coastal beach erosion science photos that happened to include her house, we can all easily find her house and swimming pool today.


https://www.starmap.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Barbra-Streisand-Clifftop-House.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

mezzrow said...

"Don't miss an opportunity to remind the racist proles how much we fear and loathe them."

Check. Streisand nods in solidarity.

It seems to me that the conflict is centered on targeting those found to be "deplorable". After all, if Trump is neutered and imprisoned someone or some group will still have to absorb all this emotion. It doesn't just "go away".

Something has to relieve the tension.

Creola Soul said...

NPR did a full on hit on “Small Town” and the “culture behind it.” The article pointed out that in the early ‘80s Hank Williams Jr’s anthem, “A Country Boy Can Survive” also carried the theme of big city crime with lyrics like “you only get mugged if you go downtown.”
Most country music fans didn’t grow up on a farm or in a small rural town but more likely grew up in the suburbs. Their roots are blue collar, Friday night football and honest work. The song is about attitude, regardless of your location, that is reflected in life in a small town. People take care of each other. There’s a video on Twitter of a road blocked by a fallen tree. The good ole boys show up with chainsaws and in a few minutes the road is clear. That’s small town attitude….do what you can to help out without waiting on the city to get a crew out. And yes, all these boys are armed and they will help break up a robbery at a gas station if need be. But it’s also about respect, particularly for your neighbors and their property, though you may not know them by name.
And these good ole boys will back and support law enforcement. They may not agree with everything the police does, but you won’t see these guy’s burning police cars.
Is it perfect? Ideal? Of course not, but it tends to be respectful and responsible while standing up for their families and their communities.

tim in vermont said...

Trudeau wore blackface, does that prove him a racist by the fact alone?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I thought the Aldean song might’ve been shelved and only came out after Jill Scott sang her own version of the National anthem. You know, artists doing tit for tat type deal. They do that all the time.

I haven’t checked the dates that would corroborate my theory. So, I’m probably wrong.

The reason why I believe we’re missing information is because since Biden been installed, BLM has been mostly mute.

So, why the Aldean song now?

Feels like we’re missing crucial parts of the story.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"Trudeau wore blackface, does that prove him a racist by the fact alone?"

Not alone. Like most liberals you need to look at other indicators to show how racist he is. Things like schools and zoning regulations come into play. Or whether or not him and his family live in a walled or gated community or if he has a trust fund or not. Paired with blackface this gives a better indicator of racist sentiment.

Liberals are very female-adjacent in their psychology, never pay attention to what they say, only what they do. Most limousine liberals and champagne socialists are extremely racist, but their fellow traveling public has decided to give them a pass on blackface for the time being.

rwnutjob said...

The vast majority of people agree with the sentiments of the song. Crime is out of control, particularly in big cities. It looks like the producers of the video want out of their way to cast white people in starring roles in it.

The left & their defenders, loud and wrong, show up to make us doubt our lying eyes.

Ann Althouse said...

“No mention of the Streisand Affect?”

Considered, but deemed inapt.

Ann Althouse said...

It’s related, but there are key differences.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Why the ostentatious French when we have the delicious Californian Streisand Effect?

Ann Althouse said...

Alden wanted attention to his song and had some. His opponents sought a different kind of attention to the same material, to denounce and smear him, and that effort backfired as Aldean ended up with what he wanted, a big hit.

Streisand wanted no attention to her house. Someone who wasn’t her opponent wanted to show a photo of her house. Her effort to end the attention backfired as it brought more attention.

See all the points of difference?

Succes de scandale is the apt expression.

Narayanan said...

is that Streisand effect in French?

Ann Althouse said...

Both Streisand and the exposers of the house thought the house was excellent.

Aldean and his critics are opposed in their opinion of the song.

The critics of the song weren’t hoping to deny exposure to the song. They wanted to drag it into the spotlight for denouncement.

Narayanan said...

Her effort to end the attention backfired as it brought more attention.
==========
her effort ===>>> she was scandalized?

so where is the difference? so it was own goal : is that not the point?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Like others I see the Streisand as apt. She famously used her clout to have a photo taken off the Internet and it backfired. This current event is the latest example of Cancel Culture endeavoring to stop people from seeing or hearing something they deem “wrong” that drives even more people to experience the “banned” thing. It is a delightful exploding cigar that evokes good humor in those who see it. By contrast the French phrase appears to suggest he created the scandal as a sauce to boost consumption of his product. It’s a sly shifting of blame from the scolds (the Streisands) to the artist who bewilderingly is trying to cancel himself in Bump’s awkward attempt to reframe the story.

Obviously the blackface assertion upthread supports the Streisand effect interpretation because it’s a furthering of the smear campaign against Aldean.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Oops sorry Bump is from the lame Biden story not this one lol.

Narayanan said...

The critics of the song weren’t hoping to deny exposure to the song. They wanted to drag it into the spotlight for denouncement.
=========
did They want to 'authoritate' their denouncement or to let everyone know content?



Aggie said...

If the critics of the song wanted to 'drag it into the spotlight for denouncement', then they chose poorly. How many small towns have been subjected to Woke Destruction over the past few years? Shall we start with the Floyd riots? How many burned-out, small family-run businesses looted and torched? Maybe consider Kenosha WI? Maybe consider the lovely people tearing down statues of historical significance, in confrontational disregard of what other, more conservative viewpoints might hold? Shall we consider the Woke SUV mowing down children and grandmothers in a Main St. parade? The Woke library shooting, after the Woke supermarket shooting, after the Woke mall shooting? Those annoying facts just keep getting in the way, reminding people, don't they? The critics have succeeded in underscoring the relevance of the song, by encouraging people to think about it. Thanks, critics. Thanks.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

It does fit the old “no such thing as bad publicity” theme as well and if that’s what the French means then ok.

planetgeo said...

Let's compromise and call it "succes de Streisand".

Andrew said...

This is what a real dog whistle sounds like:
https://youtu.be/jRdkrDk0BQ0

(Yes, I know they're mocking country music in general, but it's still funny.)

It's not Aldean's fault that every small town courthouse in the South was the site of a bunch of Democrats lynching someone.

Patrick said...

When things like this happen I assume it was started or at least pushed by the record company. Outrage sells.

Chuck said...

We were about two weeks into the Jason Aldean controversy before I listened to the song. More particularly, before I watched the official music video for the song. I just had to, to feel like I was able to comment intelligently after seeing this social media meme.

Jason Aldean and his supporters couldn't keep up with his culture-warring fans.

So I watched the official music video. It's nasty. I'm not so much struck at how racist it is, although that is clearly an undercurrent. What strikes me about the video is just how crazy-freaking-VIGILANTE it is! It is a 100% pure celebration of gun-loving macho social conservatives sneering at big cities, and daring big city social protesters to "try that" in their "small towns." The vigilantes are looking for that fight. Just like Kyle Rittenhouse, the new social media meme-king of "Try That," (see link above) went across state lines with an illegally possessed weapon playing militia-cop, was looking for trouble.

rehajm said...

Its an act on both sides. The Democrat operatives who save their spontaneous mostly peaceful violence for election season…well…those operatives would never commit those acts in the places Aldean sings about- they might get in trouble for it!

…and I suspect Aldean knows those people wouldn’t travel to the places he’s referring to. They are likely the places the operatives spent their teens whining about and couldn’t wait to leave…

Chuck said...

I found one comment above to be particularly interesting. It is "Creola Soul" at 6:45am. I'll address some of it.

Creola Soul said...
NPR did a full on hit on “Small Town” and the “culture behind it...”


Actually, there were two NPR segments. They were both wonderful. Well researched, literate, intelligent, compelling. They are easily searched, and streamed (or you can read the transcripts) at NPR.org. NPR is such a great outlet with such a valuable website.

Most country music fans didn’t grow up on a farm or in a small rural town but more likely grew up in the suburbs. Their roots are blue collar, Friday night football and honest work. The song is about attitude, regardless of your location, that is reflected in life in a small town. People take care of each other. There’s a video on Twitter of a road blocked by a fallen tree. The good ole boys show up with chainsaws and in a few minutes the road is clear. That’s small town attitude….do what you can to help out without waiting on the city to get a crew out. And yes, all these boys are armed and they will help break up a robbery at a gas station if need be. But it’s also about respect, particularly for your neighbors and their property, though you may not know them by name.

This too is interesting; is the message of "Small Town" the idyllic social cooperation of small towns? There are about ten seconds in the video that effectively pay lip service to that notion. Some folks helping other folks. But the overwhelming mood and content of the official video is the menacing look of good ole boys looking nasty and dressed in a whole lot of black. (I thought black street wear was an Antifa thing.) It's one clip after another of mayhem in big cities, with a soundtrack of threatening condemnation. There's a clip of some duck hunters with their long-barreled 12 gauges too; as if to say, "Yeah we've got every kind of gun you can think of, and we know how to use them, and so don't think of trying any of that shit where we live."

And these good ole boys will back and support law enforcement. They may not agree with everything the police does, but you won’t see these guy’s burning police cars.
Is it perfect? Ideal? Of course not, but it tends to be respectful and responsible while standing up for their families and their communities...

So this gets really interesting. The presumption is "Small town = law and order," while "Big city = criminal riots." And so I present to you... January 6, 2021. Naw, that's too easy. I give you yesterday, in Centerville, Ohio. A little redneck town south of Columbus on US-23. I've been through there, and got a delicious breakfast sandwich at Tim Horton's. Look it up the incident from yesterday, and be sure to watch the video.

Are "Small towns" free from the kind of lawlessness that led to the death of George Floyd? What is the recourse if there is the kind of redneck lawlessness that we see whenever anybody is fortunate enough to capture it on video?

Althouse, I think that the Jason Aldean video is not so much a celebration of racism (although I think there is a bit of that); but it is a celebration of vigilante lawlessness. And I am really surprised and disappointed that you, as a legal professional, a former officer of the court and law professor, didn't seem to see it.

I don't really want to live in a big city beset by routing rioting. Who does? But I also don't want to live in an exurb where rednecks are firing AR-15's in the woods and acting menacing.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, don’t think of the song as a Succès de scandale. Think of the backlash pas a big, one fingered salute to Cancel Culture (or “Kultur abbrechen” as its fascist practitioners would say). And the same one-fingered salute with the other hand to the sort of people who enable Cancel Culture by going along with it.

F*** people who search for microaggressions to bitch about.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, don’t think of the song as a Succès de scandale. Think of the backlash pas a big, one fingered salute to Cancel Culture (or “Kultur abbrechen” as its fascist practitioners would say). And the same one-fingered salute with the other hand to the sort of people who enable Cancel Culture by going along with it.

F*** people who search for microaggressions to bitch about.

John henry said...

Chick-fil-A, memories pizza, aldan

Fascist outrage and boycott attempts made all 3 a ton of money.

Bud Light

Normie, non-fascist, outrage and actual boycott COST the Belgians a ton of money.

Funny how that works.

John Henry

Chuck said...

It's not Aldean's fault that every small town courthouse in the South was the site of a bunch of Democrats lynching someone.

So you think that the grandchildren and great grandchildren of those Jim Crow Democrats, who now call themselves Republicans, get some sort of pass? I don't even like typing "they call themselves Republicans." Because so many of them are flying Confederate flags at NASCAR races and Trump rallies and insurrections.

That's the most worn-out bit of garbage rhetoric in American political life. "The slaveowning South was mostly Democrats, so Democrats in the 21st century need to shut up." It doesn't work on Northern mainstream Republicans like me, sport.

Levi Starks said...

The real dog whistle is the reaction to his song which relies on public perception that only certain minority groups are capable of this kind of behavior.

Bruce Hayden said...

The song probably took off because it tells an inconvenient truth - that the urban utopia that is so loved by the left and pushed so hard by the elites, is, in reality, a dystopia. Shit and used needles litter the ground everywhere, crime and homelessness everywhere, etc. The Biden junta is pushing everyone towards living in urban dystopias as hard as they can, by banning ICE vehicles, gas and propane appliances, etc, as hard as they possibly can. Mass transportation can only work, in this country, in dense urban centers, and it no longer works there, because the criminals and filth have taken over.

Rural living has long been an alternate utopia. This isn’t new. The Romans extolled this, and fled their cities whenever they could for their rural villas. Over 100 years ago, my grandfather left his rural MI home, where his family had come some 60 years earlier, for Chicago, and opportunity, returning, to build a house next to his mother’s upon retirement. We love the rural life - but are in Vegas right now, for the interim, for the quality of the healthcare. We had, again, a just weaned bear sleeping outside the bedroom window late spring, and now deer snooze on the front yard in the afternoons. Most everyone is kind and friendly. More churches than bars. Crime mostly consists of juvenile hijinks that most everyone laughs at - away from the hearing of the teenagers. Guns are ubiquitous, as they have been since it was a frontier, but are almost never used against other humans, as is the case with their chainsaws, hammers, and screwdrivers. Contrary to the depictions of the Wild West on TV and in movies, armed violence was not tolerated, once the women and ministers arrived and joined the men in small towns. Still isn’t. What the big cities offered, that rural living didn’t, until recently, was opportunity to get ahead. That’s why both of my grandfathers, both college educated, left their rural roots for big cities (Denver and Chicago). Now, with ubiquitous high speed Internet, that is very often no longer necessary.

Rural America, as a utopia, is a counter narrative to the one pushed by our elites. It is very attractive to many. More and more attractive, as the dense urban centers, in this country, turn into hell holes. It doesn’t hurt that our elites have become so heavy handed in their push to control us through urbanization. Notably, one of the requirements for large enough voter fraud, to give FJB the WH, and the Dems the top offices in AZ last year, is a big city Dem machine. So, again, moving outside big cities is a strike against election fraud. You just can’t manufacture hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes anywhere else.

And the harder the elites push their utopian wet dreams, at our expense, the more a large percentage of our population rebel. And since this is an alternative narrative, it must be squashed, as were the ones of masking, lab origins of the virus, Biden actually winning the 2020 election, etc. Is it a dog whistle? Maybe. But not a racial one, but rather a political one, in opposition to the liberal elites who push their urban utopia so hard, in order to control us.

Chuck said...

Mona Charen's wonderfully searing column at The Bulwark. "Jason Aldean: Bad Ol' Boy."

"I’m sorry, does Aldean think that people who need help in Boston and Nashville and St. Louis don’t get it from their neighbors? Does he think that people who live in New York and Chicago and Philadelphia approve of criminals? Does he think they all cheer flag burners?

"And for that matter, does he know what kind of thing happens in small towns? Uvalde, Texas is a small town. Newtown, Connecticut is a small town. Greenwood, Indiana is a small town. Chesapeake, Virginia is a small town.

"And it’s notable that some awfully famous images of rioters attacking an iconic American landmark, desecrating the American flag, and spitting on cops—those from January 6—didn’t make the cut.
...
"Asked if he would play the song even after the controversy, Aldean took refuge in the familiar pose of victimhood. Because he’s being criticized, he thinks he’s being “canceled.” Gushing about his “badass” fans, he whined that “Cancel culture is a thing . . . which means try and ruin your life, ruin everything.” Of course he would perform the song, he declared, because “The people have spoken and you guys spoke very very loudly . . .” So matters of decency get decided by plebiscite?
...
"Aldean’s defense is fatuous. The music video is belligerent and divisive. In this age of ugly partisanship, the cheapest clicks can be purchased with us-vs.-them incitement. It’s unworthy. Don’t try that in a good country."

RideSpaceMountain said...

What fascinates me - and others too I think - about the Streisand Effect isn't the phenomenon but rather the incident itself. Everytime I think about that 2003 fiasco I always ask myself what in the hell motivated her to take that action in the first place. Am I alone? Why in tarnation would anyone have cared, most especially Streisand and even more dubiously her attorneys? Who does something like this? Whose sense of proportion is so ludicrously off that they pursue such a matter - under the guidance of idiotic counsel apparently - to such an extreme degree over something so innocuous?

My conclusions:
- Hollywood types aren't human, they are Pod People...who knows why they do anything.
- Some extremely misplaced belief it would affect property values?
- Enslaved child adrenochrome extraction dungeon in the basement, you can see the ventilation mushrooms on the South lawn.
- Waldo was living on the property when the photo was taken. Too damn close for comfort.

JAORE said...

There’s a video on Twitter of a road blocked by a fallen tree. The good ole boys show up with chainsaws and in a few minutes the road is clear. That’s small town attitude….do what you can to help out without waiting on the city to get a crew out.

Had a major storm down a bunch of trees in our neighborhood last year. My wife and I were (largely) spared damage. Loaded a ladder, ropes, a come-a-long and a couple of chainsaws into my truck. We identified the house with the biggest need, a tree laying on their roof. Spent a couple of hours carefully cutting so they ended with no damage to roof or windows.

Nice young couple with two kids.

Pretty common here in Alabamastan.

mikee said...

Sometimes partial Alinsky tactics don't work out the way the users want. This song would have been better treated with ridicule, not denouncement, more in keeping with the Rules for Radicals.

Will Cate said...

The only thing I knew about Jason Aldean prior to this moment was that he was the guy onstage when the shooting started in Las Vegas on 10/1/2017.

So I watched enough of the "small town" video to get the gist of it, which is to say about 60 seconds, and I'm not sure what depresses me more -- the absurd, in-yo-face attitude of the song itself, or the fact that four professional Nashville songwriters (none of whom are Mr. Aldean) are credited with writing this drivel.

Pretty much agreeing w/ NR here

Michael K said...

Succes de scandale is the apt expression.

There was no real scandal about Aldean and his song. The words are true and the video images are all accurate. I can't even detect the race of the perps. The Left assumes all criminals are black and cries "racism." The racism is their own.

Jupiter said...

"with some accusing Aldean ... of employing racist dog-whistle tactics ..."

"Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk. Carjack an old lady at a red light. Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store."

I have to admit, those are pretty obviously references to a particular race.

Actually, the moment I realized how far down the toilet this country had gone was when I saw the videos of the George Floyd celebrations, and realized that some of the looters were white.

Ann Althouse said...

Note how “no such thing as bad publicity” does not fit the Streisand effect.

Robert Cook said...

"It's not Aldean's fault that every small town courthouse in the South was the site of a bunch of Democrats lynching someone."

Nowadays it's Republicans committing judicial lynching, (and, of course, lynching by police bullet).

You understand, btw, that the Southern Democrats began becoming disenchanted with their party when (Democrat) President Truman presided over laws prohibiting desegregation, and then many (or most) switched to the Republican party in anger at (Democrat) President Johnson's influence in getting the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964. In short, the "Democrats" you dopes keep referring to as racists (thinking you are somehow insulting or showing up today's Democrats) are actually now Republicans.

Rabel said...

Maybe we could go with the "Barbie Effect."

Repetitive denunciations in online "conservative" media for several weeks have generated heightened publicity and interest in the movie which has led to greater ticket sales and additional financial success for what would otherwise be an unimportant* Summer release.

Hollywood may or may not know how to make a good movie but they damn well know how to sell one.

*Except for Margo. Margo matters.

Mark said...

Aldean seemed to have another opinion of small towns in 2019 in Rearview Town

Wipe the footprints off my dash
Tore up those sun-faded photographs
Threw 'em in the wind, ya'll can have it back
I'm outta here
I stuck my middle finger up in the sky
Flipped off that "Ya'll Come Back" sign
Looked in the mirror one last time
And watched it disappear
It ain't nothin' but a rearview town
Broken hearts and rusted plows
Roots ripped right up out of the ground
Never thought I'd ever leave it
Oh, it ain't nothin' what it used to be
Population minus me
On the other side of that dust cloud
Ain't nothin' but a rearview town
I could tough it out, but what's the use?
A place that small, it's hard to do
Too much of her to run into
And so much road to somewhere new
It ain't nothin' but a rearview town
Broken hearts and rusted plows
Roots ripped right up out of the ground
Never thought I'd ever leave it
Oh, it ain't nothin' what it used to be
Population minus me
On the other side of that dust cloud
Ain't nothin' but a rearview town

RideSpaceMountain said...
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RideSpaceMountain said...
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Free Manure While You Wait! said...

""Shall we start with the Floyd riots? How many burned-out, small family-run businesses looted and torched?"

Rebuilding Minneapolis
More than 1,500 businesses in the Twin Cities were damaged or destroyed between May 24 and June 16 of last year during the unrest following Floyd’s murder, according to a state House of Representatives daily session report published in February.

The city of Minneapolis has estimated it will cost $350 million to fully restore its buildings to what they were. Other officials pointed out many of those buildings were built decades ago and said it will cost much more to ensure they comply with current city and state laws governing new construction.

“We don’t have an accurate number, but it’s certainly more than $1 billion,” Democratic state senator Patricia Torres Ray told CNN Business. “Rebuilding Minneapolis is a very expensive proposal.”

Source: CNN (May 30, 2020)

Fun Fact: The majority of these businesses were owned by BIPOC's, many of whom were immigrants.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Nowadays it's Republicans committing judicial lynching, (and, of course, lynching by police bullet).

Pray tell, what do you think is a “judicial lynching”? Is it what Biden and Teddy Kennedy did to Clarence Thomas? Actual lynchings were, of course, all done by Democrats.

“You understand, btw, that the Southern Democrats began becoming disenchanted with their party when (Democrat) President Truman presided over laws prohibiting desegregation, and then many (or most) switched to the Republican party in anger at (Democrat) President Johnson's influence in getting the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964. In short, the "Democrats" you dopes keep referring to as racists (thinking you are somehow insulting or showing up today's Democrats) are actually now Republicans.”

Wishful thinking, revisionist, hogwash. The 1964 Civil Rights Act received the vote of every Republican in the Senate, except for Barry Goldwater, who opposed it on States Rights grounds. It was opposed by every Southern Dem, including such notables as Al Gore Sr, W Fulbright, etc. it wasn’t that long ago, when the Dem party Senate President Pro Tem was a retired Klan Grand Cyclops (or some such). Biden repeatedly voted for him, as did every other Senate Dem. Why wouldn’t they? The KKK was your party’s shock troops, at least until they were replaced by the Maoist AntiFA. Face it. Your Dem party is still the party of racists, as it has been or 200 years now. Read the recent Supreme Court decision rejecting AA. The Dems still demand to make critical decisions based on race. Republicans demand just the opposite - a color blind society. As I just said - the racist party for over 200 years now.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"You understand, btw, that the Southern Democrats began becoming disenchanted with their party when (Democrat) President Truman presided over laws prohibiting desegregation, and then many (or most) switched to the Republican party in anger at (Democrat) President Johnson's influence in getting the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964. In short, the "Democrats" you dopes keep referring to as racists (thinking you are somehow insulting or showing up today's Democrats) are actually now Republicans."

You forget one very important fact. They're all dead now. All of them.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"You understand, btw, that the Southern Democrats began becoming disenchanted with their party when (Democrat) President Truman presided over laws prohibiting desegregation, and then many (or most) switched to the Republican party in anger at (Democrat) President Johnson's influence in getting the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964. In short, the "Democrats" you dopes keep referring to as racists (thinking you are somehow insulting or showing up today's Democrats) are actually now Republicans."

You forget one very important fact. They're all dead now. All of them.

JaimeRoberto said...

Try to cancel him and call him racist. Try that in a small town.

Jim at said...

Yeah, it's totally irrelevant that Aldean dressed in blackface for Halloween in 2015.

It is. Thanks for pointing it out.

Gahrie said...

The critics of the song weren’t hoping to deny exposure to the song. They wanted to drag it into the spotlight for denouncement.

Then why was the first attack forcing CMT to ban it?

This was just another instance of the Left screaming "shut up" at someone they disagreed with making them look bad.

Gahrie said...

Yeah, it's totally irrelevant that Aldean dressed in blackface for Halloween in 2015. Nothing to see here, everyone wears blackface these days.

I thought Trudeau, Behar and Ted Danson showed that that was ok.

Did the Wayans or Eddie Murphey get cancelled for doing Whiteface?

Robert Cook said...

"The 1964 Civil Rights Act received the vote of every Republican in the Senate, except for Barry Goldwater, who opposed it on States Rights grounds. It was opposed by every Southern Dem, including such notables as Al Gore Sr, W Fulbright, etc. it wasn’t that long ago, when the Dem party Senate President Pro Tem was a retired Klan Grand Cyclops (or some such)."

Exactly my point. The Southern Democrats of that era opposed the Civil Rights Act. As it was identified with Democrat President Johnson, having been passed with his strong advocacy, many of the southern Democrats were angered and left the party and became Republicans. It doesn't matter that other Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act, it was that they connected the Bill it to the Democratic Party...so they left. It didn't happen overnight, and to further accelerate the transition it also took the further influence of Nixon's "Southern Strategy" in 1970, which depicted the Dems as wild liberals ruining the nation. You know, the same kind of bullshit the Republicans are doing today, characterizing the (tragically) deeply middle-of-the-road Dems as being "socialists," "communists," "left," and other absurdities. His "Southern Strategy" was was an intentional drive to attract the racists and other resentful malcontents of the Democratic Party to join the Republicans. You know...the birth of today's Republican party. We now have a Republican Party with no moderate or liberal faction, which it once did, but a Republican Party of only extremists, kooks, racists, morons, and abased lickspittles to the rich and powerful thieves who are ripping off the American people. Today's Republicans lie and shout "Freedom!" while they bring repression and fascism, (Trump, DeSantis, and their inevitable acolytes and imitators).

"The KKK was your party’s shock troops...."

Uh...I don't have a party affiliation.

Robert Cook said...

"You forget one very important fact. They're all dead now. All of them."

Their sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters aren't.

Oligonicella said...

"Their sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters aren't."

People who believe in "the sins of the father" are idiots.

Gahrie said...

@Comrade Marvin:

Now try to explain two things:

1) How did Carter win the entire South in 1976 when most of the rest of the country voted Republican?

2) Why did the Black vote switch from Republican to Democratic in 1936 while the Democratic Party was still enforcing Jim Crow on the South?

Rusty said...

Mark. For the life of him cannot comprehend nuance.

Larry said...

That will be the making of me...not a locution Ms West would use - apocryphal