Connect with us

Published

on

The commercial success of the country star Jason Aldeans ode to small-town vigilantism helps explain the persistence of Donald Trumps grip on red America.

Aldeans combative new song, Try That in a Small Town, offers a musical riff on the same core message that Trump has articulated since his entry into politics: that America as conservatives understand it is under such extraordinary assault from the multicultural, urbanized modern left that any means necessary is justified to repel the threat.

In Aldeans lyrics and the video he made of his song, those extraordinary means revolve around threats of vigilante force to hold the line against what he portrays as crime and chaos overrunning big cities. In Trumps political message, those means are his systematic shattering of national norms and potentially laws in order to make America great again.

Read: Trumps rhetoric of white nostalgia

Like Trump, Aldean draws on the pervasive anxiety among Republican base voters that their values are being marginalized in a changing America of multiplying cultural and racial diversity. Each man sends the message that extreme measures, even extending to violence, are required to prevent that displacement.

Even for down-home mainstream conservative voters this idea that we have to have a cultural counterrevolution has taken hold, Patrick Brown, a fellow at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, told me. The fact that country music is a channel for that isnt at all surprising.

Aldeans belligerent ballad, whose downloads increased more than tenfold after critics denounced it, follows a tradition of country songs pushing back against challenges to Americas status quo. That resistance was expressed in such earlier landmarks as Lee Greenwoods God Bless the U.S.A., a staple at Republican rallies since its 1984 release. Aldean even more directly channels Merle Haggards 1970 country smash, which warned that those opposing the Vietnam War and runnin down my country would see, as the title proclaimed, the fightin side of me. (Earlier, Haggard expressed similar ideas in his 1969 hit, Okie From Muskogee, which celebrated small-town America, where we dont burn our draft cards down on Main Street.)

Haggards songs (to his later ambivalence) became anthems for conservatives during Richard Nixons presidency, as did Greenwoods during Ronald Reagans. That timing was no coincidence: In both periods, those leaders defined the GOP largely in opposition to social changes roiling the country. This is another such moment: Trump is centering his appeal on portraying himself as the last line of defense between his supporters and an array of shadowy forcesincluding globalist elites, the deep state, and violent urban minorities and undocumented immigrantsthat allegedly threaten them.

Aldean, though a staunch Trump supporter, is a performer, not a politician; his song expresses an attitude, not a program. Yet both Aldean and Trump are tapping the widespread belief among conservative white Christians, especially those in the small towns Aldean mythologizes, that they are the real victims of bias in a society inexorably growing more diverse, secular, and urban.

In various national polls since Trumps first election, in 2016, nine in 10 Republicans have said that Christianity in the U.S. is under assault; as many as three-fourths have agreed that bias against white people is now as big a problem as discrimination against minorities; and about seven in 10 have agreed that society punishes men just for acting like men and that white men are now the group most discriminated against in American society.

The belief that Trump shares those concerns, and is committed to addressing them, has always keyed his connection to the Republican electorate. It has led GOP voters to rally around him each time he has done or said something seemingly indefensiblea process that now appears to be repeating even with the January 6 insurrection.

In a national survey released yesterday by Bright Line Watcha collaborative of political scientists studying threats to American democracy60 percent of Republicans (compared with only one-third of independents and one-sixth of Democrats) described the January 6 riot as legitimate political protest. Only a little more than one in 10 Republicans said that Trump committed a crime in his actions on January 6 or during his broader campaign to overturn the 2020 presidential election result.

The revisionist whitewashing of January 6 among conservatives helps explain why Aldean, without any apparent sense of contradiction or irony, can center his song on violent fantasies of good ol boys, raised up right delivering punishment to people who cuss out a cop or stomp on the flag. Trump supporters, many of whom would likely fit Aldeans description of good ol boys, did precisely those things when they stormed the Capitol in 2021. (A January 6 rioter from Arkansas, for instance, was sentenced this week to 52 months in prison for assaulting a cop with a flag.) Yet Aldean pairs those lyrics with images not of the insurrection but of shadowy protesters rampaging through city streets.

By ignoring the January 6 attack while stressing the left-wing violence that sometimes erupted alongside the massive racial-justice protests following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, Aldean, like Trump, is making a clear statement about whom he believes the law is meant to protect and whom it is designed to suppress. The video visually underscores that message because it was filmed outside a Tennessee courthouse where a young Black man was lynched in 1927. Aldean has said he was unaware of the connection, and he’s denied any racist intent in the song. But as the Vanderbilt University historian Nicole Hemmer wrote for CNN.com last week, Whether he admits it or not, both Aldeans song and the courthouse where a teen boy was murdered serve as a reminder that historically, appeals to so-called law and order often rely just as much on White vigilantism as they do on formal legal procedures.

Aldeans song, above all, captures the sense of siege solidifying on the right. It reflects in popular culture the same militancy in the GOP base that has encouraged Republican leaders across the country to adopt more aggressive tactics against Democrats and liberal interests on virtually every front since Trumps defeat in 2020.

A Republican legislative majority in Tennessee, for instance, expelled two young Black Democratic state representatives, and a GOP majority in Montana censured a transgender Democratic state representative and barred her from the floor. Republican-controlled states are advancing incendiary policies that might have been considered unimaginable even a few years ago, like the program by the Texas state government to deter migrants by installing razor wire along the border and floating buoys in the Rio Grande. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy raised the possibility of impeaching Joe Biden. The boycott of Bud Light for simply partnering on a promotional project with a transgender influencer represents another front in this broad counterrevolution on the right. In his campaign, Trump is promising a further escalation: He says if reelected, he will mobilize federal power in unprecedented ways to deliver what he has called retribution for conservatives against blue targets, for instance, by sending the National Guard into Democratic-run cities to fight crime, pursuing a massive deportation program of undocumented immigrants, and openly deploying the Justice Department against his political opponents.

Brown, of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, pointed out that even as Republicans at both the state and national levels push this bristling agenda, they view themselves not as launching a culture war but as responding to one waged against them by liberals in the media, academia, big corporations, and advocacy groups. The dominant view among Republicans, he said, is that were trying to run a defensive action here. We are not aggressing; we are being aggressed upon.

That fear of being displaced in a evolving America has become the most powerful force energizing the GOP electoratewhat Ive called the coalition of restoration. From the start of his political career, Trump has targeted that feeling with his promise to make America great again. Aldean likewise looks back to find his vision of Americas future, defending his song at one concert as an expression of his desire to see America restored to what it once was, before all this bullshit started happening to us.

Read: How working-class white voters became the GOPs foundation

As Brown noted, the 2024 GOP presidential race has become a competition over who is most committed to fighting the left to excavate that lost America. Aldeans song and video help explain why. He has written a battle march for the deepening cold war between the nations diverging red and blue blocs. In his telling, like Trumps, traditionally conservative white Americans are being menaced by social forces that would erase their way of life. For blue America, the process Aldean is describing represents a long-overdue renegotiation as previously marginalized groups such as racial minorities and the LGBTQ community demand more influence and inclusion. In red America, hes describing an existential threat that demands unconditional resistance.

Most Republicans, polls show, are responding to that threat by uniting again behind Trump in the 2024 nomination race, despite the credible criminal charges accumulating against him. But the real message of Try That in a Small Town is that whatever happens to Trump personally, most voters in the Republican coalition are virtually certain to continue demanding leaders who are, like Aldeans good ol boys raised up right, itching for a fight against all that they believe endangers their world.

Continue Reading

Sports

Canucks, Boeser agree on new seven-year deal

Published

on

By

Canucks, Boeser agree on new seven-year deal

The Vancouver Canucks have come to terms with forward Brock Boeser on a new seven-year contract, carrying a $7.25 million AAV.

Canucks GM Patrik Allvin announced the deal on Tuesday during the first hour of NHL free agency. Boeser, 28, was an unrestricted free agent on a previously expiring contract.

Drafted by Vancouver 23rd overall in the 2015 NHL draft, Boeser has collected 204 goals and 434 points in 554 games with the Canucks to date. A top-six scoring threat, Boeser has elite playmaking skills and the potential to produce big numbers offensively. He had his best year offensively in 2023-24, producing 40 goals and 73 points in 81 games.

Boeser didn’t hit those marks again last season — settling for 25 goals and 50 points in 75 games — but was still second amongst teammates in output. He also plays a prominent role on Vancouver’s power play and when he can generate opportunities at 5-on-5, he is a true difference-maker up front for the Canucks.

The extension is a happy ending for Vancouver and Boeser. When the regular season ended, Boeser admitted “it’s tough to say” whether he’d be back with the Canucks. Boeser reportedly turned down a previous five-year extension offer with the club and Allvin subsequently looked into deals for him at the March trade deadline, with no takers. Boeser looked — and sounded — poised to explore his options on the open market.

Ultimately, Boeser decided to stay put by committing the best years of his career to the Canucks.

Continue Reading

Sports

Jake Allen agrees to 5-year deal with the Devils

Published

on

By

Jake Allen agrees to 5-year deal with the Devils

Jake Allen, one of the top goaltenders available entering free agency, is not heading to the market after agreeing to a five-year deal with the New Jersey Devils, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.

Allen’s average annual value on the deal is $1.8 million, sources told ESPN. That AAV allows the Devils to run back the same goaltending tandem for next season.

Jacob Markstrom has one year remaining on his contract for $4.125 million. Nico Daws is also under contract for next season, before becoming a restricted free agent next summer.

Several teams were interested in the 34-year-old veteran, whom sources said could have made more money on the open market. However, the deal with the Devils gives Allen long-term security. Allen has played for the Blues, Canadiens and Devils over his 12-year-career. He has started in 436 career games.

Last season, Allen started 29 games for the Devils, going 13-16-1 with a .906 save percentage, 2.66 GAA and four shutouts.

Continue Reading

Sports

Capitals sign Fehervary to 7-year, $42M extension

Published

on

By

Capitals sign Fehervary to 7-year, M extension

Washington Capitals defenseman Martin Fehervary signed a seven-year extension through the 2032-33 season that is worth $6 million annually, the team announced Tuesday.

Fehervary, who had one year of team control remaining, will enter the final season of a three-year bridge deal that will see him make $2.675 million before his new contract begins at the start of the 2026-27 season.

He finished the season with five goals and a career-high 25 points while logging 19 minutes. Fehervary also played a crucial role in the Capitals’ penalty kill by finishing with 245 short-handed minutes for a penalty kill that was fifth in the NHL with an 82% success rate.

Securing the 25-year-old Fehervary to a long-term deal means the Capitals now have seven players who have more than three years remaining on their current contracts.

It also means the Capitals front office has one less decision to make ahead of what is expected to be an active offseason in 2026 that will see the club have what PuckPedia projects to be $39.25 million in cap space.

That’s also the same offseason in which captain and NHL all-time leading goal scorer Alex Ovechkin‘s contract will come off their books along with that of defenseman John Carlson.

But until then, the Capitals have their entire top-six defensive unit under contract as they seek to improve upon a 2024-25 season that saw them finish atop the Metropolitan Division with 111 points before they lost in the Eastern Conference semifinal to the Carolina Hurricanes in five games.

Continue Reading

Trending