[Marxism] Sharp example of rightwing populism: John Rich's "Shuttin' Down Detroit"

[J Rothermel]

http://mikeely.wordpress.com/


    Video: John Rich’s “Shuttin’ Detroit Down”
    <http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/video-john-richs-%e2%80%9cshuttin%e2%80%99-detroit-down%e2%80%9d/>

Posted by Mike E <http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1129785784> on 
April 1, 2009

Check out this sharp example of ”rightwing populism.” John Rich wrote 
anthems for John McCain during the election (”Raising McCain 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmKgITJejfg>“) and pro-military anthems 
(”The Good Lord and the Man 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBtU_P0bfJk&feature=related>“).

Now he is doing this populist protest song on the “Wall Street Bankers” 
and the economic crisis.

Merle Haggard compared it to “Okie from Muskogee” (at least according to 
John Rich’s self-promotion). Rich already compares Treasury Secretary 
Geitner to Dracula 
<http://americandictatorobama.com/2009/03/27/john-rich-tim-geithner-is-dracula/>, 
includes themes contrasting New York City and “the real world.”

I don’t think it will be long before the themes take an even more 
explicit “anti-socialist takeover” edge. And yet, who can doubt that 
this is aimed at where many people live (and where many people are 
suffering)?

For background:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/arts/music/31rich.html?_r=1&ref=music

Protest From the Right Side of Country 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/arts/music/31rich.html?ref=music>

By JON CARAMANICA
There’s no screaming on the first great song of the bailout era. No 
audible rage. No tears. Instead, on “Shuttin’ Detroit Down,” the country 
star John Rich, singing evenly, sounds perfectly levelheaded, as if he’d 
thought through his position thoroughly and acquired the peace of the 
righteous:

I see all these big shots whining on my evening news

About how they’re losing billions and it’s up to me and you

To come running to

The rescue

“The song is not depressing,” Mr. Rich said last week, in an interview 
in the rooftop bar of a hotel in Gramercy Park. “The song is defiant.”

And for contemporary Nashville, shockingly topical. Mr. Rich, 35, 
conceived and wrote “Shuttin’ Detroit Down” in late January, in a fit of 
pique after watching news accounts of the $1.2 million office remodeling 
by John Thain, the Merrill Lynch chief executive. Within two weeks it 
had been recorded, mastered and released to country radio stations, as 
well as added to his new album “Son of a Preacher Man” (Warner Brothers 
Nashville), which had already been submitted to the label.

It reflects not only Mr. Rich’s songwriting gifts — he collaborated on 
the verses with the longtime country singer John Anderson — but also his 
acumen in gauging and channeling the mood of the country, aggressively 
striking a note of conservative populism rarely seen in any genre of pop 
since country music’s response to Sept. 11. (The video, which features 
Mickey Rourke and Kris Kristofferson, will be released shortly.)

But even though Mr. Rich’s subject matter is au courant, his tropes are 
familiar country tugs of war: urban versus rural, modern versus 
traditional, white collar versus blue. The most bracing moment on 
“Shuttin’ Detroit Down” comes not when Mr. Rich points a finger at those 
“living it up on Wall Street in that New York City town,” but when he 
reflects on the little guy: “Well that old man’s been working in that 
plant most all his life/ Now his pension plan’s been cut in half and he 
can’t afford to die,” his voice dropping a half-step on the last word to 
indicate where the real locus of tragedy resides.

Mr. Rich sees the song as being in the us-versus-them tradition of “Okie