Stealing Country Music

Conservatives are all annoyed that Obama ended the convention with Brooks and Dunn's "Only in America"

One very cool, hip delegate at Invesco said flatly "Um, this really isn't my kind of music."

And I see his point, it's not exactly booty-shaking stuff. Nevertheless, I've been saying for over 8 years: it should be! I drive at least 2 or 3 times a year to the panhandle of Florida, often alone, and listen to countless hours of country in the deep south.

If you (and by "you" I mean progressive hipster) really want to understand why people vote against their own economic interest time and time again for the Republican party, listen to country music. Subtracting Toby "hey, let's go lynching!" Keith, most of country is, frankly, very Obama-esque.

The stereotype of country (country music of the 60s and 70s) is victimhood taken to the absurd: I lost my woman, I lost my job, I lost my truck, I lost my dawg.....

The reality of modern country music content is: I might not have a lot, but I love what I have. (which is, if you think about it, very eastern-religionish.) I love my spouse, I love my kids, I love my community, I want to share, I want to help. Oh, the actual music is sappy as all get out, I know. But it is important to understand why others dig it:

My Front Porch Looking In

"I see what beautiful is about, when I'm looking in not when I'm looking out"

Just Another Day in Paradise

Stand

Every Day
(I think my brother is embarrassed at how much I love Rascal Flats)

While Democrats typically like to campaign with a laundry list of everything wrong with our lives, the GOP campaigns on what's right with our lives. So even though the GOP in reality punishes, through policy, the "small" lives celebrated in country music and rewards instead bling bling robber barrens, their rhetoric is the opposite. They use country music (and too often country musicians let themselves be used) to present this beautiful picture of contented smallness that is the polar opposite of what they actually deliver. (Barney Smith vs. Smith Barney)

What makes Obama so appealing to me (and why I think we have a shot of winning) is that just like country music, he acknowledges our problems while still managing to emphasize what's right. He understands the enormity of the "small" life.

That said, if they let me DJ, I would have gone with Travis Tritt's "Great Day to Be Alive"

(if you watch, and you're alone, go ahead and howl, it's fun!)