GOP, Party of the Rich

By R. Keith Rugg, 9-10-08

	Caption: John Rich recently performed his Raisin' McCain at the Republican National Convention.

Country music and politics go together like ham and eggs, biscuits and gravy or like (insert your own favorite additional rural cliché here).  And that goes double for country music and patriotism, but that’a whole ‘nother column.

Just for the record, a nice chunk of my career has involved politics; I hold a degree in political science from a college with one of the best poli sci departments in the country, I’ve worked with political campaigns at the local, state and national levels, and I’ve provided professional political analysis covering presidential campaigns.  I’m a staunch advocate of the democratic ideal that each of us is entitled to our own vote and political opinion, whether it’s educated and well-informed (mine), or stupid and ignorant (yours, if you don’t happen to agree with me).  On the flip side, I don’t give a plugged nickel for celebrity political endorsements.

And so, in my professional opinion, John Rich is perfectly entitled to write and perform a song promoting John McCain, and you and I are perfectly entitled to be influenced not one whit by Rich’s support of McCain.  (And don’t think that by this statement, you can infer my political leanings.  Unless you know me pretty darned well, and probably even then, whatever you think about where I stand politically, you’re wrong.)

But if nothing else, Rich’s involvement with the current politicking got me to take a little closer look at him as a country musician.  Because I really didn’t ever pay any attention to the individual members of the group Lonestar, John Rich first came onto my radar as half of the duo Big and Rich, with Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy), a song that might very well be my least favorite ‘country’ song of all time.  Let’s put it this way- I’m sitting here pondering at the computer for about 15 minutes, and I honestly can’t think of anything I’ve ever heard on a country station that I dislike as much as I do Save a Cowboy.  In fact, almost ended up in a shoutin’ and cussin’ match with one of the other Rugg brothers over whether Big and Rich should even be called country music.  (It’s some consolation to me to know that this argument takes place among other industry commentators, as well.)

But John Rich in a nutshell, with some stuff I did, and some I didn’t know about him before:

- Bassist and now-and-then vocalist for Lonestar, he and the band parted ways in 1998.  (They say he ‘left’ the group, he says he was fired.) The best offering by Lonestar during that period, in my opinion, was No News.

- Became a driving force behind MuzikMafia, a loose collection of cross-genre musical performers.

- Following a long and growing association with Big Kenny Alphin, the two came together with an album release as Big and Rich in 2004.

- Wrote a number of hits for co-MuzikMafia member Gretchen Wilson, including Redneck Woman and Here for the Party.  He’s also penned songs for some of the other big names in contemporary country music.

- His album Underneath the Same Moon was recorded in 1999 after his departure from Lonestar, but not released until 2005, after the release of Big and Rich’s debut album, Horse of a Different Color.

So, if the fact that John Rich supports John McCain (or the fact that Big Kenny seems to have thrown in with Barack Obama, given that he kicked in more than two grand to the Illinois’ Democrat’s campaign), actually influences who you end up voting for, well then, more power to you… it’s a free country.  But if you actually want to cast your vote based on real issues, here’s a couple of other resources for you, beyond celebrity endorsements.

NewWest blogger Rebecca Powell writes Borderwest, and has a great, fresh perspective on politics, particularly politics in, you guessed it, the West.  I don’t agree with everything she has to say, but (here’s the fresh aspect of her writing), she doesn’t think I have to.  In fact, Rebecca says she is still examining her own political ideas and beliefs.  Now that’s fresh.  And worth a read, because it means that she has some intelligent and probing insights that can help the reader expand and clarify their own perspectives on the political issues.

Another great resource is Project Vote Smart, a unique organization that strives to be completely non-partisan and happens to have built up one of the most comprehensive databases of political candidates in the world.  I use it all the time to check on the record of any given candidate on any given issue.  And here’s the kicker- PVS is based in Philipsburg, Mont.  Yup, good ol’ P-burg is the hub of this repository of political information

Betcha’ they’ve got the office radio tuned to a country station.