The song was mentioned during the first Republican debate. Oliver Anthony is a country music star who isn’t part of the Nashville scene, but his tune “Rich Men North of Richmond” has reached the top of the charts. He’s an overnight success, reportedly being offered tours and millions of dollars, but doesn’t want anything to do with it. The Left hates the song, equating it to right-wing reactionary fever akin to Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town,” which also earned the ire of liberal America (via The Guardian):
The song, which Anthony says is the first he ever recorded with a professional microphone, was widely shared online along with a video of the bearded, Virginia-based singer playing an acoustic guitar in the woods. The song was streamed 17.5m times during the week ending 17 August, and a video of Anthony’s performance posted by the channel RadioWV has racked up 30m views in 12 days.
The conservative-leaning hit has drawn backlash for its anti-taxes sentiment and for invoking the stereotype of the “welfare queen”. (“Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat / And the obese milkin’ welfare,” he sings in the second verse. “Well, God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds / Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of Fudge Rounds.”) The song is part classic folk-country working man’s anthem (“I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day / Overtime hours for bullshit pay”) and part conservative mantra (“’cause your dollar ain’t shit, and it’s taxed to no end”), and part grievance (“young men are putting themselves six feet in the ground / ’cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin’ them down”). It also dabbles in conspiracy (“I wish politicians would look out for miners / And not just minors on an island somewhere,” he sings, a reference to many conspiracy theories surrounding the crimes and death of Jeffery Epstein).
The song is about working, and struggling to make ends meet, and, worst of all, it's in the country genre. Of course, liberals hate it. The “country” label is enough for them to label anyone associated with this genre as a Trump supporter, despite numerous country stars who are ardent progressives. There have been thought pieces and analyses of this song, some outrageous while others are more level-headed. But the most left-wing, The Nation, had an article that appears to understand the ethos of the song, even if they don’t like the politics behind it: it’s a worker protest song (via The Nation):
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I’ve watched dozens of reaction videos, many of them by Black music critics visibly moved, sometimes to tears, by Anthony’s extremely relatable lament—“selling my soul, working all day, overtime hours for bullshit pay,” while the powers that be kick us all down, “people like me, people like you.”
After decrying workplace exploitation, Anthony goes after a political establishment whose only use for the working class is to tax and control them while letting inflation, hunger, and greed run rampant. It is the song of a man who feels sad, angry, beaten-down, and all but hopeless. That is to say, it is the ballad of 2023 America.
But many left-leaning commentators weren’t moved. In the pages of The Nation, The Washington Post, Slate, and elsewhere, they argue that the song carries a reactionary, right-wing message. They cite lyrics that demonize overweight people who spend their food stamps on junk food. They take aim at one line that obliquely references Jeffrey Epstein and jump to the conclusion that Anthony is a Q-Anon/MAGA nutjob. And they note that right-wing bomb throwers like Matt Walsh, Kari Lake, and Marjorie Taylor Greene are promoting the song.
They have a point. The trope of the lazy welfare cheat has been a staple of blame-the-victim, anti-government rhetoric for decades. And right-wing politicians and influencers do have a nasty habit of donning the mantle of working-class crusader while serving the rich and powerful.
But here’s what I believe liberal critics are missing when they focus on the song’s discordant notes: People are working “overtime hours for bullshit pay.” There are “folks in the street with nothing to eat.” And working- and middle-class taxpayers are getting squeezed, because neither party is willing to raise taxes on the rich. Meanwhile, an out-of-touch Democratic establishment is telling us that, thanks to Bidenomics, the economy is thriving, the implication being that there’s little cause for complaint. If we want to reach the people who have made this song their anthem, we have to spend more time hearing what they, and their music, have to say, and less time yucking on their yum.
[…]
The song’s fans are fed up and ready for change, but if the only change on offer is slashing the welfare rolls or sealing the border or banning critical race theory, then that’s what many of them will go with. Others will surrender to apathy and cynicism, convinced that no one in the political class truly cares about them. Populist ferment requires yeast, and right now the left isn’t supplying it.
[…]
I asked John Russell for his take on the song. Russell is a bartender in West Virginia with a Substack about class politics called The Holler. Coincidentally, Russell, like Anthony, got famous a couple of weeks ago, after he went to a Trump rally in Erie, Pa., to see if he could overcome what he calls the “engineered division” of the working class into right and left. To the amazement of many liberals, he got Trump rally-goers talking about monopolies, corruption, and corporate greed.
Russell cautions liberals against throwing the baby out with the bathwater just because some of the lyrics assign misplaced blame. “The working class’s reaction is a big fat ‘yes,’ and everyone who wants a working-class movement should pay attention to it,” he told me. Were he in command of the Democratic Party, he’d make sure candidates show up in all the forgotten places and keep reminding folks that it’s the rich men north of Richmond who are ruining their lives.
The overall reaction by the Left, however, once again reinforced the narrative of tens of millions of voters that Democrats don’t care about them, which explains why the working class has flocked to the Republican Party; it’s the only way these people can get revenge.
The song is an appropriate segue since we’re still in the throes of a populist moment, evidenced by Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign in which he is miles ahead of his competition in the primary. The publication noted that populism can and has gone either way, but Democrats have offered nothing that could chip away at the GOP’s monopoly over this voter bloc. The article finally cites how Trump supporters aren’t ardent conservatives, with a significant identifying as economic progressives who are appalled by monopolies and corporate greed. I doubt the condescending attitude that infests liberal circles will fade anytime soon, but they have had an opportunity to siphon off support for Trump for years.
If Democrats pushed an agenda of job creation and fairer trade deals, not political correctness—we’d be shocked at the results. These folks have voted for Democrats; they did so in the 2018 midterms. One-third of self-identified Trump supporters support Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
You can’t win, let alone compete, if you don’t show up for the fight, and Democrats haven’t fought for the working man for a long time.
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