Oliver Anthony's 'Rich Men North of Richmond' speaks to how Americans feel. Don't dismiss it.
A song by previously unknown country artist Oliver Anthony recently exploded on social media, skyrocketing to the top of iTunes as a result.
Anthony’s words in "Rich Men North of Richmond" convey a disgruntled lament about the state of our country: "I’ve been selling my soul/ Working all day/ Overtime hours, bull---- pay/ So I can sit out here/ And waste my life away."
Many conservatives praise the song's populist lyrics on social media, heralding Anthony for voicing the struggles of forgotten Americans, many of whom were invigorated by Donald Trump's election as president in 2016.
Oliver Anthony's country anthem draws mixed response from conservatives
Federalist editor Samuel Mangold-Lenett wrote: “Anthony’s song depicts a deep yearning to return to a version of America in which people were not plagued by existential economic and cultural woes every moment of every day."
Yet, National Review executive editor Mark Antonio Wright criticized the song for portraying America not as a land of opportunity but as one that somehow is failing to live up to a promise of “guaranteed success.”
While I align more politically with traditional conservatives than I do with most of the outspoken populists who have embraced the song, Wright is too dismissive of the discontent that Anthony expresses.
Rather than telling people that “if you’re a fit, able-bodied man, and you’re working ‘overtime hours for bull--- pay,’ you need to find a new job,” we ought to try to understand why many of our fellow citizens think they lack opportunities to support their families and themselves.
Trump's populist movement is dangerous. But Americans' economic concerns are real.
As a small-government conservative, I view the populist movement, exemplified by Trump's campaign, as dangerous and corrupting. But I can’t deny its appeal, and conservatives would be foolish to write off the voices who convey those sentiments.
Telling working-class Americans that they don’t matter, or that their struggles are simply a result of their own poor choices, is precisely the response that led us to being stuck with Trump as president in the first place.
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Democrats began losing consistently in states such as Ohio, Indiana and Iowa after the party became more concerned about the feelings of doctoral students than the economic needs of farmers and plumbers. Republicans shouldn't make that same mistake now.
And Anthony's song raises points that nearly all conservatives ought to be able to embrace: "These rich men north of Richmond (Virginia)/ Lord knows they all/ just wanna have total control/ Wanna know what you think/ Wanna know what you do."
That sounds far more like a complaint that politicians are overly involved in people's lives rather than a cry for more government involvement in providing for citizens.
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Anthony also protests against welfare abuse and excessive taxes, positions in line with traditional conservatism's economic views.
The question we should ask in response to Anthony's song is, “How can we alleviate government roadblocks so that more Americans can succeed?” – rather than the populist question: "How can government provide solutions to these people’s problems?”
If conservatives' only response to people who have seen their incomes stagnant and their communities decline is to tell them to work harder, then even more Americans will be pushed further down the populist path.
When people believe their country has let them down and is hindering their ability to succeed, we ought to listen to them, not dismiss their concerns. The failure of "elites" to listen to everyday Americans is how we got in the political mess we're now experiencing in the first place.
Dace Potas is an Opinion fellow for USA TODAY. A graduate from DePaul University with a degree in Political Science, he's also president of the Lone Conservative, the largest conservative student-run publication in the country.