The Dixie Chicks are back from exile. They’ve got a new album, they’re doing interviews, and they're plumb dang full of sassy attitude. Take one of the singles off the album, for instance, “Not Ready to Make Nice.” Gee, I wonder what that’s about?
Unfortunately for former fans, that sassy attitude is the same one that got them pretty much shunned from country music after lead singer Natalie Maines bad-mouthed George W. Bush while onstage in Britain during the run-up to the Iraq war.
Hey, everybody has the right to criticize the president and the war if they want to. But when you’re in the field of entertainment, it would help your career to be a little more savvy about the core values of your primary target audience. So, for instance, since fans don’t come any more patriotic and flag-waving than those who follow country music, common sense says you steer away from public and gratuitous anti-Bush, anti-war remarks.
Maybe it was the intoxicating thrill of being in another, more sophisticated country and performing before a presumably more enlightened audience that caused Maines to succumb to the not so fortuitous urge to bash the president who hails from her home state of Texas, a fact of which she was so ashamed. And at that moment and in that place, her comment was probably a real crowd-pleaser.
Modern telecommunications being what they are, the word got back in a hurry to the country faithful in the States and before you could say “no blood for oil,” the Chicks were being avoided like a batch of bad moonshine. They definitely picked the wrong genre of music through which to express their discontent with the Bush administration’s handling of contemporaneous geopolitical exigencies.
That was three years ago and now they’re back, not only with a new album, but on the cover of Time magazine as well, where they appeared in what seems to be a mutually protective embrace, staring into the camera unsmiling and defiant. Underneath the large headline, “Radical Chicks,” is the line, “They criticized the war and were labeled unpatriotic.”
You know, as if to suggest that such is the fate of all dissenters in the stifling, McCarthyistic atmosphere that has prevailed since right-wing warmongers pulled off their coup and took the White House. And as if to suggest that just because the Dixie Chicks disagree with the war doesn’t mean they’re not every bit as patriotic as any country music fan.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - JP
My question is usually: where does patriotism end and nationalism begin? Many Americans--particularly those in favor of aggressive foreign policy--not only love their country, but love it to the exclusion of others. It's one thing to love and protect one's country from enemies, but another to believe it's better than any other. We often confuse the two.
2 - Andy Marsh
JP - how about those of us that love and protect our country because we know it's better than any other on the planet?
3 - Andy Marsh
How come no one ever brings up the fact that these women spewed their shit in a foreign country? Ms. Maines didn't have the guts to spew her shit to an American audience...she had to spew it overseas...wonder what might have happened had she opened her mouth at a concert in TX instead of Britain...
4 - Laura Haynes
I LOVE Country Music. It is really the only kind of music I can listen to all day, every day. However I also do not 'get' patriotism. Personally I have no preference for this country over any other, I would be quite happy in New Zealand or Canada for example, though not the States. Go Dixie Chicks!!!! Kick some sheepy-USA ass!!!!
5 - Whitney Houston
Somehow I get the feeling that Ms. Maines has the propensity to be a mouthy bitch.
So, given that observation, it's well within her character to mouth off. She probably always has, and is never happy, or maybe just cynically so.
That would be such an unfilling way to spend your life... fame, fortune, and unhappiness.
I hope she finds happiness at some point. She's not spreading the love and that's a good indication of her turmoil.
6 - Christopher Rose
Andy, don't want to fall out with you but people who seriously believe what you wrote in #2 are either zealots, loons or egomaniacs.
There's no such place as the perfect country and to get caught up in juvenile jingoism about one country or the other being the best is, well, simply juvenile and ignores all the major serious issues facing the 8 billion people living on this hot little cinder we call Earth.
Please don't take this as being anti-American as it's totally not meant that way, just trying to put the dialogue on a more interesting level than the petty minded and divisive drivel the above kind of writing and "thinking" generates...
7 - Mr. Big Mouth
Does GOP know how to do anything????
We know they are corrupt, can't manage the nations economy, protect manufacturing jobs, take care of the poor, protect the borders, prevent attacks on our homeland, manage disasters, secure social security, medicaid and medicare, strengthen our international reputation, manage the space program, take care of national parks, fight crime, catch terrorists, stop leaks, discourage corporate misconduct, build roads and bridges where they are needed, teach our children competently, protect our privacy, secure a workable energy policy, take care of veterans, fight inflation by controlling spending, provide affordable housing, stabilize financial markets, count votes correctly, tell the truth, provide clean water and air or win wars.
What is Karl Rove going to do except lie? As if the nation didn't know that already.
8 - MCH
Andy;
I'm just glad she didn't spew her spew...
9 - JP
Andy, I don't argue that what Maines said was out of line, and she obviously chose her audience on purpose -- or that country fans don't have the right to boycott her music, however much I may disagree with their choice.
As for your comment about protecting your country "because we know it's better than any other on the planet," that's exactly the nationalism I'm not comfortable with. It's very similar, in my opinion, to the "my religion is the only one with the truth--convert!" mentality that's led to so much bloodshed over the millenia. Why is "just as good as anyone else" and equally entitled to soverignty not good enough?
I do not share the anti-Europe mentality of many Americans, I think there are some things done better over there. Some are better here, of course. Who's to say which nation is "better" than any other nation?
10 - Alix
A lot of people seem to be missing the fact that it is not so much what they said about the President, but what they said about country music and country music fans. When you distance yourself from them and make fun of them, their not going to want to go to your concerts. Also dumb move on their parts talking Reba and her fans when she is still huge in the country world. If they want to be more pop and not country, then let pop fans go to their concerts.
11 - Greg Strange
JP,
In comment #9 you asked: “Who’s to say which nation is ‘better’ than any other nation?”
I’ll say it. The United States is better than any other nation. And here’s some of the very simple criteria by which that can be determined.
1.) More people from around the world want to get into the U.S. than any other country.
2.) No country is more free, dynamic, prosperous, innovative and filled with opportunity than the U.S.
3.) Without the U.S. the entire world would likely have been lost to one or more of the evil powers and/or ideologies (Nazism, communism, Imperial Japan) that ran amok in the 20th century and slaughtered countless tens of millions.
Yes, there are plenty of “nice” or “pleasant” countries like New Zealand or the Netherlands or Switzerland, but none of those countries possess the greatness of America and all of those countries have America to thank for their freedom and prosperity.
The United States obviously doesn’t have the power to make every country in the world a good place, but it is the one indispensable country if there is to be any decency at all in the world.
12 - Christopher Rose
Greg, please go read #6 over and over until you LEARN something, anything about the rest of the world before spouting.
Your final two paragraphs are just empty headed bragging with nothing but egomania to justify them.
The world got along fine before the USA was created and it could get along just fine if it ceased existing at all.
13 - Greg Strange
Christopher Rose,
Rather than me reading comment #6 “over and over,” suppose you give a logical refutation of my comment #11.
You said “The world got along fine before the USA was created and it could get along just fine if it ceased existing at all.”
Are you serious? Before the USA came along, the entire world was basically lorded over by tyrants with few exceptions. Is that what you call “getting along just fine?”
As for getting along just fine if the US ceased existing at all, who would stand up against radical Islamic terror or whatever totalitarian force might come along next? The few countries that have shown such a propensity have only done so because of the leadership of the United States.
A good friend of mine who happens to be very liberal gets absolutely livid every time I point such things out. I'd love to be able to understand the psychopathology behind that kind of attitude. Maybe you can provide a clue . . . ?
14 - Christopher Rose
Greg, I think you'll find your friend gets livid because your logic is so weak but your ego so strong that there's no talking with you...
15 - Greg Strange
Christopher,
Well, I didn't think I'd get a logical refutation of my comment #11. And if it's not too unbecomingly egomaniacal of me to say, it looks like I was right.
16 - Christopher Rose
Don't worry about it, Greg, it's just another of the symptoms to insist your delusion is right. There's no point in trying to reason with a rigid mind, as your friend has already realised, it's simply pointless time-wasting to try.
17 - Howard
Gregg, your comments in #11 are right on. These nuts can't stand admitting they have it better here than any place on earth. Laura in #4 spews the typical crap from someone who has no idea how fortunate he is. Unfortunately, our freedoms for which many fought and died are the very same freedoms they use to brush off the United States as inconsequential. So be it.
Howard
18 - Al Barger
Greg, who do you think you are, writing about the Dixie Chicks. They're MY beat. You want I should fight you for Natalie's honor? Tire irons at 10 paces. Yee haw!
19 - Andy Marsh
Christopher and JP - I've been pretty much all over the world...am I supposed to deny what I've seen around the globe? I've had a great time in just about all of them except maybe Djibouti...what a shit hole that was! I've met great people everywhere I went, but I still believe I live in the best place on Earth.
I never said the U.S.A. was perfect...I said it was better than any place else.
So, just for you two I'll quantify my statement. Of the 30 some countries on 5 continents I've visited the U.S.A. is the best place on the planet...
Not sure if that makes me a zealot, a loon or an egomaniac....but I kinda prefer egomaniac if I get to chose.
20 - Andy Marsh
So tell me Christopher...am I one or all of the nice names you used to describe my comment #2..let's see we have zealot, loon, egomaniac, juvenile and petty minded! I'm so disappointed! Thesaurus dot com has so many more words you could use.
I'd use a bunch of names to describe your comments, but you know how that comment editor can be!!!
21 - Christopher Rose
Andy, I'm not saying you, or anybody else for that matter, shouldn't be proud of their country but to go round making the kind of remark you did, well, it might be okay for talking about sports or something, but in serious grown up political discussion, not that much of that actually happens on this site, it is a whole other issue.
I've been to the USA many times and love many things about it but if you seriously believe it's perfect or anything even close to that, you are totally tripping out.
The serious point I'm trying to make is that all countries, including the USA, have major challenges and problems to deal with and this kind of divisive jingoism does nobody any good. Personally, I couldn't stand living in the USA because the country's mindset is completely out of line with reality- just like any other juvenile's.
By the way, I do use a thesaurus several times a year but have never needed to on this site - and don't really expect to either...
Finally, by all means attack my remarks as much as you want to, but don't attack me personally, then the Comments Editor won't have to take an interest! He's a git anyway, lol!!
22 - Andy Marsh
Like I said...no where in my comments do I or have I ever said America was perfect...but I probably have said and will say again...it is the best fucking place on the planet! At least compared to every other place I've ever been...but that's just my opinion.
yeah, my country has it's problems...plenty of them...but there really is no other place on the planet I'd rather live...especially knowing how fucked up the rest of the world thinks we are and I think they are!
And what the hell is a git?
23 - Greg Strange
This is one of the "divisive jingoists" checking in. Still waiting for the logical refutation of comment #11 . . .
24 - Christopher Rose
Andy, no prizes for guessing which usage I meant
from Google:- Definitions of git on the Web:
* Goods In Transit
* The passage along which food passes for digestion, also known as the alimentary canal.
* a person who has been deemed academically qualified for registration as a geoscientist and has been enrolled as a GIT with APEGM, in order to fulfill the Pre-Registration requirements for registration as a professional geoscientist. (GIT enrollment is a mandatory pre-requisite to first-time registration.)
* A prepaid tour of specified size, components, features, and value.
* Gain-to-noise-Temperature ratio of receiving system; its sensitivity or "figure of merit". The higher the GIT better the reception capability of earth station.
* Group travel in which individuals purchase a group package in which they will travel with others along a pre-set itinerary.
* rotter: a person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible; "only a rotter would do that"; "kill the rat"; "throw the bum out"; "you cowardly little pukes!"; "the British call a contemptible person a `git'"
* GIT may stand for: *Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly known as Georgia Tech GNU interactive tools*git, revision control system started by Linus Torvalds after BitMover Inc. stopped providing BitKeeper for OSDL* Group-Inclusive Tour, an abberviation used by airlines.
* In computing, Git is a revision control filesystem project started by Linus Torvalds to manage the Linux kernel. It is open source and free software released under the GNU General Public License version 2.
25 - Christopher Rose
Greg, personally I'm still waiting for any indication that anything from comments 12, 14 or 16 has even registered on your mind rather than been merely ignored - but way to go with the persistent if monotonous riffing.