An utterly unknown singer/songwriter, recording with a single microphone and an acoustic guitar in his own back yard, now has the number one song in the nation and is about to surpass 25 MILLION views on YouTube. His name is Oliver Anthony, the song is ‘Rich Men North of Richmond,’ and the message is one that ALL politicians, from both parties, should (but probably won’t) pay very close heed to, because Oliver Anthony is rapidly becoming the Voice of a Generation.
The link to this remarkable track is here: https://youtu.be/sqSA-SY5Hro
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24 replies on “Oliver Anthony: Voice of a Generation”
One of the first symptoms of defecating on the working people was when “Personnel” departments became “Human Resources” departments. That’s when people ceased to be people, and were relegated to just another cost of production.
Interestingly, this song came right on the heels of Try That in a Small Town and Jason Aldean didn’t care about the leftists coming after him. I am proud of Oliver Anthony for doing his thing knowing he will get criticism, too. I know people who bought both of these songs on iTunes some without even listening to them but to support these brave artists.
Where Angels gather, music flows.
The Holy Spirit to tap your toes.
Put your worries on display,
There is no judgment til judgment day.
Raise your voice above the rest,
With the whirlwind of truth you can attest.
(Feel free to expand on this if you wish)
Yes, Nihilism feelzzz so good! And if this song and its response leads to more people actually voting, and voting for Republicans who are responsible and conservative, then all to the good. As we know, Populism has a checkered history as a means to address grievances to our government.
I would prefer the Gingrich route of a renewed Contract With America 2.0 that is promoted and supported by the Republican Party. This provides a reasoned, knowable, and consistent message to counter the Leftist arguments. It can include the elements of protest about welfare abuse (free rider issue) and employment compensation in this song, but be even more comprehensive about balancing taxes with desired spending, etc. People know about TANSTAAFL, but don’t always appreciate that it applies to their desires as well.
I was a little surprised at Scott’s near end comments about “poverty” implying undeserved wealth disparities was a fully valid argument, rather than a more nuanced one. The definition of poverty is always changing to support the NGO’s and the rest of the Dem party line of grievances about the “poor”, but there is almost no real poverty in the US. Claims of “food insecurity” may have a small validity until the food banks and the existing federal or state programs kick in. But (aside from mostly addicted or mentally ill persons living in a “homeless” situation, another problem entirely) people are not sleeping in doorways, do have cell phones, usually have hot and cold running water, etc., even if their abode is small or in a questionable neighborhood. In other words, the War on Poverty has really been won, but the Leftists don’t want to admit it as it removes their legitimacy, so now they focus on BLM/ CRT/ DEI, and other identity signaling. They also now allow excessive generosity in welfare and related programs (“free tuition”) to further buy votes, so it is that distortion that is receiving the populist protests.
We know that a (non distorted, non crony) free market provides the best allocation for scarce resources. It is the best place to decide if a given “plutocrat” has actually deserved the wealth he has obtained. At some level Bill Gates deserves his wealth, for providing desk top computing to the world. No one was really forced to buy his products over the competition. And his philanthropy is laudable, up to a point. It is the kind of political influence that Soros and Zuckerberg are providing via their wealth that we need to balance against free speech rights. Right now I vote for increased public disclosures and transparency as one part of the solution. Possibly rescinding or revising the Citizen’s United SCOTUS ruling is another, but that may be trickier.
Of course, the election seasons now are 19 to 24 months long, and focus on the presidential campaign when they also need to focus even more strongly on the folks in Congress. Almost all of our problems and issues are the result of what Congress has done or failed to do in the distant or recent past. The Federal Reserve charter adding low employment as a goal, and the Ponzi scheme of social security, are two large examples. Failure to build Trump’s security barrier is more recent, along with the flawed response to the debt ceiling. But we need legislation that creates a stable law and corrected political situation, not dueling executive orders that change with each new administration.
The sad thing I guess is that this song and the comments of Scott, Steve and Bill could easily apply to us in Canada. So much so that the only thing needing change would when the mention nationality or locations.
You have the same problem of population concentrated in Blue Cities overwhelming the vast Red areas of your nation that we do. But much more pronounced than our problem is. Most of you live within spitting distance of the US and most of your big city population centers are pretty near our northern border too.
Canada makes a good bellwether for the US. Because of your laws and the way your population is distributed it’s easier for the Left to gain control up there. A fact that is not lost on the Leftists who have designs on taking over your government.
Not to be nasty here but there’s something I need to point out. If y’all lose your country to the Leftists don’t count on being any more welcome here than Mexicans are. In fact, probably less.
For my part it would be OK for Canadians to flee the wreck that’s going to happen in Canada as long as we can put a conservative filter on the border and only let Conservative Canadians emigrate to the US. The last thing we need or want is a bunch of Canadian Liberal Leftists flooding in from the North. If you’re a Canadian and things get too bad to tolerate up there, leave any Leftist ideas you might have behind if you head south.
Of course if Trudeau and his lackey’s manage to create a Leftist Utopia in Canada … Likely the ones fleeing would be Conservatives. Which means the American Democrat Left will do everything it can to keep you out.
Give Lehrer a break. “Fight Fiercely Harvard” is a satirical song. I often sing “The Boy Scout Song” (“Be prepared, as through life you march along,…,…, be prepared to hold your liquor pretty well, don’t write naughty words on walls if you can’t spell”.) His Yankee misinformation caused him to sing some pretty hurtful things about my home (“I wanna go back to Dixie, wanna be a Dixie Pixie, and have cornpone ’til it’s running out of my ears”). He mentions lynchings and pellagra – so it was “timely” (for the 1920s). But he was a comedian and satirist first. His Cold War stuff was really funny. It was the early 1960s.
I know this song is supposed to mainly be about DC, but I think it also applies to the technocrats. I’ve never been an “eat the rich” type. But the rich, in my youth, were different. They were selfish, sure… but they didn’t actively harm the rest of us. Maybe they didn’t want to. Maybe it’s because they were too busy buying private yachts, mansions, and jet-setting around the world. Maybe it’s that even the ultra-wealthy didn’t have enough to completely dominate markets like today’s do. Either way, the Blackrocks, Gates’s, and Soros’s of the world have me wondering what marinate goes best with the wealthy.
The only thing that keeps me from going to that side is that I’m a student of history and I know there’s never a good result from it. That’s how you go from the flourishing Venezuela of my youth to the hell hole they have now.
But don’t mind if I put on Head Like a Hole in the meantime…
You’ll want a vinegar/citrus marinade in that case.
Sour to counteract the cynical bitterness inherent in the Leftist, and acidic to tone down the cloying sweetness of the Holier-Than-Thou condescension.
I recommend head-first in a large vat until they stop kicking, then chill for 10-12 days. Long marinading is best due to the
stubbornness of the typestringiness of the meat.This Oliver Anthony guy has become a widespread phenomenon very rapidly. What is the significance of that?
I have a buddy that stops over once or twice a week. He’s a smart, informed person. One of our ongoing discussions revolves around the topic of our fellow Americans. He feels that we’ve become a nation of nincompoops, that the American people have so degraded themselves that there is little hope of salvaging this nation from the incontrovertible crash that the Left is foisting on us.
I think there’s hope because the American people have not yet woken up to what’s being done to them. I think that most Americans are pretty decent people and I don’t think the majority are stupid. It takes something other than a status quo, business-as-usual scenario to get them to sit up and pay attention to politics. Because frankly we have it so good in this country that although ignoring politics is perilous it’s also the default for many people. Because in general from their point of view they have more important things to concern themselves over like work, family and living a good life.
It’s very, very easy in these circumstances for someone to ignore politics because there are heretofore far too few differences between politicians on both sides. When you can’t find a marked difference between the sides it’s easy to just assume that one is as good or probably as bad as the other. Nothing is going to change no matter what you do.
That said, people are waking up to the disaster the Left is pushing us towards and something like Donald Trump, or this song, can be a crystallizing catalyst core kernel to get them to actually do something about the way the nation is being run.
Something like this can have the impact that “The shot heard ’round the world” had at Lexington and Concord. Up until the battle of Lexington and Concorde the American Revolution was mostly all talk. This kind of thing can be a Black Swan event.
Populism is becoming a growing force in the right as people are realizing that the government has become completely detached from its moorings. With the first indictment of Trump, the last spring line snapped.
That’s true but I’m not at all convinced it’s a good thing. Populism is what now passes for statesmanship. That way be dragons.
I guess the best we can hope for on our side is a statesman who also knows how to wield populism to his own advantage. Or vice-verse.
It’s true, populism is a dangerous tool, as is most of statecraft.
Frankly, if we just had more politicians who comprehended “consent of the governed,” we wouldn’t see such a rise in populism.
This is so. It seems to me like when the Democrats win office they forget about the rest of us. They need to have a glance at a political map of the US and take note of all the Red on it.
Then have a thought or two about where their food, minerals, ores, timber and all the other things that keep their voting base in the cities alive come from. And another thought or two about the real human beings that grow the food, mine the ores and minerals, harvest the timber and process all that into something a Blue city voter can use..
When someone like Trump comes along and seems to notice that sort of thing he becomes very popular out in those Red areas.
People are grateful to be noticed. But it’s the same sort of gratitude that a fat girl has for being asked for a prom date. She’s so happy to be asked she isn’t terribly interested in the particulars of the guy that asked her.
That’s how populism works.
Not used to the optimism, there, ACTS. So many conservatives fall into the “all is lost” category it’s depressing. And it’s not like the feeling is unwarranted.
Where I see the possibility of a conservative renaissance is in local politics. The “I’m fed up and can’t take it anymore” has made inroads throughout the country. It better, because the grooming of children, the transgender force-feeding, the starving of the military (except the Ukraine), energy policy, and the fiscal insanity is so over-the-top we need to wake up.
Yeah, I know and it ticks me off to no end when they do that. Bunch of grumpy old pharts and pharlettes getting in the way of doing something constructive by de-motivating everyone on the Conservative side who listens to them. Usually but not always accompanied by “If you’re not doing things MY way then you’re a covert enemy infiltrator”, or something along those lines.
They really should be ashamed. (I’m not talking about my buddy here. He’s a smart guy and is just playing the counterpoint in our discussions. He’s not the “all is lost type”, he’s the “dammit we’re going to lose this if we don’t look around to what’s being done to us” type.)
When you combine that sort of attitude with hyperbolic, hysterical over-exaggerations just to “prove how evil the other side is” then you’re out of the grumpy old phart zone and deep into nutcase country.
We tell Leftists that invent racial and other crises “If things are so bad, why do you have to lie and make things up?”
Well, if things are so bad why would a Conservative ever have to lie and hysterically over-exaggerate something either?
Intel is useless if it’s not accurate and does not proportionately reflect reality. It’s not that 90% correct information is 90% reliable and actionable. 90% is completely worthless because there will always be a lie or a bias in the remaining 10%.
You have to get up into the fractions above 99% for information to be useable in planning action and policy. Even then, there’s the possibility of a skilled deception because the “best” lies contain a very high percentage of truth. If that’s not the quality of information you’re making decisions on then you’re not making good, well informed decisions.
Another thing that creeps in to Conservative’s minds is the mistaken idea that their opinion is a fact. You gather facts, then you formulate your opinions. Not the other way around. If you’re not gathering real facts from high quality information your opinion isn’t worth the brain cells that were engaged in the process. I see this a lot even in here.
As far as political strategies go, local politics is certainly helpful but that’s a death-by-a-thousand-cuts to the Left. It’s not that it’s not worth the effort but it takes time and the Left will do its best to follow you around and stanch the bleeding.
I think we need to do that sort of thing, don’t get me wrong.
However, if you want to make very large, sweeping appeals to the American Public then the way to go about it is to loudly differentiate yourself from your opposition, then live up to your differentiation. That’s what Donald Trump did and it worked like a charm for him.
Politicians on our side need to get their ducks in a row and start preaching why they’re not the ones supporting the idea that a man magically becomes a woman just because he says so. That kids should not be indoctrinated and groomed for the perverse enjoyment of a negative segment of our society. That the people who actually created the kids and pay through taxes for their education have the final say in school issues, etc.
Youngkin did that in Virginia, just barely in time but it won him the election and he’s now if not the most then one of the most popular governors Virginia ever had.
Same goes for Desantis in Florida and Abbott in Texas.
So all that remains is for this sort of thing to leap from the state to the federal level and we have an excellent chance of getting our nation back.
The “Alas, Babylon! All is lost!” conservatives are antithetical to regaining our beloved Republic. They’re simply hateful people who have found avenues where they can express their grumpy old phartness and seem virtuous in doing so.
I hadn’t been on BillWhittle for quite some time and when got the renewal email realized that and promptly saved the bookmark to view daily along with all my other daily links. For these discussions, I see the value in being a member and will continue to be… Gosh… the words of this song ring true.
Two songs have come out recently that I tend to put together: this one (Rich Men North of Richmond) and “Try That In A Small Town”. While they are very different, they both express an emotional response to what has happened recently. I only hope this emotion does not lead to a more physical response.
There was a song from Aaron Lewis from 2 years ago that I thought was going to be this. But perhaps he was already too popular so it didn’t have the “grass roots” feel that Oliver does. But I like this one, too and play it fairly regularly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT9WUIfdKIA
Explicit lyric warning for those who are sensitive to that sort of thing.
I love this song. I just wish it didn’t have the “cuss” words. I feel like the acceptance of these words into our everyday speech has contributed to the decline in civility. But that’s just my way of thinking.
Oliver Anthony is one of the first of a resurgence of hopefully many “foot soldiers” in this culture war we’re in now. Here’s a video where he talks about the song and the concert he just gave:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsjhRmq9S2s
He’s modest, saying he hardly knows his way around the guitar (hate to think what he’d say about my abilities!).
If only people heed his words, they’re similar to what you hear on Bill Whittle dot com.
We need more like him to stand up. We may be at or near that critical mass right now. We need to spread his songs to friends. We need to fan these peaceful flames. And, simply enjoy the music. Oliver has several songs, the couple I listened to were every bit as good (I think) as Rich Men North of Richmond.
Another song (that I think is even better) is “I’m Just Say’n” by Austin Moody. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OLe-m_nCpM
You are right, that is a good song.
Thanks for the heads up on this one! I just downloaded it!