Good news, progress-haters! Provincialism has a new anthem.

Give me back my America

I heard it this weekend at a music festival in Galax, Virginia. We went for the mountain music, the spectacular traditions of Old Time and Bluegrass that persist in those hills, passed down from grandparent to parent to child to grandchild. We heard a lot of the traditional stuff, from great bands like Blue Highway, Mountain Heart, and The Whitetop Mountain Band, but the festival organizers drew a few groups from farther away, and we got a small dose of “Country” thrown in as well. And with it, a candidate for The Song Most Likely To Be Adopted By The Tea Party.

Muse.

The singer of this political overture, John Berry, is a fifty-something white male from a town outside Atlanta. Berry took the stage on Saturday night as a featured performer. His set consisted of about six songs, and he spent as much time talking as he did playing. His patter consisted of a stream of references to his rural upbringing, his working-class parents, his farm, and, repeatedly, his tractor. Every story seemed to start with him on a tractor, or under it, changing the oil. At one point I turned to my wife and said, “If he mentions his tractor again, I’m going to vomit.”

He introduced his final number with a little speech about the wonders of the Tea Party, and then he launched into this song:

Sittin’ Watchin’ the news today
People Tryin’ to make their way
Through a time that’s hard to understand

There are those that pull their weight
They work hard and get home late
Just in time to get their kids to bed

You know us workin’ folks
We’re strong and we’re tough
And sooner or later enough is enough

I want to work with my hands down at the mill
Plowin’ a field or forgin’ the steel
With out interference from Capital Hill
Give Me Back My America

I don’t know what I can do
The government’s makin’ up all new rules
This is change that I don’t believe in

Cause there are those that plot and scheme
They think they have the right to change
Everything this country’s founded on

I think it’s obvious they’ve brokren our trust
We need to remind them that they work for us

I want to raise my family on my piece of land
Start my own business, do the best that I can
Without interference from government plans

Give Me Back My America

I want to worship my God like my father did
Give to His church what I know is His
Without interference from Capital Hill

Give Me Back My America

(If you’d like to hear him sing it, just visit johnberry.com)

I walked out in the middle of this number, feeling disappointed that a great weekend of music had to end for me on a partisan and parochial note.

Knock knock.

Whether Berry actually feels this way, or whether he simply aims to tap into a lucrative stream of rural discontent, is unanswerable. But this song left me wondering what, exactly, was the problem. It doesn’t point out any particular offense, but makes oblique references to plots and schemes, to regulations, and to change. It implies that the government of Barack Obama is taking money from hardworking people in order to give it away to people who work less hard. It insinuates that government plans make it hard to start businesses. It suggests that the government wants to take away our money so that we can’t give it to our churches.

Like most Country songs, the lyrics suggest a nostalgia for some idyllic time in the past, A Time When America Was Better. When warm apple pies waited on windowsills in small towns, dads worked hard and moms stayed home, and families dressed up for church on Sunday morning. These songs assume as fact that in the past, this was the predominant way of life, and that today such things never, or rarely take place. The narrative of Country music is that civilization is in decline. Berry’s song is firmly in this tradition, but it was the first I heard that put all the blame for that decline at the feet of the Obama administration.

I don’t believe the Country music (and Fox News) anti-fantasy that the world today is scarier than it used to be. I’ve read too much history to believe any such nonsense. The very things that Country music abhors, I see as signs of social progress. Regulation prevents pollution, alleviates poverty, and provides greater opportunity. Freedom of religion means freedom from any one religion.

So today, as I read the paper, I’d like to tip my hat to the bogey men of Country music. The following stories from today’s paper depict an America much different than the nostalgic small-town Oz of Berry’s song. But it’s developments like these that make our country a better place than he can imagine. And we’re not giving it back, John. We’ve worked too damn hard to get here.

Federal rules on gay adoption may overrule Virginia law

Here’s the most obvious target for a Berry song. It’s a twofer! We’ve got a states’-rights challenge blended with a pro-gay law. Of course, this is the perfect screen for bigotry. Anti-gay activists can try to avoid the label by simply claiming that they are only upset that the federal government is usurping Virginia’s sovereignty. This shouldn’t fool anyone, however, any more that the argument that the Civil War was fought mainly to protect states’ rights.

This proposed law is designed to introduce anti-discrimination language into regulations on adoption. It’s not telling Virginia that it has to allow same-sex couples to marry. Don’t worry, though. We’ll get there eventually.

Navy chaplains can perform same-sex unions

The Navy is already on board. Chaplains don’t have to marry gay couples “if it is against their religious beliefs.” But new Navy ergs make it clear that chaplains are explicitly permitted to preside over gay marriages. No word yet from the other branches of the service, but they are likely to follow.

Planned Parenthood plans expansion, some object

According to one speaker for the opposition, “Hampton Roads is a Christian, family-based community…” I am not Christian. Neither is my wife. I happen to know a whole lot of other non-Christians who live here. Are we not part of the community of Hampton Roads? I support Planned Parenthood and its mission.

Another sexual harassment claim at Lynnhaven Lincoln-Mercury dealership

While we’re on the subject of sexual freedom, let’s address this story. Sexual harassment cases don’t exist in Country-music land. There women know their place, and bad men are punished by a whoopin’, not by a lawsuit. Of course, in progressive America, the harassment lawsuit has helped women achieve a much stronger voice in the workplace than they have ever had, forcing men to treat them as co-worker, not as available sex-objects.

Portsmouth to vote to raise taxes

Taxes. Oh boy. Here come the haters. The very first comment on this story makes explicit reference to “welfare queens” who benefit unjustly from the commenter’s hard work. I suspect that the reason Portsmouth has the highest tax rate in our area is mostly because the property values in that city are the lowest. Economic development is needed to help lift the overall economy there and raise property values, so the tax rate could be lowered. Did P-town forget to apply for stimulus money?

Wind Power campaign launches today

And finally, government regulation. The green power sector needs government support to get off the ground. But wind power doesn’t fit into the Country music narrative. It’s clearly a liberal hoax, a worthless technology designed to steal jobs from coal workers and funnel money to welfare queens. The jobs it creates aren’t real jobs. The energy it produces isn’t real energy. I bet a lot of very rich oil company executives listen to Country music, and bob their heads and sing along, and caress their money while they plan how next to discredit alternative energy.