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When news broke that the U.S. had bombed Iran in June, an unexpected name started showing up on social media: Toby Keith.
Keith, who died of stomach cancer last year, had nothing to do with Iran or Israel, but a lot to do with America, having penned a number of patriotic country songs including “American Soldier,” “Happy Birthday America” and “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).”
It was that last song that was the occasion for Keith’s renewed popularity after the bombing.
Keith, the son of an Army veteran, wrote “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” in the aftermath of 9/11. It was a defiant song, expressing anger and promising revenge, and it was controversial not just because of the song’s expletives, but because of the tone.
The lyrics included the lines: “Justice will be served and the battle will rage/ This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage / And you’ll be sorry that you messed with the U.S. of A.”
It was later revealed that Keith never planned to release the song as a single, but that changed after Gen. James L. Jones told him, “That’s the most amazing battle song I’ve ever heard in my life.”
The Toby Keith memes got me thinking about another song that I heard a lot after 9/11: “In America," by the Charlie Daniels Band, which was released in 1980 during the Iranian hostage crisis.
Those lyrics included these words: “We may have done a little bit of fightin’ amongst ourselves, but you outside people best leave us alone.”
These songs aren’t war anthems in the way that “Over There” was during the world wars, but they serve much of the same purpose: inspiring patriotism, love of country and more than a little bit of a fighting spirit (the latter of which is something that “God Bless the U.S.A.,” despite its popularity with MAGA, does not do).
It’s hard to imagine the entire country — “the cowboys and the hippies and the rebels and the yanks,” in Charlie Daniels’ words — rallying around a song these days, given our polarization.
But I hope I’m wrong, so I reached out to Annegret Fauser, the author of the book “Sounds of War: Music in the United States During World War II," to get her opinion.
Fauser, the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor Emerita of Music at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, unfortunately agreed with me.
Few songs have eclipsed the power of “Over There” in terms of rousing Americans’ patriotism during wartime, Fauser said. “It has all the elements,” she said: a catchy rhythm and inspiring lyrics — it was a “show-tuney song,” she said.
After its popularity in World War I, there was an effort to find a similar song for World War II, even song-writing competitions. But nothing could compare with “Over There” even though “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" was a hit.
And so “Over There” endured through the Korean War, Fauser said. Then, “everything falls apart with the Vietnam War,” in terms of unity, she told me. There were pro-war songs and there were anti-war songs, but nothing the country could unite around.
And except for some passing episodes of unity — to include the Iran hostage crisis and 9/11 — we settled into this unsettling space of a divided America, to the detriment of all of us.
It’s been noted that Gen Z are the only American adults who have no personal memory of 9/11, which means they have no memory of the last time that all of America was truly united, albeit for a terrible reason. As much as it would be nice to have a unifying song again, let’s hope that it doesn’t come in the form of a new war anthem.
Who is proud to be an American?
Speaking of “God Bless the U.S.A.,” who among us is “proud to be an American,” besides Lee Greenwood?
Gallup is out with a new poll on the subject this week, and headlines are proliferating that say pride in America is declining.
The polling company has been asking the question since 2001, and this year reports a record low number of Americans who say they are “extremely” or “very proud” to be an American — just 58%.
“Prior to this year, the lowest figure recorded was 63% in 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest following the police killing of George Floyd,” Gallup said.
But there’s a catch: It’s largely Democrats who are driving these numbers, with just 36% saying they are proud to be an American. Independents are also feeling less patriotic, with slightly more than half (53%) saying they are proud.
Republicans, however, report high levels of pride, and do every year. “Republicans’ patriotism has generally stayed high, ranging from 84% to 99% since 2001,” Gallup said.
Which means that the headline on these stories perhaps shouldn’t be that Americans aren’t proud to be an American, but that Democrats aren’t.
The highest levels of patriotism that Gallup has recorded was between 2002 and 2004. Nine out of 10 adults then said they were proud to be an American.
Recommended Reading
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“When celebrities joke about turning to drugs to handle the difficulties of parenting they are sending a message to parents everywhere about the acceptability of the practice.”
No, cannabis gummies will not make you a better parent
William C. Duncan examines the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor and concludes that it’s a win not only for families, but for the Constitution.
“The court has made clear that simple accommodations, like allowing parents to opt students out of class discussions about sensitive topics, can avoid constitutional conflicts. The principle of accommodation also has implications for other areas of potential conflicts, like whether religious people can serve as foster parents or must pay for abortion coverage in their insurance plans.”
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Endnotes
It seemed for a while that Elon Musk and Donald Trump were making peace, but things are unraveling again. I put together a short history of their mutual discontent in 10 tweets.
And here’s an explainer on why the president’s resignation at the University of Virginia matters, a look at Gavin Newsom’s lawsuit against Fox News, and an exploration of what “bro culture” could cost the GOP.
As always, thank you for reading and being part of the Right to the Point community. You can email me at Jgraham@deseretnews.com, or send me a DM on X, @grahamtoday.
And for the record, I am extremely proud to be an American and will be blasting the “The Stars and Stripes Forever” during my morning run on Friday.