It was a shout-out from the stage that drew a roar from the crowd — and the leftists are going to regret not listening.
Country music’s Cody Johnson used a concert Friday night to give a major hat-tip to embattled fellow country star Jason Aldean.
And Johnson’s audience left no doubt about where they stood.
During an appearance Friday in St. Louis, Johnson introduced a song with a very public endorsement of Aldean — the country singer whose song and video of “Try That in a Small Town” has put him in the middle of a very big controversy.
“We live in a time where everyone gets p***ed off at Jason Aldean for putting out a song,” Johnson said, as Billboard reported. “If you’re videoing this, and, Jason Aldean, if you’re seeing this video, you keep it up, brother. You do you, boo boo.”
Cody Johnson threw his support behind Jason Aldean the other night!!!
“If being patriotic makes me an outlaw, then by God, I’ll be an outlaw.” pic.twitter.com/5avT4uAvcn
— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen_1) July 22, 2023
Johnson then spoke words that could be the lyrics to a country anthem all by themselves: “If being patriotic makes you an outlaw, then by God, I’ll be an outlaw.”
There was a time not all that long ago when just the idea that being a patriotic American would be somehow counter to the establishment culture would be considered nearly insane. But in the United States of 2023, it’s a different story.
Should more country artists back Jason Aldean?
Yes: 99% (131 Votes)
No: 1% (1 Votes)
The White House is occupied by a doddering, almost certainly corrupt figurehead of a gerontocratic Democratic Party, a man who appears increasingly guilty with every new piece of evidence that’s uncovered by congressional Republicans.
Once-respected institutions like the Department of Justice and the FBI are in the hands of men and women who no longer deserve the trust of their country.
And the establishment media has turned its back on the job of honestly informing the population about its own government while filling the airwaves and headlines with a constant stream of propaganda aimed at promoting the American left’s most outrageous claims — on “climate change,” on “transgender” issues, on hallucinatory terrors of “white supremacy.”
In a climate like that, the truth stands out — which is what made Aldean’s video of “Try That in a Small Town” the flashpoint it became.
Cowardly executives at CMT pulled it from the country music network’s rotation.
A radically smug music writer at Rolling Stone argued it was prima facie “racist” because the video was shot at a courthouse where a lynching took place almost a century ago. Seriously?
But the real message is simpler, and so obvious that it takes a Rolling Stone writer to miss it:
Americans who saw their cities burn in riots three years ago, and have watched as they’ve sunk since into the depravity of near-anarchy under coopted legal systems where elected prosecutors and district attorneys subordinate duly enacted laws to their own progressive political agenda — are fed up with the direction the country and culture are moving.
A January poll reported by NBC found that more than 70 percent of Americans think the country was moving in the wrong direction, and there’s precious little reason to think anything has changed. (There are also a good many reasons to think it’s even worse — most of them involving various permutations of the name “Biden.”)
And then came Aldean’s video, neatly summarizing in words and images exactly what has been infuriating Americans who don’t live in a leftist bubble.
The attacks were swift, and they were predictable, but fortunately, they’re being met with a response — the kind of response Johnson gave his St. Louis crowd on Friday.
But what really mattered here was the roar of the crowd in return.
It isn’t just Cody Johnson who’s publicly supported Aldean. Country stars Lee Greenwood and Jake Owen as well as rock legend Ted Nugent have also come out on his side. Those are just some of the names Americans might recognize. There are no doubt countless millions more — who might never have heard of the name Jason Aldean until last week — who are feeling the same.
How this anger and disgust translates into the political world remains to be seen, of course, but the presidential election year is getting closer by the day.
Even if the left wasn’t listening on Friday night, it’s a good bet they’re going to be getting a message loud and clear come 2024.
In the world of the Democratic Party in the 21st century, being patriotic doesn’t make you an outlaw. It makes you a conservative.
