Brokeback Foundation

In a sarcastic tweet in which he declared “hate wins,” Governor Mike Huckabee today announced his resignation from the board of directors of the Country Music Associate Foundation, less than 24 hours after assuming the post. The foundation is the arm of the CMA that is dedicated to funding music education in schools. Why, you might ask, was he forced out of his post at a charitable organization whose mission he believed in? If you guessed “blustering leftist outrage,” give yourself a pat on the back!

As an outspoken Evangelical Christian, Huckabee has drawn the ire of the LGBT community, who are so full of mouth-foaming, rage-spiraling tolerance they can’t stand to have a traditional marriage-affirming Christian serve as an unpaid member of their board for even one day.

Among the complainers are one Jason Owen, co-president of Monument Records and owner at Sandbox Entertainment. Owens, who is raising a son and also expecting twins with his husband Sam, found the appointment of Huckabee to be a “grossly offensive decision,” and chastised the CMA for “making [Huckabee] feel welcome and relevant.” He threatened to pull the support of his companies from the foundation. Outcry from Owens and others prompted Huckabee to resign so as not to cause detriment to the foundation.

Clients of Owens’ Sandbox Entertainment include Faith Hill, Little Big Town, and Kasey Musgraves. Musgraves is the perfect embodiment of modern “country” music, employing the sound and superficial trappings of traditional country music without the soul. “Mind your own biscuits and life will be gravy,” she croons in one song, wearing a sparkly farm-girl dress in a campy Hee-Haw style video. Trite, but harmless enough. But check out her toe-tapping song “Follow your Arrow” which also has old-fashioned country rhythm and instrumentation, with the following lyrics:

“Make lots of noise
Kiss lots of boys
Or kiss lots of girls
If that’s something you’re into
When the straight and narrow
Gets a little too straight
Roll up a joint, or don’t
Just follow your arrow
Wherever it points, yeah”

Some might mistakenly call this modernization of a traditional genre. In fact it is a bastardization, akin to updating the Mona Lisa by plastering a smiley-face sticker over the enigmatic smile. In the above example, Musgraves performs soulless, stylistically boilerplate music with social-Marxist approved lyrics clumsily painted on top. In this, there is no trace of the authentic, soulful country music that was an organic expression of the heritage and experiences of our forbears. This is an artificially animated, franken-baby form of a once living entity, the likes of which are promulgated by people like Owens in the entertainment industry.

So Huckabee, who is descended from early American settlers, and having grown up “dirt poor” in Arkansas, has a love and real connection to authentic American music, has been rudely ousted from an organization that grew from that music. As for Musgraves, the Texan may very well also have deep roots in rural America. I don’t know. But hers is a generation almost entirely severed from all but the most superficial aspects of their heritage, and this is apparent when one absorbs the pablum that is now described as “country” music.

In Huckabee’s resignation letter, he described the transformative effect learning to play music had on him, and expressed his “hope that the music and entertainment industry will become more tolerant and inclusive.”

I’m very sorry to say so, Governor, but the fact that you’re even making that argument shows that the battle is lost.