Jerry Falwell, the fundamentalist Christian preacher whose beliefs have been for decades trashed by American liberals in and out of the media, calls them “three French Hens.”  (Think of the third stanza of the ancient Yule tune, On the First Day of Christmas.) That sort of thing has happened quite a bit since lead singer, Natalie Maines voiced her now-infamous phrase before a performance audience in England.

Earlier this spring, Maines' quipped at a concert in London "just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."   If you follow the news at all, you know what happened next.  Radio stations stopped playing their songs, music stores stopped selling their recordings and people threw their Dixie Chick CD collection in the street, then ran over the discs with pavement rollers.  Protesters appeared at their concerts, and some of their concerts and club appearances were canceled.  Bumper stickers on eighteen-wheelers began to appear, calling them "Saddam's Angels," and the "Dixie Sluts."  In a Reuters story, it was reported that their recording sales are off 47%.  In protest, the girls apeared nude on the cover of Entertainment Weekly.  (Shown below.  It is a link to the magazine's website.)

It is clear that Maines was exercizing her right of free political speech when she made the comment.  What is surprising is that she and her group are upset about the reaction.  

Two factors obtain here. Universality of basic rights and abject, moronic stupidity.

With respect to the first item, Maines is not the only American who has the right of free expression.  Her audience has it, as well.  And, if burning the flag is protected expression, so is steamrolling CDs.  With respect to the second item, that these three morons would not be aware of the potential reaction by their specific audience to such a comment leaves one blinking.  Their base is Southern.  A pop-country bunch whose core stretches from West Virginia through Tennessee, Kansas and Wyoming to the cow towns and country saloons of Eastern Oregon and Washington.

The term “Dixie” refers to a part of America below what during the Civil War period was known as the Mason/Dixon Line.  It was a political division of America.  Above that line, were the “free states.” Below it, the “slave states.”   The Confederate flag was the flag of Dixie.  There is a song called Dixie.  It begins with the following lyrics: “Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten, look away, look away, look away Dixieland.”

It is now, in America, a forbidden song.  Except for a black conservative by the name of Ken Hamblin, who regularly plays it on his radio program, you will rarely, if ever, hear that tune.  Political Correctness is the reason, of course.  California public school textbooks now must call the founding fathers “the framers of the constitution” because the original term is sexist.  Likewise, the Confederate theme, Dixie, must be removed from human memory.

If you are now wondering why it is that the Dixie Chicks are not barraged by the Left in America (which controls movies, television, the theatre and music) because of the first word in their group name, you’re a bright reader.  The reason is that liberals forgive such atrocities by people who are ashamed to be from the same part of the country as George W. Bush.  

I would ordinarily say that the Dixie Chicks had done a good job of hiding it for so long, but with the London comment by Maines, it is now obvious that they weren’t working a coverup.  All three girls are so damned stupid that they are completely unaware of the political beliefs of their audience.  They know that their fans are Democrats, and union supporters, but are completely ignorant of the fact that a Southern Democrat has very little in common with a Northern Democrat.

Northern Democrats are predominently pro-baby-murder, pro flag-burning, pro-socialist redistribution, anti-traditional values. Southern Democrats are flag wavers.  Strong patriots.  Proud to be Americans.  Anti-peacenik.  Pro traditional values.  Overwhelmingly, they supported Reagan.  For the Dixie Chicks to be unaware of this borders on aspects of autism.

Bill Mahr’s Politically Incorrect and U.C. Berkeley’s “free speech movement,” were misnomers.  Each was in action the exact opposite of what their name would indicate. The Dixie Chicks, however are only half misnomer.  They are without question not  Dixie, but they are without question chicks – the definition of same being very attractive, not very bright, young females.

(LL)

© 2003 Oregon Magazine