It hit us like a bolt of lightning the other day when a deranged MSNBC personality was bashing President Trump for the 40-billionth time: We don’t have déjà vu; the Democrats are simply a broken record. They’re competing with each other to pull a “Dixie Chick,” a marketing strategy where the celebrity who denounces a Republican president the hardest gets mass media attention for their “bravery” and gets even richer in the process, while risking absolutely nothing at all.
This epiphany hit us as MSNBC’s Donnie Deutsch was bloviating that President Trump will stage a military coup if he loses the election in 2020. We thought, “That sounds… strangely familiar! Where have we heard that before?”
Donnie Deutsch is the MSNBC loudmouth who challenged President Trump to a fistfight last year. So brave! Deutsch is on MSNBC because when CNN hired him to anchor a show, the ratings were too low.
Pause for a moment and consider how dismal a show’s ratings have to be for CNN to cancel it. “Spongebob Squarepants” is currently beating CNN’s Chris Cuomo in the ratings, and Jake Tapper is getting his rear-end handed to him by reruns of “Dora the Explorer,” and they’re in no danger of being taken off the air. That gives you an idea of how much the viewers must love Donnie Deutsch!
Deutsch told the Morning Joe’s viewers this week that President Trump would use the military to take over the government after his “inevitable” loss in 2020. “He really would do that,” Deutsch informed the audience.
If that sounds vaguely familiar to you, then you have a great memory – because Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam said pretty much the same thing about George W. Bush 14 years ago. Vedder smashed a mask of President Bush on stage during a concert and then helpfully informed the audience that their freedom of speech rights were going away the following year, because Fascist Literally Hitler W. Bush was going to use the troops to crush all dissent. (This is not to be confused with the concert where Vedder burned former President Bush in effigy.)
Pearl Jam was trying to capitalize on the brilliant marketing strategy that was patented by the Dixie Chicks:
Step 1. Insult a Republican president, preferably in front of a foreign audience as you’re launching a new album or film.
Step 2. Sit back and bask in the glow of every newspaper and television news show in the world lauding your “courage” for two months straight. (Cynics refer to this as massive amounts of free advertising.)
Step 3. Issue a fake apology if half of your current fan base decides it now hates you.
Step 4. Rescind the fake apology when your next album or movie is about to be released.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Dixie Chicks’ Marketing Strategy™! The bad news for today’s celebrities and fake news anchors is that the market is getting far too crowded with counterfeit Dixie Chicks knockoffs.
The Dixie Chicks launched their 2003 tour with a concert in London. Natalie Maines, the lead singer for the group, told her British audience, “Just so y’all know… we’re ashamed the President of the United States comes from Texas.”
When Americans learned of the Dixie Chicks’ attack on Bush, the response from the media was near-universal. The Chicks were brave, courageous, filled with valor and defenders of free speech in the face of Literally Hitler. It was just like Senator Hillary Clinton dodging sniper fire in Bosnia! The Dixie Chicks COULD HAVE DIED!
The Los Angeles Times noted that anyone who criticized Natalie Maines for insulting President Bush in a foreign country, right as we were about to send troops into harm’s way in Iraq, was undermining “the foundation of this country.” The New York Times ran at least half a dozen front-page articles on their courage. MTV gave the Dixie Chicks a made-up award for their “enduring commitment to preserving and protecting freedom of expression.” To liberals, a celebrity insulting a Republican president is just like the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima.
As a result of the saturation media coverage fawning over the Dixie Chicks for their courage, this mediocre country music band had the 8th highest-grossing concert tour of 2003. The Dixie Chicks made more money than far more popular artists with huge established fanbases, including Elton John, the Rolling Stones, Billy Joel and Metallica.
The massive payout that the Dixie Chicks received as a result of this marketing stunt makes you wonder about the media’s definition of “courage.” Normal people tend to think of bravery and courage as doing something even though you might get harmed in some way, or when you stand to lose something. For liberals, courage is doing something with no personal risk involved – and you get a massive paycheck as a result. (See also: Christine Blasey Ford.)
This stunt was so lucrative for the Dixie Chicks that they pulled it again in 2005. Maines not only rescinded her fake apology to President Bush but included a song on her new album patting herself on the back for her bravery and victimhood. In the song “Not Ready to Make Nice,” Maines sang, “I’ve paid a price, and I’ll keep paying.” Talk about courage under fire!
After realizing that bashing a Republican president could turn a B-side country music act into a filthy stinking rich media sensation, other opportunistic celebrities were practically tripping over each other with their sudden cases of Bush Derangement Syndrome. Madonna threw a hand grenade at Bush in a music video to promote her 2005 album release. (Madonna in 2017, before her “Rebel Heart” tour kicked off: “I’ve dreamed of blowing up the White House.”)
The Beastie Boys, REM, Lenny Kravitz and other artists raced to show their courage by suddenly releasing anti-war songs… two years after the Iraq war started.
The lead singer of Green Day bravely declared, “I’m not afraid to criticize America.” Americans thought this was kind of an odd thing not to be afraid of, considering that we have the First Amendment and all.
Celebrities had to take a hiatus from the Dixie Chicks’ Marketing Strategy™ while Barack Obama was in office. Now that President Trump is in the White House, every single celebrity and news personality is employing it. Every music and movie awards show has become a festival of Dixie Chicks-style Trump-bashing. It’s risen to such a fever pitch that they’re now plagiarizing each other’s acts, like Donnie Deutsch ripping off Pearl Jam.
Bruce Springsteen, right before the release of his 2004 box collection: “It’s time to think about impeaching the president.” In 2017, to promote the release of his digital live concert series: “My name is Bruce Springsteen, and one day soon, when the windows of your mosques are smashed, and the synagogues lie in ashes, when the skies are gray with dust and the sea has risen to wash away the roads—”
Good grief! Quick, someone invent a pill to cure chronic drama queenery! Don’t any of these people have a different tune they could sing? We can’t all be Dixie Chicks.
