Dem
47
GOP
53
What a strange story this is. The Trump administration is trying to squeeze America's upcoming 250th birthday for all it's worth. And, as part of the "festivities," someone who works for Trump is organizing "the Great American State Fair," which will be held in D.C., along Pennsylvania Avenue, and will feature musical performances, as these things are wont to do. Here is the official announcement of the acts scheduled to appear; it lists the following entertainers:
It's a fairly standard "county fair" kind of list, full of performers who are far removed from their days of glory. You don't do the county fair the year you've released a hit record. Or any of the 20 years after that, either.
We have no doubt that any reader of this site would be instantly aware that something called "Freedom 250" and/or "the Great American State Fair" is connected to the Trump administration, because of the over-the-top rah-rah patriotism. And if you read the release linked above, it does make several references to MAHA events, and to the "White House Task Force" and to other details that make clear what's going on.
Given that it was so painfully obvious to us, we assumed it was also obvious to the folks who agreed to appear. And we were kind of surprised by the list. "Are these folks all MAGA?" we wondered. Sure, Bret Michaels is, and it's not surprising if Vanilla Ice is. But there are a lot of Black musicians here, and if they're all MAGA, then finding that many MAGA Black artists would be quite a feat. Since we doubted that, we supposed that they all just needed the work.
As it turns out, at least if you believe the musicians, most of them had no idea what they were signing up for. So, the same day that the roster of entertainers was released, there was a run of drop-outs. Here's the list, as it now stands:
That is a rather shorter, whiter list.
As we note above, we're struggling to wrap our minds around what happened here. It is certainly possible that, as the artists claim, they were misled, and they had no idea they would be performing in support of MAGA. We can definitely see the kind of dishonest people that Trump hires being willing to try to pull the wool over the performers' eyes until it was too late. Alternatively, maybe the artists said, "Hey, a paycheck is a paycheck," and they only jumped ship when their fanbases rebelled. Certainly, on social media, you can see plenty of evidence that the fans were furious. As in, "I'll never attend another concert, I'll never buy another record" furious.
Who knows what the White House will do to re-populate the schedule. Maybe they'll have each of the performers who are still "in" do multiple days. Though the more likely possibility is that the administration will round up the usual suspects, and we'll once again get to see Kid Rock, Jason Aldean, Lee Greenwood, and a bunch of other folks who are mostly kinda old, kinda sad and very white. It's another reminder that Trump, who has spent decades longing to be one of the "in crowd," will reach the end of his days never having been accepted by the cool kids, or even the semi-cool kids. (Z)