Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and GOP presidential candidate, resigned from the Country Music Association Foundation (CMAF) citing intolerance for conservative and religious beliefs throughout the music industry. The CMAF “focuses on improving and sustaining music education programs everywhere while supporting worthwhile causes important to the Country Music Association.”
Huckabee lasted one full day before the hate-filled left went for his jugular with a smear campaign, complete with lies and innuendo, seeking to destroy a man who could give richly to the organization.
How can those associated with country music, whose fans are the very epitome of hard work, God, and country, spew lie after lie to promote their own liberal agenda?
It’s Music–Not Morality
Well, let’s ask Jason Owen, who runs Sandbox Management, and represents artists such as Little Big Town and Faith Hill. Owen and his husband are new parents and are attempting to build a family. He let loose this attack the day Huckabee was added to the board roster:
“Huckabee speaks of the sort of things that would suggest my family is morally beneath his and uses language that has a profoundly negative impact on young people all across this country. Not to mention how harmful and damaging his deep involvement with the NRA is.”
Balderdash.
Jason, let’s discuss; first, most country music lovers are family oriented, 2nd Amendment protectors, and church-goers. Have you ever listened to the Little Big Town songs, Boondocks, Beat up Bible or Faster Gun? Or are you just cashing the checks that these stars generate? Oh, and those 14 million folks that align themselves with the NRA; yeah, they aren’t listening to Hip Hop, my friend.
Don’t add any additional self-importance to your existence, Jace. Mike Huckabee never thought twice about the family life you lead. Well, until now. And it’s obvious that you believe if anyone disagrees with your lifestyle, they are rotten human beings. Have you sold that message to country music fans?
Don’t Shoot Yourself in the Foot
Huckabee is a good guy with homespun roots. He grew up dirt-floor poor and he will tell you, music saved his life. In his heartfelt resignation letter to CMA he wrote:
“Music changed my life. I grew up dirt poor in south Arkansas. No male upstream from me in my entire family ever even graduated from high school. I had no reason to believe that my life would consist of anything but scratching out a meager living and hoping to pay rent in a house I would never own just as generations before me had done.
Music changed that. The gift of an electric guitar by my parents when I was 11 put in my hands a future. It took them a year to pay for the $99 guitar they bought from the J. C. Penney catalog. Granted, I was never good enough to make a full-time living at music, but the confidence I gained by playing, being in front of people, and competing against myself and the low expectations I grew up with was transformative.”
Mike Huckabee
Just the kind of kids that the CMA Foundation is trying to help through music programs. Having a juggernaut of a fundraiser as Mike Huckabee, who is an artist, not a manager wannabe, would have added millions of dollars to the cause. Isn’t that what we want?
The CMAF web page clearly states their goals as an organization:
“CMA is dedicated to bringing the poetry and emotion of Country Music to the world. We will continue the tradition of leadership and professionalism, promoting the music, and recognizing excellence in all its forms. While fostering a spirit of community and sharing, we will respect and encourage creativity and the unique contributions of all.”
Except if you prefer a more ‘traditional’ family and hold conservative values. You people are out of here.
Country music fans are a loyal bunch; are memories so short as to forget and dismiss what happened when The Dixie Chicks spouted off about being embarrassed to be Americans? Radio stations under duress from fans black-balled the gals, completely stopped playing their music and sent the talented Chicks into the realm of oblivion.
Ideology
Political ideology through music is nothing new; some of the most enduring messages and excellent compositions were generated during the Vietnam War years. As artists, they have the right to protests and express their views, and as consumers, we can choose to buy their brand or listen elsewhere. It’s the American way.
And yet, sadly, this is what we have come to as Huckabee regrettably resigned a cause near and dear to his heart:
“I genuinely regret that some in the industry were so outraged by my appointment that they bullied the CMA and the Foundation with economic threats and vowed to withhold support for the programs for students if I remained…Bullies succeeded in making it untenable to have “someone like me” involved.”
Shame on the CMAF and those hate-filled people who find power in attacking the good people of this country for no other reason than they can. Our children, who would be enriched by music programs, are the true victims of Jason Owen and his brand of nastiness. I urge my readers to send a clear message to the CMAF that this treatment of anyone is unacceptable. Here is their community outreach phone number (615) 664-1608.
