He's a model for a certain kind of conservatism that isn't in fashion anymore. Pissed off at the things someone is supposed to be pissed off at when life loses its promise. And he would never call himself a conservative. Far from it. But this is how [[Four principal characteristics of a Political Idea|political ideas]] translate in art. Bruce Springsteen is a staple at Republican rallies from Reagan to Trump. So too John Mellencamp and a lot of hip hop. And even, God forbid, Kid Rock. But he's just trying to make a buck like Lee Greenwood. So what about Steve Earle? A first mover in the space, as country-rock found a contrarian voice. IE, he manages to [[Write How People Speak]] His characters are still in love with the places that birthed them, and the country that we see the Trumpian GOP mourning and reviving. Like any boom time, the 80s had winners and losers. Country took on a serious populist voice when populism was more readily the promise of the FDR left. (This realignment manifested more readily in [[Buchananism]] in a few years time) Also, Earle became overtly political later in his career - when he tended to lose popularity. Like with so many artists, the sentiments expressed most succinctly came first. Say it out loud, people resent you. Say how you feel, people identify with you. [No. 29](https://music.apple.com/us/album/no-29/1443258078?i=1443258083) is a political song, even if no one intended it as such. Lots of Americans have lived that life. None of them are in the laptop class today. It was released in *Exit 0* in 1987, the last album Earle produced for Nashville pop country. He would evolve into more explicit rock or folk for the rest of his career. The sense of resentment from Vietnam hadn't yet gone away - and those lyrics have aged awfully well. Losing a house in the crash, coming back without a leg from a strange Asian nation -- *OR JUST KNOWING PEOPLE WHO DID SAME* - was and is a massive cultural force. It's trendy to say politics is downstream from culture. [[Electoral Politics in a Dopamine culture| Not so]]. Politics *is* culture, just made manifest in binary choices on ballots and then dissected into pieces by goofy holdover geographies from the 19th century. Where geographies in whole or in part show clear cultural shifts, we see cultural changes formalize. Economic shifts manifest more starkly. [[Politics is downstream from economics]]. Follow the drug dealers, you find a bunch of drugs. Follow the outrage, on either side, depending on who is in charge: you'll find a bunch of megachurches, abandoned small towns, golf course housing developments, or tax-subsidized universities. Follow the money, and you'll find debt, growth, de-growth, or transfer payments. Which is to say; how megachurches, golf course housing developments, and universities sustain themselves. Follow the de-growth, or the exhaustion of credit... and you'll see where the drug dealers moved in. [[We aren't pundits]]. But this is how [[Communicating Political Ideas]] translates into votes.