Does Jason Aldean Hate America?

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I don’t know much about Jason Aldean.  I know he’s not Chris Stapleton or Brad Paisley. From the small sampling of songs I’ve listened to, he sounds like The Goo Goo Dolls of modern Pop-Country with soft, generic, easy-listening music that appeals to some, apparently. I was surprised to see his name flooding my timeline with controversy over his new single Try That in a Small Town.

THE SONG

If you haven’t heard the song, consider yourself lucky. The song lyrics pander to the anti-big city crowd. It is yet another divisive media tool to deepen the divide between city folks and Main Street USA. The song basically implies that all crime takes place by city folks in the big cities and if you try that in a small town you’re gonna get a whooping, beat down, or shot. Further, if you disrespect the police in a small town you may also suffer physical violence or worse.

Here are the first couple of verses and the chorus.

Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk
Carjack an old lady at a red light
Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store
Ya think it’s cool, well, act a fool if ya like

Cuss out a cop, spit in his face
Stomp on the flag and light it up
Yeah, ya think you’re tough

Well, try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
Around here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won’t take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don’t
Try that in a small town

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Kelley Lovelace / Neil Thrasher / Tully Kennedy / Kurt Michael Allison

One thing Aldean has going for him is that it doesn’t look like he wrote this song. I take back that comparison to The Goo Goo Dolls. They write their own songs.

He sings like only people from big cities spit in cops’ faces. He must have never watched the television show, COPS. Plenty of smaller-town people acting like fools. Here are two spitting incidents from small towns in my home state of Pennsylvania. This incident is from Shohola, PA population 2088. This one is from Doylestown, PA population 8250.

THE VIDEO

The video is worse. Aldean performs outside of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, TN, which happens—coincidentally—to have been the site where a white mob lynched strung up a Black man named Henry Choate in 1927 after dragging his body through the streets with a car. I’m sure it was just a case of bad luck in choosing that location. The video intersperses clips of Aldean and his band with various video clips including footage from the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests and riots along with news clips of those events.

Some outlets have stopped playing the video because of the racial undertones. Aldean claims, in a tweet, the song isn’t racist because none of the lyrics mention race. He’s correct there. But, has he seen his own video? He also states in that tweet, “‘Try That In A Small Town,’ for me, refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up.”

BACKGROUND

Where did he grow up, I wondered. Turns out he grew up, according to the almighty Wikipedia, in the small town of Macon, GA population 153,000. Wikipedia also states that he spent time in Homestead, FL with his father. Homestead, population 80,000, is a principal city in the Miami Metropolitan Area, population 6,000,000. He’s had houses in the Nashville area (pop. 690,000) and a beach house in Santa Rosa, FL (pop. 14,000).

According to the US Census, a small town is defined as having 5,000 people or less. Me, personally, I’d consider a town with less than 50,000 people a small town. Under my theory, the only small town that Aldean has lived in is Santa Rosa, FL where the median home price is just shy of one million dollars. Doesn’t seem like Aldean has any real connection to the rural/small-town folks he’s pandering to, aside from an apparent disdain for big cities, while living in the Nashville area.

FREEDOM

I can’t help but go back to the second verse of the song. Specifically the warning of consequences for cussing out a cop or burning the flag. This begs the question, does Jason Aldean hate America? Does he hate freedom? Is he aware that “cussing out a cop” or “burning the flag” are legally protected under the Freedom of Speech Amendment to our Constitution?

He seems to be conveying the message that individuals exercising their First Amendment rights should be subjected to physical violence by warning, “Well, try that in a small town. See how far ya make it down the road. Around here, we take care of our own. You cross that line, it won’t take long.” Having the right to cuss out a cop or burn a flag is precisely what makes America great. Having the right to do those things is what makes America America and not China, Russia, or North Korea. You may not like it, but that doesn’t give you the right to suppress people’s rights or inflict bodily harm on those who you disagree with. There’s nothing patriotic in denying someone’s basic freedom to peacefully express themselves.

Can he be that dumb that he doesn’t understand the expression of free speech is one of the foundational tenets of our country? Or, does he just hate the fact that people have that freedom? If that’s the case, he just might hate America.

SMALL TOWN

I get that he needs to pander to the more rural citizens of this country to sell music, but there are more productive ways. Contributing to the piles of mass-produced media that exacerbate the division in America making it far easier for billionaires and corporations to fleece the middle-class, working-class, and poorer communities doesn’t seem like the answer. If you’re going to exploit the small-town community for your own benefit, at least try to help them. Sing about things we can all rally around.

Here are some things Jason Aldean could have suggested trying in a small town. He could have sung about living in a small town in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, where the median income is $39K, and trying to afford Tito’s Platinum Experience tickets to the County Thunder Music Festival in Kenosha. Aldean is performing there and those Tito’s Platinum Experience tickets go for $615+fees.

He could’ve sung about trying to live to be 80 years old in small towns, where the life expectancy is less in rural towns than in metropolitan areas and the gaps are widening.

He could’ve sung about trying to find work in small towns as the job growth has stalled compared to big city areas.

Aldean could’ve sung about trying to drink clean water in small towns like Keystone, West Virginia, where water providers violated the Safe Drinking Water Act’s health standards nearly 9,000 times.

But no, Aldean would rather sing about threatening to squash rights granted to every American, whether you agree or disagree with them, under the Constitution. The rights that make America special. I have to ask, again. Does Jason Aldean hate America or just the First Amendment?