'Rich Men North of Richmond punches down,' one site says
Viral country musician Oliver Anthony is a ‘voice’ for struggling Americans: Dr. Nesheiwat
‘Outnumbered’ co-hosts discuss Oliver Anthony’s viral hit ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ and react to critics of the song.
The viral country anthem "Rich Men North of Richmond" has struck a chord with many Americans who have celebrated it as an anguished outcry for a forgotten working class. On the other hand, the song has touched a nerve with many media liberals, who have lambasted it as misguided, conspiratorial and attracting the wrong fans.
Anthony covers a lot of ground in the song, lamenting high taxation, the declining value of the dollar, working "overtime hours for bulls--t pay," Washingotn political greed, the suicide epidemic, substance abuse, welfare cheats and a seeming reference to Jeffrey Epstein ("I wish politicians would look out for miners / And not just minors on an island somewhere"), among other woes.
His acoustic rendition of "Rich Men North of Richmond" on his Virginia farm has attracted an astonishing 21 million views and counting on YouTube, surged to the top of iTunes and is even competing with Taylor Swift's hit "Cruel Summer" on Spotify streams, according to Variety.
But with all that attention has come sharp scrutiny of Anthony's message, and many progressives don't like what they heard.
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Musician Oliver Anthony went viral this month for a performance of his original song, "Rich Men North of Richmond." (Screenshot/RadioWV YouTube channel)
Writing for MSNBC, Paul Waldman said Anthony did not "adequately call out the powerful," blasting him for instead going after the "powerless."
"Anthony sings, ‘Well, God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds / Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds,'" Waldman wrote. "Working-class people have a lot of problems in America today, but the use of taxes for safety net programs is not one of them, and nothing about the narrator’s quality of life would improve if the U.S. began conditioning food stamp eligibility on a low body-mass index."
The Washington Post's Greg Sargent wrote the song had appeal with Republicans like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Arizona Republican Kari Lake because it didn't directly target the right enemies.
"Naturally, no one should expect serious policy analysis from a song," he wrote. "Nonetheless, its message is that the overworked and underpaid should blame their plight largely on high taxes, welfare cheats and cultural elites monitoring their thoughts for any departure from woke orthodoxy.
"Business lobbyists and right-wing politicians have told versions of this distorted story for decades. It seeks to turn people against taxing the rich, social spending and government regulations designed to protect the public and mitigate inequality."
Like others, Sargent took exception to Anthony's line about welfare cheaters.
"The struggling factory worker beset from below by welfare parasites and from above by pointy-headed elite scolds telling him his manhood is an affront — who is self-medicating amid stagnant wages and social decay, surrounded by deaths of despair among aging working-class White Americans — that’s textbook right-wing populism," Sargent wrote.
Another Washington Post article fretted, "'Rich Men' also nods to conspiracy theories and grievances that are deeply rooted in far-right circles. (QAnon believers often cite Epstein as proof that a global cabal of elites has been trafficking children). Some believe the success of the song, particularly on the heels of ‘The Sound of Freedom,’ a box-office smash that echoed QAnon propaganda, signals a mainstreaming of ideas that were once fringe."
An explainer in Mashable noted the song's raw energy and imagery was obviously resonating with people, while also writing, "It also revealed some verses that feel like cribbed right-wing talking points. The supposed working-class anthem rails against overweight people who receive government assistance and references Jeffrey Epstein and child trafficking." A writer for The Independent condemned the song as "an artless, blunt-force hissy fit."
One Guardian headline sniffed, "Rich Men North of Richmond punches down. No surprise the right wing loves it."
"It would be nice if he’d apply that apparently heartfelt philosophy to his own lyrics," The Guardian's Matthew Cantor wrote. "Winston Marshall, formerly of Mumford and Sons, compared Anthony to Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie – but if either of them ever recorded a song mocking the poorest of the poor, it’s been lost to history. If Anthony wants to keep moving upward, he should aim his punches in the same direction."
NME.com rounded up X posts that called it everything from "fatphobic" to It was also unfavorably compared at times to "Try That In A Small Town," the Jason Aldean song that created an uproar last month amid accusations it glorified racism and right-wing vigilantism.
Left-wing entertainment site AV Club wrote, "While the lyrics may not be as blatantly threatening as ‘Try That In A Small Town,’ they’re generally still based on a number of regressive and gross stereotypes that are filtering into mainstream music in a frightening way."
On the right, the song has received near unanimous acclaim, with one Federalist writer saying he "provides a haunting, bittersweet lamentation for an America that existed not too long ago but may never exist again."
A fellow country singer, Dewey Via, told Fox News Digital he didn't interpret the song as having a political message. Instead, it simply spoke truths gripping working-class folks regardless of their personal views who were having a hard time making ends meet in a modern economy.
"You feel left out at times being rural or somebody that doesn't live in a city center, where most of the rules and stuff are made up or put together," he said. "And a lot of rural people just feel left out, I think, and I can see that he resonates with a lot of folks in America. I don't think it's politically motivated at all, honestly. I think it just speaks a lot of truth."
Meanwhile Anthony, whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, has kept a low profile, doing some concerts, posting a few videos where he speaks to the camera, but otherwise not accepting a flood of media requests for interviews.
Anthony, a 31-year-old high-school dropout with a GED who's worked blue-collar jobs for over a decade, said he's heard from Americans throughout his life that they're tired of feeling "neglected, divided and manipulated." He wrote a Facebook post on Thursday revealing his stage name was a salute to his grandfather, and he claimed to have declined seven-figure offers from music representatives in response to his newfound fame.
Anthony's concert on Aug. 23 in his hometown of Farmville, Virginia, sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale. The venue only holds 300 people, according to the Statesville Record & Landmark, and Anthony said he would be holding shows soon in larger places to accommodate more fans.
With the popularity of his new song, his other works have also been viewed by millions online, such as "Ain't Gotta Dollar" and "I've Got to Get Sober."
It's unclear what he thinks in particular of his support from prominent Republicans and conservative commentators, although he said in a recent video he was "dead center politically."
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