Thursday, June 04, 2015

PERRY CAMPAIGN SONG: IT'S FINE IF YOU SCREW ME ECONOMICALLY AS LONG AS YOU LET ME KEEP MULTIPLE FIREARMS

Rick Perry, who announced his presidential candidacy today, may be struggling at the polls, but his campaign song is apparently going viral:
Rick Perry announced he was running for the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday, and his custom campaign song was a hit online.

“Rick Perry supporter, let’s protect our border,” an artist rapped in the song as the former Texas governor took the stage in an airport hangar near Dallas. “To hell with anyone who don’t believe in the USA, Rick Perry all the way.”

As BuzzFeed reported earlier, the song appears to be an adaptation of the song “Answer to No One” by artist Colt Ford....

Perhaps predictably, Twitter loved it....
Well, certainly political pros on Twitter loved it, or at least one reporter and one ex-congressman turned radio talk show host:





The tweets above contain the original version of the song, without the special Rick Perry lyrics. Here are some of the original lyrics (via CowboyLyrics.com):
Let me tell you a little story 'bout how I was raised
Every day work, every day pray
God, family, friends, yeah everybody's friends
A winner never quits, and a quitter never wins
Helps folks in need, don't fall for greed....
"Don't fall for greed"? Okay, Joe Walsh said this song is "very, very Texas" -- but, um, isn't the entire state built on greed? Don't Texans actually believe greed is good?

The chorus begins:
won't back up, I don't back down
I've been raised up to stand my ground
Take my job but not my guns
Tax my check till I ain't got none
So it's cool to put you on the unemployment line if you still have weaponry. Yeah, you've taken a deep drink of the right-wing Kool-Aid.

Oh, and I like the "Tax my check till I ain't got none" bit, given the fact that Texas has the third most regressive tax system in America:
The New York Times recently reported on the latest data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) on how income relates to the share paid in state and local taxes....

In Texas, the ... top 1 percent only pay, on average, 2.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes -- one of the lowest rates in the nation. Meanwhile, the lowest 20 percent of earners pay an average of 12.5 percent of their income in state and local taxes -- one of the highest rates in the nation. That comes out to a tax burden for low-income earners that’s roughly 4.3 times as high as for the top 1 percent....

The fact that such inequality exists in Texas’s tax system is no surprise. Because Texas has no income tax, the tax burden falls on consumption-related taxes. And consumption takes up a much greater share of the low-income family’s budget than the wealthier family’s.
The song has multiple gun references, like this:
Shotgun toter, republican voter
Hank Junior supporter, let's protect our border
(You know, if you prefer Hank Junior to Hank Senior, there's part of your problem right there.)

And this:
Give me my right to vote
My right to tote
the weapon of my choice
Don't censor my voice
Of course, Mr. Ford learned to rap from black people, and the right to vote is being taken away from many black people in Texas by the state's voter ID law, which was signed by Rick Perry.

And no, Colt Ford isn't the artist's real name. His real name is Jason Farris Brown, and he's a 44-year-old former professional golfer. I guess he'll get a career boost until Perry drops out after Iowa, or after Perry's poll numbers eliminate him from the first GOP debate. So enjoy it while you can, Colt.

(And see the follow-up post for more about Colt Ford's national loyalties.)

6 comments:

Victor said...

Only the weak-minded who have no musical taste, prefer Hank Jr. to the GREAT Hank Sr.!

And no matter how much you try to emulate black rappers, you'll never be one because you're a white ex pro golfer.

So, you couldn't make the cut as a golfer, and you sure as hell ain't makin' the cut as a rapper!
Except, of course, for Freepers.
These wannbe tough guys love white Christian rockers and rappers.
But, then, not one of them has ever been accused of having any taste - let alone good taste.

Glennis said...

A dude running to be a public servants chooses "Answer to No One" as his theme song?

Belvoir said...

You could not come up with a better gay porn star name than, "Colt Ford". I'd be surprised if there wasn't one already.

theHatist said...

@Belvoir

You won all my internets today. Kudos.

I hope we invent space travel soon, because I am tired of sharing a planet with these assholes, and would enjoy nothing more than allowing them to live how they want to live, without them constantly reaching into my pocket for the tax money they refuse to pay, all the while telling me how much they hate me, and how I am not a real American.

I also imagine that this guy owns more than one southern flag, which means he loves America so much he wants to leave it, just as soon as he's done celebrating his right to own people as property, as long as they are dark enough. Just after he appropriates more of their culture.

Steve M. said...

Hatist, you're right -- see my new post.

Leah said...

I hope Hillary has the information you lay out so clearly about how taxes work in Texas, because candidate Perry is planing to spread these inequities across the nation if he gains the presidency with a republican congress at his disposal. Not that any of the other Republican candidates have different plans; all of them are flat taxers and think a balanced Federal budget should be part of the Constitution, which as Charlie Pierce never tires of saying, is the worst idea in American politics.

What Aunt Snow said, too. Perry today emphasized the role of leadership he feels he must play, to help all those Americans who have lost faith in the American dream; you see LEADERS aren't accountable to anyone, Perry thinks that's what makes him a leader and genuine democracy be damned