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 song being played at Rick Perry's announcement/my new anthem: Colt Ford "Answer To No One" feat. JJ Lawhorn https://t.co/Yv1DFE9RTu

— Hunter Schwarz (@hunterschwarz) June 4, 2015

This was Perry's opening theme and it's very, very Texas https://t.co/PJ2S0JUaFG

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) June 4, 2015

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.)