This week Volusia County District 3 Councilman Danny Robins saw the self-serving need to wade into the latest skirmish in the “Culture Wars” when he voiced support for an ‘alternative country’ artist named Jason Aldean, who released a song some have used to stoke yet another contrived controversy.  

I’ve never heard Mr. Aldean’s music.

Don’t hold that against me.

I grew up on old Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, Guy Clark, George Jones, and Earnest Tubb – which means I abhor the alternative…

According to an article by Sheldon Gardner writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, last Friday, Councilman Robins posted his support for Aldean on social media after fiery criticism of his recent release “Try That in a Small Town” – a contrived product, no doubt composed by a writers consortium, recorded over an electronic drum loop, packaged by a marketing team, and sung by a young man who is carefully dressed, coiffed, hatted, and presented by a record company’s image group – then consumed by millions of young people who have no concept of what ‘country music’ was. 

That’s why they call it the ‘Music Business.’

Because everyone is offended by everything these days, self-absorbed culture warriors on both sides of the divide, seized on the opportunity for a Summer of ‘23 brouhaha (as though it wasn’t annoyingly hot enough already) – with those on the “left” claiming the tune represents racist dog whistle – while those on the “right” defend it as “God, Guns, and Apple Pie” patriotism.

The fact is, it’s neither.

For the uninitiated, we live in a shameless age where any publicity is considered good publicity, and I have no doubt this latest sociopolitical tempest in a teapot was carefully crafted by Mr. Aldean’s record label and management team ahead of his 39 city “Highway Desperado” tour which began July 14. 

They should send Mr. Robins a thank you note for helping perpetuate the horseshit and hype…

Look, I haven’t listened to the song – but I read the lyrics to “Try That in a Small Town,” and, in my view, there is nothing overtly racist about it.  (Although the “coincidence” wasn’t lost on me that the accompanying overproduced music video was filmed at the infamous Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, where an 18-year-old African-American was brutally lynched in 1927…)

According to Aldean’s detractors, the song is a call for racial vigilantism – full of triggering tropes and emotional hot buttons like lawless riots, anti-police rhetoric, gun confiscation, looting, violent crime, and “anti-American” behavior – something the self-promoting Councilman Robins took full advantage of when he grabbed on to Aldean’s coattails. 

According to the News-Journal, “Robins added that the music video contains images or clips that were real, and that Aldean “refuses to sit back and be quiet anymore.”

“He refuses to be silenced, he stands by his values and not afraid of backlash and he’s got a pair. If some people don’t like it, o well. Their thin-skinned interpretation, feelings and opinions don’t change the facts,” Robins wrote. “As far as I am concerned he is a good man and we need more people like him. I stand by my public support.”

Congratulations, Councilman Robins, like a swooning teenybopper, you bought the marketing strategy – hook, line, and sinker…

Whatever.

Hey, Danny – Word to the wise:  It was a business decision. 

Get it? 

My God, how heartbreaking. I feel like I’m telling Mr. Robins the Easter Bunny isn’t real…

Whenever I read about one of these engineered controversies, I always ask myself “Cui Bono?”

To whom is it a benefit?

Media and entertainment companies – especially social media – have a vested interest in stirring controversy because they profit from the audience it drives, politicians gain notoriety when they get their name in the paper, and professional crybaby’s benefit from their next 15-minutes of victimhood…

It is similar to how both political parties work to divide voters with increasingly outlandish “Us vs. Them” rhetoric – fostering conflict and creating a distraction to better serve those special interests who feed the machine with massive campaign contributions – rather than find common ground and compromise on those issues important to all citizens.   

In my view, it is time citizens (and our political leadership) come to the realization that patriotism isn’t a beer brand – and it damn sure has nothing to do with another cultural controversy designed, subliminally or on purpose, to exploit our differences – and provide another forum for the fringe elements to fan the flames of divisiveness and controversy as a means of pushing an agenda.

Or selling concert tickets…

In my view, We, The Little People are being manipulated by forces, internal and external, intent on destroying the United States of America without ever firing a shot – and when those elected officials we expect to demonstrate strong leadership engage in gross political grandstanding by wallowing in the muck of another manufactured controversy – it fans the flames of conflict, legitimizes polarization, and pushes us ever closer to the goal of those who seek to divide and conquer.

It is time that citizens recognize this tripe for what it is.

Trust me.  We have enough issues right here in Volusia County to keep Mr. Robins and his “colleagues” on the dais of power in DeLand busy for the foreseeable future – real problems – like our inadequate transportation infrastructure, overdevelopment, traffic congestion, dwindling water quality in our lakes, rivers, and springs, devastating flooding, disastrously low wages contributing to a workforce housing crisis, gross mismanagement and distrust in County government, our dwindling quality of life, coastal erosion, rising taxes and fees, and the myriad other civic, social, and economic issues that are wholly ignored, or kicked down the dusty political trail, by these dullards we elect to serve our interests. 

In my view, as Mr. Aldean sells out arenas and cashes massive checks thanks to his carefully developed notoriety – it is time for Mr. Robins and others to stop the political showboating and focus on the issues important to the lives and livelihoods of long-suffering Volusia County residents.