A Burning Ring Of Fire

Country music has been called the heartbeat of America. It should be called the cheatin' heart of America.

Cheaters are duplicitous two-timers and I believe that it is duplicitous to listen to and have a love of country music and be a Republican at the same time.

The Republican Party's platform is one of family values. They decry the lyrics of rap and pop music for it's treatment of women, it's glorification of sex, it's blatant promotion of drugs and alcohol.

Have you listened to country music lately?

One of the biggest sensations in country music history is Garth Brooks. He's a poster child for Middle America. Oklahoma City is his home. But take another look at his tunes and you might think he was a regular on MTV. His Greatest Hits album contains songs about "Friends in Low Places" who get drunk and crash a wedding, a trucker's obsessive crush on a teen girl in "Baton Rouge", and a high school boy who loses his virginity to a woman twice his age in "That Summer." Other songs glorify drinking such as "Two Pina Coladas", "Longneck Bottle", and "Beer Run" which also contains references to drinking and driving. Nice life lessons, Garth.

Oh, and congratulations on leaving your wife of thirteen years while on tour for Trisha Yearwood. Guess adultery's okay in your book.

Speaking of adultery, take a listen to the cross-over hit by Carrie Underwood: "He Better Think Next Time Before He Cheats." Think of country classics like "Your Cheatin' Heart", "Jolene", and "Lucille". For the sanctity-of-marriage crowd, the music doesn't seem to fit the belief system. The old joke goes that if you play country music backwards the dog comes back, the wife comes back.... If the Christian majority of red-state residents can't seem to keep their own marriages together then how can they have the audacity to claim that the only way to preserve marriage is to define it? How about practicing what ya'll preach?

Willie Nelson is one of the Kings of Country Music, famous for ditties such as "Whisky River" and "Whisky For My Men and Beer For My Horses." But here, too, is a man who is better known for getting high on the roof of the White House.

Take an hour and listen to a country-western music radio station and simply pay attention to the lyrics. You'll be surprised how equally irresponsible these songs are compared to a Top 20 station's music. So stop the "holier than thou" attitude, my red-state bible-thumpin' cowboy-hat-wearing pick-up truck-drivin' Coors Light- drinkin' friends, and just keep to the Lee Greenwood tunes. At least they're true to your cause.