Dixie Chicks: A Cautionary Tale for the Self-Righteous

For those who may not know or remember, Natalie Maines decided to score some cheap political points at a concert overseas a couple of years back by trash-talking President Bush from the stage. As country music is the heart of America’s “Red States,” their fans were furious and retaliated by boycotting their music and crushing their CDs under bulldozers.

The Dixie Chicks have their right to say whatever they want, but their fans have their right to have their say too. That’s the flip side of the First Amendment: people who disagree with you can’t be silenced either. The Chicks have never “gotten” that: Maines used the power and platform she had to make her views known, and the fans used the power and platform they had to make their opposing views known. It wasn’t (and isn’t) censorship or persecution, it’s freedom of speech: they just don’t like it when it’s someone else’s turn to talk.

These are the choices that ordinary folks like you and me have to face every day. Running your mouth at work can get you in trouble with the boss, so there are many times we have to bite our tongues and keep our opinions to ourselves rather than risk our employment. The Dixie Chicks are a reminder to all celebrities that they have bosses too: us.

Without us spending our hard-earned money on their concert tickets, CDs, and memorabilia they’d be playing for quarters at a bus stop. Occasionally, it’s good for celebrities to be reminded of that basic truth.

When you go out of your way to offend your fans, as Maines did, there are going to be consequences: especially when your very next move is to release a song which talks about how you’re “Not Ready to Make Nice.” The Dixie Chicks are now finding out the hard way that country music fans aren’t either: they’re having to cancel concerts all over the country.

They’re trying to put a positive spin on it by claiming that they’re replacing the U.S. concert dates with dates in Canada, but there’s a reason those venues weren’t on the schedule in the first place: they’re smaller and there’s less money to be made there. There’s really no way to put lipstick on this pig: their insistence on putting their politics before their music is costing them in a big way.

But the Dixie Chicks are just the most visible example of fan backlash against outspoken celebrities. I would wager that a significant portion of Hollywood’s box office woes are due to fans refusing to pay outrageous cinema prices to put money in the pockets of celebrities who insult their political views.

Because the country is fairly evenly split between opposing political views, celebrities who come out forcefully for one side or the other - especially when they do so in an insulting and demeaning way as the Dixie Chicks did - are bound to make at least half their fan base mad. And when the overwhelming majority of your fan base is on the opposite side of the political fence, you’re just asking for a major career nosedive: and the Dixie Chicks are getting just that.

You can call the Dixie Chicks brave for making a stand, but you’d be wrong: they were ignorant and foolish. If your buddy marched into his boss’ office, got up on his desk and proceeded to lecture him about the evils of capitalism and got fired for it, would you congratulate him on his principled stand or look at him like he was crazy for doing that at work? He can get drunk and pontificate on the evils of capitalism after work at the bar all he wants, but when he does it at work he’s going to have to expect there to be consequences…just ask the Dixie Chicks…