Bright Eyes Singer’s Trumpian Writer’s Block, Explained

The musical community suffers from Selective Outrage Syndrome, or SOS.

Rockers raged against President George W. Bush during his two terms in office. Green Day built its entire punk brand around the GOP leader’s presidency and the Iraq War.

Musicians similarly howled when Donald Trump began calling the White House home.

Some construct entire tours around said rage.

Yet when other egregious events take place, events that can’t be pinned on a GOP figure, they grow silent.

Consider how few musicians sang or complained about the following:

• The Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel
• The Nova Music Festival attack, part of the Oct. 7 massacre
• The Twitter Files
• Cancel Culture
• The silencing of Hunter Biden Laptop story
• The Russian collusion hoax
• A political party hiding a president’s cognitive decline
• Iran slaughtering tens of thousands of its own people

That’s just a partial list. Quick, name all the times those topics got mentioned in song, during a Grammy speech or elsewhere.

Get the point?

Now, Bright Eyes’ lead singer Conor Oberst is complaining about life under President Donald Trump. It turns out the “con man” is so outrageous he can’t summon the strength to pen a protest song about him.

“If you can have just a person at that base level of moral decrepitude as Trump […] He’s a conman, [who] has done nothing but rob the country.”

The selective outrage from the artistic community is exhausting, and it’s hardly relegated to music. Actors began caring about free speech the moment Jimmy Kimmel got benched for lying about the alleged assassin who killed Charlie Kirk.

But when singer M.I.A. got booted from a major concert tour for a quick, right-leaning rant, the silence was deafening.

Here’s a more constructive path for Oberst. Try talking to some Trump supporters. Find out why they follow him and the political causes that mean the most to them.

Next, push aside the 24/7 fear mongering from the Legacy Media and consider a few right-leaning platforms. The Daily Wire. The Washington Examiner. 

You might even find the inspiration to sing about our political divide and how media sources (on both sides) make it much worse.

That song could have an impact on the culture, a positive one that doesn’t wallow in the usual anti-Trump talking points.

You might lose a friend or two on the Political Left, but you could gain a wider audience with folks eager to hear something new, fresh and uplifting.