Socialist Steve Earle: Stop Demonizing Trump Supporters
The country troubador shares some surprising wisdom on the MAGA faithful
Country crooner Steve Earle won’t be wearing a MAGA hat on tour anytime soon.
Three years ago Earle called President Donald Trump a “fascist” and predicted the GOP Leader wouldn’t finish his first (and presumably only) term. Earle may hate Vice President Mike Pence even more.
You can hear Earle’s socialist leanings in both his interviews and songs. His latest record, “Ghosts of West Virginia,” is a bit different, though.
Earle extends a hand to an unlikely demographic on the 10-song release: Trump voters.
That puts him in tiny minority of progressive artists willing to reach across the aisle in the Age of Trump. That extends beyond just individual stars.
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Consider how “Saturday Night Live” once dubbed Trump supporters racist, and worse, in a faux campaign ad.
Conan O’Brien used his self-titled TBS show to call Trump supporters “Nazis.” We already know similar slurs are thrown around by major politicians, too. Twice failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton famously dubbed Trump devotees “deplorable,” a name they embraced with snarky pride.
Not Earle.
In that 2017 interview, Earle showed some compassion for voters he hotly disagrees with on most, if not every issue, imaginable.
“…maybe that’s one of the things we need to examine from my side because we’re responsible 
too. The left has lost touch with American people, and it’s time to discuss that.”
Earle is talking, and singing, about Trump voters, again, in the push for his newest album set for a May 22 release. He even shared some of those thoughts via the New West Records press push for the album.
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Earle, who suffers from partial hearing loss in one ear now, returns with his backing band The Dukes (Chris Masterson on guitar, Eleanor Whitmore on fiddle & vocals, Ricky Ray Jackson on pedal steel, guitar & dobro, Brad Pemberton on drums & percussion, and Jeff Hill on acoustic & electric bass.)
The album’s title ties to a deadly coal mine explosion in 2010 that took the lives of 29 workers. The disaster sent Dan Blankenship, the CEO behind the mining company, to jail for a year. Prosecutors said Blankenship, AKA the “king of coal,” ignored serial safety warnings to pursue bigger profits.
The album’s first single, “Devil Put the Coal in the Ground,” recognizes what mining means to the people and culture of West Virginia.
![Steve Earle & The Dukes - "Devil Put the Coal in the Ground" [Audio Only]](https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-youtube-lyte/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2Fd5tOkJK8DUk%2F0.jpg)
The singer/songwriter would probably sing the Green New Deal’s praises if he could, but the new album isn’t about picking fights. Consider his thoughts shared via the press release announcing the album and upcoming tour dates:
“I thought that, given the way things are now, it was maybe my responsibility to make a record that spoke to and for people who didn’t vote the way that I did,” he says. “One of the dangers that we’re in is if people like me keep thinking that everyone who voted for Trump is a racist or an a**hole, then we’re f***ed, because it’s simply not true.
So this is one move toward something that might take a generation to change. I wanted to do something where that dialogue could begin.
I said I wanted to speak to people that didn’t necessarily vote the way that I did, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have anything in common. We need to learn how to communicate with each other. My involvement in this project is my little contribution to that effort. And the way to do that — and to do it impeccably —is simply to honor those guys who died at Upper Big Branch.”
I guess ticket and album sales must be down. I’m fine with alternative ideas. I am pretty g*****n far from okay with being demonized and preached to by aberrant people without morals.
this moron STILL thinks many of Trumps supporters are racists … he’s just trying to sell albums …
I used to listen to his radio show.
He talks too much.
I never heard anything resembling his current creed. Get along and understand? He hates Trump and he hates Trump voters.
I noticed he said the Dems have lost touch with the American people. Think about that statement and then consider his hatred for anything that isn’t left??? He should consider that maybe HE has lost touch with America. Talk about obtuse.
I stopped listening to Steve Earle’s music about 10 years ago. Maybe he finally realizes that about 70% of the people who used to listen to his music are Trump supporters
And yet he is doing the same thing he criticizes.
Steve used to write great stuff. i think his heart is in the right place, but i don’t know how he became such a commie.
Why do “artists” who’d be forced to toe the party line, side with socialist/communist ideology? There’s no freedom for them in that environment. Here, they’re free say any stupid thing on their mind and free to play any role their heart desires, and free to create anything they want. They don’t see how freedom in art is allowed only in countries with governments that do not oppress. Why would you want anything else as an artist? Makes no sense to me.
Sorry, but THIS Trump voter isn’t buying his so-called “can’t we all get along” junk. We Trump supporters are well aware how we are viewed and discussed by the Left. Trying to use us now as pawns to sell his records or “flip us” to the other side is a waste of time. We’re not stupid.
i was a huge Steve Earle fan…still think “The Mountain,” recorded with the Del McCoury Band, is a real classic. But he turned me — and I bet a lot of others — off with his socialism.
I’d like to say, “way to go, Steve” but I cannot. The idea that he still “loathes” the president and says he is a “fascist” proves that, although he wants to get his audience back, his head is still in the place where “if he disagrees, he’s Hitler.”
Steve should be praising PDT for what he’s done for those coal miners he’s singing about — and other working people. And he’s still saying “WE have to learn to talk to each other.”
Not US, Steve — we’re not beating up people with the wrong hats. It’s all on your side. And the fact that you don’t call them out or sing praises when it’s due shows what you’re up to.
You should be apologizing to the president and supporting him, in all he’s done, not throwing out crumbs — “Hey, maybe we shouldn’t be hating you guys.” Well, sorry — just saying it’s wrong to hate other voters (but not the guy we’re voting for, although he has done nothing but good for your audience of “working-class Americans”) — we’re just not that desperate.
“Weak-minded media dupes”
You mean fox news?
Wow! All these comments except mine are putin/tRump supporters! Don’t you people work?
Oh, that’s right, tRump supporters are the Americans who suck off the system in welfare, unemployment, food stamps and disability…
Look it up.
The goofs that have an irrational hatred for people they never met because of their politics expose themselves as weak-minded media dupes, not the so-much-smarter elites they imagine they are.
Go ahead ignorant, in-bred, mouth breathing racists, I am ready for your short-sighted, hollow hate.
After all, you are the people who voted against your own best interest.