Whenever people who continuously support Donald Trump heap praises on a song, I immediately get the impression that the song promotes their particular right-wing ideology. Perhaps it does.

In an article for The New Yorker, Jay Caspian Kang makes the following observation about this particular song and another similar song:

“What seems to be happening is that a handful of conservative media figures who trigger the libs for a living have realized there might be good money in offensive or obliquely political music. ‘Try That in a Small Town’ and ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ could be seen, then, as the conservative-media machine’s attempt to create their own gangster rap through easily manipulated viral channels. Instead of the violence and misogyny of the nineteen-sixties conservatism that worried boomers, you now have reactionary nostalgia that pines for the days of sundown towns, and, apparently, when people who were overweight did not receive welfare benefits. (The violence is the same.)”

Kang isn’t the only person who noticed the “reactionary nostalgia that pines for the days of sundown towns.” On Twitter, one person posted this comment:

Is William Wolfe’s “old ways” comment a dog whistle? I can’t rule out that possibility.

In a commentary for The A.V. Club, Emma Keates writes this:

“Further, the title of the song is, shall we say, open to interpretation. On one hand, Washington, D.C. is directly north of Richmond, implying that — in line with Anthony’s self-declared centrism — the song is merely a screed against powerful politicians taking from the working man. But as some on lyric site Genius and elsewhere have pointed out, Richmond was also the capital and northernmost city in the Confederacy. So, in that case, rich men north of Richmond would be… everyone in the North, which obviously paints a far grimmer picture.

While the lyrics may not be as blatantly threatening as ‘Try That In A Small Town,’ they’re generally still based on a number of regressive and gross stereotypes that are filtering into mainstream music in a frightening way.”

Before commenting further, here are the lyrics to Rich Men North of Richmond:

“I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day/Overtime hours for bullshit pay
So I can sit out here and waste my life away/Drag back home and drown my troubles away

It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to/For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true/But it is, oh, it is

Livin’ in the new world/With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond/Lord knows they all just wanna have total control

Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do/And they don’t think you know, but I know that you do
‘Cause your dollar ain’t shit and it’s taxed to no end/’Cause of rich men north of Richmond

I wish politicians would look out for miners/And not just minors on an island somewhere
Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat/And the obese milkin’ welfare

Well, God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds/Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds

Young men are puttin’ themselves six feet in the ground/
‘Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin’ them down

Lord, it’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to/For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true/But it is, oh, it is

Livin’ in the new world/With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond/Lord knows they all just wanna have total control

Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do/And they don’t think you know, but I know that you do

‘Cause your dollar ain’t shit and it’s taxed to no end/’Cause of rich men north of Richmond

I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day/Overtime hours for bullshit pay”

Forbes writer Conor Murray provides this information about Oliver Anthony, the song’s writer and performer:

“Anthony is a singer-songwriter who lives in Farmville, Virginia, where he works as a farmer. He started writing his own music in 2021, he stated in an introductory video posted on his YouTube channel last week, as an outlet for difficult times he experienced, including spending ‘a lot of nights getting high and getting drunk.'”

This song is criticized in part because it promotes a negative stereotype of beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Hannah Anderson used to rely on SNAP in order to feed her family. She describes her experience as a SNAP beneficiary in a commentary for Christianity Today:

Anderson writes, “Despite the number of people accessing SNAP, their experiences are not widely known among the general public — or, at least, the experience isn’t often openly discussed. That’s partly due to the negative stereotypes that accompany food insecurity and social programs more generally, like Anthony’s disdainful words about those who use welfare in a song that otherwise champions the downtrodden.”

In an open letter to Oliver Anthony, Tyler Huckabee responds to Anthony’s attack on SNAP recipients:

“Can I tell you about a guy I used to know in Chicago? We’ll call him Chuck. Chuck was a big fan of horror movies and pro wrestling. He didn’t have a lot of money — mental health issues made it tough — but he had a steady job. One time I went grocery shopping with Chuck and after he got a bunch of essentials like bread and eggs and such, he got five two liters of orange soda. Those two liters really cut into his food stamps budget. I asked Chuck about that, and you know what he said? ‘Well, my mom loves orange soda, and I like to have a nice treat for her when she’s done with work.’

Look. I know not everyone who buys sugary treats with food stamps is trying to do something nice for their mom. But, you know, why shouldn’t people who are poor — just a little bit poorer than you — have a treat every now and then? Who are we to decide whether or not they deserve it? Where is it written that being poor means you should never be able to have something nice, ever? Lots of poor people work really hard and deserve to reward themselves with something good. Lots of rich people never work at all, and don’t deserve shit. Should we really be in charge of deciding who’s who?”

As I see it, Anthony’s song creates straw men for Anthony to criticize.

First, he blames “rich men north of Richmond” for things that they aren’t in control of. Much of what Anthony complains about is controlled at the state and local level. For example, the federal government doesn’t decide who can receive SNAP benefits. State governments do that.

Do rich men north of Richmond set the pay scales that private businesses use, other than establishing a minimum wage? No. The minimum wage is for young adults who are just entering the job market. They haven’t had time to acquire the job experience and training necessary to be at the higher end of pay scales.

In contrast, a person Anthony’s age has had time to acquire the job experience and training necessary to be at the higher end of pay scales. If he isn’t receivng the wages that he thinks he deserves, then that isn’t the fault of rich men north of Richmond.

By the way, each state in the USA can establish a minimum wage that is higher than the federal minimum wage.

Is the U.S. government ignoring the troubles of coal miners as the song implies? No. In contrast, the federal government has taken mine owners to court in order to protect miners.

In his song, Anthony mentions “drown my troubles away”. Anthony has confessed to him spending “a lot of nights getting high and getting drunk.”

In short, Anthony has been ruining his life with substance abuse, but he blames rich men north of Richmond for his troubles.

So, no, Rich Men North of Richmond isn’t “the anthem of a new American Revolution” as former Trump-Administration employee William E. Wolfe claims.

As I see it, Oliver Anthony is using rich men north of Richmond as scapegoats for troubles that he may have brought on himself. If he believes that the U.S. government is kicking young men down, then he should try living in Russia or China.

Seriously, young men in poorer and violence-plagued nations want to live in the USA because they believe that they will be lifted up by U.S. residency, and they are correct. So, just who are rich men north of Richmond kicking down?

Financially and physically, I am in far worse shape than Oliver Anthony is in. [See Describing My Pain] Yet, I’m not whining about my life the way that Oliver Anthony whines about his.