Red State Solidarity

Lynerd Skynerd, Minnesota and the Culture Wars

by Patrick J. Shanahan
08/01/04

I am just fascinated by the ongoing cultural transformation underway in our nation. I believe we are smack-dab in the middle of a cultural battle of truly historic proportions. We as a nation are completely rearranging ourselves from a cultural perspective. Cultural habits and beliefs that have traditionally been based more on economic class, religion, ethnicity and geography are morphing into two competing values-based cultures.

We speak in terms of “red states” and “blue states,” but this is just shorthand for the rough geographic distribution of the competing values. One the one hand (Blue States) we have a secular culture that is quasi-European in outlook. It thinks of itself as sophisticated, urbane, cynical and nuanced. It has trouble with clarity and with absolutes. It prefers oligarchic bureaucracy to popular democracy, and doesn’t trust the people (as opposed to “The People”) with the fate of the nation. It is unreligious to the point of obstinacy, and is largely ahistorical, viewing the Founding Fathers with a great deal of suspicion. It has no patience for tradition coupled with a very high opinion of its own expertise in virtually all matters.

Red State culture is vastly diverse. It runs the gamut from holy-roller fundamentalist Christians to Harley riding potheads. The one unifying constant is that Red State culture has no fear of absolutes. And not only is it not afraid of tradition, it positively embraces it. This is its common denominator. It knows what it means to be American, and it likes it.

Which brings me to the subject of this column. My lovely wife Karol and I decided recently that we would head out to Stillwater, Minnesota (about 30 miles northeast of St. Paul) to take in Lumberjack Days and catch the aging rock band Lynerd Skynerd in concert. For those of the right age, the sound of Lynerd Skynerd’s tune "Free Bird" emanating from bowling alley jukeboxes was the essence of the mid 1970s. While several of the original band died in a plane crash, and while the rest have aged (and not particularly well) they can still serve up a top-notch rock ‘n roll concert performance.

One of the most salient features of Lynerd Skynerd is their southerness. The are from Alabama, and every one who listens will end up knowing it. They were perhaps the original “anti-PC” band, with their song “Sweet Home Alabama” - released in the 1970s - containing such wonderful lines as “Watergate does not bother me, Does your conscience bother you?”

One of the best features of a Skynerd show is the people watching. The concert in Stillwater was a free show, and it was packed, largely with Twin Citians. There were folks of all ages, including a surprising number of college-aged kids. But the most striking component - one that I have been noticing more and more - is the huge numbers of libertarian-oriented, patriotic bikers. These are folks who definitely do not want Jerry Falwell telling them what to do, but who know instinctively that the source of the freedom that they enjoy and cherish is the United States of America. They are very proud to be American, and not at all shy about showing it. It would be simplistic, but not entirely amiss, to say that they represent the latest iteration of the American Cowboy archetype. Some of these guys may be stockbrokers, and a few of them are urban phonies, but most of them bear the weathered skin and occasional scars of a hard life lived well. That said, they are not southerners. Most of them are native Minnesotans, with a sprinkling of Dakotans and Cheeseheads tossed in. Which brings me to my next point.

At one point in the concert, the band broke into their (new) patriotic song, “Red, White and Blue” (“My hair’s turning white, my neck’s always been red, my collar’s still blue….”) and a large American flag was thrust up in front of the stage on a large pole. The crowd went crazy at this unrestrained sign of love for country. The bikers, the spoiled suburban rich kids, the “working for the weekend” middle age couples, they all cheered long and loud. This is not especially surprising, given what we know about the basic nature of the Lynerd Skynerd fans.

But a little later in the concert, when they kicked in to “Sweet Home Alabama,” something more surprising happened. This time a Confederate Flag was raised, and the crowd, this collection of restrained Minnesota Yankees, went bananas. The roar was undoubtedly heard well into Wisconsin. The effect was stunning. It would have been unheard of twenty years ago. The crowd wasn’t just cheering the band, they were clearly cheering the Confederate Flag. A crowd of Minnesotans cheering wildly for the Stars ‘n Bars!

Why on earth would we do this? Few of the folks in the crowd knew - or particularly cared to - what it means (for better or worse) to be an Alabaman, or what the flag-as-symbol might mean to one group or another. I think they saw it as an honest attempt to embrace tradition, and to reject the liberal notion that being proud of one’s heritage by definition makes one a racist. Whether or not one is from the South, the mere fact of embracing one’s heritage in a positive way is to be cheered. It’s our way of looking at the Blue State elitists and saying: We got us a bunch of white, redneck, whiskey suckin’ rock ‘n rollers who couldn’t be prouder of their country and where they came from. And we think that’s a good thing.

I get very, very tired of hearing defenders of American values say “Of course we’re not perfect, but….” That is speaking on liberal turf. Of course we’re not perfect! Nothing and nobody is perfect. Why is it necessary to start every discussion of how wonderful our nation is by apologizing for how awful it is? By apologizing for the universal attribute of imperfection? I think that is what we were cheering with Lynerd Skynerd. To be not only proud of our heritage, but unapologetically proud. What a wonderful thing, and a strong enough sentiment to bring Alabamans and Minnesotans together in solidarity.

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