The Trough of Discontent
Who are the "pigs" and who are the pigs?
Did you know October is National Pork Month in the United States? Maybe you did. What that’s got to do with a new Gallup poll will require a moment. And then it takes a bit longer to get how Oliver Anthony’s song Rich Men North of Richmond and political strategist Pat Caddell factor in. You may leave at any time. There will be no quiz.
The headline reads, “Support for Third U.S. Political Party Up to 63%.” It’s the latest in a series of polls on that topic that Gallup has done for a generation.
The number, or percentage, of Americans who say America needs a third party, has been close to this high before. But it has never been this high. Getting 60-plus percent of Americans to agree on the color of the sky is hard to do. Considering this habit of divergent points of view, it’s impossible not to wonder where all this agreement leads.
I could come up with some speculative views of the future. I started to, but then I remembered Pat Caddell. I worked with Pat for years. Before that, he was several things in the theater of politics. A pollster by trade, he worked on President Carter’s campaigns and served in his White House. He also worked on over 150 other campaigns in his 40-plus years in politics.
Pat was a curmudgeon. That means bad-tempered. We made TV news together on all things politics for about six years. Our time together culminated during the 2016 presidential election. An election that was, well, what is there to say? It was mental.
Pat had a constant theme about the American people, the electorate. He thought they were increasingly unhappy. He believed this sense of discontent had grown from the 70s on. Setting aside opinions on the candidate, he believed “Make America Great Again” was the greatest campaign slogan ever. It tapped into this growing sense among the populous that the powers that be, the two parties, were not providing the leadership the American people desired or deserved.
In crafting ways to make this point about dissatisfaction, during the 2016 campaign, we came up with one collection of words. It went something like this, “Trump and Sanders are fueled by a trough filled with discontent. But they are feeding from opposite ends.”
The trough is a metaphor for the political spectrum. The ends of the trough? The “Right” and the “Left” of that spectrum. Trump feeds from the Right. Sanders from the Left. But the trough is a whole, the same in any spot. The main ingredient? People’s discontent with American life and those that lead it. Both Sanders and Trump resonated this mood heavily in the 2016 campaign. They recognized just how unhappy many Americans are.
Oliver Anthony’s song Rich Men North of Richmond is all about this discontent with life and political leadership. The “men” Anthony refers to in the song’s title are our leaders in Washington, DC, home to America’s capital. With the Gallup Poll and Pat Caddell’s “Trough of Discontent” in mind, let’s look at the hit song's lyrics.
Consider this line, “It's a damn shame what the world's gotten to.” A clear lament for days gone by. An expressed desire for things to be more like they were. A desire to “Make America” like that “Again.” With this MAGA connection and the inclination of some to be so very basic, Anthony is a white Southerner who sings country and talks with a drawl, so naturally, he’s all in with the Grand Old Party. It wasn’t long before some tried to coopt his success in the political realm. It didn’t go as planned.
On the debate stage of a Republican presidential debate in August, shortly after the song became famous, one of the debate’s hosts asked Governor DeSantis, “Why is this song striking such a nerve in this country right now?”
His response was, “Our country is in decline. This decline is not inevitable. It’s a choice. We need to send Joe Biden back to his basement and reverse American decline.”
Anthony was less than thrilled. “That song has nothing to do with Joe Biden, you know? It’s a lot bigger than Joe Biden. That song was written about the people on that stage and a lot more too. Not just them, but definitely them,” he said in response.
The song's lyrics seem to make that painfully clear. After all, it goes like this, “These rich men north of Richmond - Lord knows they all just wanna have total control.” “ALL” of them want to “control.” Not just Republicans. Not just Democrats. “ALL.”
This wash of discontent has bathed Americans of every type. In every state, of every background. I wrote once before of these times;
“The politicians we vote for are, apparently, at best aloof and at worst malicious. These leaders govern over a modern life that is painfully disorienting. Far too many of us see little or no return on our substantial investment. The worst of us are rewarded…. The advancements in our life are endless things to stream, scroll or buy. Much of it junk we don’t need. The system we have in place is grinding people down…This balance of power, or imbalance of power, is everywhere.”
Anthony’s lyrics on these points are more elegant;
“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 continues;
“Young men are putting themselves six feet in the ground.
‘Cause all this damn country does is keep kicking them down.
Lord, it’s a damn shame.”
Anthony’s insistence that the song is about all those in power resonates when we think of the Gallup poll about a third political party. People are not happy. They are increasingly unhappy. They seem increasingly certain that the existing leaders, “The Rich Men North of Richmond,” are not capable or interested in finding answers to our problems. The people are discontent.
A new party. Is that a solution? I don’t know. But when the options behind the first two doors let you down enough, you become inclined to open a third door. The inhabitants are to be determined. Their ability to resist the corrupting force of power is to be seen. But the “devil you don’t know” can become a viable choice. Desperation makes you do unlikely things.
So, who are the pigs and the “pigs?” You decide. Frankly, I imagine a sentient pig replying, “Leave me out of this.” But it does seem most of us are just bacon to “The Rich Men North of Richmond.” And that’s a “damn shame.”