Merle Haggard Endorses Hillary Clinton

Merle Haggard the legendary 70 year old country singer, the Okie from Muskogee, has endorsed Hillary Clinton to be our next President.

I first heard about this when I was driving to my house in Lindenhurst, IL. I turned on the car radio and started listening to the local public radio station.

I tuned in right in the middle of a live phone interview with the great singer/songwriter. The mind-blowing fact quickly established was that it was indeed true that Merle had come out and endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. Not only that, he had written a song called Hillary.

If you have followed the life and career of Merle Haggard at all you know that his politics have changed dramatically over the years. Although he started out as a New Deal Democrat, his songs The Fightin' Side of Me and Okie from Muskogee were an open declaration of his change to conservative politics back in the '60s and 70s.

He did not like the folks protesting the Vietnam War and he made his feelings very clear in his songs. He was one of the leaders of the charge to conservatism back in those years.

Merle Haggard is known for his honesty and integrity and when his opinions have changed, he has never been shy about telling us about them, both in song and when he is given an opportunity to talk. You gotta respect the man for that!

He has been the living definition of authenticity for many years. Known as the poet of the working man, he is beloved by many for keepin' it real. So perhaps we should not be surprised when one of his current songs has the lyrics, "Let's get out of Iraq/And get back on track"

In an October interview in the Washington Post, he said:

"I predicted 15 years ago that Hillary would be president of the United States. Bill Clinton is still the number one diplomat and Democrat in the world, and we get him as a package deal. Anybody with the least bit of intelligence is going to say, "Maybe we need some diplomacy." It's more about him than it is about her."

Here are some of the lyrics to the song Hillary:

Eight years in the White House
With the know-how we need
When you walk with a leader
You learn how to lead
And who kept her head high
When it could have been down
Who ran the show
When the scandal hit town
This country needs to be honest
Changes need to be large
Something like a big switch of gender
Let's put a woman in charge
Put a woman in charge of the Army
Put a woman in charge of the wheel
The country owes it to Hillary
And Hillary owes it to Bill

Words and music by Merle Haggard

Apparently the song has not yet been officially released although Merle has sung it at some of his concerts. Hillary's people have contacted him but as far as I could tell the song is still not readily available. I did find a version of it on You Tube. (See resources)

It is very likely that Hillary's people are still somewhat reluctant to embrace Merle's song because of its up front praise for Bill Clinton as a main reason for his support.

Is Haggard's endorsement of Hillary an indication of a sea change in the voting habits of the white country males that he has represented for so many years? This group has been voting Republican along with Merle all through the Reagan years, although once they were all Democrats.

They will certainly have to be wooed back, but with Merle Haggard doing the wooing, anything's possible.