It could have been a great event. The problem was, in the places where music and movies come from, you’d better not be Republican.

Even amongst the GOP, some will deny it, singling out Jon Voight and Kid Rock as counterpoints. You can be a lot of things: wastrel or provocateur; have gang ties or criminal connections, or be thought of as a freak or even a molester, addict, or cult member. “You can be any or all of those things and keep your endorsements, hang on to your record contract, open a movie or tour the country every summer. But if you give even the tiniest hint of being a Republican, you can kiss the big money goodbye,” Matthew Hennesey reminds readers of the WSJ’s “Free Expression.”

In the best of times, industry reality was when being a Republican meant thinking George W. Bush might have a good idea or two.

In the age of Donald Trump, the cultural penalties for actors and musicians identifying as conservative are even steeper. You have your rights—you can vote for whomsoever you please. But you’d better shut up about it, or you ain’t going nowhere in this town, kid.

Nashville was always the exception. In Nashville, its citizens knew that Republicans listened to music, too. Country is a massive market that occasionally picks up crossover stars. Country, however, is not mainstream to the culture. Elite opinions are not formed in Country. No, indeed not. That honor goes to NY and LA, which, in 2026, goes to the great interior mass of the country as a brainwashed backwater of poor taste. Or worse.

Obvious, you say? Perhaps so, says Henessey.

… but it’s prologue and essential context for what happened last week. Organizers of the Great American State Fair, which will take place during the nation’s semiquincentennial celebrations in Washington this summer, announced an unobjectionable lineup of C-list musical performers. On the bill were country singer Martina McBride, hair-metal veteran Bret Michaels, funk and soul kings the Commodores, ’90s rappers Vanilla Ice, Young MC and C+C Music Factory, and others.

It’s Just Music

Mr. Hennesay says “unobjectionable,” because unless a reader is an incorrigible snob or an al-Qaeda sympathizer, you and your family would have a blast some summer evening eating ice cream…

… and singing along to “Ice, Ice Baby,” “Bust a Move” and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” in the nation’s capital.

Lighten up, suggests Hennesey. “It’s just music.”