They had great music - and - then - you go and drop that you think our President's an idiot overseas when we've got a war going on and your audience is the conservative country crowd - and - well....that just doesn't work in America....didn't work then for them - and it doesn't work now.
I'm a quasi-country fan and I refuse to listen to them on principle anymore after that career killer move they made bad-mouthing their country overseas.
In defense of the Iraq war - first - I used to be a cop - when I think you got a weapon and I say "Show me your hands! Keep your hands where I can see them!" and you talk smack and refuse to show me your hands or keep them where I can see them....you're close to getting shot if not going to. Iraq? Same way. Though word on the ground over there is they DID have WMD just the Russians trucked them out into Syria as the invasion came in and US intel decided to just keep tabs on the stuff and gain intel rather than go up against Russia at a time when the US's hands were full.
Going back in history - had British Prime Minister Chamberlain gone to war against Germany - he'd have been extremely unpopular and what would they have found? Nothing. Not until the holocaust had been well underway would something have been found. Meanwhile, Chamberlain would have unknowingly averted the Holocaust (presumably) and everyone would have called him an idiot for it.
Hindsight's 20/20 but sometimes foresight averts what-we-don't-know - democracy in Iraq? Sure....not that I'd have gone over there just for that - but - the world's a better place for it - gotta pragmatically make the best of if. Can't just lob some missiles and screw up someone's country and then leave in shambles. The polite thing to do is leave it cleaner than you wrecked it...I mean found it.
At any rate - now we have to listen - or did listen to the Dixie Chicks whine about how they weren't liked anymore and they have free speech and were being punished for their opinions because nobody wanted to hear their music anymore. Sorry babes, that ain't how America works. Or should I say, Sorry babes, that IS how America works. You're free to say what ever you want. And I'm free to listen - or not listen - to whatever I want.
When you're an entertainer? Everyone who likes you assumes you think like them. Believe the same thing as them. Like the same things as them - or would. They see themselves in you. Your bread and butter comes from living up to that expectation - false though it is. That's why people pay to see you - they see a successful version of them - in you - their dreams - in you - their hopes - in you. And you'd better live up to it!
And when you're a country star? Well....in America - you're more likely to hear country on a radio station anywhere in the US than you are anything else - America is center-right-conservative - that is the country crowd - forget what our media shows you. Piss off the country crowd - the white-country-gun-toting-militia-crowd and you're a country singer? Forget it. It's over. You're a wanna-be after that. Good luck
And - no use whining about it - anyone from the country would be able to tell you that. Buncha spoiled rotten rich-girl-brats who couldn't even talk the talk let alone walk the walk. And their music? I don''t wanna hear it anymore like millions of other Americans.
I'd rather they shut up and didn't sing.
I doubt they will ever make it back still.
However - CMT did show their stuff....hope it doesn't tank CMT.