“Rich Men North of Richmond” has been adopted as kind of a reactionary hymn by the GOP. It was even used as a premise in the first question asked at the August debate. The guy who wrote it denies that he favors the right, and if you take the song title literally, he could be telling the truth; after all, Rupert Murdoch and the editorial board of the WSJ are rich men north of Richmond, too. Should we take him at his word?
No, because he clearly accepts the right-wing argument that poor unemployed people in the hammock of dependency are picking our pockets. That part of the song isn’t genuinely populist; it’s just a GOP talking point from the Reagan years that remains with us today. In the end, the song doesn’t really blame the rich men north of Richmond; it attacks the poor men all over America.