# Arlo Guthrie is a Republican??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 17, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arlo-guthrie-is-a-republican/506755 "2009-08-17T17:53:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arlo-guthrie-is-a-republican/506755/41 "2009-08-19T23:02:33Z")
Alice’s Restaurant is boring. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arlo-guthrie-is-a-republican/506755/42 "2009-08-20T00:36:29Z")
> [@cuauhtemoc](#): > > Alice’s Restaurant is boring. Why do you hate America? ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arlo-guthrie-is-a-republican/506755/43 "2009-08-20T01:16:04Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > He’s great without his father. As a matter of fact, I’ve heard Alice’s restaurant, coming into los angeles, and City of NO more times in my life than I have “this land is your land”. If the father wrote that one, it’s the only one of his that I have heard. His father was little better than an idiot, a non-violent Charles Manson, who was so much smarter than everybody else, according to him, and pretty boring. He wasn’t famous big time in his life, because he wasn’t good. People now like him because they are looking for something different, but with ‘roots’ , something to help define our current national/financial situation, and they’re projecting their spectre’s image onto his. He’s hip among birkenstockers and their kids, but his music was for a niche market, and Arlo himself certainly was and is a better quality musician. > > hh Wow. Arlo’s current political beliefs aside, I’m just awestruck at this post, in it’s complete ignorance of folk music history. C’mon Harry, you can at least look up on Wiki the significance of Woody Guthrie’s work. Sheesh. Here’s a nice quote from that “idiot, a non-violent Charles Manson “(WTF???)”, who was so much smarter than everyone else”: > [@](#): > > I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. > > Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard traveling. > > I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built. > I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. > > —Guthrie on songwriting ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arlo-guthrie-is-a-republican/506755/44 "2009-08-20T02:08:20Z")
> [@elelle](#): > > complete ignorance of folk music history. . > > "idiot, a non-violent Charles Manson “(WTF???)”, I put that stuff on my strawberry plants. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arlo-guthrie-is-a-republican/506755/45 "2009-08-20T02:10:54Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Ted Nugent doesn’t surprise me at all. He has always been about as vocal as he can be about it. Dennis Hopper, on the other hand, was a bit of a shocker for me. Read this in a newspaper interview: When Dennis Hopper was asked how it was he of all people could be a Republican, he replied: “I sobered up, man.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arlo-guthrie-is-a-republican/506755/46 "2009-08-20T02:19:07Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > “I sobered up, man.” “I made a shitload of money and want to keep it.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arlo-guthrie-is-a-republican/506755/47 "2009-08-20T02:41:01Z")
Before we dump on poor Arlo, does anybody here know for a fact how Bob Dylan votes these days? I mean, the general pattern with most men is to want the moon and stars from the government as a young man and then balk at being presented the bill as an elder. As Mick Jagger once said in a PENTHOUSE interview back in the 80s, “I don’t know of any major Black performer who didn’t vote for Reagan.” ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arlo-guthrie-is-a-republican/506755/48 "2009-08-20T02:46:10Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Ted Nugent and Dennis Hopper are two other Republicans whose political status always surprises people. The Nuge? Not the least bit surprising: I was a Teen-Aged Republican (famous last words: “You see, there was this girl…”) who grew up about a mile from him, and closet Dems like me were the exception, not the rule. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arlo-guthrie-is-a-republican/506755/49 "2009-08-20T03:05:08Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > “You see, there was this girl…” My famous last words in many, many, many situations. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arlo-guthrie-is-a-republican/506755/50 "2009-08-20T03:08:01Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > The Nuge? Not the least bit surprising: I was a Teen-Aged Republican (famous last words: “You see, there was this girl…”) who grew up about a mile from him, and closet Dems like me were the exception, not the rule. Okay, so I’m out of it. Haven’t thought of Nugent for years and was not aware how well known his politics were nowadays. It was a surprise way back when, though. But Dennis Hopper I found out about only in the past year or so. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arlo-guthrie-is-a-republican/506755/51 "2009-08-20T03:19:28Z")
Both of them not only play deranged on TV, but are in Real Life. It’s truly sad that a diagnosis of “deranged,” in their cases, comes not after a private consultation with a professional and the family, but after MANY interviews. “Mom, I think Uncle Ted and Uncle Dennis may not be all there,” is sad after Thanksgiving dinner. It’s disappointing when it’s so public and so obvious. And they’ve been giving those “crazy as a shithouse rat” interviews for decades. Were I still a Republican I’d try to change the subject the moment they spoke. Instead, I’ve encouraged Ted to speak his every insane outburst for 30 years. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arlo-guthrie-is-a-republican/506755/52 "2009-08-20T03:21:36Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Haven’t thought of Nugent for years and was not aware how well known his politics were nowadays. That’s why he denies knowledge of that album cover with the dope pipes on it. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arlo-guthrie-is-a-republican/506755.md?page=2)