Chrissie Hynde Writes Open Letter To Trump Mentioning Rush Limbaugh And Julian Assange, Gets Heavily Criticized
Chrissie Hynde Writes Open Letter To Trump
The headlines around Chrissie Hynde’s recent open letter to Trump on Twitter vary from ‘Chrissie Hynde asks Trump to drop charges against Julian Assange’ (The Independent, quite accurate) or ‘Chrissie Hynde pens kind letter to Trump, reveals she allowed Rush Limbaugh to use her song’ (The Washington Times, also accurate) to ‘Singer Chrissie Hynde praises Trump for Honoring Rush Limbaugh (The Daily Mail UK, Breibart News, quite inaccurate) … Of course, ‘Hynde praises Trump’ is a better clickbait than the truth, but misleading headlines put Chrissie Hynde in the middle of many social media discussions this morning.
So what did The Pretenders’ frontwoman say exactly? She wrote an open letter to Trump, asking him to drop charges against Julian Assange, and she mentions her father Melville ‘Bud’ Hynde, an ex-Marine and a Rush Limbaugh lover. Chrissie writes that her father would have loved the presidency of Trump and the fact he recently rewarded Limbaugh with the nation’s highest civilian honor, and I am sure she is speaking the truth. Like most Marine, Melville was very conservative and would have been a Trump supporter, but Chrissie is even saying she didn’t agree with her father ‘My father and I didn’t always see eye-to-eye. We argued a lot.’ She is known to be a liberal, all papers even name her one, so why are people so thick? She is not praising Trump for honoring Limbaugh, she is saying her dad would have approved and would have loved Trump, and that’s very different.
Of course, Chrissie is not using the usual derogatory and vitriolic language of the left to address her request, her letter is kind and polite, she is not calling Trump names, and she is applying what she preaches: ‘isn’t that the American way? The right to disagree without having your head chopped off?’ That’s why people think she is kissing Trump’s ass and is ‘evil’. Yes, that’s a term I have read on social media, simply because Chrissie Hynde dares to have a dialogue with Trump. But she has already been there, especially when she was ostracized because of her comment about rape — she was raped at 21 and admitted some responsibility instead of posing as a victim.
Times have changed and it’s a rare thing to encounter someone with Hynde’s attitude, people are polarized and don’t even want to talk to the other side, they are too afraid, or when they do it, they use insults. But Chrissie is old school, she doesn’t follow any group opinion, you have to recognize this, and she doesn’t care about what people are gonna think about her. As for letting Limbaugh use her song for his show, this is what she said in an interview while explaining she had spent most of her adult life in London:
‘I didn’t know who Rush Limbaugh was. But people were chasing me in airports, telling me, ‘You’ve got to stop him!’ I said, ‘Should I listen to him?’ They said ‘No, he’s terrible.’ Well, first of all, I’m in a rock and roll band and I don’t like people telling me what to do. I just got fed up with everybody telling me what to do.’
She nevertheless investigated and found out that Limbaugh was using a certain number of bars where he didn’t have to get permission, so she added: ’After many years of being criticized about it, we said if we ever get proceeds from it we’ll send them to PETA.’
But the real motive of the letter was a plea for Julian Assange who is still living at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and faces possible extradition to the US. If Assange appears in court in the U.S., he will face 18 charges including conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, which could put him in prison for the rest of his life, 175 years exactly.
Hynde is asking Trump to pardon Assange, and today things have become a bit more complicated as different news outlets have revealed that the Wikileaks founder had allegedly been promised a pardon by people close to Trump, in exchange of his public announcement that Russia had nothing to do with the attack on the 2016 election.
At this point, things have never been more confusing in politics – did Assange help (directly or indirectly) the Russian campaign to undermine Hillary Clinton’s presidential chances, or was he just a conduit between the Russian hackers and the Trump campaign? What was his exact role in Trump’s campaign? Did he refuse to cover up Russia’s involvement in the election as Trump wanted? One thing is sure, if he helped Trump, there are certainly plenty of people on the left supporting him: the Don’t Extradite Assange campaign is supported by many liberals including Trump-hater-number-one Roger Waters, but also Brian Eno, M.I.A…. In a strange way, Assange’s cause has rallied people from very different political horizons from right to left. So what does it say about Chrissie Hynde?
The current hatred of Chrissie Hynde on social media, the ‘I’m unfollowing her’ or ‘I hate her music now’ is another example of cancel culture. When did people start to expect complete uniformity from the musicians they like? When did people start to require artists to have the exact same opinions on everything? People are complex and nuanced, people still have different views because individuals are different. Because Chrissie Hynde is still not afraid to express hers, she has become an endangered species.
Here is Chrissie Hynde’s open letter:
An open Letter to @realDonaldTrump, President of the United States.
Dear Mr. President,
I often think of how much my father, Melville “Bud” Hynde, who proudly served his country as a Marine on Guadalcanal, would have enjoyed your Presidency. [p1.]
The other day when you gave that award to Rush Limbaugh, my father would have been so delighted. He loved listening to Rush, which is why I allowed my song, ‘My City Was Gone’, to be used on his radio show.
My father and I didn’t always see eye-to-eye. We argued a lot.. [p2.]
but isn’t that the American way? The right to disagree without having your head chopped off?
Soon, I will be participating in a protest in London against the extradition of #JulianAssange (@wikileaks). I know my father would be mortified, but I feel strongly enough to do [p3.]
what I believe is the right thing; to protest further punishment of a man who sought to defend Freedom, albeit in a way you rightly disagree with.
I know Mr. Assange broke the law (as i have done defending the treatment of animals) but I believe [p4.]
he has been duly punished and should now be set free.
Please consider my plea.
Yours truly,
Chrissie Hynde of @ThePretendersHQ
An open Letter to @realDonaldTrump, President of the United States.
Dear Mr. President,
I often think of how much my father, Melville “Bud” Hynde, who proudly served his country as a Marine on Guadalcanal, would have enjoyed your Presidency. [p1.]
— Chrissie Hynde (@ChrissieHynde) February 17, 2020
The other day when you gave that award to Rush Limbaugh, my father would have been so delighted. He loved listening to Rush, which is why I allowed my song, ‘My City Was Gone’, to be used on his radio show.
My father and I didn’t always see eye-to-eye. We argued a lot.. [p2.]— Chrissie Hynde (@ChrissieHynde) February 17, 2020
but isn’t that the American way? The right to disagree without having your head chopped off?
Soon, I will be participating in a protest in London against the extradition of #JulianAssange (@wikileaks). I know my father would be mortified, but I feel strongly enough to do [p3.]
— Chrissie Hynde (@ChrissieHynde) February 17, 2020
what I believe is the right thing; to protest further punishment of a man who sought to defend Freedom, albeit in a way you rightly disagree with.
I know Mr. Assange broke the law (as i have done defending the treatment of animals) but I believe [p4.]
— Chrissie Hynde (@ChrissieHynde) February 17, 2020
he has been duly punished and should now be set free.
Please consider my plea.Yours truly,
Chrissie Hynde of @ThePretendersHQ
— Chrissie Hynde (@ChrissieHynde) February 17, 2020
