One of the things that made Dolly Parton so unique among entertainers was that she was decidedly non-political; she wanted just to love and be open to everybody.
Leftists like the Democrat Senate nominee in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, have tried to politicize her and use her to justify their agenda, as we reported. But that's actually contrary to the position she held throughout her career: not to be political. So they were really stomping on what she wanted when they did that.
Figures as much, right, that the Left would be so tone-deaf?
Here she is refusing to fall for the bait to be critical of President Donald Trump when being questioned by ABC in a 2018 interview.
This is what happened in 2018 when ABC tried to goad Dolly Parton into attacking Trump
β End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 26, 2026
Every celebrity should take note: pic.twitter.com/YaEZw39PPh
"If you decide you may want to ask me something more serious, don't," she cautioned him. "Cause I'm not going to answer it."
"I do not get into that...But I learned a long time ago, keep your damn mouth shut if you want to stay in show business," she wisely said. "I'm not in politics. I'm an entertainer."
"And yet you're a role model," he goads her.
"Yes, that's why I don't talk about people," she said, finishing him.
It's one of the reasons Dolly is so loved, that she took that posture.
She even refused the Presidential Medal of Freedom multiple times because she didn't want to be seen as political. She was also so humble she questioned whether she even deserved it.
We're so used to today's entertainers being so self-involved and spilling their guts about everything. It's one of the reasons that late-night talk shows/most comedians are no longer funny - because it's become all about politics, and they think they should be telling us how to think. We can see how it's killed any ability people like Jimmy Kimmel or Stephen Colbert might have had to be funny. All they tend to be about now is angry attacks on the president.
While there were always some people who thought differently, entertainers used to largely try not to be divisive or inject politics, and we were better for it.
The late "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson had similar thoughts, as he noted in this clip (the first part is with Barbara Walters) when being questioned by 60 Minutes' Mike Wallace.
Johnny Carson was the Dolly Parton of late nightpic.twitter.com/TMedX4jlVF
β π πππ πππ πππ (@skjultster) August 26, 2026
"That's not what I'm there for. Once you start that, you start to get that self-important feeling that what you say has great import...You could use that show as a forum, you could sway people, and I don't think you should as an entertainer."
Again, just like Dolly, that take was a part of why Johnny Carson was an icon and so loved.
That didn't mean he didn't make jokes about politics or what was going on in the world. But he did jokes that were actually funny, and he didn't promote his own political opinion or a political agenda. You didn't know what his political persuasion was.
This was Johnny during the 1988 presidential race, referring to the controversy when then-Sen. Joe Biden ripped off other politicians without attribution in his speeches during that campaign.
HEEEEEREβs JOHHNY
β βοΈβοΈβοΈ@RealGsPatton007 STAND FOR TRUMP (@RealGsPatton007) May 23, 2019
Johnny Carson in 1987 explains how
Joe Biden steals a speech
1987βBiden in Politics too Looong
pic.twitter.com/5vDYDjAqh3
Biden ultimately had to pull out of that race because of the backlash. Probably today, he would have tried to blow it off and continue.
So I suppose it makes sense that Dolly and Johnny had a sweet friendship, given they had similar thoughts, and she had guested on his show many times. Here was Dolly doing a guest appearance in 1979, and singing an original tribute song to Johnny, just to thank him for the exposure he'd given her on his show that helped her break through to a broader audience. It was "I Never Really Made It Till the Johnny Carson Show."
Dolly Parton charmed The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on September 19, 1979, by performing an original tribute song titled "(I Never Really Made It Till) The Johnny Carson Show" directly to the host. pic.twitter.com/HLgzysZp51
β Terri Green (@TerriGreenUSA) August 25, 2026
You could see how much Johnny loved it.
But that was just like Dolly - she wanted to do something special for him, so she did it with a song.
