Dolly Parton died on August 25, after decades of working in the music business.
Her death prompted many to recall all the joy that she brought through her work, from her songs to her philanthropy.
Most people were able to post about her death without making it political.
But then there was Michigan Democrat Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
As we reported on Wednesday, he had people up in arms with what he said.
In the post, he tried to politicize her: "Dolly Parton used her gift for music to highlight the challenges of poverty, inequality, and struggle in ways that uplifted and inspired working people." He tried to use her song, "Coat of Many Colors," to support his point.
But Dolly was decidedly very non-political. She refused, for example, to be goaded into attacking President Donald Trump when questioned by an ABC reporter. She even turned down the Presidential Medal of Freedom because she thought that could potentially be interpreted as political.
El-Sayed got a lot of backlash to his post about Dolly. But he apparently didn't learn, because he just doubled down on it. He actually posted a video on TikTok, using Parton's song "9 to 5." El-Sayed pretended to lip-sync to it with members of his campaign, as he claimed that "Team Abdul was working 9-5 to deliver for the people."
@abdulelsayed Rest in Power, Dolly ✊🏼
♬ original sound - Abdul El-Sayed
Then he actually put, "Rest in Power, Dolly" as the caption.
First, given she was deliberately very non-political, I can't imagine she would have wanted her song appropriated for use in a political campaign. So if he had any sense of what she was about, he would know that, and would have respected her. Instead, he obviously didn't, and is using her to help himself. And that's just so wrong.
Second, she was very protective of her music rights; this is stepping on that as well.
The "Rest in Power" nod? That's usually reserved by leftists to recognize other leftist allies. Again, for the reasons above, just wrong to use in this context. Yeah, no. You don't get to appropriate her to serve your political ends.
Here's what Dolly said when asked if "9 to 5" was a message movie.
I wouldn’t have been involved if I’d thought it was gonna be a sermon of some sort. Not that I’m not for rights for everybody, I’m just sayin’ I didn’t want to get involved in a political thing. It’s just a funny, funny show. I think it’s very obvious what it’s sayin’. It’s mostly about this boss and these three women—not bosses in general or the plight of secretaries.
I think El-Sayed thinks he'll appeal to people by using Dolly to make himself look more acceptable, and that will help his campaign. But trying to appropriate an icon doesn't change lousy, leftist policies. Indeed, it just shows you don't respect her position on politics.
We'll have to see if anyone in Michigan falls for this. Someone needs to tell him to stop with the bad social media posting, because if anything, I think he's only stiffening people's resolve against him. But so far, whoever is in charge of his social media is quite clueless.
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