George Strait Deserves the Kennedy Center Honors, Not Political Rancor

Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Reba McEntire, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, and Roy Acuff make up the very exclusive list of country stars that have been feted by the Kennedy Center Honors since 1978. And now, “King” George Strait will join that club, and it couldn’t be more deserved.

Announced on Wednesday (8-13), Strait will be inducted with R&B/Soul goddess Gloria Gaynor, British actor/singer Michael Crawford, iconic actor and screenplay writer Sylvester Stallone, and glam metal band KISS. Strait was actually the first to be announced of the new Kennedy Center class to the joy of many country fans.

“First is country music star, actor and producer George Strait,” President Trump said during the announcement. “Over an extraordinary four decade career, George has sol over 120 million records worldwide, amassed 60 #1 hits, and produced 30 Platinum-certified albums, more than any other living American. That is amazing. He’s believed to be by millions of people to be just as good as you can get. And he’s beloved by hundreds of millions of people all over the world. He’s really something. They call him the King of Country.”

George Strait is more than deserving of the honor, and it feels like it’s coming at the perfect time in his career. But as to be expected, in this politically acrimonious time we live in, all of these Kennedy Center picks are polarizing in the minds of some. When it comes to George Strait though, it shouldn’t be.

Irrespective of who made this pick, this was the time to bestow “King” George Strait with this honor. Looking through the list of previous honorees, Strait was the most obvious name missing from the list of topmost country artists of the last 50 years. The Kennedy Center Honors are not exclusive to country obviously or even to music. But he’s the one who you can set beside all the others, and nobody would bat an eyelash.

Was George Strait only picked because he’s a country artist, because he’s from Texas, or because he’s perceived as a conservative? Absolutely not. And really, Strait has never signaled any kind of political affiliation, while his humanitarian efforts have been lauded by people across the political divide, including recently raising $6 million for flood relief down in central Texas after the 4th of July disasters.

If Joe Biden or Kamala Harris were president, this still likely would have been the year George Strait was picked. He was announced first because he was probably picked first, and was such a no-brainer.

Nonetheless, you don’t have to go far to find opinions like this:

For the record, George Strait hasn’t even acknowledged the achievement as of yet, nor signaled any effort to be a “willing fascist propaganda tool,” so let’s just tap the brakes a little bit.

And it’s not George Strait’s fault the Kennedy Center Honors have been politicized. And yes, they have been politicized, and that is unfortunate. As an institution of the arts and entertainment, they should be insulated and rise above the political fray. But when President Trump fired the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees, installed himself as chairman, and appointed Lee Greenwood as one of the new board members, he unnecessarily politicized the honors in a way that has now made the entire process polarizing, despite how deserving the picks might be.

Were the Kennedy Center Honors political before? Probably so. As Michael Ian Black writing for the left-leaning Daily Beast admits, “It’s naïve to think that politics haven’t played a role in the Kennedy Center Honors before this year. I’d be an idiot to claim that the past inclusion of Democratic luminaries like George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen or Oprah Winfrey wasn’t, in some way, payback for their support.”

But that politicization was more passive, not active. After all, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, and Roy Acuff who almost ran for governor as a Republican once were all right-leaning country stars who still got in. However, Trump said in his press conference that he actively passed over some “woksters” to come to his picks.

At the same time though, the 2025 picks don’t feel especially political, or really that polarizing. KISS might be the most quizzical pick, and not because they weren’t obvious superstars, but because a glam metal band isn’t exactly who you think of when you think of the more formal Kennedy Center Honors. Both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons have both overtly and fairly commonly criticized Trump in the past. But they still got selected.

After being named as Kennedy Center Honorees, the band said graciously, “KISS is the embodiment of the American dream. We are deeply honored to receive the Kennedy Center Honor.”

To them, the honor means more than the individual who may or may not be making the announcement. And that’s the attitude we all should take as opposed to taking out political anger on artists. Some might think Sylvester Stallone was picked exclusively because he’s been a Trump supporter. But those folks have probably never seen Rocky or First Blood. Sure, Stallone became a caricature of himself at times. But few if anyone has embodied the American experience in cinema like Sly.

And if these awards were all about American homogeneity and White supremacy, Trump probably wouldn’t have picked British-born Michael Crawford, or Black singer Gloria Gaynor. In total, the picks actually feel quite diverse and generally apolitical, even if Crawford and Gaynor aren’t exactly household names.

And even Daily Beast writer Michael Ian Black when generally trashing the picks ultimately said, “If anybody deserves to be recognized for a lifetime of greatness, it’s George Strait. Now here, I know nothing about the man or his politics and, honestly, I don’t want to? I just want to celebrate that a deserving American is getting the recognition he deserves. Country music has often been overlooked by the hoity-toity cultural elite, and it’ll be great to see artists honor the man known as ‘The King of Country.‘”

Here here. This is a sentiment we should all be able to agree on.

It sucks we live in such an acrimonious moment. But no matter who resides in the Oval Office, “King” George deserves this honor, would have probably received it irrespective of who was making the decisions, and shouldn’t be dragged due to things out of his control. Because George Strait is a King for everyone.

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