The American Dream is dead. Long live Americana.

You know what? I would love to just not think about the United States any more. The whole continual psychodrama is just exhausting and I often think that’s it’s genuinely one of the last Western countries on earth I’d like to live in. But editing a website around Americana music makes that an impossibility, so I think we do have to say something at this juncture and clarify where we stand. Make no mistake, the results today are devastating not just for many Americans but for millions of people around the world.  It is difficult to see how the US as an entity will continue as a democracy and not just end up like a real-life version of The Handmaid’s Tale (and this is said with no hyperbole at all). In terms of freedom of the press, the judicial system, future elections, there is nothing on the horizon for years to come now that isn’t relentlessly bleak.

And yes, there are many people who are saying it’s time to live without America, which again would be a bit difficult for us as an Americana website, but anyway the impact of US policies going forward on a range of issues from climate change to support for authoritarian regimes is something it’s impossible to escape. We all have to live with this and the far-reaching consequences of what happened overnight.

I think the thing I would say on a personal note is this, and I realise this point has been made plenty of times by other people already today but regardless – liberalism as a philosophy is finished. Politicians like Tim Walz seem like perfectly affable figures, but 50 years of declining living standards facilitated by both major parties in the US has led us to this. The only protective factor against right-wing populism is a massive redistribution of wealth from the richest in society to ordinary working people, and those who for whatever reason aren’t able to work, which undoes some of the damage of this whole destructive project.  If this isn’t centrists’ wake-up call that their beloved model is broken then seriously what the fuck is it going to take? It’s socialism or barbarism folks – and if the word socialism has too many connotations for you, then call it what you like. But people’s lives need to materially improve significantly if we want to avoid full on fascism, tinkering is not going to cut it. Labour won a majority on 33% of the vote here in July and having since cut fuel allowances, maintained benefit caps and actually increased the cost of some things like bus fares (!) are already less popular in some polling than the despised Tories. It’s broken. It’s time to say goodbye to a failed project.

It may be too late for the US for the foreseeable future, so understanding this, it’s important to say a couple of things – firstly, the US is more than the sum of its parts – the vast majority of musicians we cover do not share the views of the incoming administration, and we will continue to celebrate the country’s rich heritage, culture and diversity, and highlight the best of America, not the worst.

The second thing is that if you are a member of any community which Trump and his entourage are now going to go to war with, we stand by you. The LGBTQ+ community, people of colour, people with disabilities, people without a voice, fuck it for having to say this but women – we stand with you. We will never let down our guard in ensuring you feel included and represented. We will be developing some new guidelines for our comments system to reiterate these points. If you don’t agree with them, there are plenty of other Americana websites out there, good luck and cheerio.

Not withstanding for a moment the violent context in which it came into existence, the country which gave us Pete Seeger, Johny Cash and Hank Williams is one with a radicalism and beauty in its soul. This will continue to be a thread through everything we publish. Dark times lie ahead but although today it feels like a distant hope, as the saying goes, this too will pass. Solidarity everyone.