Merle disowned Oakie from Muskogee in front of me at a Seattle concert in about 1999.
He refused to sing a bunch of its words, claiming he had forgotten them.
The stage backdrop was pure Socialist Realist, and (iirc) included the raised fist of leftism.
So some were stunned last year at a concert when Haggard sang his latest song, “Hillary.” It was about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and how “changes need to be large / Something like a big switch of gender / Let’s put a woman in charge.”
https://www.mlive.com/entertainment/kalamazoo/2008/10/merle_haggard_is_changing_his.html
Pretty sure I read he endorsed Obuma.