Posted on 08/26/2026 5:09:38 AM PDT by MtnClimber
The sad news today is that country music legend Dolly Parton has died.
I admit that I’m not particularly a fan of country music. It’s not that I don’t like it; I just devote my time to other things. But everybody knew about Dolly Parton, and as far as I can tell there isn’t anyone who did not like and admire her. Mary Katherine Ham summarizes the reaction in a tweet this afternoon:
A year of mourning for one of the only people we all agreed on. So sad. What a lady and what a life.
Parton lived a life of hard work and of gratitude. She worked her way up from nothing. Ham continues in a series of tweets that capture some of the high points:
I of course admired Dolly's music and business acumen. But she also lived with such obvious gratitude, fueled by faith. She came from nothing, but with no chip on her shoulder. Quite the opposite. You can look through the window of her one-bedroom childhood home on display at Dollywood while listening to "Coat of Many Colors" and know she was rich long before she was rich. . . .
Parton was famous for her generosity and philanthropy, making contributions particularly in the areas of childhood literacy and medical research.
Parton’s passing comes at a moment of the rapid rise of the Democratic Socialists of America. As the DSA has risen, the backgrounds of its leaders have become the subject of great public interest. The contrast between Dolly Parton and the leaders of the DSA could not be greater. While Parton was known for her gratitude and charity, the DSA leaders are filled with anger, resentment and envy. And yet Parton is the one who worked her way up from nothing, while the leaders of the DSA all seem to come from privileged backgrounds.
Let’s look at just a few examples:
- Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City. His father is a tenured professor at Columbia, and his mother a successful movie director. The family owns three homes, in New York City, India, and Uganda. (Do they have pied-a-terre taxes over there?).
- Gustavo Gordillo, co-chair of the New York City DSA chapter. The New York Post calls him a “silver spoon socialist,” which I guess puts him in the same category as Karl Marx and Fidel Castro. He lives in a $1.5 million Bed-Stuy townhouse gifted to him and his brother by their wealthy parents, who have a successful business and own two $3 million homes in South Florida. Gordillo has posed as a union electrician on social media, but in fact was expelled for non-attendance from an apprenticeship program of the IBEW. Gordillo lived in a rental apartment while his townhouse was being renovated, and is being sued in Brooklyn housing court for skipping out on three months rent when he departed.
- Grace Ryan, sometimes referred to as the “Lulu Lenin” of the New York DSA. She is heir to an Ohio-based chocolate company. The New York Post quotes Ryan whining about the rent on her luxury Brooklyn apartment: “East Williamsburg was invented by my landlord to charge me an extra $100/month on my rent,” she said on X last year of her $3,170 a month Bushwick studio. The pad, in a new luxury building with a gym, squash court, rooftop, doorman and elevator, is rent-stabilized through a city program that gives developers tax breaks in exchange for including affordable units.
- Then there’s Morris Katz, known as a top campaign advisor to both Mayor Mamdani and Graham Platner, the recently flamed-out Maine Senate candidate. Katz is the son of famous producer and screenwriter David Bar Katz, and grew up in a $5 million Upper West Side apartment. He recently defaulted on $14,000 in rent on a luxury Brooklyn apartment.
I find nothing to admire in these angry and envious nepo babies.
Here in the Menton family, we have a daily ritual that we call “Favorite Part of the Day.” At dinnertime, we go around the room, and everybody recounts some event from the day that was particularly interesting or enjoyable. (Mine today was seeing a very intense rainbow at the end of a brief thunderstorm. In the few moments before it disappeared, I was able to get a photograph that captured a part of the intensity.).
The idea of Favorite Part of the Day is to teach appreciation and gratefulness. It’s particularly useful for the young ones, but a good reminder for the adults as well. Angers and jealousies are not welcome. I suspect that the DSA grouches would find us in need of cancelation.
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
Manhattan Contrarian ping
It’s always been surprising to me that the ones most in favor of socialism/communism are those that have pretty much everything. Except they weren’t raised with respect for work ethic or gratitude for what they had.
For that matter, they don’t understand charity, either. Helping others is something we should all do, if able. But taking from one to give to another isn’t charity, it’s theft.
Great article Thanks for posting.
I heard somewhere that the default pushed the owner of that apartment, an African immigrant, into foreclosure.
What a great question for Mandami. I hope someone follows up with it: “The family owns three homes, in New York City, India, and Uganda. (Do they have pied-a-terre taxes over there?).”
To me, it’s quite simple. They want free things given away to the “downtrodden” but they want to use your money, not their own.
To me, it’s even simpler. They intend to take some of what they are passing around.
The beta-cuck with the wagging jawbone is as old as humanity.
You're right. But not just the downtrodden - they want to give to the criminal and 'gimme more' classes BECAUSE THAT'S WHO THEY ARE just at a higher level. They're 'takers' - we know their types...
Dolly was not comfortable in her own skin
She had more work done than the road across Newfound gap
Dolly may not have been perfect...few are...but I will remember her favorably.
Excellent observations, both of you.
Envy vs. gratitude and service.
They want free things given away to the “downtrodden” but they want to use your money, not their own.
Don’t forget they the money they take off the top for administrating such programs. Only 26% actually reach the ‘downtrodden’. It’s a racket.
There is some negative commentary on this forum (not a lot, but some) about her apparent comfort and acceptance of the LBGTQ..whatever lifestyle, and I understand that criticism, but for me, it is tempered by the fact that she is a woman.
Again, not all women, but many women.
That may sound sexist, but one cannot view the current landscape and have conversations with many women without concluding that not only is there far broader acceptance among women of this lifestyle, but on examination, appears to be tied into the female traits hardwired by biology.
If someone does not believe men and women are biologically different in ways that are beyond simply defining a woman as an “XX” chromosome type (which in my view is enough) then this observation will hold no water at all for that person, but...that does not mean the observation does not in reality hold water.
I do believe men and women are hardwired differently in our brains, and there are good and natural reasons for that. And I attribute this “acceptance” of the LGBTQ...whatever lifestyle in Dolly Parton to that fundamental difference.
I understand why many take issue with that conclusion, but regardless, I believe it...”carries water”.
I don’t know if she ever found Christ even though she has made many statements about belief in God, and I don’t know either if she is someone who believes that “good works” amounts to being a Christian.
But that is between her and God, and I leave it to that. It is apparent she has done her share of “good works” in this world, and that is what many are celebrating today.
Why are many rich people, who support socialism, such hypocrites?
https://manypossibilities1.blogspot.com/2026/08/why-are-many-rich-people-who-support.html
The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
Combining both humility and gratitude along with her trademark wit.
When I was in college I met several people who came from wealthy families that were more or less stupid compared to myself and my friends. Their parents bought them into school and they ended up with majors were less about critical thinking and more about attendance.
I guess not much has changed...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.