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First of all, the title. While the tune postures as a criticism of the federal government (Washington D.C. is some 100 miles “north of Richmond,” Virginia), “rich men” in “northern cities” is a familiar trope to the antisemitic right. Leading Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has held regular campaign events which target “globalists,” a far-right code word for Jews, who supposedly are seeking to attack America.
Moreover, the denunciation of the power “north of Richmond,” the one-time capital of the Confederate States of America, evokes a neo-Confederate sensibility that is one of the hallmarks of the fascist right in the United States. Anthony seems oblivious to the history of West Virginia, where he recorded the song for radiowv. It began in a revolt by yeoman farmers in the mountains against the slavocracy (the rich men 𝘪𝘯 Richmond, and 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩 of Richmond). They seceded from the secessionists, and were admitted during the war as a new Union state.
- Nick Barrickman, David Walsh. www.wsws.org