This is a fascinating thread! I am continually impressed and amazed by the insights offered by people like McGrath and M.Ted. For my part, agree with McGrath that, while folk music and left-wing politics have been "fellow travelers" from time to time, the music can exist and thrive with our without an alliance with a particular political faction.

Music can be an effective way to put across a political message that engages the mind, the emotions, and the body. That makes it a pretty powerful tool, as political people of all stripes know only too well. Since political folks often want to co-opt the music for their own purposes, I think musicians have to be prepared to resist. Sometimes that means resisting the forces of the right, sometimes it means resisting the forces of the left. In the 1960s there were a number of popular musicians who grew to resent being co-opted by the liberal establishment -- Bob Dylan certainly did, as did some of the greatest rock'n'roll musicians (witness John Lennon's "Revolution" or Pete Townshend's "Won't Get Fooled Again").

In my opinion the music is at its best when it remains independent of political and religious movements. It can certainly express political sentiments, and sometimes these fit neatly into the context of some group's political agenda. But it should never be subservient to a non-musical "movement," regardless of how legitimate that movement's goals might be.