During a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday (March 2) to address Russia’s recent military invasion of Ukraine, Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina quoted lyrics from Toby Keith‘s song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).”
“Mr. Speaker, when the United States military shows up, kings and kingdoms fall to their knees,” Cawthorn said. “As the great philosopher Toby Keith once said, ‘We put a boot in their a–, it’s the American way.’ Our military pre-eminence is unmatched. Our brand is dominance, but our greatness lies in temperance.” He later added, “Congress declares war, not Joe Biden, not some woke general. Congress. The people must debate, decide, and then if absolutely necessary, declare war. … The sons and daughters of America are too precious to waste on the altar of globalism.”
Rep. Madison Cawthorn: "When the United States military shows up, kings and kingdoms fall to their knees. As the great philosopher, Toby Keith once said, 'we put a boot in their ass, it's the American way.' Our military preeminence is unmatched. Our brand is dominance." pic.twitter.com/fJpglioXU4
— The Hill (@thehill) March 2, 2022
Keith wrote the song following the September 11 attacks in 2001, as well as his father’s death earlier that year. In 2017, The Boot reported Keith’s recollection of the song’s creation.
“My father had begged me for years to go on USO Tours, and I was so busy — we were doing 130 shows a year — that I just didn’t have it in my schedule,” Keith told reporters at the time. “Finally, he passed away in March, and then 9/11 happened. I was like, ‘Now I have to go honor him.’ I was sitting out there, just a few days after the towers came down. I was working out in the gym, and I heard these talking heads say, ‘Well, I guess we could bomb them. That would be so the American way,’ and I was like, ‘What just happened to us? Are we supposed to just stand by and let this happen? Could we not be mad as hell about this?’”
The song became the first single from Keith’s 2002 album Unleashed and went on to top Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart, and reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100.
