Trump Makes Entertainment Great—and Family Friendly—Again at Inaugural Kick-Off

Yeah, I see you on Twitter trashing 3 Doors Down at the”Make America Great Again! Welcome Celebration” in D.C., pretending like you don’t know who they are, or trying to minimize their success like Clay Aiken (who?)—the forgotten American Idol loser who mistook rudeness for wit.

Biggest audience that 3 Doors Down has had in years. You'd think that they'd try to stay on pitch. 😳

— Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) January 19, 2017

The dripping disdain was flowing for DJ Ravidrums, who is clearly an amazing talent, and the angry snowflakes can’t get enough of disparaging The Piano Guys (who just played a piano like a violin and blew my mind).

The @PianoGuys perform at Donald Trump's inauguration concert: "It's Gonna Be Okay" https://t.co/UYpqI3esEb https://t.co/yIdXxVeHvA

— CNN (@CNN) January 19, 2017

I noticed no one had anything bad to say about superstar Toby Keith, who rocked his set in an impressive beard and a too-cool-for-school trench coat. It’s hard to make fun of Toby Keith. But while the Twitter mobs were laughing and deriding the other lesser-named musical acts, the rest of us were able to sit our kids in front of the television for the first time (maybe in their lives) without having to worry that someone would be writhing on a giant dildo or simulating a satanic ritual wearing goat horns (like Katy Perry is wont to do) or having wardrobe malfunctions or twerking across the stage.

Can I just take a moment to say how tickled pink I am that this event was Beyonce-free? For the first time in eight long years, Beyonce wasn’t anywhere to be found at this national event at the Lincoln Memorial. Thank you, God, for small things. And isn’t it time some new stars got a chance to shine? When I was growing up, I had the pleasure of having at least a few female rock stars who didn’t base their worth on their physical attributes and didn’t use sex to become popular or debase themselves onstage in see-through spandex. Pat Benatar, Chrissie Hynde, Heart, Fleetwood Mac, and others like them were the type of tough front women who made rock and roll great. And then came Madonna and it all went to hell. Feminism died, and in order to be out front as a woman singer, you had to behave and look like a whore.

And so here we are, at a time when the musical acts that are regularly featured are not safe for children in the precious latency period. This is the period of time that is worth protecting, a time before sex becomes an issue. That fleeting time when your child is blessedly unaware of all the sexual complexities in the world. They have their whole lives to figure all that out, but there is only this short time in childhood where they have a quiet respite from the pressing world of adults and that should be protected. In order to do that, Americans have had to change the channel—even on Inauguration Day.

Thursday night’s pre-inaugural kick-off was a beautiful display of American values, patriotic songs, talented performers, and good old-fashioned family entertainment. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” sung by a military chorus and set to gorgeous fireworks, left me with tears streaming down my face.