Anyway, I'll cut to the chase.
About friggin' time.
There have been numerous posts here suggesting that what the Chicks have done is economically driven, whether they kept their opinions to themselves, offered their opinions, or, I don't know, held no opinions whatsoever. This seems rather a cynical outlook, nevermind convenient; damn them, and damn the facts. Regardless. Now before you ask, I don't know the facts. But it's entirely possible one or more of the trio simply dislike one or more of the policies of the current administration.
So you condemn those who don't have facts that you can't even name. Sounds like a case of pot/kettle/black, but let's continue.
What's curious to me, and in retrospect a better question for starting off the thread: Why the very big deal over the 2003 comment? I'll guess that it was due to some combination of its timing (tip of the hat to Tricky), the location (overseas), and the demographic and politics of the average country music fan, the latter including a bit of "traditional values" bias vis-a-vis sexual roles.
Ah, so you cannot conceive that the average country fan would have any other reason to tune out the Dixie Chicks than their perceived "assertiveness," instead of their "views in violent opposition to the views held by many if not most of their fans." I believe it's time to invoke Occam here, so why don't you explain WHY you think the obvious answer is incorrect.
Of course, this many mean you digging up some of those troublesome facts you admit not having, so I promise to be patient. For my part, I don't need to know the exact rate of acceleration due to gravity to know which way a brick drops.
Also at work may be a subtle bit of psychological projection. Me, I notice I like a female singer a bit more if she is unmarried. It aids the illusion that she's singing to and for me personally. A relationship, a connection of sorts is in place. If that woman then gets hitched I sense in myself a touch of loss, even though the only thing gone is a silly little fantasy.
And it may be Ross Perot directing us through cranial implants from his mother ship orbiting the moon. So friggin' what? If you think your hypothetical is worth a whit, explain Madonna packing stadiums at the age of 135 with crow's feet and hip dysplasia. She's married with a growing stable of spawn - according to your "theory," she should have vanished long ago.
I only wish.
I suspect (again, admittedly a guess) this may be universal and for many the Chicks were at one time like their sisters or daughters or girlfriends. With the Bush comment, fans who disagreed felt personally bruised and betrayed, thus the reaction. Not to the remark so much, which was rather mild, but to their disappointment at investing affection and having it turn out to be misplaced.
Well, you've got a lot of guesses and suspicions and nothing substantive to back them up in the face of obvious contradictions, so I guess you expect me to weigh their value on ther own merit. I find them extremely thin. Want to change my mind? Fatten them up with a little more argument, a little less opnion.