Having said that, I do think that if we look at the "history" of folk music in this country from the time of Woody Guthrie to the present, folk music, for better or worse, has been primarily the realm of progressivism (is that a word?). Starting with Woody, his son Arlo, Peter, Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Odetta, Judy Collins, etc., and you can't help but notice that much of their music focuses on causes that are associated with progressive thinking and action. Hell, tie Bruce Springsteen in with them, and you see the power of the movement to help the working stiff, the down-and-out, the disaffected, the poor, the ethnic outsider, the minority of any sort.
People argue that the Kingston Trio tried to avoid politicizing themselves in their music, but that was perhaps more of a business decision that a political decision. John Stewart in particular was about as liberal a thinker as I've encountered among "folk" musicians. I think Nick Reynolds shared many of his views. I'm not sure about Bob Shane and Dave Guard--especially the former. Dave seemed like a free thinker in a lot of ways, so I'll bet politics was one of them.
Enough, John. I'm not even sure I'm answering the question--or what the question actually was.
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