Maybe I have been listening to too much WBAI, but all the new folk music centering around Barack Obama, and the "change" that is supposedly imminent is making me want to puke. Jesus, I thought this genre died when Dylan went electric- what the hell is it doing on my radio?
Some examples:
A song in which the lyrics were just the word, "Obama", over and over again. Woman's voice over guitar.
An acapella song (with insipid, Manhattan Transfer-like harmonizing) probably called, "Give Me My Vote Back"- I'm not sure, but that's all they said for like eight minutes, but what felt like eight days.
Sound-bytes of Bush spewing his pre-war platitudes, set over very serious, sombre music. There are a lot of versions of this. This never gets old on WBAI.
I can't think of any more because I've blocked them out or otherwise turned the radio off before it got the chance to become part of my precious "mind real estate". Hee.
And what the hell are people elevating Obama to savior-status for? He's just as crooked as all the other politicians, only his rhetoric is more progressive. This doesn't mean he IS progressive, only that he can talk the talk. Liberal ideals are a market, and he's cornered it. He gets funding from corporations and will continue to serve their interests, just like every other politician. If that wasn't part of the package, what would be the motivation to become a politician in the first place? To altruistically "serve the people"? Get real!
Also, I think it is hilarious that people are finally starting to get mad about the 2000 election, as it's eight years after the fact. It is an established FACT that it was fixed in Bush's favor by intentional miscounting, and yet people are just starting to realize this. Read Greg Palast's "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy", which came out in 2002, people. And Congress decided not to impeach him, which should have happened for a myriad of other reasons, which I don't need to belabor. I mean, Bush could eat babies for breakfast and it wouldn't surprise me at this point.
For the record, I would bet a trillion dollars that I will never in my life vote Republican (because I tend to vote according to issues and not personal morality), but the folk songs need to stop. Seriously. I know that all the Baby Boomers are getting all frothy at the mouth to relive the 60's, but can you do it with out the proselytizing music? Please? It sounds like a sermon. And sermons are boring.
Also for the record, I will contend hippies did very little to improve the political landscape. I will agree that they affected change socially, but politically- in terms of the war, political power structures, etc, they did almost nothing. That might be another reason I don't like this easy-listening folk music bullshit- it's like these people are being all nostalgic for a time when they see themselves as being heroes. But what did they do, really? After they realized they couldn't live in a commune and call themselves Moonbeam and eat pot brownies anymore, it was time to use Daddy's money to get a job, right? And there, we had the 80's, and the ushering in of Ronald Reagan, who pretty much set the scene for us to be in the global economic pickle we find ourselves in today.
Who, by the way, Republican voters, is John McCain's HERO!! The same Reagan who employed "Trickle Down Economics". But the Republicans still insist that this is viable, even though the evidence is scant. Perhaps because this economic policy benefits them and their wealthy cronies?? Bah!
The Republicans really know how to work it, though, you have to admit. Creating a massive constituency enrapt in the fear that their morals are constantly in peril due to the influence of the "liberal media". And then, spouting positive rhetoric around economic policies of the past, although even a cursory evaluation of the last three Republican presidents would reveal otherwise.
I'm not trying to make an argument for the Democrats, but as with previous presidential elections, it is going to be a choice of the lesser of two opportunists. NOT savior vs. scoundrel.
So, hippies, anyone who was a hippie who reads my blog, or knows a hippie, smokes pot with one, or has bought their hemp jewelry- what has your folk music (although you did not invent the genre) done for America? Or rather, what did your movement do for us? And what is an uncritical public that worships a politician who says the right things going to do when things don't really "change" all that much? And why is everyone so naive?
I really hope I'm proven wrong.
xoxo.
P.S. AS IM WRITING THIS: There is another folk song on (like with a banjo)- that has Obama talking over it about economic policy, and then sings, "I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long".
Man, I need to shut this off.
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