Rich at Blogging for Change was yet another observer at the September 25 prowar rally (and like the rest of us might have been included in the count of 400 war supporters). He’s discovered, a week later, that we all missed something important because we left too early: the world premiere of the song “Bush Was Right” by the Right Brothers.
Rich goes through some of the lyrics to that song and other Right Brothers hits, and it’s hard to believe they’re not a parody group, but in these days of the BushFish and comic books about superpowered conservative talk-show hosts, it’s pretty much impossible to come up with a parody of right-wing thinking that won’t be eagerly embraced by the wingers themselves. Particularly disturbing is “Trickle Down”, which defends the powerless, oppressed multimillionaires and billionaires of the country and tells the working man that one day he’ll have his turn to take his place among the ultrarich and benefit from the tax breaks too.
There is one Right Brothers song that I agree with, though I’m not sure how a Bush supporter can sing it. Perhaps they wrote it in 1993. The song is “Wake Up, America”:
There are people in this country
With no idea that something’s wrong
And Mother freedom, she’s been crying
So I just had to write this song
Chorus
Wake up America you’ve been asleep too long
This country’s being jerked out from under your feet
Open your eyes now and look what’s going on
It’s time to stand and fight for what you believe
Wake up America oh say can’t you see
Can you imagine the Founding Fathers
Coming back to life and standing here today
If they could look out across our nation
I think this might be what they’d say
Repeat Chorus
Wake up, America oh say can’t you see
No doubt these guys will be taking America by storm. Perhaps the Honky Tonkers for Truth (who unfortunately were unable to sway the red states in 2004) can be revived and the two groups can have a fiddling contest or something.
Well, this is quite a find. Here’s my favorite so far:
(Tolerate this) I believe in Jesus and prayer in public school
(Tolerate this) I believe that evolution makes a monkey out of you
(Tolerate this) I don’t believe in separation of the church and state
You’re preaching tolerance to me while you’re standing there shaking your fist
Well, tolerate this
I own a Smith and Wesson and a shotgun, too
I think the Founding Fathers wouldn?t tolerate you
If only it were parody.
—AltHippo • 10:03 pm
I always have trouble with these things because my first impression is that this is clearly just a left-wing parody of right-wingers. Then the grim truth dawns on me that this stuff is actually produced by right-wingers themselves. What is wrong with these people?
Along similar lines of thought, I think the best explanation for how the Bush Administration came about is Tom Tomorrow’s:
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0538,tomorrow,67999,9.html
—Jason Bradfield • 9:36 am, October 4
Jason, we’re counting on you to give us insight into these people, and now you’re not understanding them either? Granted, you may not have been one of them, but you were at least a lot closer to them than we are. Surely the working men waiting their turn to take their place as billionaires has the hand of Grover Norquist in it somewhere.
—Keith • 10:41 am, October 4
It seems like the loonies have taken center stage. When I was a right-winger, we used to call these people “3 AM types” meaning that you want them to volunteer but not in any capacity where they have to interact with normal people. Hence they were suited for staying in the campaign office until 3 AM stuffing envelopes. Somehow they slithered out of the back office onto center stage.
Interestingly, every College Republican group has this problem: “How do we keep the weirdos from making us look bad?” The war has really brought out the freaks - their mental instability makes them conducive to nationalistic propaganda.
I never really understood the hard-core evangelicals and certainly not the pro-war maniacs. I just figured with the Cold War over the warmongers would just sit back and watch WWII documentaries on the History channel or whatever it is they do to satisfy their lust for beating the crap out of their fellow man. The hard-core evangelicals I just figured were too damn stupid to pose a serious problem.
I was wrong. Now the war freaks and Jesus freaks rule the GOP.
—Jason Bradfield • 11:45 am, October 4