Townes Van Zandt once said there are two kinds of music: zip-a dee-doo-da and the blues. He was right - and you can say the same thing about political messaging in our era. You’re either getting the truth in twelve bars or being sold on a melody designed to distract you.
Syrupy melodies have been replaced with hateful ‘lock her up’ chants, antisemitic tropes and racist slurs filling our airwaves and timelines. Republicans have gone after the marginalized in our country - at every turn making targets of migrants, trans children and teachers - and stand in the way of progress on everything from childhood poverty to healthcare.
The GOP hopes to repeal Medicare and Social Security - after stripping women of autonomy over their own bodies and taking away hard won (and hard fought) rights in the LGBTQ communities, like the right to marry who they love. The same protections as their fellow Americans.
All basic freedoms that should have been enshrined in our Bill of Rights seem to be on the chopping block of an activist, extremist Supreme Court packed with partisans, predators and the plainly corrupt. On the local level they have harassed, hectored and threatened school boards and teachers over basic historical facts, books and gender-neutral bathrooms.
Their intent is to intimidate and sow chaos on behalf of dark money-funded PACs, conservative foundations, the wealthiest 1% of Americans and corporations who will continue see record profits and dodge paying their fair share of income taxes if Trump’s tax cuts are protected - as the GOP has promised to do if they pick-up seats in the House and Senate in the coming mid-terms.
Every single house Republican voted against the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act, to name just two of Biden’s legislative victories on behalf of the folks that have been left reeling as a result of Trump’s disastrous, self-serving handling of COVID-19 when it reached our shores.
Trump liked the idea of painting himself as war-time president in those early days of the crisis but he quickly abdicated any sense of duty and replaced them with wacky cures like drinking bleach, while quickly pivoting to an anti-mask rhetoric and demonizing Dr. Fauci as it played better with the red state beard-bros and Joe Rogan listener type conspiracy cranks.
This posture also opened his audiences to attending MAGA rallies once again, which have always been a primary source of income for Trump’s merchandising arm and building email lists to constantly fleece his flock.
Trump cronies stole PPP funds and his son-in-law used aid at the height of the global pandemic to blackmail governors, or punish those who were not sufficiently supportive of the Trump Administration’s grift as a governing model.
Global inflation set in as a result of worldwide supply chain issues. Companies and some entire industries shut down as a result of a lack of leadership and executive branch guidance, improper oversight of PPP funds during the Trump Administration in turn caused high unemployment numbers that Biden has brought to historical lows, in a record-setting period of time.
Especially in the Hispanic, Black and Asian communities, demographics that were not only under-served but actively targeted and demonized by Donald Trump and the members of his party.
The legacy of hate remains in their messaging: the GOP is hoping the shouts will be angry enough to drown out the songs of progress and a truly equitable recovery but ‘we the people’ get to choose the tempo and shape the melody with our votes.
The blues don’t lie as many of it’s greatest practitioners have said. There’s a lot of work to do but if rolling up our sleeves and making an equitable and just future for all isn’t worth showing up for then what song ever is worth signing?
There’s a lot of good news out of Biden’s first two years in office with the help of a Democratic majority in Congress and Speaker Pelosi’s leadership on the legislation front (not to mention her heroism as the US Capitol itself was under attack) - progress that was voted against every step of the way by the GOP.
If GOP takes back control, they will essentially be led by the likes of MTG and Matt Gaetz; the very act of legislating itself will grind to a halt in favor of spurious investigations - and ending the House Select Committee’s investigation of January 6th and Trump’s orchestration of an attempted coup, not to mention quashing his newly minted subpoena.
Your voice matters, perhaps now more than ever - your instrument is your ballot. Use it make sure your friends and neighbors are playing their part on November 8th and beyond.
I believe in this country and I know I am not alone. Trump is essentially a one-man band that plays the same tune every day - we need to answer with a chorus of inclusiveness, righteousness and redemption in the key of life.
The very same GOP members who are standing in the way of progress are the first to go back to their districts and take credit for the largesse they tried to block, such as Elise Stefanik going back to her upstate New York district (NY21) and claiming credit for 12.9 million dollars in rural hospital investment she voted against.
Stefanik’s actions will be repeated all over the United States by GOP members and candidates hoping their district voters will be too ignorant of the facts - or enamored of the hatred pointed at the left and the ever-present ‘others’ - to notice the lies.
They may be correct as the entire MAGA movement seems to be filled with folks obsessively dedicated to voting against their own self-interest and well-being, in cultish devotion to a criminal con-man and his fellow conspiracists.
MAGA voters are trading in their children’s future for the dopamine hit of anger and resentment that feels to them like a balm against their own mediocrity and a world that is changing in complex ways beyond their understanding.
It’s easier to hate who Tucker Carlson tells you to than to open your consciousness to empathy and understanding because that requires growth and threatens the status quo - so big business throws dangerous toys to the toxically masculine beard-bros so enamored with the smirk and snark of conservative media personalities (who are essentially spoiled adolescents with enormous salaries).
Spiritually fit people do not listen to Alex Jones but damaged people do because it reflects back to them their own pain - and attaches it to the perceived enemy in ways that keep them feeling in control.
Anger is always toxic and a poor excuse for insight or leadership but it works great if you are trying to distract someone as you pick their pockets - which is ultimately the goal of the GOP in Trump’s era.
Trump has always been the guy you hire if you want to break things. He has no discernible skills beyond his own incompetence, that model has been adopted by all the GOP candidates running in his party this November. Many even openly disavow the results of the 2020 election.
Staggering stupidity and devious deception have gone mainstream in red state America.
They are chaos agents and place holders for authoritarianism- selling our futures to the highest bidder. Don’t send them to Capitol Hill, send them home. Let’s show the world what happens when we turn up at the polls in numbers that cannot be denied. Vote Blue on November 8th.
As the great Buddy Guy says: ‘Damn Right, I’ve Got The Blues.’
You're a gifted writer, Noel. I've been reading you on Twitter for years now. Keep it up. Your podcast is good also.
Will you stay with the Blue Bird? If not, where will you go? I do not want to lose you.