"They say 'America First,' but they mean America next."

[mrissa]

I've been out of the country, so I didn't hear what McCain's slogan from the convention was until I read yesterday's paper this morning. "Country First"? Really? How could they have missed the fascist historical associations of that phrasing? Do these people not listen to Woody Guthrie tunes? Specifically the one about Charles Lindbergh?

No, of course they don't; what was I thinking. But you can.

Comments

[aedifica]

Wow, I didn't know that one! Nor the history behind it. (I haven't listened, since I'm at work, but I Googled for the lyrics.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, but political slogans are not your job, y'know? I'm frequently amazed at how tone-deaf contemporary politicians are to anything more recent than the last election.

When my parents get annoyed with advertising, they keep reminding each other that in most cases they are not the target audience for those ads. I suppose I should repeat that to myself whenever political sloganeering comes up -- I just can't un-know these things. Sigh.

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

I hadn't seen that either. What's next? "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" as the campaign anthem (now that Heart has shot down their use of "Barracuda")?

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Well, that's not bad, since they obviously believe "It all belongs to us, us, us and we don't want to share."

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The use of "Barracuda," given the lyrics, is astonishing in itself. "You'd have me down down down down on my knees": this is the message a political party wants to send to the electorate? "If the real thing don't do the trick, you better make up something quick"? Seriously, this is what you want to say?

I mean, it's just about as bad as when they tried to use "Fortunate Son" as a song of patriotism to sell jeans. I believe it is a song of patriotism, because I believe dissent is patriotic, but playing just the line, "Some folks are born, made to wave the flag, ooh, the red, white, and blue," and then cutting the commercial off while I'm sitting there singing, "But when the band plays 'Hail to the Chief,' ooh, they point the cannon at you!" is probably not really what they meant.

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

Yes, misplaced songs that reflect the total ignorance of the user/requester -- I love it. One of my favorites from the '80s was when stupid boys would call into radio shows to request REM's "The One I Love" for their girlfriends. Did even listen to the lyrics? (Irony, clearly, was beyond them.)

[writingortyping.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's like the Panasonic TV ads that used the fragment: "You've got to admit, it's getting better..."

To which I always followed up with, "Can't get no worse."

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

And as someone personally interested in copyrights, I wasn't altogether surprised to discover that they used "Barracuda" without permission.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

It seems to cut across party lines, too. Apparently Clinton was using "American Girl" for a while. A song about failed dreams, disappointed expectations, and not being able to keep any promises except to "make it last all night." Um.

Thank you for the Lindbergh link; I had missed that.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"God it's so painful, something that's so close is still so far out of reach!"

Yah, you'd really think the Clinton campaign would have wanted to avoid that reference.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

Out of morbid curiosity over what inappropriate songs the Obama campaign was using, I found this (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011604152.html), which covers a couple decades of bad ideas. Other Google hits actually suggest that Obama is frequently follows the old Lincolnesque tradition of playing dippy but custom-made songs.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I associate that tradition most with one of the Omaha mayoral candidates of my childhood. Uff da. I need to listen to something else, quick, to get it out of my head.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I always thought (with no insult intended) that Clinton's preferred campaign song should be Meredith Brooks' "Bitch".

It's the ultimate "reclaiming" song.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"Tomorrow I might change, and today won't mean a thing!" Um. Not high on my list of wise political moves, frankly.

Also I think there were several people who would have wanted her any other way. Any other way, in some cases.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

It's also an echo of Pat Buchanan's hard-right culture war run in 1992.

What McCain said was (sorry for the approx quote, but I'm not home), "we have to be part of something larger than ourselves." What McCain was talking about was service to our country. What the sphincter conservatives heard was "You have to have accepted Jesus as your personal political advisor." This is what Palin brings to the ticket: Revisionist McCainisms.

[fredcritter.livejournal.com]

No, they don't listen to Woody Guthrie tunes. Nor do they credit us with the intelligence G-d gave a squid. As Barack Obama said recently in Terre Haute: I mean, come on, they must think you're stupid. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/06/obama-takes-first-direct_n_124507.html) They do. They do think we're stupid. I don't believe we are, but unfortunately we've been behaving as if we were for the last eight years or so. *sigh*

Which country, though?

[jymdyer.livejournal.com]

=v= Lest we forget, the Veep he selected was part of the Alaskan Independence Party for a while. :^)

Re: Which country, though?

[timprov.livejournal.com]

Not that there's anything wrong with that.