Let's impeach the President for lying
And misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door
Who's the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
They bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war
Let's impeach the President for hijacking
Our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected
~ Neil Young
Today is Presidents' Day. Or, for many of us, Not My President's Day. Either way, it was a good excuse to google songs about Presidents. And, yes, I know that Neil Young was my guest here just two days ago, but as pointed out then, Neil has been writing and protesting injustices for six decades. So this 2006 song, off the incredible Living with War release, seems apropos. Of course, in 2006, Neil was referring to President George W. Bush, but once again, there's a prescience about the mention of lying, of abusing power, of "White House shadows," of bending facts, of using religion to get elected, of dividing our country "into colors." As Neil's old friend Joni told us, we're captive on the carousel of time. Around and around and around. It's the same ride.
And I have to say, despite all the things he did with which I disagreed, W just isn't looking quite as bad these days, is he? Everything is relative.
The official video that accompanies "Let's Impeach the President" features a series of TV news clips to illustrate Young's lyrics. I tried to imagine the song being rewritten for today's Not My President, also using TV news clips to illustrate lyrics. Suffice it to say, there would be a wealth of material from which to choose. Even more if the video featured tweets.
In commenting on the song, Neil said, "A political song about something that's so wrong that the only way to point out how wrong it is is by doing a song that's wrong -- smashing and pounding away at it. A lot of people criticized it as a crappy song, that it was such a terrible melody. You want a terrible melody that pisses people off, that's so stupid and repetitive that it aggravates people."
Well, I'm aggravated. Are you?
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