I’ve been away for awhile. There were no blogs in October for a number of reasons: I was concentrating on songwriting, and somehow when I’m working on songs I can’t crank out any prose, apparently my brain can only work one way at a time – stories or lyrics. Then I was hung up on the fact that the 60th blog entry should be special since I’m now 60 years old, and the 60th at 60 should be some kind of epic, but I never happened on the right Big Subject topic. (Or perhaps I’m just abjectly lazy.)
At any rate, I never really wanted to inject politics into what is essentially a rock & roll blog, but I now feel as if it’s necessary and on-subject to do so. (And really, for anybody who loves The MC5 as much as I do, why SHOULDN’T I mix up politics and rock & roll?)
This blog was partially inspired by my good friend Colin Gawel of Watershed who has a great 2012 election piece out right now at his website, colingawel.com. I agree with at least 97% of all that he wrote. (Plus you should read it because, as I’ve stated countless times throughout the years I’ve known him, Colin might be the most naturally funny person I’ve ever met.) But I had one additional comment to make that Colin didn’t touch on, largely because he wouldn’t have known of this last minute campaign announcement.
There’s a lot of things I could say: I could say that it’s unbelievably insulting to me that the Republican Party can think that America’s memory is so short that we don’t remember it was their party that ran two wars on a credit card on top of a tax cut for millionaires & billionaires who then undercut the entire banking system and plunged the United States into a recession/depression and massive deficit that they now blame entirely on President Obama. I could say that I don’t understand how any woman in this nation could vote Republican after the truly insulting and degrading outpouring of sentiments on rape & abortion that have issued from Republican legislators in recent weeks. (And these are not just average citizens coming out with these ignorant pronouncements, ladies & gentlemen. This is not Bubba the Drunk Guy down the bar in Bumfuck, Alabama. These are highly-educated men of enormous lawmaking power who have, from all that I can see, ZERO respect for their female constituents.) I could say I deplore the utter mendacity of the Republican Party. I could say I’m appalled by the billions of dollars spent by BOTH parties on endlessly repetitious attack ads when that money could have been used to feed the poor, provide housing for the homeless or improve our schools. I could say that I want that little twerp Josh Mandel to get stomped at the polls like a narc at a biker rally. (And why does it appear from his innumerable campaign ads that he married his sister, a first cousin, or some other close relative?)
I could say a lot of things, but this is all I want to say: Tomorrow, Monday November 5th, 2012, in his final campaign appearance in Battleground Ohio, President Barack Obama will be accompanied by Bruce Springsteen and Jay Z at Nationwide Arena. On that same day, at Lane Aviation near Port Columbus, Governor Mitt Romney will be supported by the Marshall Tucker Band. Really, seriously, the Marshall Tucker Band? In 2012? Could Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney, or even whoever or whatever constitutes Lynrd Skynrd these days really be that busy? It’s that stunning breadth of imagination and forward-thinking attitude that I’m looking for in the next president of the United States. What else do I need to say?
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