What, We Worry?

I am writing this two days after the apparent attempt to assassinate Donald Trump and barely more than two hours after Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against Trump. I am trying to keep to my typically light-hearted, flippant yet optimistic tone, but it’s getting harder. I can only hope that the Biden administration is hard at work identifying which classified documents they plan to secrete in Biden’s master bathroom in Wilmington (or other suitably disclosable location). Also that they’ve identified various “official acts” to be perpetrated on January 6, 2025. Just sayin’….

It's tempting to think of Trump as the P.T. ("there's a sucker born every minute") Barnum of our time, but after reading the excellent biography Barnum by Robert Wilson a while back, I came to respect Barnum much (much) more than Trump. In addition to all his hucksterism, he was even a politician, elected four times to the Connecticut legislature after switching to the new Republican Party from the Democratic Party because of the latter’s pro-slavery stance.

Anyway, I digress. A couple of weeks’ ago I began to stir a bit from my “all is lost” funk by thinking that maybe doing something is the antidote to chronic dismay. So of course I wrote a song expressing that thought. I have already admitted that my approach to these thorny problems is to write a song about them and then move on. And given that I’m not sure whether I can actually get it together to do something after all, it looks like maybe I’m sticking to my ineffective script.

I would like to set up the new song by revisiting some earlier, related ones that in some way fit into the larger narrative leading up the new song. Our debut album concludes with “Broken Promise Land”, an attempt to “reach across the aisle”, so to speak, and brilliantly unite the warring factions. That attempt mostly backfired (details here), but the video is pretty cool, IMHO – my apologies for posting it yet again:

Next was a call to action of sorts, “When” (click the title or the graphic to listen):

If not now then when
If not now then when
If we don’t start then it can’t end so baby
If not now then when

This song anticipated my new song’s call to action. But before I got to that point, I decided maybe this whole experiment was going to fail (click the image to listen):

Say you want a revolution now
It’s in our DNA anyhow
Fuck what the constitution allows
Why don’t we just light a match and
Burn burn burn
Burn it down

And then, my recent micro-epiphany. So, ta-da, here’s the new song, which has little or nothing in common with the very excellent song of the same name by World Party, or at least I don’t think it does (click the image to listen):

Got any ideas for what to do, or I am the only one who’s seriously worried? If you do, drop them in the chat ... Uh, wait, actually, instead maybe leave a comment at our website, or send an email. Now don’t be shy!

On the other hand, maybe it’s better to adopt an Alfred E. Neuman approach at this point. It certainly takes a lot less effort, if you can manage to get into that headspace. (I have Mr. Neuman on my mind because of a recent visit to the extensive and great exhibition of art from MAD Magazine currently at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Highly recommended.)

Breaking news: Trump has just named J.D. Vance as his running mate, so get ready for some juicy, incendiary stuff. Maybe, with all their flame-throwing, they’ll just burn it down for us, and we can start with a clean slate. Wait, not a good idea? Are you sure?

Thanks for listening and understanding. H E L P !