This morning, I'm reading the lyrics to the 1966 Phil Ochs song "Love Me, I'm a Liberal," because I see, here in The Washington Post, that President Biden is giving the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Medgar Evers.
Evers was killed in 1963. Why did no President think of doing this before? And what does Biden hope to achieve by slotting the old fallen hero in with such characters as Mike Bloomberg, Katie Ledecky, and Phil Donahue?
In any case, study the argument in Phil Ochs's song. It has resonance today. It's the argument that convinces the student protesters to turn to violence and put their personal future on the line.
To be a mere liberal is despicable. You do all the well-behaved things and disapprove of all that is right wing, "But don't talk about revolution/That's going a little bit too far." You "vote for the Democratic Party" and "I'll send all the money" that's asked for, "but don't ask me to come on along," and for that you demand love, but you don't deserve it... in the logic of the song:
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Assumed headline was another Biden "tall tale".
Thanks, I'd never heard of Evers.
The days when Life magazine was magnificent.
The opposite of liberal hypocrisy isn't necessarily school protests. Voting for Bernie would've been enough.
The left is a science/religion hybrid that postulates some transcendent endpoint that is always over the horizon, and that can only be achieved by getting more and more aligned with the revolutionary party.
Being liberal makes you useful for awhile, because you call traditions into question, and accept the idea that a polity can design itself from a clean sheet of paper.
Once you've given the lefties that clean sheet, they no longer need you. In fact, your instincts for moderation have made you the enemy.
…and so we turn to the Month of May and some where in DC proper the crazy wall in the war room says the foundation period has ended and escalation begins. Time to goad the toadies it says…
I well remember Phil Ochs. Tom Lehrer without a sense of humor.
Ochs captures the sense of LARPing and cosplay, without the side benefit of getting laid, that is and was at the heart of most college protestors.
A "burden" h/t Obama relieved through abortion h/t Liberals that was almost lost in a back... black hole... whore h/t NAACP.
All-white liberal? Liberalism is a philosophy of divergence. Diversity (i.e. color judgment, class bigotry) breeds adversity. And so it progresses.
I remember that there were a couple of Phil Ochs songs that I liked back in those days. I don't remember ever hearing this one though. It is really a terrible song musically. And the lyrics are predictable for the times but really rather unimaginative (is that redundant?).
Looking at the list of Ochs songs reveals that he was quite a prolific song writer...and pretty much a one-trick pony thematically. I mean, we were all concerned with The War and the civil rights stuff in the sixties but we also needed a little break from protest songs (Thank you, Beatles...and yes I know that Ochs sang a Beatles song or two).
Ochs could have used a couple lessons from Dylan back then - on lyrics (well, who couldn't have, really) and on how to mix it up a bit. I was into all that stuff then but his protest songs now strike me as kind of silly and tedious. Probably true of a lot of things viewed through the retrospectoscope, I guess, but Ochs seems to stand out today as I look back at him.
"Tears ran down my spine..."
I'm trying to figure out the physics of that.
Maybe, looking to the heavens while crying?
The tears roll-down the sides of your face, to the neck, over the shoulder, channelled between the scapula, and down the center of the back.
There, the tears enter the crack of your ass, cascade over your sphincter, across the perineum and (for us guys) accumulate at the underside of your scrotum.
Did I get that right?
"Love me, love me, love me... I'm a liberal."
Phil forgot Freedom Summer (1961), when "liberals" put their lives on the line. Or three years later in Philadelphia, MS. when Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner were murdered for coming along.
Don't remember him writing a song about either of those.
"the tears enter the crack of your ass, cascade over your sphincter, across the perineum and (for us guys) accumulate at the underside of your scrotum."
The area called the Taint. It ain't your ass, but it taints your balls.
I always liked Phil Ochs Crucifixion (Jim and Jean)
With this mentality, wars are waged. In the future, the present, the burden will be carried by AI... with the wizard pulling his... her... itx (sic) strings. Here's to progress.
In the last week Joe Biden has (a) offered up even more loan bailouts for students (including those who invested heavily in 'art'), (b) extended Obamacare to 'Dreamers'., and now (c) bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Medgar Evers. I don't question the last one. I do question the other two. But all three of them are election year gifts directed at very specific audiences. Not things for all of America, just things for specific voters. And it's only Friday.
He's already working hard to shore up the Muslim vote in Michigan by pretty much ignoring the national campus shutdowns. Wait until they move to the streets in the coming weeks.
Joe has no winning ideas. His performance is abysmal, as the entire world has been cracked open to chaos since he was sworn in. Of this there cannot be any argument. So he has to work on giveaways over the next 6 months. Many more to come, I'm sure.
"I was into all that stuff then but his protest songs now strike me as kind of silly and tedious."
I think that "I Ain't Marching Any More"
still holds up quite well.
Ochs said that he came to New York to become the best song-writer in America. And then he met Bob Dylan, and decided to become the second best song-writer in America.
The left has always hated liberals, maybe even more than they hate conservatives.
Since 1789 baby!
Byron De La Beckwith shot Evers.
There is no “they.” This song and Dylan’s song “Only a Pawn in their Game” are trite.
Thankfully Dylan got better when he abandoned the silly folk stuff.
There's also a Bob Dylan song about Medgar Evers, "Only a Pawn in Their Game."
Dylan comments on racial politics:
The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid
And the marshals and cops get the same
But the poor white man’s used in the hands of them all like a tool
He’s taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
’Bout the shape that he’s in
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game
I love that song in a you’re so vain you probably think this song is about you kind of way. I just found a version with updated lyrics by Pink Williams.
I know I've heard "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" before, although I'm realizing I didn't listen too closely. I was hearing it more along the lines of Zappa's "Who Needs the Peace Corps?".
However, "Love Me" keeps sending my mind here.
>Ann Althouse said...
There's also a Bob Dylan song about Medgar Evers, "Only a Pawn in Their Game."<
I knew someone was going to mention this song. And aptly so. Man, it used to give me chills.
Shh...we're sorely embarrassing Phil Ochs...
isnt his brother a republican in mississippi, this just in from 65,
"Evers was killed in 1963. Why did no President think of doing this before?"
Because he didn't do anything deserving of a medal while he was alive? And getting killed isn't really an accomplishment.
>Roger Sweeny said...
"Evers was killed in 1963. Why did no President think of doing this before?"
Because he didn't do anything deserving of a medal while he was alive? And getting killed isn't really an accomplishment.<
You're joking or you're ignorant. Not sure which.
Medgar Evers was a leading civil rights activist back in the days when they were killing them just for being one. And they did - he risked his life and he died for a great cause. Just wasn't at the fame level as MLK but in spirit and actions, no different. They've given many, many Presidential Medals of Freedom out for a hell of a lot less. It is in fact a perfect medal for Medgar.
Medgar's brother Charles wrote an interesting book about their work; not the least interesting part to me was his comment TTE that no Southerner likes taking orders over the phone from some New York City jerk.
Medgar's brother Charles wrote an interesting book about their work; not the least interesting part to me was his comment TTE that no Southerner likes taking orders over the phone from some New York City jerk.
Serious Question (about basic competency in the Biden residency)..
Can YOU sleep at night? If so, watch this interview with Jared Bernstein. Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
He tries to explain WHY the government has to borrow the money that THEY print (spoiler he DOESN'T KNOW)
Seriously, Watch this, and then try to sleep tonight; realizing that THESE are the PhD's Advising resident Biden
Roger Sweeny said...
"Evers was killed in 1963. Why did no President think of doing this before?"
Because he didn't do anything deserving of a medal while he was alive? And getting killed isn't really an accomplishment.
Yup. It's going to end up as useless as the Nobels eventually, if it's not already.
Donohue?
JFC.
The original Soy Boy...
>Narr said...
Medgar's brother Charles wrote an interesting book about their work; not the least interesting part to me was his comment TTE that no Southerner likes taking orders over the phone from some New York City jerk.<
Them too? Hmm, that's pretty much how we White folks in Iowa felt about that.
I love the "get it?" interjection after the first chorus!
Sadly, Phil Ochs was a deeply troubled and mentally ill individual who took his own life. He had some talent and emerged at perhaps the one time in the 20th century when he could have flourished, albeit briefly.
In my first years of college there was a coffee house in Morgantown West Virginia called the Last Resort. It was provided by the local Presbyterian Church and it was 50 cents for all the coffee you could drink and all the shelled peanuts you could eat. Entertainment was unpredictable but some of the better performers covered Dylan and other protest music. There was a woman named Barbara Paul who did "The Urge for Going" which for some reason I always associated with Ochs but I think it was most notably performed by Joni Mitchell. "Love me, I'm a Liberal" was almost invariably performed every week.
Poor Phil. It was hard to live in the shadow of Bob.
oh joyless reid has a book about it,
To be a mere liberal is despicable. You do all the well-behaved things and disapprove of all that is right wing, "But don't talk about revolution/That's going a little bit too far."
No, please DO talk about revolution. Because then we will have one, and all you pathetic leftists will get killed
Ice Nine,
Thanks for pointing that out. I'm one of the ignorant one apparently. I thought he was just another 20 year old trying to go to school. I was wrong.
A quick look at Wikipedia shows an impressive, if short, life.
He is exactly the kind of person who deserves this kind of medal.
John Henry
Why did no President think of doing this before?
I hope I don’t sound cynical if I proffer the reason as being that no other post-Civil Rights-era Democrat President up for re-election has even been so down in the polls with black Americans, and needs to offer a presidential token of appreciation.
Lost favor with students? Direct taxpayer $ to bail students out of debt. Need more LBGQT+ support? Declare Easter Sunday to be Trans Day. Principled stand against Big Tobacco? Make a ban on menthol cigarettes… oops; that might backfire with black opinion. Oh well, hold that for after the election - what’s a few more black cancer deaths in the meantime when the election is at stake?
Tears ran down my spine..."
I'm trying to figure out the physics of that.
I think it got confused with "laughed so hard, tears ran down my leg"
"Evers was killed in 1963."
By a KKK member.
So 99.999% chance his killer was a Democrat...
Direct taxpayer $ to bail students out of debt
Redistributive change is the doctrine of hope and shift of a burden left on students, past, present, and our [unPlanned] Posterity.
Burn, Loot perchance, Murder (BLM)... nothing will change, because nothing has changed.
He's mocking liberals with "tears ran down my spine." It's a laugh line or at least it was the first dozen times I heard it. Don't try to figure out the physics or the logic.
I honestly didn’t know you could be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.
Medgar Evers was a brave man. But this award is clearly a typical Democratic Party gesture to remind black people to keep anger alive in an election year.
Interestingly, his older brother Charles became a Republican, supported Reagan, and endorsed Trump in 2016. I hope he can get a medal.
As for the others…
Mike Bloomberg - Why? If it’s for keeping Giuliani’s crime policies alive, and for endorsing stop-and-frisk, then give him a medal. But I somehow doubt it. Most likely it’s for giving money to some left-wing cause(s).
Katie Ledecky - Had to look her up. A worthwhile award, I guess, but I thought the Medal of Freedom was for a lifetime of service, contributions, etc. She’s only 27!
Phil Donahue - You have got to be f’g kidding me. There are thousands of Americans who deserve the award before him. Another sign of national degradation.
I honestly didn’t know you could be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.
Medgar Evers was a brave man. But this award is clearly a typical Democratic Party gesture to remind black people to keep anger alive in an election year.
Interestingly, his older brother Charles became a Republican, supported Reagan, and endorsed Trump in 2016. I hope he can get a medal.
As for the others…
Mike Bloomberg - Why? If it’s for keeping Giuliani’s crime policies alive, and for endorsing stop-and-frisk, then give him a medal. But I somehow doubt it. Most likely it’s for giving money to some left-wing cause(s).
Katie Ledecky - Had to look her up. A worthwhile award, I guess, but I thought the Medal of Freedom was for a lifetime of service, contributions, etc. She’s only 27!
Phil Donahue - You have got to be f’g kidding me. There are thousands of Americans who deserve the award before him. Another sign of national degradation.
Have to say that for me, Medgar Evers' name always evokes Dylan, rather than Ochs.
A bullet from the back of a bush
Took Medgar Evers' blood
A finger fired the trigger to his name
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man's brain
But he can't be blamed
He's only a pawn in their game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X0UmfBwA_U
I spent the whole day thinking it was Michael Bloomfield, not Bloomberg. Geez.
I remember that song and, as I remember it, the point was that liberals wanted love. I see that logically this means that they were too cowardly to go on to revolution but I think at the time it just meant that they wanted to be popular. That's kind of a trite point now but at the time liberalism was associated with Roosevelt and bold initiatives. But, in actual fact, Roosevelt's time (1934-1945) was past and now (196O'S) liberalism was just a quest for "love," meaning not much more than "cheap popularity."
Watching his video roll by reminded me of how much I hated the whole folk song movement. Vapid, unicorn fart stuff mostly. "If I had a hammer" was the best example in my opinion.
Let me get paid for singing songs and count that as "hammering out justice" on my social credit.
Even back then, signalling.
"Love Me I'm a Liberal" is a call for validation because your beliefs are so good. Like a teen trying to get approval from peers. Expected in a teen (and why resisting peer pressure was emphasized back in my day), but pathetic for an adult.
The Real Andrew said...
I honestly didn’t know you could be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.
I was under a similar impression but posthumous PMoF awards aren't rare, Wikipedia lists 20.
Evers is not the first person killed during the Civil Rights struggles to be given the award. Barack Obama awarded the PMoF in 2014 to James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. The trio were Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) civil rights workers killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by members of the Ku Klux Klan on June 21, 1964.
How would Medgar Evers have turned out had he lived? Would he have turned into yet another race-baiting race hustler like Jesse Jackson and John Lewis? Or would he have been marginalized and shunted aside by a coalition of race hustlers and white liberals as happened to James Farmer? How much things have changed since King, Farmer, Lewis, Randolph, Wilkins, and Young were the Big Six of the Civil Rights movement is illustrated by the fact that 60 or 70 years ago mannylighter-skinned blacks would try to pass as white while today people like Rachel Dolezal try to pass for black.
Ochs was an interesting guy. 1/2 Jewish. His father was somewhat crazy, so he was raised by his mother. Of course, he was Far left, probably a communist. But on the plus side: certainly Anti-war and supported Civil rights.
Sadly, a heavy drinker who once the late 60s got going got into drugs. Creative juices started to go about 30 (like alot of singer/songrwiters) - committed suicide at 35.
Like he was an antiwar, but he was hard left. Big Allende supporter, which is a deal breaker for me. Of course, just because you're a a totalitarian supporter of communist dictatorship doesn't mean EVERYTHING you wrote is bad. Wonder if he'd been born in 1920 instead of 1940, whether he'd be like that fake Commie Woodie Guthrie.
Guthrie was a big warmonger. Even waved the flag, because it was a way to 'muricans to fight fascism. Had his guitar labeled with "This guitar kills fascists". LOL. A good way to keep out the real fighting. Good ol' Woody will sing his songs "fightin' Hitler" while you get your guts blown out fighting real Germans.
To get out fighting, Woody who gul durn it really hated nazis, joined the merchant marine but then only because he had to. About to be drafted. So he joined the Merchant Marine. After his first voyage skipped out to sing songs. Where he was safe. Borderline draft dodger. But boy he HATED those damn Nazis. LOL.
Well I was drunk, the day my mother got out of prison,
So I went to pick her up in the rain.
And before I could get to the station in my pickup truck,
She got runned over by a damned old train.
So I’ll just hang around as long as you will let me…
Goodman and Prine.
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