We know that over the years Trump and his PR people have taken songs that various artists didn’t approve of their using. It fit Trump’s modus operandi. Copyright laws were for the little people not for him.
Well, if we ever saw an example of Karma, we saw it recently on two occasions that featured Trump, one walking onto a stage at the Lincoln Dinner in Iowa and the other played at the Republican Debate on Fox who tried desperately to get Trump to attend to boost their ratings.
As Trump took the stage at the dinner, the powers to be were playing Brooks and Dunn’s Only In America. Trump is so self-possessed smiling away and pointing to the people in the audience that there was one line of the song that he didn’t seem to realize. The lyrics included the line, “one would end up going to prison, one just might be President.” You can’t make this stuff up! Somebody heard those familiar words, “You’re fired,” but we don’t know who.
Fox News reached out to Oliver Anthony for permission to use his song, Richmond Men North Of Washington before the Republican Debate. The song ironically is about everyday people and their daily struggles. It spoke to the plight of a large number of Americans. The song went viral and was ranked number 1 in the top 100 on Billboard. (Full disclosure that I am a big fan of country music.)
Maga and some Republicans saw a perfect opportunity to make a point about the Biden Administration. It became a conservative national anthem. Maga got on board and sent it out on the web with great acclaim for its message and how that message will be addressed by the Republican Party. Oops!!!
Oliver Anthony was interviewed after the debate and indicated three things. First, he didn’t like the Republicans “weaponizing” his music, and second, the song was “about those people up on the debate stage. It isn’t about President Biden.” Third, his political views are in the middle and not in the extreme.
At least Fox asked for permission. But the fact that Trump and Maga think that the song is to support the little people without any political clout who they claim to represent was the wrong interpretation. Trump said, “I will be your revenge!” Karma struck them down.
It is an aspect of human nature that we see what we want to see when it could be very different from reality. There are those examples in phenomenology that we are asked to look at a picture and see if we see an old woman or a beautiful young woman. The other common one is the line that appears shorter in one form and longer in another.
To me the poor song choices by the Maga branch of the Republican Party is a reflection that they really don’t listen to what the music and lyrics are saying and interpreting that those lyrics must be about them. It is a self-centered approach to government. I hope that the “real” Republican Party can be resurrected so that we have a much-needed two-party system of checks and balances. Maga wants an authoritarian type of government. The Democratic and the “real” Republican Party want a democracy based on differences of Policies and checks and balances. The word, Democracy, was barely mentioned in the debate.
Before all of us, jump on the bandwagon that nothing like misinterpreting a song could happen to us, listen to the original lyrics of Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. When the song first came out in 1991, it didn’t get the attention of many people. It’s haunting melody today has made it a very popular song. It has been performed by 300 different groups, but there are 80 versions of the lyrics including those in the Christian and Jewish traditions. Listen to the original lyrics and understand why the words sung need to be listened to and were changed.
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