Opinion/Editorial

THE DEATH OF

“YANKEE DOODLE DANDY”

 Americans love, really love, to make fun of themselves to take the full measure of criticism and vituperation that outrageous expressions of deeply held convictions can generate. It is the strength of a thickened fingernail, the hardness of a callous, the battered scarring on a boxer’s face, and cauliflower ears. Americans are, those who stand, those who advance, those who go into open combat are like what the prizefighter interviewed said many years ago:  “the fight does not begin for me until I am struck hard and true blows about my face and head, until after I have absorbed significant damage from hard body blows and been cut and bleeding by my opponents…after that, the fight begins.”

Americans were to be shamed by the lyrics of the song during the late 1900’s but that isn’t what happened. The term ‘dandy’ describes an effete snob, untouchable and acting superior at all times. Yankee was an insult, meaning that one did not follow the King of England, or anywhere else, for that matter. The lyrics of the song also changed over time and during and after the revolution they took on a patriotic tone that transformed the meaning of the song into one meaning that the new colonist associated rebels were tough, resistant and intelligent but with mostly none of the mean-spiritedness exercised by both the British rulers and the British military as well. The ‘Biddy Oats March’ drum rolls of the song gave true meaning to the revolutionary spirit and the willingness of the colonists to militarize and fight. The piccolo and the two field drums became and remain one of the foundational and stirring lore of the country’s earliest days.

What happened? The first hundred and some odd days of dictatorial rule gone unchecked by the mass media, the remainder of the republican party, and a good chunk of the population who have come to truly believe that the grand American experiment got it all wrong. The experiment was always meant to be one of white supremacy and worshipping the rich aristocrats and business leaders. That this self-centered and self-created ornate fantasy is based on a foundation of utter lies and deliberate fraudulent theft, and legally applied violence, seems beside the point as well.  The Trump monstrosity, almost a visible product that Rod Serling would have been too happy to use in his often horror-based science fiction television series, is also beside the point.

The song’s lyrics remain today, but the reality is that the American public changed from one of doing to having things done for it, while openly and at times violently hating the very people doing the work for them. That America needs to be made great again follows the deliberate set of lies that are presented by the leaders of this movement to destroy the biggest economy on earth, the grandest military to ever exist on the planet, and the most beneficent country of all time. And that they are doing while a non-combat experienced public, riders of Harley-Davidsons, giant belching pickup trucks, and people willing to go along with these mostly cowardly chicken hawks want the pickings leftover when it all falls apart.

You, if you become a revolutionary, and it’s likely that you won’t be able to refuse to be that as things continue to disintegrate, will be squared against a male contingent of men who’ve mostly never been in a school yard fight, much less engaged in armed and extremely deadly combat. The United States Marine Corps Hymn is all about fighting the nation’s wars in foreign lands.  There is nothing in all the stanzas about fighting through the hills of Oklahoma or the valleys of California simply because, with the single exception of the Civil War, the costliest combat in the country’s history (yes, more dead than WWI and WWII put together and by some wide margin).

You, yes you, the red hat MAGA wearer, I am writing to you.  Get ready for water you can’t drink, food you will not have, schooling that will not exist, medical care that is only administered by family and close relatives, and so much more. It will all be presented just as the beginning of it is being presented on television and in newspapers today. The Trump rot ate into the side of the country, promising to give everything to the common people, and delivered just the reverse. The public, you included, are being told that these denials of service, these lessening of benefits, these losses of education, and those workers from other countries are going away, and all of this is simply a temporary bit of pain. Five pencils instead of two hundred, two dolls instead of nine or ten.  You were lied to, and now you don’t want to admit that.  You were lied to, and this minimal pain is going to grow until you will likely get to live to view your red hat and discover the reason the color red was selected.  Red is the color of blood.

Here are some words from the French, a much older country and society than the USA, and you might want to pay attention to the message from the song ‘Can you hear the people sing?’ “Do you hear the people sing? Singing a song of angry men? It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again. When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums, there is a life about to start, when tomorrow comes.” Get ready.