I try to get my students to solve problems by showing cause and effect relationships. Before they can draw any conclusions they have to go back to the root of a problem, if not the seed itself. From the imperfect seed grows the imperfect fruit.
In American politics, we can trace the imperfections of our political system to the defects of the system we use to elect our representatives. It is a system built around money that has to be raised to pay media to sell candidates to a mass audience. The more money a candidate can raise the more and better messages he can afford to buy. The bagmen for this operation—the “go between” the candidate and those who give him money—are the lobbyists. It is common sense that if a bagman engineers a way for the candidate to get enough money to blast his message into the consciousness of the voting public, that candidate will be gleefully thankful to whomever that bagman represents. Good and bad people (re: bad corporations [especially now: see U.S. v. Citizens United]), and good and bad lobbyists (re: bagmen— usually lawyers, ex- politicians), populate the power centers of American politics, pushing the public good from the center of civic concern to the outer edges of mere rhetorical ideology (stuff that sounds good, but means nothing). These special interests that give the bagmen the money to give to the candidate expect the candidate to do the work of the special interests. It just goes without saying. And I’m saying it’s wrong. So, how do you solve a problem like institutional gaaa-reeed?
If all the licenses of all the broadcast companies were required to free up a portion of their prime time scheduling during an election cycle as a condition of obtaining a license (once upon a time, this license was a public good), then a candidate would not have to make this deal with the bagman (re: the devil). This would re-establish The Fairness Doctrine, which some free marketers would call an infringement on free speech (re: that ever-shrinking small % who control the large % of America’s wealth). Gag me! I argue that if it cost money for a proven ballot-worthy candidate (re: one who has collected the required number of signatures for a given office) to issue forth his political ideas for the public good itself, well then, it’s not free, is it?
Anyway, “Soul Rendezvous” is not about this. It’s about the soul-charring experience of lobbying and the inevitability of the bagman finding his soul in the bottom of a bagful of shit.
lyrics
Soul Rendezvous (The Lobbyist’s Song)
What to do, what not to do?
Drop the line or drop the shoe?
Tell the truth or back the lie?
Press the flesh and wonder why
You’re on your way to the wrong interview.
Bang the nail or turn the screw?
Bid the reason you’re here a fond adieu
Take the whiskey, hold the ice
Nothing matters so be precise
Set it down before you know what you have to do.
You never thought it would be so hard
It’s like an aphrodisiac
The press, the roll call,
The undecided waiting for you to speak up
But you find the words don’t come out
Exactly as you practiced them
So you remember to never forget to surrender all
At your soul rendezvous.
The chickens cluck and the cows, they moo
While the milkman, oilman, bagman queue
It’s a holiday of sin But, still, you let ‘em in
Making friends with no one that you hardly knew.
You never thought it would be so easy—
Like driving by an accident
The fox, the badger—
Everybody’s waiting for you to show up
You find the words come so quickly
‘Specially when they’re not your own
You don’t remember when you surrendered all
At your soul rendezvous.
Edward Morneau has been a musician and songwriter most of his life. His focus on multiple genres and interest on sound
collage experimentation makes his music hard to classify. His muses range from Beatles, Brian Wilson, Randy Newman, XTC, Kinks, Iris DeMent to Mahler, Shostakovich, Penderecki & Zappa. His background as an English & Film teacher gives humor and striking imagery to his songs....more
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