Before I say my opinion of Adam Brodsky, let me say his songs since the election have been amazing. “This Is Not Normal,” like most Adam Brodsky songs, is songwriting at its best, each line not only fits the meter but it says more upon inspection than when you first hear it.
I do find it hard to be an Adam Brodsky fan. His singing voice makes it hard to tell people “You guys, you gotta check this song out.” I will say that hasn’t stopped him. He sounds like Bob Dylan trying to perform like the Sex Pistols at times. He does a mix of novelty songs, great folk songs, and political songs. His album “Folk Remedy” is the best place to start. As a producer, he’s also fantastic.
You should also listen to his irregularly released podcast Rhymes Against Humanity.
There is a Facebook video of Adam Brodsky playing this song, but not everyone has Facebook, so I’m also linking it to his website. The song starts at the 14:23 mark.
I have written a lot about normalizing Trump. I think that a few points need to be examined. Trump’s tactic is nothing new. John Ralston Saul once called this “Classic Business School Take Over Strategy.” He continues, “You move in, you change everything in 24 hours and in the confusion, you get power.”
The problem lies in the set up of this idea from Saul where a dictatorial government ignores the standards of democracy (In his case he was talking about Mike Harris’s Government) and as long as the media accepts it, we will continue to see the problem. Saul says that “The whole approach is a prima fasia case of contempt.”
This idea is nothing new. I first came across it in 2000 and the speech was given in 1996. (I hope you can listen to the speech right here. There is a part 2, however, I think there is something cut from it for the album. It’s called No Mega CD and it’s worth a listen, but good luck finding it.) In part 2 of the speech Saul says that this idea is from “25 years of American Neo-Conservative ideology.” (Making this idea almost 50 now.)
This “Classic Business School Take Over Strategy” is nothing new in politics, but that doesn’t mean it’s normal. Saul lays out at the beginning of the speech what a normal democracy is supposed to do, go issue by issue and find the consensus with the people. Or you build the consensus. Either way, citizens run the government.
Sadly, we have been normalizing this failure of government for the past 50 years. Trump did not appear from a vacuum. He is the result of the works of Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig Von Mises, William F. Buckley, both Kristols, Irving and William, all the way up to Fox News, Glenn Beck, and the rise of the alt-right. By having fascistic leaders like Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, along with corporate democrats like Harry Truman and Bill Clinton, we arrived at the inevitable conclusion of Trump.
Saul also alluded to that the idea of strong leadership, of the sort that the right-wing tends to praise, is that from Nazi Germany. And the “strong leaders” like Nixon and Reagan are nothing new, but they aren’t normal. Just because something is not new, it doesn’t make it okay.
Let me end by saying this singular focus on Trump’s Russia connections is not helping. There are two reasons for that, 1) Nixon committed Treason with Vietnam to help him win in 68 and got away with it. Reagan committed treason with Iran in 1980 and got away with it. History has shown us that this alone can’t topple these people. What we need to do is offer an alternative (Something Clinton failed to do in the election.) Because it wasn’t Russia why Martha Cockley lost to Scott Brown and Charlie Baker, she ran the same type of campaign as Clinton did, one with no ideas and no alternative. Russia isn’t why the Democrats lost so many state houses and seats in government, it is a failure of the Democratic party to actually participate in democracy. Polls show that the ideas of the Democratic party win every time, but the leadership doesn’t want to talk about the ideas or even listen to the people.
If the Democrats ever want to start winning elections, we need to return to normalcy. We need to say “This is not okay!” We need to return the governing to the people and stop acting like Republicans from the 70s. Should we pursue Trump’s Russia connection? Absolutely, but not at the expense of telling the American people the ideas of what our progressive ideas are and building up the next leader of the party. Because when we forget to do that, we lose.
Don’t lose that idea now that the Cheeto dust has settled.
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