The election won’t be over on 11/3, but like it or not the focus of all the pumped up Biden supporters islikely to a great extent aimed at a target that is, in their minds, finite: 11/3. Yes there will be all manner of mal- and misfeasance from Trump and the Trumpionettes (hubots for Trump: humans working hard to be robots).
Won’t the Pandemic’s inexorable rise in the US, just as Trump wants, begin to erode the ardent support post 11/3 for getting Joe in the White House and Don in the Dog House?
Can we afford that risk?
It is worth a song to fix that.
- In WW2 especially when the bf109s, the E262s and the FW190s rose in their dwidnling numbers with neophyte, barely trained pilots to face the well trained, well fed, well rested, well armed fleets of P51s, the P46s, the Lightnings, the Spitfires, the Hawker Hurricanes, in order to keep them pumped up, the home bases pumped German march music into their headsets.
- The German Army marched into Belgium, Holland, France: singing. A Belgian friend who fought them there hates them for that: but he remembers its force.
- In the Civil Rights marches, we sang, We Shall Overcome.
- In our churches, we sing A Mighty Fortress
- In the SS Börgermoor Concentration Camp for political prisoners in 1933 the inmates wrote and marched to the most well known anti-fascist sone ever written, Die Moorsoldaten (The Peatbog Soldiers)
- While my uncles were fighting overseas in WW2, I marched around the house singing Over Hill over dale, Off we go, into the wild blue yonder, anchors aweigh, From the Hall of Monteczuma.
- When my home team needs a boost (when there are spectators), we sing Hall to the Victors in the Big House in Ann Arbor.
- In the early Civil War, a recruiting and marching song that was sung in homes and on the trail was Rally Round the Flag, or Battle Cry of Freedom, or Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Listening gets your attention, but singing makes you part of the action, it gets your commitment aroused.
So what are we singing now to keep all that going for us? NOTHING.
Let me add: Donald Trump is evil — super clever, super intimidating and out of a need to do anything to feel powerful, ruthlessly overwhelming. Luther said it in Mighty Fortress: we don’t take him on alone, we need more than just one of us. Heroes here are crowds. Crowds sing. Gotta have crowds to have a movement,
When the heat of election campaigning subsides, we will need a communal boost. And it will have to be broadcast wide and fast and well. Help is needed.
Battle Cry of Freedom: somewhat reworded, for 2020 use:
to have our own: someone does a plain banjo march time, sing along accompaniment to this updated of Rally Round the Flag. It has to be easy to remember, simple in rhythm and idea, in a singable form and have a history which can relate to our struggle for freedom.
Maybe sing along with these 2, but the other side could use them too:
Or how about using an instrumental setting for the song with todays words:
1. Oh we'll rally round the flag, friends, rally once again,
Shouting the voters cry for freedom,
As we rally ‘cross the fruited plain, we'll gather at the polls
Shouting the battle cry of freedom.
(Chorus: )
Our freedom forever, hurrah friends, hurrah
The Trumpists betrayed us, it’s stuck in our craw,
So we rally round the flag, friends, to vote the traitors out,
Raising the victory cry of freedom!
2. Yes, we're springing to the call for four hundred million more,
Shouting the voters cry for freedom!
And we'll fill the vacant seats of the Congress more and more,
Shouting the victory cry of freedom.
(Chorus)
Our freedom forever, hurrah friends, hurrah
The Trumpists betrayed us, it’s stuck in our craw,
So we rally round the flag, friends, to vote the traitors out,
Raising the victory cry of freedom!
3. We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, blue and brave,
Shouting the people’s cry for freedom!
And although we may be poor, we are never Trumpette slaves,
Shouting our victory claim on freedom!
(Chorus)
Our freedom forever, hurrah friends, hurrah
The Trumpists betrayed us, it’s stuck in our craw,
So we rally round the flag, friends, to vote the traitors out,
Raising the victory cry of freedom!
4. So we answer to the call from the East and from the West,
Hearing the battle cry of Freedom;
We’ll kick the Trumpists out from the land we love the best,
Shouting the victors’ cry of Freedom.
(Chorus)
Our freedom forever, hurrah friends, hurrah
The Trumpists betrayed us, it’s stuck in our craw,
So we rally round the flag, friends, to vote the traitors out,
Raising the victory cry of freedom!
———
It is late in the ballgame, but maybe that gives us the advantage of surprise. We need to rally even more after 11/3, and a marching song can help us keep at it, while performances, even the best, might last only for the hearing.
Schauloch74
I’m a pretty poor poet withal
and that is now well known by all.
But with good poetry
the Gods never blessed me
My couplets notwithstanding at all.