Irony is even more dead
A song I wrote as a joke 16 years ago is basically the GOP platform of today.
It was 2008. A presidential election year. Sarah Palin, a half-term governor from Alaska and John McCain’s surprising pick as a VP candidate, was constantly talking about “real America,” or “pro-America parts of America, creating the unspoken assertion that there were parts of America that weren’t real or were anti-America.
To clarify what she meant by “real America” Palin would say things like: “We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America.” 1 You know, the folks! the rural folks!
Yeah, we know. Appealing to these archetypal rural folks—the volk! Volkisch!—has been a tactic to build support since early 20th Century Germany.
On the surface these appeals to Americana looked like it was all apple pie and Chevrolet but I could feel that undercurrent of resentment. The othering of anyone who disagreed with them. The delegitimizing of people who weren’t in their in group. That was the unspoken implication in the GOP’s message.
So as a satire I wrote a song that blatantly spoke that unspoken implication. My hope was that by calling out the underlying worldview of those folkish appeals the general public would see the dark direction in which that worldview pointed. I thought it was a pretty good satire. Salon even called it “Funny, and bold.” (emphasis theirs)
Well, here it is 2024 and this song is basically the Republican party platform. I listen to it now and think, “this is what they’re saying out loud.” The die-hard right wingers saw the dark direction of those folkish appeals and said, “yep! That’s for us!”
This is what we mean when we say irony is dead.
My video-making skills have improved in the intervening 16 years, check out my latest work in my special “The American Songbook: Redacted!” 11 music videos inspired by US History and culture.