Just to show you how low American politics have fallen, here’s a video of the “entertainment” during a Donald Tump Rally in Pensacola, Florida three days ago.
Read a bit more about the “Freedom Kids” at Mother Jones.
The tune, if you don’t recognize it, is “Over There” by American showman George M. Cohan, written to whip up patriotism during World War I. The words of the Trump version, however, are by sone right wingnut.
For an immeasurably better rendition of the song (with the original words), here’s a scene from the fantastic 1942 movie “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” in which James Cagney played George M. Cohan. Cohan is shown writing the song, performing it during WWI, and then, years later, during the Second World War, visiting Roosevelt in the White House. Afterwards, he falls in line with some soldiers heading Over There, unrecognized but joining in as everyone sings his song. The bit when he dances down the White House stairs is fantastic.
It’s schlocky but I love it. The movie won a passel of Oscars, including a Best Actor award for Cagney. See it if you can. I used to watch it every Fourth of July when I was a kid. Do they even show it any more?
Another great scene, showing off Cagney’s dancing talents, is here. He plays Johnny Jones, a jockey who loses a big race. The end of this clip also features Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney doing the same song in “Babes on Broadway.“
I think that is a great example of how Trump looks at females and what place in his world they occupy.
I think I see Trump’s future wife on the right there.
Yes, and you know little girls love him.
I feel sorry for those kids.
At least one of them will look back on that in total horror in the future.
Well, that’s the beauty of being a kid, though…if you’re smart you eventually realize all the brainwashing you’ve been subjected to. I remember having Nixon sticker on my notebook in 1960…what can I say, my Mom was a Republican. (Happily, my Dad was a democrat, so I soon shaped up.)
Reality out-parodies parody…
Looks more and more to me like Trump will be the next president.
Not of the good, old, red-white-and-blue U.S. of A., he won’t.
There ain’t enough angry white men, and their battle-axe wives, in this great nation of ours to elect him to a damn thing.
Thanks — I was hoping for some reassurance. It’s hard to tell what is going on in the US from here in Europe.
I’m betting against it. As screwed up as America is, I just can’t believe they’d elect someone like Trump as their leader.
Thanks for the reassurance. I still remember suddenly realizing in 1998 that Bush would win the nomination and become president. It turned out worse than expected. And I remember many thinking Kerry had the 2004 election sown up…
And I shudder to think what a Trump v Putin power struggle would turn into.
I don’t think it’s happen either. His negatives are far higher than any other candidate, especially amongst non-Republicans. I think the latest Gallup poll I saw he was -70% favourability with Dems.
Thanks! I guess I was kind of negative-trolling, hoping to provoke some reassurance!
I certainly understand that! It’s pretty scary that at the moment the leading GOP candidates are Trump and Cruz, and the main Dem has an FBI investigation hanging over her, and if something comes of that it makes one of them as prez a strong possibility.
Bernie’s doing surprisingly well. But I can’t really imagine he’ll make it all the way, either. I’m not even sure that’d be a good thing. If the Republican Congress stonewalled all of Obama’s moderate initiatives, what the hell would they do with a confirmed socialist?
They would stonewall, of course. Which is exactly what they will do with a Clinton presidency, too. They have no interest in cooperative government, regardless of which Democrat is in office.
The real question is which of the two, Sanders or Clinton, is more likely to drive Democrats to the pols to support down-ticket candidates. I suspect that Sanders would do better on that front, although I am not sure.
Good point!
True! As an outsider it seems to me that in the US socialism and communism aren’t separated in the minds of many. They don’t seem to recognize that things most people love like Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security are socialist things.
Someone said (can’t remember who), “Democratic socialism ain’t that bad!” And it isn’t. In fact, without the artificial creation of demand, it’s unlikely the US would have survived the GFC so well, and they would also have had scenes like the Great Depression, where individuals suffered much worse than during the GFC.
You are so right in your first paragraph! (Well, your second, too, but it’s the first that captures the main problem in a nutshell.)
We just need to rename socialism! 🙂 Or somehow bring back Lyndon & his Great Society…
I would love for Bernie to win. On Real Time Friday night, Bill Maher shared quotes from celebrities, endorsing candidates and then gave the “real reason”. Seth MacFarlane endorsed Bernie and the “real reason” was “an old Jew in the Whitehouse? The jokes write themselves!”
I like that he just tells it as it is. He explains what socialism is and people actually listen to him. And he seems to do it in a way that doesn’t require him to call anyone stupid (which must be hard).
Sadly, the “pundits” are saying that with Clinton & Sanders getting so close in the polls, the gloves are going to have to come off soon…Let’s hope there’s not too much slung mud.
TCM shows Yankee Doodle Dandy a few times a year, with one showing on Independence Day, though. It’s a great movie. (Be sure and catch Cagney’s reprise of his role as Cohan in The Seven Little Foys.)
The last scene, though, rubs me wrong. At the very end of the movie, when Cohan comes out of the White House, there’s a parade going by. A band plays “Over There”, the crowd joins in, and people start marching along. Cohan joins them. Then a soldier (Frank Faylen) says to Cohan, “What the matter old timer, don’t you remember this song?” “Seems to me I do.” “Well, I don’t hear anything.” And Cohan joins in. That’s always seemed a little super-patriotic (in the WWI sense) to me.
“Do they even show it any more?”
Turner Classic Movies will show it 2/15, 10PM ET
Yes, it was in December and I watched it then.
Why does this remind me of something you would see praising the greatness of the Supreme Leader and the righteousness of the greatest country on earth: North Korea.
My thoughts too. Also when you see Russian patriotism.
Someone pointed out to me that there was a cringeworthy song with children praising Obama that someone made during the election. You can see it here:
. I agree with them that that song is creepy too. Note to adults: having kids sing about your favorite candidate is always going to be creepy.
That said, it hasn’t failed to escape my notice that the creepy Obama song was about hope and peace or some mush like that while the creepy Trump song is about crushing enemies. So… point to Trump.
That is creepy. Politicians will do just about anything. I am reminded – Cruz just recently did an political ad with his kids in it. Later when others made fun of or jokes about it, he got all upset and insulted because they were attacking or dragging mere kids into the mud.
I thought he had been the one to drag the kids there.
I wonder how he broached the subject with them. Did they have any choice? “Aye, there’s the rub.”
North Korea would have at least a hundred Freedom Kids. Trump is an amateur.
Oh good grief. It’s displays like this that make the rest of the world dislike Americans. I really wish the normal Americans were the ones who we saw more often. But, of course, what is news worthy about normal people?
When I see this stuff, I think about Russian patriotism. Wouldn’t that piss off the Republicans!
I thought I’d heard their song before.
They put the Arc de Triomphe on the wrong side of the Seine!
OMG I forgot all about these puppets. It would be funny if Trump took it seriously and used it in his campaign.
Of course the Trump video is entirely cringe-worthy, but viewing the clip from “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” made me think a recurring thought. We need more musicals on the big screen!
The studios should just agree to make two really good ones a year, and hip-hopera, which has it’s merits too, deosn’t count. I gotta have the singing and the dancing and the whole enchilada.
As to the first video, that should constitute indictable child abuse.
As to the second: People tend to remember Cagney for “you’ll never take me alive, copper!” or for stuffing a grapefruit in a harpy’s face. They forget what a great hoofer he was.
You dirty rat! (Which I gather was apocryphal.)
Prior to World War I America’s foreign policy was largely isolationist, i.e., to avoid entanglement in foreign wars as George Washington had long before preached. Every nation uses patriotic songs to emotionally invest the masses in the foreign adventure and the United States was no exception. In the 20th century, movies also played this role. As a young person, I had watched on television many of the World War II propaganda films. They were quite stirring, especially to me when I had little knowledge of what the war was about.
Certainly, “Over There” played a role in getting the American public to support intervention in a largely European war. After a retreat back to isolationism between the two world wars and then fighting World War II, America embraced the sentiments of “Over There” perhaps too well. With the advent of the Cold War in the late 1940s, this country now has little hesitation being “over there.” Vietnam and the second Gulf War are prime examples where we should not have been over there. I can’t recall any effective propaganda films for Vietnam, although John Wayne gave it his best in “The Green Berets.”
My point is that I try to avoid appeals to emotion in determining what our country’s foreign or domestic policy should be. This does not mean we should not empathize or try to help other people when we can or that all wars are unnecessary. But rationality should dictate what we do.
But, hey, we sure kicked the shit out of Grenada and Panama during Reagan-Bush I, no?
As to artistic propaganda and Southeast Asia, we should’ve paid attention to the early stuff pointing in the opposite direction, things like The Quiet American and The Ugly American (which gave JFK pause in rushing headlong into Vietnam. That caution, of course, came crashing to a close one fine November day in Dealy Plaza.)
Hell, we wouldn’t have needed any artistic warnings to steer clear of the debacle in Vietnam if only we had put a clear eye on the French experience in Indochina.
Interesting that you should mention Gulf War I: that’s when I first heard “Over There”, on an episode of _The Golden Girls_ of all things. The Canadian media’s reaction to *that* conflict was different from the US stuff (including the “fictionalized” like the above) so it was an interesting lesson in contrasts to a teenager …
George M Cohan is a founder of American musical theater, and Yankee Doodle Dandy is an excellent film. It is a shame that it is considered corny now. Well, it is corny. It is too bad corny isn’t appreciated anymore.
Is Trump just extracting the urine (or taking the piss, as people less refined than yours truly would say)? 🙂
…the home of the scared and the knave…
You know who really loved that tune “Over There”? The Brits. Or, as their plaint about the Yanks stationed in England during War 2 went, they’re “overpaid, over-sexed, and over here.”
Of course, the GIs’ retort to the Brits was that they’re “underpaid, under-sexed, and under Eisenhower.” So tough-titty for them, I guess.
I cannot say how worn out that saying is but also unappreciated by nearly all of our British friends.
I spent a good deal of time in the military in the U.K. and I am pretty sure – not funny.
My point, exactly.
Wouldn’t want to jeopardize the special relationship … like, maybe, by having the front-running GOP candidate for president use that annoying tune at his political rallies.
Let’s see if the Brit Parliament follows through on its threat to ban the Donald from ever entering the UK again.
It is now the right wing engaging in Orwellian NewsSpeak, not the quasi-Communist government of his novel “1984”.
Trump & company could learn a lot (but maybe they can’t) from reading the original version of the labors of Hercules, a man who in the original myths is all brawn but no brains, with no sense that engagement with the foe must use smarts as well as muscle.
The Trumpers cannot distinguish cowardice and prudence.
It has been noted that Hercules is the one Greek myth that Hollywood has redefined beyond recognition, making him into a prehistoric version of Superman. Perhaps this is what has been sewn….
In Gaud you trust. Good luck with that.
Barf😝
Love James Cagney, as well as being s great Actor ,he was one helluva Hoofer. as PCC says when he was dancing down the Whitehouse steps is fantastic also the Table Dance he did with Bob Hope was another great Scene.