Bye, Bye, Miss American Dream [With Apologies to Don McLean]
By Jackson Thoreau
When the Republicans stole the 2000 election, among the things I did - besides protest and write columns and books - was to pen a tune sung to "American Pie." Here is an updated version written right after the 2016 stolen election, with apologies to Don McLean:
A long, long time ago I can still remember when they said that all votes count,
And I knew if I had cast my ballot's lot that it had a chance of being bought,
And maybe we'd get the President we elected - not a tramp.
But November 8th made me shiver with ev'ry news the networks delivered,
More voter suppression on my computer mouse giving Trump the White House,
I can't remember if I cried when I read about our widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside the day Democracy died....
So bye, bye, Miss American Dream,
You got sent down the river by a Republican scheme,
The fix was in Russia led by Putin who sang,
'We avenged that 2008 defeat, oh mommy,
We stole it by any means necessary, oh mommy...'
Now did you read The New York Times' exit polls
That blamed Clinton's defeat on a lack of minority votes
When the KKK and the Minute Men endorsed Trump?
Now do you believe there was no fix
With the voting machines in the CIA's grips
And all those minorities told they could not vote?
Well, I know there's something rotten in that Carolina town
When votes for Clinton turn up for the Donald clown,
No butterfly ballot made in Katherine Harris' Hell
Can cast such a demonic spell,
We might have been a naive voting bloc
When we thought we voted for Hillary and learned that was a crock,
But we knew we were out of luck the day Democracy died,
I started singin'....
Bye, bye, Miss American Dream,
You got sent down the river by a Republican scheme,
The fix was in Russia led by Putin who sang,
'We avenged that 2008 defeat, oh mommy,
We stole it by any means necessary, oh mommy...'
And there we were all in one place, protesting this dirty rotten race
With no time left to ban the Electoral College again,
So come on, Dems be nimble, Dems be quick, Dem flashed their chads on a candlestick
'Cause fixed absentee ballots are Republicans' best friends,
And as I watched Trump on the stage laughing at us all I felt a rage
No Democrat born outside Hell can break this Fuhrer's spell,
And as the flames climbed high into the night and the Constitution burned in a sacrificial rite
I saw Scalia laughing with delight the day Democracy died,
He was singin'....
Bye, bye, Miss American Dream,
You got sent down the river by a Republican scheme,
The fix was in Russia led by Putin who sang,
'We avenged that 2008 defeat, oh mommy,
We stole it by any means necessary, oh mommy...'
I met Michael Moore who sang the blues
And I asked him for some happy news
But the Oscar winner just turned away.
I went down to that bloody scene
Where all the protests weren't worth a bean
The elephants had stolen another one.
And in the streets the donkeys screamed
The soldiers cried and the poets dreamed,
But hardly a word was spoken
'Bout how to fix the system that was broken.
Will the truth ever become clear?
Will Democracy rise from its apathetic gear?
Who knows? Come drink another beer and toast the day Democracy died,
We'll be singin'....
Bye, bye, Miss American Dream,
You got sent down the river by a Republican scheme,
The fix was in Russia led by Putin who sang,
'We avenged that 2008 defeat, oh mommy,
We stole it by any means necessary, oh mommy...'
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