Let's Put A Woman In Charge

Merle Haggard is looking to put the past behind us by returning to his political roots. He used to be an Oklahoma New Deal type Democrat. But, like many Americans who were brainwashed by right wing media, he took a wrong turn right. His new Hillary song indicates he's coming home. Oklahoma has a proud populist tradition-- from Woody Guthrie and Will Rogers to Bill Moyers and Merle Haggard and it doesn't surprise me one bit that Oklahomans have looked at Bush's record of accomplishment and, like the rest of America, recoiled in horror. After winning the state with 66% of the vote in 2004, Bush now has a job approval rating of 39% and even that is rapidly sinking, likely to soon catch up with the rest of the country (24% approval). An Oklahoma populist, state Senator Andrew Rice, looks like he is lining up the support he needs to oust lunatic fringe Republican incumbent James "The Is No Global Warming" Inhofe. Republicans are bracing for the likely loss of half a dozen senate seats. If they can't hold on to states like Oklahoma and Texas, it's all over for them and they will have dug themselves into the excruciating position of being a small, racist, religionist regional party of the Deep South with clusters of backwards supporters scattered meaninglessly around the rest of the country.When Haggard sings that we need to put a woman in charge, I'd rather see less Insider types-- like Donna Edwards of Maryland or Darcy Burner of Washington-- than Hillary. But more often than not, it takes small steps to start moving forward on an uphill road. Like Merle says, what we need now is real change, and that doesn't mean Rudy Giuliani... no matter how many times he's dressed like a woman.Last month in Time Joe Klein asked the question, Does Merle Haggard Speak For America? Forget for a minute that Joe Klein hasn't pulled his head out of his ass long enough to ever learn a bit of sense and that the man is a shameless hack and worst sort of corporate tool. Haggard has written a new song about Hillary Clinton and about putting a woman-- a real one, not Giuliani-- in charge.Many Americans, Haggard included, needed a few years of Bush and Republican rule to be reminded that there is a better America we have been building for a couple of hundred years-- with a few bad intervals now and then. This current one has been one of the least attractive. Haggard talks about "changing labels." If the lyrics don't seem clear enough-- listen below-- he's voting for a Democrat in 2008. With Bush's approval rating headed towards the single digits and with each of the pathetic pygmies™ trying to claim they are just like him, it looks like Haggard won't be alone.

"The folks don't have a say-so anymore. They're being force-fed-- music, yeah, but every other darn thing too. I supported George W. I'm not exactly a liberal. But I know how that Texas thing works, who those oil folks are and what they wanted in Iraq... I'm a born-again Christian too, but the longer I live, the more afraid I get of some of these religious groups that have so much influence on the Republicans and want to tell us how to live our lives."The thing that gets under my skin most about George W. is his intention to install fear in people. This is America. We're proud. We're not afraid of a bunch of terrorists. But this government is all about terror alerts and scaring us at airports. We're changing the Constitution out of fear. We spend all our time looking up each other's dresses. Fear's the only issue the Republican Party has. Vote for them, or the terrorists will win. That's not what Reagan was about. I hate to think about our soldiers over in Iraq fighting for a country that's slipping away."