"Love Me, I'm a Liberal"

A couple of threads converged to remind me of this. First, I've been thinking about the relationships between the young revolutionaries of the sixties and the insurrectionists of today (and, given the typical age of Fox viewers, wondering how much of an overlap there is).

Second, the war in Ukraine and the various Russian scandals that came before it have highlighted longstanding rifts between liberals and the anti-anti-Trump left. This is part of a tradition that goes back to the split over war with Germany in the late thirties and the tankies of the fifties and sixties. 

Phil Ochs' "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" is one of the best and wittiest examples of sixties radical disgust with those just to the right. You can find complete annotated lyrics here, though the song is better listened to than read.




Excerpts:

Intro

In every American community, you have varying shades of political opinion. One of the shadiest of these is the liberals. An outspoken group on many subjects. Ten degrees to the left of center in good times, ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally. So here, then, is a lesson in safe logic. 

...

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen

My faith in the system restored

I'm glad that the Commies were thrown out

Of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board

And I love Puerto Ricans and Negros

As long as they don't move next door

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Ah, the people of old Mississippi

Should all hang their heads in shame

Now, I can't understand how their minds work

What's the matter don't they watch Les Crane?

But if you ask me to bus my children

I hope the cops take down your name

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

...

Sure, once I was young and impulsive

I wore every conceivable pin

Even went to socialist meetings

Learned all the old union hymns

Ah, but I've grown older and wiser

And that's why I'm turning you in

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

That last verse would prove to be prescient. Ochs' generation turned out to be far less committed to these causes than their parents were. He never saw his radical peers become reactionaries. He killed himself in 1976.