The title comes from The Who’s immortal song, “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” I still remember when the album came out in 1971 and I rode my bike — I was a few months shy of getting a driver’s license — over to a local department store and bought it. I played that LP until it wore out.
The last time I was fooled by the Duopoly — the Republirats and the Democrans — was in 1988, when I shunned the great Ron Paul, running then as a Libertarian, and voted for Republican Bush Uno, thinking he would follow Reagan’s small-government philosophy of low taxes and peace. Instead, we got war, tax increases, war, spending increases, and more war.
Never again. Since then, I’ve always voted Third Party.
For those of you who tought Obama would be any different — “Audacity of Hope,” “Yes, we can!” — and all that, read this report:
According to former Assistant Secretary of State Edward Walker, “the basic difference is going to be style.” Obama’s campaign may have been based around a theme of multilateralism and diplomacy, but in practice the US policy from Russia and China to the Middle East are unlikely to see anything but the most superficial changes from the Bush Administration’s.
Even in Iraq, which Obama made the centerpiece of his primary campaign, his position became increasingly indistinguishable from the current administration as time went on. He declared that “the surge succeeded beyond our wildest dreams,” and he began predicating his pullout on recommendations from the military commanders. The chief of Iraq’s presidential cabinet too believes that “US policy will not change,” only the approach.
So, here’s what The Who had to shout about that:
The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the foe, that’s all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain’t changed
‘Cause the banners, they all flown in the next warI’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
No, no!I’ll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I’ll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie….Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!
Watch it here:
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