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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWe Really Can’t Make It Here Anymore –So What Now?
Last edited Wed Mar 5, 2014, 10:11 PM - Edit history (2)
James McMurtry composed this song in 2004. I listen and wonder why things havent turned around since then. Mostly they havent and in some ways its worse. If Mr. McMurtry were to update this song for 2014 hed have very few amendments to make.
There is health care coverage available to almost everyone now and I know several people who would benefit from Obamacare if they would just look into it. Unfortunately, they have too many of republican friends and TV personalities who denounce it so loudly and certainly, they are scared to even go to the website to see how it can help them. So many people cant be wrong can they?! Obamacare is BAAAADD.
The good ole USA wont help the unemployed anymore because these slackers are too lazy, or have given up on finding a job, or prefer to live off the government tit. The unemployed always have an excuse, right! This hits home for me because my husband is one of the long-term unemployed. Ill spare you the details of our experience because when I have posted about it here on DU Ive received the same insults. It doesnt matter if someone wants to work. Its a matter of how little you will accept as pay or benefits for that work. It matters if you have credit issues because of your unemployment or from medical expenses. It matters if you are an older American, and by old I mean 40-60 years of age because experienced workers expect more pay. Shame on you!
Weve cut veterans benefits. We cut food stamps. Some states, would rather see people suffer and die than to expand Medicaid. Women have lost a lot of R-E-S-P-E-C-T since 2004 in that some people think we should be barefoot and pregnant and in the home. Women still make less money than men. Its also harder to vote now than it was in 2004.
My God I could go on, but Mr. McMurtry said it best:
Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore
That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can't make it here anymore
See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They're just gonna set there till they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts around the square
There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don't come down here 'less you're looking to score
We can't make it here anymore
The bar's still open but man it's slow
The tip jar's light and the register's low
The bartender don't have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day
Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far 5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore
High school girl with a bourgeois dream
Just like the pictures in the magazine
She found on the floor of the laundromat
A woman with kids can forget all that
If she comes up pregnant what'll she do
Forget the career, forget about school
Can she live on faith? live on hope?
High on Jesus or hooked on dope
When it's way too late to just say no
You can't make it here anymore
Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
'Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can't make it here anymore
Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their sh@# don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the da$% little war
And we can't make it here anymore
Will work for food
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
Let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat sh$%, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore
And that's how it is
That's what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper
Read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind
If you're listening at all
Get out of that limo
Look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone
Tell us all why
In Dayton, Ohio
Or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That's done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore
Music and lyrics © 2004 by James McMurtry
So, if we can't make it here anymore. Where?
tech3149
(4,452 posts)Not sure if you remember the Music Row Democrats. They put out a production about the same time with songs covering all the important issues. Wish I still had it to listen to.
The problem is the business world has given up on the US as a market. Especially what was the middle class. The only business they see here is the high end and the dollar stores.
We've been screwn for about the last thirty years. Those of us that had the skills for manufacturing, or associated skills have been thrown under the bus and weren't allowed to train our youngers.
So it's a new world today and the skills needed in the past aren't of any value? Take a look at the Boeing 787. Ship off all the manufacturing to cheaper labor around the country but when it comes time to assemble it and make it work, it's got to be rebuilt by experienced tradesmen in Washington.
Sarah Ibarruri
(21,043 posts)It's sick, very sick.
FloriTexan
(838 posts)It sends a fairly negative message to citizens.
Sarah Ibarruri
(21,043 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)And recommended.
Our nation has changed so much I don't know it anymore.
FloriTexan
(838 posts)stage left
(2,962 posts)I've never heard that song, but it says it all.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)FloriTexan
(838 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Click the You Tube part of the video, let it take you to the You Tube page....then pick Share. Copy and paste that in your op. First read your email.
FloriTexan
(838 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)And unfortunately all too true.
RainDog
(28,784 posts)Last edited Thu Mar 6, 2014, 02:44 AM - Edit history (1)
No matter who is in the oval office. They are, in fact evil by any definition of the word.
They are evil because their greed is more important to them than the lives of Veterans and grandmothers and children.
ConservativeDemocrat
(2,720 posts)...got it.
Despite all he's done.
Why are you here?
- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community
RainDog
(28,784 posts)Interesting that that's your take on what I said.
Those who rule are the ones with the money. Do you disagree? If so, I would like to understand what is mistaken about my statement considering the longtime Republican and neoliberal strategy to abandon the poor and middle class since Reagan was in office.
Please explain how I have misconstrued the workings of the political world.
and I am here because I have supported liberal policies and causes all my life. Feet on the ground sorts of things.
Since you say you're a conservative democrat - what does that mean? That you're a neoliberal or a social conservative or both?
anyone on this site who knows me knows I support democrats for office. why are you trolling me?
ConservativeDemocrat
(2,720 posts)...does, clearly to me, make it seem as if you are saying that President Obama is a hateful man.
The other option is that you're saying he is not a leader, which I also disagree with.
However, I'll just put this down to a miscommunication, and I withdraw my complaint.
As far as your question goes, I'm a rural democrat on the conservative end of the Democratic spectrum. There are a number of issues in which I disagree with the DU-hive-mind. You're not going to get people who have to shoot prairie dogs (not out of sadism, but simply to keep cattle and horses from breaking their legs in their holes) on board with gun control. My environmentalism mostly extends to things like non-lead ammunition.
I'm also a lot more pro-America than many outspoken DUers.
- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community
RainDog
(28,784 posts)That you chose to turn into a insult.
Funny that you assume a hive mind exists and you are some great defender of reality.
fwiw - "reality-based" is hyphened when it's a compound adjective that modifies the noun.
bye.
G_j
(40,367 posts)WHEN CRABS ROAR
(3,813 posts)Who knows what could set it off?
Initech
(100,080 posts)But what's that? John Travolta mispronounced the Frozen singer's name at the Oscars??? OMGWTF!!!!
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)especially thing line:
High on Jesus or hooked on dope
merrily
(45,251 posts)He really does need to need update.
adirondacker
(2,921 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)He certainly tells a grim but true story.
adirondacker
(2,921 posts)Ray Wylie Hubbard
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can't make it here anymore
See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They're just gonna set there till they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Just so true.
Just a few short years ago those workers could buy homes, raise families, have good lives.
johnnyreb
(915 posts)Very sorry that my American neighbors can relate to it.
johnnyreb
(915 posts)Thanks lame54!! Great job.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Great song. Nice guitar work and vocals too.
sendero
(28,552 posts)..... the first time I heard it many years ago. And yes, it is as real now as it was 10 years ago.
reddread
(6,896 posts)someone used an image of Jim Robinson at 0:31
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4598895