Merle Haggard: Rebuild America First - Common Sense song!

[Coexist]

Thanks to Crooks and Liars for the link to Merle Haggard's site where this video is on the front page.

Lyrics



Why don't we liberate these United States
We're the ones who need it the worst
Let the rest of the world help us for a change
And let's rebuild America first

Our highways and bridges are falling apart
Who's blessed and who has been cursed
There's things to be done all over the world
But let's rebuild America first

---- Instrumental Interlude ----

Who's on the hill and who's watching the valley
Who's in charge of it all
God bless the Army and God bless our liberty
Dadgum the rest of it all

Yeah, men in position but backing away
Freedom is stuck in reverse
Let's get out of Iraq and get back on the track
And let's rebuild America first

---- Instrumental Interlude ----

Why don't we liberate these United States
We're the ones who need it the most
You think I'm blowing smoke
Boys it ain't no joke
I make twenty trips a year from coast to coast

[AX10]

1. Question: Does Merle still support Bush and Co?

[Coexist]

3. Merle Haggard once said "clear-cutting is rape" so I don't think so.

Ha ha ha!

http://www.counterpunch.org/bacher03022004.html

[Heidi]

20. Merle defended the Dixie Chicks, and he has criticized Bush.

"In an essay on Haggard's Web site, the 66-year-old singer writes, "I don't even know the Dixie Chicks, but I find it an insult for all men and women who fought and died in past wars when almost the majority of America jumped down their throats for voicing an opinion. It was like a verbal witch-hunt and lynching." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/25/entertainment/main565038.shtml

He has said he did vote for Bush, but he apparently opposes Bush's war in Iraq: "I don't think he (Bush) has made any of his reasons clear. I'm an American who disagrees with the current regime," Haggard clarified. "I'm red, white and blue; I'm American. And I'm afraid that we're being sold out." http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/123132

[tinfoilinfor2005]

2. Wonderful song.

The best he's done in years. I don't think he's a bush-bot. Doesn't seem like that kind of a guy.

[exlrrp]

18. He was a Nixon Hugger

Seen it--and Okie from Muscogee, the song that set off his career was jumped on by the Repubs as their new national anthem.

[oxbow]

23. Yea, we was for the Vietnam War then

He's changed his tune since though it seems (sorry for bad pun). It's nice to know that people like Merle Haggard and Neil Young and normal Americans too are finally waking up from the Post-9/11 PTSD

[joeybee12]

4. I only SORT of see his point...I mean, come on, we're the ones

who ruined Iraq. Somebody's got to rebuild it. It really is our responsibility. I'm not saying the troops should stay, but rebuilding the country should cost us.

[cassiepriam]

11. I agree, we broke it , we should have to fix it. But we won't.

And we will instead keep blaming the Iraqis and telling them
it is up to them to take care of their country now that we have ruined it.

[Bridget Burke]

16. So let's stop paying for the war & start fixing Iraq.

We'd still have plenty of money left over for the USA. Especially if we paid Iraqi companies, who would hire their fellow Iraqis to do the work, instead of paying Halliburton to hire foreign workers.

And if we could ensure that corporate pigs weren't skimming off tax money spent on infrastructure work over here.

[Joe Chi Minh]

17. Leaving Iraq in ruins wasn't Merle's point, surely! For goodness

sake. How's he going to work a subordinate issue into a song! It doesn't mean he denies or neglects it in his thinking. It's just a side-issue. An incontravertibly important one, but secondary to a pull out.

Surely, financial reparation - the more so when you're "financial" again as a country - will be the appropriate measure. They won't want to see the "coalition of the willing" in their country any longer at all, on any basis.

[BlooInBloo]

5. Like I said on C&L....

If he voted ffor gw, he can fuck off and die until he apologizes and admits that he and people like him were causes of the problem.

[Coexist]

6. well, some of us are more forgiving and welcome changed minds.

the St. Pete Times had a great opinion piece by Francis Fukuyama today - it is not up on their site yet - about how people are no longer allowed to change their minds without being vilified by both sides.

Well, that notion is absurd. To push on long after you realize you are on the wrong side would make you the same as George Bush.

Ease up a little! We are all human.

[SeattleGirl]

8. I wholeheartedly agree with you, FLDem5

I mean, is there anyone here who has NEVER changed their mind about something? Perhaps there are, but I think there are more of us who have had an opinion about someone or something, but then subsequently changed because of new information, or as in the case of Bush, a track record that makes it increasingly more difficult for some people to continue to support him. Instead of vilifying these folks, I say welcome them with open arms. Don't make them wrong for what they did in the past, or how they thought. I like what Randi Rhodes does when she gets a call from someone who has been a long-time Republican, who voted for Bush, but who now sees what the truth about him is, and now turns their back on him and the Republican party. Randi says (to the male callers anyway), "It takes a real man to admit the truth." And she praises them; she doesn't put them down for what they've done in the past.

To keep holding someone's past against them, despite any evidence of real change in the present, isn't very "liberal" -- that kind of rigidity is more fitting of the other side. I don't want to be that way.

[BlooInBloo]

10. You also are talkin bout somethin I never said. Have fun with it!

[BlooInBloo]

9. You're talkin bout somethin I never said.

I'm fine with changed minds. Admit it, apologize if necessary, and I welcome you.

Trying to do it under the radar when their side is losing and looks like jackasses tho - um, no.

You want those sorts of people? Cool.

[AX10]

14. I agree with this (i.e changing positions just because your guy is losing:

"Trying to do it under the radar when their side is losing and looks like jackasses tho - um, no"

[IndyOp]

21. Changing minds are good. And then again...

If we are acting from a place of core values, our minds ought not change all that often *and* the consequences of one's previous thoughts and actions are not all washed away by declaring that you've changed your mind.

Fukuyama's economic theories have done untold damage to this world. If he is getting flack now and has to work to repair some of the damage before people are willing to give him a break, then that is fine with me.

While I am thrilled with Neil Young's new anti-war songs, I remain disappointed that he ever praised the Patriot Act. While I am appreciative of Haggard's speaking out against the war, I am dismayed that he voted for * and that he is part of the groupthink mentality that won't let him see that this war isn't related in anyway to 'bringing democracy' or 'rebuilding Iraq' -- it is pure imperialism.

I'll ease up a little, but amends are a necessary part of an apology. Someone who is forgiven without having to make amends is not being done any favors (see for example GWB, who has never been held to account for anything he did wrong his entire life, as far as I can tell).

[Mythsaje]

7. Nice to see...

It's important for people like Merle to counter the RW propaganda in a lot of country music.

Not a fan, but I appreciate what he's doing.

[RamboLiberal]

26. Hell yeah - this is a great video

and I hope to hell it is played over and over on CMT. Hell it sure can't hurt to have this played all over country radio. As Merle states in his song he travels 20 times a year coast to coast. I think it's an indication that except for the die hard koolaid drinkers many in "Red State" America are waking up to the BFEE.

[me b zola]

12. Wow. Great song.

This is great to see/hear from Haggard, a country legend. As much as I like the Dixie Chicks and respect the stand that they have taken, few people are as well established in the country music world and has the potential to really change bush* lovin', war lovin' country fans as much as Haggard does.

I don't know if he was ever a bush/war supporter to begin with, but if he was this song would be a wonderful way to begin to make amends. For me, when someone is truly sorry for something that they have done in the past, they work to reverse the harm that they have done. Haggard may be a legend, but Murtha was a Congressional legend when the bush* mafia smeared him. Coming out and taking a stand when your audience is primarily pro-war is potentially career ending and is quite a couragous act.

Good on ya, Merle! :applause:

[Rose Siding]

13. "Let the rest of the world help us for a change"?

They wanted to after Sept 11. Then we started inadvertently blowing them up. Who are we to expect that now?

[tomp]

15. like we've been "helping" the rest of the world all these years?

more like helping ourselves to the rest of the world.

haggard is an ass. sure, let's get out of iraq, but not for the selfish isolationist reasons he suggests. "america first"--blech!

[Hissyspit]

19. We'll have to add it to the DU jukebox next time:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1002374

I remember hearing about this, but had forgotten about it.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

22. Hey, he stole my tag line!

I proposed "Let's rebuild THIS country first" as the payoff for an excellent strategy posted by The Magistrate just a few weeks back (and summarized in my sig line):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=814789&mesg_id=814789

Granted, "Let's rebuild America first" is punchier. But I don't mind the rewrite. All I want is a share of the credit, and the royalties from the song. :evilgrin:

[Coexist]

24. Good luck! I hope you get it

will you share if you do?!!

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

25. I'll be glad to share the judge's laughter when he throws out the case

;)

I have no claim to the line. I didn't copyright it, it's probably not original to me, and I doubt Merle Haggard picked up the idea from reading DU. It's just what happens in creative endeavors - multiple people come up with the same idea at the same time.

I call it spontaneous combustion.

I mean, Spontaneous Combustion(R). :yoiks:

:rofl: