Dem
51
GOP
49
We've got some song parodies cued up, but this might be the last day where Putin-related verse is apropos. Further, we had requests for more from the pen of J.L. in Walnut Creek, CA, of "The Raven" parody fame. And so, we are going with this epic entry today:
In ancient Rome is where we will begin,
Consuls and praetors and quaestors akin,
Attended by lictors with rods in a bundle,
Magistrates move through the forum a-trundle.
The rods joined with axe are the fasces so-called,
A symbol of Roman imperium auld.
Though Rome wasn't fascist but Republic in form,
At least until Caesar pursued land reform,
Then Augustus made Empire the new Roman norm.
Jump forward in time to a new Roman nation,
Where redshirts turn blackshirts on economic privation.
Il Duce and fascism proceed hand in hand,
Imposed upon Libya and Somaliland.
The Marcia su Roma was the start of an era,
But it ended up poorly for Benito and Clara.
These two met a fate that was far worse than most.
At Milan they received a guerilla's riposte,
Then were strung upside down from a gas station post.
In Deutschland the fascists start on the attack.
Lying that Jews gave a stab in the back.
At Kristallnacht and the Night of Long Knives,
And beyond to the costing of millions of lives.
In brownshirts (more colors?) they cried lugenpresse,
As claiming "fake news" was a key to success.
Eventually the odious Nazis all died.
Hitler and Himmler committed suicide.
While Goring and others were brought to the dock,
In Nuremberg city at a courtroom ad hoc,
And Simon caught Eichmann who dropped like a rock.
The Nazis had pursued the fascistic dream,
And they ran it on out to its monstrous extreme.
The Germans pushed fascism's doctrine so twisted
That Auschwitz, Treblinka and Belzec existed.
They murdered six million Jews during the war,
But the Allies who liberated camps said "No more.
We will not forget." Declared: "Never again."
And the downtrodden peoples of Earth cheered, "Amen!"
But governments are made up of women and men...
Next up is Espana in Spring '39,
Where republicans' defeat firms Madrid's new hardline.
They stayed out of the war, and that part is good,
But memorials still stand where once Guernica stood.
El Caudillo's in charge: first name Francisco,
And Franco rules Spain 'til the music turns disco.
But it's not happy dancing; no, thousands were killed,
Because nationalist fascists were so very thrilled,
To oppress and arrest countrymen who were sick,
Of their Falangist dictator and his lickspittles' tricks,
Which suppress civil rights of the body politic.
The South American continent is not immune,
Where Argentina once sung to a Peronist tune.
Was it fascist? Debated. But mostly right-wing.
And that can't be ignored just 'cause Eva could sing.
'Cross the Andes in Chile is a much clearer threat,
For after Allende we get Pinochet.
Augusto looks 'round and all he sees are foes,
Thus torture and those we name "desaparecidos,"
The legacy for both of our Latin pharaohs.
Fast forward again and we arrive at the Kremlin,
Inhabited by Russia's own sad little gremlin.
For Putin sure fits with that cynical verse:
All Russian history's summed up as: "And then it got worse."
He came into full power after false flag attacks,
In Volgodonsk, Moscow and out in Buynaksk.
He suppresses his people with outcomes funereal,
Slays enemies with tea steeped in nuclear material,
And now invades Ukraine for desires imperial.
"So why foreign history?" the reader might say.
"On a politics site for the U.S. of A?"
And the answer, of course, is that if you squint,
You just might make out an immoral blueprint.
For if you pay heed to historical clues,
You'll see a model or template the right wing will use,
To sow fear and sow strife so to stride into power,
Employ sophistic ruses to cause us to cower,
And fortify their minority rule in a tower.
Is it only the rightists who engage in barbarity?
Of course not, and leftists can act with similarity.
There's Stalin and Mao and in Vietnam Ho,
The Derg in East Africa; Cuba had Castro.
But Ay! there's the rub for our day and our age,
The American left didn't put migrants a-cage.
The left doesn't excuse Charlottesville's chant against Jews,
The left doesn't ad nauseum yell out "fake news!"
And the left didn't strip women of their right to choose.
And while the American left sometimes dwells in a bubble,
In the U.S. today it's the right that's the trouble.
They double down on white grievance and scream out "Beware!"
But don't even pretend to Promote General Welfare,
Nor Establish Justice, nor Secure Blessings of Liberty,
Nor seek to Ensure our Domestic Tranquility.
It isn't just policy; there's the Capitol plot,
Launched at behest of the orange traitor tot,
And all his enablers and the falsehoods they've wrought.
So if you're able to vote in these United States,
Cast your vote each election and participate.
It's imperative we keep the people's right to elect,
Those elected officials that we choose to select.
Those strong and those bold with the gift of foresight,
To protect all of us from extremes of the right,
To stop country from falling to the right's kakistocracy,
To keep secularism instead of theocracy,
To prevent the entrenchment of a new aristocracy,
To raise social mobility in place of plutocracy,
To resist those bootlickers who would prop up autocracy,
And to ensure we enshrine our Republic's DEMOCRACY.
All we can say is: "Wow."
Barring the unexpected, it's song parodies tomorrow. Here is the address for submissions. (Z)