Hypocrisy / Election Season

Speaking as a New Englander, Fall is my favorite time of year. As a voter, I suppose it should be too. I know this is an odd year (well, numerically at least) but I'm certain I'll have similar reservations about the 2012 presidential election as I do every year. I'm increasingly unable to feel 100% good about any candidate. I guess that's natural since none of the candidates are actually me. The more I think about it, the issue is more to do with the way our media covers candidates. There's an unwillingness to point out obvious hypocrisy. The international media seems a little better at it but I'm just so bad about seeking out web sites that don't have distracting sidebars full of neat little factoids. I've grown so accustomed to single-sentence paragraphs that a fully formed thought spelled out over several sentences seems plodding. So really, it's my fault that I'm frustrated. This whole gripe could be laid to rest with some acceptance and effort on my part.

The Dead Kennedys never had any reservation about pointing out hypocrisy. There were a lot of reasons I bought their first record but mostly I needed to see what they were about. The shocking name, the organized parental outrage over lyrics, the t-shirts. So I bought it, listened to it, changed my entire outlook on music and life, etc, etc. "Holiday In Cambodia" jumped out at me, like it did for anyone who heard it. But, as I did with a lot of songs that initially drew me to punk, I got sick of it. As time went on I skipped over it when I listened to the album. Recently, I came across a copy of the "Holiday In Cambodia" 12" at a thrift store. I only had the 45 so I bought it just for completeness. That being the reason for the purchase, I didn't listen to it when I got home. But a few weeks before I had seen the Tom Tom Club and they played "Psycho Killer" as an encore. Even coming from a non-David Byrne half-Talking Heads, I was surprised at how totally great it sounded. With this in mind, I played "Holiday In Cambodia" all the way through for the first time in probably 15 years. It was turned up too. Holy sh*t! If you're reading this I know you've heard this song before but really - listen again. At about the three minute mark it gets so intense I can't believe it.

The lyrics (posted above - you're welcome) are an indictment of a loud-talking limousine-liberal type. The words are almost disorienting to read. I'm so conditioned to seeing opinions that wholly subscribe to exactly one, well-defined point of view. These lyrics shoot in a few directions at once. The Dead Kennedys had a unique way of skewering everyone in sight for their bullshit. Sure they hate Pol Pot and fascists as much as anyone else. But they seem to despise the hypocrisy of the rich kid even more, even suggesting that Pol Pot could help him learn a thing or two. Whose side are they on? Or maybe it's not about the side you're on but about not being a hypocrite? What a novel idea. No wonder people thought they were weirdos.