In 2006 Neil Young put out an album "Living with War", in response to then president GW Bush's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It wasn't so much an anti-war album as an "are we really so stupid that we're going to do this again?" album. I was playing electric guitar at the time and had a little band I called "Endangered Species". I learned most of the songs on the album. We played them really loud. For me, it was a way of letting out my frustration and anger at the insanity of Bush's wars.
One of the songs on the album is "Looking for a leader". Here's the audio on YouTube.
To bring our country home
Reunite the red, white and blue
Before it turns to stone
Lookin' for somebody
Young enough to take it on
Clean up the corruption
And make the country strong
Walkin' among our people
There's someone who's straight and strong
To lead us from desolation
And a broken world gone wrong
Someone walks among us
And I hope he hears the call
And maybe it's a woman
Or a black man after all
Maybe it's Colin Powell
To right what he's done wrong
America has a leader
But he's not in the house
He's walkin' here among us
And we've got to seek him out
Yeah, we've got our election
But corruption has a chance
We got to have a clean win
To regain confidence
America is beautiful
But she has an ugly side
We're lookin' for a leader
In this country far and wide
With the Great Spirit on his side
Lookin' for a leader
With the Great Spirit on his side
Someone walks among us
And I hope he hears the call
And maybe it's a woman
Or a black man after all
Then he rewrote the lyrics during Trump's first term and put out this video. No doubt he's already working on the next version.
We really do need a leader. I am very dismayed that Kamala Harris sees this as a time to retreat and rebuild her forces rather than to go on the offensive and be out there speaking out against the felon dictator's every move. Maybe Harris isn't really a leader. She would have, and still might, make a good president, but a leader has to be more than that. Bernie Sanders is a leader. As much as people might want him to shut up, he's still speaking out every day. Turns out his old tired rant about the billionaire class stealing the country is more spot on today than ever before. Bernie has stayed on message for longer than most people have been alive, and watched as the world proved him more and more right.
But Bernie's time has come and gone. I still believe he would have beaten Trump in 2016 and oh how different the world would be today, but no sense in dwelling on that. We need a leader now. Someone who can break through the "too progressive/not progressive enough" BS that keeps Democrats bogged down in misery. In fact, it might be best if our leader had no party affiliation. The whole political system is rotten to the core. We need someone who can rise above it. I hate to put it this way, but we need the anti-Trump. Trump leads with hate, fear, and lies. Our leader must lead with love, courage, and truth. We can't wait three years, go through a divisive primary process, and settle on the least worst candidate. We need someone to lead the charge starting right now.
It could still be Harris. If she were to boldly claim the title as leader of the Democratic Party, few could challenge her. The party showed real unity by getting behind Harris as soon as Biden bowed out. They'd be wise to continue to back her were she to start campaigning right now. I would certainly support Harris if she started speaking out right now. But we don't have time to wait. We need a leader to start tomorrow to speak truth to every one of Trump's lies, and to demand the press pay attention.