Where have all the protest songs gone?

The protest SONGS? Where has all the protest gone?

Since the day Bush was elected, we have been in a countdown to a war with Iraq, a war only temporarily put on hold by the terrorist attacks. That war is now imminent, and can anybody say, specifically, why? Can you say "oil grab"?

In the meantime, Bush and Ashcroft have made a mockery of the Constitution. American citizens are being locked up for months at a time without being charged and without a clear explanation to them and no accountability to the public. The "Patriot" Act has all but gutted the Fourth Amendment.

All of this, with barely a whimper of protest. Speaking out is seen as giving aid to the enemy (Ashcroft), or as Gs556 suggests above, narcissistic.

Ths songs will come back when the people come back to hear them, when people begin to care again, when people begin to pay attention.

This is specifically for gs 5556...do your history and leave your cynicism at the gate.The civil rights movement which was very much on everyones mind all the time in no small part because the music of the time reflected it has a lineage right up to the removal of that a...hole Trent Lott for making inferences to all us white folks being better off if the sixties never happened.By the way protest songs have a unique way of getting people off their arses and into the street replacing the mindless pap that passes for news these days.It arguably is the most powerful musicopolitical force extant.Ralph Nader said it best in an interview on the new pbs news journal hosted by Bill Moyers

Moyers asked Nader "How is it possible that you have kept going for so many years when so many have tired?" and Naders reply was "It just comes down to self respect...I cant get up in the morning and look at myself in the mirror and not do what little I can to help make things better.That my friends may be the bottom line in the final analysis...What happened to our sense of self repect...has our generation become so cynical about it's ability to change things that we are willing to hide behind the consumerism machinery and define ourselves by what audio equipment or size of house or car or even job we do? I feel a protest song coming on!I will let all those world weary cynics have their say now.

as i watch the game on my big screen i don't have to see the starving children die.
when my big new house gets finished i can sit in comfort and watch the rest of the world cry.
when the bombs start to fall on those i don't know, i'll sit in this ski lodge watching the snow.
if things get to hard for me to take, i'll turn up the volume and throw on a steak.

i ask YOU, is this really living?

Here's my protest song. I think that all the socialist activity being promoted by this government should be made strictly voluntary. That way all the people who want to pay for other people's spending can feel real good about themselves, and the rest of the country can keep Uncle Sam's hand out of our pockets.

The dirty little secret is that, on a government level, "social consciousness" is an excuse for stealing from you and giving to whoever they want. When a Congressman shows up at my workplace to do some of my work for me, then he can have some of my money as wages. Until then, he can keep his grubby paws off my paycheck.

For protest songs, I like them when they are real expressions of personal anxiety about a real social cause. When they are vehicles for promoting big government spending, then they can keep them.

The "Great Society" programs started in the 60s have contributed mightily to bringing this country to it's knees in debt. They have caused far more problems than they attempted to solve, and I can't even think of one problem that they have solved. It made everything worse. And now we're faced with paying the Piper for their folly.