I’ve never been a big Everclear fan, but Bob Lefsetz just turned me on to their new song, “Jesus Was A Democrat”, which the band is giving away on their website…absolutely no strings attached (no email address, no pop-up ads, no nothin’). Here it is on their website. Grab it, take a listen, and conitnue reading. Why are they making it free? Lefsetz says it best:

…America is pissed.

America is pissed about so much. And feels too often that politicians don’t care about them. And there’s scads of ignorance, purveyed by biased talk show hosts and bloviating, supposedly neutral, TV talking heads. And everybody’s afraid. You get people saying Sarah Palin won the Vice Presidential debate and you wonder if you watched the same show. When I didn’t answer the questions in school, I flunked. And suddenly, by going to school, working damn hard, studying to get good grades to get into a good college, I’m an elitist, my opinion is to be discounted. I shouldn’t have gone to public school, I should have gone to a parochial institution, to be indoctrinated in viewpoints that don’t square with reality. Worse yet, be home schooled. That’s code for “Christian Right Education”.

Hate me all you want. Tell me you can get infections hanging with the underprivileged in regular high schools, that you can teach your kids better than those underpaid teachers. But what about socialization, what about opposing viewpoints? How can there be a dialogue when there’s not another side?

And that’s what we have in America today, only one side. Everybody’s on his own side, only speaking to himself, like-minded people. Who’s going to change the equation? Certainly not politicians, elected officials. Obama’s got to say he’s for drilling to get elected, because the person paying four bucks a gallon doesn’t know that it’ll take eons for said oil to reach the pump. We’ve got the businessmen raping and pillaging, the politicians lying, at best being expedient, and the only people we can count on to speak the truth have abdicated their power, their duty, their role. That’s what the job of the artist is. To question authority, challenge convention, speak the unpopular, if it’s the truth. And that’s what Art Alexakis and Everclear have done in “Jesus Was A Democrat”.

That is a large quote from Lefsetz’s argument but you should also read the rest here, because it’s pretty damn brilliant. He’s right, America is pissed, and I’ve never been more pissed about the ignorant thinking of some of my fellow Americans than right now….after seeing the McCain campaign chose Palin as a running mate (pure bullshit right-wing strategy that even Sarah Palin should be offended by), the lies that McCain’s campaign is spewing about Barack Obama (which Obama’s campaign is brilliantly taking the ’stay positive’ moral high-road on), the bullshit emails from right-wing relatives in the sticks claiming that Bill Clinton is responsible for all the disasters of the past eight years (c’mon!), the scary YouTube videos of folks outside the McCain rallies in Ohio and Pennsylvania yelling that Obama is a terrorist (and somehow believing that), and all the other complete idiocy that bull-headed Republicans have to make themselves believe in order to stick with their party…which has now become more important than the well-being of other fellow Americans who live under different circumstances then they do.

It’s always the folks that have only seen one kind of American, the one that lives in their neighborhood and looks just like them, who are so adamant about preserving that kind of American-ness. And they use religion to skew things in such a way that aligns with their way of thinking. Well folks, this is exactly what terrorists do. They skew the well-intended teachings of their religions into their extremist rationale. Some of these people are just a few Bible-verse bends away from becoming terrorists themselves.

But little do they know, ‘American’ takes all kinds. I’ve never quite lived ‘in the sticks’ but I went to high school in a place that others could easily view as ‘the sticks’. And when I was there, I had a sense that I never quite fit the mold of the community, and people made me aware of that, and it made me want to run. But I also made some of the greatest friendships of my life there. It makes it sad for me to see since I’ve been an ex-resident of that tiny suburban village, the single-mindedness of the people there. At first it was the shock that blacks would dare move into their neighborhood, and now it’s culminated into everything…never questioning their country’s leadership, using Jesus as a rationale to be mean to others, substituting intellect with a blind following of their President and their neighbors’ ideals, being Republican because Democrats are pipe-dreamers (since they have stopped dreaming themselves and are inately jealous).

Now, I’m not talking about everyone, although if someone from Greenhills reads this, they will think that I am, but that mentality used to be one that I accepted…especially since I didn’t have to be around it on a day-to-day basis. But now, after eight years of the worst President that this country has endured, I will not accept the ignorance any longer. I will speak up for things that I know to be righteous…not in a Biblical sense, but in a brotherly and sisterly sense. I want politics to play from the heart again and not strictly from the dollar. I want ignorance replaced by compassion. I want lies replaced by truth. That’s why our flag is in tatters now, because we have been lied to for so long. When everything is a lie, anything can become truth. And that’s a scary notion.

Sorry to rant, but as I’ve said before, I’ve never felt so strongly about the outcome of a Presidential election before. I am afraid of what can happen if we get more of the same from McCain and elated at the idea of the kind of heart, truth and positivity that Obama could bring back to our country and government. Our country is based on systems of checks and balances, and Obama is the antidote at this juncture. Don’t believe me? Well then, your’e wrong! Hehe…just kidding. (No I’m not).

And for those of you out there who use religion to help humankind…and all of humankind…and to expel hate…rather than create more of it…then keep on keeping on, Brothers and Sisters!

Here are the lyrics for the Everclear song:

“Jesus Was A Democrat”
Lyrics by Art Alexakis

Jesus Christ didn’t have blue eyes or blond hair
He looked just like all those people that you want to kill
Spin your hell into a heaven you can sell
Make it look like California with a bible belt
Jesus didn’t look like the boy next door
Unless you live in Palestine
I wonder what you mean by the golden rule
I think it is a scary play on words
I wonder what they taught you back in Sunday school

I bet you think of him
As a nice clean long haired Republican, nah
He would be all locked up in Guantanamo Bay
If he were alive today
He would have been a revolutionary
Wanted by the CIA

I picture him in all the wrong places
Finding diamonds in the dirt
A Star of David tattoo
And a Che t-shirt
Jesus Christ was a left wing radical Jew
Murdered by people like you

If Jesus was a Democrat like the bible says he was
I don’t think he’s going to want to take the blame
For all the awful things you say and do in his name

If Jesus was alive he would be sad to see
That it is no different than it used to be
Someday he’s going to call you out
I am pretty god damned sure ……
He is going to be angry
He is going to be angry

You want to know what I think?…….

I think Jesus would have been a card carrying liberal
If he was a young man born in the USA

He would not be “fiscally conservative”
And he wouldn’t vote for John McCain
All those so called Christians that you see on TV
Maybe they scare Jesus like they scare me
Kick you the hell out of my temple too
Too many elephants in the room

If Jesus was a Democrat like the bible says he was
I don’t think he’s going to want to take the blame
For all the awful things you people do and say in his name

If Jesus was alive today he would be sad to see
That it is no different than it used to be
Someday he’s going to call you out
I am pretty god damned sure……
He is going to be….mad
He is going to be angry
He is going to be….mad
He is going to be….mad

You say Jesus loves the little children
And I say I know that’s true
I say he loves all the Muslims and the Jews
All the addicts and the porn stars too
You say Jesus died to save us all from a fiery hell
I say Jesus died to save us
Save us from ourselves
Will you save me from myself?

If Jesus was a liberal like the red letters say he was
I know he would have big love for all the killers and the racists
And the bully’s in this world

If Jesus was alive today
And you had a chance to meet him face to face
I’m pretty God-damned sure that you and your friends
Would find some way to kill him all over again
You would kill him all over again
Again and again and again
Just like you always do
You do just what you always do

And here’s what Everclear’s Art Alexakis has to say about the song:

hey everybody
i just wanted to let you all know that our new single
“jesus was a democrat” is available for FREE DOWNLOAD
head over to www.everclearonline.com where you can download the song for free. its also a free download on our myspace page and ilike page.

i am also enclosing the lyrics here on this blog

i just wanted to tell you a little bit about the song…..

i have been wanting to write this song for a long time,
ever since the right wing in this country tried to make the word liberal
a thing of shame and tried to convince america that only conservative “christians”
could make the claim that they had the sole right and ownership of the term”family values”….it made me think of the story of jesus and how his words and ideals snd lessons sounded much more like me and my lefty friends then the right cretins i saw on sunday morning tv……i think if jesus would have been born today….he would be considered a radical a.c.l.u liberal, which in this country,…that means democrat or green party or something left of the dial…..anything BUT a republican

some other reasons i wrote this song

i hate the fact that a lot of conservative people who consider themselves christian
do no act like christians whereas a lot of people who are not christians….do

i am a christian…and i resent the fact that most people who re not christians are afraid of or angry at the perception of what a “christian” is because of the intolerance,hypocrisy,racism,ignorance and hatred of the stereo typical right wing christian…..sarah palin much?

look, if this song offends you….then dont listen to it

if you think i am wrong in my convictions…..and this upsets you
then please dont come to the page

if you do not believe that everclear is the proper forum for political opinons,
then you havent been paying attention
i have been writing political songs from the very beginning…..check out the songs we are putting on the player tomorrow

but if you do believe that i,like you have the right to speak my mind
and respect what i think regardless if you agree or not(which incidentally IS what being an AMERICAN IS ALL ABOUT!!!)….then i urge you to read the lyrics and listen to the song with an open mind….and write me with your feelings about it

we have a video coming out in a couple of weeks…which we will post here
and will be available for down load everywhere