Where have all the protest songs gone?

I was lamenting the lack of protest songs in light of how sucky things are lately. I remember growing up with them all around me in the twilight of the Vietnam era, but never hear any about current events. The music galvanized a generation and I'm sure it could do it again.

Then again, in the personal music player era that may not be possible. We perambulate through our lives to our own personal soundtracks now, no longer reliant upon the radio to tell us what to think, how to feel, basically what to get angry about.

So it was with much joy that I actually heard a protest song on our local college radio, KSDB, The Wildcat 91.9. I knew there was a reason why I liked this radio station so much. In the middle of the heartland they continually surprise me with little nuggets of liberalism. Thank god for college kids.

Of course they rarely tag the songs they play with the artist so I was left wondering who came up with a genuine, dyed-in-the-wool, good old-fashioned protest song. I had a distinctive snippet of lyric that I took the time to google tonight and lo and behold, it's a song by Neil Young. So I give you here, the lyrics to my new anthem:

Let's Impeach the President by Neil Young

Let's impeach the President for lying
And misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door

Who's the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
They bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war

Let's impeach the President for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones

What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government's protection
Or was someone just not home that day'

Flip - Flop
Flip - Flop
Flip - Flop
Flip - Flop

Let's impeach the president for hijacking
Our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected

Thank god he's cracking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
There's lots of people looking at big trouble
But of course our president is clean.

Thank God

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I may have to go out and spend some money on a Neil Young cd just to say thank you to him. Scary, huh?