Some Democracy Fight Songs to Inspire and Energize Us as We "Redeem the Work of Fools"

These Songs are in my Playlist. Which Songs Would You Include in Your Own Playlist?

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During her conversation with Essence CEO Caroline Wanga at the 30th Essence Festival of Culture (I highly recommend watching the above video) over the holiday weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris stated, “In 122 days, we each have the power to decide what kind of country we want to live in.” She focused on the achievements of the Biden-Harris administration that have benefited Americans. Most importantly, she focused on motivating and inspiring women in her community to once again civically engage and vote, emphasizing the vital importance of utilizing their immense power.

Watching this on Saturday provided me with more inspiration and drive to sustain my civic engagement. Whether that engagement is through writing this newsletter or voter postcards to swing states and my beginning fine art photography, I know what I do in my smal way matters.

Yet I know I am not alone in what I’ve been feeling lately. Though using my agency makes me feel empowered in this existential election, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit my dark emotions and thoughts are scurring like cockraoches in the kitchen. These range from anger, terror, sadness, fear, stress, demoralization and exhaustion. Despite targeting one or two negative emotions with DBT skills (a skill set everyone can benefit from using in their own lives) another painful thought crawls on the countertop.

Despite these awful feelings, one purpose in my consciousness remains: the reality I must civically engage with and defend the United States’s Constitutional democratic republic. Founding father Benjamin Franklin famously said we have a republic but only if we can keep it.

To keep me galvanized and beat back exhaustion and demoralization, I built my playlist with empowering songs to keep me centered on fighting for democracy and liberty. I listen to it every day instead of the noise and negativity of the corporate media.

Music has proven essential throughout my life. It nourishes and resurrects me when I am at my lowest. Because of music, I still write and create and fight for what’s right. Most importantly, it sustains my hope.

When I have become depressed, I listened to music. When I have felt lost, I listened to music. When I gave felt abandoned, I have listened to music. When I have felt alone, I have listened to music. When I have felt rejected, I have listened to music. When I have believed I couldn’t get back up again after a defeat or a poor performance, I have listened to music.

Here are some songs on my playlist. I think we should all make a playlist not just for this moment but to still listen after November 5. This will remind us that democracy is not a spectator sport because democracy is what keeps our republic.

“People Have the Power”

This is the first song on my playlist. It is also the first song off Patti Smith’s fifth album Dream of Light. Smith wrote this powerful anthem with her husband the late Fred “Sonic” Smith.

Even before Inmate Number P01135809 and MAGA fouled the United States, I often listened to this song. For me, Patti Smith is the “Goddess” because of her punk spirt, poetic lyrics, uncompromising art, inspiring and positive personality, kindness, empathy and vast intelligence.

“Turntables”

Though Janelle Monáe told Rolling Stone she had experienced exhaustion and frustration from being gerrymandered in Georgia, isolated by the Covid pandemic and devastated by Stacy Abrams’ controversial loss of Georgia's governor race, she responded when Abrams called on her to use her creativity to resist. Her artistic resistance resulted in “Turntables.”

Fueled by the racial reckoning and uprisings that protested George Floyd’s murder, racial injustice and a racist police system, “Turntables” appeared in Liz Garbus’s documentary All In: The Fight for Democracy that can be watched on Prime.

For the video, Monáe opens her song with the voice of the legendary and remarkable James Baldwin. His words continue to rally Americans to stay focused, motivated and activated no matter how painful it feels when we encountersetbacks and obstacles in the journey toward justice.

“Freedom”

Appearing on Beyoncé’s iconic Lemonade album and featuring the Pulitzer-Prize winning Kendrick Lamar, “Freedom,” is now being used by the Biden-Harris campaign. At the Essence Festival it played as Vice President Harris entered the stage. Over the holiday weekend, it was one of the many songs that Biden supporters heard before President Biden’s appeared at a Madison, Wisconsin campaign rally.

Beyoncé’s much debated lyrics of female empowerment serve as the perfect song for this critical moment in the United States’ history. It also is the perfect song to empower voters in not only voting but to engage civically in the days and months leading to the Tuesday November 5 election.

“Keep Your Eye on The Prize”

The driving and defining song of the American Civil Rights Movement, numerous artists over the decades have covered “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.” My favorite covers come from Sweet Honey in the Rock and Pete Seeger.

As members of the Democratic party, liberals and progressives argue with each other about replacing Biden at this late-stage in the campaign because of his age, they forget internal arguing and possibly imploding is exactly what Inmate Number P01135809, MAGA and Project 2025 want. Nothing would make U.S. Congressional loser Kevin Roberts more happy.

To upend Project 2025’s plans and make sure Inmate Number P01135809 ends up in prison and not The White House, the Democratic party, liberals, progressives and social justice movements need to work as a coalition. For that to happen, we must keep our eyes on the prize.

Sunday I attended a Lucid Zoom hosted by Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat. She and a paid subscriber bought up how the political parties in Germany did not form a coalition to prevent Hitler from coming to power. We saw this work in France recently in its own election.

Sunday France beat back fascism because of the leftist coalition the New Popular Front. While no one party now dominates the French parliament and forces Macron to work with allies, France knew it had to form a coalition to beat back the far right Marine Le Pen and her fascist minions.

“Batuka”

Along with “I Rise,” “Batuka” off of Madonna’s incredible Madame X studio album not only inspires me to fight for freedom and civil rights but demonstrates the power of women resisting oppression and the power of artistic resistance.

While living in Portugal when her son David attended a football/soccer training academy, Madonna was brought to a Batukadeiras Orchestra performance to help break her depression. Inspired, Madonna wrote several new songs. The result from those songs is Madame X and “Batuka.” Batuque formed as African women’s musical resistance to enslavement centuries ago.

“Fight the Power”

I was a high school student when Spike Lee’s masterpiece Do the Right Thing hit U.S. theaters. I remember the national apoplexy and terror from my fellow white people who believed riots would break out because of Lee’s art (they didn’t).

Since I lived in the middle of nowhere, it took a year for the film to arrive at one of the small local theaters near me. The film introduced me to Public Enemy. I felt chills while watching the opening credits where Rosie Perez defiantly dances against white supremacy, oppression, erasure and racial injustice. As Project 2025 looms, Chuck D’s lyrics are especially necessary to listen to.

“Shitlist”

No personal playlist of mine would not be complete without punk, goth or industrial. L7’s lyrics for this song have lifted me up when people and society have let me down, betrayed me or just plain pissed me off. L7’s song is an audio middle finger to those who wrong us and especially those who want to oppress us.

This song now serves a perfect middle finger to MAGA, Project 2025, a corrupt and fascist Supreme Court of the United States and, last, but certainly not least, the convicted felon Inmate Number P01135809 who want to strip our pluralism, rights and freedom. It’s also an audio middle finger to the corporate media who have abominably failed in their fourth estate responsibility,

“Bella Ciao”

My Calabrian great grandparents emigrated from Italy two decades before Mussolini took power on October 31, 1922. They and my grandmother endured anti-Catholicism and Italophobia in The States, but they escaped living under fascism.

Thoughout my childhood, my grandmother and mother made my Italian heritage a major part of my life just as much as my father made my Irish heritage significant. This song “Bella Ciao” dedicated to the partisans who resisted Mussolini and fascist Italy has always had an important and special place in my heart.

I listened to it frequently during Inmate Number P01135809’s first term and after his failed January 6, 2021 coup. Since becoming aware of Project 2025 earlier this year and the rise of fascism in Italy and Holland, I’ve played it practically on a loop.

The video above includes the original Italian lyrics with English subtitles beneath. In the video below you can watch protestors singing “Bella Ciao” to neo-fascist Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Again this is another demonstration of the power found in artistic resistance.

“Ohio”

On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard killed unarmed Kent State students Allison Krause, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, Sandra Lee Scheuer, and William Knox Schroeder. None of them had reached the age of 21. Over a year later, the 26th Constitutional Amendment granting 18-year-olds the right to vote was ratified.

Like their murdered fellow students, the nine wounded by the Ohio National Guard — one of them ended up paralyzed — were non-violently protesting Richard Nixon expanding the Vietnam war into Cambodia. While police had been killing African Americans for decades, the shooting of these white college students brought home the reality to white Americans that a police and military force can kill Americans.

Neil Young’s resonant lyrics “we’re finally on our own” now carries a warning for the United States in 2024. For me, “Ohio” is one of the strongest works of American artistic resistance against military and governmental overreach. If Inmate Number P01135809 is re-elected and Project 2025 goes into effect, there is no more accountability if the convicted felon turns the U.S. military and the local and state police that he plans to indemnify on protestors.

According to Newsweek’s Katherine Fung in her November 8, 2023 article:

Over the weekend, The Washington Post reported that included in [Project 2025]’s plans is a blueprint that would allow Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act on the first day of a second Trump term. That way, he could authorize the use of military force against political opponents and demonstrators who protest against a second Trump presidency.

Inmate Number P01135809 already tried to do this back in 2020 with non-violent protestors in Washington D.C. following the murder of George Floyd by a now imprisoned Minneapolis police officer.

To stay abreast of the U.S.’s further lean toward autocracy that could make this a reality on January 20, 2025, you can follow American Autocracy Threat.

“I Rise”

Madonna’s “I Rise” closes her 14th studio album Madame X, and I close my still-building playlist with it. Opening her song with the voice of Parkland mass shooting survivor X Gonzalez, Madonna’s lyrics remind me not to back down and not to give up even when I feel defeated or am defeated. I must, she tells me, stay in the fight for progress and the greater good.

Join the salon! Share your thoughts in the comments. Some questions to consider and help you get started.

1.) Are you thinking of building your own Democracy Fight playlist?

2.) If so, what songs will include in your playlist?

4.) How are you civically engaging with the election?

3.) What are some songs you suggest I include in my playlist?