And now another gem from TMV’s favorite artist of verse, Michael Silverstein, aka Wall Street Poet:
The Return Of The Liberal
By Michael Silverstein
Is it true that you’ve come back?
They told us you were dead.
All your governing ideas
Are outmoded now, they said.
We heard you hated markets,
Loved tax and spending schemes,
Cut wages of brave soldiers
While enriching welfare queens.
In defending these fair shores,
The Limbaugh guys assured us,
Your pussy-footing made,
Friends and foes our laughing chorus.
Worst of all (the word they passed),
Rapid growth you seemed to fear,
All our wealth you trickled down,
And promoted class warfare.
You want what? Another hearing?
Make it quick, I’m short of time.
Just now I’m going crazy
Hanging on to my last dime.
You say you have sound notions
For my paycheck that’s gone flat,
And help for needy elders?
I could maybe vote for that.
You say you’ll lower taxes
For the middle class and poor,
Instead of puffing up the rich
I’m listening, tell me more.
You say with other nations,
Joint action’s what you’d rather;
You’d chuck the bully bluster
And the jingositic blather.
Now it’s coming back to me,
Why once we got on good;
You had some down home answers
To improve my neighborhood.
So maybe you’ll be welcome
If you’ve dumped the glitz and fad;
‘Cause truth be told I’m feeling
By this new crowd I’ve been had.
©2007 Michael Silverstein
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.