Ralph Paterno, a Sonoma County songwriter with a crisp voice and an ear for biting parody, just launched this stinging ballad explaining the right wing roots of Donald Trump’s rise to power…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb1Xq5RDAwo
Sung to the tune of Don Maclean’s “American Pie” classic, “The Day Their Party Dies” chronicles the dark side of American history. In explaining Donald Trump’s rise to power, it continues with what Paterno calls “the last 50 years of increasingly divisive right wing rhetoric which has fooled tens of millions of people into voting against their own economic interests.”
But the end, Paterno believes, is in sight. The chorus goes:
“Bye, bye, to those Republican lies. Donald blew your cover, there’s nowhere to hide. You right wing boys been whistling Dixie or die. And this will be the day we ask why. And maybe it will be the day your lies die.”
Paterno says that he started writing political songs as a reponse to his feelings of shock and powerlessness following the election of George Bush. His day job is as an attorney representing injured workers in Santa Rosa and Oakland.
“The Day Their Party Died,” he observes, “has a very hopeful twist. But things could easily go in the opposite direction. Time will tell. For now, I believe we need to do anything and everything we can to stop Trump.”