Love Me, I’m a Liberal

Original by Phil Ochs
Updated by Candace Cohn

I cried when they shot Medgar Evers
Tears ran down my spine
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
As though I’d lost a father of mine
But Malcolm X got what was coming
He got what he asked for this time
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

I’m for a minimum wage hike
And women paid on equal par
I love Beyoncé and Oprah
Hope every Dreamer becomes a star
But don’t talk about revolution
That’s going a little too far
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

I vote for the Democratic Party
They’ll move to the left soon, I think
I still play Pete Seeger’s albums
He sure gets me fired up to sing
I’ll protest if Bernie is speaking
But not to confront the right wing
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

I hate state thugs and dictators
Why can’t they just leave us alone?
Kim Jong Un, Duterte, and Putin
Should all be overthrown
But after 9/11,
We need a police state at home
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

I know that state welfare programs
Were needed some decades ago
When the ’30s and later the ’60s
Threatened to blow from below
By the ’80s, though, Clinton convinced me
The welfare bums just had to go
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

I’m firmly against gerrymandering
By the racist Republican right
They strive to protect every voter
So long as he’s for them and white
But I backed the Dems on mass lockups
To jail every Black man on sight
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

I hate Donald Trump’s deportations
It’s our melting pot that makes us strong
Trump’s policies on immigration
Are cruel and racist and wrong
But I supported Obama
While he sent even more folks back “home”
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

Trump’s failings at state diplomacy
Are skewered in late night show mirth
He’s lowered American standing,
He’s ruined our embassies’ worth
Oh give me imperialist Democrats
Who’d control all the rest of the earth
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I’ve grown older and wiser
And that’s why I’m turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal