Lamb Jam: Joe The Plumber Edition

We think we know what we’re doing
We don’t pull the strings.
It’s all in the past now
Money changes everything.
-The Brains-”Money Changes Everything” (1979)

No matter how good people feel about “Joe The Plumber” being totally discredited the ice cold fact of the matter is that there are literally millions of real Joes in the United States. They’ve been screwed by the Democrats and screwed by the Republicans (and those are just two very easy to find examples). Yet both parties still claim the working class as their own. They’re served the Kool Aid of God, Guns and Guts or Lower Taxes and Health Care.

I’ve never been a fan of that old slogan “No War But The Class War” but it sure seems like the parties like it. But far from merely setting up the easy dichotomy or rich vs poor they pit economic brother against brother.

It’s “Joe The Plumber” vs. union drivers; teachers vs. subcontractors; the upper middle class vs the middle class vs. the lower middle class; and on and on…

And it’s nothing new and it’s nothing that will change as a result of whatever today’s election is. Sure, one candidate seems likely to be vast improvement over what the US has been through in the past 8 years but that could all change. Sure, it’s unfair to ask for guarantees and that’s not my point. The point is to remember that a politician’s job is to get elected. The real deal is what we’ll see after the dust settles.

So, with that, here’s to settling dust.

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Notes on the songs:

I’ve included one of my absolute favorite songs of all time on here: The Brains original version of “Money Changes Everything”. In his “Real Life Top Ten” for 1979 Greil Marcus wrote, after placing it at number 10, “This damned single ranks higher than I’ve place it but if it were anywhere else I couldn’t end with it, and there’s no other way the decade could end.” (January 14, 1980; New West Magazine)

Almost 30 years later, these are my sentiments exactly.

MP3: Oingo Boingo-Wild Sex (In The Working Class)

MP3: The Jam-That’s Entertainment

MP3: Pulp-Common People

MP3: The Flying Lizards-Money

MP3: The Brains-Money Changes Everything