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After the fall of the Soviet Union the United States was left a young proud nation with no foreseeable threats. However to bring down the Soviet Union the country waged many a covert war. The final major war of the Soviet Union was in Afghanistan, with the United States of America funding insurgent groups known as the Taliban and their allies Al-Qaida the war was driven to a stalemate the war was lost for the Soviet Union when our government gave the insurgency modern weapons and training. Now if one jumps to the year 2001 we have the terror attacks on September 11th. President Bush was given emergency powers within a month the antithesis of the Bill Of Rights known as the Patriot Act was passed. Along with the war in Afghanistan which quickly lost focus for Iraq Bush had shown his un blatantly unapologetic ineptitude at his duties as a result Neil Young wrote the song Lets Impeach The President which was a laundry list of sorts against the president albeit a very entreating laundry list. In and throughout the song he uses poetic devices, they are Cohesive Narrative, and Social Relevance is present and allusion, all of which has made him a world renown and respected figure in the music industry. These poetic devices make the song as sophisticated and as pleasing to the ear when heard.
In the thesis statement Cohesive Narrative is first because the song first and foremost like all of Neil Young’s songs it tells a story. Within the lyrics one can easily see the song to be a laundry list of criticisms against the then president George W. Bush. As is common knowledge President Bush was on vacation almost at a constant rate until the terrorist attacks of September the eleventh by the infamous terror group Al-Qaida. Almost immediately after the attacks the country was at war from our intelligence we invaded Afghanistan the graveyard of Empires underfunded under equipped and undermanned. The climate of fear was used and exploited by Bush and co. to justify an invasion of Bus’s desired target Iraq. This is the start of the narrative:
“Let's impeach the President for lying
And misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door.”
This is the first stanza in which Neil Young establishes what he wants and why he wants it. In the first line he states he wants then President Bush impeached for lying, which is what happened to Clinton although it was reasonably defeated b rationale members of congress and was over much less serious issues, he says in the second line his second reason for wanting him out of office being he fooled the nation into invading Iraq and without congressional approval as well. In the second stanza he says:
“Who's the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
They bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war”
This statement is just an all out attack on the misinformation about WMD’s intentionally propagated by the Bush administration to justify their bloody invasion of a country who did nothing to promote an invasion of what it as accused for. In the third stanza of the song Neil Young repeats his request for the alteration of the then President’s employment status and alludes to the Patriot Act as yet another valid reason for the impeachment of the President for high crimes and misdemeanors:
“Let's impeach the President for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones.”
In the fourth stanza he throws in the smallest amount of irony but presents an intriguing hypothetical, what if Al-Qaeda did destroy the levees maybe more people would have left their imminent doom and be amongst us the living today:
“What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government's protection
Or was someone just not home that day?”
In the fifth stanza Neil Young says that in the election Bush used the Christian faith to get elected a tactic which appalled to the Republican National Committee’s base of support. He also says “dividing our country into colors” which is a reference to the electoral divide of red and blue states.
“Let's impeach the president for hijacking
Our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving our people neglected”
In the sixth and final verse Neil Young throws in a slight bit of humor in to tie up the narrative.
“Thank god he's cracking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
There's lots of people looking at big trouble
But of course our president is clean.”
The verse refers to the many baseball steroids scandals that broke the news headlines during the Bush Administration’s day. Neil Young has presented his view cohesively throughout the song told the story of the Administration’s remarkably numerous failures, gross misuse of power and public trust and constitutional duties and limitations.
The second poetic device used in the song is Social Relevance which is heavily intertwined and virtually inseparable from the Cohesive Narrative depicted in the song. Social Relevance is present because in most Western democracies or Republics if the head of state is knowingly breaking the law he will by parliament or assemble be voted out of office on the day. However in the song Neil Young alludes to the Patriot Act which blatantly violated the constitutional rights of every American:
“Let's impeach the President for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones.”
This refers as stated earlier to the Patriot Act in which it stated that if there was any reason to suspect Taliban/Al-Qaeda ties or involvement that were not required to be proven and no warrant need be issued by a judge. Breaking “Every Law in the country” could also be interpreted as a reference to the Guantanamo Bay Detention facility on the very edge of Cuba occupied by US military forces which illegally held civilians native to Iraq and Afghanistan without warrant, without trial, due process of law and torture all of which are illegal and outlawed by the Geneva Convention and/or the Constitution of the United States. Another large chunk of Social Relevance is in this stanza:
“Let's impeach the president for hijacking
Our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving our people neglected”.
This stanza is socially relevant to the extreme due to its reference to the 2004 presidential election and the tactics used by the Bush Administration to secure victory. An example of the tactics used would be when on the campaign trail he tied being a good Christian to voting for Bush and the electoral divide between the red and blue states, which showed the public just how good at dividing the country the “uniter” was at his job. And when he sings the final line of the above stanza “And Still Leaving Our People Neglected” he is referring to the tragic Hurricane Katrina that just Ripped through New Orleans and The government which new the levees would not hold did not warn the public and acted as though they were never told and could not even organize a trailer park for the victims of the disaster without first making sure the trailers the people were given were full of lead, mercury and poorly built death traps for the former residents of the lower 9th ward. Another and final quote for Social Relevance would be “Thank god he’s cracking down on steroids” this is socially relevant because after all this is America and baseball, which is what is alluded to in the quote, is America’s favorite pastime. From the first word to the final line Social Relevance is displayed and fully used to the extent.
Ultimately the most numerous poetic device in the song is allusion to recently past and current events related to varied and frequent mishaps within Bush’s Administration. Within the first stanza is an allusion to the lying to the congress and American people in order to go to war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq as well as the Patriot Act as he used and abused his extraordinary war powers:
“Let's impeach the President for lying
And misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door.”
Within the second stanza Neil Young bash’s Bush’s ethics as well as ethical policies due to the fact that he hired criminals to run his administration who cared nothing for the law; Neil Young also attacks Bush administration officials indirectly through allusion the serial liars Condoleezza Rice and Karl Rove:
“Who's the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
They bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war”
Within Neil Young’s song’s third stanza he launches an all-out attack against the Patriot Act and all of its illegalities:
“Let's impeach the President for spying
on citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones.”
The Patriot Act illegally in the minds of many sanctions ugly abuses of power granted to Bush and cronies within his administration such as warrantless wiretapping, invasion of privacy, as well as reading private emails and the right to be secure in one self’s possessions and papers. Another example of allusion would be when he referenced September eleventh terror attacks and hurricane Katrina in this quote:
“What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way”
It, despite its’ ludicrously it poses a stirring hypothetical if the levees were gone the destruction would be the same but more people would left the city rather than place their trust in a levee system whose status they were ignorant of as well as it’s capabilities to hold back the water. He also alludes to the 2004 election in which George Bush brought politics to the church pulpit which is illegal:
“Let's impeach the president for hijacking
Our religion and using it to get elected”
In Neil Young’s final Stanza he pokes fun at a forgotten fact; Bush at one time did own a baseball team and through allusion links even that to him:
“Thank god he's cracking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team”
Neil Young is not new in fact he is quite known during the Vietnam War Bob Dylan Himself and many others were the voice of an angry generation that protested the war and President Johnson and Nixon. This song brought back the fire of the generation of the 60’s and let the spark loose today. Not only has all music since in Western Culture owed its existence to Neil Young and others but also their voices saved a generation from ignorance and unjust war and by the looks of things they haven’t given up yet. Without Neil Young many more people would have inevitably died and without his use of poetic devices such as Cohesive Narrative, Social Relevance and allusion his songs would not have been heard and one of the “voices of the generation” would have been silenced and the message of peace and love with him.
