Watching our current election draw to a close can really drag a concerned, opinionated, engaged person into the muck of despair. I'm pretty sure I don't want to hear about the "middle class" anymore (even though in reality I am a full-fledged member).

If I were to pay attention just to what Obama is currently talking about, I'd say this election is solely about making sure people stay cluelessly appeased and placated in the creature comforts of our alienated suburban society. Rescue package for the middle class! What a rallying cry.

To hear Obama on the stump, I wouldn’t know that we just lived through eight years of willful grotesque executive abuse and bloodthirsty and reckless global military aggression, that we didn’t just experience the Iraq War or paid witness to the despairing reality of race and poverty that was exposed by Hurricane Katrina.

You'd almost think we didn't just live through eight years of a serious erosion of our moral standing in the world with the tragedy that is Guantanamo the growing number of people falling into poverty, the socially deteriorating and fiscally ruinous social and racial effects of our  war on drugs, the emerging and unchecked surveillance society, or the very real thread of an  insurgent Taliban in Pakistan.

Now, conversely, if I were to pay attention just to what McPalin are talking about, I' think we were in danger of another Bolshevik Revolution, a domestically-orchestrated al Qaeda attack or a convoluted mixture of the two. I'd also think that Iran is the new fascist Germany and that William Ayers might be our next Secretary of State. At least the McPalin campaign reminds of how important this election is.  

So, to escape the limited impact of a narrowly-focused, safe Obama campaign and to combat the horrors of what the Republican Machine has wrought on our world this past eight years, I've compiled a (cursory) Election season mix CD with my Mixmeister software. These aren't all full-blown political songs nor do most seem to reflect what our new centrist great Hope is currently talking about.

Instead, I’ve made this mix because election season is time to take full measure of where we've been, where we are and where we might go. These songs often for me fill the glaring hole of space that is currently being ignored by both campaigns.

The very foundation of how both this country and the world works is at stake or SHOULD be at stake. And many of these songs acknowledge that. But there are also tracks that are meant to give hope and assurance that things are not going to continue to spiral downward. For no matter what Obama's limitations are, his election would certainly be a welcome and hopeful event, a seed of possibility in rocky soil. And lastly, some of these songs have the toxic, divisive and destructive neo-con/right wing lunatics in its sights. I listen to it now for catharsis, acknowledgement of where we are, a reminder of what is really important and at stake, and finally for a sense of hope for the future.

A very interesting aspect of this disc is how many of the songs were actually written before the Bush Adminstration, yet seem even more relevant now.

1. "America" – Prince

A wonderfully anthemic look at the American reality for far too many people:

"Jimmy Nothing never went 2 school

They made him pledge allegiance

He said it wasn't cool

Nothing made Jimmy proud

Now Jimmy lives on a mushroom cloud

America, America

God shed his grace on thee

America, America

Keep the children free"

2. "Hoist That Rag" - Tom Waits

Waits' voice is as fiercely brutal as the song's militaristic focus.

"Well we stick our fingers in

The ground, heave and

Turn the world around

Smoke is blacking out the sun

At night I pray and clean my gun"

3. "Homeland and Hip-Hop feat. Mumia Abu Jamal" - Immortal Technique

Speaks for itself.

4. "Running the World" - Jarvis Cocker

It's important to remember here that Englishman Cocker's use of the word "cunt" is the British meaning which, instead of a sexist term denoting female genitalia, is essentially equivalent to the word "asshole."

5.  “The Revolution Starts Now” – Steve Earle

A call to action from one of the great American voices.

“The revolution starts now
When you rise above your fear
And tear the walls around you down
The revolution starts here
Where you work and where you play
Where you lay your money down
What you do and what you say”

6. “Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man)” – Randy Newman

When the dust settles, Randy Newman’s unflinching view of America depicted on his many solo recordings, will be legendary. This one just seems to fit as we see unemployment start to rise – those who suffer from greed are rarely the greedy.

7. “Goodness Gracious” – Kevin Gilbert

This tragically overlooked talent who was the creative half of Toy Matinee, one of the key songwriter’s of Sheryl Crow’s only truly fantastic album “Saturday Night Music Club” and solo artist who wrote this painfully prescient song in 1994 (he later died in 1996). It’s the Generation X lament at the end that always gets me:

“Goodness gracious, of apathy I sing
The babyboomers had it all and wasted everything
Now recess is almost over and they won't get off the swing

Goodness gracious, we came in at the end
No sex that isn't dangerous, no money left to spend
We're the cleanup crew for parties we were too young to attend
Goodness gracious me”

8. “All You Fascists” – Billy Bragg and Wilco (lyrics by Woody Guthrie)

I just have a revolving picture of Michelle Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, George Bush, Sarah Palin, and Bill O’Reilly running through my head when I listen to this and think about the prospects of a Republican bloodbath.

“All you fascists are bound to lose.”

 9. “Gimme Shelter” – The Rolling Stones

This timeless war protest song is probably the one that kicks the most ass.

10. “Ignoreland” – R.EM.

Off the band’s most critically acclaimed album, Automatic For the People, this song about a government that does not respond to the needs of its people is even more accurate now than when it was written in 1992 when a different Bush was in the White House. Maybe that’s why R.E.M. played it for the first time live in May 2008.

“Calculate the capital, offer the public my skinny ass
TV tells a million lies. The paper's terrified to report
Anything that isn't handed on a presidential spoon,
I'm just profoundly frustrated by all this. So, fuck you, man (fuck 'em)”

11. “Charlie Don’t Surf” – The Clash

A sister song to “Straight to Hell,” this is one of my favorite political Clash songs. It again is amazingly astute and sounds as appropriate now in our “war on terror” as it was when it was written during the Cold War.

“It's a one a way street in a one horse town
One way people starting to brag around
You can laugh, put them down
These one way people gonna mow us down”

12. “Stay Positive” – The Hold Steady

This isn’t about politics at all, it’s about staying true to the promise of rock and roll. But since I see all rock music as political expression, this song extends beyond just the realm of music. It’s an admonishment, a challenge to “stay positive” and the rousing chorus makes you want to give it a shot.

13. “Demon Days” – Gorillaz

“In these demon days, it’s so cold inside

So hard for a good soul to survive

You can’t even trust the air you breathe

‘Cause mother earth wants us all to leave”

14. “Sons and Daughters” – The Decemberists

It’s interesting that the most hopeful songs are the ones written during the Bush Administration. That has to mean something.

“Here, all the bombs fade away…”