I'm totally with the leveller on this one.
I can't speak for the US, things appear to be very different there, but far from being 'mean-spirited' the political songs I have been listening to have been uplifting and inspring commentaries and judgements on what goes on around us.
As an 'ordinary citizen' I have very little say in what is done by our 'betters' on our behalf.
If my Prime Minister (as he did) wants to wage an illegal war against a third word country and send our young people to be killed and maimed, I have no say in the matter.
If an American President (as several of them did) wants to napalm and Agent Orange a nation 'back to the Stone Age' the man and woman in the U.S. street cannot influence that decision to any effective degree whatever.
At least by making and singing songs about what goes on in our name, we are able to make our view known.
By suggesting that we should not be doing this is, as far as I'm concerned, siding with the most repressive regimes in history in attemptng to silence the voice of the ordinary man and woman - shame on the lot of you.
Jim Carroll