Other rivers can be called 'the big Muddy'. Many people will swear big muddy' must mean the Mississippi, I always thought the song just meant 'a pretty big muddy river around here' Who knows. And many a big river (or its backwater channels) will get quite shallow in a bad drought.

Who the hell talks that way? Quite a few. Many people is Louisiana call their state Loozianna and scoff at anybody who uses the Lou-ee version.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but mine is that the song happened to have a powerful allegorical message, and it slipped into the background during some years of relative peace. Now we have a national crisis and 'leader' once again equal to the idiot in the song, and once again the song comes to mind.