And then there's The Ballad of October 16.[1]

Oh, Franklin Roosevelt told the people how he felt
We damned near believed what he said
He said, "I hate war, and so does Eleanor
But we won't be safe till everybody's dead"

[1] I'm not sure what the date means. The bill was passed by Congress and signed by FDR on September 16, 1940. Mistake? Intentional but obscure point-making? 🤷‍♂️

@AdrianRiskin

it's definitely about the conscription bill, like the first line says. probably modern confusion arises due to the bill itself passing congress on 9/14/40 and being signed into law by fdr on 9/16/40, with the first actual registrations for "selective service" starting one month later on 10/16/40

time compression for storytelling effect is common in folk music, so the initial vote was on september 14 which was a saturday ("saturday night" in the lyric) and then it doesnt begin to affect people until a month later on october 16, and that whole month is basically erased because it's not as important as the main thrust of the lyrics which is that people are being sent off to die against their will

also important to remember this was just over a year before the attack on pearl harbor and several years before the holocaust became widely accepted as fact in usamerika. so the public saw it as a war in service of wealthy men and business interests since the usamerikan public was/is intensely bigoted and largely pro-nazi

@alter_kaker @AdrianRiskin

oh i hope i didnt come across as supporting literally anything any usamerikan has ever done!

basically as a songwriter with some historical knowledge i thought i would clarify why the lyrics were written that way

youre right about fdr, and literally every usamerikan president has been a genocidaire and sat atop a system of sexual torture. fdr was one of the worst but gets a pass because usamerikan workers dont care about anything but themselves, and they think the "new deal" was a good thing. it's the same with the "green new deal" some people talk about these days

fuck usamerikan deals! fuck usamerikans! death to usamerika! more dead usamerikans!