By Daniel Tarade

Bob Dylan represents how easy it is to shift from anti-establishment thinking to chanting the pro-individualistic, anti-anti-establishment mantra. Early in his songwriting career, Dylan wrote anti-war, anti-racism songs of protest but Dylan later came to promote freedom of individual thought above all else and denounced the leftist movements of the 1960s. I appreciate Dylan’s beautiful conviction in speaking out for self-determination, but his dismissal of left ideologies as groupthink reeks of centrism. It is privileged and naive. Who better represents the mass movements of the 60s? Phil Ochs. Never relenting, Ochs wrote anti-imperial, anti-war, anti-racism, anti-draft, anti-segregation, and anti-poverty songs. He wrote one of the first songs to call out the Vietnam war. In 1966, Ochs released the song “Love Me, I’m a Liberal” on a concert album. Recorded at Carnegie Hall, the performance typified the Ochs concert experience. He talked to the audience, peppering one-liners here and there. A phrase that did not make the final album cut — William Zanzinger killed poor Bobby Dylan — highlights the transition from Dylan to Ochs. In his earlier, political days, Dylan wrote a great song about the murder of Hattie Carrol by the wealthy white heir to a tobacco farm. Somewhere between 1963, when Dylan recorded that song, and 1966, the political Dylan died a lonesome death. The leftist movement leaned on other poets, like Ochs. For listeners, then and now, “Love Me, I’m a Liberal” might be a bit confusing. Liberals are the progressives, right? So why did the radical Ochs release a satirical song making fun of liberals? A thorough analysis of the song helps to explain the difference between liberalism and leftism while also highlighting several tactics the ruling capitalist class uses to divide and conquer our society.

In every American community, you have varying shades of political opinion. One of the shadiest of these is the liberals. An outspoken group on many subjects. 10 degrees to the left of center in good times, 10 degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally. So here, then, is a lesson in safe logic.

The song begins with a conversational introduction. Phil Ochs describes the liberal as ‘shady’ who at times will support the progressive agenda but are regressive much of the time. Especially when it ‘affects them personally,’ the liberal reacts to and defends against movements from below that threaten the status quo. The rest of the song spotlights Ochs as a liberal describing their position on many contemporary issues. To the radicals/leftists in the audience, the contradictions are obvious.

I cried when they shot Medgar Evers

Tears ran down my spine

And I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy

As though I'd lost a father of mine

But Malcolm X got what was coming

He got what he asked for this time

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Get it?

Phil Ochs’ rendition of a liberal cries at the deaths of both Medgar Evers and John F. Kennedy. Evers was a civil rights activist who was assassinated in 1963. Half a year later, JFK himself was killed. American liberals mourned both deaths. They represented reform that liberals found reasonable, like de-segregation. But not everybody grieved the death of Kennedy. Sure, some racists and conservatives giddied at the news, but radicals like Malcolm X also expressed that the assassination was no tragedy. In a famous quote, Malcolm X stated that the assassination of JFK was a case of “chickens coming home to roost.” The unpopular opinion contributed to Malcolm X being expelled from the Nation of Islam a year before his own assassination. Now, Malcolm X spoke more radically to the plight of African-Americans than most other leaders of the civil rights movement (“Concerning nonviolence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.”). Many liberals thought he went too far in demanding black liberation. The modern counterpart? The liberal supports Obama but not the Black Lives Matter movement.

I go to civil rights rallies

And I put down the old D.A.R (D.A.R., that's the Dykes of the American Revolution)

I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy

I hope every colored boy becomes a star

But don't talk about revolution

That's going a little bit too far

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Ochs continues. The liberal is proud of playing a part by attending civil rights rallies and insulting the Daughters of the American Revolution. The DAR is a patriotic group that did not allow African Americans to join until the 1970s. Of course, the liberal finds it funny to call these women dykes. If you despise Trump and like to call him Putin’s cock holster, you might be a liberal. Homophobia is never ok.

The liberal also sees hope in the Harry Belafontes, Sidney Poitiers, and Sammy Davis Jrs becoming famous. For the liberal, equal participation in capitalist exploitation is the goal. For leftists, representation is important but not the end in itself. If you believe a vote for Hillary Clinton in progressive because she is a women, you are definitely a liberal. What liberals do not support is an actual revolution. They just want capitalism to be polite.

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen

My faith in the system restored

I'm glad that the Commies were thrown out

Of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board

And I love Puerto Ricans and Negros

As long as they don't move next door

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Hubert Humphrey was vice-president under Lyndon B. Johnson (65-69) and won the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1969. As a senator, he was the lead author of the Civil Rights act and introduced the first initiative to create the peace corps. But, he also sponsored the McCarran Internal Security Act, which forced members of communist groups to register their name and address with the attorney general. As a presidential nominee, he pledged to send more troops into Vietnam and increase the defence budget. Committed to ending the Vietnam War, Eugene McCarthy challenged Humphrey for the Democratic nomination. Although he secured more votes than Humphrey during the primaries, the delegates of caucus states overwhelmingly supported Humphrey. A riot broke out in Chicago, where the Democratic National Convention was held, as the majority anti-war crowd denounced the nomination as fixed. Phil Ochs was present during these riots, which were later described as leading to his political disillusionment. This would not be the first time that the DNC boosted an establishment candidate to undermine a progressive voice.

Much like the DNC stacks the deck in favour of its preferred liberal candidates, union leadership conspires to keep out radicals and not upset the bosses. The A.F.L. C.I.O (The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) is the largest federation of unions in the US. In 1949-1950, leftist-led unions were expelled. This marked the end of a strong socialist influence in the labour movement, and the widespread support of cold war politics by the organizers of the working class.

The last few lines of the stanza are biting. Ochs calls out the liberal for giving mere lip service to equality. Just like the white liberal, supportive of racialized minorities in theory, might not want “Puerto Ricans and Negros…mov[ing] in next door,” the modern reincarnation instead participates in gentrification. That is not the only liberal hypocrisy on display today. What about a trans woman using the women’s washroom? As Hillary Clinton exemplified recently, many liberal feminists are unsupportive of trans rights.

Ah, the people of old Mississippi

Should all hang their heads in shame

Now, I can't understand how their minds work

What's the matter don't they watch Les Crane?

But if you ask me to bus my children

I hope the cops take down your name

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Phil Ochs often criticized the institutionalized racism of Mississippi, a view shared by his caricature of a liberal. But, the liberal’s disgust at the institutionalized racism in the American South lacks analysis. Failing to see the capitalist ploy of divide and conquer for what it is, they instead imagine that ‘country bumpkins’ are ignorant and uneducated. Perhaps if they watched the liberal radio and TV personality Les Crane, they would be enlightened. In today’s era, the liberal might instead recommend John Oliver.

The liberal also resents being personally asked to participate in desegregation. After the supreme court declared that the racial segregation of schools of public school is unconstitutional, students were re-assigned to schools in order to minimize segregation. In some instances, kids were bussed (free of charge) to schools outside of their district. This lead to white flight and increased enrolment of white children in private schools, which undermined desegregation. Today, the liberal might instead criticize affirmative action and scholarships for racialized minorities. And what about reparations for indigenous Canadians? In 2016, a survey found that two-thirds of Canadians agree that indigenous people “have a sense of entitlement about receiving support from government and taxpayers.” In Canada, the liberal stands in the way of true reconciliation.

Yes, I read New Republic and Nation

I've learned to take every view

You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden

I feel like I'm almost a Jew

But when it comes to times like Korea

There's no one more red, white and blue

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Ochs continues to attack the liberals for their choice in media. The New Republic took a stance against the Vietnam War and the McCarthyism but critiqued the New Left. Also left-of-center (but not leftist) was The Nation. Max Lerner and Harry Golden are both famous liberal writers. Lerner was against discrimination of African-Americans but supported internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII. By consuming the opinion of prominent minorities, the liberal feels that they are able to speak to the issues facing minorities in general.

Even if the liberal might hold some critical views of the government during peace time, the liberal will toe the patriotic line when the country wages another imperialist war of conquest. Just consider how George W. Bush’s approval rating skyrocketed after the 9/11 attacks. More recently, many democrats were outraged when Trump decided to withdraw American Troops from Syria. The liberal party supports American imperialism most of the time. Socialists don’t.

I vote for the democratic party

They want the U.N. to be strong

I attend all the Pete Seeger concerts

He sure gets me singing those songs

And I'll send all the money you ask for

But don't ask me to come on along

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Six stanzas in and Och’s satirical attack crescendos to a slaughter. He critiques blind support for the democratic party and the U.N — both institutions exist to maintain the status quo. Och’s even call outs the liberal’s for attending Pete Seeger concerts but stopping short of becoming involved in community organizing. For the liberal, their political ideology alleviates guilt and provides comfort because it condemns overt atrocities but does not demand any fundamental change in society. As reformists, the liberal is content to donate money or share a post on Facebook.

Once I was young and impulsive

I wore every conceivable pin

Even went to the socialist meetings

Learned all the old Union hymns

But I've grown older and wiser

And that's why I'm turning you in

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

The final stanza. A hallmark of the liberal is that they justify their current, regressive views with an appeal to life experience and maturity. The liberal may have even been a radical at one point, wearing pins and singing union hymns. Here, Ochs makes a pointed counterposition between union hymns (more radical) and Pete Seeger songs (less radical). With age, the liberal cares less about class struggle and more about succeeding in polite society. Sure, you might think you want to overthrow the government now, but just wait until you have to pay taxes. You will come around.

There are a few things missing from the song that leaves me wanting. For a song about liberal politics, the omission of the word ‘capitalism’ is glaring. The Liberals in Canada and the Democrats in the US are parties of big business. In the interest of maximizing profit for the few, both governments approve pipeline expansions and give handouts to big business. Neither taxes corporations and the wealthy at a just level. However, what Ochs does address is the reactionary impulse of the liberal to any perceived threat to the status quo. The first defence of capitalism against a worker revolt is the neoliberal line. Everything from a militant union to a black liberation movement is brake checked by liberal forces. The liberal argues that revolution is going a bit too far, and in doing so ensures that our current exploitation continues unchallenged. Phil Ochs understood this.