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When They Say "We Want Our America Back", What The F#@k Do They Mean? (Audio)

Posted: 11/16/11 12:19 PM ET

I wrote this song at the Netroots shindig for The Freedom From Fear Awards -- "a new national award that honors 15 ordinary people who have committed extraordinary acts of courage on behalf of immigrants and refugees -- individuals who have taken a risk, set an example, and inspired others to awareness or action. The award honors unsung heroes who are not professional advocates."

In deciding what to write, I thought I would include an anti-immigrant history with the still befuddling question I have for the Tea Party folk.

You can listen to the song here, and the lyrics follow.

When They Say "We Want Our America Back", What The F#@k Do They Mean?

When they say, "we want our America back",
Our America back, our America back." 
When they say, " we want our America back"
Well, what the... f%#k do they mean?
 
Remember the garden of Eden?
Before eve hung out with that snake?
You could walk down the streets not worry bout thieves
All the kids could go trick or treating. 
Then those foreigners started coming in
Like the Germans in 1790
Then the Irish arrived, the potato blight
The neighborhood started changing

Life was better, we lived right,
Life had a paler shade of white, when they sing
"We want our America Back"
 
Before there was Ellis island
And that statue we got from the French
That whore's still alerting, with strangers she's flirting
Inviting them into our beds
The guineas, the coolies, the wetbacks, the reds
The Jews, now those terrorists
And who let in the woman who looks after my kid
And the one who is cleaning my mess?

Before the gays had their agenda, before the slaves were free
Before that man from Kenya took the presidency

Life was so righteous, life was so clean.
Send em all back including me
When they say, "we want our America back",
Our America back, our America back." 
When they say, " we want our America back"

Well, what the...f%#k do they mean?

Before the gays had their agenda, before the slaves were free
Before that man from Kenya took the presidency

 
 
 
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07:40 AM on 11/19/2011
Jill has again put into words what many of us are thinking. Discovering her music was like opening a window - fresh air and food for thought. IMHO it is easy to get caught up in the slogans and sound bites, channeling energy into a meaningless movement. Read Mother Earth from March of 1906 written by Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and others to get a better view of the America that most of don't want to see - the corporate controlled government and the rich grubbing for every penny that ever existed. "There is no revolution, only power changing hands." Badfinger.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
StCyrlyMe2
10:44 PM on 11/16/2011
Many of us already think we know what they mean It's all good though because this country does not belong to any one person so those who say that can simply F#@K off!!
nothingchanges
too soon old, too late smart
09:44 PM on 11/16/2011
When They Say "We Want Our America Back", What The F#@k Do They Mean?

For me the answer is fairly obvious.

We want OUR America back means going back to about 1740.

When only White Male Landed Gentry......................were allowed the vote.
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09:29 PM on 11/16/2011
This is just so totally awesome, Jill... for someone completely lacking musical ability.
09:15 PM on 11/16/2011
"we want our America back" means every thing is possible(!), just wait, for your turn.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
baseballmom
My microbio: as empty as Michelle Bachman's noggin
09:03 PM on 11/16/2011
Easy. Their America was white and male and women and blacks knew their place.
08:43 PM on 11/16/2011
I yearn for the Good Old Days, when I was neither.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
shankapotomus
08:29 PM on 11/16/2011
Back to the laws of the consitution.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Dosadi
Political agnostic
09:39 PM on 11/16/2011
Those were made obsolete when the very first campaign contribution was paid.
07:25 PM on 11/16/2011
I'm sorry, Jill. I think we are all distraught that our America records have been stolen. Thats what we mean.You can help by finding the Horse with No Name that is owned by Sister Golden Hair Surprise. I bet they are the culprits. Seriously, Jill is a wonderful person who asks some interesting questions whether you are left of center or right of center. With this song, even us members of the vast right wing conspiracy are given a chance to explain and define what we mean. If we can't do that, we are just proffering a meaninless slogan. It is sad that someone named "MrReasonable" (see comment below) doesn't see this as an opportunity to open a dialog on a subject as opposed to just making an angry comment.
06:44 PM on 11/16/2011
THIS......is the political folk song this generation. Right there with Steve Earle's "Rich Man's War."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4bCVoMCeYY

Well done, Jill, well done.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
hayness
A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence
06:43 PM on 11/16/2011
They want women back in the home.
People of "color" at the back of the bus.
Gay people back in the closet.
Religion back in the schools.
Reagan back in the White House.
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vietveter
To the FAR LEFT
04:09 PM on 11/16/2011
What they really want is to be younger and they want

the country cheaper and white.

You asked, that is reality.
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Mark Anhalt
The best mind-altering drug is truth
04:07 PM on 11/16/2011
I think what they mean is they want to be able to say the N word loudly in a crowded restaurant and "HEY YOU F----T to the waiter when the food is cold.
06:18 PM on 11/16/2011
Nope, that is the liberals that do that. And, of course, some Democrat constituents are allowed to do that anyway.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Dosadi
Political agnostic
09:41 PM on 11/16/2011
Is that really the best you could come up with? Good grief that was lame.
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jsgaetano
Legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus
04:03 PM on 11/16/2011
When conservatives say they "Want their America back", they're talking about "their" America, as in the pre-Civil War America, which had slavery and corruption and a South which wasn't an economic train wreck.
06:19 PM on 11/16/2011
No one favors slavery or corruption. Do away with the Democrat controlled inner city governments, and vote out Obama and his administration. That should help a lot.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Dosadi
Political agnostic
09:41 PM on 11/16/2011
"Do away with the Democrat controlled inner city government­s," But if we do that we will end up with republican controlled slavery and corruption. Duh!
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PDXSW
09:46 PM on 11/16/2011
If inner city voters want mostly Democrats in their government, it is their right to have them. You may not do away with them just because you disagree, or is voting just way too much Democracy for you to tolerate?

Republicans (read: whites) fled cities in favor of white suburban enclaves, so they have no right to complain about how cities are run without them.
03:58 PM on 11/16/2011
I just want liberty.
IMOPINIONH8D
because I want it empty...
05:27 PM on 11/16/2011
Not trying to argue but would you define liberty. I dont know if its real or just a word. I cant see what I did today ( getting up and going to work, thankfully) compared to another man that did the same thing on the other side of the world.
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elkabong
Campaign finance is the disease.
06:05 PM on 11/16/2011
Spare us, please. The only freedoms in which the cons believe are freedom from taxes and the freedom to carry a bazooka if they feel like it.