I think this song is...well...as the title says, a "ballad of a politician." In a way, a politician may not see theirselves as a person, "a name/number" like most people...they see themselves as "a plan," a carefully laid out scheme to make it. Think of how seriously we take people's pasts--hell, I have no idea how many times I heard shit about Bush POSSIBLY taking cocaine while in the army, as well as Obama's POSSIBLE ties to Islam. In a way, a politician must carefully plan out his/her life from beginning to end.
As for the sexual innuendos "Shake it, shake it baby / Shake your ass out in that street" is possibly a metaphor for how politicians strut their assets in order to get elected--show off their experience, ideas, and what makes them great. She links it to prostitution and promiscuity because campaigning is very much the same.
"You love so deep, so tender
Your people and your land
You love 'em 'til they can't recall
Who they are again"
This is the line that speaks to me most. It shows how politically divided we are. Politicians run and constantly claim that they love America, on both sides, and yet the people on both sides get to the point where they forget that they all are the same people--it becomes a matter of political ideology, "I'm more [blank] than you" so to speak.
I think this song is...well...as the title says, a "ballad of a politician." In a way, a politician may not see theirselves as a person, "a name/number" like most people...they see themselves as "a plan," a carefully laid out scheme to make it. Think of how seriously we take people's pasts--hell, I have no idea how many times I heard shit about Bush POSSIBLY taking cocaine while in the army, as well as Obama's POSSIBLE ties to Islam. In a way, a politician must carefully plan out his/her life from beginning to end.
As for the sexual innuendos "Shake it, shake it baby / Shake your ass out in that street" is possibly a metaphor for how politicians strut their assets in order to get elected--show off their experience, ideas, and what makes them great. She links it to prostitution and promiscuity because campaigning is very much the same.
"You love so deep, so tender Your people and your land You love 'em 'til they can't recall Who they are again"
This is the line that speaks to me most. It shows how politically divided we are. Politicians run and constantly claim that they love America, on both sides, and yet the people on both sides get to the point where they forget that they all are the same people--it becomes a matter of political ideology, "I'm more [blank] than you" so to speak.