There’s a fun bit of 20th Century political trivia associated with the 1963 hit song for Lesley Gore, “It’s My Party (and I’ll Cry If I Want To).” In November, 1980, the freeform student radio station at the University of Michigan, WCBN-FM, played the song on its air continuously for 18 hours when Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in the presidential election.
I’ve taken a different tack in my homage to the classic work by the songwriters Weiner, Gold and Gluck. Here’s the link to my performing the song on ukelele: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkl6mwYBYJQ. My version says “I’ll LIE if I want to.”
A number of news articles in 2018 were saying that the popularity of the “establishment /business Republicans” was fading — or had already faded — under the blazing fervor and fawning of Trump’s supporters in “the base.” Those perceiving the GOP as HIS party were totally right, as far as I could tell. Cue Lesley Gore. Around the same time, fact-checkers at newspapers such as the Post and the Times were keeping track of the astonishing number of “false or misleading claims” the world was hearing from Trump. (Remember how reluctant they were back then to use the word “lies”?) Cue Lesley Gore again, this time with “lie if I want to”, and there I was, off to the races, with a song in the first-person, following the lead of Weiner, Gold and Gluck.
Here’s my lyrics as of early 2024. I’ve dropped some of the lines from my versions of the song in 2018 and 2022 —about emoluments for example — because there’s been just so much going on!
MY PARTY (AND I’LL LIE IF I WANT TO)
(1963, by Wiener, Gold and Gluck;
additional words by Jim Novak, 2018, 2022, 2024)
It’s my Party and I’ll lie if I want to, lie if I want to, lie if I want to
You would lie too if you knew what I knew.
Nobody knows where the GOP’s gone, but Republicans get I’m the King
They wear my red MAGA hats, and kiss my ass and my ring.
GOP voters are solid for me, that’s where I get my clout
Elected Rep’s who don’t support me, I get their asses thrown out (Bye, Lizzie!)
It’s my Party and I’ll lie if I want to, lie if I want to, lie if I want to
You would lie too if you do what I do
I flirt with Vlad Putin and Victor Orban, dictator talk is my style
Women, minor’ties, L-G-B-T, give vermin an inch, they take a mile!
GOP rank-and-file, best get this straight: Russia’s our friend, not the Press,
White supremacists, go ‘head & hate: you domestic terrorists (“Fine People”)
It’s my Party and I’ll act like I want to, distract if I want to, change facts if I want to, You would lie too if you knew what I knew
I tot’ly mishandled the COVID response, I kept saying Things would be fine,
It worked for me to play it all down. A half-million dead: my bottom line!
Impeach me once, and impeach me-ee twice, I got a legal bagful of tricks
I kick and scream all the way to the bank, & love the folks of JAN 6 (“You’re special”)
It’s my Party, I’ll collude if I want to talk crude if I want to, screw you if I want to, You’d cover up too, if you knew what I knew.
Send-‘em-back racism, dog whistles too, then I claim Whites are oppressed,
Evangelicals boy they love me: My greed and adulteries are blessed!
Top Secret documents, who gives a shit? I keep a bunch in my garage
So unfair now to come after me, but Fox News treats me like God (Or they used to)!
It’s my Party, I’ll lie if I want to, alibi if I want to, de-classify if I want to
You would lie too if you do what I do.
“Resistance” is futile, my voters don’t care, I’m disruptive, unstable, bizarre,
“Unhinged” and orange, I swear, they tell me ‘We love how you are!’
I gave you judges to end Roe vee Wade, and a wall against immigrants;
Fake electors were all set to go, but we were betrayed by Mike Pence!! (That Pussy)
It’s my Party and I’ll lie if I want to, deny if I want to, de-certify if I want to
You would lie too if you knew what I knew.
91 felonies, 4 different courts, elections fraud, bus-ness fraud, theft
70 million voted for me, I claim what’s corrupt is the Left
It’s my Party and I’ll lie if I want to, lie if I want to, lie if I want to
You would lie too if you knew what I You would lie too if you screw what I / You would lie too if you do what I do.
[SAMPLE OF A DELETED VERSE:
I punish my enemies, payback is sweet, and emoluments were no prob,
Money laundering, shadowy deals, I’m like the Boss of this Mob!]