One Term More–A Political Parody
Broadway and musical theatre performers Sean Smith, David Burnham, Kim Huber, Christina Saffran Ashford, Damon Kirsche, David Engel, Jennifer Shelton, Emma Ashford, Matthew Ashford, Ali B. Olmo, Johnny Pastor, Bubba Dean Rambo, William Martinez, Flora Rubenhold, Takako Gregg, Teri Yates, Mason Keane, and Paula Keane sing from their heart with the lyrics of Don DeMesquita, in a parody of One Day More from "Les Miserables". For more info and facts, go to www.OneTermMore.com
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Open Letter
DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING? To nearly everyone an RPM‘s a rev-per-minute. To me it’s a Rosa Parks Moment.
Her decision to remain seated in December ’55 moved me to stand up in 2012. Like so many over the intervening years, I’ve taken inspiration from an unflinching American icon who said, "Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others."
For me that seminal Moment occurred when Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke was viciously and repeatedly attacked on the air by a podium-pounding predator whose venomous remarks disgusted pretty much everyone within the sound of his voice. (I don’t know Ms. Fluke or her assailant.)
More to the point – that predator’s driving the Republican bus and arguably no less menacing than the one Ms. Parks encountered 57 years ago.
You’ll recall her busman summoned Montgomery police and had her arrested for refusing to give up what had been designated a "Colored Section" seat. (The bus was full; a white man wanted to sit down; the driver reflexively moved the Section sign from in front of Ms. Parks to behind her.)
Under the circumstances she hadn’t actually violated the law but was – as well we know – arrested anyway; and convicted.
Her tenacity ignited the modern civil rights movement. Fittingly, history was preserved as that Cleveland Avenue bus now famously resides in the Henry Ford Museum, an enduring testament to character and courage, to those who dared to dream a dream and undeniably to the audacity of hope.
While the GOP’s resident rabble-rouser routinely defames those with whom he disagrees, their party’s presumptive nominee hasn’t the character or courage to condemn such abusive behavior. Indeed, fomenting incivility and intolerance is grist for their ground game – and they’re doubling down.
If you’re not a moneyed Republican plutocrat with a name commonly mistaken for a mattress, soft drink or sundae, don’t own a ball club in Chicago
or casino in Macao or have an extra hundred-mil lying around, what do you do to make a difference? You stand up the only way you know how.I’m not an activist, lobbyist, PAC, 527 or 501(c)-anything, just a private citizen (and sometime parodist) asking "who will be strong and stand with me."
One Term More is a transformative political parody rendered under fair use. The accompanying illustration conveys the transcendent nature of a remarkable man. Sketches based on a recently reported, well-sourced, deeply disturbing event depict an uncommonly cruel act of aggression.
No ad time will be purchased nor will it be sold. It’s intended as social commentary, criticism & personal expression, displayed only online and freely available to all. Its purpose and character is informational, non-commercial & not-for-profit. The parodied lyrics are mine; the music’s from "Les Mis."
Jefferson wrote, "The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people." The Founding Fathers wouldn’t have tolerated 21st century Tea Party polemics. No matter the nation’s crushing ills or deep political divide, the framers chose to govern, not obstruct.
Having brought forth a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, you’ve got to wonder:
Are there any levelheaded Republicans left to remind untethered Tea Party apostles – notably those washed up on the shores of the Potomac – that incendiary rhetoric, hysterical white populism and a reckless disregard for the unalienable rights of others is not a government of, by or for the people?
Misogynistic, homophobic, radically regressive and ideologically unhinged with little apparent interest in governing and no appetite for compromise or common ground, that Grand Old Party’s out-of-order, a consequence of preposterous partisan pandering, legislative belligerence…and all that tea.
To the extent any nominal independent expenditure can underscore the titanic distinctions between candidates, parties and platforms – from ALEC-influenced legislatures codifying colossally misguided stand-your-ground laws to muddleheaded McCarthy-mimicking Members of the House calling colleagues Communists – ours will, we hope, attract the attention of an inquisitive electorate and contribute to a more reasoned electoral outcome.
At the end of the day will unruly Republicans simply be too tone-deaf to hear the people sing? We’ll know when tomorrow comes.
Don DeMesquita
Author’s note:
While this effort was inspired by Rosa Parks, whatever aversion to social injustice, notions of good vs. evil or simple idealism I may have acquired along the way were informed by my Father who while heading advertising at American Safety Razor mentored me in musical parody – and living well; by my Mother who while running a Congressional District office for 16 years taught me Capitol Hill calculus and political logic; and by the creative integrity and heroic, visionary story-telling of three astonishingly gifted men, none of whom I’ve ever worked with, only one of whom I’ve ever met:
Frank Capra, Cameron Mackintosh and Aaron Sorkin.
Infused with a sense of civic purpose, this effort is dedicated to them and the remarkably talented team of creative professionals who made it possible. In a perfect world I’d raise a glass to Sir Cameron, Aaron & Frank, inviting George Bailey, Jefferson Smith, Sam, CJ, Toby, Josh, Charlie, Will, Leo, Donna, Jed & Abbey, Valjean, Javert, Marius & Cosette, Enjolras, Eponine, Fantine and those self-sacrificing servants to the poor, the Thénardiers, to join me.
Cheers!VISIT One Term More
