Liberal Love-In
It’s not easy being a Democrat in Virginia. After all, the state hasn’t voted for a Democratic president since 1964.
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But over the weekend, liberals in Virginia felt right at home at the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, where Garrison Keillor’s “Prairie Home Companion” radio variety show held a sold-out two-night stand.
On this Memorial Day weekend, Keillor — himself a pronounced Democrat — began both shows by somberly singing Eric Bogle’s “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda,” a song that speaks out against the romantization of war. “The young people ask what are they marching for,” Keillor sang, “and I ask myself the same question.”
Later in Friday’s show, Keillor performed another song in which, in a “We Didn’t Start the Fire” lyrical fashion, he reeled off the names of America’s wars and repeated a chorus of “So young!” as he paid tribute to the fallen soldiers throughout American history.
One of the more humorous parts of Keillor’s show came when he remarked, “We’re at Wolf Trap here, we’re under a pavilion. Don’t worry about us. We have big roof over us here in what we call the Republican section of Wolf Trap.” Laughter. “They need shelter these days. They need protection and comfort. Up there on the grass, the Democrats sitting outside.” Cheers. “They bought the cheaper seats so they could donate the difference to help support the kind of public radio programming they’ve come to know and to trust.” Wild applause.
Some other moments of great applause at Wolf Trap:
- When Keillor sang the following lyrics to his song “My Washington”: “I used to be a senior member / of Congress until last November / Then the voters took me away from Washington.”
- When an Al Gore impersonator read a fake letter from “Mike” from New Hampshire: “Mr. Vice President: You and you alone can rescue this country from this great [expletive] black hole it has become since that miscreant stole Florida.” (The George W. Bush impersonator received a more subdued response from the audience, especially after “Bush” said he was starting to like Washington and planned on sticking around even after his second term expires.) “Gore” also said he was taking a new position as a weatherman for National Public Radio: “Today’s forecast: freaking hot, and it’s just going to get hotter and hotter until we die.”
- When, at the end of Saturday’s show, Keillor thanked Sen. Harry Reid, who was in the audience.
