I didn’t watch a single moment of the Democratic National Online Infomercial this week, because I am simply not that much of a pain-loving masochist. And so I missed the concluding musical number from the first night, featuring Billy Porter’s cover of the old Buffalo Springfield tune “For What It’s Worth,” one of the totemic tunes of the 1960s youth protest movement. He’s backed by the guitar work of a nearly unrecognizable Stephen Stills, who wrote the song.
To call this a lugubrious take is an understatement. I imagine many young voters—if very many watched at all—were scratching their heads at this choice. This selection was clearly aimed at nostalgic baby boomers who all think they attended Woodstock at least in spirit.
Take it in for a moment or two below (or the recut version at the very bottom), and then, taking Joe Biden’s theme that this election is about “the soul of America,” reflect on what the choice of this tune tells us about the soul of the Democratic Party today. For today’s Democrats, the 1960s are still regarded as the pinnacle of America’s consciousness raising, maybe their favorite decade in all of American history at least up until 1968 when LBJ came a cropper and the evil Richard Nixon turned them out of the White House. The decrepit appearance of Stills is symbolic of the shambolic state of Democrats. Bring back the sixties! Yeah, that’s a winner for sure. No wonder no Democrat criticized the current urban rioting the entire week. They don’t really think the rioters are wrong.
Bonus chaser: Here’s Townhall’s recut of the tune, offering more accuracy:
