"Gimme Hope Kamala"
Marsh Family adaptation of Eddy Grant "Gimme Hope Jo'Anna" for Trump vs Harris
Hi all,
Thank you for joining me for today’s song, "Gimme Hope Kamala", by the Marsh Family. If you’d like to hear the song before you read about it, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article. Below, you’ll find my interpretation of the lyrics which are written in italics. Comments and questions are welcome. Please be respectful of others’ opinions if they should differ from yours.
✳️ Note: The level of this article is for students with a TOEIC of 550+, Eiken Pre-1, CEFR B2. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below.
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Gimme Hope Kamala
(1,063 words)
The U.S. will soon hold elections for president. There are many, many songs about the candidates. This one is a parody of the song Gimme Hope Jo'anna by Eddy Grant in 1988. That song was a popular song during the apartheid era in South Africa. Apartheid was a system of racial segregation in which white people had more rights than black people. The song's message of hope and desire for a better future resonated with many South Africans who were struggling under apartheid. It became an anthem for those fighting against racial injustice.
Donald Trump was president from 2016 to 2020. There were serious problems when he was in office, and many people did not want him to be president again. In 2020, the people voted for a new president, Joe Biden. His vice-president is Kamala Harris. She is now running for president.
Well, old Donald used to run the country
He sowed division - tried to build a wall
To “sow division” means to say things to try to make people angry with each other or to divide them. When he was president, Trump said he would build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico to stop people from crossing the border illegally. The building of the border wall began under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Under Trump, the wall was not completed.
He made a few of his people wealthy, oh
He don’t care about the rest at all
While in office, Trump made changes in tax law that gave executives higher salaries, but low to middle-income families people did not see any benefits.
He’s got convictions - he did the nasty
Trump has a criminal conviction for hiding money he paid to a woman who worked in adult movies. He also illegally falsified business records.
And undermined the constitution
In January of 2020, Trump denied the results of the election, and people who supported him, including right-wing extremists, attacked the U.S. Capitol building. In that assault, 140 Capitol and City police were injured.
He’s an oppressor of civil liberties
Trump tried to send a message to people who were crossing into the U.S. illegally. He had them arrested and separated parents from their children. The children were held in large, cage-like detention areas.
Another very controversial issue involved abortion. Since 1973, women in the U.S. have had the right to have an abortion, legal protection to have access to this life-saving action and to choose when to have a family. Trump put three judges on the Supreme Court who did not support this right. They influenced the decision in a court case in 2022 that ended this nation-wide right for women.
Megalomaniac republican
A “megalomaniac” is a person who thinks he is better than everyone else and who only cares about himself.
Gimme hope, Kamala, hope Kamala
Gimme hope, Kamala, for the election
Gimme hope, Kamala, hope Kamala
Hope for beating Donald Trump
.
You see, she’s safer than him with money
She’ll try to regulate the sale of guns
She’s bringing measures that offer hope not fear
Access to healthcare and abortion
.
We know there’s grief with the neighbors’ borders
Here, grief means disagreement, for example, in how border issues should be handled.
With climate change and immigration
Don’t want a president of the USA
Who’s dangerous to everyone
.
She’s got a father who’s from Jamaica
She had a mother who was Indian
She wasn’t born into fancy money, oh
But had a good education
Trump’s family was rich. Harris’ family were middle-class people.
Well, you could vote for a weird felon
Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, is running for vice-president. He made a comment in which he used the word "weird." He meant that people around Trump are acting or doing things that don’t make sense or that seem strange.
Who threatens bloodbaths and civil war
Trump has said that if he is not elected again, there will be violence. (See video clip below.)
But it’s a bad move (it’s not a good idea) to trust in the wrinkled husk
Of a satsuma that went off before
A “satsuma” is a kind of orange. People have observed that Trump usually has a kind of orange color to his skin. To “go off” means to go bad, like milk when it turns sour. When an orange “goes off”, the outside (husk) starts to wrinkle.
He makes up lies like an angry toddler
Seeking attention from the media round, oh
He may deny the facts but like betamax
He’s just an 80s tape that’s wearing down
Betamax was an alternative to VHS tapes in the 1980s.
He thinks the law is beneath his station
Sexual assault (he) doesn’t understand
Trump was found guilty in a court of law for sexual abuse.
We’ve seen his wife spend her life looking quite uptight
In case he dares to try to hold her hand!
"Uptight" was a word people used a lot in the 1960s. It meant someone who was too serious or didn’t want to have fun. Here, it means that Melania doesn’t even want to touch Trump’s hand. (See video clip below.)
He tries to preach, but he ain’t no Jesus
He’s got the moves of a battery hen
Trump has been criticized for the way he dances.
Better to keep him on a (golf) course where his handicap
A “handicap” is something that makes a really good player in sports like golf, horse racing, or sailing have a harder time so everyone has a fair chance to win.
Is not fomenting insurrection
Here, the songwriter is saying they don’t want Trump to be able to stay in power by starting a rebellion.
You might not like who he calls ‘Camilla’
She’s Californian and not a man
But she won’t set the country burning
Or take it back to 1861
There are many people who don’t like Kamala Harris (Trump has had trouble pronouncing her name correctly and has said “Camilla” instead of “Kamala”). She is not a man, and many people think a man should be president. She is also from California, a state that tends to be progressive (forward thinking) in its laws. However, the songwriter is saying that, even if you don’t like her, at least she won’t start a rebellion or change the country’s laws back to 1861. (1861 was the first year of the American Civil War.)
Question:
Which words from this article or the song do you think would be useful to you in the future? Do you have a favorite lyric in the song?
Vocabulary
segregation 分離
resonate 共感を呼び起こす
struggle 闘争
anthem 国歌
sow division 人々の間に分裂を引き起こす
wealthy 裕福
conviction 有罪判決
criminal 犯罪者
falsify 偽造する
undermine the constitution 憲法を弱体化
oppressor 抑圧者
megalomaniac 誇大妄想(狂)の; 権力志向の強い / 誇大妄想(狂)患者; (自分の力を過信した)権力者, 支配者.
regulate 規制
abortion 中絶
grief 意見の相違
weird 奇妙な
felon 重罪犯
threaten 脅迫
bloodbath 流血
wrinkled しわがれた
husk 殻
toddler 幼児
deny 否定する
beneath his station 地位にふさわしくない
sexual assault 性的暴行
uptight (literally: 窮屈)
to preach 説く
battery hen めんどり
handicap シングルプレーヤーのマイナス
foment 煽動
insurrection 反乱
Sources
Amiri, F. (2024, August 7). How Tim Walz became beloved by young voters with a message that the GOP is “weird.” AP News. https://apnews.com/article/kamala-walz-vp-weird-trump-gen-z-f9d718890c3ca907f42dba5934075382 Accessed 12 Sept 2024.
Benjamin Weiser, L. F. and K. C. (2023, May 10). Trump rape lawsuit: Jury finds Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation (published 2023). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/05/09/nyregion/trump-carroll-rape-trial-verdict Accessed 12 Sept 2024.
Graham, D. A. (2024, September 6). The cases against trump: A guide. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/09/donald-trump-legal-cases-charges/675531/ Accessed 12 Sept 2024.
Marr, C., Jacoby, S., and Fenton, G. (2024, June 13). The 2017 Trump Tax Law was skewed to the rich, expensive, and failed to deliver on its promises. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/the-2017-trump-tax-law-was-skewed-to-the-rich-expensive-and-failed-to-deliver Accessed 12 Sept 2024.
Rogers, K. (2019, February 2). In the pale of winter, Trump’s Tan remains a state secret. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/us/politics/trump-tan.html Accessed 12 Sept 2024.
“Bloodbath for the country”:
Melania won’t hold his hand…