FOLK SONG ARMY DIV.

The View marks the amazing elections of SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK of Georgia; the first Black senator from the Peachtree State; and SEN. JON OSSOFF The first Jewish senator from the Peachtree state! Bring the good old bugle, boys!

Let’s celebrate these victories for Georgia, for democracy and for all Americans. These wins will bring a more progressive and more representative and fairer Union. I’ve been whistling “Marching Through Georgia” all week, cheering on the vote:

Bring the good old bugle, boys, we’ll sing another song
Sing with such a spirit it will start the world along,
Sing it as we used to sing it, fifty thousand strong
While we were MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA!
Hurrah! Hurrah! We bring the Jubilee!
Hurrah! Hurrah! The flag that makes you free.
So we sang in chorus, from Atlanta to the sea,
While we were MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA.

But to my astonishment and delight, I learned there is another important political song that was written to the tune of Marching Through Georgia. The Land Song, from Britain, is an inspiring and universal political anthem that anyone of goodwill can sing. It was — is? — the official song of the Liberal Party in the UK. (Four governments under Gladstone; then Campbell-Bannerman; Asquith; Lloyd George; as modern Liberal Democrats, Paddy Ashdown; Nick Clegg; and the Edinburgh chancellor while I was there, David Steel). The Land Song is a Georgist anthem! You remember, Patient Reader:

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Sound the call for freedom boys, and sound it far and wide, 
March along to victory for God is on our side,
While the voice of Nature thunders o’er the rising tide,
“God gave the land to the people!”
The land, the land,
’twas God who made the land,
The land, the land,
The ground on which we stand,
Why should we be beggars
With the ballot in our hand?
God made the land for the people.
Hark the sound is spreading from the East and from the West,
Why should we work hard and let the landlords take the best?
Make them pay their taxes on the land just like the rest,
The land was meant for the people. [Chorus]
Clear the way for liberty, the land must all be free,
Liberals will not falter from the fight, tho’ stern it be,
‘Til the flag we love so well shall fly from sea to sea
O’er the land that is free for the people. [Chorus]
The army now is marching on, the battle to begin,
The standard now is raised on high to face the battle din,
We’ll never cease from fighting ’til the victory we win,
And the land is free for the people. [Chorus]

“Labour has “The Red Flag;” Conservatives sing “Land of Hope and Glory.” For Liberals, it’s always been “The Land.” — BBC reporter Andrew Whitehead, whose fascinating radio features about the song can be heard here:

“Way back in the early 1920’s, I heard “The Land Song” being sung, it was the one that really seemed to strike terror into the hearts and minds of the Landlords — as it should! It’s not only a Land song, and a Liberal song; it summarizes the whole democratic case.”

— Michael Foot, former Labour Party Leader. His interview with Whitehead about the song is heard below:

Hurrah! Hurrah!