01-13-19

This song came out in 2016, during the height of the last U.S. presidential election. Local Natives used this song as a major catapult for their third album, one which felt like a more established blend of the first two.

It’s so hard to listen back through this song sometimes…” I’ve waited so long MRS. PRESIDENT…” this is where we all were. This was the assumed reality. Then complacency and an undercurrent of fear-driven hatred GRABBED the nation’s throat (amongst other body parts,) and has been holding us captive on what can only be described as a tired B-Grade political mini-series.

I hated being forced into a “lesser of two evils” situation, especially when every element of the process seemed heavily manipulated, by both major parties, at every moment. How do you trust any of that? I’ve been told time and again by those older than me ever since I was a young child, “that’s the system, that’s how it works,” and I just can’t wrap my head around it.

First, if this has happened before, this, what’s going on in our country right now, then it’s nothing I was ever taught. Secondly, trying to understand how grown adults continue to act in the manner they do while looking down on so many others has taken too much time out of my life, I don’t know what I can do about that, but that’s just a reality of things. Lastly, and most importantly, as physics has shown us time and time again, an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force… things haven’t felt balanced for a while.

The song on its own speaks to the concept of vigilance: “hey, don’t forget about the young people, because…well, we won’t be young forever, so like us now… it’ll be easier.” I appreciate this sentiment, and maybe in a different timeline, it would stand as the larger point. In reality, I’ve started looking at it as a message to be careful about the complacency we fall into as a collective. It’s become a marker of a moment where more of us lost our vigilance than not and were blinded by the orange lights flashing on every screen.

Lyrics:
I think we better listen to these kids
We can’t keep pretending we know what we’re doing
I can’t keep pretending I’m afraid
If you’ll sit and listen
I’ll tell you a secret

We can do whatever we want
We can say whatever we mean

I have waited so long, Mrs. President
Matriarchs and Teddy Boys play in houses on the lake
How can we quit drugs if you’re gonna watch like that?
Give me five good reasons you trust us with our future

We can do whatever we want
We can say whatever we mean

And if we don’t care
Then who cares?
We’ve been dreaming of you
Drinking from fountains of youth
And if we don’t change
Then who’ll change?
We’ve been dreaming of you
Drinking from fountains of youth

I think we better listen to these kids
I can’t keep pretending that I’m still asleep
And I can’t keep pretending I’m afraid
I was too stoned to call you but I thought that you’d say

We can do whatever we want
We can say whatever we mean

And if we don’t care
Then who cares?
We’ve been dreaming of you
Drinking from fountains of youth
And if we don’t change
Then who’ll change?
We’ve been dreaming of you
Drinking from fountains of youth

[Outro]
We can do whatever we want
We can say whatever we mean
We can do whatever we want
We can say whatever we mean