Fortunate Son Is Still Playing

There is a song that came out in 1969 that most of us can still hum without thinking. Creedence Clearwater Revival. “Fortunate Son.”

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Fortunate Son (Official Lyric Video)

John Fogerty wrote it in about twenty minutes, sitting on the edge of his bed, mad as a hornet. It ran a little over two minutes long. It has never stopped playing since.

You know the story it tells. Some folks are born with everything handed to them. They wave the flag the loudest. They make the rules. And when the bill comes due, somebody else’s kid pays it. Fogerty was not singing about one man. He was singing about a kind of man, and the system that keeps him safe.

Fifty-seven years later, turn on the radio and listen close. That song is still playing. Only the faces have changed.

Look at what people told the pollsters this month. A Fox News poll found government corruption is now the number one concern for voters. Not gas. Not groceries. Corruption. Gallup found eighty-nine out of a hundred Americans believe corruption is widespread in our government. That is the highest it has been in twenty years of asking.

That is not a political party talking. That is the country humming the old tune.

The song had three verses, and each one had a target. The first went after the men who wave the flag and point the cannon at everybody else. The second went after the ones born rich, who help themselves and somehow never pay. The third went after the ones who send other people’s sons to war and always ask for more.

Let’s walk through all three, one at a time, with today’s news in hand.

Start with the money. In one Senate race down in Texas, one of the richest men alive has put close to one hundred and ninety million dollars into the fight. That is more money than most counties see in a year. It went through outside groups, all legal, all on paper. But you do not need a law degree to understand what that much money is for. It is not a donation. It is a down payment.

Now look at the man in the big chair. An AP poll found most Americans believe he is profiting off the presidency in ways that are unethical or illegal. A Reuters poll found nearly seven in ten believe his private business shapes his public decisions. About half of his own party said that too. When your own team starts saying it, the song is getting loud.

Then there is the promise. Five thousand dollars to every adult, if his party keeps Congress. Two earlier promises of checks were never paid. The fortunate ones always have money for you right before an election. They never seem to have it the week after.

Now the war verse. That is the one that hits hardest this fall.

Over in Ukraine, soldiers fight with drones that run on a satellite network owned by a private company. This month, the speed on that network was cut back right in the middle of a major Russian attack. Ukrainian officials say it crippled their drone defense. Reporting says the richest man in the world pitched the slowdown, and the president agreed. Both have pointed somewhere else. A group of senators from both parties has asked for an investigation.

Think about that for a minute. One man in a boardroom, with a switch, deciding how well another country’s sons can defend themselves. Fogerty could not have written it any plainer.

Same month, the shipments of defense missiles Ukraine was waiting on got held up. Same month, sanctions on Russian oil were waived before they could even start. Those are facts on the record. You can decide for yourself what they add up to. But they are the kind of facts that make an old song sound new.

Here is what the fortunate ones never understood, back in 1969 or now. They think the song is about envy. It is not. Nobody in that song wanted to be rich. They wanted the rules to cost everybody the same. That is all. Same war, same taxman, same line at the polling place.

That is why corruption jumped to the top of the list. People can stand hard times. This country has been through plenty of them. What people cannot stand is hard times that only fall on one side of the fence. When the gas costs more and the fortunate ones get richer in the same season, folks start asking who is getting the difference.

So here is my question for you, and it is a fair one for every side.

Who are the fortunate ones in your life right now? Not on TV. In your town, your state, your ballot. Who is getting the silver spoon, and who is getting the bill? Who promised you money, and did it ever come? Who sent somebody else to do the hard part?

You do not need anybody to tell you the answer. You have been living it. Write it down if you have to. Then take that list with you on November third.

That song has been on the radio for fifty-seven years because it keeps being true. Every generation thinks it will be the one that finally retires it. Maybe this is the year. Maybe it is not.

But I will tell you this. The fortunate ones only stay fortunate as long as the rest of us stay quiet. The ballot is the one place they cannot buy their way to the front of the line.

Turn the song up. Then go vote.

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This post was drafted with AI governed assistance and reviewed and directed by Michael S. Faust Sr. before publication.

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