Don’t Drink the (Fraud) Water
Exactly what’s in Georgia’s water? Dave Matthews Band had a theory…
“All I can say to you my new neighbor
Is you must move on or I will bury you”
- Dave Matthews Band, “Don’t Drink the Water”
Come out, come out
No use in voting
Come now, come now
Can you not see?
There’s long lines here —
What were you expecting?
No water for you,
Just power for me.
So we will hold your necks down
Yes we will take your voice…
There’s the line, just wait six hours
Don’t miss the bus, it’s leaving now
Unless you vote, we hold your necks down
Yes, we will take your voice
I have no time, to justify to you
Why water makes fraud
Just shut your mouth and move aside.
- Tom Tordillo
“Don’t Drink the Water” by Dave Matthews Band captivated me. A disk jockey announcing the ‘new hit’ claimed not to understand it, but I imagined the Trail of Tears immediately. And Georgia. A critique of injustice.
My parody of the lyrics follows their theme in a totally different context: why is it punishable with up to 1 year in prison for distributing water to voters waiting in line in Georgia? What sort of judge could uphold such a rule?
In 2020, Georgians didn’t vote the way their president, governor, senators, and other leaders wanted them to vote. Not caring for how they actually voted, the president asked Georgians to find him ‘another 10,000 votes.’ That case is still under investigation.
But while the president’s “request” remains under investigation, Georgia’s legislature decided they needed to take aggressive action to stop fraud, including a new law with a punishment of up to 1 year in prison for anyone found guilty of distributing water or food to voters waiting in line.
The genocide “Don’t Drink the Water” describes seems like the distant past, the era of the Trail of Tears. With so much space between us and that era, there’s little risk of crashing into moral ambiguities. But if you saw a thirsty child waiting in line, what would you say?
One voter testified that during the November 2020 general election, she waited in line to vote at the Merle Manders Conference Center in Stockbridge with her husband and children for over six hours…That voter accepted water and a banana from line warming volunteers.
- The New Georgia Project, et. a., v. Raffensperger, et. al., ruling by Judge J.P. Boulee, Aug. 19, 2022
Water and a banana?!?! No wonder Trump lost Georgia!
Exactly what’s in Georgia’s water? Dave Matthews Band had one theory…
Dave Matthews Band regularly performs at “Get Out the Vote” drives. Other than “Don’t Drink the Water,” I don’t know of any of their songs that are explicitly political. They’d probably nod at my parody of their lyrics, maybe even smile.
But I hope Georgians turn out and vote in 2022. Crazy people who voted to enact a 1-year penalty for distributing water to voters should not stay in power.
