Why Trump's use of "The Snake" is so ironic
Stephen H. Provost
Donald Trump likes to quote from a song called “The Snake” at his rallies as a way to disparage immigrants.
Trump’s use of music and musical references at his rallies has always been odd.
Artists like Bruce Springsteen, Queen, and the Rolling Stones have protested the use of their music at his events.
And some of the choices are pretty odd: the gay anthem “YMCA” and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son,” for example.
The latter song contains lyrics like “I ain’t no millionaire’s son” and “Some folks are born silver spoon in hand... It ain’t me.” It makes zero sense, and songwriter John Fogerty has protested Trump’s use of the song.
The family of Oscar Brown, the civil-rights activist who wrote “The Snake,” has objected to Trump’s use of his lyrics, too. The song, written in 1963, became a top-30 hit for Al Wilson in 1968. It tells the story of a woman who rescues a freezing snake and is rewarded for her trouble with a fatal, poisonous bit. Trump uses it to depict immigrants as “snakes,” but when viewed in a different light, it’s the perfect allegory for Trump himself. Just take a look at the lyrics:
On her way to work one morning
Down the path alongside the lake
A tender-hearted woman saw a poor half-frozen snake
His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew
“Oh well,” she cried, “I’ll take you in and I'll take care of you”
“Take me in, oh tender woman (come on in)
Take me in, for heaven’s sake (come on in)
Take me in, for heaven’s sake
Take me in tender woman,” sighed the snake
She wrapped him up all cozy in a curvature of silk
And then laid him by the fireside with some honey and some milk
Now she hurried home from work that night as soon as she arrived
She found that pretty snake she'd taking in had been revived
Now she clutched him to her bosom, “You’re so beautiful,” she cried
“But if I hadn’t brought you in by now you might have died”
Now she stroked his pretty skin again and then kissed and held him tight
But instead of saying thanks, that snake gave her a vicious bite (oh...)
“I saved you,” cried that woman
“And you’ve bit me even, why?
And you know your bite is poisonous
And now I’m gonna die”
“Oh, shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin
You knew damn well I was a snake before you brought me in”
Before we elected Donald Trump, we knew — or should have known — that he was a snake, or at least about as serpentine as you can get. We knew he was a con artist; a lousy businessman; a crude, uncouth, and offensive braggart; a suspected tax cheat; a misogynist who bragged about being able to sexually assault women; a racist (the birther controversy, housing discrimination).
He told us, “What do you have to lose?” But should we really be surprised we’ve been bitten?
“The Snake” is similar to a fable of “The Scorpion and the Frog, in which a scorpion hitches a ride across the river on a frog’s back. Just as the snake bites the woman, the scorpion bites the frog. But there’s a slight twist to this story: The scorpion stings the frog halfway across the river, and they both drown.
When asked why he had doomed them both, the scorpion answered, “It’s in my nature.”
The same could be said for Trump. Let’s just hope he doesn’t take us all down with him.