We cats are still trying to wrap our heads around the irony that Donald Trump, at a rally he staged to help prove his patriotism, couldn't sing the lyrics to a jingoistic song written by a Russian.
That's right, kids, Irving Berlin — composer of "God Bless America," which we hate him for, "White Christmas," which we're "meh" about, and "What'll I Do?", which we adore — was born Israel Beilin in the Russian Empire in 1888.
Funny, yes? Trump probably couldn't tell you that Berlin wrote Kate Smith's signature tune, let alone the words to it. And surely Trump's limited intellect couldn't grasp that a foreigner could be one of the pillars of the Great American Songbook. But if you look at the list of those venerated composers and lyricists, a number of them were not American by birth.
Frederick "I Could Have Danced All Night" Loewe? German. Jule "Time After Time" Styne? British. Jack "Happy Days Are Here Again" Yellen? Polish. And Vernon "April in Paris" Duke? Like Berlin, a Russky.
Which means that what these guys also had in common was that they were — GASP! — immigrants. And so, so many of their fellow American Songbook masters were the children of immigrants. (Jews, too.)
So that's the disturbing truth behind Trump's ridiculous performance today. Of course he couldn't sing "God Bless America," because every day he and his evil minions do something to destroy its soul. How many future creative artists are — thanks not to actual legislation but to Trump Administration policy — being held in cages at the border tonight? We cats hate to even think about it, and we HISS.
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