"Fast Car": Is this a Turning Point?

What does the revival of an '80s hit have to do with the Texas border crisis?

1988 was the year I went out on my own. I left university, without graduating. I just couldn’t stand the thought of spending another week, let alone another semester, on coursework I didn’t care about. And there was a whole world out there to explore. I had a powerful desire to do something in the world, to make a life for myself. I was also still reeling from a truly awful relationship that had ended the previous year. It was a miserable time for me, and I wanted something better.

If there was an anthem for that moment in my life, it was Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.”

So I got on an airplane to Taiwan, with $700 and a suitcase, and my adventures began. They weren’t always easy, but they are what got me to where I am now, and so I am happy with them. It is now more than 35 years later, and I have an amazing life. That’s not always easy either, but I know that I’ve left the particular form of misery I knew in 1988 behind forever.

And now, “Fast Car” is back.

It’s a different world now. I can no longer sell the return leg of my international ticket to some guy from the classified ads – are there even classified ads anymore? – and check in for him to fly out of the country in my name. Air travel itself is an entirely different (and more awful) experience. So is a great deal about this country.

For the first time in my lifetime, the phrase “civil war” is in the news regularly, as a thing people reasonably expect might come to pass. “Divisiveness” could be the word that best describes the past several years here. And more than I’ve ever experienced anywhere or at any time and even with cultural and language barriers thrown into the mix, people seem unable or unwilling to hear each other.

I hope that it doesn’t come to civil war. I hope we can resolve what ails us peacefully, although I do believe it will require some form of “National Divorce”. But it is undeniable that something is ailing us as a country – it’s just not what the Mainstream-Narrative Pushers would have us believe it is.

The Powers that Be – or the Powers that Wish to Be, the Global Elite, whatever you want to call them – want us to believe that what divides us are things like race, economic class, and gender. They want us to believe that we are somehow fundamentally at odds with one another, because if we do believe that, we’re less likely to notice how much that Global Elite is fundamentally at odds with all of us.

But the controversy at the southern border has blown that pretense out of the water. Never has it been more clear that the federal government is acting in ways that are against the interests of the American people. And I say this as someone who does not believe in nation states or national borders.

What’s happening at the border is not simply “immigration.” It is not just an “open border.” It is a concerted effort to bring masses of people into the country, to be used as political weapons. And when the state of Texas tries to stop this, by enforcing the border laws that federal Border Control agents were supposed to be enforcing, the feds fight them.

So I’m going to say it, in case no-one else has. I’m going to say what libertarians have understood since before I was born, and what I think a lot of other people are starting to recognize now: Our government is at war with us.

But what does this have to do with a song?

A few years ago, a white, male – and Southern! - country singer named Luke Combs made a cover of Chapman’s “Fast Car.” It became a hit, and last year hit the top of the country music charts.

Without missing a beat, the usual suspects emerged to tell us how “complicated” this was. Emily Yahr, of the Washington Post, writes:

“…it’s clouded by the fact that, as a Black queer woman, Chapman, 59, would have almost zero chance of that achievement herself in country music.”

She quotes Holly G, founder of the Black Opry:

“But at the same time, it’s hard to really lean into that excitement knowing that Tracy Chapman would not be celebrated in the industry without that kind of middleman being a White man.”

Never mind that Chapman was celebrated when her album was first released. Never mind that she was nominated for six Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year and Record of the Year, and that she won for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Never mind all of that. The Grievance Industry is gonna grievance, no matter what.

But Chapman is having none of it. Her response to Combs’ success was gracious: “I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I’m honored to be there. I’m happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced ‘Fast Car.’”

And she’s going to perform the song together with Luke Combs at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Tonight.

I never watch awards shows. I’m just not interested. (OK, maybe if Ricky Gervais is hosting.) And you don’t need to tell me that nothing makes it to prime time that the Mainstream-Narrative Pushers don’t want there. I’ve seen this movie way too many times not to know that.

But I don’t quite see how the Chapman/Combs duet helps to support the prevailing narrative. Maybe the messaging is meant to be about how we’re not that different after all, and we can all get along. But if so, then the folks running the Grammys are a few memos behind on the New World Order messaging threads. Because if they’d been keeping up, they would know that that’s no longer the message, and that gay black women are not supposed to hang out with, or endorse in any way, white southern men!

Of course, ordinary people already know that we can all get along, because we do it every day. Is it just possible that this is about to become the dominant narrative? Or that maybe it always has been the dominant narrative in most people’s lives, but that the ideological screeching has just been drowning that out in the sphere of public discourse? And is that about to change?

Whatever the Mainstream-Narrative Pushers think about all of this, I’m excited to see Chapman and Combs singing “Fast Car” together tonight. For me, it’s not only a nostalgic reminder of the long and winding path my life has taken, but also a slap in the face to the toxic and divisive thinking that has become so dominant in our world.

To me, a Chapman/Combs duet at the Grammys is a flat-out repudiation of the whole grievance-and-resentment-driven, identity-politics paradigm. It is an affirmation that the things that unite us are not our skin color, our gender, our “gender identity”, our economic class, or our political affiliations, but our humanity. And it is astonishing to me that in the year 2024, this still needs to be pointed out.

Here’s Tracy:

And here’s Luke:

And tonight, you’ll get to hear them singing it together.

I can’t wait.