Like pretty much the whole album, this song is just a metaphor. I think this one, unlike some others, is specifically about American Evangelical Protestants and the Republican Party.
Jimmy is the Republican party, Jena is the Church.
Jena wants good, she wants to save the world. Even though they have some vague common interests, all Jimmy really wants is her body. He entices her, intoxicates her, and pretends to care about what she cares about long enough to take her home, and keeps smiling and nodding so she'll keep believing it's her interests he cares about. But in the end, he's only really trying to shut her up about what she cares about so that he can get what he wants.
The Republican party has been keeping the Church intoxicated with lines about being pro-life for how many years now? Yet when they had a majority in both houses, and the presidency, and 5 seats on SCOTUS, they passed 0 bills outlawing, restricting, or otherwise preventing abortion. And that's just one of a dozen issues where the Church is playing the whore to the State. But if the church starts to complain, it's all "just lighten up... baby we got all night" or "Gonna kiss your lips to shut you up".
Like pretty much the whole album, this song is just a metaphor. I think this one, unlike some others, is specifically about American Evangelical Protestants and the Republican Party.
Jimmy is the Republican party, Jena is the Church.
Jena wants good, she wants to save the world. Even though they have some vague common interests, all Jimmy really wants is her body. He entices her, intoxicates her, and pretends to care about what she cares about long enough to take her home, and keeps smiling and nodding so she'll keep believing it's her interests he cares about. But in the end, he's only really trying to shut her up about what she cares about so that he can get what he wants.
The Republican party has been keeping the Church intoxicated with lines about being pro-life for how many years now? Yet when they had a majority in both houses, and the presidency, and 5 seats on SCOTUS, they passed 0 bills outlawing, restricting, or otherwise preventing abortion. And that's just one of a dozen issues where the Church is playing the whore to the State. But if the church starts to complain, it's all "just lighten up... baby we got all night" or "Gonna kiss your lips to shut you up".