First, this song was not "written under Carter". The Furs had two albums before this one, they weren't still rehashing songs from before the band even started. It was written during the Reagan/Thatcher era. And why would a song about Carter, as opposed to Reagan, have references to cowboys, Happy Days, or the massive increase in health care costs?
Also, the idea that Carter was "far left" is ludicrous. I can just barely believe an American in 2009 who gets all his beliefs from Fox News could think that; there's no way a Brit who grew up in 60s/70s Labour England would see Carter as anything but center-right.
But the song isn't directly a critique of Reagan, either. The whole point of the song is "He comes in from the left sometimes, he comes in from the right." Everyone else—especially other new wave bands who'd come out of the post-punk movement like the Furs—was criticizing Maggie and Ronnie as if the world had been perfect before them and would be perfect again once they were gone. Richard Butler was pointing out that everyone who gets to the top in a political system is going to be someone whose only value is his ability to get to the top. Reagan was horrible, but whoever replaced him in 1984 would be horrible too.
First, this song was not "written under Carter". The Furs had two albums before this one, they weren't still rehashing songs from before the band even started. It was written during the Reagan/Thatcher era. And why would a song about Carter, as opposed to Reagan, have references to cowboys, Happy Days, or the massive increase in health care costs?
Also, the idea that Carter was "far left" is ludicrous. I can just barely believe an American in 2009 who gets all his beliefs from Fox News could think that; there's no way a Brit who grew up in 60s/70s Labour England would see Carter as anything but center-right.
But the song isn't directly a critique of Reagan, either. The whole point of the song is "He comes in from the left sometimes, he comes in from the right." Everyone else—especially other new wave bands who'd come out of the post-punk movement like the Furs—was criticizing Maggie and Ronnie as if the world had been perfect before them and would be perfect again once they were gone. Richard Butler was pointing out that everyone who gets to the top in a political system is going to be someone whose only value is his ability to get to the top. Reagan was horrible, but whoever replaced him in 1984 would be horrible too.