Throughout the song, what type of person or American, is fogerty referring to?

Clocking in at just over two minutes in length, Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son" is a rock and roll tour de force. Doug "Cosmo" Clifford kicks the song off with just a simple drum line, followed closely by John Fogerty with what may be one of the most understated yet powerful guitar lines in the history of rock music. It has a heavy twang that resonates in your ears for days.

This intro sets the stage perfectly for Fogerty's raspy, unrestrained vocals. The vocal melody kicks in with a kind of power and verve that leaves you feeling like all hell has broken loose for the next two minutes. Maybe in this sense, the song itself is an apt metaphor for America's role in the Vietnam War. What seemed at first like a simple and straightforward project soon degenerated into noisy chaos.

"Fortunate Son" represents what you might call a great, big grumble from below—a perfect anthem for the ever-growing share of Americans in the late 1960s who were coming to see the war in Vietnam as a terrible mistake. Creedence Clearwater Revival, even more than other antiwar musicians of the era, were able to give voice especially to the class-based grievances let loose by the Vietnam War. "Fortunate Son" was an anti-Vietnam War protest song, sure. But it was also a Springsteenesque working-class anthem—just one that happened to be written well before Bruce Springsteen himself broke onto the scene. And "Fortunate Son" was every bit as poignant a protest song as anything written by Bob Dylan—only this song, unlike most of Dylan's stuff, is a tune you can rock out and dance to.

Even decades after its release, "Fortunate Son" remains a song that makes you want to pump your fist. This is punk rock before punk rock was even invented as a musical genre. (Now that's pretty punk rock.)

Like Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A.," Creedence's "Fortunate Son" has often been misheard as a simple, un-ironic, patriotic anthem. Just as many fans hear Springsteen's spar-spangled chorus and totally miss the bitterness of the words in "Born in the U.S.A.," here many tune out after the opening lines:

Some folks are born made to wave the flag

Ooh, they're red, white and blue.

Many then miss the strong anti-establishment message that follows. Both artists also work in a style drenched in Americana, making it easy to assume that the lyrics contain messages that are patriotic or even jingoistic in viewpoint.

But oh no, folks. Don't get it twisted. "Fortunate Son" is 100% a protest song (although Creedence frontman John Fogerty would argue, of course, that there's nothing unpatriotic about protest). "Fortunate Son" is a strong, impassioned statement against the Vietnam War and the political establishment in late-1960s America.

c. troops marched forward in close formation against newer, more accurate weapons

in the united states, the president is controlled by the

constitution, and in all respects subordinate to it. insofar

as it deals with presidential power, however, the american

constitution has proved to be a highly malleable document.

with very few exceptions,' the constitutional provisions relating to the president have not been changed at all since

they were ratified in 1787. but in the late twentieth century, those provisions do not mean what they meant in

1787. the constitution is a legal document, and it is enforced judicially; but its meaning was hardly fixed when it

was ratified. in particular, the contemporary president has

far broader powers than the original constitution contemplated. it is remarkable but true that large-scale changes in

the authority of the president have been brought about

without changes in the constitutional text, but nevertheless

without significant illegality.

this is a paradox. is it not clear that constitutional

changes, if not textual, are illegal? the paradox has considerable relevance to our current thinking about the presidency in particular and about constitutionalism in general.

perhaps the framers of the american constitution feared

legislative power most of all; 2 but from well-known events

in the twentieth century, it is possible to conclude that it is

presidential power that holds out the greatest risks to both

liberty and democracy. the president is by far the most visible leader in the nation; he is often the only person in government with a national constituency. moreover, he is