I was driving to work today and I started kicking around an idea in my head: an election season mixtape. The idea came up when I was listening to yet another boring (to me) report from the Democratic National Convention. My mind drifted off to presidential election campaign songs, and from there it was a quick jump to making my own election playlist.

I was starting to think about what songs I might include, which got me to thinking about right- and left-leaning musicians. Turns out, I can’t think of a single, cool right-leaning musician or musical act. I can list off dozens of sweet left-leaning bands and artists – Bruce Springsteen pops to mind right away, but pretty much any rock band since the late 60s has been anti-establishment, pro-revolution (generally liberal, in other words). But the republicans get Ted Nugent and Lee Greenwood (that guy who sings “God Bless the U.S.A.”

But I’m going to do my best to make my musical election coverage bipartisan, so I’m looking for some suggestions. And throw in your politically-themed (even marginally politically-themed) songs to help me build my playlist.

Hopefully I'll have a finalized songlist soon, and I'll share it with you here (including my reasoning behind each track).