If this be civility …

Ah, civility.

The Celtic genre of music is filled with rebel and union songs that celebrate violence, hangings, firing squads and various forms of death and struggle. So one would not be surprised to hear a Massachusetts American celtic punk band called the Dropkick Murphys, who are scheduled to perform here in May at something called the Punk Rock Bowling & Music Festival, have released a song in solidarity with the public employee union protesters in Madison, Wis.

On a blog on the SEIU’s website, the support was welcomed, “There are not many American rock and roll bands that stand in solidarity with the union movement as much as the Dropkick Murphys.

“So it comes as no surprise that the band has released an advanced stream of a new song "Take ‘Em Down" in support of the thousands of Wisconsin union workers and supporters protesting the draconian budget plan put forth by the state’s governor.

“As part of the band’s efforts to support the workers, they are working with SEIU and other unions and labor federations to have the song available to be played at rallies across the country.”

The band’s paean to civility includes such lyrics as:

Let em know
We gotta take the bastards down
Let them know
We gotta smash them to the ground

Sort of like the Massachusetts (is there something in the water?) congressman who told union supporters earlier this week they should "get a little bloody."

This has led Wall Street Journal blogger James Taranto to observe, “Is this what the SEIU means by ‘civil discussion’? The song does not identify the bastards we gotta take down, but there are only two possibilities: the taxpayers of Wisconsin or their elected officials. As Andy McCarthy notes at National Review Online, ‘public-sector employees work for us — they are not beaten down by “the man,” “the system,” or whatever bogeyman the lefties are using today.’"