NOT LEFT? NOT RIGHT? NOT SATISFIED?

YOU’RE NOT ALONE! SINGER, SONGWRITER
AND ENTREPRENEUR JOHN CHAFFEE’S
INDEPENDENT LION WEBSITE GIVES VOICE
TO THE 32.8 PERCENT OF AMERICANS WHO
HAVE HAD IT WITH THE ONGOING D.C. FOLLIES

            Still fed up with the state of American politics and the overspending, underachieving gridlock happening in Washington, D.C., singer-songwriter and entrepreneur John Chaffee is roaring louder than ever.

            Fresh off his win for “Best Country Song” at the Hollywood Music In Media Awards (HMMA) for the biting and satirical “Play By The Rules” ^[1]—whose video, featuring Chaffee dressed as Uncle Sam, has been viewed close to 30,000 times on YouTube—he’s launching www.independentlion.com ^[2] to help disenchanted Americans express their feelings.

            The Independent Lion website will sell T-shirts featuring a trademarked red, white and blue lion (styled like the Democratic Donkey and Republican Elephant) underscored by a memorable catchphrase that sums up what millions are thinking as we approach the 2010 midterm elections: “Not Left. Not Right. Not Satisfied.”

            The site’s home page includes the Independent Lion’s mission statement: “There’s a growing segment of the population dissatisfied with the way things are going in Washington, our state capitals, and our city governments. It appears that neither party, Republican or Democrat, has the wherewithal to solve our problems, let alone the nerve to even address the more important ones. The elephant and the donkey just face off and butt heads…contentious, incapable, all their energies spent on a never-ending struggle with each other. 

            Emerging from the plains and towns across our country is a new symbol, the mighty King of the Beasts, to speak for those who have no voice. We encourage Independent Lions to roam through a land of no red states, no blue states, but a United States, where respect for the Constitution, and each other, rules. And where good old fashioned common sense, which would dictate limited government, living within our means, and playing by the rules, ROARS.”

            Independent Lion is designed to attract the approximately one-third of registered voters in America who now call themselves “independents.” According to a July 31 survey conducted by the polling website Rasmussen Reports ^[3], approximately 32.8% of the American electorate are not registered as Democrats (35.4%) or Republicans (31.8%) but as independents.

            “When it hit me that the number of independents is just about equal to those affiliated with either major party,” Chaffee says, “I realized this growing segment of Americans should have a powerful symbol to represent their point of view. Besides being individually strong, lions are social animals that run with and protect their prides. The lion seemed like the perfect symbol for freethinking defenders of our freedom and constitutional principles.”

            The Cleveland-based Chaffee, who worked for several decades in radio and TV before emerging as an independent singer-songwriter, has made speaking appearances as “Uncle Sam,” the character he plays in the provocative video for “Play By The Rules”.

            In addition to the upcoming release of the video on DVD, Chaffee is currently putting the finishing touches on a 5-song EP featuring “Play By The Rules” and four other witty and incisive, topical songs about the current state of America and its intractable politics. These will include “Easy Money” (about our government’s free-spending ways); “Washington, Adams and Tom” (which imagines how our Founding Fathers might feel if they time traveled to 2010); “Where’s My America Gone?” (which touches on the things we are losing and about to lose); and “Zombie Nation” (about how we continually accept the way our government lies and breaks promises and then shrugs its shoulders as if “Who cares?”).

            “As a singer-songwriter who is also a concerned citizen, I simply want to give voice to those of us who are caught in the middle, feeling that our leaders and representatives continually fail to represent our interests,” says Chaffee. “I know I’m on the right track when people come up to me and say they completely connect with what I’m saying and hope I can go further with these creative endeavors. The bottom line is, our Founding Fathers had tremendous differences, yet they managed to listen to other people’s opinions and found a way to agree and build a nation. Today, it’s as if our leaders can’t agree on anything that’s good for the people they represent—people like us Independent Lions.”