In February 2023, Nancy Sinatra showed up at the Arenas in Palm Springs, California with a bevy of booted women.
“These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” drove spectators nuts, as Sinatra celebrated Modernism Week in Palm Springs among 1960s female throwbacks in flower power dresses and big white boots campin’ it up.
Back in 2023, Nancy Sinatra leaned over a railing as she watched in amusement at the dancing ladies lamenting her hit song about boots trampling over a cheatin’ man. I was hit by a fastball in 2025 when I shuffled the lyrics so that the boots, metaphors for a fighting opposition (Democrats, maybe?), and a cheatin’ man, the president himself, lit me on fire, realizing that finally, the former is rising, taking a stand.
Taking on one more line: “You keep lyin’ when you oughta be truthin’.” has me pondering authoritarianism. Could this song be even more meaningful in these days of Project 2025?
Put all the lines together, some of which are not sung but spoken, and you've got a woman’s warning to a man about cheating, which might well be a metaphor of the Democrats goin’ to walk all over a cheatin’ man. Donald Trump, the man, maybe?
The lyrics written by a man (Lee Hazelwood) and sung/spoken by a woman (Nancy), lament with monotone talking points that steal listeners with the beat.
One more line for Donald: “You’ve been a’messin’ where you shouldn’t ‘ve been a’messin.’”
“Come on, boots start walkin’,” a melody of resistance. Does anyone read what I’m sayin’?
