1. |
Cycles of Ignorance
05:40
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Reflecting on this halted state
Of our so-called civilization
Consequence of foregone events
Or lack of imagination
In 2016 how did it feel
To be crushed by vote of mass appeal
A revolution of the spinning wheel
Returned to its destination
While ancient columns crack and crumble
Oracles misread the signs
Signals of this feigned rebellion
A nation scattered in decline
If history is embryonic
And ages past are intertwined
Is this disease our own creation
Or an artifact from another time?
And if I put my faith
In the human race
Or if I try to resist
I get cycles of ignorance
We could blame the corporate media
Who’d forsake the truth just a sell a lie
Or archaic founding fathers
Gazing with an all-seeing eye
But media runs on advertising
Subscribing us to our darkest fears
And evil men are done devising
Dead in the ground two hundred years
We could drive out all the politicians
“Those criminals are all the same”
Just to wind back in the same position
The only outcome of this game
‘Cause time again we’ve demonstrated
How frightened sheep get led astray
Tonight the wolves are fat and hungry
Seems like it always ends up that way
And if I put my faith
In the human race
If I try to resist
I get cycles of ignorance
Lead ‘em to the light
Or give up the fight
What’s the difference?
Still cycles of ignorance
Power leads to power leads to people taking power for the powerful people
Leads to less is more than equal
Leads to taking back the power revolution of the hours to ideals turning sour leads to death and destruction, to cancerous corruption
An angry young man becomes a bitter old fool and a bitter old fool just perpetuates his rule, for another territory, another quest for glory
Until an angry young man thinks he starts to understand leads to thirst for power and a place up in the tower, another quest for glory
Leads to the same old story
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2. |
Lift Lady Liberty
02:46
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If campaigns are only investments by pharmaceuticals, weapons and banks
Imagine the waste and their look of disgrace if all their candidates come last in the ranks
They'll steal your vote and shove it down your throat, deceive and thieve to sneak to the top
But we’ll spot a fake now that we're awake and our alarm is never gonna stop
Just gotta follow the money, we're sharper than knives when we see who'll be getting their cut
Together we'll lift Lady Liberty out of this rut
Divided and distracted by soap operas posing as news
Just desperate to sell us guns, liquor, cars and sweatshop shoes
If they leave us with nothing, I guess we've got nothing to lose
Oil and coal are gonna hit their goals, they're buying the EPA
With cameras and drones and recording our phones, we're spying for the CIA
They'll have the debate set up to spread their hate, promote the next resource war
Blow smoke up your ass to call you middle class, when you're the 99% that's poor
Just gotta follow the money, we're sharper than knives when we see who'll be getting their cut
Together we'll lift Lady Liberty out of this rut
Together we’ll lift Lady Liberty out of this rut
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3. |
Dark Money
03:42
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Voter turnout is down, frustration's at a new height
If you think they never listen to you, you're right
Twelve thousand lobbyists a day whisper in Congress's ears
And you get your say at the polls once every couple of years?
Dark money,
It's how you cheat when you're elite,
Just be discreet, burn the receipt
What can your country do for you?
You know I wish I had a clue.
Dreadful decisions every day, it's endless deja vu
Wall Street's got bills all stashed from the last stock market crash
Politicians get the cash; they give us IOUs
And it's they who choose who goes behind, who gets ahead
Who’s gonna be excused, who gonna end up dead
And when we're fed up with the setup we could vote them out
But corporate lobbyists still have their clout
Dark money,
It's how you cheat when you're elite
Just be discreet, burn the receipt
Business Roundtable keeps the working class unable
US Chamber of Commerce keeps up funding for bombers
Blue Cross/Blue Shield will make their patients yield
The NRA will help those shooters slay
Great America PAC put Donald Trump on his track
The Club for Growth, for greed and privilege, both
Uline and the brothers Koch make sure we're sick and broke
And thanks to Citizens United it's much harder to fight it
Ever since money is speech and corporations are people
Then Congress has been a leech from a swamp full of evil
And our voices aren't equal, they're all deaf to our moans
Who gave these special interest groups those megaphones?
So they can buy their drones, and they can bulldoze homes
And run their pipelines up and down through Yellowstone
And when we're dust and bones, historians are gonna wonder
Why we ever let them wreck and plunder
You’re sealed in ignorance bought by dark money
Their real constituents got that dark money
They’ll loot your silver and gold for dark money
Your future’s already sold with dark money
Dark money
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4. |
Kleptocracy Now!
03:49
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Ostensibly the information age
Evil enemy eyes keep us engaged
Preoccupied while the pivotal war is waged
Shifting blame on a faceless enemy
Selling rainbow bourgeois fantasy
Familiar ploy, but we buy it faithfully
Kleptocracy now!
Hypocrisy now!
Plutocracy now!
Kleptocracy now!
Aristocracy now! (While we’re all stuck hoping and dreaming)
Dishonesty now! (Of a world with the sunlight gleaming)
All I can see now! (Various dark forces are scheming)
Kleptocracy now!
Strip the tires off the public economy
Sell the scraps to private industry
Replace it with some corporate bureaucracy
(It’s a company policy)
High and dry and the sky fades into grey
‘Cause the ones we hoped would save the day
Ransacked and hauled it all away
Kleptocracy now!
Hypocrisy now!
Plutocracy now!
Kleptocracy now!
Autocracy now! (While we were all stuck hoping and dreaming)
Monstrosity now! (Of a world with the sunlight gleaming)
Will velocity now! (Various dark forces were scheming)
Kleptocracy now!
Aristocracy now! (Time is gone, old glory has faded)
Brutal philosophy now! (It’s been plundered, pillaged, and raided)
Doomsday prophecy now! (Appetites that will never be sated)
Kleptocracy now!
Mass austerity now! (Wide-eyed, blind to dysfunction)
Wealth disparity now! (Lives of comfort, and consumption)
For posterity now! (Looking for the root of the all this corruption)
Kleptocracy now!
If I can see how
Kleptocracy now...
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5. |
A Swing State
04:58
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I've always heard your choices carry weight in a swing state
Every voter they'll accommodate in a swing state
Importance no one underestimates in a swing state
I live where they could all afford to ignore me since there's really no reward
I'll sail my boat
And cast my vote
Into the deepest moat and sink my hope
There's trickery they perpetrate in a swing state
Caring leaders to impersonate in a swing state
Votes and opinions to manipulate in a swing state
There's nothing that could justify their gerrymandering, their pandering, their lies
If some party's gonna brag
This one’s in the bag
My ballot might as well be a white flag
Oh, the winner takes all
It's just electoral protocol
I live behind a partisan wall
So my impact is infinitely small
If I decide it's not my fate to reside in a swing state
My drop in the bucket will evaporate by the lake of a swing state
Is there another system that could innovate, or is it just too late?
Each politician's gonna say, they'll make changes so the people have their way
Words for the sheep put me to sleep
Wake me up when it's election day
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6. |
The Political Party
02:30
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I'm hearing chitter-chatter people can't shut up about
Some port in Catatonic so we might go check it out
Some private shindig
Some swanky get-together
No RSVP, secret code, membership
We heard about the party
Guess somebody let it slip
Nobody likes us
Neglected to invite us
Some fascist stops me at the door
Asks me what I came here for
I came to crash
I'm here to bash
Paranoid and askin'
Who let the trash in?
We're here to crash
Invaders in the club came uninvited, uninvested
Call backup, pest control
Emergency! You've been infested!
Crude with an attitude
Uncultured with no social graces
Soldiers of Babylon put riff raff in their proper places
We're here illegally
Guess we have no right to be
Well, I'll just excuse myself
Go be a nuisance somewhere else
Some fascist drags me out the door
Asks me what I came here for
I came to crash
I'm here to bash
Sirens are flashin'
Handcuffed and thrashin'
Just came to crash
Come join the party
The political party
Out on the streets, a political party
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7. |
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Have you seen the latest exit poll?
The younger generations only showed up 46 to 59 percent
If Millennials actually voted,
Can you imagine all the ways our tax dollars could be spent?
A polygraph for campaign speeches, slap bracelet cuffs for Wall Street thieves
We'd Kool Aid Man through any border walls, and oil derricks we'd trade for trees
Police would really be like Carl Winslow, reporters would be April O'Neil
Sustainability in the economy instead of gouging us for all they steal
Instead of wars, there'd just be games of Halo or Goldeneye
We'd swap the military budget for healthcare's so fewer people would die
If Millennials actually voted...
If Millennials actually voted,
Trade the welfare rage for a living wage so everyone could pay their rent
If Millennials actually voted,
On the day their approval rating dips too low, we could elect another President
We'd have a new blue collar Congress, all the millionaires our votes would purge
Ditch the Patriot Act, bring civil liberties back like we did Crystal Pepsi and Surge
A new NASA mission could send the two party system to some distant dying star
We could stop being stressed about being oppressed because of who and how we are
If Millennials actually voted...
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8. |
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It's time to run I'm gonna make them see
Their world can change if they would vote for me
These politicians full of hate and greed
Can't give the people what they really need
With my solutions all my bills would pass
No more pollution from the corporate class
They'll grind their axes and I'll cut them loose
I'll put your taxes to a better use
Sign my petition and I'll fight for you
Give me the missions that are right to do
I'm running just to keep this country sane
Send contributions to my campaign
Hey, running's harder than you realize
You think you might be down to compromise?
We'll pull some strings and we could cut some checks
Get you in a meeting with our top execs
Join our party and you'll never lose
Not so fast, you've gotta pay your dues
Sign the line, we’ll swing the votes your way
But expect us back to collect someday
It's time to run from everyone who thought
I was the candidate who couldn't be bought
Hiding somewhere up on Capitol Hill
Lying to the people my decisions could kill
The system's all I really need to protect
It may be broken but it's not dead yet
I'll blame opponents for the things I do
Soon enough I will believe it's true
I'm running over to my armored car
Back to my mansion with my bodyguard
Seems like now I need to watch my back
I've become exactly who I used to attack
I'll make a fortune or two in time
Taking extra portions from my partners in crime
Donations flowing, it'll all be mine
Talk the talk and walk along that party line
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9. |
Conservative Souls
04:09
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They promised us dreams of Technicolor
But reality looks more black and white
If I could make a proposition
Try to sway your opposition
Fragmented pieces could be nigh
But first one thing you want to know about me
Am I a registered voter of the GOP?
Ideologically hateful, economically cruel
Just another right-wing fool
So if you're tracking, keeping score, this ain't 1984
Those inter-party politics are always such a bore
Has it all been decided?
Are we conquered and divided?
Who exactly stands to gain?
Who's the victor of this game?
Can't count on their protection when only enemies remain
Are we overdue for a sympathetic view?
Yeah, conservative souls need love, too
In science and electromagnetics
Two opposing charges lead to mutual attraction
If you decline or opt to toe the party line
In a polarized world that's a typical reaction
Ooh, the sensation
Kaleidoscope of colors in a trillion variations
All across the nation, got a prior destiny
These corporate shareholder false prophets could ever see
So if you're tracking, keeping score, this ain't 1984
Those inter-party politics are always such a bore
I won't be a victim
Caught in that party system
Who exactly stands to gain?
Who's the victor of this game?
Can't count on their protection when only enemies remain
Are we overdue for a sympathetic view?
Yeah, conservative souls need love, too
Conservative souls all need love, too
You know your liberal soul still needs love, too
All these political souls need love
Every living political soul needs love
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10. |
Electoral College
03:47
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Electoral College
When will you be abolished?
We never sent an application
You just prevent our representation
If you won't accept us
Spare us from your ineptness
You flunked out this time
I'm left speechless
You're a pantomime
Being disenfranchised, it's a crime
A twisted tree of democracy
We're not allowed to climb
Electoral College
When will you be abolished?
Move into my dorm room with my books
My ballot's like a pop quiz
Multiple choice of crooks
Electoral College
When will you be abolished?
Who graduates in these United States?
An Ivy League of Presidents
Since nineteen eighty eight
Electors' votes and ours
Don't need to correlate
No wonder only half of us
Choose to participate
Electoral College
When will you be abolished?
We never sent an application
You just prevent our representation
If you won't accept us
Spare us from your ineptness
Electoral College
When will you be abolished?
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