Tweedledee V Tweedledum V The People
(c) RB Lonetree
From the LP "The Wind & The Whirlwind"
I watched the candidates debate
T’was a spectacle most surreal and tragicomic
Between two miserable spiritual infants
Two fools, daft and neurotic
I watched and I watched
To see which will be the one
To hold the nuclear codes and to decide
Whether to blow us all to kingdom come
Tweedledee or Tweedledum
The old familiar game
The Hobson’s choice - the choice-less choice
And always substantively the same
It’s not that Tweedledee lost his thread
(I do that all the time
That old familiar dread
Ah, shit…what’s the next fucking line?)
Without the teleprompter he was lost
(Without these dummy cards, I am too
I live too hard, burn too hot
To remember lines and lyrics like I used to)
No, it’s not that Tweedledee is senile
It’s not that Tweedledum’s a big-talking clown
It’s that both these criminals stand for war
And for the big, big end of town
Tweedle-dee’s been at it for decades
A career politician long in the pay
Of the arms dealer lobbyists
Those faceless, nameless men in grey
To Washington they all come whispering
A phalanx of murderers
A host of heartless hell-lords
A conga-line of killers
Tweedledum’s new to the club
The kleptocracy, just like the mob
Only with a better PR department
And all they do is kill and rob
He’s just a slum-lord billionaire
Not a career politician
He’s still getting to know the lobbyists
He needs more time in the position
But the deep state really runs the show
The unelected bureaucracy that stays the same
They decide what and when the president needs to know
And they preserve the rules of the game
And if Tweedledee or Tweedledum
Should ever seek to change those rules
They would promptly be replaced
With more compliant and willing fools
When you look at things with clear eyes
There really is no doubt
That there are two things that prevent democracy
From ever actually breaking out
One: The delusion suffered by the poor
That they already have democracy
Two: The tireless efforts of the super-rich
To ensure elections are neither fair nor free
The people want what the people get
And the people get what they deserve
With their apathy they earned these criminals
And with their lack of fire and verve
And with their abject capitulation
To lesser dreams and ideals
They earned these two damned idiots
Who do nought but kill and lie and steal
Of course, any citizen can run for office
But you know, they haven’t got a prayer
Unless they’re well connected
And they’re a multi, multi millionaire
And so we return to Tweedledee and Tweedledum
And the old familiar game
And still the people grin and bear it
And so things all stay the same
And though you and me don’t believe one word
The candidates are saying
The people don’t do anything
And the people keep on paying
“Not me!” Cries Tweedledee
“It was Tweedledum who lit the fire”
But we know both these maniacs will do anything
In the service of the empire
Meanwhile, the world keeps on burning
And the men in grey just laugh and grin
Because the people still aren’t learning
That the election won’t change a goddam thing