Stand Up!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Stand Up

 

Standing up for what is right is

A sacred obligation

Standing for our nation’s pride

Against discrimination

 

We see forces against the light

Standing up for hate

We fear the voices of the right

Are standing up too late

 

They’re standing all across the world

They’re standing in the streets

When good people stand together

We will hand them a defeat

 

There are more of us than them

Though they are brash and loud

Our strength is in our virtue

Together we stand proud

 

We’ll stand up for minorities

We’ll stand up for the poor

We’ll stand against oppressors

And their dirty little wars

 

(The British stand against fascism.)

 

American Fascism

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

American Fascism

 

Trump is a fascist, plain and clear

There’s no way around it now

Terror is terror, fear is fear

A purple cow is still a cow

 

The man believes in one-man rule

As long as that man is him

He acts like a bully, talks like a fool

His light grows dimmer than dim

 

Yet his confidence is larger than life

His worst is better than all

If elected he will deliver strife

And the republic will surely fall

 

I’m not a fascist, you’re the one!

He will tell you at every chance

But mark my words before he’s done

Fascism is on the advance

 

It’s not too late to turn it around

But our prospects are looking slim

If in three months the market is down

The people may turn to him

 

The Return of Italian Fascism

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL DEMOCRACY

Fascism with a Pretty Face

 

Mussolini rose to power in Italy

As an elected prime minister in 1922

In three years he became dictator

In 1940 he entered the great war

On the side of the Nazis

Five years later he was captured

And executed by his own people

 

Five decades later

In the tradition of Italian fascism

Italy elects Giorgia “Mussolini” Meloni

Fascism with a pretty face

She represents Italian nationalism

Praises Mussolini

Condemns multiculturalism

Shows sympathy for Nazi collaborators

And repressive morality police

 

Despite past support for Putin

She has promised to support Ukraine

We will see, we will see

Would Mussolini have opposed Hitler

If his election required it?

 

Let’s not pretend it cannot happen

It can and anywhere

Where fear of others supplants patriotism

Where racial purity a silent virtue

Where years of austerity

Poverty and homelessness

Feed our biases and terror

It happens when we forget who we are

And what we stand for

It happens when we care only for

Ourselves and nothing for others