Defending Democracy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Defending Democracy

 

Defending democracy is a fulltime job

It cannot be taken for granted

Its enemies will cheat and rob

Make sure your staff is planted

 

They’re coming after the voting place

They’re sending out their brutes

They’ll make it hard to win the race

They’re thugs in designer suits

 

They’ll attack anyone who opposes them

From the powerful to the local mayor

They’ll rip you up from root to stem

If you ask them, they don’t care

 

Stealing the vote is an old tradition

On both sides of the aisle

Every voter must now take a position

Is democracy still in style?

 

The right to vote is no longer given

The Supreme Court gave it away

We must be grim and hardline driven

To keep what our founders gave

 

The Final Hour

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEMOCRACY

 

The Final Hour

 

Freedom is no longer free

The brutes have come to power

We have entered our last plea

It is nearing the final hour

 

We thought we could fight the machine

With the weapons that words provide us

The machine doesn’t know what it means

We’re desperate for someone to guide us

 

Justice is no longer just

Decency was devoured

We’ve lost all sense of trust

We’re approaching the final hour

 

We believed the good would prevail

By the strength of our institutions

The four pillars would never fail

We would push for better solutions

 

But freedom is no longer free

And justice belongs to power

We swore that this could never be

We’re nearing the final hour

 

Yet there is time to make amends

There is time to forge another path

Before the road of history bends

Before the despot’s wrath

 

Protests in Kiev

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

 

Protests in Kiev

 

Divisions in the ranks

Protests in Ukraine

Rubles in the bank

All efforts are in vain

 

Putin puts his dirty hands

In places they don’t belong

A sour note inside the band

Will fracture every song

 

It’s hard to maintain unity

In the face of constant pressure

But unity is what we need

With faith in equal measure

 

Russian hands are everywhere

Beware the infiltrators

Pretending that they really care

When all along they’re traitors

 

Do not forget democracy

Without it we are lost

We can’t afford hypocrisy

One man is not the boss

 

Friends and Adversaries

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRADE 

 

Friends and Adversaries

 

We used to be the best of friends

Now we pose a threat

On trade our friendship now depends

The balance of our debt

 

For Canada and Mexico

Our patience has grown thin

The tariff threat will come and go

And neither side will win

 

Brazil was once our ally

When Bolsonaro was in charge

But Trump and Lula will not lie

Their relationship is hard

 

We used to like democracies

At the least we gave the lie

Now we only like autocracies

That virtue would defy

 

We need to find our truth again

We’ve lost it in the haze

Let’s move to where we’ve never been

Those better, brighter days

 

 

We Will Get By

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEMOCRACY

 

We Will Get By

 

You have to believe we will get by

You have to believe

That democracy will prevail

When all is said …

The autocrats, the dictators, the wannabes,

The hustlers, the con men, the promise

You everything wise guys...

They’re all lies

You have to believe the people

Will see through them

 

The trouble is there are so many of them

They come in all forms and colors

They wear fancy clothes and wry grins

They drive Tesla’s and Cadillac Seville’s

They bring you sparkling gifts

But their gold is pyrite

Their magic is a conjuring spell

Their promise is an empty shell

 

There is only one truth

She is not fancy

She has no bells and whistles

She is not the belle of the ball

But she is steady and persistent

She is the stronger tenfold

And democracy is her friend

And democracy we’ll defend

 

We will get by

 

(re: Grateful Dead’s A Touch of Grey)

 

BRICS in the Wall

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

BRICS in the Wall

 

Lula took aim at the US of A

The Saudis looked on silently

The Iranians had much to say

The Emirates could hardly breathe

 

They all blasted the Israelis

As they were right to do

The Palestinians are on their knees

With no one left to sue

 

But when you blast the warmongers

Yet fall silent on Ukraine

You should hold your tongues longer

Before singing that refrain

 

The Russians have no virtue

The Chinese little more

Give credit wherever it is due

Give none to the masters of war

 

Stand up for all democracies

Oppose the bold oppressors

Call out all those hypocrisies

As something less than lesser

 

 

 

The Fourth Estate (Kenya)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

The Fourth Estate (Kenya)

 

When Kenya closed the fourth estate

It opened up the doors

It killed the right to demonstrate

And invited bloody war

 

When the people have no eyes and ears

The police will have their way

The people would be right to fear

A cause to bow and pray

 

Without the freedom of the press

The republic is in doubt

Those in power will oppress

To push good people out

 

The flow of honest information

Is essential to democracy

If you want a democratic nation

And not a cruel autocracy

 

There are those who would do anything

To keep their hold on power

But freedom is a force that sings

To break down a tyrant’s tower

 

 

Russian Spies in Argentina

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RUSSIA

 

Russian Spies in Argentina

 

The Russians are in Buenos Aires

Recruiting agents of disinformation

Paid for loyalty with the latest spyware

Through political media organizations

 

Don’t think it’s just a one and done

We have the same here in the states

Tulsi Gabbard and Tucker Carlson

Mother Russia holds their fates

 

Their tentacles reach everywhere

From the local news to the internet

Disinformation “free and fair”

Bought and paid for without regret

 

Ever wonder why they love Iran?

Vladimir Putin is their ally

When Putin drums they sing his song

If you’ve got morals don’t apply

 

But Argentina is fighting back

They won’t be played by Kremlin spies

All republics are under attack

From Russia’s hacks and spies

 

(Argentina uncovers spy network)

 

 

 

Son of Nixon

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEMOCRACY

 

Son of Nixon

 

I am not a crook he said

Yet it ended in disgrace

Take another look he said

My time was out of place

 

Had I the votes today he says

The courts would bow before me

I’d always get my way he says

The senate would restore me

 

I worked with Chairman Mao

I worked with Brezhnev too

If I was president now

I’ll tell you what I’d do

 

I’d take control of everything

All branches at my call

Declare myself the people’s king

My house would never fall

 

As for the curse of Watergate

It would not have come to light

The false news and the deep state

It’s all a pack of lies

Around the World

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Around the World

 

The war in Gaza rages

The war in Yemen holds

The wars progress in stages

The Ukrainians will not fold

 

The tariff wars intensify

Across the global stage

Our leaders taking foreign bribes

The Saudis are in play

 

Everywhere we plant a seed

The future is in doubt

Autocracies grow like weeds

Democracy is out

 

The war is raging everywhere

Our rights are on the run

Those in power do not care

The reckoning has begun

 

The warming is the greatest threat

To all that live on earth

We’ve just begun to pay the debt

How much is the planet worth?

 

Canadian Pride

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CANADA

 

Canadian Pride

 

Our Canadian friends have won the day

With an assertion of Canadian pride

Once again they will show us a better way

More compassionate and more dignified

 

Our president gave them no respect

With constant threats of annexation

We wonder what he’ll think of next

That will arouse their indignation

 

The love well their independence

They do not wish to be consumed

They wonder where their friends went

With all these threats of doom and gloom

 

The Canadian Liberal Party rises

From the depths of obscuration

They chose the leader who was wisest

In defending the Canadian nation

 

Though the future is in question

Their proud nation will not fold

There will be no lame concessions

That are less than free and bold

 

(P.M. Mark Carney wins full term.)

Rights of All

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEMOCRACY

 

Rights of All

 

Our rights are not a property

They can’t be bought or sold

I’ll claim them as a part of me

Until the heavens fold

 

Those rights belong to everyone

Who lives on planet earth

Until the setting of the sun

By virtue of their birth

 

The age of freedom will not end

By anyone’s decree

No matter what you may intend

We will not bend the knee

 

Our students have a right to speak

Without intimidation

Rich or poor, strong or weak

In a democratic nation

 

You want us to be silent now

No protests, no resistance

But some things we do not know how

Our freedom is insistent

 

The Shadow of Istanbul

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

The Shadow of Istanbul

 

What happens in Turkey does not stay in Turkey

 

Its shadow of darkness spreads

like a chilling wave over the land

and across the sea injecting poison

into the body politick even in the

land of the free

 

What happens in Istanbul does not stay in Istanbul

 

It foreshadows the nightmares to come

as the gathering force of protest and

resistance builds in towns and cities

across the nation

 

How long will the president endure the

indignity of dissent?

 

He has imposed the Alien Enemies Act*

to deport residents to foreign prisons

 

How long before he declares martial law

to nullify the right to assemble in protest?

 

He has ordered mass deportation without

regard to due process of law

 

How long before he orders the mass

detention of law-abiding protestors?

 

They are holding show trials in Istanbul

to see how far they can go

 

Are there enough prisons to imprison dissent?

 

There are if we count El Salvador

 

What happens in Turkey does not stay in Turkey

 

By tomorrow it will be here

 

* Alien Enemies Act of 1798

Democracy in Turkey

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL DEMOCRACY

 

Erdogan’s Betrayal

 

As if to prove his power

As if to prove his infallibility

As if to test the limits of his lawlessness

Erdogan ordered the detention

Of his rival before the next election

The mayor of Istanbul

An enemy of state

 

The mayor of Istanbul is not

An enemy of state

He is an enemy of Erdogan

He is an enemy of the dictator

He is a friend to democracy

He is a victim of oppression

He is a candidate for change

 

His name is Ekram Imamoglu

He is the reason for massive protest

In open defiance of Erdogan’s law

You can take away their rights

You can take away their freedom

But you cannot take their voices

You can beat them down

You can push them back

But they will rise again

Democracy is Dead

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Democracy is Dead

 

Democracy is by and by

Racing swiftly to the grave

Its founding always was a lie

The people were enslaved

 

Where were you on that solemn day

When the dream was put to bed?

Did you hear our vaunted leaders say

Democracy is dead?

 

Did it catch you by surprise?

Did you think it was enshrined?

You couldn’t see through all the lies

All the planets realigned

 

We warned you it could fall

Without a strong defense

We were up against the wall

We warned you what it meant

 

So now we are consigned

To a life under the gun

We’ll have to toe the line

The oligarchs have won

 

Appeasement

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Appeasement

 

Neville Chamberlain appeased the Reich

Before the Reich invaded Poland

Our leader knows it is not right

But he’ll give Zelensky no land

 

Mexico appeased our president

Before he launched his trade war

A tariff where all the money went

Slamming shut an open door

 

I understand the need to please

The big bully on the border

But that’s no reason to appease

It just fuels his cruel disorder

 

Our good neighbors understand

He is not a man of common sense

He only cares about his brand

His sense of fairness bent

 

Appeasing him will do no good

It will only make his fire burn

All who’ve known him understood

This man will never learn

 

Germany Rises

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

Germany Rises

 

Do not be fooled by the headline

The neo-Nazis were beat down

The German people were not blind

They turned their state around

 

They withstood the avalanche

Of propaganda well financed

Limb for limb and branch for branch

The German people would not dance

 

For they have seen this act before

They know exactly where it leads

A world of hardship and of war

They refused to plant the seeds

 

Now it is time to move ahead

Put up the walls of our defense

The republic is not dead

Our best intentions are not spent

 

Rise up now and spread the word

Hope and freedom are at stake

All good people, have you heard?

Time to rise and stay awake

 

Evolution of World Order

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: MAGA

 

Evolution of World Order

 

We are no longer the leader of the free world

We are the leader of the autocrats

We form a front of imperial powers

We desire to expand our territory

We are willing to use force (if necessary)

We will show no preference in trade

We will gradually withdraw from NATO

We will treat Europe as an adversary

We will absorb our northern neighbor

We will take control of Panama

We will take control of Greenland

We will hold Mexico in trust

 

It is a new world order

With America as its king

An America with borders

Of thee I sing

 

We welcome those with money

All the rest can serve as slaves

Those who dare defy us

We’ll haunt you to your graves

 

It is a new world order

The one we’ve wanted all along

Filled with chaos and disorder

Let us sing the MAGA song