Name That Tune
The Chautauqua Center for Musical Activism recently concluded a project, inspired by the contemporary political climate. We undertook to revise “America the Beautiful”, amending the lyrics initially composed by Katharine Lee Bates, while retaining the original score by Samuel A. Ward. We imagine this new composition will be performed unless and until it is deemed free speech, fishy, or otherwise in opposition to the present administration’s totalitarian agendas of any stripe. Then it will disappear like an anti-Stalinist dissident.
All together now:
Obamica the Beautiful
O beautiful for specious lies,
Audacious hope in vain,
For purple prose and promises
Deceitful and insane!Obmica! Obamica!
God shed His grace on we
Who now endure your fatal cure
From sea to shining sea!O beautiful for union fraud
Whose rife corruptions spread
From auto plants to public schools
To bleed incentive dead.Obamica! Obamica!
You revel in self-awe.
In your new role you now extol
A mockery of law.O beautiful for healthcare schemes
That tax the nation blind,
That leave us sick and doctorless,
But leave your pockets lined.Obamica! Obamica!
You have us by the cubes.
But don’t expect us to accede
While we go down the tubes.O beautiful for patriot dreams,
For cherishing what’s ours,
For challenging your senseless schemes,
Foreshortening your powers.Obamica! Obamica!
Be careful where you delve,
Or you’ll be outside looking in
By year two-thousand-twelve.