1
Replacing a democracy
with tyranny is evil
In democracy speech is safe,
and without violent upheaval
government evolves in place

2
to make a nation mafia—
where citizens must choose
‘tween safety of family
and shared-good: T’is abuse!
It’s evil, obviously.

3
This isn’t confusing
It’s not complicated
Donald Trump is using
our government to break it—
to destroy government
for by and of the people.
And yet in this moment
We may yet stop this evil.

4
Do we let honest judges end
Intimidation lawsuits
Just ‘til Trump replaces them
With judiciary faucets
Who go hot or cold as he
Their knobs spins, and we
Find ourselves in a dual state
Where justice reigns except when
The thug-in-chief it suspends?
Do we act now or do we wait
until it’s all much too late?

5
This isn’t confusing
It’s not complicated
Donald Trump’s abusing
our government to take it
for his own—that government
for by and of the people
be twisted and bent
to better serve the evil
of power for power’s sake
of “facts” as tools to take
more absolute control
of every living soul.

6
In twenty-twenty, William Barr,
Attorney General,
though searching wide and searching far
found no reason to call
the election stolen

7
But Trump knows that “truth” is only
whatever folk will buy
Now those republicans
who’d call the lie a lie
live only in the margins

8
But winning in this ruthless way
destroys democracy
a crime for which we all must pay
acceptance seems so lazy
as to be evil and crazy
so why can’t we agree
to stand against what we
once all as-one knew was wrong?
What changed? Didn’t take so long.

9
I thought we agreed on this
on honest clear competence—
even though voters sometimes say:
this time you don’t get your way,
please sit out while others play

10
After all, the point of this game’s
not winning, not money or fame,
but working together
to help one another
to do what’s best for all.
Good governments don’t fall
when leaders come and go:
they’re structures through which flow
those willing to serve the nation,
above themselves and their station.

11
As Donald Trump continues
his lies about twenty-twenty
while he has his DOJ sue
for voter info a plenty
we have a choice to make
about the laws we live in.
Our democracy’s at stake.
What is our decision?
Do we stand together
That government for
By and of the people
Should not perish
From this earth?
Or do we strut and pout about
Until it’s too late to toss out
that impulse criminal,
so ready, needle and awl,
to crush dissent
with violence?

12
What’s going on America?
It’s not liberal democracy
That’s let you down. It was
Four decades of actively
Eroding liberal democracy.

13
A bully sees your weakness
Abusers know how to warm you up
They con, they sell you on bleakness
And smile as they drain your cup.
You shouldn’t let them treat
Like that, let them defeat
Your power to speak the truth,
to do what’s right, to choose
To hold and spread the Light.
Could we join hearts, unite and fight?
Not to pretend we’re always right,
But for the chance to grow,
To together know
Commonwealth again?

13
A bully sees your weakness
Abusers know how to warm you up
They con, they sell you on bleakness
And smile as the drain your cup.
We shouldn’t let them treat
us like that, let them defeat
Our power to speak the truth,
to do what’s right, to choose
To hold and spread the Light.
Could we join hearts, unite and fight?
Not to pretend we’re always right,
But for the chance to grow,
To together know
Commonwealth again?

14
Or do we give way
To the Proposition
That a vote’s fair play
Just when Trump or his minions
Range victorious?
Have we no say? Aren’t we the chorus?

15
Is it not our place to demand
Both sanity and honesty
In the rule and sway of our land?
And is not this a clear blasphemy,
This war on liberal democracy?

16
Do you believe there’s nothing more evil
Than legal abortion, gay marriage, and trans—
Whatever it is that’s happening with trans people,
Because honestly if all didn’t make all stands
Into all or nothing kamikaze raids,
We could discuss developments
(not always nova before newness fade)—
?

17
I believe in our right to share government!!
I believe that if we paused to think
We’d all agree that if we lose the tools
Of liberal democracy here and now
Then culture wars have played us all for fools
‘Cause maybe today Trump 2.0
Outlaws abortion
But maybe tomorrow
The criminal organization
To which we’ve ceded control
Declares feticide, like, a major goal

17
I believe a little reflection
And we the People would agree
That the most fundamental infection
Is a government where to disagree
Will get you disappeared,
Where the people live in fear:
Not of having someone put them down
Or make them sad make them frown
But of being imprisoned or worse
when lawless law does a body curse
without any trappings of fair play.
To let this win’s evil. That’s as true today
As when imperfect hearts stood to pray,
when they rose as one to confess:
We hold these Truths to be self-evident,
That all men are created equal,
That they are endowed by their Creator
With certain unalienable Rights,
That among these are Life, Liberty,
And the Pursuit of Happiness

Copyright: Andy Watson