====================================================================LYRICS ====================================================================
[Intro: Single acoustic guitar, finger-picked, minor key, slow and deliberate] [4 bars. Then voice enters.]
[Verse 1 — The Amendment] July second nineteen fifty-four a Tuesday afternoon A senator from Texas had a score to settle soon Two nonprofits in his backyard spending money on his race Facts Forum and the Committee putting pamphlets in his face So Lyndon walked onto the floor and offered up a line Six words dropped into the code like a landmine on a vine No committee heard a witness and no member took the stand Just a voice vote in the chamber and the gavel hit his hand
[Pre-Chorus] One sentence No debate Changed the rules for the entire United States
[Chorus] Voice vote on the Senate floor nobody even blinked One afternoon in fifty-four and the whole foundation linked They wrote it cause a senator was angry at an ad Now a trillion-dollar battlefield runs on the rules he had Voice vote That’s how the game began Voice vote Hope you understand
[Verse 2 — The Split] Fifteen years later sixty-nine they drew a line in stone Private foundations on one side public charities alone Ford was funding voter drives and Rockefeller played the field Congress said the big ones need a regulatory shield But the public charities walked away clean as a summer rain Less disclosure less restriction less of anything to explain So every operator in the country read the play Route the money through a public charity and call it a normal day That’s where the funds got their advisors and the sponsors got their trick Stack a project in a charity and nobody sees the brick
[Pre-Chorus] One split Two worlds And the money found the door with the fewest locks and bolts
[Chorus] Voice vote on the Senate floor nobody even blinked One afternoon in fifty-four and the whole foundation linked They wrote it cause a senator was angry at an ad Now a trillion-dollar battlefield runs on the rules he had Voice vote That’s how the game began Voice vote Hope you understand
[Verse 3 — Citizens United] Twenty-ten the Court said corporations have a voice Independent expenditures are just another choice But the real play wasn’t Super PACs it was the (c)(4) in the shade Social welfare organizations spending money unafraid Forty-nine point nine percent on politics and not a name on file Pair it with a (c)(3) for the tax break and a PAC to walk the mile Same donor same director same address a different sign Three shells on a table and the money moves in a line Then in eighteen IRS said keep your Schedule B And the Court said California you can’t make them show it free Donor anonymity went from a loophole to a right And the vault door closed forever on a warm June night
[Bridge: Everything drops. Voice and a single low guitar note. Quiet. Close mic.] One point eight million organizations in the land Six point eight trillion dollars and they’re working as they planned Two point eight trillion every year and growing every day Twelve million people on the payroll and the citizens can’t say What a (c)(3) is What a (c)(4) does What a DAF can hide Where the money was They were never taught the rules They were never shown the game And the ones who wrote the code They don’t even know your name [Bass SLAMS back. Full arrangement.]
[Chorus — Final] Voice vote on the Senate floor nobody even blinked One afternoon in fifty-four and the whole foundation linked They wrote it cause a senator was angry at an ad Now a trillion-dollar battlefield runs on the rules he had Voice vote That’s how the game was played Voice vote But the game ends today
[Outro: Spoken, over dying guitar, slow and deliberate] Seventy-two years One sentence No debate One point eight million organizations Six point eight trillion dollars And nobody taught you a single page of the rulebook Until now [Silence. 3 seconds. End.]
