There Will Not be a King
18th of April in seventy-five A E A D Capo 2
A people are bound to be free A F#m E
All saddled up and I’m ready to ride D / A E
One if by land and it’s two if by sea D E A D
CHORUS
There will not be a king over me A E A D
There will not be a king over me A E A
The shadow of slavery passing so slow
But people are bound to be free
Fourscore and seven and many to go
The blood and the bones in the mud here below
CHORUS
Fascism, tyranny loosed on the world
Our grandfathers all do agree
Pearl Harbor or Holocaust, not in our name
Emperor, Fuhrer, they’re all just the same
CHORUS
How memory falters in such a parade D C#m
No tyrants abroad threaten thee D – E –
Fair nation of immigrants under the stars, A E A D
What power could make you forget who you are? A E A D
INSTR F#m E A D A E A D, AEA
Corruption now wears a black robe
And it gnaws on the Liberty Tree
Autocrats, kleptocrats clipping our wings
Prey on the rights that democracy brings
Highest court in the land now would crown a man king A E A D
And it’s all I can say can you see A F#m E
Do people still want to be free? A F#m E
CHORUS
©Doug Hendren 2024
What’s it about? We are at a watershed moment in American history, where fundamental rights and principles in our history and Constitution are being challenged. The separation of powers, the checks and balances in our system of government, the separation of church and state. Under the direction of an all-Catholic, conservative Supreme Court majority, we careen toward a theocratic state overseen by a dictator. The present court has worked hard for years to disenfranchise many American voters.
Trump stacked the court with three extremists, who joined extremists Thomas and Alito, to overturn longstanding precedents, gutting civil rights protections and a woman’s right to choose. In the words of historian Heather Cox Richardson, “With those justices on the court, it has handed down a series of nakedly partisan decisions that represent the goals of the extremist Republican Party rather than the majority of Americans. They have overturned a ban on bump stocks for semiautomatic rifles, made partisan and racial gerrymandering easier, undercut business regulation, ceased to recognize the constitutional right to abortion, and, stunningly, ruled that a president has significant immunity from prosecution for committing crimes while in office.” (Letters From an American, July 29, 2024).
The Supreme Court’s granting to US presidents “Absolute immunity for official acts” includes Trump’s highly organized efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election. Already, this same logic has now resulted in Judge Cannon’s dismissal of Trump’s federal criminal case for illegally retaining classified national security secrets at his Mar-a-Lago resort, and obstructing government efforts to reclaim them. These rulings confirm that the Court views Trump as, literally, above the law.
The United States had its birth in rejection of the monarchy of King George. The central theme of the Declaration of Independence is King George’s “history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”
The United States is rooted in aversion to autocratic rule, beginning with George Washington’s resignation at the end of the American Revolution. Our fight to defeat fascism in World War II likewise reflected a commitment to democracy at all levels. The decades and centuries of our history reflect a gradual march toward extending more rights to more people in our society.
The present ideologically-driven Supreme Court is taking us in the opposite direction, no longer reflecting the will or spirit of the American people. They have done a great deal to undermine our democracy in recent years, including the notorious Citizens United decision (2010) that fails to distinguish between people and corporations, allowing unlimited money into our electoral process. In a sense, the Court itself will be on the ballot in 2024. This year’s election will have high stakes: The rule of law versus power, democracy versus dictatorship, and forced birth versus a woman’s right to choose, among other things. President Biden has just proposed reforms to reorient the Supreme Court, including term limits and a binding code of ethics.
Do Americans still want to be free? If so, we need to recognize autocracy when we see it. There will not be a king over me. How about you?