Bureaucrats Doing Their Jobs

[bnewman]

I began writing this song when the current assault on the federal bureaucracy was just a talking point and a twinkle in a candidate's eye. After the inauguration, when the assault began in earnest, I realized the urgency of the moment and made finishing the song a priority. No modern nation can be "great" without a civil service whose mission is firm and doesn't change with every political wind. Both my father (may he live long) and my partner's father (of blessed memory) worked all or most of their professional careers as experts in federal agencies. This song is dedicated to them and to all the federal employees who have lost their jobs or are still trying to hold the line in whatever way they can. The no-nonsense defiance of Seanan's original song seemed a perfect fit for this one.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Wicked Girls" by Seanan McGuire

listen to this song
 

/ Am G Am (G) / Am G Am Em / F Am / G Am / F C G - / Am DmEm Am - /

 

He was raised to believe that a family's form never varied

So what did he say when those women showed up to be married?

He said congratulations and signed on the line

Because goverment's ours when it's both yours and mine

And he never thought twice it would prove to be anyone's fall

He was serving his calling: he knew that it wasn't his call

 

The science showed her the vaccine was both safe and effective

She wouldn't be swayed by the leader's long stream of invective

She wrote the report and she spoke to our fears

And she rose to respond to the naysayers' jeers

It's been how many years since you've seen the inside of a lab?

We're saving each other; that's why everyone's getting their jab

 

/ F C / G Am / 1st /[1. Dm Em :/[2. DmEm Am /

 

A functioning government isn't a flaw

But we can't help but see how it sticks in your craw:

Honest hard workers who follow the law

And don't answer to monarchs or mobs

 

Rant all that you want to about the "Deep State"

The administrators dictators all hate

We know whose hands make America great: 

It's bureaucrats doing their jobs!

 

Congress passed, and the president signed, the law allocating

The funding that ten thousand orgs planned their budgets awaiting

And though some politicians might not give a care

When those orgs got to business the money was there

And the heroes who made it all happen went all but unseen

In a functioning country this shit is completely routine

 

We all waited anxiously watching the people's votes roll in

There was no evidence to suggest an election was stolen

The nation's decision would not be delayed

As from precinct to precinct the counts were relayed

And court after court said the outcome was honest and fair

With not one of them stooping to "find" the votes that weren't there

 

A functioning government isn't a flaw...

 

That was four years ago and now we've seen another election

Seen the world's richest man add our government to his collection

And we see very clearly your swindler's tricks

And the crowbar you swing at America's bricks

And the rules that you break to uphold the Big Lie

And destroy any government greed cannot buy

 

A functioning government isn't a flaw...

 

For we will staff kiosks at national parks

And give unsafe workplaces pass or fail marks

And we will do science and we will mail checks

And protect what our agencies' charters protect

So order your minions to give us the axe

Trade career civil servants for partisan hacks

Run America like it's the mob

But that is not the law, and we will not comply!

Say the bureaucrats doing their jobs

Comments

Bless you, Ben!

[catamariner]

I love the lyrics -- and I get why you used the "Wicked Girls" tune, but if you ever fit a slightly less dramatic tune of your own, I will be cheering that, too! :-)