Here’s a little ditty in honor of (and with apologies to!) the brilliant Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Cabinet Battle #2 from Hamilton, which of course, everyone can now catch on Disney Plus!
Our inspiration? Yesterday's Wall Street Journal article outlining how Senator Mitch McConnell plans to try to hold hostage desperately needed federal funds by demanding brutal limits on the legal rights of all Americans. His ideas include legal immunity for bad actors whose workplaces are unsafe, massive federal “tort reform” like caps on damages and other limits on the power of local juries, and dumping all injury and medical malpractice cases into federal courts – the very courts he is now furiously packing with extremist right-wing judges. Oh, and it's retroactive to the 1918 Spanish flu. (Only kidding - just to last December!)
Our rap battle is between James Madison, who wrote the Bill of Rights when he was in the U.S. House (he later became President), and current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who apparently couldn’t care less about the U.S. Constitution or the American public.
Secretary Alexander Hamilton presiding:
The issue on the table, whether unsafe businesses should be accountable during a pandemic
And do we reward bad actors, it seems academic
That we should stay out of it and instead protect workers and consumers
The decision on this matter IS subject to congressional approval
But you must get the nation to concur
President Madison, you have the floor, sir
President James Madison:
When we drafted the Constitution, when we were writing it
We promised Americans the Seventh Amendment
The right to civil jury trial, which
Someone now you want to destroy
Mitch
We expected future Senators like you to
Protect this right instead of what you wanna do
To make dangerous Big Businesses unaccountable
And make barriers to the courthouse practically insurmountable
Stand with the people who are suffering through this pandemic
I know the U.S. Chamber is in your ear and
Driven by greed want to strip people’s rights
I'll remind you that they are not elected leaders
They know nothing of empathy
For the American people, their mountains of money, fraudulent supremacy
Concern for the public, their detested members don’t have any
Everything they do betrays the ideals of our nation
Ooh
Hey, and if ya don't know, now ya know, Mr. Hamilton
Hamilton:
Thank you, President Madison
Senator McConnell, your response
McConnell:
You must be out of your Goddamn mind if you think
I’m going to do one thing to anger my amoral friends
They paved my way into the Senate
A corrupt game, and I get the credit
What’s good for the U.S. Chamber is good for me
So for unsafe businesses and industries, immunity
Who cares about workers and consumers low on money
They’re unimportant to the nation’s recovery.
Until we comply with the Chamber’s demands,
I’m holding the nation hostage, Congress do as I command!
Hamilton:
Enough, Madison is right.
The nation’s too ill to start this kind of fight
We need to protect people and the Constitution both
I seem to recall that we all took an oath
The people need confidence
That bad actors will be accountable
And that being forced back to work
Won’t make their life struggles compoundable
It's a little disquieting you would let corporations blind you to reality
Mitch
McConnell:
Sir
Madison:
Draft a bill that helps the public
Did you forget your duty?
McConnell:
What
Madison:
It’s not about cruelty
You accumulate power while the nation’s infectious
And in our hour of need, you’re nothing but reckless
Someone oughta remind you
McConnell:
What
Madison:
You're nothing without the U.S. Chamber behind you
Mitch
Their lobbyists are calling
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