No Justice, No Peace: Summing up this Election, and the Way Forward, In Song

 “Angry? / Am I angry?/ You ask am I angry… / and I’m at a loss for words.”

This powerful line comes from the song “Seriously,” commissioned by NPR’s This American Life to capture President Obama’s true thoughts about a Trump presidency. Since the song’s initial airing before the election, Obama has proved this portrayal correct, as he has demonstrated no disrespect or backlash, only encouragement, toward Trump or his supporters since Trump’s victory this week. As confirmed by his Press Secretary, Obama maintains his positions on Trump that he established during the campaign, which “Seriously” captures in the verse “One man / Rewriting the book on bad behavior / Maybe cheats the neighbors / Feels what they get what they pay for / We can’t pat him on the back and send him on through / No man’s ignorance will ever be his virtue.” Although Obama must have qualms about peacefully transferring power to “a demagogue flexing,” he has manifested these concerns by proactively engaging with Trump to assure that the social progress of his past two terms, particularly Obamacare, are not thoughtlessly gutted.

With regard to the American people, “Let’s talk of fear / and why I don’t bring it in here, / it’s a dangerous word, it spooks the herd, / and we all bleed in the stampede.” While protests certainly demonstrate solidarity and passion, forays into violence, threats of moving to Canada, and anarchist suggestions to refute Trump’s legitimacy as President-elect can only hamper our democracy. Moving forward, fear can only divide us further, and “after all we’ve done/every battle hard won / every hair gone grey, / in the name of this place / in a history paved with incredible mistakes, / still I pledge my allegiance to these united, divided states.” We owe America dedication and intense civic engagement before we give up on a country almost a quarter-millennium in the making.

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As we move forward, race relations will surely be one of the most pressing social issues that can begin to be addressed in individual communities. In his recently-released “White Privilege II,” the artist Macklemore addresses the protests reacting to the number of African American deaths at the hands of white policemen. Macklemore asks, “Am I on the outside looking in, / or am I on the inside looking out? /…They’re chanting black lives matter / but I don’t say it back.” Macklemore confronts the struggles of advocating for an issue in which one has no personal stake, but he comes to the conclusion that we all have a stake in a better society.

Still, he questions some protesters’ authenticity, “you speak about equality, / but do you really mean it? / Are you marching for freedom or when it’s convenient? / Want people to like you, / want to be accepted, / that’s probably why you are out here protesting. / Don’t think for a second you don’t have incentive, / is this about you, / well then what’s the intention?” Americans of all creeds need to look inward and decide for themselves if they value equality among citizens enough to fight for issues like voting rights and criminal justice that primarily affect minorities.

Macklemore’s most poignant observation, and one that much of White America has yet to internalize, is “the one thing the American Dream fails to mention, is that I was many steps ahead to begin with. / Skin matches the hero,/lightness, the image…and if I’m the hero you know who gets cast as the villain.” America doesn’t need more villains, and to be frank we don’t need more heroes, we simply need more agency among citizens and an equal expectation that all have the responsibility to advocate for their interests and work toward a better society.

Pithy and powerful, the refrain of “White Privilege Pt. II” is the line “No justice, no peace.” Although it was relegated the shortest Constitutional Article, the Judicial Branch arguably has the most power to check the president’s actions. Macklemore argues that “silence is a luxury,” and this is one luxury the courts cannot be afforded for the next four years when it comes to affirmative action, abortion rights, and any potential abuses of presidential power.  

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Outside of African Americans, the other majorly misunderstood American minority is the immigrant community. Fresh off The Hamilton Mixtape, the song “Immigrants” summarizes the tension between native-born Americans and early generation immigrants:

“You claim I’m stealing jobs though/
Peter Piper claimed he picked them, he just underpaid Pablo/
But there ain't a paper trail when you living in the shadows/
We're America's ghost writers, the credit's only borrowed/
It’s a matter of time before the checks all come/
But… immigrants, we get the job done”

Although international trade and an influx of immigrants benefit the U.S. economy as a whole, for too many years, specific groups have faced the immediate side-effects of unemployment with few opportunities for recourse. On the flip side, immigrants and foreign nations are not personally responsible for displacing American workers unwilling to perform the same tasks for the same wages, yet they face direct aggression in their communities. The song transitions into Spanish to emphasize Latin American immigrants’ bi-cultural strength,

Somos como las plantas que crecen sin agua/
Sin pasaporte americano/
Porque La mitad de Gringolandia/

es terreno mexicano/
Hay que ser bien hijo de puta/
Nosotros Les Sembramos el árbol y ellos se comen la fruta.

The verse highlights the fact that immigrants are not going anywhere, like plants that can grow without water, and it recaps that much of America was Mexican land to begin with. For too long, immigrants have been contributing their work and ideas to the American economy without reaping the benefits. More paths to citizenship for immigrants currently in this country and reform to immigration as a whole are necessary, and Trump is going to have to change his initial immigration policy significantly if he hopes to win re-election.

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To come full circle to Trump’s actual election, one must examine the party structure that enabled his rise to power. NPR’s follow-up song to “Seriously,” called “Party Guy” delves into the psyche of current RNC Chair Reince Priebus with the chorus “I just smile, / I’m a party guy, / smile, / toe the party line, / smile even when you don’t know why.” Throughout this election, Reince has dutifully stood by Trump’s side with minimal boundaries set for the candidate who does not represent his party, its ideology, its members in state and federal public offices, or the majority of its donors.

Similarly, “A Better Way” presents Speaker of the House Paul Ryan as rather spineless in his complicity with Trump’s candidacy; “It’s only for your sake that I endorses/I’m sure you could tell it was completely forced.” In a particularly excitable verse, Neil Patrick Harris’ vocals outline Ryan’s ideal policy platform for a Trump presidency: “Cut Medicare, / more fossil fuels, / social security privatization, / get the poor off welfare for good, / defund planned parenthood—/ gay marriage, abortion and gun control are all unconstitutional! Pure conservative ideals/no spending tastes as good as a balanced budget feels.”

Although, fortunately, many of these core conservative goals cannot be achieved in light of our polarized legislature—especially not in four years—Ryan has a self-indulgent image of where the Republican Party will be at the end of Trump’s term. The song closes with Ryan’s promise that “I’ll be there with policies aplenty. / Yes, I’ll be there rising above the fray / you’ll see me one fine day in 2020. / At least I hope you will, / God, I hope there’s still / a better way.”

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One of Hamilton’s most significant contributions to the fabric of American Democracy is the reminder that music unites us unconditionally. If you can come up with a catchy enough song, Americans will listen to what you have to say. As we transition into a Trump administration Americans must find similarly captivating ways to broadcast their values, whatever the medium. Hamilton encapsulates Burr’s—and Trump’s—tragic flaw in the line “If you stand for nothing, Burr, what will you fall for?” This is the time to remind the world what we stand for, and to show conservatives, Middle America, and rural voters why we will fall for these beliefs.