When the Disney Democracy,

the meritoxicocracy of America,
falls apart, I will suggest a new national anthem
for the northern and western republic:
Strange Fruit.

*

It is very sad that the wonderful song
John Brown's Body (which I learned as a small child in Belfast)
was turned into the hideous, triumphalist Battle Hymn of the Republic
(which I learned later in my sickly underclass-battering school)
by a well-meaning, sickly-pietist honky-woman:

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
         While God is marching on.

There is, of course, no freedom without equality,
not to mention fraternity.