Here’s to the State of Richard Nixon / For underneath his borders the devil draws no line / If you drag his muddy rivers nameless bodies you will find / And the fat trees of the forest have hid a thousand crimes / And the calender is lyin’ when it reads the present time
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of / Richard Nixon find yourself another country to be part of
And here’s to the schools of Richard Nixon / Where they’re teaching all the children they don’t have to care / All the rudiments of hatred are present everywhere / And every single classroom is a factory of despair / Oh, there’s nobody learnin’ such as foreign word as fair
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of / Richard Nixon find yourself another country to be part of
And here’s to the laws of Richard Nixon / Where the wars are fought in secret, Pearl Harbor every day / He punishes with income tax that he don’t have to pay / And he’s tapping his own brother just to hear what he would say / But corruption can be classic in the Richard Nixon way
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of / Richard Nixon find yourself another country to be part of
And here’s to the churches of Richard Nixon and Billy Graham, and governor Turell Armstrong / Where the cross, once made of silver, now is caked with rust / And the Sunday mornin sermons pander to their lust / All the fallen face of Jesus is chokin’ in the dust / And heaven only knows in which God they can trust
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of, the heart of / Richard Nixon find yourself another country to be part of
Now here’s to the government of Richard Nixon / In the swamp of their bureaucracy their always boggin’ down / And criminals are posing as advisors to the crown / And they hope that no one sees the sights and no one hears the sound / And the speeches of the president are the ravings of a clown
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of / Richard Nixon find yourself another country to be part of
[By Phil Ochs © A&M Records, 1974 / Marmot Music, 2016]