Iris DeMent: Wasteland of the free

Living in the wasteland of the free...We got preachers dealing in politics and diamond minesand their speech is growing increasingly unkindThey say they are Christ's disciplesbut they don't look like Jesus to meand it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the freeWe got politicians running races on corporate cashNow don't tell me they don't turn around and kiss them peoples' assYou may call me old-fashionedbut that don't fit my picture of a true democracyand it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the freeWe got CEO's making two hundred times the workers' paybut they'll fight like hell against raising the minimum wageand If you don't like it, mister, they'll ship your jobto some third-world country 'cross the seaand it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the freeLiving in the wasteland of the freewhere the poor have now become the enemyLet's blame our troubles on the weak onesSounds like some kind of Hitler remedyLiving in the wasteland of the freeWe got little kids with guns fighting inner city warsSo what do we do, we put these little kids behind prison doorsand we call ourselves the advanced civilizationthat sounds like crap to meand it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the freeWe got high-school kids running 'round in Calvin Klein and Guesswho cannot pass a sixth-grade reading testbut if you ask them, they can tell youthe name of every crotch on mTVand it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the freeWe kill for oil, then we throw a party when we winSome guy refuses to fight, and we call that the sinbut he's standing up for what he believes inand that seems pretty damned American to meand it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the freeLiving in the wasteland of the freewhere the poor have now become the enemyLet's blame our troubles on the weak onesSounds like some kind of Hitler remedyLiving in the wasteland of the freeWhile we sit gloating in our greatnessjustice is sinking to the bottom of the seaLiving in the wasteland of the freeLiving in the wasteland of the freeLiving in the wasteland of the free.