Paul Chander - We Made It lyrics

[Intro: Noam Chomsky] So is there an alternative to this? Of course. Democratic control of institutions, whether they're communities or workplaces or any otters, alliances among them, federal arrangements. You can't have meaningful political democracy without functioning economic democracy. It's not a law of nature that we have a state capitalism system. Those are political decisions—social, economic and political decisions—they can be made differently [Adlibs: Paul Chander] Yo Where my triangle at though? Yeah I just need the ding, ding, ding Shout out Soulja Boy, putting that annoying a** triangle I love it though It reminds me of uh, creation Yeah! [Verse: Paul Chander] Nothing is sacred ordained by the deities or wholly unchanging From slavery to races to nations to faiths and the reign of dictators To democracy, freedom, equality, policies bout our relations So when you see pain or injustice remember – homie we made it! If we can break down all the steps that were taken to make gains for fairness Then we can create us a theory of change for the issues that face us My basis for anger is total ensnarement by those at the apex Of politics lobbying gobs of our dollars to prop up their paychecks It gridlocks the Congress from solving the problems of honest taxpayers At bottom the problem economics locked in a model so basic That policymakers have no choice to cave to their bottom line cravings Say “don't regulate us too hard we can't take it” but often they're skating That's how you get all the too-big-to-fail bankers and conglomerations So we tolerate all the costs of the framework and try to contain them From discrimination, to degrading nature, exploiting our labor But if we created a model humaner the Overton frame'll Allow for attainment of justice sustain it for more generations If workers converted to owners who gain and who vote operations Then they'll be aware of the costs of unfairness and won't recreate them It's lucrative, inclusive, equitable heck it could be more sustaining Now politics got it a path to prosperity that doesn't ashame them And progressives credibly redirect payments to its propagation Funding job creation but also an alternate stable foundation For economy of solidarity based on cooperation And democracy conquering issues that face it across our whole nation Replace corporate statism seek justice sustain it achieve transformation And when it's been that way for ages we'll say – homie we made it! [Outro: Gar Alperovitz] Can you wrap your heads around, really, I mean really, that we are in position to lay down the foundations for the next great transformation? Really? Not just doing token politics, not just building the party—all that's critical—not just laying the foundation, but really laying the groundwork for transformation to a highly democratic, new system beyond the old traditions, one that is sustainable, one that deals with climate change, but also alters the ownership and democratizes wealth? That's our question. My suggestion to you is that we together are in fact capable IF we rise to THAT level of existential SELF-awareness. Real hard. Real hard. People want to do projects, people want to do politics, they don't want to get as serious as it takes to really transform the system. So that I think is our challenge, and I see a lot of people in this room really up and ready to do it. Thank you for having me [Applause]