Bigger Cages, Longer Chains! Lyrics

The swine are circling and they’ve tasted blood.
Poster children for manifest destiny, and they have become
a farm team of rednecks with cable TV and nothing better to do;
Rows of teeth waiting patiently to take the place of the newly lost.

The sound of the footsteps outside are loudest at this time of night.
They have strength in their numbers and god on their side,
waving guns in the air using pride as a guise.

Paralyzed masses with fear in their eyes, overreaching, overreacting now the spirit of the times.
Fair-weather captains directing these ships of fools.
If their hands do touch blood: ”I am innocent! They were innocent! I am innocent!”

The sound of the footsteps outside are loudest at this time of night.
They have strength in their numbers and god on their side,
waving guns in the air using pride as a guise.

It takes more than a minute to make you a man.
Arming corn-fed confederates, is that what we call a plan?
Pilate standing with one foot in his own grave, our hands are as filthy as they have ever been.

[Lyrical commentary by vocalist Nick Nowell:
“’Bigger Cages, Longer Chains!’ was an Anarchist slogan used to poke fun at the political fervor over what amounted to trivial matters. Building a wall between America and Mexico isn’t the answer to our problems, and neither is crying about it on cable television.”]