Where are the B-grade villains of old?—

No longer on the silver screen;

Not finding work in the industry,

They enact a more real scene.

 

Sensing how times of subtle concern

Were times of capitulation,

They place their gruff and snarling lip

At the service of the nation.

 

They thrust their no-nonsense menacing mouth

Into the least microphone

To make it unmistakenly felt

That the truth is all their own.

 

Custodians now of the nation’s health,

Patriotic is their evil;

Their muscle and clout is privy to

All matters, military, civil.

 

Yet in recalcitrant corners, here and there,

Outrage stalks the land;

Little people, taken for a ride,

Begin to understand

 

That a dissembling, brazen lip

Has come a cruel cropper;

They look to less grandiose ones

To make them an honest offer.

 

When little ones come alive

To the ruse and subterfuge

Practiced upon their innocence,

The consequence can be huge.

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