Living in Ohio for the 2004 presidential election, I had a front row seat to American politics. Since our state was crucial to both sides, the campaigns began in March, well before the summer’s conventions. Every day the news included a generous helping of election coverage. On National Public Radio this meant national news coverage, local news coverage, weekend news quizzes, and all variety of call-in shows—where the masses argued with the pundit-of-the-day. Television had a crude, breathless version of all this, plus political commercials to boot. It was relentless and ugly. In place of intelligent debate and reasoned argument there was a brutal volley of half-truths, hyperbole, conjecture, statistics, and sound bites.

At first this language came from the candidates, their parties, and special interests. Then, inevitably, the electorate picked it up and everyone began spewing this garbage with an insane sense of urgency. Reason and civility where drowned out by the cacophony. One truth became evident: if you voted for one guy you are in favor of incompetence and corruption, willingly trampling on the rights of others. If you voted for the other guy then you want to pay more taxes and put our international standing at risk; plus you probably hate America. How did it go so wrong? Why can’t we, who live a country founded on the idea that reasonable people can disagree, find a productive manner in which to discuss our future?

This music is a non-partisan reaction to the entire affair. The opening fanfares call us to war against the enemy. We rally the troops to get out the good word, to preach the gospel of our position. If you listen carefully, you can hear the great Battle Hymn of the Republic reduced to an angry, bitter discourse; a few banal motives and factoids, which rise together in a deafening commotion. In the end though, no matter the outcome, it feels like a loss for America. Simplistic campaign promises cannot be kept in the complexity of the real world. Progress and compromise are still a mirage. And money still has the biggest vote of all. Nothing fundamental or important will change in how the game is played. We’ve been conned by a system that puts its well-being above our own.

the score (pdf)
listen to MIDI realization