I did enjoy thinking about the contemporary relevance of this lyric in Radiohead’s “Electioneering” from 1997’s OK Computer. To help understand it’s relevance, I’ve included some links for each of the lyrics below (which could equally apply to any government of any colour):
Riot shields /
Voodoo economics /
It’s just business /
Cattle prods and the IMF /
I trust I can rely on your vote
Video here in case you want to see the original:
arbitrary constant 