Tom Morello: 'Paul Ryan Is the Embodiment of the Machine Our Music Rages Against'

[sparkchaser]

Tom Morello: 'Paul Ryan Is the Embodiment of the Machine Our Music Rages Against'

This amuses me greatly.

By Tom Morello
August 16, 2012 6:44 PM ET

Last week, Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan, the Republican architect of Congress's radical right-wing budget plan, as his running mate. Ryan has previously cited Rage Against the Machine as one of his favorite bands. Rage guitarist Tom Morello responds in this exclusive op-ed.

Paul Ryan's love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades. Charles Manson loved the Beatles but didn't understand them. Governor Chris Christie loves Bruce Springsteen but doesn't understand him. And Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, Rage Against the Machine.

Ryan claims that he likes Rage's sound, but not the lyrics. Well, I don't care for Paul Ryan's sound or his lyrics. He can like whatever bands he wants, but his guiding vision of shifting revenue more radically to the one percent is antithetical to the message of Rage.

I wonder what Ryan's favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of "**** the Police"? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production? So many excellent choices to jam out to at Young Republican meetings!

Don't mistake me, I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta "rage" in him: A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he's not raging against is the privileged elite he's groveling in front of for campaign contributions.

You see, the super rich must rationalize having more than they could ever spend while millions of children in the U.S. go to bed hungry every night. So, when they look themselves in the mirror, they convince themselves that "Those people are undeserving. They're . . . lesser." Some of these guys on the extreme right are more cynical than Paul Ryan, but he seems to really believe in this stuff. This unbridled rage against those who have the least is a cornerstone of the Romney-Ryan ticket.

But Rage's music affects people in different ways. Some tune out what the band stands for and concentrate on the moshing and throwing elbows in the pit. For others, Rage has changed their minds and their lives. Many activists around the world, including organizers of the global occupy movement, were radicalized by Rage Against the Machine and work tirelessly for a more humane and just planet. Perhaps Paul Ryan was moshing when he should have been listening.

My hope is that maybe Paul Ryan is a mole. Maybe Rage did plant some sensible ideas in this extreme fringe right wing nut job. Maybe if elected, he'll pardon Leonard Peltier. Maybe he'll throw U.S. military support behind the Zapatistas. Maybe he'll fill Guantanamo Bay with the corporate criminals that are funding his campaign – and then torture them with Rage music 24/7. That's one possibility. But I'm not betting on it.

 

[beer good]

Isn't that kind of like when David Cameron claimed his favourite band was the Smiths? Except Tom Morello's reply is a lot more eloquent than Morrissey's was, AFAIR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzRbeHyIomk

 

[Sneezy]

Meanwhile, at Obama Campaign Headquarters 4 political strategists and 19 marketing specialists are at this very moment listening to and parsing every lyric of every RAtM title ever published.

 

[Hugh]

there isn't really any music that Republicans can use in their campaigns. It seems as though virtually all musicians hate virtually all Republicans. I don't think I've ever seen a presidential election go by where a band didn't protest against the Republican's use of their music. Musicians just don't like grim faced meanies. Which makes me wonder how well it will go over on the smoking patio of my favorite cocktail lounge when I will inevitably have to tell my liberal and Democratic friends that I have voted for a Republican presidential candidate for the first time ever.

About as well as flatulence in a diver's bell I would guess.....

 

[Peder]

Or about as well, I would guess, as my telling my Liberal friends that I didn't vote for a major candidate or, just to tease them, that I didn't vote at all. :whistling:

 

[sparkchaser]

there isn't really any music that Republicans can use in their campaigns. It seems as though virtually all musicians hate virtually all Republicans.

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