There are a few things we know about Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. He’s a big Ayn Rand fan. He likes bowhunting. He’s a P90X aficionado. And he loves Rage Against the Machine.
(THAT’S MY TUNE: The nine biggest musician-politician feuds)
However, it seems like that love only goes one way. In an editorial for Rolling Stone published on the magazine’s website Thursday, RATM guitarist Tom Morello blasted the conservative Congressman as the “embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades.” Noting that Ryan has said he likes the band’s sound but not its lyrics, Morello wrote, “I don’t care for Paul Ryan’s sound or his lyrics.”
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 “F— 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!
It’s not the first time a musician has come out against one of his or her more political fans — Bruce Springsteen was unhappy with Ronald Reagan’s use of his cynical anthem ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ during the 1984 election, and just this week alt rockers Silversun Pickups asked Mitt Romney to stop using their song at his campaign events. But rarely has a fracas involved two figures so diametrically opposed as Ryan, author of the House Republicans’ sweeping budget proposals, and Morello, who was an active participant in this spring’s Occupy Wall Street protests.
Can’t we all just get along? And agree that, regardless of political persuasion, Corgi Rae Jepsen is the best thing ever?