[weegee]

This article is loaded with inacuracies and incomplete information.

I'll try to take care of a few of them before posting this article (It's raining outside and I don't want to lose my post because of a power outage...)

Michale Graves is the Bush-friendly face of punk rock. He is the front man for the band Gotham Road

Michale Graves was also lead singer of the band The Misfits from 1995-2000. More people are probably familiar with that band.

Gotham Road is one a roster of bands who are anti-anti-establishment - though they represent a small percentage of the punk scene. They are not raging against the machine - they are raging for it.

Liberal Political Correctness IS THE NEW ESTABLISHMENT. It was in the 1970s when Leggs McNeil created a magazine named Punk (which became the defacto name of a genre of rock music). Hippies were still around as was liberalism. The punks saw through the liberal hypocrisy (read Leggs' oral history of punk called Please Kill Me). Even the MC5 (who, along with the Velvet Underground, were one of the first punk rock bands as opposed to 60s garage punk bands) talked a game of PC politics but didn't walk the walk.

"Is there a better man for the job? There definitely might be, but from the candidates that we have to choose from in America right now, there's no better man than George Bush."

At least someone gets it.

"I don't find anything punk about promoting higher taxes and more handouts to people," Rizzuto says. "I would see the conservative viewpoint as being more punk than a liberal one, because a conservative viewpoint places a lot of emphasis on personal responsibility."

D.I.Y. is punk's anthem. DO IT YOURSELF. How does sucking on the national dole/social net teat promote that? Even Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols railed against it.

When Punk Rock emerged in the 1970s, it identified with youthful rage and rebellion. It was an anti-establishment subculture whose politics often tended to the left. The Sex Pistols embraced nihilism and anarchy, whilst bands like The Clash espoused leftist views.

Bollocks. Literally.

FYI, punk was WELL underway before the Sex Pistols and the Clash were ever formed. Punk Magazine began its' publication January 1st 1976, it was formed in response to a growing scene in New York. The Ramones played (along with the Stranglers and the Damned) at a July 4, 1976 concert in England. In the audience where future members of the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and other bands (Billy Idol's Generation X?). The left has tried to co-opt punk the way they co-opted rock and roll after rock and roll ghettoed folk music. As Lester Bangs says, rock and roll is the genuine folk music.

Johnny Rotten wrote the lyrics for the Sex Pistols' songs so we can ignore any political statements from manager Malcolm McClaren (who took the New York Dolls out of dresses and put them in red uniforms in front of a communist flag for the Florida gigs he had the band play when he managed them before returning to England to form the Sex Pistols). John Lydon (aka Rotten) has written an autobiography, it is a good read. I don't want to misinterpret or misreport what he says so I will speak in general terms. He did not advocate genuine anarchy. It was a cheap rhyme. He even says these days he doesn't even entirely oppose the royals (nor disco). Bodies is a song about abortion but when asked he says it is neither pro- nor anti-abortion (although the lyrics strike many on the right and left of being against abortion). John was a school teacher (art) before he was a singer. He's smarter than some critics give him credit for. He lives in the US these days. He's not a Republican. He's not a Democrat either. He may be more along the lines of a libertarian (little l) but he's probably not one to admit it.

In Lester Bangs' Psychotic Reaction & Carborator Dung there is a lengthy piece on The Clash. John Lydon slagged the Clash for rehashing Marxists claptrap. The British fans interviewed in Lester Bangs' article on the band(circa 1978) were ignorant of any political message in the songs; they said they liked to dance to them. Even Mick Jones didn't care to discuss the politics of the songs (at the time).

Around 200 liberal and left-leaning bands, including crossover groups like Green Day and Foo Fighters, have teamed up under the banner of punkvoter.com with the goal of ousting President Bush in the November election.

This is the real reason there has been an explosion of conservative punk websites online. All are genuine. They exist to counteract the mistaken interpretation by today's suburban MTV punks that to be punk means to be a far leftist.

I'll continue this discussion below.

[itsamelman]

ping.

[weegee]

At the heart of this activism is voter registration. "One of the messages we're trying to get to people is please go out and vote against George Bush," says Justin Sane, the lead singer of a group called Anti-Flag. "But also we're trying to say to people, it's important to be involved in politics so you know what's going on, or one day you might wake up and realise that it affects you."

BS. They only want Democrat voters. Get Bush out of office, yadda yadda.

They want conservatives to register to vote like they wanted to include the absentee military ballots in the Florida vote totals (to make sure that NO voters were disenfranchised).

I may have been born in the morning but it wasn't yesterday morning.

[weegee]

Some critics see the emergence of conservative punk as a symptom of just how polarised the US has become in this election year.

It's only polarizing because the conservatives finally have a voice. The silent majority is silent no more. 8 years of Bill Clinton, even more of liberal political correctness, an attempted theft of the 2000 election, the 9.11.2001 attack, the blatant media bias all contribute to an energized activism. We still don't riot in the streets the way liberals do, we love America and generally respect law enforcement too much for that.

Read my profile page for my response (created this week) to the garbage the left has been pumping. I've been here for several years but this is the first time I've had a "profile".

"This country is as politically attuned as it has ever been," says Anthony DeCurtis, a rock critic for Rolling Stone Magazine. "Often there's a kind of wilful lack of awareness about political issues in the United States - a sense of 'What difference does it make?' "But that attitude does not really seem to be applying right now and punk rock is reflecting that."

There is little precedent in the US for Republican punk rock, though there are some exceptions.

Rolling Stone Magazine is the house organ of DNC supporter Jann Werner. He bailed out Salon this Winter so that they could circumvent Campaign Finance Reform laws by calling campaign ads "news".

Here is the obligatory Salon Stock Deathwatch:

Last Trade: 0.12 Trade Time: May 13
Day's Range: 0.12 - 0.14 52wk Range: 0.02 - 0.40

I won't accept political analysis about what types of people listen to what kinds of music from this magazine. Britney and boy bands are on the cover regularly. The magazine is out of touch on music Mojo Magazine is far better (although it has dropped in quality in the last year). I don't count on them being any more in touch on politics, let alone the culture war.

[egarvue]

I was never a fan of punk when I was in high school, being a huge metal guy back in the 80's. But I did notice that when it came to the politics of the time, it always seemed that the metal and punk people I knew were big supporters of Reagan and his standing up to the evil empire. It was the limp-wristed pop fans who were pro-communist, pro-left. I'm glad to see that punks today are standing up once again against the leftist MTV co-op machine.

[weegee]

Johnny Ramone, the guitarist for The Ramones, has fiercely supported the Republican Party for years. When the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, Johnny took to the microphone to offer his thanks, saying "God Bless President Bush, and God Bless America."

For many the idea of George W Bush being supported by punk rockers is a contradiction in terms. But for others, there is something about this phenomenon that makes a perverse kind of sense because of the Bush administration's hawkish posture.

Johnny didn't support President Bush in his Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction speech because he has a "hawkish posture". He supported the President of the United States because he has a tough job and these are very tough times. It's the right thing to do.

Here's Johnny list of his 10 favorite conservatives (possibly outdated but still online at the RAMONES official website:

Ronald Reagan
Richard Nixon
Charlton Heston
Vincent Gallo
Ted Nugent
Rush Limbaugh
Sean Hannity
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Bob Barr
Tom Delay

Johnny has been a conservative. He even convinced Joey Ramone to vote for Ronald Reagan (twice?). This is why Joey felt betrayed about President Reagan when he visited the cemetary in Germany ("Joey" is Jewish).

Dee Dee grumbled about Johnny but he also was man enough to admit that Johnny had a tough job trying to keep the band in line and get them to places on time. While Dee Dee wanted his drugs he also didn't like his addiction to heroin and struggled to keep clean (he'd still smoke pot). If he had gotten the drug laws eliminated he would have been dead a lot sooner. I've read 2 of Dee Dee's autobiographical books (the second was compiled from his journals up to the time he died). In his second book (which includes some references to 9.11.2001) he has no love for Europe and the antiAmericanism he encountered there in the 1990s, pre-George W. Bush Iraq War..., (here he was in a legendary founding punk band and he still wasn't treated with respect by young punks). He was born in Germany and grew up there but on his final return he did not feel there was anything to return to (although he liked some of the hillside, he hated the people). Dee Dee may not have been a conservative at the end of his life but again he could hardly be called a liberal or a Democrat. C.J. Ramone is a little on the left politically although I have not spoken with him in years (he was the accessible member when the band would tour). C.J. worked at the WTC cleanup site and does some admirable things.

[DeuceTraveler]

I see you feel strongly about all this. And it looks like I got some new bands to listen to.

[weegee]

Cross-referenced list of conservative punk websites (some sites may contain adult language but then you are probably of voting age anyway...):


Punk Voter Lies
http://www.punkvoterlies.blogspot.com/


Liberty Punk
http://libertypunk.blogspot.com/


Anti-Anti-Flag.com
http://www.anti-anti-flag.com/index.php


GOPunk.com
http://www.gopunk.com/


Dr. Balls Underground Review
http://drballs.blogspot.com/


PopShot.net (politics subsection)
http://www.popshot.net/features/cat_politics.html

"...it is hard to read the philosophy of communism because it’s so wrong-headed – once you’ve got individualism, its opposite doesn’t make any sense."

[weegee]

Rock and Roll / Punk Rock PING!

I invite you to offer any fact checking corrections to my rebuttal (try not to be too harsh). I'm putting the link to this one on my profile page...

[drew]

Well, back in my day (let me light up my pipe and tip back my rocking chair) punk was a purely leftist, hate Reagan deal. There were some rare conservatives in the movement but most of the kids were probably apolitical and just liked the music. I laugh at the all the "hip" musicians who go on about how much they hate George Bush (Pearl Jam, Ani Difranco, and even Morrissey has some anti-Bush stuff on his new CD) because it reminds me of how you had to hate Reagan to be a punk in the 80's. Every band had their Reagan song, everyone incorporated some anti-Reagan element. The new musicians are just as dopey as we were then, worse even. To show your hipness quotient you have to go on about how you hate the president. It's really pathetic, not to mention pathetically unoriginal and boring.

[537cant be wrong]

punk goes way back before then. like early to mid sixties
i have over 3500 albums and specialize in psych and punk from all over the world, and even then political rants leaked into their songs. check out the sonics from seattle area.

p.s. although you were more likely to get a social message as opposed to political.

[E Rocc]

Bodies is a song about abortion but when asked he says it is neither pro- nor anti-abortion (although the lyrics strike many on the right and left of being against abortion).

I don't see how anyone can claim it isn't, it's about as blisteringly anti-abortion as anything this side of an Operation Rescue pamphlet. Perhaps he means it wasn't for or against anti-abortion laws.

-Eric

[tkathy]

In the 70's anti-establishment railed against the right. Now there is a huge anti-establishment movement that is railing against the left. Really great.

[walden]

Interesting, and very cool! I'm middle-aged, but I like to keep up with what younger people are thinking.

[sweet_diane]

ping :)

[Sam's Army]

BTTT

[1rudeboy]

bttt

[Redcoat LI]

Liberal Political Correctness IS THE NEW ESTABLISHMENT

In Boston,it's the only establishment.

You Rail Against The Authority You Have.

[NYC GOP Chick]

Excellent article and insights! :)

D.I.Y. is punk's anthem. DO IT YOURSELF. How does sucking on the national dole/social net teat promote that? Even Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols railed against it.

I remember reading something a few years ago in which the writer was claiming that the Sex Pistols were anti-Thatcher and were formed rise up to sing against what her policies wrought....except for the fact that they were founded at least a year prior to her becoming PM -- and Labour was in charge then. Not that the left ever lets the truth get in the way of their agenda...

[NYC GOP Chick]

FYI - thought you might find this interesting. :)

[CyberCowboy777]

BTTT.

Individualism vs. Collectivism (forced in many cases)

Interesting that they leave out the important fact that he fronted the MisFits.