Sunday, August 19, 2012

Quote of the Day: Tom Morello on Paul Ryan

Mitt Romney's newly tapped VP running mate, Paul Ryan, has said that his favorite band is Rage Against the Machine.  Rather than being flattered, band member Tom Morello basically ripped Ryan a new one and said that Ryan is the embodiment of what the band rages against.  Rolling Stone has the piece written by Morello.  Here are some excerpts:

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 "Fuck 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.

Ouch!!!  But Morello is right when he summarizes the GOP concept of making countless Americans "lesser" and therefore subhuman and disposable.  The mind set is frighteningly similar to how the Nazi made the Jews subhuman and, therefore, disposable.  What makes the picture even worse is that those who most loudly proclaim themselves to be godly Christians are the GOP shock forces who are leading the charge to label other citizens as lesser and undeserving of basic rights and liberties.

On a hilarious note, at yesterday's Out in the Park event there was a young gay man who could be Ryan's twin.

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