Rocker Tom Morello Rages Against Paul Ryan - East Idaho News
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Rocker Tom Morello Rages Against Paul Ryan

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081712 Tom%20MorelloRAM?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1345222338236ABC News(NEW YORK) — Politics makes strange bedfellows, as the saying goes.  The latest unlikely couple: Mitt Romney’s VP pick Paul Ryan, who says the hardcore rock band Rage Against the Machine is one of his favorites.

Rage Against the Machine founder and guitarist Tom Morello is making it clear: that love isn’t mutual.

“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,” Morello declares in an op-ed piece for Rolling Stone.

Morello continues, “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. …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.”

Morello goes on to assert that the band’s music for some has “changed their minds and their lives” about the often politically volatile issues for which the band typically stands.  “Perhaps Paul Ryan was moshing when he should have been listening,” Morello muses.

So far, there’s been no public reaction from the Ryan regarding Morello’s statement.

Earlier this week, rock band Silversun Pickups sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Romney-Ryan campaign, demanding they stop using the band’s 2009 hit “Panic Switch” at campaign rallies.  The campaign responded that, although they had a license to use the song, it was “inadvertently played” at a campaign event and wouldn’t be played again.

You can read all of Morello’s statement at RollingStone.com.

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