Get Your Politics Outta My Music

Disclaimer: Please note that the opinions that Charly expresses in this editorial are entirely his own and don't necessarily reflect the views or opinons of anyone on the XROXX Staff.  Most likely you will be dissed and offended after reading this article - don't worry, we were too!  So, read at your own risk!  In the best interests of the First Amendment, we decided to post this article and let you decide for yourself - the way it should be.

With the election just a short time away, what better time is there to talk about politics?  I’ll tell ya when, never. I’m fucking sick of hearing my favorite musicians telling me to go out and vote.  With the sudden rise of some left wing web geek’s, PunkVoter.com, it seems all anyone cares about these days is the November election.  Some of my favorite bands (NOFX, Green Day, etc.) that were never before political are telling everyone biased information in hopes to get Bush out of office.  I admit, I am no Dubya fan, but this new breed of political punk rock has gotten way out of hand.

Punk Rock has always been political.  That’s just the way it was.  Great old timers such as The Dead Kennedy’s and Bad Religion started writing lyrics that mattered.  Lyrics that were both thought provoking and political.  Did you ever hear any stories about one of these bands telling their young fans to go out and vote?  Fuck no.  These bands were anti-establishment.  They knew that it doesn’t matter who you vote for.  Democrat or Republican, no matter who wins the rich will always come first and nothing will ever change.  Though pissed, negative, and most of the time talent-less, these bands all had a strong message; fuck the system.  They knew that they could never change the world by voting another rich asshole into office.  They spoke to an underground community who actually understood how corrupt both major parties were and who actually thought for themselves.  They reached out to the disenfranchised and told them that they were not alone.  Over the years as most of these bands split up, the majority of punk bands changed their message from pissed off politics to boredom and skateboarding.  And that was ok.  Most of my favorite bands came from the late 80’s – early 90’s.  For the most part, it seemed politics in punk (with a few exceptions) was lost forever.

Four years ago as Dubya took the chair in the oval office, I don’t recall any punk band saying anything about it. He was the son of the man who once took us to war with Iraq, he was a rich oil tycoon who once owned the Texas Rangers (biggest move: trading Sammy Sosa to the Chicago Cubs), he executed more people in Texas than in any other state in the U.S. while he was governor, he was arrested THREE TIMES in the past, and to top it all off, he didn’t even win our country's popular vote.  George W. Bush did not seem like a good man to be the leader of the free world. So I ask, why didn’t anyone care then?  Why wasn’t there a PunkVoter.com for 2000’s election?  Hell, why wasn’t there a Punk Voter coalition when Clinton was President?  He fucked up our country big time, he brought us to war, and he lied to the Supreme Court.  After Clinton’s reign of terror, it was obvious Dubya would fuck our country in the ass just like almost all of our previous Presidents.  Now, today nothing has really changed except a more publicized war on Iraq and September 11, which no one could have prevented.  The U.S. spent years pissing those people off.  Why in the year 2004 does almost every punk band seem like a half-assed political scholar?

Dubya did fuck up our country pretty bad, but would Sen. John Kerry really do that much better?  Of course we wouldn’t.  He flip-flops on most of the important issues, he got all of his money from marrying the heiress to the Heinz fortune, and of course, he’s a Democrat.  Democrats today are basically the same in my eyes as Republicans; they’re just better at lying and hiding things from us (I know, I know, the Democrats are pro-choice and not as religion crazy, but both parties are corrupt).  We live in a two-party nation where no one that would really help the working class person will ever be President.  The President will always be an old, rich, white, lying male in a suit half the people that voted for him could never even afford.  Fuck that.  Presidents of the past have always fucked over helpless people, why is everyone starting to care so much now?

I love most of the bands that support Punk Voter and I actually enjoy Michael Moore’s humor and intellect, but shut the fuck up already.  Yeah, we have the right to free speech (most of the time), but the First Amendment does not justify rich musicians and fat writers to tell me their biased opinions and do everything they can to brainwash the young voters.  They stretch the truth and make people believe everything they say.  Why do they do this?  Maybe a small percent of them actually think that America will benefit from voting Kerry in to office, but I bet my right testicle that most of these dog-fuckers are doing this for the attention and the money.  Michael Moore is probably sitting at home right now counting his money and waiting for the next person from CNN to give him a call for an interview.  On the other side of the coast the good people at Fat Wreck Chords are trying to figure out what to do with their money from the over-priced Rock Against Bush CD’s (which only came out a few months from each other.  Trying to cash in on the “fuck Bush bandwagon” before it’s too late?). Bad Religion, a band that has truly stood the test of time, has been political since ’81.  The difference between them and this new age of Punk Voter bands is that Bad Religion aren’t trendy motherfuckers that tell you who to vote for.  Them, along with a few others are still anti-establishment bands that have been against the system all along and will continue to, regardless of this fucking election.

So, I guess my point is that the young voters can make up their own minds.  They don’t need assholes bitching about Bush 24/7 to feed them anymore of their biased crap.  They need to read the facts FROM BOTH SIDES and then make their decision.  Don’t just vote for Kerry because Fat Mike tells you to.  Hopefully Kerry will win this November so bands like Yellowcard and New Found Glory will go back to convincing ex-teeny boppers to buy their records.  And maybe then bands like Green Day and NOFX will stop boring me with their new political views and go back to what they’re good at, kicking ass.

NOTE: I don’t support Kerry or Bush.  They’re both dickheads that make me want to be a Canadian.  Although, my vote will most likely go to Kerry.  He seems like the lesser of the two evils (keyword: seems).

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Love,

CHARLY
charly.hogeboom@XROXX.com