I’ve only been disillusioned once with Paul Ryan since his VP announcement and that was when he mentioned Rage Against the Machine as one of his favorite bands. I was in high school when RATM was at the apex of their career and many of my friends liked them. Guitarist Tom Morello’s overuse of effects pedals and the predictable structure of their songs bored the hell out of me. They are no Metallica, no Misfits. Ryan’s admission was a negative, but not as much to me as Morello. 

Morello, whose band hasn’t cut an album in years, penned a “hate the rich” column for Rolling Stone from his multi-million dollar mansion in LA. 

I wonder what Ryan’s favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? 

Please. He wrote a song for Leonard Peltier. He wrote a song, made millions off of it, got his video on TV, and just like literal fat cat Michael Moore, exploited a tragedy for cash and then split. Spare me the concern for indigenous Americans, Tom Morello, while you vote and rally for the party that set them on the Trail of Genocide in the first place, fleeced them in the 90s, and then exploited the heritage for special attention and benefits just this year. (Being disappointed that he didn’t move leftist policy faster after the fact is irrelevant.) Show me where you’ve published a single condemnation, Tom Morello, and I won’t think you’re a total shameless sell-out. I can’t wait to hear the next predictable, over-effected guitar riff while you trust-fund socialists wax lyrics like “F the Clintons!” for fleecing nations. Doing that might jeopardize your t-shirt sales at Hot Topic!

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.

Don’t mistake me, Tom Morello. I do have a lot of “rage” in me: A rage against the nearly million women run out of the job pool thanks to the policies you support; a rage against a party that controlled the country for two years and did nothing to ease the burden on those seeking to legally become American citizens; a rage against the demonization of the average American who wants to grow a business and create jobs; a rage against the hypocritical rhetoric of “church and state” while demanding that government regulate church faith and religious doctrines of the individual; a rage against the people who help Uncle Sam hold his thumb over the poor with meager entitlements while he erodes their opportunities; a rage against people who shirk conservation for a false religion of environmentalism that just sends the pollution to China via the green industry. 

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.

How many children go to bed every night while Morello consoles himself in his mansion in the shadow of irrelevancy? I’m not a millionaire like him, but I give as much as I can to help church-run orphanages in my state and raise awareness for agencies who help families in trying times. I’m not an anomaly; there are thousands of us who do the same. We also support policies that enable people as opposed to making them wards of the state.

When did Tom Morello become such a square? Since when did this so-called sonic revolutionary become such a teacher’s pet for The Man? It speaks volumes that Ryan still likes their music despite their politics and can speak a nice word. Morello’s inability to take a compliment when he doesn’t deserve it says more about him than Ryan. 

Part of the machine, indeed.