(Alicia M. Cohn) One of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) favorite bands does not like him back. “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,” band guitarist Tom Morello wrote in an op-ed for Rolling Stone published Thursday night. “Perhaps Paul Ryan was moshing when he should have been listening.”
Ryan’s taste in music is well-documented, and the recent surge of interest in Mitt Romney’s choice of running mate has meant fresh interest in his favorite bands, which also include Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead and Metallica, along with Beethoven and Hank Williams Jr., according to his Facebook page.
“Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, Rage Against the Machine,” Morello wrote. “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.”
Morello went on to unleash some “rage” of his own against Ryan, calling him an “extreme fringe right-wing nut job.”
“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 wrote. “This unbridled rage against those who have the least is a cornerstone of the Romney-Ryan ticket.”