The Trump Resistance Today is Basically The Reagan Resistance From the 1980's
- Fred
- 23 hours ago
- 3 min read
Now I can understand why some youngins might be confused by 70 year old Keith Morris. The Circle Jerks' last album was over 30 years ago. Their "prime" was in the mid 1980's, over 40 years ago. No Circle Jerks albums were created to protest the current, or former, Trump Administration.
But let's be clear, almost every punk band of the 1980's were a reactionary statement against Ronald Reagan's policies or the rise of the Moral Majority in America, and that group of artists included the Circle Jerks.
Even the mostly apolitical punk bands of 80's wrote Reagan Protest songs in America or Margaret Thatcher Protest songs in Great Britain.
From its very inception, Rock and Roll has been the music of Rebellion. Almost all Rock Music with even a pinch of a political message aligns with the Global Left. I'm not saying if that fact is fair or foul, I'm just saying that's the way it is.
Punk, Metal, and Rap music are all just overamplified and louder forms of Rock Music that posited that Rock hadn't gone far enough.
As a music fan, I want that great Anti-Trump song, not a song retrofitted from the 80's, 90's, or 2000's. Bruce Springsteen took a couple of stabs at writing Anti-Trump songs, but the Boss mostly lectures fans while playing his hits. There are a few Anti-Trump songs out there, but they're not great.
Eddie Vedder rips Donald Trump, then segues into Dissident?
Meh.
The most mystifying recent example was when Republican Paul Ryan claimed that he didn't know Rage Against the Machine was political. Tom Morello grabbed anyone with a microphone and yelled "Paul Ryan is the machine. "
But I have to give Tom Morello credit, at least he's got his head in the game. He just released a ripping anthem "calling for a halt to injustice and a stop of the persecution of immigrants."
Even though I'm a fan of Morello's, I don't think he'd like my Libertarian-leaning website, but at least I know the score. If Morello went on his Sirius Show and said he thought Beacon of Speech sucked, I'm stupid enough that if his song had a good hook, I'd probably link it to the website he hated anyhow.
When Neil Young steps to the microphone and sings songs about that bastard Nixon, then adds "this goes for Trump too," I just roll my eyes.
At very least, Morello isn't being lazy about
(Now if he and Zac de la Rocha could just get along.)
You're confused by the tone of my article?
You should be.
As a free speech website, we reinforce your right to protest whatever you want. But most of the protests today are because people are bored. Try to have some focus when you take to the streets.
You're screaming "what about January 6th?" Yeah, that was stupid. Bunch of Trump supporters threw a tantrum because their candidate lost.
The other side is countering, "what about the George Floyd Riots?" Stupid also. That cop went to prison, and people kept rioting...during the pandemic. I am convinced that the riots spread like wildfire because there were no sports on TV and the movie theaters were closed.
Yesterday there was another "No Kings Rally" at the end of my street. Those protestors need to tighten their game up, their complaints were mostly vague consternation. There doesn't seem to be any urgency to their message anymore, they just seem to be either loitering, or networking, depending on your point of view.
There's a big difference between "burning it down" versus crying because your political party isn't in power.
Last year we wrote the Top 50 Protest Songs from 1980-Today.
But we're in a very surly mood today, if we re-wrote that article now, we would probably place Marilyn Manson's 1996 at # 1.
Why 1996? Because according to Genius:
"This song is about Manson incorporating both the contradictions of society and what's expected of himself, that is, the political correctness coupled with the drug-induced destruction of expression, thought and life that made western civilization become one that is inhuman, even anti-human, anti-life. The values are so twisted, so filled with hate and oppression, ours lives are so blank and artificial, any form of free and natural expression is opposed and stigmatized, so Manson comes as the Antichrist, which the anti-people deserve.".
Maybe it's Zoloft time.