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How Paul Ryan's favorite band views him

by Tom Gallagher

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August 17, 2012

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, Gov. Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick, has said the band Rage Against the Machine is his favorite band. The lead guitarist of the band, Tom Morello, in an opinion piece in Rolling Stone magazine, leads off the piece with this paragraph:

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. Charles Manson loved the Beatles but didn't understand them. Governor Chris Christie loves Bruce Springsteen but doesn't understand him. And Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, Rage Against the Machine.

Morello later writes:

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.

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