Tom Morello is none too pleased that Mitt Romney's newly picked running mate has named Rage Against the Machine among his favorite bands.
So the activist and Libertyville native did was he does best. He took to the op-ed pages of Rolling Stone to school Wisconsin's Paul Ryan on the roots of Rage.
"Paul Ryan's love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing," Morello wrote, "because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades."
"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 continued, wondering whether Ryan's favorite song was "the one lambasting American imperialism" or "the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production."
"He can like whatever bands he wants, but his guiding vision of shifting revenue more radically to the one percent is antithetical to the message of Rage," he says.
This obviously isn't the first time Morello has voiced opinions on politics. He raged to the publication in May about Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel moving a National Nurses United rally after the guitarist was added to the bill.
“We won't be silenced and we won't be stopped. If Rahm Emanuel is so afraid of my popularity in Chicago maybe I should run against him in the next election," he said at the time. "See you in the streets.”
Morello notes he can't change Ryan's mind on favorite bands but says he's secretly hoping Ryan paid attention to the band's lyrics to act on them if elected.
"But I'm not betting on it," he writes.
