“Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me!”
I remember the thrill those words brought me when I first heard them on the radio. Well, to be fair, I heard, “- you, I won’t do what you tell me!” It was on the radio, after all. KROQ, that alternative lodestar, close enough off of the 10 freeway to appear chucked there through an open car window. That speck on the map off Venice Boulevard is precisely 62.8 miles from my childhood home, which boggles the mind when you think about how radio waves go tens of thousands of miles over our planet, and kiss a satellite up in the sky before they fall back down again. That day, they tumbled down into the radio receiver of my mom’s ‘93 Altima. Somewhere in the excessively curvy suburban streets of Mission Viejo, my mom would always let us listen to KROQ. This was the early 2000s, and sedition was in the air.
War with Afghanistan began in October 2001, and Iraq followed a year and a half later, in March 2003. Protests were nationwide, and it seemed the entire musical world joined the chorus of dissension. “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against the Machine came out in 1992, but it fit well with everything else I heard at the time. Even though Rage wasn’t strictly punk, their message of anti-authoritarianism was punk enough to be on the shelf with Green Day’s American Idiot, NOFX’s War on Errorism, and Bad Religion’s The Empire Strikes First. Punk was good, and it seemed that for the first time since the early 80s—when all of punk seemed distractedly fixated on Reagan—we were centrally focused again. Reagan left office five years before I was born, but being a lifelong devotee to punk, I was familiar with Reagan Youth, Suicidal Tendencies, and Dead Kennedys, who were all known for their disapproval of the Gipper. My hero, Ron Paul, was also an outspoken critic of Ronnie during his presidency, so I like to believe if I had been alive then, I would have followed suit.
Kids want to rebel. They want to do what they’re told not to do. They don’t want to do what they are told to do. They want to do things differently than their parents did, and they want resistance while doing so. Given the geo-political complacency that had taken over the cultural psyche since the Vietnam war, it’s retrospectively obvious that this war wouldn’t fly. Maybe we were foolish for thinking our disapproval would affect that one way or the other. Despite the mythology you’re taught, we are not the government, and even if we don’t want the war, the war will happen. Maybe the holocaust was an act of suicide, but it seems more obvious that the state is a separate entity from those it rules over. If you don’t believe me, then next time you see a cop slam someone’s head through a windshield, roll your window down and yell, “Stop hitting yourself!”
A surprising amount of punk bands were in support of Ron Paul when he ran for president in 2008. What wasn’t to love about him from the punk perspective? The man wanted to destroy the Federal Reserve, legalize drugs, and end the wars. Young people set money on fire at his rallies and chanted “End the fed! End the fed!” That’s pretty punk. While no outright supporters spring to mind, other than The Interrupters, who made a campaign song for him, many gave support to at least some of his policies and principles, including Fat Mike (NOFX), Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys), Steve Ignorant (Crass), and Chris #2 (Anti-flag).
At this point in the story, I can almost understand what went wrong. A cool, young black guy came on the scene. He was talking about ending the Iraq war, providing more affordable healthcare, and many just liked the idea of electing a black guy. I get it. It was to be a huge step toward leaving America’s racist past behind us. It’s hard to believe that it later became a punchline to point to the supreme ruler’s skin color and ask how and why a racist country would elect him, but that’s a question for another day. To many, he embodied hope, and looking back, I can see why. He definitely appeared to be a step in another direction, and after two terms of Bush, everyone was ready for that. Obama had a lot of support in the punk world, and it never really went away.
Predictably, the elected ruler of the largest empire in world history didn’t change course at all—they never do, they never will. But then, something I couldn’t have predicted happened: no one spoke out. Obama was, by any metric, a bolder and bloodier ruler than George W. Bush, but anti-government rhetoric was quiet in punk rock between 2008 and 2016. Was this because his vocal supporters were embarrassed by what he turned out to be? I would accept that answer. But that doesn’t explain the almost universal support for his secretary of state’s presidential run in 2016. The only negative thing I heard about her in the punk-o-sphere was at Octoberflame 2016, at the Observatory in Santa Ana. “Fuck both of the political candidates,” said Nick 13 of Tiger Army. What a night. Unfortunately, Nick is not an overly political fellow, and his statements on such matters don’t get a lot of press. Most in the punk world was either supportive of Hilary Clinton, or completely silent on the topic.
The unthinkable happened just a few days after Octoberflame. A reality show star won the presidency. Those who had supported Hilary Clinton, including many in the punk community, showed up for a wedding, but ended up at a funeral. It was such a disordering disappointment that she couldn’t even give her concession speech. To this day, when I feel a little down, and just need to smile, I think about that war criminal crying and pounding her ancient fists bloody on the floor because she wasn’t as likable as she thought she was. And that’s what the presidency is, after all. It’s a popularity contest. Imagine losing to someone like Donald Trump in a popularity contest. Unparalleled devastation.
In the wake of that fateful night, punk seemed to have a renewed purpose. They were unanimous on Reagan. They were unanimous on Bush. Well, everyone except Johnny Ramone was unanimous on Bush. Now, once again, they had their man. Punk Against Trump was a compilation very much in the vein of Rock Against Bush, just without any bands with notoriety. “Nazi Trumps Fuck Off,” was a common sticker, pin, and social media image. I’m still yet to hear an explanation for how this billionaire who did everything Israel wanted in any way resembles the National Socialist Party of 1930’s Germany, but hey, asking that somehow makes me a nazi too, so I’ll leave it alone. Sure, I’m a hardcore anarcho–capitalist, both of which are entirely at odds with nazism, but I do come from a German lineage, so let’s not go shaking any branches on my family tree.
In 2016, I was hoping for good protest music, at least, such as we got during the Bush regime, but aside from Age of Unreason by Bad Religion, I was left wanting. I believe this lack of inspiration comes from the fact that the outrage against the orange man was mostly manufactured. I disliked him, didn’t vote for him, and was certain that he would be a disastrous president, and I was right. But I didn’t dislike him for the same reasons as the average punk rocker, and I definitely didn’t hate him for the same reasons as the CIA. With Bush, there was live media coverage of the brutality and barbarism that befell the poor people of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we didn’t have that with Trump. Those wars kept going under his watch, despite their end being a focal point of his campaign. He was “great” for the economy, and by that I mean he reinforced the house of cards with a bit of scotch tape. It may have been the best of a bad situation, but his reckless inflationary measures during COVID was an economic death rattle. These, and many others were among the solid reasons I had for not supporting him—or anyone else—as a president, but this was not what your average punker bitched about on social media. Insensitive statements and tweets demanded our utmost attention and outrage. He managed to deport about six people, despite the numerous videos that circulated of people being torn from their families and thrown in the back of police cars. It turns out most of these videos were either from the Obama Regime, or weren’t even related to ICE, or immigration status at all. There was not a lot of coverage of any legitimate reason to hate Trump, despite how many there were, because that would be an indictment on Obama and Clinton as well. Art in general has slowed down and lost inspiration, like Jack Nicholson in The Shining running out in the snow, and I believe the lack of genuine passion is why. All we have is a joyless, monkey-see-monkey-do clamor for clicks.
Cut to 2020. I’m tired of talking about it, and you’re tired of hearing about it. But let it be known that if there was one moment that would have declared once and for all that punk is not, in fact, dead, it would have been standing up to the state when they came to take away everything good and beautiful from every individual’s life. Shows, family, sports, tattoo shops. Even the anarchy book fair. It was all on hold, and it was somehow framed in such a way that most punks got behind. Again, it’s impossible to know where the real support was, and where many were just silent because they know what’s good for them. I suspect many feigned their “stay home, stay safe” attitude because they didn’t want the trouble.
Despite Trump’s declaration of a state of emergency, his suggestion of lockdowns, his travel ban from China, and his criticism of Sweden and South Dakota for not locking down, anti-lockdown beliefs became synonymous with the orange man. Therefore, punks were not allowed to approve. They were given their orders, seemingly telekinetically, and they all fell in line. Morrissey proved more punk than Dexter Holland when he spoke out against them and kept playing shows. The Offspring’s drummer, Pete Parada, was fired for not getting the COVID vaccine. John Joseph from Cro-Mags also deserves a shoutout here, as well, since he was an outspoken critic of the lockdowns.
Over the years, punk has gone from anti-establishment anarchy, to rallying around a wolf in sheep’s clothing, to becoming pro-government in general. The explanation cannot be as simple as Obama scrambling their drug-addled little brains. It has to be deeper than that. Perhaps, many, from personal experience, had no luck with anarchy in their personal lives, and decided that “the system” was the only way to achieve the greater good.
I don’t think this is permanent. I think that punk has fallen into a statist status quo. But I also believe that punk never truly dies, and there will remain a remnant who rebel in every lifetime. The time has come. I look forward to whatever is next.