Election 2008 and Rage Against the Machine

The presidential race is starting to rear its head early this year. Maybe this is due to some anticipation on the part of well-known Democrats (Hillary Clinton, Barrak Obama), who suddenly realize that, hey, if they can make it through the primaries and win the nomination, there is no way on earth that they can't win the White House. Or maybe people are just fed up with Bush's administration and so are getting their game on early this year, hoping that maybe, somehow, this will make the rest of his disastrous presidency go faster. Or maybe, this is just a step to change the nature of presidential politics by making them more akin to the rest of American life.

The American lifestyle is about convenience, and in keeping up with this culture of convenience, bad things are changed. Inconvenient, poorly received things are done away with, often instantly. Just click to navigate away from an offensive web page. Don't get up to change the channel, use your remote. Americans are used to having what they want when they want it, and, failing that, to at least not have something they don't want. And it is clear that a substantial majority of Americans do not want President Bush in the White House. What these presidential hopefuls are doing is catering to that American need. Whether in reality or just in appearance, they are speeding up the end of something Americans are sick of. And, failing that, they are assuring America that, yes, the end is near.

In honor of the approaching election, I have posted a little Rage Against the Machine. For those of you who don't know, RATM was one of the most politically charged bands to ever exist, and certainly the most radical band to win a Grammy (for their Album The Battle of Los Angeles, in 2000). Fronted by the radical, Che Guevara idolizing poet Zach de la Rocha, RATM created a unique blend of inner-city hip-hop and dissonant heavy metal which, along with their extreme leftist politics, gained them international attention. Their political message, while filled with incredible feelings of rage and desperation, was also often intelligent (the guitarist, Tom Morello, has a PhD in political science from Harvard and considers himself a Marxist) and inspired a wave of politically active bands that would follow.

The video I posted below is of the song Testify, which was popular during the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential election. The video, rather than show scenes of debauchery and beautiful dancing women, points out glaring similarities between the presidential nominees. Now, while realizing that the politics expressed might be a little reactionary and simplistic, the message that de la Rocha and his band mates were trying to express was exactly the correct one for the time, during which thousands of Americans felt cheated out of a proper election even before the election fraud that would follow. And, besides, it was not RATM's place to weave a message of balanced reporting and political subtlety. It was their place to express the anger felt by thousands of youth across the country. This song is from the Grammy-winning album The Battle of Los Angeles, released it 2000.

However, while I appreciate the video's power, if Gore does choose to run this time, he has my TOTAL support. (My thirteen-year-old, unactive, non-voting support...)