Ouch: Paul Ryan's Favorite Band Compares Him to Charles Manson

Paul Ryan, apparently, loves the sound of the rock band "Rage Against the Machine." Too bad for him that they really don't like his sound -- at all.

Why? Because "Rage" is one of the more openly Left-wing bands in America, and no one fits that description better than the band's guitarist, Tom Morello.

Granted, Ryan has already said he likes the band's music, but ignores the lyrics (which are about as blatant in their Leftism as you can get), and that makes sense. Still, Morello's op ed today on the subject of Ryan has to hurt. The most scathing excerpts follow:

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.[...]

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.

You see, the super rich must rationalize having more than they could ever spend while millions of children in the U.S. go to bed hungry every night. So, when they look themselves in the mirror, they convince themselves that "Those people are undeserving. They're . . . lesser." Some of these guys on the extreme right are more cynical than Paul Ryan, but he seems to really believe in this stuff. This unbridled rage against those who have the least is a cornerstone of the Romney-Ryan ticket.[...]

My hope is that maybe Paul Ryan is a mole. Maybe Rage did plant some sensible ideas in this extreme fringe right wing nut job. Maybe if elected, he'll pardon Leonard Peltier.  Maybe he'll throw U.S. military support behind the Zapatistas. Maybe he'll fill Guantanamo Bay with the corporate criminals that are funding his campaign – and then torture them with Rage music 24/7. That's one possibility. But I'm not betting on it.

Now, an uncharitable observer might remark that if this band really does believe that a convicted murderer of FBI agents should be pardoned, that a separatist, paramilitary, Leftist army should receive United States support, and that corporate leaders deserve to be tortured, it might indeed be wise if Paul Ryan found a new favorite band. Megadeth would probably be willing to fill the void. It also might be noticeable that for all his youthful bluster, Morello is actually six years older than Ryan, marking this as more of a "get off my lawn" moment than any sort of rage against the old and powerful.

However, to be fair to Ryan, when a band has lyrics like this, it probably would be difficult to ascertain a coherent message:

With the sure shot, sure to make the bodies drop

Drop and don't copy yo, don't call this a co-opt

Terror rains drenchin', quenchin' the thirst of the power drones

That five sided fist-a-gon

The rotten sore on the face of mother earth gets bigger

Tha triggers cold empty your purse

Watch the video for this charming ditty below (WARNING! COARSE LANGUAGE):

However, at the end, fans of metal can take comfort in one significant fact - at least Paul Ryan's self-proclaimed favorite band wasn't System of a Down.

Front page image credit: AFP/Getty Images