[lbo-talk] "Fright wing" support for Bush

[B.]

>From the "Fashion & Style" section of the New York
Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/21/fashion/21PUNK.html

===============

A Bush Surprise: Fright-Wing Support

By WARREN ST. JOHN

Published: March 21, 2004
 
With his mohawk, ratty fatigues, assorted chains and
his menagerie of tattoos — swallows on each shoulder,
a nautical star on his back and the logo of the
Bouncing Souls, a New York City punk band, on his
right leg — 22-year-old Nick Rizzuto is the very
picture of counterculture alienation. But it's when he
talks politics that Mr. Rizzuto sounds like a real
radical, for a punk anyway. Mr. Rizzuto is adamantly
in favor of lowering taxes and for school vouchers,
and against campaign finance laws; his favorite
Supreme Court justice is Clarence Thomas; he plans to
vote for President Bush in November; and he's
hard-core into capitalism.

"Punks will tell me, `Punk and capitalism don't go
together,' " Mr. Rizzuto said. "I don't understand
where they're coming from. The biggest punk scenes are
in capitalist countries like the U.S., Canada and
Japan. I haven't heard of any new North Korean punk
bands coming out. There's no scene in Iran."

Mr. Rizzuto is the founder of Conservative Punk, one
of a handful of Web sites and blogs that have sprung
up recently as evidence of a heretofore latent
political entity: Republican punks. With names like
GOPunk, Anti-Anti-Flag and Punkvoter Lies, the sites
are a curious blend of Karl Rove and Johnny Rotten,
preaching personal responsibility and reflexive
patriotism with the in-your-face zeal of a mosh pit.
When he's not banging his head to the Misfits, the
Vandals or the Bouncing Souls, for example, Mr.
Rizzuto spends his time writing essays denouncing
Michael Moore and "left-wing propaganda," and urging
other conservative punks to join his cause.

"Punk has been hijacked by an extreme left-wing
element," Mr. Rizzuto said. "It's blame America first.
Everything is America's fault, and everything is
Bush's fault." Mr. Rizzuto said his goal "is rallying
conservative punks and getting people to vote."

By their own admission, conservative punks constitute
a small percentage of their particular subculture.
Around 200 liberal and left-oriented punk bands have
come together under the banner of Punkvoter, a
coalition founded by Mike Burkett — a k a Fat Mike —
of the band NOFX, with the stated goal of organizing
punk fans to vote against President Bush in November.
Mr. Burkett started Punkvoter with $100,000 of his own
money and has recruited crossover bands like Green Day
and the Foo Fighters to his cause. 

"Our goal is to anger the youth of America, and to
show them how the Bush administration is bad for
them," Mr. Burkett said. 

While Conservative Punk does not have a roster of
bands exactly, it has inspired the interest and
involvement of a consortium of conservatives with
proper punk credentials, like Michale Graves, a former
singer for the Misfits, who writes a column for Mr.
Rizzuto's site. Mr. Graves regularly performs wearing
a skull mask and is known for belting out lyrics like:
"A fever rots/The brain goes numb inside/I feel a
blackout coming/The boiled blister pops inside." He
allows that he doesn't fit the profile of your average
red-state Republican.

"I look like someone who should be hanging out with
Marilyn Manson — in fact I have hung out with Marilyn
Manson," Mr. Graves said. "It doesn't affect what my
morals are."

"I think George Bush is a wonderful, competent
leader," he added. "And I believe that he is bringing
this country on a right and just course and he
understands the true nature of evil." 

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