Let me guess--Mr. Baruma is an aging baby boomer who wanted to write about Bob Dylan and chose to write this ignorant article about American resistance culture so he could talk about Bob Dylan. That's a very redundant sentence, but so is Aruma's article.
It wouldn't have been very hard for Buruma to turn up examples of contemporary American resistance culture. Folk musicians such as David Rovics, Utah Phillips, Holley Anderson, and many others tour around the country and draw good audiences. Folk/pop singers such as Ani Difranco have huge followings. Where does one start with contemporary punk music? Old standards such as Fugazi? Against Me? Hundreds of other bands and artists who do political material? How about techno/dance groups such as Thievery Corporation? Then there is all kinds of political indie hip hop--one of my favorites in this category are the Drunken Immortals out of Arizona.
Ugh!
Chuck