Johnny Ramone, the guitarist for The Ramones, has fiercely supported the Republican Party for years. When the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, Johnny took to the microphone to offer his thanks, saying "God Bless President Bush, and God Bless America."For many the idea of George W Bush being supported by punk rockers is a contradiction in terms. But for others, there is something about this phenomenon that makes a perverse kind of sense because of the Bush administration's hawkish posture.
Johnny didn't support President Bush in his Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction speech because he has a "hawkish posture". He supported the President of the United States because he has a tough job and these are very tough times. It's the right thing to do.
Here's Johnny list of his 10 favorite conservatives (possibly outdated but still online at the RAMONES official website:
Ronald Reagan
Richard Nixon
Charlton Heston
Vincent Gallo
Ted Nugent
Rush Limbaugh
Sean Hannity
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Bob Barr
Tom Delay
Johnny has been a conservative. He even convinced Joey Ramone to vote for Ronald Reagan (twice?). This is why Joey felt betrayed about President Reagan when he visited the cemetary in Germany ("Joey" is Jewish).
Dee Dee grumbled about Johnny but he also was man enough to admit that Johnny had a tough job trying to keep the band in line and get them to places on time. While Dee Dee wanted his drugs he also didn't like his addiction to heroin and struggled to keep clean (he'd still smoke pot). If he had gotten the drug laws eliminated he would have been dead a lot sooner. I've read 2 of Dee Dee's autobiographical books (the second was compiled from his journals up to the time he died). In his second book (which includes some references to 9.11.2001) he has no love for Europe and the antiAmericanism he encountered there in the 1990s, pre-George W. Bush Iraq War..., (here he was in a legendary founding punk band and he still wasn't treated with respect by young punks). He was born in Germany and grew up there but on his final return he did not feel there was anything to return to (although he liked some of the hillside, he hated the people). Dee Dee may not have been a conservative at the end of his life but again he could hardly be called a liberal or a Democrat. C.J. Ramone is a little on the left politically although I have not spoken with him in years (he was the accessible member when the band would tour). C.J. worked at the WTC cleanup site and does some admirable things.
thanks.
I, too, know plenty of conservative punks. The kids who pay attention to world events tend Republican (as in life). When a punk singer says God Bless the soldiers, it's not irony... like in rock or pop or hiphop or... actually country and punk are about it, only they that have the guts to buck the dominant Blame America culture.
I'm a gen-xer with decidedly punk roots.
What could be more punk than keeping enough of my paycheck to spend a day out on the mesa target shooting with a hot chick and then spend the evening cleaning guns, drinking beer, smoking cigars and listening to The Ramones or The Misfits?!
"From my cold dead hands..." Now that is punk as ****!