EXHUMED’S MATT HARVEY ENDORSES RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT
I don’t know how this escaped our attention, but Gawker is keeping a running list of which metal musicians endorse which presidential candidates — y’know, because it’s in an inarguable fact that the entire 2012 election is going to hinge on the metal vote.
ANYWAY, following Megadick Dave Mustaine’s endorsement of Rick Santorum, Matt Harvey, from the deathgrind outfit Exhumed, has e-mailed Gawker to endorse Ron Paul. I don’t find Paul to be as offensive as Santorum (who Harvey calls ” worthless piece of fuck” — so at least we agree in that regard), but I do concur with the assessment of our own Gary Suarez, who first brought Harvey’s endorsement to our attention via Twitter: “[Harvey’s] reasoning for supporting Ron Paul is sheer idiocy.”
Here’s Harvey’s entire e-mail to Gawker, which contains said reasoning for supporting Paul:
“On a marginally serious note (as serious as a presidential endorsement from a guy who plays in a band that sings about cannibalism, necrophilia, and rotting corpses can be, I suppose) I would be really psyched to have the opportunity to vote for Ron Paul this Fall. I know he is probably a crazy, bigoted old coot, and some of his ideas are frankly scary (abolishing minimum wage particularly troubles me), but he is the only candidate that provides any kind of alternative to the continuing cycle of big-government, pro-corporate welfare, pro-war parade of candidates churned out by the ‘big two’. He is dead on about issues that are close to my personal concerns – individual civil liberties, abolishing the TSA/Dept. of Homeland Security, abolishing the Federal Reserve, decriminalizing drugs, getting corporations and lobbyists out of politics altogether, ending our pointless and tragic wars abroad, changing foreign policy so that we will no longer need to fear terrorist attacks or send kids off to get killed in the desert so that Exxon Mobil’s stock can go up another point. He has consistently been championing an agenda of small, responsible and responsive government, and most importantly – individual responsibility – for over 20 years. He’s the only candidate with a shred of integrity that doesn’t dumb down his answers to appeal to whatever religious nuts or tea party corporate apologists are in the audience unlike the ridiculously bigoted Rick Santorum, the pathetic corporate-shyster and job-destroyer Mitt Romney or the morally, politically, and existentially repugnant Newt Gingrich. He doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting the republican nomination, and even if he were to win, he would be politically destroyed (or possibly even physically destroyed a la MLK, JFK, RFK, etc) by the extremely entrenched powers-that-be that profit off the current, dismal state of our political system.
“I have never identified as a conservative before, and I don’t particularly consider myself to be one now, but Ron Paul is the first candidate from either party I’ve seen in my lifetime (the first election I remember was the disastrous Reagan Revolution of 1980- yeah, I’m old) that actually offers something new and different, a message for real change. That alone elevates him head and shoulders above the field on either side. All that said, when we are forced to choose between Democratic and Republican versions of the corporatized, militarized, and prison-industrialized government we currently are subjected to, I will definitely vote for Obama before any of those other shitbirds in the Republican party. He is far, far from great, but at least his parties version of dystopia is more like Brave New World than 1984, which is eminently more liveable. I’d much rather live in corrupt kleptocratic state that at least uses a fraction of its vast resources to improve the lives of its citizens than the neo-colonialist, plutocratic theocracy vision of ‘America’ presented by that worthless piece of fuck Santorum.”
I increasingly subscribe the Giant Douche/Turd Sandwich view of politics (Harvey refers to the “big two,” but if you really think there are two parties in American politics, you’re kidding yourself), but I don’t think Ron Paul is the answer, and I find Harvey’s reasoning specious at best. (Certainly, comparing Ron Paul to Martin Luther King is, uh, not correct.) That being said, I can’t muster too much anger over this, for the same reason I couldn’t muster too much anger over the whole Mustaine/Santorum debacle:
- Ron Paul is not going to be President, ever. Harvey even says as much. So he might as well endorse RuPaul.
- The endorsement of Matt Harvey and the endorsement of my dog carry roughly the same political weight.
I guess the point I’m making is, yeah, I think endorsing Ron Paul is foolish (at best), but no, this won’t stop me from enjoying Exhumed’s music. I mean, at least he didn’t say anything homophobic and/or racist to boot, y’know?
Okay, your turn: rage in the comments section below, either ’cause Harvey is wrong, or Gary Suarez and I wrong, or we’re both wrong, or just because it’s Friday and you have nothing better to do.
-AR
