Far-left rock group Rage Against the Machine.

The Politics of Music.

Did anyone else see Anderson Cooper's 60 Minutes report on the "Stop Snitchin'" movement among urban youth, particularly those who listen to rap music? I was watching it with my Grandparents on Sunday, and my Grandpa's disgust was palpable as we watched the rap artist Cam'ron say that even if there was a serial killer living next door to him, he wouldn't call the police. Cam'ron never said so, but the implication was that he and his boys would handle that sort of thing on their own. While my Grandpa got angry, I basically kept my mouth shut and considered: Doesn't my side of the political aisle promote freedom of speech, even when that speech involves telling kids to distrust the police and allow drug dealers freedom to operate? Isn't the ACLU, which defends the rights of pedophiles and other dangers to society, a liberal organization? After all, the word "Liberties" is right there in the title. I enjoy the freedoms that America allows me, and I will always appreciate the sacrifices that our fighting men and women have fought to give us. There are some times, however, when I wonder if we as Americans are cynically squandering that freedom on things such as gangsta rap, a sex-crazed culture, and prodigal spending of our natural resources on things we don't really need. (400 horsepower engines? 300 satellite TV channels? Come on.) I saw something on Youtube the other day that really angered me. The rock group Rage Against the Machine and rap group Cypress Hill were performing a song together onstage called "How I Could Just Kill a Man." RATM is known for their far-left political views, and Cypress Hill is known for smoking huge amounts of pot. Both do songs about killing. None of these things really concerned me at first. Then I noticed the big upside-down American flag hanging off the drum riser. I couldn't help but think, "This country allows these far-left wackos to do songs about armed revolution, pot-smoking, and gangbanging, to support Mumia Abu-Jamal, a convicted cop-killer, and they have the absolute gall to hang an upside-down American flag on their stage?" For a few minutes, it made me ashamed to call myself a liberal. But in America, especially these days, you have to take the good with the bad. The Democrats will always have far-left hippie types who hate the military, the police, and institutions in general, but they will also protect a woman's right to choose an abortion. They will promote diversity. They will stand against bigotry and racism. They will allow Americans more freedoms than Republicans ever will, and their support of the lower income earners in America will always earn them my vote. If they are willing to cut funding for the war in Iraq and finally bring it to an end, that will only solidify my feelings. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid finally summoned the nerve to say out loud that the war was lost, but that's not enough. The war needs to end ASAP, and after that, the President and his people need to be held accountable. (More on that next week.) See related article.