http://www.dcexaminer.com/articles/2005/09/28/opinion/op-ed/54oped28rizzuto.txt It's not just a liberal thing
September 28 '05
Meet the conservative punks
By Nick Rizzuto
As punk rock increasingly makes its influence felt across popular culture, the emergence of the conservative punk subculture has gained a glimmer of respectability (if that is the word) from both punks and conservatives.
As one of the founders of ConservativePunk.com, I am frequently asked, "How can you claim to be a conservative punk? That's an oxymoron." Every once in a while, the inquisitive individual will refer to a dictionary, usually to tell me how conservatism is committed to preserving the establishment.
But conservatism is more than committed conservation, just as punk is more than knee-jerk rebellion. The basic tenets of conservatism â?? personal responsibility, self-reliance and limited government â?? neatly square with punk ideas.
Personal responsibility and self-reliance are at the heart of the punk DIY (do-it-yourself) ethos. DIY rejects the idea that, for instance, good music must be a product of shared effort between an artist and a record label. Rather, it places the burden of failure or success of an artist on his own ability to write, perform, record and sell his own work. An album will succeed or fail based upon the merit of the music and the skill of artist. This is part of what gives punk rock its independent spirit and edge.
Conservatism is in many ways the same idea applied to culture, government and life in general. We embrace limited government, we oppose institutions that perpetuate dependence and we reject the notion that certain groups of people are inferior â?? that they need special help such as quotas.
The conservative punk movement rejects much of popular culture, which sells dissent as a commodity. We oppose the bumper-sticker rallying cries that over-simplify debate and replace legitimate discussion and debate. And we refuse to be co-opted and taken for granted by movements that seek to crush American resolve in foreign matters and weaken vital domestic institutions. The common ground we share with many libertarians and most other conservatives is greater than our ideological differences. Together, we hope to end the left-wing headlock that pop culture holds on American youth.
Conservatives have been cast as the pariahs of pop culture, being lampooned by multiplatinum-selling, Grammy-winning artists Green Day in their album "American Idiot" and attacked by Hollywood darlings such as Oscar winners Michael Moore and Oliver Stone. Despite this, conservative punks have managed to carve out our own niche in the American underground by straddling two worlds: the punk-rock world, steeped in independence and a spirit of rebellion, and the American conservative movement, which to a certain extent is centered around those same ideas.
So this is where it stands today for conservative punks, rather like it does for the rest of American conservatives. We do not crave mainstream acceptance, but neither do we believe that being accepted means we have sold out. We embrace the punk idea of thinking for oneself, and we believe that a whole lot of those who imagine they are punks â?? or liberals, for that matter â?? are enamored not of independent thinking but of rebellion for its own sake.
Nick Rizzuto is a writer living in New York City and a founder of ConservativePunk.com.
