If you’ve watched any of FreedomWire’s podcasts (and we highly suggest you do, so check out our channel HERE) and have seen me, then you know I’m pretty heavily tattooed.

My entire back, arms, and chest are a latticework of tattoos that I’ve acquired over the past 25 years, making me look like one of the most atypical conservatives you’ve ever seen.

It’s probably because I come from the counter-culture world…

I grew up a skateboarder (or “skater” in our colloquialism) and was raised on the musical stylings of some of the craziest and loudest punk rock bands you’ve ever heard.

The Misfits, The Dead Kennedys, The Sub-Humans, Minor Threat, and a plethora of bands whose names are too vulgar to repeat…

We would play this aggressive music while we skated to pump us up, as we needed that high energy to help us get back up after each and every slam to the concrete or wood.

And while I moved away from skating once I got into team sports in high school (an arena FULL of tough, rough, and rowdy guys), I will still say till my dying day that most of the athletes I played with in both high school and collegiate football aren’t near as tough, rough, or rowdy as your run-of-the-mill skater.

Punk Rock And Counter Culture

Even back then, punk rock music was one of the driving forces behind that toughness, and of all the bands that are considered punk rock, many regard the Sex Pistols as the OG’s, the godfathers of the genre.

Their music is beautiful in a terrible way, both basic and driving at the same time. The band made up of Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious, Steve Jones, and Paul Cook was the spirit of the entire punk rock movement.

While Sid Vicious may be the most infamous (due to the murder/involuntary manslaughter of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen), but Johnny Rotten (born John Lydon) is the man whose attitude was the spark that lit the scene on fire.

There is no bigger living (or even dead) punk icon than Johnny Rotten.

Which is why it was so weird that the now 64-year-old punk rocker was recently pictured wearing a red “Make America Great Again” shirt, prompting a bit of a backlash from the Left.

He’s held up as a hero to punk fans around the world from both sides of the political aisle, so it’s easy to see how this picture started a little bit of an uproar.

When Punk Rock And Politics Meet

However, it was a tweet by Twitter user “The Great And Unmatched Wisdom Of Nero” that explained why those on the Left who are angry about this. They just need to remember what “punk rock” is all about.

Attaching the picture of Rotten in the shirt, he tweeted, “Punk is anti-establishment, the establishment hates Trump, therefore Trump is punk [as] f**k and Johnny Rotten is being true to his punk roots by going full MAGA”

And he’s absolutely right.

The fact that the “popular” thing to be these days is “woke” and anti-Trump ironically makes him the most “punk rock” thing going today.

The entire “in-crowd” hates him…

So, liking Trump is now considered “counter-culture.”

I knew there was a reason I liked the guy so much…

He touches on that part of every rebel that makes us want to stick the middle finger to the establishment. He is who he is, and he’s unapologetic about it.

We’re living in strange times…

When conservatism is counter-culture and tattoos are mainstream, we’ve crossed our wires somewhere.

Regardless, my 15-year-old self couldn’t be happier.

Is Trump an Icon of "Punk Rock" Politics

 

“It’s a repressive society where you can’t be horrible, I’m not horrible, they made me horrible, I’m just honest.” – John Lydon (Johnny Rotten)