By Andy Brack
Angry, petulant, childish, narcissistic – words that similarly describe a punk and a president.
The Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten sang an anthem of angst, “Anarchy in the U.K.,” in 1976 to transform decaying England’s music scene through punk rock. He had bad skin, dyed orange hair and fronted a rage that inspired a genre.
President Donald Trump sang an anthem of angst throughout 2024 to recapture the White House in a petulant power grab – the likes of which America has never seen. He has bad skin, orange hair and fronts a rage that inspired a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol and fuel a thick-minded movement.
Some would say it’s not appropriate or correct to compare English punks and MAGA punks. They might note how punk rock was a musical rebellion against an established economic order that was failing Britain with high inflation, high unemployment and hopelessness. And how the United States today has the best economy and is a global leader.
But both movements have something hugely in common – the zeal for cultural disruption.
Remember what punk’s Rotten, whose real name is John Lydon, once said, “Don’t accept the old order. Get rid of it.”
That could have come from Trump on any day of the week. Just look at how the early few days of his second administration have been filled with disruptive acts to break down the establishment that he now represents – attacks on migrants, attacks on health research, a flurry of executive orders to undo, reshape and change how American government works.
Imagine how parents and their school-age children feel with the un-American threats of immigration officers lurking in schoolways. Or how Holocaust survivors and families feel when they hear about a big migrant camp in Cuba. Or how cancer patients struggling to survive feel when they hear funding for medical research may be frozen or cut.
The weeks and months ahead will see a continuation of massive thrusts and parries from the Trump administration. It will float trial balloons hither and thither to push envelopes as far as they can until too many people erupt, causing the bullies to back down as they did when they threatened to freeze federal spending.
It’s not going to be pretty. So maybe it’s time for Trump and his smarmy sycophants to bust out the leather, fasten a few safety pins and bounce around in a sweaty mess spewing their new fascist hymn, “Anarchy in the U.S.” Here are the new lyrics, only slightly rewritten:
Right now, heh, heh, heh, heh.
I am an Antichrist
I am an anarchist
Don’t know what I want but I know how to get it
I wanna destroy the passersby
‘Cause I, I wanna be anarchy
No illegals.
Anarchy for the U.S.
It’s coming sometime and maybe
I give a wrong line every single time
Your future dream is a crypto scheme
‘Cause I, I wanna be anarchy
In the country.
How many ways to get what you want?
I use the best, I use the rest
I use the D-O-G-E.
I use anarchy
‘Cause I, I wanna be anarchy
The only way to be.
Is this the N-I-H?
Or is this the F-D-A?
Or is this the E-P-A?
I thought it was the U-S-A
Or just another payday
Or another M-A-G-A.
I wanna be anarchy
And I wanna be anarchy
And I wanna be anarchist
I get pissed. Destroy.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the Charleston City Paper and Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to feedback@statehousereport.com.
