Paul Ryan’s Music References Fall Short

The “young gun” and Wisconsin cheesehead who deserted the state to attend college in neighboring Ohio, walked onto the stage at the RNC  to accept the VP nomination accompanied by music that I swear sounded like the tune, “The Boys Are Back In Town” by the Irish band, Thin Lizzy.  Have you ever heard the lyrics to that song? The boys in the song are not exactly respectful of women and the band romanticizes drunken bar fights.  And speaking of bars, wasn’t it Boehner who threatened to throw Obama out of “the bar” in his speech? Anyway, I suppose the song is fitting for a man anointed as the leader of the “young guns”, who has a hawkish voting record and supports policies that are anti-women.  I am not saying that he doesn’t like women – he has a family and children.  What I am saying is that his record speaks for itself.  He voted to defund planned parenthood and has consistently voted to make it more difficult for women to exercise the right to control their own bodies.  And it’s not just those votes.  Ryan also voted against a bill that would require women to be paid the same as men for equal work.  As to his hawkishness, he’s voted for all the wars, big defense and get this – he voted yes on a bill to allow loaded guns in National Parks.  This makes me think of Yosemite Sam.

And for all this talk about how great America is, Ryan’s record shows a real distaste for two of the things Americans do best – science and the arts – he voted to end NPR, not to be confused with the NRA. And for a man who would be the first to hold the “Country First” sign, his taste in music is curious.  American music is one of our national treasures, yet when his big moment came where he had the chance to tip his cap to Americana, he instead walked onto the stage to the music of the Irish band Thin Lizzy, and later bragged of his A to Z ipod tunes beginning with the Aussie band AC/DC and ending with the British band Led Zeppelin, which would probably have been in the L, not the Z position.  Not that these aren’t good bands, or that I’m xenophobic or anything, it’s just that that Ryan completely disrespected one of America’s greatest exports.  He could have at least mentioned the band America in the A position (maybe that was on Mitt’s ipod) and ended with some ZZ Top, a nod to the Texas contingency.  To impress the more cultured Independents out there, he could have thrown in a Coltrane, Duke Ellington or say an Aaron Copland reference.  And what about some of the greats in his own backyard of Wisconsin like Woody Herman, Les Paul and the hip Bon Iver? What a missed opportunity!