Okay, so there’s this NY Times article about the life of U.S. Representative Paul Ryan (R. – Wisconsin) in which it was noted with some irony that the hard-right conservative counts Rage Against the Machine as one of his favorite bands.

The irony is not lost on former Rage guitarist, Tom Morello. In a Rolling Stone piece, Morello sounds off about Ryan and the many reasons why Rage Against the Machine is “antithetical to the message of Rage.”

“Paul Ryan’s love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades,” Morello says, though he sounds anything but amused. He sounds pissed off and really, who could blame him? It must be infinitely frustrating when someone takes your strong, heartfelt message and twists it so far around as to adopt it for their own opposing means.

Morello doesn’t wonder at all what Ryan’s raging about, saying, “Don’t mistake me, I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta ‘rage’ in him: A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he’s not raging against is the privileged elite he’s groveling in front of for campaign contributions.”

Fair enough. But perhaps Ryan simply loves the Morello’s heavy, catchy riffs, or Zach de la Rocha‘s angry screams of “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me.” I wonder if that’s what goes through Ryan’s head when women tell him to keep his religion out of their lady parts – or, as Morello says, “Perhaps Paul Ryan was moshing when he should have been listening.”