In a surprise development, Republican Party presidential candidate John McCain has announced that Zack de la Rocha, the lead singer of politically charged rock group ‘Rage Against The Machine’, will be his running mate during the general election campaign.
By choosing to run with de la Rocha, McCain’s strategy seems to be focused on completely alienating his core base of supporters. This was evident at a recent fundraising event for McCain at the DeMantha Senior Citizens Home in Topeka, Kansas, where Zack de la Rocha proclaimed, “Ugggh! Black flag and red star, long live the Zapatista Revolución in Chiapas, Mexico. This is for the people of the sun.“ After the fiery speech, one member of the audience gave de la Rocha a standing ovation (we later discovered he was deaf), and McCain’s campaign advisor fainted.
While political pundits view this as a highly unusual choice by McCain, this is not an unforeseen situation. Over the past year, de la Rocha’s opinion of McCain has drastically improved. On April 3, 2007, Zack de la Rocha said of McCain, “I hate John McCain.” Compare this with his interview with Reuters one week ago, where he stated, “Rally ‘round the family, with a pocket full of shells! Ugggh! John McCain, know your enemy”. Nevertheless, de la Rocha is still opposed to both NAFTA and government oppression of human rights, and these remain two significant points of difference with Republican Party stalwarts.
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