Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NIGHTBEAT: Bashing Bush is the new black

As a history minor in college, I learned that elections often are won by hated incumbents. Many people talked about how much they despised Nixon, Reagan and Clinton -- and every one of those guys won two terms. There's no such thing as bad publicity, right?

This year on my music beat, the force that musicians and fans are talking about the most is not Beyonce, Toby Keith or Jet. It's George W. Bush. At concerts, vowing to vote against Bush is the new black. Singers lead chants against Bush. Fans sign up to vote while they, or their T-shirts, ridicule him. Anti-Bush sites flourish, from PunkVoter.com to BandsAgainstBush.com.

But I don't think I've heard John Kerry's name once at a concert. My sources at punk labels suggest that the 60-year-old Kerry -- who told MTV that he listens to rap and hip-hop -- just isn't charismatic, isn't a liberal, and that he doesn't promise young voters a payday, like an affordable college education.

I just had the chance to talk politics with two famous, self-described liberals, Jewel and Dashboard Confessional singer Chris Carrabba. Neither spoke Kerry's name.

Jewel, 30, who sings Sunday at the Hard Rock, hasn't planned to endorse him, either, because she said it's hard for her to discern between the candidates' facts and propaganda. Differences between both seem "arbitrary" along party lines, and she can't tell if either is authentic.

"It feels like I'm being sold a pop song. It's frustrating. I feel uninformed still," Jewel says.

By the way, Jewel is not a typical liberal. She's against gun control and tobacco bans.

"A lot of liberals are against guns and tobacco, but they want freedom of choice and abortion. To me, that's a hypocritical thing. You can't have freedom of choice in one area and not in another," she says.

Carrabba, who sang Saturday at the Orleans Arena, calls himself an Al Franken liberal. But he's not advocating Kerry explicitly.

"I don't want my audience to think like me. I'd like to encourage them to think for themselves," Carrabba says. "Even the best teachers teach you how to think, not what to think."

Carrabba, 29, who once worked as an administrator in an elementary school in south Florida, restrains himself, even though he knows musicians can reach kids.

"There's something about those ages, 14 to 25 or whatever, when you still haven't hardened yet. I don't know if any music has cut me as deeply as the music I heard when I was 19 or 17 or 21," he says. "You're a sponge. And that's when you can affect people.

"This is a weird time when we can actually initiate change, when (young people) can take a stand. There's no sense in waiting for somebody else to make changes."

I'm still waiting to hear John Kerry's name.

Doug Elfman's Night Beat column appears on Tuesdays.