Punk Icon Expresses His Support For Donald Trump .

So here was something in the news that was damn depressing to me, as if anybody needs depressing news these days.              

You know that feeling you get when you have respect for someone, perhaps even think that they are intelligent, and then find out something about them that you feel reveals them as jaw-droppingly stupid on one or more issues?              

Well, that has happened a number of times with me just in the past four years, ever since the political rise of Donald Trump. To me, it is rather obvious that Trump is a man who lacks any real substance, who is a transparent narcissist who takes credit for anything and everything remotely good, and who distances himself to the point of throwing others under the bus and pointing the finger of blame at anyone else when things go bad. But one of the things that has alarmed me in the past four years is just how many people seem evidently unable to read Trump, to see him for what he really is. As I have said before, it is actually quite shocking that many Americans, particularly rural Americans who traditionally were skeptical of any rich, slick city slickers with a false sense of entitlement, would up being Trump’s strongest and frankly, most blindly loyal supporters. If there has ever been the picture of a big city elite who is not to be trusted as far as any of us could casually sling a grand piano, it is Donald Trump. Yet time and time again, we keep seeing people who seem to fall under his spell.              

That has been the case in my personal life, with some people I had (mostly past tense) a decent level of respect for. That includes former friends and classmates from high school and college, as well as former coworkers and other friends. And while I usually do not care much about the political leanings of celebrities, it has been disappointing, to say the least, that some celebrities have also so publicly fallen in love with the con artist in the Oval Office. From former political opponents who now seem to bend over backwards to lick his boot, including Mitch McConnell, Lyndsey Graham, and Ted Cruz, to celebrities such as Roseanne to Kirstie Alley to 50 Cent to Dennis Quaid and some others who are not immediately springing to mind.              

Recently, however, I learned of another celebrity – one who I care quite a bit more about than most of those others who were just mentioned – who voiced his support for Trump.              

John Lindon, also known by his alias Johnny Rotten when he was the frontman for legendary punk band The Sex Pistols, is supporting Donald Trump in the 2020 White House race, saying that he is the “only sensible choice.” He elaborated, suggesting that Trump has been good for the economy, and trusts him to continue doing a good job with the economy.              

He went on to add that Biden in “incapable” of leading the country.              

Not sure if he has been paying attention to what’s been going on for the past four years. Trump has focused so much on championing (and taking credit for) strong stock market numbers, that it has come at the exclusion of other economic considerations, including more focus on the tens of millions of Americans who have been thrown to unemployment this year due to the coronavirus, or the millions more who are about to face the very real threat of eviction, as many of the laws protecting them during the pandemic are set to expire.              

Plus, Trump’s absolute disdain for science, and facts more generally, is despicable. For that matter, his stressing frankly criminal censorship at any cost of scientific data that contradicts his conspiracy theory beliefs that climate change is a Chinese hoax with the express intent of weakening the American economy. Or, for that matter, that this whole coronavirus pandemic was also specifically created by the Chinese with the intention of hurting the American economy, and specifically of undermining his own presidency. Overall, the staggering number of lies and disinformation from this Trump administration has been appalling, and has added to the feeling of a lack of stability and sure footing with American democracy, and indeed even world stability, quite frankly.              

Add to that the relentless attacks on traditional institutions of American democracy itself, with his relentless attacks on a free media that dares to criticize him, systematically labeling any even remotely critical stories as “fake news,” and his also systemic attempts not to unify the American people as he promised he would, but to actively and knowingly divide them, establishing himself as far and away the most polarizing political figure in modern history since at least the end of World War II, and you have someone who, on almost every level, has shown himself to be intensely and unquestioningly unfit for the office that he now holds. He has caged young children at the border after separating them from his parents. He sent his version of secret police onto the streets of American cities, where citizens were arrested by unidentified government agents and then sent away in unmarked cars to unknown destinations. And he has continually, repeatedly urged armed groups who support him to take an active and aggressive role, even recently hinting at something that would amount of voter intimidation at the voting facilities. These are inexcusable attacks on democracy itself, and something that Lydon, who once was a harsh critic of anything that smacked of fascism, should not be able to so easily overlook.              

So how is that so many tens of millions of Americans fail to see all of that? How is that these ridiculous celebrities (and I am including John Lydon in this category as well) are advocating more of the same relentless attacks on democracy itself?              

Lydon also apparently identifies with Trump in another regard, as well: he feels sympathy for anyone who is labeled a racist, as Trump has often been. Lydon himself was involved in an event that had many condemning him as a racist as well, when he and his entourage allegedly attacked Okereke. Most of what I read about this incident seems more or less hearsay, so I will not comment further on that.              

However, I will elaborate a bit on my own disappointment in John Lydon, supposedly a punk in spirit, for his frankly shameful and likely mindless support of a tyrant like Trump. I used to have quite a bit of respect for Lydon, and figured that he had a unique perspective on things, on life and politics and all sorts of other things. But after hearing his absurd rationale for supporting a monstrous jackass and obvious threat to democracy like Trump, I just lost a lot of respect – a hell of a lot of respect – for Lydon.              

Maybe he should go back and remember what got him to pen the lyrics for the most famous song by the Sex Pistols: God Save the Queen. I actually like that song, and not much caring for the idea of a Royal Family, felt that it was a song that made a strong statement for the British people to get over their daydreams of retaining the traditional Empire, and to embrace a more promising, modern future. In that song, he blasted the British fixation on the Royal Family, suggesting that it was a fascist regime and made people into morons. The lyrics go on:              

There is no future              

And England’s dreaming              

Yes, and I suspect that Johnny’s own dreams have turned a bit rotten, as well, if he’s trying now to justify his unjustifiable support of a monster like Trump, who is infinitely worse than any member of the Royal Family that I know of.               

Shame on Johnny Rotten. He once epitomized punk rebelliousness and free-thinking approach. Now, he supports the ultimate elitist, Donald Trump, who often violently attacks anyone who dares to think differently than he does. At the end of the day, just another mindless cog in the machinery, after all. Some punk he turned out to be.              

What a disappointment