Johnny Ramone once remarked "punk is right wing." Which is funny, because the best known political song by the Ramones was My Brain is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg), a song mocking president Reagan. At any rate, I disagree. Punk Rock is not right wing, in fact, it is largely left wing. Many of us first came to learn about left wing politics through bands like The Clash, The Dead Kennedys, Crass, Bikini Kill, Rancid, etc. And I would define punk, at its best, as anti-authoritarian, populist (anyone can play it), democratic, and in later years, feminist and gay friendly. But Johnny is a legend, and probably the most influential punk rock guitarist there ever was, so I'll give him his due and investigate the (somewhat) influential right wing punks. Punk rock can also be called nihilistic, anti-intellectual and, in its early years, misogynistic- all things I assocate with conservatism.
The list conservative punks is not long- we'll start at the beginning:
Johnny Ramone
Whether or not Ramones were the first punk band or not is a discussion for another day, but what no one can deny is that Johnny's guitar playing pretty much defined what punk guitar should sound like- fast, mostly power chords and minimal solo's. But as far as politics goes, he wasn't even particularly influential in his own band. He was unable to keep the Ramones from recording the aforementioned My Brain is Hanging Upside Down, and, so far as I know, they never recorded any song that that could be characterized as right wing. Maybe Beat on the Brat.
Johnny Rotten
The former Sex Pistols front man is somewhat an enigma, and people have puzzled over what his actual views are for years. Bodies is the only well-known punk song that specifically condemns abortion. On the other hand, God Save the Queen and Anarchy in the UK weren't exactly conservative. Or were they?
I am an anti-christ
I am an anarchist
Don't know what I want but
I know how to get it
I wanna destroy the passerby
And
Anarchy for the U.K it's coming sometime and maybe
I give a wrong time stop a traffic line
your future dream is a shopping scheme
While most people consider anarchists a part of the left, what he's advocating here is chaos. I suspect a lot of conservatives in today's world would be able to relate to this kind of impotent rage. And conservatives certainly are proving more than happy to blow up the government, without any particular plan for what to do afterward. Nihilism for nihilism's sake continued to be a theme for a lot of bands, including Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, and finally was taken to its logical end in the biggest creep to ever play punk,
GG Allin.
Lee Ving
Lee is not a guy I know a whole lot about. I was never a huge fan of his band Fear, or much early 80's LA punk. Fear played New York's Alright If You Like Saxophones when they appeared on Saturday Night Live
New York's alright if you wanna be pushed in front of the subway!
New York's alright if you like tuberculosis!
New York's alright if you like art and jazz!
New York's alright if you're a homosexual!
Fear was hardly alone in their homophobia in that era, with bands like Bad Brains and Angry Samoans putting out homophobic songs as well. Homophobia has since then become largely unacceptable in punk rock. But Fear was and continues to be influential-
I Don't Care About You has become something of a punk rock standard. The song gleefully anticipates the Republican health care plan.
I've seen an old man have a heart attack in Manhattan.
Well he just died while we just stood there lookin' at him.
Ain't he cute?
I don't care about you!
Ohhhhhhhhh!
I don't care about you!
That's pretty much it. You could throw in Michale Graves, who had the lofty distinction of replacing Glenn Danzig in a 90's Misfits reincarnation and Ben Weasel, woman puncher and Sarah Palin supporter (who does say that he's a centrist). Am I forgetting anyone?