Wayne Kramer, guitarist for legendary Detroit proto-punks the MC5, knows a thing or two about the point where rock & roll and politics meet. In the late Sixties, the MC5 were the house band for the White Panthers political party, and they performed amidst the chaos of Chicago's notorious 1968 Democratic Convention. It's little shock, then, that when Punkvoter -- a political action group founded by Fat Mike of NOFX -- came to Iowa for the year's first Democratic caucus, Kramer was there leading the charge.

Punkvoter aims to educate young voters and motivate them to use their voting power come election day. "If young people are one quarter of the voting power in this country, they have the power to change the world," says Kramer. "But they've got to get in on the process." Punkvoter's Iowa delegation included members of Anti-Flag, Rise Against and Faith No More, who took their case directly to the Democratic candidates. "Politicians didn't walk away from us, they actually sought us out," says Punkvoter's Scott Goodstein. "[Dennis] Kucinich and [Howard] Dean spent time with us, as did the [John] Edwards folks. We were the only guys in there with red mohawks, and probably the only ones under the age of thirty."

Through punk fanzines and the punkvoter.com Web site, the group has managed to get the word out, and a strong contingent of young punks turned out to offer their support. At a press conference on Sunday, Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack and representatives from the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of State, County and Federal Employees joined the Punkvoter musicians as they announced the release of Rock Against Bush. The CD and DVD, which features songs by Green Day, Good Charlotte, NOFX, Bad Religion, the Offspring and Sum 41, will be released in March.

Kramer kicked things off on Saturday with a raucous show at Blues on Grand in downtown Des Moines. "Hey you motherfuckers, it's time to get educated," he yelled to the mixed crowd of young punks and "whoop-and-hollering union people," before launching into a set that included songs such as "Broken Promise in the Promised Land," "Poisonville" and "The American Ruse."

The introduction brought to mind the MC5's famous "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!" war cry, and the MC5/Punkvoter connection is not lost on Kramer. "Thirty-five years ago, we got into the game too late," he says. "There were already 50,000 dead, there was a full-scale war going on [in Vietnam]. Nobody really understood why we were there, there was a president who didn't seem to be qualified for the job, and things were spinning out of control. It was just like it is now, and there's no little irony in that." Kramer and his Punkvoter cohorts want to "get active before things get as bad as we know they can get."

But, according to Punkvoter, that depends on energizing young America and getting the vote out. "Freedom isn't free," Kramer says. "Democracy has to be participatory. It's something that requires some effort, so we'll be riding through the neighborhood, clanging bells and yelling, 'The fundamentalists are coming! Wake up, you motherfuckers!'"

DAVID SWANSON
(January 14, 2004)