As a fan of punk rock music and being a punk rock musician myself, I had an interesting thought the other day which had been creeping up on me for a couple years: What are punk rock bands going to complain about once George W. Bush is no longer president?

I mean, the man was responsible for almost everything that so-called “political-punk” bands have been complaining about for the last eight years; they even united in their protests for two volumes of “Rock Against Bush.” Artists from all sorts of musical genres such as Rage Against the Machine, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, the obnoxious Anti-Flag and Rise Against have been making profits and selling units off of Bush’s controversial policies.

What’s going to be most interesting is the section of punk music that is solely focused on bashing the president, Republican party and war in Iraq.

If all three areas of controversy are eliminated, what are these bands going to stew about? I doubt bands will have a lot of bad things to say about Obama, so do they turn their focus back to global problems? Can we see Green Day making an album about sweatshops (which they wouldn’t, considering a lot of their merchandise is made in China by children)? Now that is punk rock.

What social injustices will be brought to the spotlight by bands like Against Me!, who already betrayed their anarchist roots, but still bashed the administration? Can we expect song titles like “Rahm Emanuel is a Bit Too Aggressive To Be In The Cabinet But At Least It Isn’t Bush Again?”

Bands like Ted Leo and Rage have too much clever wordplay and global consciousness to be dreadfully impacted by this political shift, but the easy target of Dubya is gone.

Goodbye, George W. Bush, and make sure to take political punk’s most sacred cow since Ronald Reagan with you; out the door of the White House come January.

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