Moe Tucker has outlined her reasons for lending her support to American political movement the Tea Party.
The United States deifies the rights of the individual. The nation is built on being self-sufficient, a notion which in practice is split between a devotion to capitalist self-invention and government aid to the less well off.
The play off between the two is what drives the American political mechanism, with the recent economic crisis caused by the credit crunch causing a ripple of unease on a very basic level across the country.
These concerns have manifested themselves in the Tea Party, a loose knit organisation which could have a massive impact at the November mid term elections. Loathed by the left, the Tea Party claimed a coup recently when Velvet Underground drummer Moe Tucker was spotted at a rally.
Refusing to discuss her views, Moe Tucker has now broken her silence by conducting an email interview with the St. Louis Riverfront Times. The drummer starts off by explaining more about her own impoverished childhood.
“My family was damn poor when I was growing up on Long Island. There were no food stamps, no Medicaid, no welfare. If you were poor, you were poor” she insisted.
“You didn’t have a TV, you didn’t have five pairs of shoes, you didn’t have Levis, you didn’t have a phone; you ate Spam, hot dogs, and spaghetti. We all survived! I am not against food stamps, welfare or Medicaid, if only they would oversee these programs properly!”
Moe Tucker continued, explaining that she was not directly linked to the local Tea Party organisation. In fact, the one time Velvet Underground drummer is a long time Democrat who opposed former President George W Bush.
Finishing, the underground rock icon said: “Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a fool, a racist, a Nazi. Anyone who knows me knows I’m afraid of flying, afraid of bugs, but not afraid to say what I think.”
That’s what democracies are for, after all. Read the entire interview HERE.
