Earlier this month, the music world was shocked when footage was discovered showing Velvet Underground drummer Moe Tucker at a ring-wing political rally in the U.S. in 2009. Now, Tucker has finally spoken out about her involvement in the anti-taxation movement known as the Tea Party.
In a lengthy email interview with the River Front Times, Tucker sounded off about everything from environmentalists to unions to government spending. However, she wrote, "Anyone who thinks I'm crazy about Sarah Palin, Bush, etc. has made quite the presumption. I have voted Democrat all my life, until I started listening to what Obama was promising and started wondering how the hell will this utopian dream land be paid for?"
Rather than quelling her fans outrage, however, most of her comments are likely to anger them further. Tucker lashed out against the liberals who denounced her support of a ring-wing movement. "I'm stunned that so many people who call themselves liberal yet are completely intolerant," she wrote. "I thought liberals loved everyone: the poor, the immigrant, the gays, the handicapped, the minorities, dogs, cats, all eye colors, all hair colors! Peace, love, bull! Curious they have no tolerance whatsoever for anyone who doesn't think exactly as they do. You disagree and you're immediately called a fool, a Nazi, a racist. That's pretty f'd up!!"
She also denounced social spending, claiming, "No country can provide all things for all citizens. There comes a point where it just isn't possible, and it's proven to be a failure everywhere it's been tried. I am not oblivious to the plight of the poor, but I don't see any reason/sense to the idea that everyone has to have everything, especially when the economy is so bad. I see that philosophy as merely a ploy to control."
For those who were hoping that the woman interviewed in the video wasn't the same Maureen Tucker who wielded the mallets for the Velvet Underground, comments like this confirm the worst. Others will likely feel that Tucker's political views are irrelevant to her music.
Read the full interview here and make up your own mind.
See the video that began this controversy below. Tucker appears at the 2:40 mark.
In a lengthy email interview with the River Front Times, Tucker sounded off about everything from environmentalists to unions to government spending. However, she wrote, "Anyone who thinks I'm crazy about Sarah Palin, Bush, etc. has made quite the presumption. I have voted Democrat all my life, until I started listening to what Obama was promising and started wondering how the hell will this utopian dream land be paid for?"
Rather than quelling her fans outrage, however, most of her comments are likely to anger them further. Tucker lashed out against the liberals who denounced her support of a ring-wing movement. "I'm stunned that so many people who call themselves liberal yet are completely intolerant," she wrote. "I thought liberals loved everyone: the poor, the immigrant, the gays, the handicapped, the minorities, dogs, cats, all eye colors, all hair colors! Peace, love, bull! Curious they have no tolerance whatsoever for anyone who doesn't think exactly as they do. You disagree and you're immediately called a fool, a Nazi, a racist. That's pretty f'd up!!"
She also denounced social spending, claiming, "No country can provide all things for all citizens. There comes a point where it just isn't possible, and it's proven to be a failure everywhere it's been tried. I am not oblivious to the plight of the poor, but I don't see any reason/sense to the idea that everyone has to have everything, especially when the economy is so bad. I see that philosophy as merely a ploy to control."
For those who were hoping that the woman interviewed in the video wasn't the same Maureen Tucker who wielded the mallets for the Velvet Underground, comments like this confirm the worst. Others will likely feel that Tucker's political views are irrelevant to her music.
Read the full interview here and make up your own mind.
See the video that began this controversy below. Tucker appears at the 2:40 mark.
