On Tyranny: Brett Bradford of Scratch Acid, Suckling Hopes MAGA ‘Will Eat Itself’
“Some who voted for [Trump] are not necessarily bad or gullible people. If that’s the case, they should very well now regret their decision and do what they can to right the wrong. They helped put the fox in the henhouse and should help to get rid of it.”
–Brett Bradford
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Recently, yours truly had the distinct honor of conducting an extraordinarily in-depth and all-encompassing interview with one of the most crucial figures in ’80s underground music and foundational guitarists in noise rock: Brett Bradford, formerly of Scratch Acid and now a member of indie-rock quartet Suckling.
The extensive feature will appear on Post-Trash on October 7, but in the meantime, we’re bringing you, separately, his thoughts on Authoritarian America as part of The Bad Penny‘s increasingly critical series called On Tyranny. Here is that portion of the interview, followed by some additional thoughts that Bradford later shared.
I do feel obligated to ask you about your feelings on what’s going on in the country right now. Would you mind sharing your thoughts?
I’ve got a lot of them. I don’t usually tell people. I’m fairly apolitical, usually not an activist. But these are unprecedented times. It’s, like “What the fuck is going on?” I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there [to whom] I could say, “I told you so.”
My dad fought against the Nazis in Europe for a very good reason. And here, it just seems like I see Hitler’s playbook being used every day. What the fuck? What the fuck, people?
I think a lot of people voted for [Trump] for different reasons. Some of them are Nazis. Some of them aren’t. Some of them … I don’t have anything against Republicans. That is to say, I don’t have anything against any legitimate, non-extremist, non-excluding political party. But Trump is not Republican, and the people that push Trump aren’t Republicans. They’re something else. I personally am not a Democrat or a Republican. I’m just an American.
I mean, come on, man. Who does Trump relate to best as far as world leaders go? Who does he fit in with? Orbán. Bolsonaro. Putin. Kim Jong Un. He is vying for complete control and trying to break down institutions and strip congressional and judicial power wherever he can. That’s not American. That’s not where I grew up.
It’s fucked up. I’m sure that’s why David Yow’s moving to Portugal.
Oh, is that right?
Yeah. He’s tired of the … well, there may be other reasons, I don’t know, but I know how much he hates what’s going on here. I do too. [But] I wouldn’t move. I’m just hoping, somewhat optimistically, that the Constitution and built-in checks and balances will hold up as designed, and all this nasty, hateful MAGA shit will eat itself in the next four years.
A simplistic view, in my humble opinion, would be that we are experiencing wannabe authoritarianism, revolving around a leader with the mentality of a 9-year-old spoiled brat who is not opposed to lying, cheating or stealing to get his way. A narcissistic sociopath, supported by a cult following, mostly of people who honestly can’t tell fact from fiction and will swallow any disinformation fed to them for various reasons: fear, inherent racism, party indoctrination, etc. It’s the same divide-and-conquer tactic cult leaders use on their followers to separate them from their friends and families.
What’s even scarier is those that know full well what’s happening but allow it because they want it to succeed, be they fascists, outspoken racists, religious extremists, the Christian right – anyone who wants a one-party system, hateful trash – whatever – and political cowards who toe the line because they’re afraid of being voted out should they speak up.
People who say they want less government involved in their lives … well, sure, OK, [let’s have] less government. But when you start firing shit-tons of people and breaking up established institutions built around public protections, what happens? Where’s your economy going? Do you still want roads? Clean air and water? Safe meat? You still want to be able to afford groceries? Do you want to be able to go out and buy a stick of lumber? You start removing bolts from an airplane … you can take a bolt out here and there, and it will keep flying, but there’s a certain point when it falls out of the sky.
Bradford later checked in with the following afterthought:
To be fair, I just wanted to add – because I believe it to be true – that there were also probably a fair number of people who voted for ol’ douchebag, without malicious intent, who weren’t mindless zombie Fox News addicts, but may have had other reasons, be it for – I can’t fathom, but – a personal situation, or somehow thought he’d be better this time, or they had a phobia of career prosecutors, or something that I personally would not or cannot conceive of.
I just want to say that I’m sure that some who voted for him are not necessarily bad or gullible people. If that’s the case, they should very well now regret their decision and do what they can to right the wrong. They helped put the fox in the henhouse and should help to get rid of it. I think a lot of people that voted for Donald Trump are finally seeing it for what it is, and I pray more of them are willing to open their eyes.
I’m also sure that, you know, certain segments of racist America, neo-Nazi types, those kinds of people won’t change. But, you know, that was a tiny minority not long ago. They just came out of the woodwork with the blessings of this fascist coup disguised as Republicans. An actual patriot would want nothing to do with them.
Go here for The Bad Penny‘s On Tyranny hub.
Most recent On Tyranny installments:
• Metal Band Malevich ‘Had a String of Shows Canceled for Some of Our [Pro-Palestinian] Activism’
• Weakened Friends’ Secret to Battling MAGA? Community Involvement
• Ex-U.S. Navy Captain-Turned-Psych-Rock Musician Jeremy Moore Warns of Fascism
The Bad Penny (beta) 
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