Ted Nugent is a multi-platinum, hard rock musician, an outspoken firebrand conservative, a RealDoll for the NRA, and an integral part of one of the stupidest music videos ever made.
Ted Nugent is also an alleged draft-dodger, bigot, misogynist, and pedophile; and conservative America loves the crap out of him.
Recently, Ted Nugent?spoke out against his critics. According to the Motor City Madman, President Barack Obama and former NBC anchor Brian Williams have created a “goofy planet of the apes America” and the Internet is composed of a “gang of punks” who monitor everything he does and has done.
Yes, we monitor you, Ted. If you weren’t so completely off-the-rails insane, this “gang of punks” would adopt the same viewpoint as the music industry and not give a shit about you.
It is because Ted Nugent is an attention-seeking antiquated husk of garbage that his presence is still important to political punditry. This boisterous mouth-breather is a perfect of example of the contrast between the crap the far-right says and the crap the far-right does. With the 2016 elections coming ever closer, and the number of far-right Republican nominees continuing to climb, it is important to understand the ideology of the far-right conservative. Ted Nugent is an incredible example of their idiocy.
Take, for example, the allegation Ted Nugent dodged the Vietnam-era draft. While it is undetermined whether Nugent deliberately failed a physical to obtain 4-F status (meaning unfit for military service), the fact such an allegation exists, and particularly its ambiguous authenticity, should be enough for the far-right to distance themselves.
If the allegations at any point turn out to be true, conservative warhawks who have supported Nugent explicitly, and demonized anyone who criticized dissent to American armed conflicts, will have to contend with the fact that their poster boy deliberately cheated the system in refusal to serve his county. This would be kryptonite to any pro-military conservative.
One of the most dividing and heavily-focused social debates in the United States today is the continued existence of racism. While the conservative cult of personality quick to denounce the possibility of being racists themselves (which normally takes place after saying something racist or supporting racism in some way), wily Ted Nugent once referred to President Obama as a “subhuman mongrel,” a comment he later described as “too delicate.”
Ted Nugent’s blatant racist attitudes, like the allegations of draft dodging, should be enough for conservatives to back away, much like they did when Cliven Bundy went from being a “patriot” to being the contents of Roger Ailes’ toilet.
Ted Nugent has also made the following comments in the direction of female liberal politicians (from Media Matters):
“You probably can’t use the term `toxic cunt’ in your magazine, but that’s what she is. Her very existence insults the spirit of individualism in this country. This bitch is nothing but a two-bit whore for Fidel Castro.” (Westword, 1994)
“And then I was in New York. I said, ‘Hey, Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch. Since I’m in California, how about [Senator] Barbara Boxer [D-CA], she might want to suck on my machine gun. And [Senator] Dianne Feinstein [D-CA], ride one of these you worthless whore. Any questions?'” (LiveLeak, 2012)
Most egregiously, however, and the detail that should not only damage Presidential hopes, but careers in general, is the fact Ted Nugent has openly admitted to sexually assaulting underage girls. Despite his claim that he is not a pedophile, Nugent openly admitted in a 1998 VH1 Behind the Music interview to having slept with hoards of underage girls.
“I got the stamp of approval from their parents… I guess they figured better Ted Nugent than some drug-infested punk in high school.”
Despite all of this, Ted Nugent is still one of the most revered personalities on the far-right. He appears with candidates, endorses their causes and campaigns, and his inflammatory conjecture is frequently regurgitated by portions of the public. Associations say a lot about people, and if the crop of far-right conservatives vying for a shot at the Presidency value their image, and if the right values its conservative brand, Ted Nugent’s asinine rhetoric would not simply be ignored by these candidates and their supporting lobbies, but would also be condemned.
Essentially, things like this wouldn’t occur:
