As part of our ongoing project to catalog the 2012 presidential election from a metal point of view, we've been soliciting presidential endorsements from noteworthy American metal musicians. Today: Exhumed.

We were psyched to get a lengthy and well-argued email from Matt Harvey, guitarist of classic Bay Area death/grindcore band Exhumed, endorsing Ron Paul. Here's his statement:

On a marginally serious note (as serious as a presidential endorsement from a guy who plays in a band that sings about cannibalism, necrophilia, and rotting corpses can be, I suppose) I would be really psyched to have the opportunity to vote for Ron Paul this Fall. I know he is probably a crazy, bigoted old coot, and some of his ideas are frankly scary (abolishing minimum wage particularly troubles me), but he is the only candidate that provides any kind of alternative to the continuing cycle of big-government, pro-corporate welfare, pro-war parade of candidates churned out by the "big two". He is dead on about issues that are close to my personal concerns - individual civil liberties, abolishing the TSA/Dept. of Homeland Security, abolishing the Federal Reserve, decriminalizing drugs, getting corporations and lobbyists out of politics altogether, ending our pointless and tragic wars abroad, changing foreign policy so that we will no longer need to fear terrorist attacks or send kids off to get killed in the desert so that Exxon Mobil's stock can go up another point. He has consistently been championing an agenda of small, responsible and responsive government, and most importantly - individual responsibility - for over 20 years. He's the only candidate with a shred of integrity that doesn't dumb down his answers to appeal to whatever religious nuts or tea party corporate apologists are in the audience unlike the ridiculously bigoted Rick Santorum, the pathetic corporate-shyster and job-destroyer Mitt Romney or the morally, politically, and existentially repugnant Newt Gingrich. He doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting the republican nomination, and even if he were to win, he would be politically destroyed (or possibly even physically destroyed a la MLK, JFK, RFK, etc) by the extremely entrenched powers-that-be that profit off the current, dismal state of our political system.

I have never identified as a conservative before, and I don't particularly consider myself to be one now, but Ron Paul is the first candidate from either party I've seen in my lifetime (the first election I remember was the disastrous Reagan Revolution of 1980- yeah, I'm old) that actually offers something new and different, a message for real change. That alone elevates him head and shoulders above the field on either side. All that said, when we are forced to choose between Democratic and Republican versions of the corporatized, militarized, and prison-industrialized government we currently are subjected to, I will definitely vote for Obama before any of those other shitbirds in the Republican party. He is far, far from great, but at least his parties version of dystopia is more like Brave New World than 1984, which is eminently more liveable. I'd much rather live in corrupt kleptocratic state that at least uses a fraction of its vast resources to improve the lives of its citizens than the neo-colonialist, plutocratic theocracy vision of "America" presented by that worthless piece of fuck Santorum.

Click here for our running list of 2012 Metal Endorsements

Previously:
 Omen's Andy Haas for Ron Paul
Agalloch
GWAR's Oderus Urungus Endorses Death for All Candidates on 'Wheel of Over-Sized Knives'
Testament and Lamb of God

[Illustration by Jim Cooke. Are you the publicist, manager, or close personal friend of a noteworthy American metal musician? Please email me at max@gawker.com! We will let you endorse anyone: Republicans, Democrats, Egyptian gods, mountains in the Pacific Northwest, etc.]