... The Stones have put themselves on the front pages without putting themselves under fire because denouncing neocons allows them to be edgy without going over the edge. As recent history has shown, this is the surest and safest way to rescue one's fading career from permanent decline. Nowadays, Bush bashing is the last refuge of the has-been scoundrel, the panacea for pop stars of the past.Over the last three years, one band after another, each presumably aware of its decline, has jumped on the anti-Bush bandwagon. To prove that they are healed, aging hipsters must first prove that they are sick — sick, anyway, of the war and President Bush. As long as they are still singing, they figure, the fat lady won't be. As the president's popularity has declined, along with public support for the war, Bush bashing has become more common, acceptable, and fashionable. And as demand has increased, so has supply.
Three years ago, we saw the first signs of the "aging hipster" syndrome when Steve Earle released a song called "John Walker's Blues," in which he laments the fate of the American Taliban. This song was followed by "The Revolution Starts... Now", an entire album dedicated to — or more precisely, against — George W. Bush.