"I emphatically denounce Paul Ryan’s use of my song ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’..."

"... as recorded by my band Twisted Sister. There is almost nothing on which I agree with Paul Ryan, except perhaps the use of the P90X."

It's a rare entertainer who wants the association with Republicans. What's the upside? You might get some publicity, but the better publicity is in this sort of righteous refusal.

What was it, anyway, that Twisted Sister was saying it was not gonna take? Here are the lyrics. And here's the full-length video that includes the beginning with the dad yelling at the kid (who suddenly turns into Dee Snider). The thing not to be taken is pretty generic. The band claims the "the right to choose" and to "pick our destiny." They're also annoyed at whomever it is they are talking to, from whom they want "nothing" (which sounds pretty un-left-wing to me). The "you" addressed in the song is called "jaded," "trite," "worthless," and "weak" — which sounds like they're more opposed to the welfare state than to rugged individualism.

I'd say it's pretty good as a right-wing song, whether it was originally intended that way or not. But I can see why a performer embedded in our culture would cringe seeing his fairly generic protest song take on specifically right-wing meaning.