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"FacebookPinterest\n\n Today the world was shocked to learn that Dave Mustaine, the guitarist and frontman of Megadeth, had taken it upon himself to publicly endorse a candidate\u2014and it's not who you would think. No, not the other guy, either. Yeah: It was Rick Santorum.\n\nWhich raised the obvious question: How did we not see this coming? So we reached into our old college toolkit for some much-needed Megadeth egesis, to see if maybe we'd been missing something in those lyrics\u2014some sort of conservative political foreshadowing buried between guitar solos\u2014all along. And, oh boy, yes we were.\n\nUPDATE: Mustaine now claims that he's not ready to endorse a candidate and that his words were misinterpreted, but we're textualists at heart, so we're going to continue to let the lyrics speak for themselves.\n\n\"Holy Wars... The Punishment Due\" from Megadeth's seminal 1990 album Rust in Peace.\n\nBrother will kill brother (Ah yes, politics as a Cain &amp;amp; Abel story. Clues right from the start.)\n\n Spilling blood across the land\n\n Killing for religion\n\n Something I don't understand\n\nFools like me, who cross the sea\n\n And come to foreign lands (states?)\n\n Ask the sheep, for their beliefs\n\n Do you kill on God's command?\n\nA country that's divided (!!!)\n\n Surely will not stand\n\n My past erased, no more disgrace (very obvious reference to Santo's regrettable &amp;amp; bland Senate history)\n\n No foolish naive stand\n\nThe end is near, it's crystal clear (November, guys, we're almost there)\n\n Part of the master plan (Woah\u2014don't tip your hand too much.)\n\n Don't look now to Israel (!!!!!)\n\n It might be your homeland\n\nHoly wars (Take that, Iran!)\n\n[Solo - Friedman]\n\nUpon my podium, as the\n\n Know it all scholar (Yup, a clear jab at Gingrich)\n\n Down in my seat of judgement\n\n Gavel's bang, uphold the law (Defense of Marriage Act?)\n\n Up on my soapbox, a leader\n\n Out to change the world\n\n Down in my pulpit as the holier\n\n Than-thou-could-be-messenger of God\n\nWage the war on organized crime\n\n Sneak attacks, repel down the rocks\n\n Behind the lines\n\n Some people risk to employ me\n\n Some people live to destroy me (Romney!)\n\n Either way they die. they die\n\n[Solo - Friedman]\n\nThey killed my wife and my baby,\n\n With hopes to enslave me\n\n First mistake... last mistake\n\n Paid by the alliance, to slay all the giants\n\n Next mistake... no more mistakes! (Played-out Obama critique?)\n\n[Solo - Friedman]\n\nSolo - Mustaine\n\nFill the cracks in, with judicial granite (Citizens United reference?)\n\n Because I don't say it, don't mean I ain't\n\n Thinkin' it.\n\n Next thing you know, they'll take my thoughts away (Nod to Ron Paul.)\n\n I know what I said, now I must scream of the overdose\n\n And the lack of mercy killings.\n\n mercy killings (mudslinging campaign ads?)\n\n mercy killings\n\n killings!!\n\n killings!!\n\n killings!! (Ok, or maybe just literal killing.)\n\n next thing you know\n\n they'll take my thoughts away! (No, but we can dream, can't we?)\n\n Read more from Death Race 2012\n\n\"It's An Open Secret that Many Young Republicans Support Gay Marriage\"\n\n\"What the GOP Can Learn From Jeremy Lin: Marc Ambinder's debut on Death Race 2012\"\n\n\"Introducing GQ's First Ever Presidential Playlist\"\n\n\"Sarah Palin, We Just Can't Quit You\"\n\n\"Fashion Week for Conservatives: Shopping for Neckties at CPAC\" \n\n[_\"Fashion Week for Conservatives: Get All The Hot Looks Here!\"\n\n _\n\n](http://www.gq.com/news-politics/blogs/death-race/2012/02/cpac-conservative-fashion-week.html)"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/today-the-world-was-shocked>