However, the band refused to “cower in the face of the scoundrels and hucksters who wrapped themselves in the American flag and resorted to cheap and hackneyed dismissal that anyone who criticized or challenged Bush’s policies was …show more content…
They sold out stadiums nationwide and as they continued to create and perform their music, the people flocked to them. Zach Schonfeld describes his own experience as an, “angsty teenager flailing through the demoralizing 2004 election;” Green Day was able to “articulate people’s frustration and anger while bringing people together” (D'Ambrosio, “Green Day Never Gives Up”). American Idiot was able to (Schonfeld, “Does Bush-Era Protest Music Still Hold Up? Remember ‘When the President Talks To God’? ‘American Idiot’? ‘Son of a Bush’? We Do!”). Jesse Malin witnessed this during the concerts and states “it was incredibly powerful to see 20,000 youth screaming these lyrics and singing along to these songs....It was a powerful democratic experience that was sorely lacking in a fearful, paranoid historical moment” (D'Ambrosio, “Green Day Never Gives Up”).Ten years earlier, “Green Day captured one generation’s apolitical disillusionment on Dookie and an altogether different generation’s Bush-bashing fury on American Idiot” (Schonfeld, “Does Bush-Era Protest Music Still Hold Up? Remember ‘When the President Talks To God’? ‘American Idiot’? ‘Son of a Bush’? We