Photo by Sam Stambaugh

Hadden Stemp of The New Highway Hymnal 

Allston Pudding: When did you first find out about Bernie and how?

Hadden Stemp: When I heard about him, I heard what he was talking about and it really resonated with me. When it went from “I really like this guy and I’d like him to be president” to “how can I help this person get elected” was when I went and saw him speak up in Exeter. He spoke in this little town hall; it was packed and really hot. He has the most logical solutions to the problems that we have.

AP: What parts of his campaign resonate with you?

HS: Addressing the enormous income inequality in this country – how it’s almost hard to comprehend how much some people have when others people have nothing or little. He wants to overturn Citizen’s United, which I am very much for. I don’t think we should have big money in politics, or money at all in politics, because that’s not what it should be about. It should be about helping people’s lives, not money.

I could go on and on – he wants to shut down the private prison system which essentially legalizes slavery. He wants to end the war on drugs, which has been a huge failure, a huge waste of time and money. He wants to shift our reliance away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, which will be great for our economy and great for the environment. As a country, I don’t think we are at the point where if you buy a hybrid and turn your lights off it’s gonna make enough of a difference. We need someone from a higher level who is gonna say we need to tighten up carbon emissions, we need to find new sources of energy.  

One other thing that I like about him is that he says he’s not going to get everything done unless we elect more people who will work with him. That seems very truthful to me – in my life politicians have always run with “I will get it done, I will negotiate”. He’s saying we need a political evolution, a big change. That’s very honest.

AP: As an artist and a person, how can you stay involved in the political process?

HS: I would just say – for anyone – just tell someone else who doesn’t know what he’s about. Just getting the message out there is the most important thing at this point so that we can get him elected. You can give money, but I think that it’s much more valuable to give him your time. He’s not getting support from corporate media, but I think he’s kind of hip to the idea that social media is gonna be way more powerful than television, radio, or newspaper. It’s already becoming a much more powerful tool. As a band specifically, you can just find a way to use your music to attract people to his message. Play a benefit show for him, put together a compilation, just help spread awareness. Because once people hear it, they will think this makes sense.