(From Maximumrocknroll #33, February 1986)
MRR: Before one of your songs today, you referred to Jesus as the first communist. Can you elaborate on that?
Dave: He was. He was saying basically "Fuck the system". He preached communal living and sharing wealth. I think all that shit about God was just from acid trips... I'm not a communist in any way, but I think it should be like in Amsterdam. It's ridiculous that all of this money should be going to the military when people can't even afford medicine here. There's fuckin' poverty all over here. You don't have to go to Ethiopia or South Africa to see people starving. There has to be a more equal distribution of wealth. If all the money we're spending on bombs went to health care and free child care and to help the economy, there'd be so much wealth, we could spread it out. Then the Ethiopians wouldn't have to worry about food shit; they'd have 2 VCR's apiece. Drugs should be legal too. Then there'd be no more organized crime. There'd be less crime, too, because people wouldn't have to rob each other so they can buy expensive illegal shit. The U.S. should be a kind of social democracy.
MRR: How can you change things?
Dave: We're talking about long range change here. 150 years ago no one would have believed that "legalized" slavery would end...
MRR: ...Interesting choice of words...
Dave: ...but in 1865 it was gone. As the businessmen and Jerry Falwells die, their "ideas" will die with them. We have to reach the youth so when they take over, it'll be a change for the better. I'm convinced that 95f the masses are asses; we're trying to appeal to the other 5
MRR: What do you make of the right-wing punks?
Rick: It's a fashion. I mean, they'll say they're fascists but they're not sincere. I mean, those opinions aren't deeply held.
Dave: If they were, they'd have all joined the Army. I think the whole U.S. vs Russia thing isn't a reality. I think they're in cahoots, controlled by one huge corporation.
MRR: Like in Orwell's "1984"?
Dave: Yeah, it's like 2 bullies: "I'll take this block, you take that block." They just go around stealing kids' lunch money. After Reagan dies we're gonna change the name of the band. I can't tell ya to what yet, but it won't be The UNGRATEFUL DEAD. If there are any wealthy, financially endowed, bourgeois liberals with guilt complexes, they should send as much money as possible to REAGAN YOUTH.
