Leadership Quote by Mike Lowry

"It was awesome because we were doing Ramones songs" reads like a shrug dressed up as testimony, and that’s precisely why it lands. Mike Lowry, a politician by trade, isn’t reaching for lofty civic metaphors or manufactured uplift. He’s outsourcing the feeling to the Ramones: three chords, a blast of tempo, and an instant social contract. The line’s casual grammar - "awesome because" - is doing political work. It’s not arguing; it’s remembering. It suggests authenticity by refusing to perform it.

The specific intent is to certify an experience as real and unfiltered: it wasn’t awesome because of the venue, the crowd, or the prestige; it was awesome because the material carried a particular cultural voltage. Ramones songs aren’t just music, they’re a shorthand for anti-pretension, a refusal of prog-rock seriousness, a democratization of cool. Anyone can play them; everyone can feel them. That matters coming from someone whose professional world is built on gatekeeping, ceremony, and message discipline.

The subtext is almost a miniature apology for enthusiasm. A politician admitting joy risks sounding corny or calculated, so Lowry grounds it in a canon that signals taste and edge. Contextually, it also hints at the late-20th-century flirtation between politics and pop credibility: leaders trying to be seen not only as administrators but as people with playlists, impulses, and a pulse. The Ramones become a credibility transfer, less "relatable" than recognizably alive.