Bruce Springsteen is worried about the tone people are using against the Obama administration. And all I can wonder is if this is his little attempt at a joke. But sadly, it’s not. He hasn’t seemed very jokey for about a decade or so.
The Telegraph reports:
The American political climate for achieving change is “very, very ugly,” according to Bruce Springsteen, as he launched a staunch defence of Barack Obama.
The 61 year-old rock legend, a high-profile supporter of the US President, railed against critics for their use of the “most extreme language” to describe “the most modest reforms” being introduced by Mr Obama.
Modest reforms, huh?
But this is the height of hypocrisy from Springsteen who levelled some of the fiercest language against Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush.
The Telegraph reported in 2009:
The Born to Run singer said that the US was now “suffering the consequences” of eight years of rule by a “very radical group of people” who had attempted to undermine the country’s democratic values.
Describing President Bush’s period in power as a “nightmare” for most Americans, the songwriter said: “We had a historically blind administration who didn’t take consideration of the past; thousands of thousands of people died, lives were ruined and terrible, terrible things occurred because there was no sense of real history, no sense that the past is living and real.”
In 2008 Springsteen said in Philadelphia that the Iraq War and the handling of Hurricane Katrina were just two examples of Bush’s “disaster” presidency and destroyed people’s faith in the country.
“I’ve spent 35 years writing about America and its people and the meaning of the American promise — a promise handed down right here in this city,” Springsteen said.
“Our everyday citizens … have justifiably lost faith in its meaning.”
During the Iraq War he wrote an album with lyrics like these:
The kids asleep in the backseat
We’re just countin’ the miles you and me
We don’t measure the blood we’ve drawn anymore
We just stack the bodies outside the door.Who’ll be the last to die for our mistake
The last to die for our mistake
Whose blood will spill, whose heart will break
Who’ll be the last to die for our mistake?
But we’re the ones completely out of bounds, right? We’re the ones who unjustifiably jumped ugly on Obama, right? For a self described poet he doesn’t seem to have lots of introspection.
November 24, 2010 at 3:01 am
Well, take a look at this quote:
"Republicans were threatened with mob violence. On May 7 [1798], after the city’s assembled militia companies had passed the president’s house in review, groups of young men spread out through the streets, fired with patriotic emotion and fueled by liquor. Some knocked down lamposts and smeared mud on the statue of Benjamin Franklin on the steps of the Philadelphia Library. After dark, a mob gathered outside the home of Benjamin Franklin Bache, where Peggy Bache, five months pregnant, was alone with their three young children. A few proposed to set the house on fire, but they confined themselves to battering on the door and breaking some of the windows. Drunken gangs were out all night, carousing in the streets and singing patriotic songs beneath the windows of imagined traitors."
and frankly get bent out of shape about people's tone seems silly.
November 24, 2010 at 3:16 am
Who's Bruce Springsteen?
— Mack
November 24, 2010 at 4:34 am
He needs to stick to making "music" and quit thinking that just because he sold a few CD's he actually has a brain.
November 24, 2010 at 5:19 am
Alice Cooper has said anyone depending on a rock star for his political beliefs is dumber than the star. Bet there's more than a few at Springsteen concerts.
November 24, 2010 at 1:56 pm
What Adrienne and Subvet said, and I would add Hollywood actors and actresses as well. Being a celebrity does not automatically make you an expert on politics or social issues.
Dave
November 24, 2010 at 2:28 pm
He's not too bad of a musician, but I think he is way overrated.
November 24, 2010 at 6:39 pm
I think Springsteen has a point. Criticism of the Bush Regime was consistently directed against his disastrous policies (e.g. immoral wars, undercutting of civil liberties, torture, consistent anti-working-class bias) whereas Obama is routinely attacked as a person. Not only is there a lot of petty nonsense (e.g. the inane "controversy" about his birth certificate), but there have been actual threats of violence by gun nuts showing up armed at his public appearances. Have you seen the signs that are routinely photographed at Teaparty events? Okay, sure, they don't "represent" the Teaparty, but just the same there are a lot of hateful racists out there.
November 24, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Dutch, did the inordinate focus on Bush's former substance abuse stem from his policies? Was the original story line of "That's My Bush" which included portraying his daughters as incestous lesbians merely a protest of his pushing for hostilities against Iraq? Was the constant derision of his regional aphorisms and mispronunciations rooted in calm, dispassionate critiques of his policy judgments?
Silly me, I always thought of them as hitting below the belt by cretins too emotionally fired up to think straight.
November 24, 2010 at 11:48 pm
Was more attention paid to Clinton's one-time marijuana use or Bush's alcoholism and probable cocaine use? I think a lot more attention was paid to Clinton's stupid "didn't inhale" remark than the rather serious addiction problems that Bush might have had. And remember, on a few occasions near the end of his presidency, Bush did appear ripped in public, so those fears might have been well grounded.
I never heard of "That's My Bush" until you mentioned it. (Don't watch much TV, don't even have cable.) According to Wikipedia, the show was by the South Park guys (who make fun of EVERYONE) and it ran for a whole eight episodes.
"Constant derision of … regional aphorisms and mispronunciations" is something of a staple of comedy. Every president since Gerald Ford has had his accent and speech patterns made fun of on Saturday Night Live, Rich Little got rich doing Nixon, and Vaughn Meader's career ended the day Kennedy was shot.
So, to sum up, you've got one bona fide character issue and two instances where EVERYONE gets it.
Now, let me tell you about Mrs. N—.
Mrs. N— is a Japanese-American who was born while her father was away serving in the Army in Italy while her mother and grandparents were in an internment camp in the Arizona desert. Mrs. N— is a loyal Democrat who volunteered answering phones for Clinton, Gore, Kerry, and Obama during their campaigns. She told my wife that the Obama campaign was different; not an hour went by without someone on the phone calling her a “baby murderer,” or “terrorist,” or “nigger loving slut.” She said that things like that didn't happen when she worked the phone-banks for Clinton, or Gore, or Kerry.
November 24, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Great job Matthew pointing out this hypocrisy. There has been a lot of it going around since the mid-term election.
November 25, 2010 at 1:17 am
Dutch, your original statement was, "Criticism of the Bush Regime was consistently directed against his disastrous policies…"
By your own admission you seem to acknowledge that criticism was not solely directed against his policies. Doesn't matter the source (South Park creators), the frequency (slams on Clinton's pot smoking vs. Bush's drinking) or the prevalence (staple of comedy). Two wrongs don't make for a right.
As for your apochryphal (sp?) tale of the woman answering a phone, there were several documented and well publicized cases of Republican campaign offices being trashed by Democrats during the Bush years.
FWIW, I detest the lack of civility on BOTH sides. They're all guilty of waving a bloodstained shirt to stir up their base whenever convenient. It used to be said politics was similar to making sausage, I believe that now it's more like opening up a cesspool that never gets properly drained. This applies to zealots no matter if they have a "D" or "R" after their political affiliation.
But your statement was contrasting the two as if there might be a real difference. Nope, ain't happening.
November 25, 2010 at 1:20 am
Dutch, one final comment.
Happy Thanksgiving.
That also applies to any others reading this comment.
November 25, 2010 at 2:41 am
Nazis, Communists, Socialists, Fascists, Marxists.
What next?
Obama is none of these. But we've reached a point where these words, which SHOULD mean something significant, mean nothing.
We live in a world where, among TV commentators, Pat Buchannan is the voice of civil discourse.
Think about that for more than a few moments and your head explodes.