The Boss favors Kerry

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Registered: 03-26-2003
The Boss favors Kerry
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Thu, 08-05-2004 - 8:35am

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 08-05-2004 - 12:13pm
I wonder if the Dixie Chicks didn't have a lesson when they fell afoul of those supporting Bush. As I recall, there was a deluge of vitriol directed at them and howls of outrage at their lack of patriotism. At least on the issue of free speech, it must have been quite instructive.

Gettingahandle

Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.

Avatar for baileyhouse
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 08-05-2004 - 12:16pm
Thanks for posting this. I was careful about my wording because I didn't want to put words in the "Boss's" mouth. I was going from memory of seeing interviews with him after 9/11.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Thu, 08-05-2004 - 6:18pm

Well written piece!


Thanks for posting.

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 08-06-2004 - 2:56pm
<>

Know what you mean! We've called it the "lesser or two evils" for the last several elections! LOL



iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sun, 08-08-2004 - 8:56am
The Boss: An old hand at uniting people.
SPRINGSTEEN COULD ENERGIZE ELECTION
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/editorial/9349144.htm?1c

Finally, a coherent voice has entered the 2004 presidential campaign.


Yep, the Boss. No, not Steinbrenner. Springsteen.


Bruce Springsteen is in the game. After lending John Kerry his song ``No Surrender'' (beats that Fleetwood Mac disaster in 2000), he has promised Kerry his vote and his endorsement.


Maybe you're for Kerry. Maybe you're for George W. Bush. Maybe you can hardly stand to be for anyone anymore.


Whatever the case, you've got to admit that Springsteen boy can write.


He laid down his political manifesto beautifully last week in the New York Times. I don't want to say I cried, but I'll admit, Bruce has had me in tears more than once in his 30 years of singing.


Quit laughing. Men who like Bruce are allowed to cry.


I wasn't so moved by the idea that Springsteen backs Kerry. True, the Boss has avoided partisan politics for 25 years, but it should be no surprise from his body of work that he more closely hews to Democratic ideals.


I was moved by the idea that maybe there is hope for our country and that maybe someday that hope will be expressed in our political discourse.


No, it won't be this year. It seems we're again faced with choosing the lesser of two evils. Springsteen acknowledged as much in his published endorsement.


``I don't think John Kerry and John Edwards have all the answers. . . .''


We're left with slogans about turning corners and help being on the way. We're subject to sniping about war medals and National Guard service and whether it's a flip-flop or an intellectual evolution when a candidate changes his mind.


Springsteen said he picked this time to break his silence on electoral politics because there was simply too much at stake to sit this one out.


By speaking up, he offers a chance to energize voters on both sides. No, he's not going to score big with the Rock the Vote crowd. I mean, lining up James Taylor, Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt might be more of an appeal to the AARP crowd.


But maybe that sneer, that on-stage energy, the vivid images and moving lyrics of his music -- maybe all of that -- will wake a few slumbering baby boomers who'd given up on voting.


You think I'm silly, don't you? Placing so much hope on a rock star's political awakening. Imagine, caring about celebrity endorsements.


Kerry has Bruce. Bush has Toby Keith. Kerry has the Dixie Chicks. Bush has Jessica Simpson. Where does it end?


But it wasn't so much what Springsteen said about the candidates that snapped me to attention. Instead, it was his appeal to our better angels.


``Why does the fulfillment of our promise as a people always seem to be just within grasp yet forever out of reach?''


I'll be honest. My first thought when I read Springsteen's Times essay was that this is the guy who should be running. Yes, Bruce Springsteen. Hey, he was ``Born to Run.'' He was ``Born in the U.S.A.,'' as the Constitution requires.


But seriously, folks.


For more than three decades, Springsteen has laid out a clear vision of America.


For many of a certain age (45, if you must know), he's written life's soundtrack. Songs about the tough streets we suburban kids never crossed. Big motorcycles, hormone-addled teens roaring through the night.


He brought us stories of a war that in the end no one wanted, of boys trying to understand the old man, of towns withering in the aftermath of plant closings.


He wrote about his country letting its citizens down and about those citizens picking their country up.


He is a patriot who realizes that our country's greatness is in its people. Sure, all politicians say that, but few have told the nation's story so intimately and genuinely.


This is no vacuous rock star sucking down cold ones and spitting out profanity. Springsteen is a craftsman, a poet, a philosopher.


Springsteen has the power to bring our divided country together. Remember the televised concert in the weeks after the horror of Sept. 11? Springsteen on candlelit stage singing ``My City in Ruins.'' With that one, he even made himself cry.


OK, so maybe a rock star running for president is a little ridiculous. I mean, the next thing, we'll have actors running for governor.


Still, there is something to be said for someone with something to say.


Springsteen insists his rock 'n' roll campaign is not about bashing Bush.


Instead, he says, it's about getting back to ``the best of human qualities -- respect for others, honesty about ourselves, faith in our ideals.''


Maybe that strikes you as trite or sanctimonious.


As for me? It sounds like a good start, no matter which side you're on.

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Sun, 08-08-2004 - 11:00am
Okay... who cares, and why should they care? Are the sentiments of entertainers of any particular import to anything of real importance?

For myself, I'm still waiting to hear that Alec Baldwin has moved out of the country as he promised to do if Bush became president back in 2000.

~mark~

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Sun, 08-08-2004 - 11:05am
Never cared for his work. Not that that really matters. nt
Avatar for baileyhouse
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 08-08-2004 - 3:07pm
To me Bruce Springsteen's backing of Kerry is not swaying me. I had my mind made up long before he said anything or before Michael Moore's movie came out. What it means to me is an affirmation of what I and plenty of other people have felt for the last 18 months. We feel lied to and betrayed by our present government. And for me personally when I hear someone famous say what I have been thinking or feeling it lets me know I am not alone. I am not imaging things. This situation is as bad as I thought. I don't think anyone short of Christ himself could sway most fanatic Bush supporters.
Avatar for isabella710
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-22-2003
Mon, 08-09-2004 - 2:48pm
<<>>

And that's even scarier.

<<>>

Isn't our government a Republic?

http://www.prostar.com/web/amerika/demorep.htm


Photobucket



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