Bruce Springsteen drops “f” bomb on ICE

Singer/songwriter Bruce Springsteen –aka “the boss” — has joined the ranks of entertainers – old geezer category – who once again prove that talent and intelligence are not Siamese twins. He joins the ranks of people like actor Robert De Niro, Barbra Streisand, producer Michael Moore and such has-beens as Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres.

In his latest public tantrum, the 76-year-old singer echoed Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey by demanding that ICE agents “get the f*** out of Minnesota” as if it were a new movement mantra.

Springsteen was commonly referred to as “the boss” by bandmates and fans. He claims to have hated the appellation because he was contrary to his desired image as a working class fellow. In 1980 he told Creem Magazine that he “Always did from the beginning. I hate bosses. I hate being called the boss.” In a live performance in 1973, he altered the words to “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” to “You don’t have to call me lieutenant, Rosie/Just don’t ever call me Boss!” He repeatedly asked fans to stop calling him “the boss,” but to no avail. He and the band eventually accepted the moniker as part of their promotional material.

In terms of his working class image-making, Springsteen is one of the small group of musicians to be a member of the billionaire class – one of those nasty one-percenters – with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion.

During a surprise appearance at the Light of Day Festival in New Jersey on January 17, Springsteen broke away from the performance to harangue the audience with his grievances against everything about President Trump, Republicans, conservatives and inadvertently … millions of working class Americans.

As a dyed-in-the-wool left-winger, Springsteen has mixed his politics with his performances. Like many other entertainers, he believes having a platform in one profession entitles him to use it to express his political opinion in another – and one in which “the boss” maintains a bumper sticker-level of knowledge and expertise.

Springsteen began his oration by referring to his 1978 “Promise Land”—which he described as a homage to America’s possibilities. At the time, it was seen as a patriotic performance, In his more recent rant, he expressed universal criticism of America today – especially the activities of ICE. He called on his audience to speak out against ICE as well as the policies of the Trump administration.

Springsteen took up the same provocative narrative as others on the radical left – using the same hyperbolic language. He said:

“If you believe in democracy, in liberty, if you believe that truth still matters, that it’s worth speaking out, that it is worth fighting for, if you believe in the power of the law and no one stands above it, if you stand against heavily armed masked federal troops invading American cities and using Gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens, if you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, then send a message to this president, and as the mayor of that city has said, ‘ICE should get the f— out of Minneapolis'”

He then dedicated his performance to Renee Good, who was shot by an ICE agent after hitting him with her car in an attempt to escape the scene after refusing to get out of her car. While her death was tragic, it would not likely have happened if she had obeyed the law and exited her vehicle as she was ordered to do. She was approached because she positioned her car to impede ICE vehicles.

Those are facts that Springsteen and others on the radical left refuse to consider in their obsessive hatred for Trump and everything conservative Republicans support. The boss’s performance in New Jersey was political propaganda—pure and simple.

Make no mistake. Springsteen has a right to say what he pleases. But the right of free speech is not connected to any concomitant right to be taken seriously. Kudos for his music, but boos for his proselytizing.

So, there ‘tis.