Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Born in the USA -- Why Springsteen Endorsed Obama

So Bruce Springsteen endorsed Barack Obama. No surprise there for Springsteen and Obama share the same elitist and disdainful view of working class America.

Am I really saying that Springsteen, "the champion of the working man," holds the people he sings about in ill-regard? Absolutely. In fact, he, like Obama, always has. Springsteen's songs may be populated with working class people in working class towns -- just as Obama might talk about their hopes and their dreams -- but his description of them like Obama's is unfailingly insulting, condescending and even hateful.

Time and again Springsteen describes Middle America as a place of unmitigated horrors. "Babe this town rips the bones from your back," he screams in his iconic "Born to Run," embellishing this by saying small town America is "a death trap," and "a suicide rap."

In "Thunder Road" Springsteen is desperately trying to escape a "town full of losers," while in "Sandy (Fourth of July)" he describes the denizens of small town America as having "stony faces" and as people "left stranded" in America (on the Fourth of July, no less). In Springsteen's cartoonish vision of small town America everyone is a rube who rides the "tilt-a-whirl" and is condemned to "never get off..."

What makes Springsteen believe that small town America is "full of losers" is the same thing that makes the elitist Obama think so: unlike them, these people have jobs.

Thus, in "Rosalita" Springsteen attempts to confiscate yet another "loser" girl (like "Mary" in "Thunder Road") and save her from the horrors of ever having to work a job. Springsteen knows a place, a virtual paradise, where, instead of earning a living "they play guitar all night and all day," just like Springsteen himself.

In Springsteen's world -- as it is to a good many Democrats -- having a job is the ultimate in hell. It is much preferable to be a rock star, or to marry the inheritor of John Heinz's fortune or to get in good with mobsters like Tony Rezko who help you buy your mansions than to do an honest day's work). These "losers" are losers because they "cling to" their beliefs rather than selling out, marrying for money or aligning oneself with a hate church to establish their "authenticity" in search of votes.

Work to the Modern Liberal is the ultimate in hell with absolutely nothing good to be said of it. Thus, in "Adam Raised a Cain" Springsteen's "daddy worked his whole life for nothing but the pain," while those who work in a factory are so dehumanized by having a job that they no longer even have a name -- they're just called "man:"


"End of the day
Factory whistle cries
Man walks through these gates
With death in their eyes..."

Along with his "daddy" and the factory worker, the mechanic is a loser in Springsteen's world condemned to "working all day in my daddy's garage" while "driving all night chasing some mirage." Those who work on the highway are equally condemned to a living hell where they do nothing but "hold a red flag and watch the traffic (life) pass me by." The same is true if you do manual labor: "Now I work down at the car wash, where all it ever does is rain."

The office worker, the policeman and the soldier are no better in Springsteen (and the Democrats') view. In fact, according to Springsteen, a living "death" is the consequence of "the work, the workin' just the workin' life."

Of course, this is only the way the rock star (Springsteen and Obama and the San Francisco Elite and the Hollywood actor) see the world. The reality is, as always with the Modern Liberal, exactly the opposite. The overwhelming majority of Americans have jobs and find a great deal of satisfaction, pride and pleasure in their efforts. In fact, there is a television show called "Dirty Jobs" where the star, Mike Rowe, seeks out what he can only imagine are the worst jobs possible. In one ad for an upcoming season he declares that the people he has worked with "are some of the happiest people I've ever met."

Since Springsteen and Obama believe that having a job is hell, leaving everyone's "daddy" working their whole lives for nothing but the pain, what follows is a given: bitterness, anger and frustration which, in turn, leads to violence.

Springsteen's "daddy" now "walks these empty rooms looking for something to blame, while the "factory worker" goes home and beats his child ("and you'd just better believe, boy, someone's gonna get hurt tonight"). The highway worker takes out his frustration "...looking to get hurt" and "...going down to Scovell's wearing trouble on their shirt."

Perhaps it's Springsteen's mechanic who says it best of all. Because he has a job:

"Sometimes I feel so weak I just wanna explode
Explode and tear this whole town apart
Take a knife and cut this pain from my heart.
Find someone itchin' for somethin' to start..."

In Springsteen and Obama's view, the hell of having a job is compounded by the constant fear of losing that job. Everyone is but one paycheck away from hell in an economy that, no matter the realities of the past thirty-five years, is constantly on the brink of The Great Depression. In Obama's slander of what he would likely call "typical white people" delivered to the elite in San Francisco, the people of Pennsylvania have been unemployed nonstop for a quarter of a century (and THAT'S why they believe in things as stupid as God). Of course not only isn't this true, it's ludicrous (how did they pay their bills for twenty-five straight years?).

In Springsteen's world everyone has "debts no honest man could pay" or are standing on a breadline somewhere, every town is a ghost town and every job "going, boys, and they ain't coming back..."

For thirty-five years -- most of them seeing unprecedented economic expansion -- Springsteen's towns have been unchanged, all of them with Main Streets filled with
"white washed window and vacant stores" ("My Hometown") then (1983) while today (2007):

"The diner was shuttered and boarded
With a sign that just said 'gone'"

One would think that Obama and Springsteen were talking about the dust bowl of three-quarters of a century ago, with its inhabitants all characters in "The Grapes of Wrath" (the first book Springsteen ever read -- when he was well into his twenties!). In fact, Springsteen DOES see it just like that. Not long ago Springsteen released an entire album filled with nothing but misery entitled "The
Ghost of Tom Joad" including lines that describe the dust bowl era like "shelter lines stretchin' around the corner." This album was released in 1995 -- when America was going through its second longest period of sustained economic growth in history.

Springsteen's world -- like that of Obama and all Modern Liberals - is a world filled with paranoia where boogeymen are all out to get you. Jeremiah Wright -- Obama's spiritual guru, personal mentor and campaign adviser -- has the decency to name these horrible people, they are Jews and what Obama himself would call your "typical white person." Obama, too, names the boogeymen, they are the Americans who work at pharmaceutical companies and at the energy companies. Springsteen is a bit more mysterious, typically referring to these evil forces that keep Americans having to have jobs as "they" or "them." Thus, in "Something in the Night" Springsteen whines:

"Well now you're born with nothing
And better off that way
Cause soon as you got something
They send someone to try and take it away..."

Meanwhile in another song, "Night" he whimpers:

"well all day, they're busting you up on the outside..."

It is because of this paranoia that Springsteen advises:

"Trust none of what you hear
And less of what you see..."

Springsteen's vision of an evil America who force the losers to remain in those hellish small towns and actually have to have jobs is shared by another of Obama's top advisers, his wife Michelle. Given the chance to express her beliefs about the country that provided her with affirmative action programs, scholarships to college, a cushy quarter-million-dollar-a-year-job and a husband who is a United States Senator (not bad for an "oppressed minority" where the white people create AIDS just to get her), Ms. Obama took the opportunity to testify about how horrible it is to have been born in the United States.

So, too, did Springsteen. So, when testifying to the world about what it is like to have been "born in the USA," rather than tell the story of a country that saw a bus driver's son who never had a job becoming a superstar with, in his own words, "a life of leisure and a pirate's treasure," Springsteen instead told the world that being "Born in the USA" is a horrible curse:

"Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
End up like a dog that's been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up."

Of course, that's no more an accurate description of an American than is the idea that small towns "rip the bones from your back" (but they do in Hollywoood and Washington DC if they can -- home to Springsteen and Obama) and that the people of Pennsylvania live in "towns full of losers." Nor is it any more accurate than the idea that people who have jobs all go home and beat their children (when they're not clinging to the bibles). But this IS how the Modern Liberal sees America and it's not surprising that one -- Springsteen -- would be endorsing another.

57 comments:

Anonymous said...

As usual, the dunce Sayet, misconstues, misrepresents. Why do you lie, Sayet? You cannot conceive of empathy, can you?

Anonymous said...

I meant, misconstrues. At any rate, why do you lie so much, Sayet? It took you a long time to come of with this simple piece of idiocy. Your loyal idiots will nod and agree with your insanity.

Anonymous said...

Outstanding column.

He. like Obama is also amazed that working prople cling to religion...

''Struck me kinda funny seemed kind of funny sir to me
How at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe.''

Then we can get into his views on gun ownership as the only use for a gun in his songs is to kill somone....

Anonymous said...

Haha...Sayet had such a hard on for Bruce for so long...and, now, to be so like totally jilted...that must be difficult. Gee, why did you love him so much before he turned out to be a lefty, clown? You didn't seem to notice how much he hated the working class then. Of course, what his stuff really says is how much he understands their situation in reicho America. That's why you're really whining your little lovelorn ditty, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

Yes, because he is actually the elitist...in the most negative sense of the word.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Mr. Sayet, for a well-written and illustrated piece. Even if you enjoyed Springsteen's music at one time, it's possible to see his lyrics in a different way at a point later in life. I've become pretty disgusted with John Lennon, myself, and at one time, he for me was it.
I thank God for thinkers and writers like you. You're good!

Anonymous said...

This is wunnerful...now, you can tell us how Julie Nixon hates working people ....hahahaha

President Nixon's daughter contributes maximum amount to Obama

Staff
AP News

Apr 22, 2008 10:02 EST

One of President Nixon's daughters, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, apparently supports a Democrat in this year's presidential contest — Barack Obama.

Eisenhower has contributed the maximum amount allowed during the primary season to Obama's campaign: $2,300. Federal Election Commission records show she gave Obama's campaign $1,000 on Feb. 4, another $1,000 on Feb. 18 and $300 on March 5.

One of her father's staunchest defenders during the Watergate scandal, she married the grandson of another Republican president, David Eisenhower, just before her father took office.

Since her father's resignation, she has written several books and is now co-chair of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Birthplace Foundation.

Source: AP News

Anonymous said...

Ooooh, that's touching...Tracy Sayet writes himself a love letter.

Anonymous said...

Hildebeast beat BHO by ten points tonight despite being outspent 3:1. Penn. voters don't appreciate being trashed to Hollywood rich folks. Nor do they appreciate his friendliness with America haters. The Dems have got themselves stuck pretty good now. Can't wait till the 527s get in the mix! They're locking and loading now, don't you know.

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Sayet,

I can't thank you enough for what you've done. After listening to your Heritage Foundation presentation about 6 times, I believe I've fully internalized what you were teaching.

You've given me a new facet to view the liberal mind. Now when I have to debate liberals, I ask that the kindergarten debaters (i.e. those which have no better way to respond other than "Well, so what, you are a doodooHead!") leave the room.

And guess what? No one is left.

Just like the RomperRoom leftists leaving comments here. What is the core of their argument? "You are a doodooHead!"

Thank you, sir, for furthering the opening of my eyes. Surely you know that God's gift to you is the ability to teach what is going on in the world through a comedic lens.

Don't stop.

Bless you!

Anonymous said...

Surely you know that God's gift to you is the ability to teach what is going on in the world through a comedic lens.

Of course, all of the comedy is incidental and unintended.

Anonymous said...

I wonder what celebrities support McCain. Lawrence Welk? Mitch Miller? Oh, yeah, right. They're dead.

Anonymous said...

Telling is to watch poor Sayet write these letters to himself...is this the most pathetic failure around, or what?

Anonymous said...

"...is this the most pathetic failure around, or what?"
Why do you think the author is Sayet?
I'd say you are a contender for "most pathetic failure around." Not to mention "or what?"

Anonymous said...

Interesting post! Shame your comment section is filled with a bunch (or one posting as many different people) of asinine remarks. Typical liberal-speak.

Anonymous said...

Yes, an astute observer of American culture...in an earlier post he tells us that the most prominent actors and directors in Hollywood have had no successes in years...Penn, Clooney, Speilberg and several others!!! This pathetic, envious fool just makes up his own reality...amazing...and he's supposed to be a comedian?!! I've never heard of him...now there's a failure.

Anonymous said...

Then we can get into his views on gun ownership as the only use for a gun in his songs is to kill somone....


What do you use them for...dildoes?
Why don't you list all the handy household uses for them for us?

Anonymous said...

So true. I really enjoyed this article. :) After waking up from the brain dead coma I walked in as a teenager, I saw modern pop/rock musicians for who they really are. How is it that so many seek wisdom from a bunch of promiscuous drunks that happen to have just enough talent to strum a few chords on a guitar and spin a verse? It boggles my mind. The guy that works in the cubicle next to me is over 30 and is obsessed with "old school rap". He actually thinks there is great wisdom in that trash. "It's street wisdom bro - for real" And this obsession to listen to music all day is bizarre. There is brainwashing going on there for sure - to some degree. Not only that, how can you think to any degree of depth while that crap is being blasted into your ears? We are just too obsessed with being entertained. Instead of listening to music all day, or watching TV for that matter - maybe we should try learning to play some mozart on the piano instead, or build something that will have a productive use, or write a book - or for that matter, read something non-fiction. Reading trash fiction or modern political banter will not increase your depth of understanding like a classic biography. There's nothing wrong with mindless entertainment to a point, but it seems to fill our lives completely these days, and also effects the way we look at the world negatively. What I mean by that is that we are given a picture of reality in television and novels that it completely fake and untrue. The way homosexuals and sex in general is portrayed is horrible. Everyone sleeps with everyone, every man cheats of their wife, and all gays are cute, sweet, wise, and level headed. All three of those are completely untrue in reality. Most homosexuals I've worked with, or that I know in extended family are so completely messed up and unhappy, openly perverted and very promiscuous, and often very unattractive in more than the physical sense. ARGH! When will this country wake up!

Anonymous said...

Very, very true...

Working folk are the enemy of the welfare state. The less people depend on the gov, the less power it has over them.

Anonymous said...

we are given a picture of reality in television and novels that it completely fake and untrue. The way homosexuals and sex in general is portrayed is horrible. Everyone sleeps with everyone, every man cheats of their wife, and all gays are cute, sweet, wise, and level headed

I think this poor guy needs a little reality in the form of the list of Republican/Xtian, family values hypocrites.

Anonymous said...

Working folk are the enemy of the welfare state. The less people depend on the gov, the less power it has over them.


Of course, they get it backward...there would be no need for many kinds of "welfare" if people were treated fairly in the work place and given a fair wage in the first place...precisely those things the GOP is dedicated to oppose. They do everything they can to use labor and workers as the lowest form of commodity...hence the movement -- based on and in the working classes -- which seeks to redress those affronts...simply a means of using what powers are available to them, whether based in unionization or in representative gov't to balance the power of the corporation which will abuse its power almost every time.

Anonymous said...

Am I really saying that Springsteen, "the champion of the working man," holds the people he sings about in ill-regard? Absolutely.

Well, of course as a cuckold of Bruce,you'd have to wouldn't you? Since your real problem is that he's "jilted" you and your movement, and you have no other legit beef with him other than envy and petty political pique, you have to drum up the most laughable charge imaginable...especially amusing coming from a shill for the corporate assholes who are the real -- though very vulgar -- elites in this country.

Evan Sayet said...

As usual, I lay out my thesis, back it up with facts and evidence and make my point in a thoughtful manner only to hear from what David Mamet recognizes as the "brain-dead liberals" name-calling, attacks upon my "feelings" (yeah, I was "jilted" by Bruce, that's why I quoted the lyrics from his iconic songs -- the hate-America-always lie that is "Born in the USA" and his breakout song, "Born to Run."

Leftists simply hate America and don't even know why they do. Read the pathetic pro-welfare system, nanny state response below. Yeah, folks are on welfare because the evil small business owner treats them poorly (and the white man invented AIDS to get black people, etc.)

In the world of the leftist everyone is a victim and they are so sure of it they don't even have to try to work hard...just collect welfare and blame everyone else for your failures.

Anonymous said...

Jenna also hates working class...may join Julie Nixon in voting for elitist Obama!! Why won't she support the workers by voting for John McKeating and his wealthy, corporate lobbyists who love workers and want to see them at work 80 hrs a week?

Anonymous said...

Poor, weak man sets out some more straw men in the punkin patch to knock over...Yeah, folks are on welfare because the evil small business owner treats them poorly (and the white man invented AIDS to get black people, etc.)


haha...did anyone say anything about SMALL business? Noooooooo...they did seem to mention corporations, though...merely refer to a few of the recent assaults on workers and consumers as a result of the naive deregulation accompanying GOP misrule. Take a little visit to Libby, Mt. and visit with an entire town of men, women and children who've been poisoned and murdered for decades for corporate profit. And, I don't really remember seeing any silliness about AIDS either...I guess he just can't deal with the REAL charges. Victims!!? How pathetic...all that whining from corporations when people expect them to act like citizens of the nation...now, that's the real whining.

Anonymous said...

Oh Evan was jilte all right:

"Born In The USA" has been widely misinterpreted and misused –the strident, anthemic chorus overwhelms the verses, which contain the poignant story of a worn-out Vietnam veteran who can't get a break, despite living in the land of opportunity. Ex-US president Ronald Reagan attempted to co-opt the song – and Springsteen's support – for his '84re-election campaign, an act that Springsteen was at pains to distance himself from. And when Republican White House contender Bob Dole used "Born In The USA" on his campaign trail in 1996, Springsteen wrote to his local newspaper to make clear that he was not backing the Republican ticket. Springsteen once compared "Born In The USA" to Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land", a song that was written in response to Irving Berlin's patriotic 'alternative anthem', "God Bless America" and has itself been misinterpreted. According to Springsteen, Guthrie's song was "what America could have been about" rather than what it actually turned out to be.
In 1990, Springsteen gave Rappers 2 Live Crew permission to sample "Born In The USA" for their single "Banned In The USA".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/songlibrary/indepth/bornintheusa.shtml

See neo-cons have no insight to anything, no imagination. They have "a mind of winter" and have "been cold a long time." The stupid reptiles.

Evan Sayet said...

McCain wants people to work eighty hours a week? Where did the get this? He made it up so he can justify siding with people who hang out with murderers, terrorists, mobters who help them buy their houses, and racists like Jeremiah Wright.

There is NOTHING to these leftists. Nothing.

Anonymous said...

Of course, they'd like to see them working 80 hrs a week ...in fact, thanks to the Corporate Whore Party, many are doing so now...holding 2 or 3 jobs just to get by...and then we have all the massive evidence of how workers were treated before the New Deal and unionization. There is nada to these reichos...nada and soitanly no gonada. They're so stupid and evil you just mess with them for sport.

Anonymous said...

See neo-cons have no insight to anything, no imagination. They have "a mind of winter" and have "been cold a long time." The stupid reptiles.


My, Mr or Mz anonymous, you are so correct in your writings about the reich's writhings. Pliz, keepa spread the word about the modrun conservative -- who of course is the most reckless and unconservative criminal on the planet.

Anonymous said...

that's why I quoted the lyrics from his iconic songs -- the hate-America-always lie that is "Born in the USA"

Did this addled goofball actually say this? The hate America song that both Reagan and Dole used!!!??

Is this moron totally oblivious?

Bob said...

Great. Now I'll have Born In The USA and Born To Run stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Thanks, Evan.

*laughs*

Anonymous said...

Yas, it's tough for FAILED CEOs in the YewEssAy too...

Countrywide's CEO takes home $10.8m
Collapsed mortgage co.'s CEO paid $10.8 million, realized $121.5m in stock


The last thing these pooooor guys need is onerous gummint regliationism.

Anonymous said...

Iraq war architect blames everyone else for Iraq war...

The man who led the office that supplied the Bush Administration with "raw intelligence" on Iraq now says everyone else is to blame but himself.

Douglas Feith, President Bush's former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, headed the Office of Special Plans, a secretive outfit which passed along unverified "alternative" intelligence to Administration decisionmakers in the run up to war.

A Senate Intelligence Committee report found that the Office "developed, produced, and then disseminated alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and al Qaida relationship, which included some conclusions that were inconsistent with the consensus of the Intelligence Community, to senior decision-makers."

In other words, they passed on "intelligence" that was never vetted, much of which appeared to align with a hawkish Administration agenda.

On Thursday, Feith pointed his finger at everyone but himself regarding the war in Iraq. According to the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, at a book-launch party for his new book, "War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism," Feith blamed a laundry list of officials for failing "to challenge the logic of going to war."

Blames Bush, too
"He argued that former secretary of state Colin Powell and his deputy, Richard Armitage, were the ones who failed to challenge the logic of going to war -- not him," Milbank wrote. "He suggested that Powell, Armitage, Franks, former Iraq viceroy Jerry Bremer and even Feith's old boss, Donald Rumsfeld, should be blamed for the postwar chaos in Iraq -- not him. He blamed then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice for the way she operated ("fundamental differences were essentially papered over rather than resolved"). He accused the CIA of "improper" and unprofessional behavior. And he implicitly blamed President Bush for not cracking down on insubordinate behavior at the State Department."

"Yet at the same time, Feith told the... crowd that he disapproved of the "snide and shallow self-justification typical in memoirs of former officials," or what Feith cleverly called the " 'I-was-surrounded-by-idiots' school of memoir writing," Milbank continues. "Feith pointed out that he supported his account with 140 pages of notes and documents. And yet, in his hour-long panel discussion, Feith seemed to be of the impression that he had, in fact, been surrounded by idiots."

Feith himself hasn't escaped accusations that he was aloof during his time at his Office of Special Plans.

According to Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack, then- Secretary of State Colin Powell referred to the Office as the "Gestapo" office. Former CIA director George Tenet called his work "total crap."

When Feith stepped in to back recruiting a brigade of "Free Iraqi Forces" to enter Iraq with Americans, according to the book Cobra II, "Franks turned to Feith in a Pentagon corridor, letting him know where he stood: 'I don't have time for this fucking bullshit."

During his book launch party, Feith ironically remarked, "The CIA and the intelligence community should not be shading intelligence."

Milbank notes that Feith has been out of touch. Vaunting his book on "60 Minutes," Feith asserted the Administration didn't need to claim Iraq had weapons of mass destruction to invade.

"Pointing so many fingers in so many directions, a man is bound to get confused -- as happened when Steve Kroft asked him on "60 Minutes" about his claim that the lack of troops contributed to looting in Baghdad," he adds. "'I don't believe I raised the troop-level issue in that connection," Feith replied. Then Kroft presented him with the passage. "That's a fair point,' Feith amended."

Remarked Milbank wryly, "It must have been very difficult being Doug Feith: correct all the time, and surrounded by idiots."

Anonymous said...

Not to mention Devils and Dust, AKA recycling the same tired Joad cliches, came out during yet another period of tremendous economic growth. Bruce, nothing if not predictable. "Radio Nowhere" definitely kicks ass, though.

Oh, (a)nonnie, just because Reagan and Dole errantly tried to appropriate "Born in the U.S.A.," doesn't change the anti-American lyrics. As bad as Wrangler trying to "patriotize" the "Ooh, the red, white and blue" line from "Fortunate Son" a few years ago? Well, yeah, actually.

Anonymous said...

Oh, (a)nonnie, just because Reagan and Dole errantly tried to appropriate "Born in the U.S.A.," doesn't change the anti-American lyrics.

Goopball telling us the GOP was too stupid to know they were using anti-American material. And that there have been no probs for the working class since the Joads went west. Dumber than hell? Of course.

Morguish Blog said...

I bet myself that the
UBER-RETARD "Anonymouse" would be the first to comment. Well..... Geez Evan, thanks for finally deigning to write! Anonymouse was languishing in utter BLOG- PURGATORY. S/he/it (God only knows the gender, but it seems post-menopausally haggish) was going through veritable ANTI-EVAN WITHDRAWLS. It lives for you and your writing--kind of like a prose-addicted tapeworm. It feeds off every word you utter--carefully masticating each of your sentences; gorging itself on your deliciously forbidden prose. When turgid with your words, it then bursts, spewing undigested invective everywhere. As your thoughts are too rich for its primitive constitution, it then has a bad case of the comment-runs, hopelessly defecating its loose mind all over your column. Many of us wishing to post, must then wade through its ubiquitous mental dung-fest, furiously down-scrolling until white space is achieved! It's quite fun, actually. I wouldn't miss it for anything!

Anonymous said...

The "labor" movement has always been a movement AGAINST 'actual labor'.

The need to bring it up to data and call it what it is... the "welfare" movement.

Anonymous said...

The "labor" movement has always been a movement AGAINST 'actual labor'.


Haha...the things these morons have to tell themselves... he doesn't know about the company store, child labor, the 16 hr day,the slave wages and the mutilations and deaths in the factories and mines before the labor movement came along. Now, we're going back that way again...maybe he'll get an enlightening glimpse.

Anonymous said...

My granddaddy fought Ford at River Rouge and my daddy was one of those corrupt labor bosses in Butte, Montana... I wish you could tell them all about the labor movement you simple little twat. They'd spit your weak, whored out little ass out on the street. Touching the way you boys like sucking corporate dick, though...you're all versions of Stockholm Syndrome sufferers.

Anonymous said...

I comes to watchem do da zombie, yeah, night and day, do da voodoo shake. Not much shakin, tho, 2day.

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Fatneck,

I can't thank you enough for what you've done. After reading your presentation about the unions about 6 times, I believe I've fully internalized what you were teaching.

You've given me a new facet to view the right wing mind. Now when I have to debate them, I axes that the kindergarten debaters (i.e. those which have no better way to respond other than "Well, so what, you are a doodooHead!") leave the room.

And guess what? No one is left.

Just like the RomperRoom rightisss leaving comments here. What is the core of their argument? "You are a doodooHead!"

Thank you, sir, for furthering the opening of my eyes. Surely you know that God's gift to you is the ability to teach what is going on in the world through a brilliant lens.

Don't stop.

Bless you! Bless you to heaven?

Anonymous said...

I've never even thought of that, but there IS a negative sense of the working class Springsteen sings about! He's touted as speaking up for the working man, but when you don't respect what he's doing, when those jobs need doing and somebody's got to do it, why's that not okay?
Does everyone have to be Bill Gates or Donald Trump?
I never thought of that, and I think you're right, Evan.
The disdain the Left has for anyone who really works a hard, honest day of work is sad. I guess it's based on "You don't want to do THAT! you want the government to make your life PERFECT!"
brilliant. Of course Springsteen would endorse a socialist who wants to GIVE us everything from the back of those who have worked hard and succeeded.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure Springsteen LOVES working men and women. After all somebody's gotta clean his house, wash his clothes and mow his lawn.

And then he charges then their days wages to listen to him sing.

He loves the working men and women of America.

He just can't help but admit to himself that they're a bunch of chumps and suckers...

Anonymous said...

Corporate crime inflicts far more damage on society than all street crime combined.

Whether in bodies or injuries or dollars lost, corporate crime and violence wins by a landslide.

The FBI estimates, for example, that burglary and robbery – street crimes – costs the nation $3.8 billion a year.

The losses from a handful of major corporate frauds – Tyco, Adelphia, Worldcom, Enron – swamp the losses from all street robberies and burglaries combined.

Health care fraud alone costs Americans $100 billion to $400 billion a year.

The savings and loan fraud – which former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh called "the biggest white collar swindle in history" – cost us anywhere from $300 billion to $500 billion.

And then you have your lesser frauds: auto repair fraud, $40 billion a year, securities fraud, $15 billion a year – and on down the list.

Anonymous said...

Corporate crime is often violent crime.

Recite this list of corporate frauds and people will immediately say to you: but you can't compare street crime and corporate crime – corporate crime is not violent crime.

Not true.

Corporate crime is often violent crime.

The FBI estimates that, 16,000 Americans are murdered every year.

Compare this to the 56,000 Americans who die every year on the job or from occupational diseases such as black lung and asbestosis and the tens of thousands of other Americans who fall victim to the silent violence of pollution, contaminated foods, hazardous consumer products, and hospital malpractice.

These deaths are often the result of criminal recklessness. Yet, they are rarely prosecuted as homicides or as criminal violations of federal laws.

Anonymous said...

The Air Force has bought into the climate hoax!!! How can that be? They will vitiate our military. The US air force will this week call for the world's top scientists to come together in a 21st-century Apollo-style programme to develop greener fuels and tackle global warming. It wants universities, governments, companies and environmental groups to collaborate on a multibillion-dollar effort to work out greenhouse gas emissions of existing and future fuels.

William Anderson, an assistant secretary of the air force, said the project aimed to calculate the overall carbon footprint of the world's energy sources, rather than merely measure their direct emissions.

Anonymous said...

See, Evan was at this Republican party (yawn)...in a corner, wide stance, foot tapping in time to "Born in the USA," engaging some young, quite young I'm told, man. And, the brighter of the two conservatives (He's now a Democrat and openly gay), and I use the term loosely, informed Evan that, "Hey, no man, that song aint about what you think it is." Evan was shocked, so I'm told. His eyes bulged, his mouth gaped (Well, that's how he usually looks, right?) and, for a moment, he went into shock. Then he proceeded to break all of his Bruce Springsteen CDs and never, ever liked him again. And, that's the truth.

Promethea said...

Terrific post, Evan.

Now I'll read all the comments to see why you're a "dunce" (peeking at #1).

My question to you is: Why does your blog attract so many losers? Your writing is very clear and to the point. You always make sense. Yet so many of the people who comment here are just plain nuts.

Maybe this thread will be different.

Promethea said...

Now that I've read all the comments, I see that most of the childish people are named "anonymous" except for that one hubble person. There are some commenters who recognize that you make a lot of sense.

Anonymous said...

Why Springsteen Edorsed Obama.

He's not a moron?

Anonymous said...

Promethea, Nice blog...you have as much to say there as this dude does, but do it with greater economy of language. You manage to hide your stupidity by keeping your mouth shut...good plan.

Anonymous said...

Kewanio Che Keekeru, Evan!

Unknown said...

Absolutely brilliant comparison, and spot on.

Nice crop of flaming troll ya got here. Want mine?

Anonymous said...

What astounds me about this post is that, to me, it appears that you've completely overlooked the working class citizen who has been run roughshod by NAFTA.

Incidentally, the reason he was writing about economic misery in 1995 was that there was a little economic policy in 1994 called--you guessed it!--NAFTA.

It's really no wonder that you missed this, especially after seeing how much fear and hate you try to stir up against Barack Obama...because as another great leader once said about ignorance:

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Anonymous said...

The venom in comments on Mr. Sayet's writing needs to be addressed. The pattern is: someone expresses an opinion, then someone who disagrees will attack the person's intelligence, courage, character, etc.
Americans have been polarized into sides being pitted against each other. Who could possibly want our country to destroy itself this way?
Hmm.

HEYOK said...

IMO this here explanation seems to cover many more shades of meaning to the song Born in the USA than all the quotation marks Evan has used above.
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1014

A song written for soldiers dealing with reality is my take on it. Since I am a soldier and have talked to many, many soldiers I think I might have a better view on that than Evan does.

Evan and I shared ideas in another forum recently until I brought up too many facts.
You know... not name calling and silly misspelled names for effect but actual facts! Why did Eli Lilly (HUGE corporation) get a clause in the Homeland Security Act meant to protect all U.S. citizens. Stuff like that.
Hmmm... Evan quit responding when the facts came out.

To Evan: I say thanks for the lesson in communication with a cut and paste from another great musician:
Ani Difranco: As Is--- (It’s not hollywood but a real performer performing, and from personal experience I KNOW performing is work)
you can't hide
behind social graces
so don't try
to be all touchy feely
cuz you lie
in my face of all places
but i've got no
problem with that really

what bugs me
is that you believe what you're saying
what bothers me
is that you don't know how you feel
what scares me
is that while you're telling me stories
you actually
believe that they are real

and i've got
no illusions about you
and guess what?
i never did
and when i said
when i said i'll take it
i meant,
i meant as is

just give up
and admit you're an asshole
you would be
in some good company
i think you'd find
that your friends would forgive you
or maybe i
am just speaking for me

cuz when i look around
i think this, this is good enough
and i try to laugh
at whatever life brings
cuz when i look down
i just miss all the good stuff
when i look up
i just trip over things

and i've got
no illusions about you...

Anonymous said...

Evan, a very good post. It reminded me of Springsteen's opening of "The River" from the "Live 1975 – 85" CD's. Here is a link to it (at the bottom of the page):
http://www.rune-it.dk/springsteen.htm

...and here is an excerpt:

“When I was growin’ up me and my dad used to go at it all the time, over almost anything. I used to have really long hair, way down past my shoulders. I was 17 or 18, oh man he used to hate it. And we got to where we’d fight so much that I’d spend a lot of time out of the house. And in the summertime it wasn’t so bad, ‘cause it was warm and your friends were out, but in the winter... I remember standin’ down town and it would get so cold. And, when the wind would blow I had this phone booth I used to stand in. And I used to call my girl, like for hours at a time, just talkin’ to her all night long. And finally I’d get my nerve up to go home, and I’d stand there in the driveway, and he’d be waitin’ for me in the kitchen. And I’d tuck my hair down into my collar, and I’d walk in, and he’d call me back to sit down with him... And the first thing he’d always ask me was; “What did I think I was doin’ with my self”? And the worst part about it, was that I could never explain it to him...
I remember I got in a motorcycle accident once, and I was laid op in bed and he had a barber come in and cut my hair... And man... I can remember tellin’ him that I hated him, and that I would never ever forget it.
And he used to tell me; “Man I can’t wait till the army gets you. When the army gets you, they’re gonna’ make a man out of you. They’re gonna’ cut all that hair of and they’ll make a man out of you”.

See the link for an audio of the whole thing.

Part of it is Bruce didn't think he measured up to what his parents wanted. I have a close relative who is an alcoholic and I've learned a lot about some of the causes of problems that sometimes lead to addiction. (I want to be careful with my words as it can get complicated.)

I have seen many, many people who are addicts reach back in time to their childhood. I used to laugh when I’d see references to childhood as a source of problems for people, but it is true. Seemingly small things can have a big effect on one's life. Simple actions or inactions are powerful. Many kids want to know that their parents approve of them and what they are doing. They not only want to know, they have to know. It doesn’t take much to screw up a person. So the kid who kept looking for cues from his father that his father was proud of him (and never saw them) can grow up with feelings of abandonment. There are many, many examples. I’m not a psychologist, but how we treat kids as parents has a HUGE bearing on the future. Yes, it’s obvious. This is why two parent homes that are stable tend to produce more stable people. It’s not in every case, but most cases.

I bring up this addictions analogy because one of things addicts do is go into denial. Time and time again, alcoholics claim they don’t have a problem. Even after crashing cars, many of them will ignore it. Well, part of the definition of addiction is doing something without much regard for the consequences. I know some woman whose husband was steadfast that he did not have a drinking problem. I think he was on his 3rd or 4th DUI and the judge gave him a choice of going through an addiction program for alcoholics or jail time in Cook County Jail in Chicago. He took jail. The power of this delusion is immense.

To me, I see the same mechanisms working with Modern Liberals. They will throw anything and everything under the bus to stay in their little world that Evan describes in his video. So even though we know that we need oil, they will fight everything about it because it helps people be successful. They talk about being for the poor, but it’s the poor who suffer most from their programs. Their desire to make everything equal is like an addiction.

At some level, they know that leaving Iraq would cause big problems, but they don’t and can’t care. When we left Vietnam, besides the communists, Pol Pot came to power and millions died. Modern Liberals are in denial and ignore this information.

As Evan says in his video, for just about every issue, they are driven to make things “equal” despite the consequences. We could see this in action when the president of Iran, Ahmadinejad, spoke in NY and talked about gays. He was very pointed in being against gays and talking about how they are dealt with. Now, where was the outrage from the gay lobby? I didn’t see any outrage! Why? Because the gays that run the organizations are Modern Liberals and they will throw themselves under the bus so they can get to Bush. To them, it’s more important to get to Bush (because Ahmadinejad is a way for them to get at Bush) and what Bush represents to force things to be “equal.” (I’m guessing that the gays who are not Modern Liberals were really mad wondering why their leaders were so silent.) In other words, their denial is so strong that they’ll throw their own cause under the bus if it means getting at Bush and Western Civilization.

I just remembered: There is another song opening where Bruce refers to not measuring up. In one of the "Growing Up" openings he talks about mother wanting him to be

Go to the bottom of this page:
http://www.springsteenlyrics.com/lyrics/g/growinup16.php
"...my father always said 'you know, you should be a lawyer. You know, you get, get a little something for yourself.' You know? And my mother, you know, she used to say 'no, no, no, no. He should be, he should be an author. He should write books. You know, you should... That's a good life, you can get a little something for yourself."

So both of his parents were hitting him with going to a more traditional livelihood - which has been a big burden on him over the years.

Evan, thank you for the hard work and guidance. I think we are cracking the code of this mental illness.