There's a piece that came out this week, from an interview that was done with Bruce Springsteen....suggesting that President Trump doesn't understand 'what it means to be an American'.
I sat and read over the interview, and pondered upon it for an afternoon.
The problem that Springsteen has....is a Bob Dylan lyric that easily fits here...."...the times, they are achanging".
It's not 1984/1985 anymore, and Springsteen's America has slipped away from the pier, set sail, floundered a good bit, was hopelessly lost at some point, and some lighthouse suddenly came up in the past three years, and jacked up the beacon 300-percent to bring this boat back into port.
Once NAFTA arrived, and a million-odd jobs disappeared over a decade....Springsteen's America was dissolving away.
Then you had China take over industrial jobs, and import products into the US....with politicians like George Bush and Barak Obama claiming those jobs would never come back.
Then toss in the banking crisis and the real estate mess in California and Florida.
What people felt over the past thirty years was a demoralizing effect, a loss of respect for both political parties, and a disbelief in fundamental values. When you (the general public) say that 95-percent of people have some level skepticism...from a marginal level to a maximum level....on the news media, something's wrong.
My advice to Springsteen? Pack up your truck, and go take a 90-day drive around the US....talking to regular working-class people. Go talk to blacks, truckers, barbers, and farmers. Don't start your conversation about 'what it means to be an American'....but with 'how do you feel today'. Don't let the optimism freak you out.
Play Dylan's tune in the back of your mind. We are simply not in 1984 any longer....we've moved on. And those times are achanging.
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