One Aspect of Springsteen's Obama Campaign Involvement Which Will Likely Be Ignored: His (and Obama's) Occupy Endorsements

Tom Blumer
October 15th, 2012 8:35 PM
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The Left and the establishment press (but I repeat myself) are taking heart in the fact that Bruce Springsteen has agreed to campaign for Barack Obama in Ohio and Iowa later this week.

The campaign of Mitt Romney, and Republicans in general, are the ones who should be cheered by this development for two reasons. One of them, which is being reported, is that Springsteen said earlier this year that he wouldn't be campaigning; the fact that he has changed his mind proves that Team Obama is genuinely worried about their boss's reelection prospects. The second isn't as well-known, but should be. "The Boss" (i.e., Springsteen) went all-in with the Occupy movement earlier this year, essentially ratifying our incumbent president's endorsement. Springsteen's stance was described in several places in February, including at the Gothamist:

Coming off an invigorating performance to kickoff the Grammy Awards, Bruce BROOOOOCE Springsteen was in Paris this week to formally introduce his new album, Wrecking Ball, for a select group of reporters. Springsteen gave over much of the press conference to discussing the current state of American politics, and how his "angry patriotism" was reflected in the new music: "Previous to Occupy Wall Street, there was no push back at all saying this was outrageous—a basic theft that struck at the heart of what America was about, a complete disregard for the American sense of history and community."

... the rousing first single "We Take Care Of Our Own," an ironic song that sums up the broken promises of the country as far as Springsteen sees it. "I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American dream...What was done to our country was wrong and unpatriotic and un-American and nobody has been held to account," he later told the Guardian. "There is a real patriotism underneath the best of my music but it is a critical, questioning and often angry patriotism."

... He had particular praise for OWS: "The temper has changed. And people on the streets did it. Occupy Wall Street changed the national conversation—the Tea Party had set it for a while. The first three years of Obama were under them." And he thinks OWS is directly responsible for certain Tiffanys-loving politicians talking about economic equality for the first time: "Nobody had talked about income inequality in America for decades—apart from John Edwards—but no one was listening. But now you have Newt Gingrich talking about 'vulture capitalism'—Newt Gingrich!—that would not have happened without Occupy Wall Street."

Because the press won't (even though it would if it were doing its job and not serving as the Obama cheering section), Republicans should remind voters that it isn't just Springsteen who liked and presumably still likes the Occupy crowd. So does Obama:

So do quite a few members the Democratic Party, who similarly have never retracted their support, even after murders, rapes, attempted terrorism, and other crimes, all accompanied by boorish incivility, a strange sense of entitlement, and unspeakable filth:

So play on, Bruce. The more campaign stops you can make, the merrier -- as long as Republicans and conservatives don't give you a free pass.

Google News searches on [Springsteen "Occupy Movement"], [Springsteen "Occupy Wall Street"], and [Springsteen Obama Occupy Wall Street] (all typed exactly as indicated between brackets) at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time returned no results dated later than October 11, and none relating to Springsteen's involvement with the campaign.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.