This is one for the history books and MAGA fans are beyond furious…
“In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration,” Springsteen told the crowd in Manchester, England during the first stop of his European tour.
“Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!” he continued.
He said that he was summoning the “righteous power of art, of music, of rock ‘n roll in dangerous times,” an invocation similar to the one delivered by Robert De Niro at the Cannes Film Festival this week.
“Art is inclusive. It brings people together, like tonight. Art looks for truth, art embraces diversity and that’s why art is a threat — that’s why we are a threat — to autocrats and fascists,” De Niro stated.
Our nation’s greatest artists are taking a stand against our greatest threat. Later in the show, Springsteen circled back to his earlier sentiments—
“The last check on power after the checks and balances of government have failed are the people, you and me,” the singer said. “It’s in the union of people around a common set of values now that’s all that stands between a democracy and authoritarianism. At the end of the day, all we’ve got is each other.”
And he wasn’t done there.
“There’s some very weird, strange, and dangerous sh*t going on out there right now. In America they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now,” he said before a performance of the song “My City of Ruins.”
“In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death,” he continued, presumably taking a shot at Elon Musk and his destructive DOGE agenda.
“In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers. They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that has led to a more just and plural society,” Springsteen went on.
“They are abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom,” he said. “They are defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands. They are removing residents off American streets and without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons. This is all happening now.”
“A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government,” he continued. “They have no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American.”
“The America l’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real, and, regardless of its faults, is a great country with a great people,” he said. “So we’ll survive this moment. Now, I have hope, because I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said. He said, ‘In this world there isn’t as much humanity as one would like, but there’s enough.’ Let’s pray.”
Springsteen has long been a critic of Donald Trump, which makes sense given the fact that much of his music addresses the struggles of the working class people of America — struggles that Republican policies exacerbate.
Springsteen sees through the MAGA lies about caring for these people to the ugly truth beneath: Donald Trump only cares about himself and his own wealth and power. He will bleed our country dry to line his own pockets and leave untold suffering in his wake.