GOP denies Springsteen’s glory days

November 21, 2005

Votes on symbolic resolutions are so common in Congress, they hardly ever spark any controversy at all. Lawmakers from both parties, in both chambers, honor someone from their district or state, they give a laudatory speech, and their resolution passes unanimously. It couldn’t be any more routine.

Unless, that is, the resolution is honoring an entertainer who happened to campaign for John Kerry last year.

Bruce Springsteen famously was “born in the USA,” but he’s getting scorned in the U.S. Senate.

An effort by New Jersey’s senators, both Democrats, to honor the veteran rocker was shot down yesterday by Republicans who apparently are still miffed a year after the Boss lent his voice to the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

The chamber’s GOP leaders refused to bring up for consideration a resolution, introduced by Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Jon Corzine, that honored Springsteen’s long career and the 1975 release of his iconic album “Born to Run.”

Asked why the resolution was blocked, Senate Republicans wouldn’t say. The Springsteen line about “a town full of losers” comes to mind.

But it’s also worth noting that congressional Republicans seem to be taking these inconsequential floor votes more and more seriously. About two months ago, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) wanted to name a post office in Berkeley after a 94-year-old former city councilwoman. Rep. Steve King of Iowa accused the woman, Maudelle Shirek, of having communist ties and led a fight to defeat Lee’s measure. Accused of engaging in blatant McCarthyism, Rep. King said, “If [Lee] studied her history, she’d recognize Joe McCarthy was a great American hero.”

If anyone’s looking for hints as to why the political atmosphere on Capitol Hill has become so toxic, votes like these might offer some insight.

These votes (and the Jean Schit’s shrieking) are symptomatic of the fact that we’re no longer dealing with policy differences or even politics. Instead, we’re dealing with a new crackpot religion — Bushism: a good-evil theology in which everything the Bushites like (more tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy) is holy; everything else, even neutral things, evil. Maybe with enough more of this we’ll come to understand tribal-religious societies like Iraq. Unfortunately, in the process, we will have thrown away America.

  • It’s outrageous, but also in a way heartening.

    Back in the 80s, Republicans were smart: they claimed Bruce for themselves, with more than a little success. They treated “Born in the USA” as an anthem of working-class patriotism, even though in fact it was about working class bitterness at being used and abused by the system, with Vietnam as Exhibit A. But here’s why Atwater was way smarter than Rove: they realized that image is everything – the culture would let them appropriate Bruce. And enough of Bruce’s fans would buy into the con and vote Republican to win them elections.

    Nowadays, Republicans are stupid: they’re so convinced of their God-given righteousness that they condemn anyone who’s not on the righteous path – regardless of image. So they leave Bruce to the Godless Democrats, forgetting that Bruce’s fans are the country’s swing voters.

    It used to be said that Republicans look for converts, while Democrats look for heretics. The first half of that saying may no longer be true. Are Democrats smart enough to change the second?

  • Small minds are ALWAYS petty…

    And with Bush’s numbers in the crapper and DeLay and Frist on their way to prison, the Rethugs have nothing in the playbook except fear, smear, and cheer for “Der Leader.” Expect more of it, now that the mask has been ripped off of the ugliness that lies at the heart of the Rethugs’ war on America.

    • Comments are closed.