Rocker Bruce Springsteen revealed in a wide-ranging interview with Rolling Stone that Joe Biden wasn’t his first choice of Democrats vying to challenge President Donald Trump in the election. Springsteen also says white supremacy and white privilege and not “veins in our extremities, rather than an aorta that cuts through the very heart of the nation.”
Springsteen said that he has found the last few years to be a “very disturbing time,” and that “overall, as somebody who was a born populist, I’ve got a little less faith in my neighbors than I had four years ago.”
“White supremacy and white privilege have gone much deeper than I thought they did,” the rocker said on the subject of the Marxist political organization Black Lives Matter, which he says has unearthed truths about America and racism. “I think my feeling previously to the past three or four years was that racism and white supremacy and white privilege were veins in our extremities, rather than an aorta that cuts through the very heart of the nation, which I feel it is now.”
“So that was eye-opening, whether I was previously stupidly innocent to that or not,” said Springsteen, whose song “The Rising” made an appearance at the Democrat National Convention (DNC) in August.
When it comes to the upcoming election, Springsteen admits that Biden was not his first choice, adding that “if we want to have the America that we envision, it’s going to need some pretty serious systemic changes moving leftward.”
“The power of the American idea has been abandoned It’s a terrible shame, and we need somebody who can bring that to life again.… I think if we get Joe Biden, it’s gonna go a long way towards helping us regain our status around the world,” said the Grammy-winner, who has a famous friendship with Barack Obama.
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U.S. President Barack Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to popular music singer, songwriter and rock and roll legend Bruce Springsteen during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House November 22, 2016 in Washington, DC. Obama presented the medal to 19 living and two posthumous pioneers in science, sports, public service, human rights, politics and the arts. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Springsteen also referred to the Republican National Convention (RNC) as “horrific,” claiming that it was “just seeded with constant lies and total distortion of the American idea.”
“It’s heartbreaking and terrible,” he said. “The first thing is to get the Trump administration out of office and start again.”
In June, the E Street Band frontman called President Trump a “threat to our democracy,” and said he doesn’t know if “our democracy could stand another four years of his custodianship.”
Springsteen has also demanded “systemic changes” in the United States’ “law enforcement departments” in the wake of the death of George Floyd, which sparked protests and riots across the nation.
“We need systemic changes in our law enforcement departments and the political will of our national citizenry to once again move forward the kind of changes that will bring the ideals of the civil rights movement once again to life and into this moment,” Springsteen said.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram.
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