Plenty of music's stars have made it clear where they stand on the upcoming inauguration of United States president-elect Donald Trump. Now, Bruce Springsteen is the latest to question the competency of the incoming commander in chief.
Appearing on Marc Maron's WTF podcast on Monday (January 2), Springsteen said that he's "felt disgust before, but never the kind of fear that you feel now" following the election.
"It's as simple as the fear of, is someone simply competent enough to do this particular job?" he said. "Forget about where they are ideologically. Do they simply have the pure competence to be put in the position of such responsibility?
"I think if you were affected deeply by the industrialization, globalization and the technological advances, and you have been left behind and somebody comes along and tells you, 'I'm going to bring all the jobs back. Don't worry about it. They're all coming back.' And you're concerned about America changing, the browning of America, 'I'm going to build a wall.' You're worried about ISIS? 'I've got a secret plan to defeat ISIS, don't worry about it.' You're worried about terrorism in the United States? 'I'm going to register the Muslims and we're going to ban them.'"
The Boss continued: "These are all very simplistic, but very powerful and simple ideas," he added. "I mean they're lies, they can't occur. But if you've struggled for the past 30 or 40 years … and somebody comes along and offers you something else, particularly after you feel you've been failed by the two parties, it's a compelling choice."
Springsteen also revealed that he feared the more prominent reappearance of racism and bigotry in Trump's wake would be tough to quell.
"It just appeals to your worst angels and under certain circumstances, enough people went there. Not a majority, but enough," he said. "When you let that genie out of the bottle — bigotry, racism, intolerance … they don't go back in the bottle that easily if they go back in at all. Whether it's a rise in hate crimes, people feeling they have license to speak and behave in ways that previously were considered un-American and are un-American. That's what he's appealing to."
You can listen to the entire episode here.
Appearing on Marc Maron's WTF podcast on Monday (January 2), Springsteen said that he's "felt disgust before, but never the kind of fear that you feel now" following the election.
"It's as simple as the fear of, is someone simply competent enough to do this particular job?" he said. "Forget about where they are ideologically. Do they simply have the pure competence to be put in the position of such responsibility?
"I think if you were affected deeply by the industrialization, globalization and the technological advances, and you have been left behind and somebody comes along and tells you, 'I'm going to bring all the jobs back. Don't worry about it. They're all coming back.' And you're concerned about America changing, the browning of America, 'I'm going to build a wall.' You're worried about ISIS? 'I've got a secret plan to defeat ISIS, don't worry about it.' You're worried about terrorism in the United States? 'I'm going to register the Muslims and we're going to ban them.'"
The Boss continued: "These are all very simplistic, but very powerful and simple ideas," he added. "I mean they're lies, they can't occur. But if you've struggled for the past 30 or 40 years … and somebody comes along and offers you something else, particularly after you feel you've been failed by the two parties, it's a compelling choice."
Springsteen also revealed that he feared the more prominent reappearance of racism and bigotry in Trump's wake would be tough to quell.
"It just appeals to your worst angels and under certain circumstances, enough people went there. Not a majority, but enough," he said. "When you let that genie out of the bottle — bigotry, racism, intolerance … they don't go back in the bottle that easily if they go back in at all. Whether it's a rise in hate crimes, people feeling they have license to speak and behave in ways that previously were considered un-American and are un-American. That's what he's appealing to."
You can listen to the entire episode here.