Wednesday, June 04, 2014

Born in the USA

How Ronald Reagan, after trying to adopt Born in the USA for himself, changed Bruce Springsteen's politics:
Springsteen often publicized food banks. He also showed considerable interest in strike-relief funds, particularly those run by United Steelworkers Local 1397 in Pittsburgh and the Steelworkers Oldtimers Foundation in Los Angeles. Three years after the president had forcibly ended the air traffic controller strike, and three years before the dispossessed of U.S. cities became so impossible to ignore that the term “homelessness” was first applied to them, raising money for food banks run by unions was one of the least Reaganesque things that a public figure could do.

And ever since, on every Springsteen tour for the last 30 years, there have been tables for local charities at every venue, usually food banks and other poverty-focused causes, and the singer has reminded his audiences to help those organizations with the work of improving their hometowns.

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