Musician Bruce Springsteen has expressed a sense of patriotism shared by many progressives when he recently commented to a reporter, “I believe every citizen has a stake in the course, direction of their country. That’s why we vote. It’s unpatriotic at any given moment to sit back and let things pass that are damaging to some place that you love so dearly and that has given me so much.”

Like Springsteen, progressives feel motivated to express their patriotism in a much richer form than just waving a flag or wearing a lapel pin. Progressives believe that it’s their patriotic duty to participate as citizens in an open debate about the activities of their government.

In his new album, Magic, Springsteen feels motivated to speak out, through song, about the damage that the current right wing leaders of the United States are doing to this country. It’s not a new stand for Springsteen, however, who first grabbed my attention as something more than just another self-absorbed pop star with his album The Ghost of Tom Joad, which explored injustice and social separation in the shadows of working America.

Some right wingers, desperate to quiet any signals of popular dissent with their agenda, are expressing their displeasure with Bruce Springsteen’s decision to take detours off the pop music superhighway of man meets woman. As for myself, I’m glad to get off that tired old road. I’d like to see in the next President of the United States the kind of person who takes the smaller roads as well.

(Source: Reuters, October 7, 2007)