Springsteen's Bill of Rights

No Room for Summer Soldiers and Sunshine Patriots

Ben Shahn, circa 1946.

Bruce Springsteen stands in a long line of people who have created and supported what used to be called the liberal consensus - now in dire jeopardy. Here's how he comes at it in his 2016 autobiography, Born to Run:

"I wanted to understand. What were the social forces that held my parents' lives in check? Why was it so hard? In my search I would blur the lines between the personal and psychological factors that made my father's life so difficult and the political issues that kept a tight clamp on working-class lives across the United States. I had to start somewhere. For my parents' troubled lives I was determined to be the enlightened, compassionate voice of reason and revenge. This first came to fruition in Darkness on the Edge of Town. It was after my success, my "freedom," that I began to seriously delve into these issues. I don't know if it was the survivor's guilt of finally being able to escape the confines of my small-town existence or if, as on the battlefield, in America we're not supposed to leave anybody behind. In a country this rich, it isn't right. A dignified decent living is not too much to ask. Where you take it from there is up to you but that much should be a birthright." (Pp. 264-265.)

In his State of the Union Message on January 11, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approached the same ideas in a few paragraphs that have been called the Second Bill of Rights, or the Economic Bill of Rights:

"The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

"The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

"The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

"The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

"The right of every family to a decent home;

"The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

"The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

"The right to a good education."

(For the full text of this part of the speech, click here.)

As I mentioned before, these ideas, which have been widely accepted since I was a child and still are widely accepted by many people, including quite a few who are unwittingly fighting against them, are now in great peril.

This will be the year that decides our future. That future is in our hands. We must not fail.