Since its Friday & we've all been listening to @Springsteen this week, I thought I would post a few thoughts on what role he's played in politics and how his music has been seen in politics over the course of his career and especially in the last, more activist decade. 1/x

For a long time, Springsteen believed that people came to music not for “political advice” but “to be touched and moved and inspired.” And for a long time, Springsteen avoided involvement in electoral politics. 2/x

He played at a Red Bank, NJ fundraiser for 1972 Democratic candidate Senator George McGovern (where, Springsteen grew “visibly impatient” during the speeches). He also tussled with Republicans & then-President Ronald Reagan over the meaning of his “Born in the USA” in 1984. 3/x

For the most part, however, Springsteen stuck to issue advocacy aimed at eliciting “tangible action.” He has played for veterans, food banks, Amnesty International and the “No Nukes” movement. 4/x

George W. Bush & the Iraq War brought Springsteen deeper into electoral politics. He & other musicians decided to stage an “emergency intervention” and spent several weeks in the fall of 2004 playing concerts in swing states to encourage a “Vote for Change” for John Kerry. 5/x

In 2008 Springsteen opined that Barack Obama was the “best candidate to lead” a “great American reclamation project.” The statement, which was a surprise to Obama’s campaign, was released shortly before the Pennsylvania primary. Obama still lost Pennsylvania by ten points. 6/x

After Obama’s inauguration, Springsteen pulled back from politics. In February 2012 he said, “The artist is supposed to be the canary in the cage.” Springsteen liked Obama, but was frustrated by GITMO & big business's influence. Springsteen tried to “stay on the sidelines.” 7/x

And yet the Obama campaign had few more high-profile surrogates toward the end of the 2012 campaign than Springsteen, traveled to VA, WI, IA, PA and OH singing “Forward and Away We Go”, which found ways to rhyme Obama’s name with “pajamas”, “Osama” and Joe Biden’s “drama.” 8/x

Beyond a jingle, 1) Springsteen helped give Obama a "Born in the USA" sheen as birtherism continued; 2) Springsteen helped with white voters--after all the only audiences whiter than those at Springsteen’s concerts might have been those at Romney rallies. 9/x

3) Obama’s & Springsteen’s messages overlapped. Obama had called for Americans to “reclaim” “American values”, such as the belief that this “country succeeds . . . when everyone does their fair share, when everyone plays by the same rules.” That's Springsteen's message too. 10/x

Springsteen’s partisanship distracts from what he has been more interested in and more effective at: establishing cultural influence. In his early thirties, Springsteen aimed to become a “voice” for his “moment” in American history. 11/x

In a keynote at the 2015 SxSW festival, Springsteen admitted he could never be Woody Guthrie, for he was something else. So he sought instead to become the “strange product of Elvis and Woody Guthrie.” 12/x

Springsteen found a way to write rock music about folk characters. He sings of day laborers and dreamers, deadbeats and derelicts. His music is sympathetic storytelling about the lives, loves and losses of those folks in NJ and across USA. 13/x

Though escape & antisocial behavior are common themes in Springsteen’s lyrics, companionship offers true salvation. Even in “Born to Run”, an epic celebration of abandon, the refrain is “we were born to run”, not “I.” 14/x

Springsteen's communitarian idea is certainly not novel, nor is it the province of only one political party, but it isn’t cynically instrumental either. Springsteen sees it as his mission to measure the “distance between [the] American promise and American reality.” 15/x

Springsteen pursues that mission—part celebration, part lament and part encouragement to close the promise-versus-reality gap—in albums and songs reminiscent of classic American jeremiads. 16/x

These American “state of the covenant” sermons always differed from their harsher European counterparts, because their religious and secular, political or artistic purveyors paired admonishment with celebration. 17/x

The new world’s jeremiads, like Springsteen’s, pointed out the lapses in America's exceptional errands but inspired just enough optimism to keep dancing on. Does this message resonate? 18/x

His most popular jeremiad albums came about at moments of deep American frustration: post-Vietnam & Watergate (1975’s Born to Run), before “morning in America” fully dawned (1984’s Born in the USA), after 9/11 (2002’s The Rising), post-economic crisis (2012’s Wrecking Ball). 19/x

Springsteen’s music may be less artistically consequential than his fans believe, and his political support may carry less weight than those for whom he campaigns might hope. Keeping cultural voice is tough when he risks losing listeners due to overt partisanship. 20/x

Springsteen's continued involvement -- in 2016 at the end for Hillary Clinton, in 2017 at the Obama White House, on Broadway, and this week at the DNC -- are a reminder that he'll endure like any Jeremiah must. 21/21.