So Fox and Breitbart, etc., are mad at Bruce Springsteen, again.

[Caliman73]

30. American exceptionalism

That is how we missed it. The messaging has been about how America is the best, always the best, the greatest place on earth where everything is better than anywhere else on earth. Many Americans are proud that most of us only speak one language. English damn it! It's good enough for me! Jimmy Carter was beat by an actor who came out with a sunny message of America being great and that we don't have to apologize for anything, because Carter asked us to look inside and make some difficult decisions about where we were headed.

We are a country and a people with a lot of potential. Most of us are hard working, neighborly people who care. We have done great things in the world and many Americans are doing great things in and for the world. The problem is that a lot of us think that we are great, or that if we aren't, it is because we aren't doing something from the past that made us great sometime, back then. If we aren't great it is because there are too many gay people, or Black people committing crime, or immigrants coming in, because Americans (White people) are great and we make no apology for being the best, even though we cannot define or discuss what we are the "best" at.

It is hard work to think and behave as if we need to continually improve. If we acknowledge our mistakes and problems, then we have to decide if we are going to do something to fix them. To many, that is too difficult. To those who have and continue to benefit from our current state of affairs, they don't want to change so they trumpet the idea that we are just the best, and anyone who thinks that we are not, or thinks that we need to improve, well they are just not American.

That is why many Americans miss the meaning of the songs.