Bruce Springsteen is the headliner at the flagshiip No Kings rally at the state Capitol in Saint Paul this afternoon. Joan Baez, Jane Fonda, and Bernie Sanders are also primed to appear. Truth in advertising would require the rally to be redesignated Gimme That Old Time Religion or In Search of Lost Time. As the Rolling Stones once trilled, “What a drag it is getting old.”
Tim Walz, Keith Ellison, and Ilhan Omar will also be there. They wouldn’t want to miss the chance to rag on the King. Opposing the King has become the lodestone of their careers. Contrary to the theme of the proceedings, it comes at no cost and places them at no risk. Abe Greenwald aptly observed in the Commentary newsletter: “Trump is such an oppressive emperor that Americans have felt completely secure in coming out to publicly protest him and his administrations more than they have any previous president. His suppression machine is clearly on the fritz.”
Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin is one of the organizers. He.will be on hand as well. The Twin Cities are a hotbed of support for illegal immigration and opposition to ICE. Levin senses a market opportunity. “That’s bringing in a whole new set of people who are not necessarily politically active on most of our issues. They are shocked at what this guy is doing in order to distract from [President Trump’s] own corruption and unpopularity.” One goal of Saturday’s protests, said Levin, was building “unified opposition to war funding” among Democrats. Where have all the flowers gone?
We are accustomed to artists like Springsteen making fools of themselves in the service of politics. Nobody cares, but they also betray their art in doing so.
The spirit of pop music is the pleasure principle. In the Beatles cover of “Money,” for example, John Lennon interjects in the last chorus: “I wanna be free.” That is the barbaric yawp of the art. It’s also the spirit that pervades the anthemic songs that made Springsteen, such as “It’s Hard To Be a Saint In the City,” “Rosalita,” “Thunder Road,” and “Born To Run.” Unlike “The Streets of Minneapolis,” they are actually good songs in the great tradition.
Despite its name, No Kings is all suffociating superego. Freedom has nothing to do with it. These superannuated rebels with a cause risk nothing but embarrassment.
They are also cowards. The “abolish ICE” animus that drives the proceedings in the Twin Cities today supports illegal immigration. Yet the they don’t quite say it. We have to infer it. Not that it’s subtle.
Every day the Star Tribune features stories and columns that in one way or another oppose the enforcement of our immigration law. We are inundated with them. However, the Star Tribune itself has never come out explicitly in its editorial voice in favor of the Biden way of non-enforcement and open borders.
By the same token, none of the speakers or performers in Saint Paul today will call for the return of the good times of the Biden era. To the extent that they have any object other than opposition to Trump, illegal immigrationn is their cause. Why don’t they come right out and say it? They are both fools and cowards.
