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“Bruce is liberal. Doesn’t mean I like him any less,” Christie told Diane Sawyer on ABC NEWS’ World News Tonight. “But you know, Bruce believes that we should be raising taxes all the time on everyone to do all the things that he’d like to see government do.”
I’m sorry, but I continue to be amazed at how thin-skinned this guy is — not to mention tone-deaf.
All Springsteen did was give the Asbury Park Press a shout out, in a letter to the editor, for its coverage of “the contradictions between a policy of large tax cuts, on the one hand, and cuts in services to those in the most dire conditions.
“Your article shows that the cuts are eating away at the lower edges of the middle class, not just those already classified as in poverty, and are likely to continue to get worse over the next few years.”
Nothing about “raising taxes all the time on everyone to do all the things that he’d like to see government do.” Actually, it was about lowering taxes for those most able to pay — namely: fat cats like Christie’s brother, Todd, the original money behind the motormouth — while forcing those who can least afford it to pony up more.
JERRY DeMARCO Publisher/Editor
Instead of offering a measured response, or even saying that he isn’t about to go around debating recording artists, Christie did what he always does — he turned, fired and emptied his clip. Point blank.
I used to know Chris. He’d hop a flight to almost anywhere in the U.S. to catch a Springsteen show. He boasted of seeing The Boss at least 120 times, of sitting behind him once on a flight, of owning a signed guitar. All he was missing were the kneepads.
At a Seton Hall Law School reunion in Newark one night, while he was still U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Chris made a beeline for me, through a crowd looking to press the flesh — all because he wanted to praise a review I’d written of a Springsteen show.
Trust me on this: Inside that oversized suit is the broken heart of a little boy whose idol just bitch-slapped him.
And, as a little boy might do, he lashed out. Same as he has against police, against firefighters, against teachers — even Snooki. The Ramrod rocks tonight.
Making it all the more ridiculous is that Christie, who has waged an all-out assault on the hardest-working people in the state — the sinking middle class — has a man crush on the hardest working rock-and-roller.
How could you profess to be a devout follower of a particular artist and completely disregard what he is singing about? It’s not like digging the Stones (Count yourself among the few if you know which song opens with: “Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields…”).
When it comes to Springsteen — same as it has for Bob Dylan, and Woody Guthrie, and Joan Baez, and Pete Seeger, and Steve Earle and more — the message IS his music…. “The work… the working… just the working life….” No different from you or me (unless you’re REALLY loaded, of course), Bruce has spent his career publicly seeking a reason to believe, hoping to find The Promised Land.
Sure, he may be a billionaire. But Springsteen hasn’t forgotten what his parents and family members and friends endured when he was a zit-faced teenager with long hair and a dream, living in the working-class poster-town, Freehold. He looks around, sees what others less fortunate are going through right now in this hard land, and speaks up.
Christie has no such connections, no ties that bind him to the rest of us. He actually takes from the poor to give to the rich, then boasts of having the courage to make “tough choices.” Talk about being blinded by the light.
And God forbid you call him on it: You just might find yourself stuck in a YouTube moment you can’t get out of. No retreat, no surrender.
The Star Ledger got it right. They dubbed Christie “The Demonizer.”
Petty. Heartless. Clueless.
Interviewers are asking Christie whether he’d like to run for president. I’m beginning to think he’s already out of his depth in Trenton.
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