Editor’s note: This was originally posted on Feb. 8 and was lost in the restore. Here it is again with an update at the end to reflect recent developments.
We don’t call Bruce Springsteen the Boss because he’s not a leader.
It’s difficult to believe that at age 71, after nearly 50 years in the spotlight, Springsteen had never done any sort of commercial.
But it’s not difficult to believe that when he finally did one, it would be amazing.
Springsteen’s two-minute commercial for Jeep in last night’s Super Bowl broadcast was about as soft sell as it gets when it comes to selling a product, and that might be the reason Springsteen ended his moratorium. The ad itself was shot in Lebanon, Kansas, the geographical center of the lower 48 states, and it urged Americans to find common ground.
“We just have to remember the very soil we stand on is common ground,” Springsteen said in the ad.
The word “Jeep” was never spoken in the ad. In fact, there was nothing in the ad about buying any sort of car.
It was basically about meeting in the middle, about finding a meeting place between liberals and conservatives, between Never Trumpers and Trumpanzees. You may think there is no way to find common ground, but that’s only because for the last 40 years or so, compromise has become a dirty word.
In the 1950s, President Eisenhower said the only sensible place to be politically is the middle of the road. Too far to either side and you go into a ditch.
These days extremists will tell you if you’re in the middle of the road, you get hit by cars going in both directions.
They insist that on issues like abortion, there is no compromise possible. They compare it to the abolitionist movement of the 19th century and ask who could have compromised on an issue like slavery.
Well, consider this. Suppose slave states and free states had worked out a program of gradual manumission with financial aid to help both sides of the issue. No instant gratification, but no Civil War, no reconstruction and no Jim Crow laws.
Better? Maybe not for the last slaves, but better for the country.
On abortion, how about financial aid to women who choose to have their babies? Programs of maternal leave, pre-natal care, day care and other incentives. Or sex education and birth control so there are fewer unwanted pregnancies to start.
Suppose you could eliminate half (or more) of all abortions with programs like these.
Better? Maybe not for the extremists, but certainly a good incremental step toward solving a problem.
The middle of the road is where problems get solved.
This isn’t your country and it isn’t my country.
It’s our country, which is why Springsteen has it exactly right.
We have to meet in the middle.
***
It came out a couple of days after I posted this piece that Springsteen was arrested for DUI back in November and that he has an upcoming court date. Jeep has paused the ad and is waiting to see what happens.
Such information as there is had been a bit confusing. A New Jersey paper said his alcohol level was 0.02, considerably less than the legal standard of 0.08. Police have said he was co-operative.
Now it’s possible I am overlooking something, but Springsteen has been in the spotlight for nearly 50 years and this is the first scandalous thing I’ve ever heard about him.
And his message ddin’t have anything to do with driving … or drinking … or being holier than anyone else.
It was about remembering that we are all Americans and all in this together.
That’s a message that needs to be heard.