Mr. Dylan, I understand that North Korean is pretty nice this time of year. You might be happier there.
Let me begin by saying that I am, and pretty much always have been, a Dylan fan. I listened when he was young, I listened during his Christian era (his best), and I've listened to his later years stuff.
Let me offer a defense of his words based on the line above.
It is like saying of a husband/wife divorce: "It would have brought better relationships afterwards, if it hadn't been a physical abuse case. In fact, it would have been better for the kids if it hadn't been a physical abuse case."
Now, as a career-long pastor, chaplain, and marriage & family counselor and educator, I know that the above about divorce and abuse is true. Abuse brings lingering inter-generational effects, and sadly, they somehow transmit to the children in terms of repeating the abuse patterns that they've witnessed.
Can we apply this to a nation, slavery, and the passage of 150 years?
That's pure conjecture on my part, but I have seen the lingering effects of WWII in terms of Germans and Japanese, and how we view them.
So, perhaps this might have been what Dylan was thinking. Perhaps not.
I've already purchased "Tempest", I've yet to listen to it because I just got it day before yesterday, and if there's anything in the album that directly addresses these ideas of Dylan's, then maybe we'll all know a bit more.
I was pleased that Dylan would not defend Obama.
BD needs to go to the old folks home and put a sock in it.