Bruce Springsteen and the North Carolina bathroom privacy law [Cancels Concert on Short Notice]

Let’s just get this out of the way right up front: I’m a Springsteen fan. Have been since I was a very young man and always will be.

With that said, it’s worth noting that The Boss has delivered a smack in the face to his fans in North Carolina this week, cancelling on short notice a concert he was scheduled to play there because of his objections to the state’s new bathroom privacy law. He took to his Facebook page to break the news.

We’ve covered the North Carolina law here until I’m blue in the face, explaining why it’s not “discrimination” in any sense of the word and was, in fact, a necessary response to the ordinance passed by the City of Charlotte. Had they been reasonable and willing to accommodate everyone, as well as respecting the basic privacy rights of their own citizens, none of this would have had to happen. Instead, they chose to go far beyond even the compromises we saw in San Francisco and other liberal enclaves where separate, unisex or single user facilities will exist alongside normal, single gender facilities, leading to the promised pushback from the state government.

Springsteen isn’t just a legendary classic rock musician, but also a businessman. He has to make his own decisions as to how he manages his professional affairs and it’s not the government’s place to force him to play or stay away. No doubt many of his fans are very disappointed, but the market will react to his decisions as it does in any line of private enterprise. (Though frankly, Bruce is probably immune to market forces at this point because he clearly doesn’t need to sell any more tickets or albums at this late stage in his career.)

This is still disappointing to me personally, and it’s a subject which keeps coming up year after year throughout the entire entertainment industry. There was a time back in the day when Bruce seemed to have a far more grounded attitude about politics and culture, but in an odd reversal of the evolution of most folks on that score, Springsteen seems to have grown increasingly more liberal, if not socialist, as the years have gone by. Perhaps that’s a luxury afforded to those who make it to the big time very early in life, become financially secure and rely on big city liberal markets for their ticket sales. Who knows, really?

But as I already mentioned, this is something we wrestle with not just in the music industry, but television, movies, stand up comedy and all the rest of the entertainment spectrum. As a rule, I generally try to simply ignore the political views and rants of entertainers I enjoy, partly because it’s their right to hold any beliefs they wish. But it’s also due to the fact that if I refused to watch any movie or show, listen to any music or laugh at any jokes by people who are flaming liberals, entertainment options would probably come down to a choice between Ron White or watching paint dry. (Yes, I know there are other exceptions, but you get my point.)

Of course, there are cases where it’s shoved in your face so often that you can’t ignore it and simply give up in despair. (Chris Hardwick is a hilarious stand-up comedian who also has a great podcast, but his show @Midnight has pretty much devolved from funny observations on internet culture to a half hour of insulting conservatives every night, which is sad.) But plenty of other entertainment options are out there which don’t veer into the political very often, if at all.

The one redeeming point about all of this is that I don’t have to take advice on social, economic or foreign policy from actors, singers or comedians. I’ll leave that to our friends on the Left. If Springsteen doesn’t want to do business in North Carolina so be it. He simply opens up a market opportunity for others to fill the void.

Brain dead government musician/totalitarian knows what’s best for you.

The most important question that was ever proposed to your decision, or to the decision of any people under heaven, is before you, and you are to decide upon it by men of your own election, chosen specially for this purpose. If the constitution, offered to your acceptance, be a wise one, calculated to preserve the invaluable blessings of liberty, to secure the inestimable rights of mankind, and promote human happiness, then, if you accept it, you will lay a lasting foundation of happiness for millions yet unborn; generations to come will rise up and call you blessed. You may rejoice in the prospects of this vast extended continent becoming filled with freemen, who will assert the dignity of human nature. You may solace yourselves with the idea, that society, in this favoured land, will fast advance to the highest point of perfection; the human mind will expand in knowledge and virtue, and the golden age be, in some measure, realised. But if, on the other hand, this form of government contains principles that will lead to the subversion of liberty — if it tends to establish a despotism, or, what is worse, a tyrannic aristocracy; then, if you adopt it, this only remaining assylum for liberty will be shut up, and posterity will execrate your memory.

Momentous then is the question you have to determine, and you are called upon by every motive which should influence a noble and virtuous mind, to examine it well, and to make up a wise judgment. It is insisted, indeed, that this constitution must be received, be it ever so imperfect. If it has its defects, it is said, they can be best amended when they are experienced. But remember, when the people once part with power, they can seldom or never resume it again but by force. Many instances can be produced in which the people have voluntarily increased the powers of their rulers; but few, if any, in which rulers have willingly abridged their authority. This is a sufficient reason to induce you to be careful, in the first instance, how you deposit the powers of government.

So far therefore as its powers reach, all ideas of confederation are given up and lost. It is true this government is limited to certain objects, or to speak more properly, some small degree of power is still left to the states, but a little attention to the powers vested in the general government, will convince every candid man, that if it is capable of being executed, all that is reserved for the individual states must very soon be annihilated, except so far as they are barely necessary to the organization of the general government. The powers of the general legislature extend to every case that is of the least importance — there is nothing valuable to human nature, nothing dear to freemen, but what is within its power. It has authority to make laws which will affect the lives, the liberty, and property of every man in the United States; nor can the constitution or laws of any state, in any way prevent or impede the full and complete execution of every power given. The legislative power is competent to lay taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; — there is no limitation to this power…

And are by this clause invested with the power of making all laws, proper and necessary, for carrying all these into execution; and they may so exercise this power as entirely to annihilate all the state governments, and reduce this country to one single government. And if they may do it, it is pretty certain they will; for it will be found that the power retained by individual states, small as it is, will be a clog upon the wheels of the government of the United States; the latter therefore will be naturally inclined to remove it out of the way. Besides, it is a truth confirmed by the unerring experience of ages, that every man, and every body of men, invested with power, are ever disposed to increase it, and to acquire a superiority over every thing that stands in their way. This disposition, which is implanted in human nature, will operate in the federal legislature to lessen and ultimately to subvert the state authority, and having such advantages, will most certainly succeed, if the federal government succeeds at all.

In a free republic…

Brutus #1 - Anti-federalist

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