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Guest Essay
By Mitchell Duneier
Mr. Duneier is a professor of sociology at Princeton, where he has taught “Sociology From E Street: Bruce Springsteen’s America.”
A few days before the opening of the Democratic National Convention, I flew to Pittsburgh for the opening concert of the last American leg of Bruce Springsteen’s 2024 world tour. I have been to more than a hundred of his concerts in my life, but I wanted to see this performance in a city and state that could determine the outcome of the presidential election.
In the parking lot, I passed pickup trucks with American flags lined up side by side with BMWs and Lexuses, and I thought of the powerful place the automobile has in so much of Mr. Springsteen’s music about freedom and escape. I thought of how many of his songs focus on life in that region of the country — songs about steel mills, economic hardship, working-class family life and the decline of the American dream. And I wondered if he would use any of those songs to explicitly address the choice his audience would soon confront.
I can’t think of a figure in America today who better embodies the contradictions and complexity of this country’s politics. He is a die-hard progressive who sings about a demographic that is now a core element of Donald Trump’s base. His audience is almost completely white, but he often sings songs that take up racism and the plight of immigrants. That night at the PPG Paints Arena, I found myself standing next to a couple of workers who were wearing T-shirts from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and drinking large cans of Iron City Beer, while directly in front of us were two couples drinking cocktails and wearing expensive eyeglasses.
Mr.........