When President Obama ran for reelection, his campaign speech was accompanied at nearly every stop by Bruce Springsteen’s song We Take Care of Our Own. It was an explicit endorsement of the values expressed in that song and in Springsteen’s lyrics more generally. Springsteen wrote We Take Care of Our Own and, indeed, the entire Wrecking Ball album in the context of the Great Recession, and the values contained therein are less American values than exhortatory values. They are what Springsteen thinks American values ought to be.
From Chicago to New Orleans
From the muscle to the bone
From the shotgun shack to the Superdome
There ain’t no help, the cavalry stayed home
There ain’t no one hearing the bugle blown’
We take care of our own
We take care of our own
Wherever this flag’s flown
We take care of our ownWhere’re the eyes, the eyes with the will to see
Where’re the hearts that run over with mercy
Where’s the love that has not forsaken me
Where’s the work that’ll set my hands, my soul free
Where’s the spirit that’ll reign over me
Where’s the promise from sea to shining sea
Where’s the promise from sea to shining sea
Wherever this flag is flown
Wherever this flag is flown
Wherever this flag is flownWe take care of our own
Think about those aspirational lyrics in the context of Bowe Bergdahl. Whatever emotional traumas or addled reasoning led him to walk off his base in Afghanistan five years ago are not for us to judge when we’re thinking about securing his freedom. We could not forsake him; we had to set him free. We could not ignore the bugle call. The calvary could not stay home. Whatever his faults, we had to treat him with mercy. Wherever our flag is flown, we take care of our own.
In securing Bengdahl’s freedom, Obama was doing what he promised to do on the campaign trail. In securing Bengdahl’s freedom, he vindicated Springsteen’s trust in him.
