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Music

Stevie Wonder: Asking Trump to Rule the Country Is Like Asking Me to Drive

“I’m not an experienced driver, right?”

Stevie Wonder has been doing the rounds the last few weeks, stumping for Hillary Clinton and singing pretty songs to take our minds off of the apocalypse. Example: last night he went on Colbert to sing "Dont You Worry 'Bout A Thing" and for just one moment everything was sort of fine with the world. Look!

You feel better, don't you? Good. Let it happen. Ease into that feeling like it's a warm bath. It's going to be alright.

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On top of chasing away our imminent psychological terrors though, Wonder has also been giving extremely good interviews to boost Hillary. On Sunday, there was this from Philly.com​:

Q: Why are you doing this? [Stumping for Clinton]

A: My youngest child is one year old. She is a junior millennial. So I'm looking at the future. And I'll give you a point of reference. As much as you have great love for me and you think I'm funny and la la la la la and I make you laugh and all that, if you had an emergency situation and needed to go to the hospital, and you had to get there right away, would you want me driving your car?

Q: No. You wouldn't be on top of my list.

A: Exactly. Because I'm not an experienced driver, right? So my belief is that Hillary is an experienced person of the government, and she has spent 30 years with a commitment. Not to mention that her parents taught her in a kinder way, to have respect and love for all people. That's the person I want to govern, to be the leader of this nation.

Asking Donald Trump to be president, says Stevie Wonder, is like asking Stevie Wonder to drive.

(Full disclosure: I'd have Stevie Wonder behind the wheel of my car before I had Donald Trump in charge of a country. Worst case scenario, I buy a new car. Plus, I don't think that Stevie Wonder is a fool; he'd drive pretty slowly and probably ask for directions as he went. No, it wouldn't be perfect, but we'd figure it out by as we went along, working together, each putting forward our opinions on the next turn, the direction we should take. It would involve compromise and consensus. It would be democratic. Shit, now i really want Stevie Wonder to drive my car. I should buy a car.)

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Later on, Wonder said something profoundly beautiful, too, calling back to old notions of the blues, of pain and joy, and of the relationship between art and society:

Q: What can music do to move people's hearts and sway their opinions? And in particular, what can your music do?

A: I think my music can only do things when I've lived to be the best human being I can be. You know: That joy, that pain. And I've been blessed to have people that have shown me a lot of love, like your self or yourselves. People who are watching and listening. I've had people committed, and that's been my inspiration. So we artists are moved, as musicians and songwriters and singers, we're moved by our society, because basically art is just a reflection of society.

You should read the whole article over at Philly.com​. We're almost there, friends.

Noisey's mentions on Twitter​​ are mostly political arguments today so you may as well join in and follow us.