The absurdity of the tussle over "Born in the USA" between Mondale and Reagan encapsulates the history of how people have understood the meaning of the song. As generally known, the lyrics explicitly paint a picture of a Vietnam vet who returned to America only to be alienated from their home and unable to get work, making the chorus more of an angry plea of "I was born in the USA and deserve better" than a patriotic act of self-pleasure. Or, as Bruce Springsteen himself explains: "'Born in the U.S.A' is about a working class man [in the midst of a] spiritual crisis, in which a man is left lost ...it's like he has nothing left to tie him to society anymore."

However, the question really is if the verses and Springsteen's explanation matter. Brian Doherty, the senior editor of the Libertarian magazine Reason, suggested that they didn't: "But who's to say Reagan wasn't right to insist the song was an upper? When I hear those notes and that drumbeat, and the Boss' best arena-stentorian, shout-groan vocals come over the speakers, I feel like I'm hearing the national anthem." Like other songs with lefty messages, "Born in the USA" may have a darker side, but the aspects of it that made it into an anthem are also the aspects that make it easier to co-opt, regardless of what the song's actual meaning. Though the song's a product with an intended message, as art, it is ultimately up for interpretation.

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