U2’s The Edge on Bono’s political “superpower”
nme.comU2 guitarist The Edge has discussed frontman and fellow bandmate Bono‘s political “superpower” – and how he was right in becoming a high-profile political activist.In an interview with MOJO, The Edge shared that U2’s music and extra-curricular political campaigning have become “so intermingled” with the band over time that it would now be “very hard to imagine one without the other”.“There’s obviously been challenging moments, particularly when Bono was making great strides in America and realised his superpower was being able to work both sides of the aisle and persuade politicians from different parts of the spectrum to work together,” he said.“But that meant he was having meetings with people like [right-wing US Senator] Jesse Helms, who famously dismantled the National Endowment for the Arts because of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs and made some terrible early comments about the AIDS pandemic.He continued: “So, that was hard.
But we understood the logic. And if you judge activism based on results, rather than it being some kind of attempted virtue signalling, then Bono was absolutely right.”As a result of Bono’s intervention with Helms, Congress voted in favour of an AIDS support package that changed many lives.“If you can persuade a politician that they’re not going to sacrifice their existing support but they will potentially add, that’s hard to turn down,” said The Edge. “And Bono became very good, I think, at advocating on that basis. ‘Look, this will mean political brownie points for you.’ But often that meant him being in the photograph!”The Edge went on to discuss Bono’s critics by arguing that many do not realise the courage it took to do what he did.“They just think he compromised his principles.
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