(Newser) – Bruce Springsteen is worried about America's future under the man he has called a "moron" and a "tragedy for our democracy." "I've felt disgust before, but never the kind of fear that you feel now," the Boss tells Marc Maron's WTF podcast. "It's as simple as the fear of, is someone simply competent enough to do this particular job? Forget about where they are ideologically. Do they simply have the pure competence to be put in the position of such responsibility?" Springsteen tells Maron he fears Donald Trump's presidency could change America for the worse, the New York Daily News reports. "When you let that genie out of the bottle—bigotry, racism, intolerance, they don't go back in the bottle that easily if they go back in at all," he says.

"Whether it's a rise in hate crimes, people feeling they have license to speak and behave in ways that previously were considered un-American and are un-American. That’s what he’s appealing to," Springsteen says. "My fears are that those things find a place in ordinary, civil society." He says, however, that he understands some of the concerns that led plenty of "good, solid folks" to vote for Trump, Entertainment Weekly reports. Springsteen, who isn't sure whether his next album will feature songs about Trump, says he still has faith in his country. "America is still America," he says. "I still believe in its ideals, and I’m going to do my best to play my very, very small part in maintaining those things." (Springsteen campaigned for Hillary Clinton and was honored by President Obama in November.)

