It's All Good (Updated)

There was once a time when an American's love of country could virtually be taken for granted. America-hating was the province of a radical few on the left, and politicians from the prominent to the obscure, from James Madison to Slade Gorton, could be assumed to be decent men who wanted what was best for their nation.

These days, such an assumption can no longer automatically be made. Many Americans falsely accuse our current president of the most inhumane acts, but insist that our enemies like al-Qaeda and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad always be given the benefit of the doubt. And now we have a president-elect whose love of country is, to say the least, questionable.

Such attitudes are often seen in our popular culture as well, with various air-headed celebrities and entertainers offering their ill-informed criticisms of America, the American people, and various conservative politicians who have been deemed "uncool" by the Hollywood ignorati.

That's why I've developed such an appreciation of country music artist Toby Keith over the years. I first became aware of Keith in 1993, when he released the singles "Girl, He Ain't Worth Missing" and "Should've Been A Cowboy." A decade later Keith had rocketed to super-stardom, boosted by his 2002 album Unleashed, which featured one song in particular that outraged leftists across the nation: "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue." The song was an unapologetic hymn to America, its solders, and veterans. The sentiments therein starkly contrasted with the crass petulance of the Dixie Chicks, who before an audience in Great Britain whined, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas." Most country fans weren't, and neither was Keith, who publicly feuded with the Chicks for months thereafter.

But while Keith openly identified himself as a conservative, he insisted on remaining a registered Democrat, even after the torrent of hate and criticism that fell upon him following the release of "Courtesy" and his feud with the Dixie Chicks. In a 2004 interview he said “People don’t realize that I’m a registered Democrat. They automatically assume that I’m a chest-banging, war-drum-pounding Republican with my military stance.” Rather, Keith insisted he was “a conservative Democrat who is sometimes embarrassed for his party.”

In an interview with Country Music Television (CMT) in October 2008, Keith changed his tune. Mentioning that he was disgusted by the Democratic Party's vicious attacks on Gov. Sarah Palin, Keith said, "I've been a lifetime Democrat, and I'm re-registering this year as an independent." Keith then explained, "It's strictly [because] my party, that I've been affiliated with all these years, doesn't stand for anything that I stand for anymore. They've lost any sensibility that they had, and they've allowed all the kooks in, so I'm going independent."

Good for him.

What brought up all these thoughts on Toby Keith today was something Rachel Lucas posted back on November 24. That day, she put up an entry about her least favorite musicians and musical groups, one of which was Toby Keith. Her listing of Toby Keith surprised me, given the singer's aforementioned patriotism and conservatism. Nonetheless, reasonable people can disagree.

I, for one, count myself as a fan of Toby Keith, and not just because of his political stances. My favorite song of his is a less well-known tune off of the Unleashed album titled "It's All Good." You'll have to grab yourself a copy of the album to listen. There aren't any good videos of the song on YouTube, so I'll post a snippet of the lyrics:

Mother earth has changed since I was a child
The east is a beast and the west is really wild
And the headlines say that the end looks grim
And the future don’t look so bright

You can’t even open your mailbox, you can’t take a plane
And everybody’s lookin’ for somebody to blame
I think I’m gonna let the president
Save this ol’ world tonight

I’ll light us a fire
And she’ll turn off the news
We’ll open a cold one and shake these blues

It’s all good
It’s all right
I’m gonna sit here with my baby all night....

Such is country music: poetry to be felt somewhere within the vicinity of the bones.

Update (11/30):

Here's a version of "It's All Good" by someone named Chris Pudsey: