Welcome to the Future

Well, I can't embed this one, so I'll have to send you to a link. Go check it out, and then come back.

THAT is a fun song. It's got a great rhythm; I just embarrassed my poor daughter -cough, cough- by dancing through the dining room. The lyrics are good, too; they really point out how far we've come, and how fast.

BUT...

You knew there had to be a "but."

I get a definite "homage to our President" vibe. I bet I'm not the only one. And that bothers me. See, I don't really like the guy's...policies. Yeah, I think these days that makes me a racist, but I don't. And I'm not a racist. I am very happy to have an African-American in the White House who isn't changing sheets or washing dishes. (At least not in order to earn his living.) I think it says a lot about our country that we can go from Jim Crow laws in the 50s to accepting a black person as a President in the year 2008. We aren't Ugly, we Americans. We can accept constructive criticism, change, and move on.

If only this election had been about that. I would guess, leading up to the election, only about 25% of the people I spoke with were Mr. Obama's supporters. I heard about his plans from less than 2% of those people. I heard a lot about his promises, but not about his plans. And, contrary to the wishes of Dr. King, whose words were quoted in the song, I didn't hear Mr. Obama being recommended by the content of his character, but, rather, the excitement around his election was more dependent on the color of his skin.

And that makes the excitement in this song rather hollow for me. Mr Paisley, (who I am sure will never read this!) I really like you, or at least the little I have learned about you. What's not to like? You have a lovely wife, adorable kids, and you seem to care about them very much. Your music says a lot, and is, mostly, a passable soundtrack for an average American life. But I gotta wonder what you saw in this guy. If it was about a platform and belief system you wanted advanced, well, then, I guess the marketing behind your image is amazingly awesome, because those beliefs don't coincide with what we see of you. If it was just a chance for black Americans to have something they never had before, well...There are better ways than remaking a country that had it's problems but was doing pretty well for over 200 years on the beliefs and attitudes it held dear.


But it's got a great rhythm, and I like the lyrics. I give it a 9.