Stand up, says McCain

It was the best speech I've ever heard John McCain give. No Obama or even a Palin, he was himself--more relaxed and yet more focused and more genuine than even his maverick image would suggest. Certainly there was less of that awkward grimacing tonight that he is often known for. The continued presence of his mother in the hall and on the introductory video helped make McCain seem younger than all the recent jokes would allow.

Those looking for lots of social issues culture war-mongering won't be satisfied. There were a few references such as the swipe at judges who "legislate from the bench." His claim that "education is the civil rights issue" of our time was well framed, though naive. It nevertheless allowed him to speak at some length about school choice. I don't think that issue will get him far with most Americans, but it played well to the convention crowd and the activists who will work the phones for him in the coming weeks.

There were themes that softened even that foray into the culture war such as his discussion of the "Latina daughter of migrant workers" punctuated with the line-- We're all God's children and we're all Americans."

And that brings me to religion. As in Palin's speech, the references would have come across as largely non-sectarian. It's possible that the repetition of "stand up" at the end was coded to appeal to Evangelicals who know the militant hymn Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus, but it also took on its own meaning. But with the line "Comfort the afflicted" he recalls the words of a much loved blessing from his Episcopal roots, which is based on a passage from St. Paul's correspondence to the Thessalonians.

In the end, McCain's faith is classic American civil religion best summed up in his phrase: "I wasn't my own man any more. I was my country's." The policy specifics still have to be spelled out in the debates, especially with respect to the economy, but McCain showed all the signs of new life tonight, life renewed from a deep love of country.

Gay marriage "...doesn't bother me one bit," says Toby Keith

Great American Country took a look at some of the top stars' views on patriotism. Democrat Toby Keith shows a great deal of independence in his views that defy an easy label.

Toby’s stance on the war in Afghanistan got him mislabelled as a Republican, and many assumed — incorrectly, as it turned out — that he also thought the war in Iraq was a good idea. Clearly, Toby is able to take a stand with either party at various times, showing his belief system to be beyond politics.

"My right to carry a gun is not political," he says. "I’m an American, and that is my right as an American, just like it’s my right to vote... Do I care if gay people get married? I could care less. It doesn’t bother me one bit. When you look at Al Gore trying to save the planet, that’s not a political issue."

Instead, he suggests, it’s a social issue that everyone should be examining.

"If the polar ice cap is melting and we’re doing it, I need to educate myself," he says, adding, "I don’t see things right-left. I see them right-wrong."

One can argue about whether it matters what a country star or any other celebrity thinks about politics. On the issue of same-sex marriage it matters in this way. Very few male country stars are on record as being supportive of GLBT issues. Culture shapes politics. Country music and men's professional sports are still frontiers when it comes to issues of sexuality and gender. If there are whole cultural arenas in which these issues are not addressed in a positive way, then that reinforces negative views about GLBT people. Keith's comments are a breath of fresh air. He makes them confidently in a way that no one could question the masculinity that helps define a male country star. He's his own man.