Free Republic

NEW YORK — Country music might seem like a pretty conservative medium, but Tim McGraw is bucking the trend. "It's innate in me to be a Democrat — a true Southern populist kind of Democrat. There's not a lot of those anymore," McGraw tells Time magazine in its Oct. 23 issue. "The issues that matter to me are the social safety nets for people, health care, middle-class concerns. We need to take care of the middle class and the poor in our country. The chasm is getting larger between haves and have-nots, and that's something we need to close down...

Sunday was a gorgeous day here in Los Angeles, clear, windy, just a hint of smoke from the fire up above Santa Clarita. The SO – who is the “perfect pillion” as well as a pretty good rider herself – and I took the motorcycle out and spent the day with some friends riding through the canyons up there, and on the way I was strongly reminded of why I am a liberal. First, the clean air. The population of Southern California has gone up by about 60% since 1970, according to the Southern California Association of Governments. Auto ownership...