WASHINGTON — As Country Music Star Tim McGraw tours around the country, he’s encouraging Americans to “quit demonizing each other because that’s not going to get us anywhere.”
“When I look back on our history, we have gone through a lot of turbulent times in our country, in the history of our country, but we’ve persevered. We’ve always come through it. We’ve always had a sense of hope and optimism and I think that that’s the thing that drives our country forward — the people’s voices, patriotism and protest, right?” McGraw said after performing God Bless the U.S.A. during an event focused on his new book, Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest, and the Music That Made a Nation. “Those are the things that drive us forward and make us a more perfect union, which is all we can ask for and that’s all we want to do.”
McGraw wrote the book with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham.
“All we can do is look at the other side or look at people and say, ‘all I want to know is that no matter what you believe that you are coming from a place of truth, honestly and integrity.’ And if we can believe that about the people we are talking to — it doesn’t mean we have to agree with them — but we can understand that they’re coming from a good place in their heart,” McGraw said. “We’ve got to quit demonizing each other because that’s not going to get us anywhere.”
McGraw also said part of the reason he wrote the book with Meacham is to let Americans know “we’ve been through some rough periods and we’ll continue to go through some rough periods but we will survive. We will make it and we are a nation that still can be and still is that shining city on a hill.”
Meacham explained that he views the “soul of the country” as a “perennial struggle between our better angels and our worse instincts. It’s between Dr. King and it’s between Jim Crow. It’s between being open and opening doors and closing them and the nature of our country is determined, not simply by what happens in this city, as important as that is, but on what happens in every heart and every mind individually because a Republic is only as good as the sum of its parts.”
On Tuesday, McGraw was asked if there is anyone in the Democratic presidential field he is going to support. In response, McGraw said “it’s too early for that” and that people should “vote their conscious and show up.” McGraw was also asked about being a registered Democrat in the country music genre. “I’m an American man and I love being an American,” he replied.
Singer and songwriter Carole King was spotted in the audience at the McGraw show, which was held at The Anthem.
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