Welcome to the Future

The second verse addresses advances in international relationships, by telling of how his grandfather fought against Japan in World War II, but the narrator "was on a video chat this morning / with a company in Tokyo."

Verse three addresses the issue of racism after recalling a black friend who had a cross burned in his front yard by the Ku Klux Klan.

This verse also alludes to the anti-racist activism of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. in the line "From a woman on a bus / to a man with a dream.

As he stated in his performance at the White House: "If you go back in time and tell either me in a line for Pac-Man, or [my grandfather] any of this stuff, that his grandson would be playing in Japan, he would've thought you were crazy...and then, my own children who -- you are the first president they will remember, which is something.

"[6] Stephen Thomas Erlewine also described the song favorably in his AllMusic review, saying that it was the "first country anthem of the Obama era" and that it showed "Paisley's uncanny knack for capturing the casual contemporary details of American life at the tail-end of the 2000s.

"[7] Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone also described this song favorably, saying that it and the album's title track showed a sense of optimism in his music.