The Politician, Matthew McConaughey, is Wrong!
The actor is “measuring” a political run on the opaque plank of being an “aggressive centrist.” Sounds rational and inclusive. It isn’t.
There’s this cool dude, very handsome, very talented, very popular, very smart, down there in Texas, an actor by trade, Academy Award winner even, a “philosopher-statesman, folk-singin’ poet” by declaration, former “Sexiest Man Alive,” university professor, recently minted best-selling author and self-help huckster who’s mulling whether he should add rising-star politician to his already glittering, coin-clinking résumé, The options are wide open. It’s there for the taking. Governor (he passed up a run in 2022 but already has a sizeable lead in hypothetical polls against the incumbent). Senator. President. He might just be a shoe-in for any of them. Voters sure love them celebrities, whether or not they are remotely qualified.
Certainly Matthew McConaughey is vastly more qualified for public service than most Republicans in that he does seem to have the capacity for serious thought, introspection and empathy. Or does he? He is a professional actor, after all. We might be right to wonder.
We don’t have a lot of evidence either way. He’s been pretty cagey about where he stands on, well, everything. He did spill a bean or two when he publicly supported the Covid mask mandates, and opposed the abominable law the Great State recently passed, which outlawed abortion, even in the case of rape and incest, criminalized doctors, clinics and mothers involved, and, if that wasn’t owning the libs enough, even set up a bounty system where good “law and order” grounded citizens could snitch on anyone facilitating an abortion, and win a ten thousand dollar prize. Neighbor verses neighbor! Yet another great conservative idea… that other red states are eager to clone. Anyway, each of these professed stances might suggest that McConaughey does have at least rudimentary compassion, which would rule out the possibility that he is a bona fide conservative.
Could he really be a liberal in hiding in uber-individualistic Texas, where “Liberty! My Liberty! Not Yours!” is the unofficial state motto, “Texas, Our (not Your) Texas” is the true national anthem, and the pledge of allegiance “for the Republic” refers to the one won not at Yorktown but San Jacinto?
That, too, is in doubt.
After the mass shooting in his hometown of Uvalde, McConaughey went before Congress to demand that something be done, goldarnit. He talked emotionally about the victims. He had answers: mental healthcare, safer schools, less sensationalized media coverage, restored family values, and responsible gun ownership. The answer of banning (again) the brutal, military assault weapon the murderer used to terrorize Uvalde (and so many other mass murder sites) is, apparently, not something McConaughey supports. As the NRA smiled, the Texas Republican Party might have sensed budding potential: he does have the conservative gift of promoting “solutions” that are not solutions, all the while stalling, or derailing, anything the Libtards want.
While he is “measuring” what to do, politically, most of McConaughey’s calculated utterances center on the center. The good old middle of the road, the wide open sweet stripe where he thinks the majority of citizens actually throng, unrepresented by extremist politicians completely off the rails… on either side. You know, those extremists, left and right, are equally divisive. He has come up with a sound-bite description of his political and philosophical identity: “aggressively centrist.”
Beto O’Rourke, an actual Texas liberal, who has several times attempted, unsuccessfully, to turn Texas blue, is puzzled by McConaughey. O’Rourke explained to an interviewer, “He’s a really popular figure whose political views have not in any way been fixed. I don’t know, for example, who he voted for in the most consequential election since 1864 in this country. I don’t know how he feels about any of the issues that we’ve brought up.”
As a fifth generation Texan myself, I can only admire the lithe dexterity of Matthew’s dodging and weaving and teasing as he ponders his interest in Lone Star State politics, which are about as inviting to anyone with, umm, ethics, as a hot tub full of prickly pears. Well, no sense losing any fans for his movies, books, seminars and stuff if no such political run ever comes to fruition. Maybe he’ll realize what a no-win zone this really is for someone who has actually achieved something. This job is for people like Greg Abbott and George W. Bush who can’t do anything else. Or maybe he figures his light burns so bright in the home state that he could actually get away with not tipping his position on any particular issue until he was safely in office. Heck, by sheer force of personality, he might be able to get away with serving as governor, then senator, then president without anyone ever knowing where he stood on any issue of importance.
Considering the alternatives, I, for one, would vote for that in a heartbeat. Such a blanched noodle of an ideologue would be infinitely better than the Republican brigade of brigands that currently toxify the halls of every level of government in Texas and likewise pollute much of the rest of politics in this nation. Thankfully, I don’t get a vote because I no longer live in Texas, and never will again... even if someone gave me a mansion in Austin, a lifetime supply of homemade vegan tamales and Willie Nelson as next-door neighbor. Too hot. And too conservative.
But the larger questions are: is McConaughey right about the center being both the sweet spot and where the bulk of American voters really are hiding out, in a different spacetime zone than politicians left and right? And if he is right about those two things, is it remotely possible to dialogue and work with the “extremist” politicians and parties, as he claims, on both sides, entirely off the road?
No he is not right. On any count. His moral compass may be working, but his political calculus does not compute.
First, let’s consider who is really off the road, so far away from the imaginary center stripe that the Cheneys are considered too liberal and the double-murderer Kyle Rittenhouse a hero. You’re gonna cram the close-to-comatose Democrats in the crazy car with the demon clowns in the Republican Party? How ‘bout a little water with that tankard of false equivalency tequila? The Dems have been trying (true, stupidly) to play bipartisan patty-cake with Republicans for over forty years; about all they have to show for it is bloody nubs.
Just since McConaughey’s birth in November, 1969 (round about when Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon was traitorously whispering to the Viet Kong not to sign a peace agreement with the U.S. because they would get better terms when he was president… they didn’t), Republicans have been involved in an almost non-stop litany of chicanery. Only one party had a president resign in shame after criminal activity and another get impeached twice, attempt to steal an election, incite an insurrection (and now is being investigated for criminal activity). Only one party had a president who thought a “secret war” in Central America was a good idea, financed by a “secret arms deal” with an enemy. Only one party flipped the American economic system from liberal theory to conservative theory, from prioritizing the middle class to prioritizing the wealthiest individuals and largest corporations, promising that wealth would “trickle down” to everyone (it didn’t, and American families have been devastated). Only one party lied the nation into two, simultaneous, unnecessary wars, officially approved torture, depleted and demoralized the military, and hyped an economic bubble that soon blew up in everyone’s face. Only one ideology sought to delegitimize the nation’s first Black president by questioning his birth, religion and fealty to America. Only one side of the political stripe needs its own propagandizing media network to propagate disinformation, distrust, suspicion, greed, anger and fear. Only one side of the political spectrum doesn’t have that much of a problem with — indeed, indulges — white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Confederates, extremist theocrats, racists, homophobes, transphobes, misogynists, anti-Semites, xenophobes, ego-maniacal billionaires and over-the-top corporate predators. Only one party is habitually engaged in trying to prevent or take away rights from American citizens. Only one party delights in making it harder to vote. Only one party thinks of itself as the “real” America, with utter contempt for the entire rest of the citizenry. Only one party is out to rid the nation of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, food stamps, affirmative action, and just about every protective regulation on the books. Only one party does not really believe in the separation of church and state. Only one party routinely (when the other party is in power) grandstands and plays “chicken” with the nation’s credit rating (and actually succeeded in getting it lowered recently) as it holds the government hostage and threatens to allow default if it cannot win concessions on other issues. Only one party is dead-set on not only not lifting a finger to mitigate the worst effects of Global Warming, but actively attempting to put the pedal to the metal to turn this planet into Venus. Only one party was party to an all-out attempt to overthrow democracy by stealing an election (by accusing the Democrats of stealing it) and a terrifying assault upon the U.S. Capitol with ALL of Congress, plus the vice-president, inside… with intent to kill. What could have been the most infamous day in American history was barely averted, and now is either forgotten or glorified by said party. Since that inglorious episode they have busied themselves perpetuating the BIG LIE of the stolen election, passing state laws that will make it easier for them to steal some (or all) future elections, rolling back women’s reproductive rights, banning books, rewriting text books to expunge history that might hurt someone’s feelings, attempting to reinstate child labor, and declaring war on drag queens, transgender people, Budweiser and Disney World, while a tentative cease-fire holds against Harry Potter and M&Ms.
So that’s the conservatives over yonder in the wildlands off the “right” side of the road. Oh, and don’t forget, the conservatives — then calling themselves “Democrats” — were also the instigators of the Civil War (all those “Confederates” are now Republicans). Whew, what a mountain of turdinous tumult and turmoil these wretched conservatives have wrought upon the fabric of the nation! Every playground, every school, every town has its bullies. America’s bullies have always been conservatives. If America fails from within, it will assuredly be from the devilish deeds of the Tories, the mob on the right, same as they ever were, attempting to derail democracy.
So there’s that. But what mischief and mayhem have those lefties careening in their electric dune-buggies over there on the “left” side of McConaughey’s off-road race been up to in these past 50 years or so? Well, one president had a dalliance in the Oval Office, lied about it, and was impeached. It was an inexcusable betrayal of our values, an insult to the office of the presidency and a gut-punch to the Democratic Party. But no one’s rights were threatened. No wars were started. The stock market didn’t plunge. Democracy was never in peril. America wasn’t fazed in the least. But Republicans did make sure that every school child in America learned what a blow-job is. Ah, Ken Starr, another Texan. What a patriot he was!
So, I would ask Matthew, where is the “center” between this juggernaut of deceit, violence and calamity and a party that had a leader who allowed his penis to do the thinking at an inopportune moment in history but otherwise is the ideology almost single-handedly responsible (while the other side was vehemently, often violently opposed) for every stitch of new-won rights, protections and social progress this nation has ever achieved? Where, exactly, is that “center stripe,” the “middle,” the “sweet spot?” Is it halfway between these ideologies… which would still leave us miles into the “right’s” hellscape of innate selfishness, unfairness and penchant for criminality? Or is it smack dab down the center of the highway toward true American ideals: Liberty, Justice, Equality, Pursuit of Happiness, Domestic Tranquility, the General Welfare… a More Perfect Union?
If the latter is the rational choice — and it is for a clear majority of Americans — then the liberal party, currently Democrats, as sleepy and lame as they can sometimes be, are not off-road left, they are on-duty on the pavement representing the only effective defense for that stalwart, true all-American highway still under major construction, lest it be hijacked, privatized, gated, toll-booth dotted, and re-routed straight back to the 1950s, or 1920s, or 1880s, or 1830s, or whenever conservatives believe the “natural order” of their advantage, privilege and power might be fully restored… demolishing every progressive neighborhood in its path.
Zooming in for a closer look at polling on any issue: women’s equal rights, gun control, abortion, public healthcare, “Obamacare,” education, immigration, environmental protections, consumer safety, workers’ rights, LGBTQ rights, taxes on the rich, public spending and other issues — a solid majority, often 60 percent plus, favor the liberal position. On most issues, only around 32 percent of respondents are out there in the conservative weeds. Most Americans are a lot more liberal than they think they are… which is actually surprising given the all-out, nearly 100-year conservative effort to demonize the very word. Yet when you break it down, issue by issue, plank by plank, and people actually understand what is at stake, most citizens side with liberal goals. The conservative elite knows they must prevent as many voters as possible from achieving this “understanding,” thus the perennial need for conservative lies, myths, distortions, diversions, distractions, wedge issues, anger, greed, fear… and an entire separate mediasphere to propagate the propaganda. Conservatives cannot win on their ideas, they can only win by ginning up hatred for the other side.
America started off as a radical liberal experiment, forged in the rays of the Enlightenment, ripping down conservative tradition and order. This nation is not all about “Liberty!” as conservatives so often contend (thinking, of course, of their liberty, not yours). True American ideals properly blend liberty with justice and equality. While they are content to rig liberty and justice in their favor, it is that last virtue, equality, that conservatives look at dumbfounded that anyone could seriously propose such nonsense, have never accepted, and never will. It is this fundamental clash with the founding ideals that has made conservatives so blustering, intransigent and dangerous… throughout history. They truly believe this country, this world, belongs to them and them alone. Good luck trying to compromise with that.
Yet, bless his Oscar-sized heart, Matthew McConaughey thinks they can be reached, their seething anger soothed, the Ideology of Selfishness tamed. He is willing to be mediating intermediary between these eternal (there is truly nothing new here, folks) twin combatants of politics and society, which in his (very faulty) frame of reference are equally to blame for this division, this hatred, this ripping this nation apart. Too bad he couldn’t have been on hand prior to Fort Sumter. Surely he would have saved the day with “aggressive centrism.”
But let’s allow him to speak for himself:
“What I fear is, you know, great nations aren’t taken over from the outside. They implode. Civil war — that’s the big fear for me for the country, is this path we’re going. It’s not constructive. I don’t see the way out right now through politics…. I think it’s necessary to be aggressively centric to possibly salvage democracy in America right now.”
I’m not sure what he means by “aggressively,” but it is clear he is clueless on what “centric” implies. There is no doubt that one ideology, conservatism, is not interested in democracy, nor ever has been. At this moment, as ever, conservatives are scheming to undermine it. There should be no surprise that its opposite, liberalism, the stripe of original American ideals, is democracy’s true defender — as well for liberty, justice, equality, pursuit of happiness, and the General Welfare as mandated by the Constitution, even the notion of trying to “perfect” the nation. Somehow, all of American history is a confusing blur to McConaughey. This is, unfortunately, not a rare condition for Texans, except for the year 1836, which is etched into the consciousness of all schoolkids as the defining moment when Texas, and they, became the most glorious civilization the world has ever known. It can be tricky to accurately peer out on to the rest of the world through such a grandiose but gauzy lens. Everything is bigger in Texas, including myopic self-aggrandizement.
Yet it turns out, almost all of the great figures of history were liberal for their time and place… and, of course, considered “radical” or “extreme.” The founding fathers were called “radicals,” “traitors,” “extremists” by the British and American conservatives who wished to conserve the old, unfair order. Martin Luther King Jr. was branded an “extremist” for his non-violent pursuit of “liberty” AND “justice” AND “equality” for Black Americans (as well as for other oppressed people). To this charge, King answered:
“So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?”
I wonder which of the great “Centrists” in history, Matthew McConaughey holds as his model. Quick, name a Great Compromiser of history! Those guys at the Alamo certainly don’t qualify.
I watched McConaughey’s recent “The Art of Livin’” live podcast extravaganza, six and a half hours total, including guest appearances from some of the heaviest hitters in the Self-Help arena. The first pitch for a further course, “The Road Trip” (with Matthew McConaughey riding shotgun with YOU through a landscape of personal exploration, development and action on the way to arriving at your dream) comes about two hours in, a $3000+ value yours for just $397 (or 3 installments of $150) if you order NOW while the show is live. The show featured a Gatling gun barrage of “Stop Mopin’, Get Goin’” encouragement and inspiration, not particularly anything you couldn’t get from Marcus Aurelius, but gussied up in cute concepts with more contemporary, folksy language and pithy phrases, often rhyming, accompanied by applause and laugh tracks, and Matthew taking a few turns on the djembe, while a chat-board on screen whirled too fast to read with enthusiastic posts from some of the humongous throng taking it all in. YouTube counted 770 thousand watching live, while the various hosts repeated 2.4 million had signed up (and might be watching on other channels… or later).
Whatever, it was a huge success, and probably raked in millions. It was non-political, and intended to be personal, inter-personal, but themes, particularly Matthew’s, repeatedly challenged the political status-quo.
“Trust is the coin of the realm,” he quoted. “When trust is in the room, great things happen. When it’s not, they don’t.”
True enough, but there’s a piece missing: trust is based on truth. No truth, no trust. Which makes a nation where one side has gone after truth like a leopard on a baby gazelle a little bit scary, and trust, much less cooperation, virtually impossible.
In his earlier interview, McConaughey displayed at least the glimmer of good thinking:
“What I think the role of government is? To help lay out paths to be able to pursue that happiness. I go to the individual. How are we going to change things? You and I have got to look in the mirror. That’s where it starts. And enough of us do that? That’s how collective change happens. It’s not going to happen by a policy. No, it’s going to have to be a personal choice that more of us are going to have to make on our own. And that, collectively, will build the army that will get us out of this, not just to survive, but thrive.”
It bodes well that he thinks the government has a big role in helping people pursue happiness. Alas, as with his false equivalency regarding blame for the deep divisions in American society and politics, McConaughey has not yet got a handle on what infects those on the “right,” who, we might remind him, have never seen a tax they approve of and actually pledge allegiance to the goal of stripping government down to a size that can be “drowned in a bathtub.”
I know the dilemma he faces. I know these people. As with McConaughey, they are my family; I grew up with them. They are not bad people. They aren’t inherently stupid or angry or mean. All of us are selfish (the actual version that is all about not wanting to share, not the self-examination, self-care, pseudo interpretation McConaughey has redefined), but the best aspects of our wisdom traditions teach that we must control and override selfishness as we attempt to become better humans, and at the same time make our societies more fair, more compassionate, more sustainable and more livable. Adult conservatives are made, not born. Kids are selfish, sure, but rarely in a hateful, divisive way… they love animals, the like other kids, the more the merrier, they don’t care a damn about skin tone or religion or wealth or fame, they usually play well together. But somewhere along the line, conservative adults have imbibed the sweet snake-oil of an ancient ideology that encourages stern selfishness, that whether they completely understand or not believes not in equality but in hierarchy, not in democracy but aristocracy-autocracy-theocracy, promotes division because that’s the way they can conquer, resists change because conservatives conserve the old, unfair order, obliterates truth because truth is the enemy of the lies and myths, employs lies and myths because that destroys trust, fosters distrust because that is a winning strategy necessary to confuse “believers” and turn them against non-believers. It’s so easy and feels so good to be selfish, and those who succumb to its siren song end up transforming their very brains into amygdala-ruled anger-fear centers. Look it up; it’s neuroscience. I know it from hard knocks; I watched it happen to my mother.
I suspect Matthew McConaughey has more sense than to ever dive into the treacherous reefs of Texas politics. If he wants to pretend to be an “aggressive centrist,” he would be well advised to stick to acting and selling Lincolns. If he is sincere about some of the buzz words he uses —truth, trust, community, collective, balance, value, virtue, united not divided, change, evolution, love — then he is no conservative, and they will soon enough figure this out and turn against him. If he wants to make a real difference in the wider world, beyond tinkering with self-help platitudes, and help get America out of the “bad place” it is right now, he’s going to need to pick a side. This idea of a foot on each side of the divide may sound cool, but the way conservatives are moving rightward, he is going to soon be straddling Texas and Pluto.
He has an eager audience waiting for him. But it ain’t the centrists (who might be defined in our current era as falling into three camps: not paying attention, don’t care, dangerously naive), and certainly not the conservatives! The concepts and pathways he seems to want to promote, including inclusiveness (always open, even to conservatives), only liberals are going to rally around. Conservatives are militantly against “self-improvement” or “perfecting the nation” because both are plenty damn good enough as they are, and if you dare suggest otherwise, you’re a commie, socialist, traitor, villain… and insane. And if you’re going to go off on “evolution,” well now you’ve just insulted the Good Book they are so practiced at cherry-picking. If sharing his awakening is what Matthew McConaughey offers the nation, he might have missed the bulletin: conservatives have not only declared war on drag queens, transgender people, Budweiser and Disney World, but also on “wokeness.”
No “moderate” or “centrist” is going to ever be able to do anything more than put a thoughts-and-prayers kiss on the gaping, blood-and-pus-dripping wound that America has suffered from since almost the beginning. The toxic underground spring of all of America’s ills and sins is a big, throbbing cauldron of conservatism. This nation has a very large conservative problem. American “exceptionalism” has a very dark side; including some stunningly stingy, militant and violent forms of rugged individualism, as well as “righteous” crazed-mob criminality. Most Americans don’t realize that our conservatives, and the Republican Party, are “exceptional” alright; they are outliers in the modern world. They make conservatives in every other modern country look like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. There are worse conservatives, but they rule no country you would want to visit, much less live in. No other major political party in the First World is so enamored with guns (America has more than most of the rest of the world combined), denying Global Warming, corporate hegemony, white supremacy, anti-science, fundamentalist religion and rigging elections, while so stridently opposed to doing anything whatsoever that might help any of those “others” out there.
OK, so if the “center” isn’t the sweet spot, and “just shaking hands,” ain’t gonna do squat, what is the answer to the deep and dangerous divide in American culture and politics. The cure to America’s unique and disturbing conservative disease is not any ridiculous, fool-hardy, inherently counter-productive and self-harming attempt to compromise with it; that just rewards, legitimizes and perpetuates it… but to shame it into oblivion, or at least into a dark cul-de-sac of society where it might be quarantined. No hate. No violence. We liberals are the real “Pro Life” Americans. We don’t want to physically harm anyone. But we’re a couple of centuries late as a society in just not putting up with such blatant anti-American (as well as un-Christian) belief and behavior. How many tribal massacres, how many enslaved and tortured, how many civil wars, how many prejudices, how many lynchings, how many commie witch hunts, how many stifled rights, how many immigrants abused, how many assaults on the personhood of women and minorities, how many book burnings, how many trumped-up wars, how many homeless, how many hungry children, how many toxic lies, how many riots through the U.S. Capitol, before we say, “ENOUGH!” Believe it or not, we haven’t ever tried this approach. The majority has never screamed, “Enough!” Seriously. America has never curbed its temper-tantrum-throwing conservatives. Some tough love is long overdue.
Instead of waiting for yet another, the next, conservative depravity in a centuries-long list of them, why don’t we give this a try? This might be just the space where McConaughey’s “aggression” — not physically, but verbally, psychologically, spiritually — comes into play. You believe in suppressing votes… you want to rig elections… you spread lies… you don’t want to share… you think you are inherently “superior”… you don’t believe in the commons… you don’t believe in protecting the environment… you believe you have “rights” that others don’t deserve… you believe you should be able to force your religion on others… you don’t believe in liberty, justice, equality for all… and so forth… well, that “opinion” is simply not worthy of respect, not in this nation it’s not. Tell them so. To their face. That’s shade, that’s scorn, that’s shame. You don’t have to shun or disown them or even dislike them — you can still love them — but stand your ground and let them know where you stand. Children, bullies, need to be shamed now and again, for their own benefit and that of society. Sure, at first they may double-down, but eventually being scolded by society will spoil their antisocial fun. It might take decades, a generation or two, but only through this process might a more evolved culture finally liberate many of those who have fallen prey to the addictive poison of conservative dogma, and strongly forewarn those who are vulnerable to its eternal allure.
Such “shaming” may seem crude; it is, it’s unfortunate, but it’s better than civil war. Just like spoiled children, conservatives have brought this upon themselves. Alas this is easier said than done for liberals, who are generally too nice, too accommodating, too forgiving for their own, and the nation’s good. Remember when Republicans tried to steal an election and rioted through the Capitol looking for “traitor” politicians to hang? A burning example of conservative treachery… not too long ago… still not officially recanted, regretted or apologized for by the perpetrating party… but already fading away, because conservatives want it to, and both moderates and liberals are allowing it. Contrast that sorry situation with how quickly Republicans jumped on Bill Clinton’s Oval Office tryst, a far less serious crime, immediately called for impeachment, and haven’t shut up about it yet. Shame and scorn, condemning and disparaging, these are daily rituals of conservatives. It’s time to give them some of their own medicine (squeal in protest as they will).
The alternative is to let them get away with it. And we know that definitely does not work. It should be crystal clear by now. As long as conservatives are allowed to retard and taint her, as long as the bullies are allowed to run amok, America will never really be that legendary America shining on the hill, that America of liberty and opportunity, of equality of personhood, of justice for all, where anyone can pursue happiness. If Matthew McConaughey is half as smart, and as virtuous, as that $3000 value — now on sale for $397 — would warrant, there is an “army” waiting for him as a leader for the cause. They are standing on the center stripe of the road to a perfected nation. They know they are not perfect, but at least self-improved by way of introspection and focus on good-heartedness rather than greedy selfishness and militant anger. But these are no “centrists” (those are still in compromising committee trying to decide just which books conservatives can ban… just how illegal transgender people should be… and what might be a reasonable limit on how many assault rifles a single individual can legally own… and, of course, how much the next tax break for the rich should be). They may not all call themselves liberals, or even Democrats, but they are ready for change, for progress, for solving problems, for expansion of rights, for sharing the nation and protecting the planet. They believe in true American values, as well as the wisdom of the wisest teachers in history.
Way over there on the “right,” living in the past, with a dour present mood and the actual hope for an apocalyptic future, conservatives hurl the epithet “extremists” at liberals. Talk about projection! Yet, it’s true. They aren’t right often, but okay. We are extremists. Extremists for democracy, extremists for justice, extremists for equality, extremists for peace, extremists for love, baby.
