65 Comments

Absolutely brilliant, Matt. Not just a piece of superb writing, but a work of art. Hilarious in all the right places and stingingly satirical in others, this is a heartfelt word from man of obvious integrity.

Expand full comment
author

Really appreciate it, Joe. Thanks man.

Expand full comment

My sagging cheeks (facial) are getting a perpetual workout smiling as I read your work. Thank you, I hope by New Year I will look young again from toned cheeks.

Expand full comment

Talk is cheap. Flights of rhetorical grace ring hollow unless they are coupled with "...and that's why I believe we should do A about B, C about D, E about F", etc. I don't claim to know the details of Kinzinger's voting record that was 90% with Trump (although I'll be looking it up), but I'm not expecting to be impressed. I'm tired of the right's tropes about country, patriotism, liberty, freedom, being "great again", etc. because they're only talking to white Christians. No others need apply. No policies ever seem to ensue from these oh-so-deeply-held beliefs that address the problems of ALL people. It's just grievance or nostalgia for a past that was godawful for everyone who wasn't a white male. I have no sympathy left for any of it. I'm going to stick to your posts about bluebirds and fishing.

Expand full comment

Yes, yes, yes!

Expand full comment

I thought I might find your articles interesting and perhaps insightful, but I only found them to be partisan.

Expand full comment
author

Hey Rick. Sorry to hear you feel that way. But I think I've only written about one, maybe two articles, out of eight so far, that could be interpreted as partisan. And I'm not even sure those are partisan, since I'm not some traditional partisan. I do stand against things I think are wrong. And if they buck somebody's partisan prejudices, then so be it. I don't apologies for that. Never will. But if you can point out some unfair partisanship, I'm happy to entertain a good argument..........

Expand full comment
author

"apologize for that" not "apologies for that" - copy edit

Expand full comment

This is a good political post, but I hope a rare one since I come here for other things—almost anything, actually. Politics has become oppressive. By the way, confirmation bias and all, I agree with everything you said, except your suggestion that Biden is a kindly old fart who is out of his depth. He’s not. His lies, old and new, make him as venal as the rest of them, and he gets no free pass for his senescence. I get to say that because I’m older than he is.

Expand full comment

I’ve been freeloading off the unpaid version of your newsletter but this motivated me to stop doing that and subscribe to the full version. Excellent work.

Expand full comment
author

Glad your conscience went to work on you, Scott. Happy to have you, and thanks for subscribing.

Expand full comment

Yeah, tiring. That pretty much sums up this commenter's experience, being stuck in the middle as I am...no party, no tribe, no allegiance pledged to anything other than what the image on the side of that barn depicts, minus that idiotic and oh-so-clever blot that defiles it, of course.

But hey, it's a free country, right? At least for a while yet.

The din of the bi-directional fusillades of ugliness, hateful, vitriolic rhetoric and lies wears a bit heavy after a while. And it has been a while. Natural inclination when caught in such a prolonged crossfire is sometimes to put the head down, maybe do the 3-monkeys-bit, and effe 'em all.

But with clowns on all sides, as I believe a writer at The Bulwark put it a while back: a clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower. And plenty of these fools have got 'em, just waiting for an opportunity to pull the trigger. And not just rhetorically. So, head-down is just an invitation to get burned up by flames coming from either direction.

Kinzinger was about as heads-up, stand-up as they come on on his side on the whole 1-6 Republican Crazy thing. And he's toast anyway. And the so called moderates on the other side are catching hell from their own for being, of all things, moderate. So, what is one to do?

Twain once said "Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company."

The climate here in the middle pretty much sucks with all that unfriendly fire whirring by form right and left, but I've found it the best place to find good company, regardless of at which longitudinal increment of the middle it's found. So, I guess I'll hang for a while yet.

Not just safety in numbers, but in the quality of those numbers as well.

Expand full comment
Nov 3, 2021Liked by Matt Labash

Great piece Matt, and my thoughts exactly.

Expand full comment

Unfortunately, I was pretty illusioned until about 2015. I've put a lot of energy into figuring out what the hell happened, and turns out, it wasn't all that complicated. Shame on me for being fooled so easily. Also, I would have never guessed you had a Southern Baptist background!

Expand full comment
author

Fooled you again! No, I actually was. Have the white loafers and large belt buckle to prove it. And now "go" to a church (pretty virtually since the pandemic, since it's like a petri dish of the unmasked and presumably unvaccinated) that's about two ticks off the SB's. Technically non-denominational, but pretty much the same. Wrote about my upbringing here:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/that-old-time-religion

Expand full comment
Nov 3, 2021Liked by Matt Labash

Beautifully put. Thank you!

Expand full comment

Well said! May semi-perfect people live long and prosper! Like you and me…

Expand full comment

I'm sorry Kinzinger was gerrymandered out of his district, but speaking of heroes, don't forget Peter Meijer, the 33year old Freshman Republican representative from Michigan (from Justin Amash's old district) who voted to impeach Trump on his third day in office.

Expand full comment
author

They'll have him eliminated before long. All dissenters must be eliminated in the Party of Free Speech.

Expand full comment

Awww…spoken by a true man in dealing with SBC. Oh dang! I said that.

I’ve seen good, in fact have looked for it. It’s refreshing to hear a different voice that isn’t full of slavish devotion but sees honest good!

Expand full comment
author

Well that's big of you to recognize that. Because a lot of people don't, once they've made up their mind. But I know a lot of great church people. Including Trumpsters. On the latter, I'd say they're (mostly) confusing their politics with religion. For the benefit of a guy who stands against almost everything their religion - hell, my religion - purports to stand for. When I read a Trump speech, I don't see a whole lot of Sermon on the Mount in there. But people are complicated, and flawed. And a lot of people who agree with me about Trump, are total sonsofbitches otherwise, if I may use a word that we don't employ in church. So I give a wide berth to all. We all contain the ridiculous and the sublime. Best not to think of ourselves as too perfect, because none of us are. Even people who are right 99 percent of the time, like me and you.

Expand full comment

Well said. My daddy told me 45 years ago when I began my career to “never put your faith in a politician “. He was a wise man. On the other hand my brother told me if you ever get elected to office “don’t do nothing. Sit on your hands. You’ll stay in office forever. And now I truly understand what they meant.. I enjoy your thoughts.

Expand full comment
author

Your dad and your brother - both wise men.

Expand full comment

I can’t stop thinking about your Victoria’s Secret piece. Matt, I’m a retired elementary school principal in the very blue, very hip republic of Vermont. I watched my kids, ages 8-12, both boys and girls, refuse to eat lunch because they might “get fat.” THAT is the problem with ALWAYS having skinny and/or fit models. Our kids internalize these “perfect” bodies and start harming themselves at a very young age in order to be “attractive.” I’m sorry you miss your soft porn, but I’m glad my kids have a more realistic vision of the human body presented in catalogs and other media.

Expand full comment
author

Sorry to hear the piece is troubling you, Julie. Though the discussion for that is actually down the hall. But that aside, I don't want any kids to have eating disorders, obviously. Though I'd submit that that most of them aren't getting the bulk of their information or societal imprints from Victoria's Secret catalogs. ( Which are now defunct, anyway, and 8 year olds are a little young to be looking at lingerie catalogs, one would think.) Maybe they're getting it from their friends on Instagram or TikTok, where everybody's lives are perfect all the time, even if they're not supermodels.

Expand full comment
Nov 2, 2021Liked by Matt Labash

I understand but this was 5 years ago so Tik Tok didn’t exist and and Insta was still fairly new. You would likely be shocked at what 8-12 year olds are exposed to. Fortunately there are great free curricula from Common Sense Media that we implemented to teach kids how tricky catalogs and ads are! Remind someday to tell you about the 11 year old boy who asked all his friends to check out Porn Hub. My chat with THAT young dad was one for the ages!

Expand full comment

As a fully recovered SBC member, I noticed years ago the attraction of “conspiracy theories” to the Bible thumpers. That and behavior not to be discussed in mixed company. But generally from the church “leadership”. It is mostly connected to fear, greed and lust. But fear definitely…I won’t go into the manipulations I began to witness in those fire, smoke and brimstone revivals or the accuracy of the head counts of the ‘saved’. It is disheartening how often people confuse fear with faith.

There can be beauty in literature interpretation, but I am amazed at how many people have stretched interpretations of the Bible, Quaran, Torah or other historical holy books to meet their own needs. If a mere layperson dares to argue with the meaning given by the leader of said cult…er…religion, I believe the term they’ll be saddled with is heretic or some other current term. One must subscribe to the word as given. Too often this leadership is the loudest, angriest, most fear mongering homeschooled, Bible college graduate on the block.

I admire Adam for standing his ground. I don’t know that I fit any political box, but I do disagree with many of his beliefs. That is fine. Honesty and integrity are rare these days in politics, however, I am not sure when they were in abundance. But great men and women who stand their ground, and their ground is truly of wanting the best for the people, have made us a fairly great country. Not as great as some remember but not as vile either. Perspective-

I do know it’s a mess and will resolve but not before Mother Nature has her way with us. Drill, baby, drill translated is burn, baby, burn. Or freeze. Starve. Our little baby country in the general scheme was a great, experimental idea but I’m afraid we are getting the government we deserve!

Expand full comment
author

Agree with you, Nancy, about the government we deserve. Though go easier on the SB's! I know a lot of great evangelicals who do a lot of good in this world. The largest food bank in several counties is my church's, and all that free food comes with no strings attached. They don't even tie you to a chair and wrap a snake around your neck!

Expand full comment