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Alright, Alright, Alright Texas: Is Matthew McConaughey Playing the Long Game for Texas Governor? · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's Friday, and on Friday we try to have a
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: little bit of fun with Litke's Got a Take. Good morning, John.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Gene.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Well, let me just start off by saying, all right,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: all right, all right. We're talking about Matthew McConaughey playing
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the long game to possibly being the governor of Texas. Now,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: it's interesting. He's got that show on Apple TV, Brothers,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: and that's sort of like simulating a campaign. So, John,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: he claims he's staying home until his kids leave But
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: if an earlier political opening pops up, could we see
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: him really pulling the trigger way before 2030 and taking
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: a serious run at either being the next governor of
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Texas or even? the president of the united states are
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: right out right out.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Right all right all right all right now generally look
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: focusing on family that's the oldest safest dodge in american
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: politics look like literally out of politics one oh one
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: and i don't doubt he wants to be at that
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: first but Anyone who watches politics from the operating side
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: of things and sees the infrastructure that he's assembling, they
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: know what's going on, and it's all in plain sight.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Every single piece of his media footprint is doubling as
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: a turnkey campaign machine. He first established his origin story
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: and his personal philosophies in his book Greenlights, which came
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: out a few years ago. He's got a YouTube channel
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: that is talking about, you know, just his life, but
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: he'll also sometimes veer into very political things, talking about Americana,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: its 250th anniversary and what it stands for. He's just
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: talked about the need for an independent track in American
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: politics and how independents are the ones who actually hold
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: the true power. Then there's the Apple TV show Brothers.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: That's acting as a multimillion-dollar focus group paid for by Apple.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: And he's got a newsletter that he puts out every
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: week with an audio monologue associated with it that's also
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: translated by AI into Spanish, which, of course, is the
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: language of a large demographic in the United States. And
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: that serves as a clear opening in whether it be
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: just Texas or nationally. And so when it comes time
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: to him deciding to pull the trigger, he won't have
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: to build a political machine from scratch. He just has
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: to turn the key, start driving, and say, all right,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: all right, all right.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, he wouldn't be the first actor to
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: go after a political office. You know, I'm thinking of
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: this one guy who had a pretty good run. His
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: name was Ronald Reagan. Arnold Schwarzenegger did okay in California.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: But now you're saying he's eyeing a governor's run instead
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: of the White House. So why is a governor's match
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: in the real springboard for a longtime candidate like somebody
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: like Matthew McConaughey?
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: You know, I think state power is the ultimate outsider
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: play if you're just jumping into things. You don't jump
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: straight into the Washington swamp realistically, even though Trump was
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: able to pull that off. But I think that proving
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: you can manage a massive economical powerhouse like Texas first
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: is a model. And as you said, that's the Reagan model.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: That's the Schwarzenegger model. And again, look more at that
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: show on Apple TV Brothers. He's effectively test driving the
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: gubernatorial run on primetime. And that's not just sitcom plot filler.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: It's real-time messaging tests. He's playing the governor on our
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: TV screens. He's gauging voter reaction to the episodes. And
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: if the narrative can hold in Austin, he'll have a direct,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: unassailable springboard to national influence without ever having to sit
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: through a legislative subcommittee.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: You know, in a political landscape dominated by loud fringes,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: can an aggressively centrist, independent... libertarian sort of a guy,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: can he actually break through all that noise in.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: The U.S.? I think someone like Matthew McConaughey could absolutely
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: break through all the noise that's going on as an
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: independent centrist, aggressively so, because people are so thoroughly exhausted
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: by party apparatuses that cater exclusively to loud, fringe bases
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: on the extremes. I mean, McConaughey's entire pitch, and he
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: talks about it in one of his videos, is targets
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: the vast majority of voters that he says are living
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: between the 40-yard lines who are routinely ignored by the
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: primary system that's designed for ideologues. So, you know, when
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: a high-profile figure like Mahoney, Matthew McConaughey, can come forward
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  Speaker 2: with universal name recognition, step up and argue that taking
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: sensible positions from both sides isn't indecision, it's actually judgment,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: it'll land. And he strips away the beltway jargon. He
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: can replace it with plain-spoken common sense. And in a
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: sea of performative outrage amplified by social media and AI,
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: I think straightforward realism actually sort of feels radical.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Let's go back to our childhoods here, John. Let's
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: play pretend. Say he actually wins as an independent. How
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: does he govern without a party?
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  Speaker 2: You know, I think by completely bypassing the legislature and
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: going straight over their heads to the public, he doesn't
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: need to have a legislative caucus when he controls a
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: direct line to millions of voters, quite frankly, and citizens
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: through his media platforms, his podcasting reach. and his cultural footprint,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: not to mention on the silver screen as well, broadly.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: So if a partisan statehouse tries to stonewall his basic governance,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: he wouldn't have to waste time in backroom committee bargaining.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: He could literally just turn on his camera, go live
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  Speaker 2: to YouTube, and call out the obstructionism in plain English.
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  Speaker 2: He can turn public sentiment into leverage. He could make
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: the cost of partisan stonewalling far higher for local representatives
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: than working with him.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: I've mentioned on the air a couple of times, I
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: lived in Dallas for three years, had a great time,
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  Speaker 1: but boy, they take their politics very, very seriously in Texas.
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  Speaker 1: So if the party machines try to block his agenda,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: doesn't picking a fight with Governor Matthew McConaughey basically mean
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: you're picking a fight with Texas?
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, you don't want to go and pick
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: a fight with Texas. That'd be ridiculous, and that's how
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: I see this. I think that... The way that Matthew
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: McConaughey can frame the entire thing is how he frames
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  Speaker 2: his entire identity. And it wouldn't have to be as
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: a partisan hack, but as an embodiment of state pride.
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  Speaker 2: And if political operatives try to stall pragmatic legislation just
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: to score partisan points... he can turn that into a
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  Speaker 2: simple narrative of hyper-partisan paralysis versus the actual interests of
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: the voters. And at that point, state representatives, again, they
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: wouldn't just be fighting an independent governor in the executive
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: office in the governor's mansion. They'd be actively, openly opposing
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: their own constituents to protect the party bosses. And that's
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: a political suicide mission in any election cycle.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: You know, I think a lot of would-be politicians in
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Canada should really study this because, you know, we're all
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: about party here and it's never been really any different.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: At the end of the day, is his biggest hurdle
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: the party machine? Because he's talking about common sense government,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: not just, you know, Locke stepping in with what the
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: party has to say. Is it possible?
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: I think that the biggest hurdle that he'd be facing
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: would actually be the institutional cynicism of it. But the
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: party machine, I mean, that can be outmaneuvered, although it's tough.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: But entrenched voter apathy, that's the far tougher beast, in
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: my opinion. I mean, people have been burned. by administrative
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: incompetence and performative politics, and we see this here in
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Canada as well, and it's been going on for so long,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: that people assume that actual, effective, pragmatic governance is a
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  Speaker 2: pipe dream. And when I say that it's been happening here,
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: I don't mean at any one specific government, but I
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: think people can feel that, whether they look at their
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: local government, their provincial or the federal one, to a
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: certain extent. So Matthew McGonaghy's hardest task isn't beating a
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: rival candidate on the ballot. It'll be convincing an exhausted
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: electorate that common-sense leadership isn't actually just a Hollywood trope,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: and it's something that they can have. So if he's
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: able to, or if any politician is able to crack
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: through that type of cynical armor and get people to
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: re-engage with the process, I think the rest falls into place.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I guess the only person who came close to doing
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  Speaker 1: this in Canada was Preston Manning. Do you agree?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, that's a really interesting way to look
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: at it. And I would say, you know, as of late,
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: I think he's seen more in a hyper-hyper-partisan lens rather
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: than just through a pragmatic lens. But, yeah, I would
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: agree with you on that sentiment.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah. An interesting take this Friday morning. And say it
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: with me, John. All right, all.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Right, all right, all right. Talk to you on Monday, Gene.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Have a great weekend.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Litke's got a take. He's back on Monday.