Matthew McConnaughey joined me on Tuesday for an encore interview about “Greenlights,” his best-selling book.  Our first swing at an interview is below the audio and transcript of yesterday’s. Great fun, and we can all use that.  And a future governor of Texas?

Audio:

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Transcript:

HH: Welcome back, America. It’s Hugh Hewitt. So pleased to welcome back for an encore interview the author of Greenlights, Matthew McConaughey. In fact, he’s now Matthew Gone and Come Back Againaughey. I am so glad that you agreed to this, Matthew. The first one botched up so badly on the audio, we were able to transcribe it and show it, but it didn’t really make the mark I wanted it to make. But Greenlights at the top of the New York Times bestselling list is doing pretty well without it.

MM: Yeah, well, electrickery, no one can explain it. Audio, visual, if we can get them both going, we’re lucky sometimes. But no, my pleasure to come back on and chat with you again. And what do we got? Yeah, the book’s doing well, and been having a great time on the tour and the road talking, listening to people how it translated, how they related to it. And the reception’s been excellent.

HH: Well, it’s grabbing a lot of people. You know, in the radio business, I know my demo, which is 35-64, smart, hard-working, employed. Your demo’s basically everybody. In fact, this is my second chance to embarrass my daughter. I wrongly said her favorite movie was Dazed And Confused when it’s 10 Days, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days.

MM: How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days.

HH: (laughing) You know, you’ve got every person out there in America from 18 to 70. And I don’t know how you do that. What do you put that down to?

MM: Wow, you know, I didn’t have a specific demographic that I was sort of chasing. I just sort of, you know, and I said this to you, I believe, in our first longer conversation. Here’s something I noticed in the writing of the book. The more subjective and more personal I got, the more I would look at it and go, you know what, I think it just became more relatable to more people. So on this tour, I’m hearing people from all ages, sexes, everything else, about how they’re personally relating to stories in the book. And they’re all relating to different things, a scenario, a story that I’ve been in where they go that didn’t exactly happen to me like that, but something similar happened, and here’s how I handled it, or oh, how you handled it, I’m going to try that next time, or oh, I see where you failed, McConaughey, and you explain why. And you know what, understanding why I failed in the same way has helped me, or someone goes I really loved the poems, or someone says I loved the prayers, or someone says I loved the bumper stickers. So it’s, thankfully, relating and translating to quite a few, to all demographics right now.

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Senator Marco Rubio joined me this morning:

Audio:

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Transcript:

HH: I’m joined by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Good morning, Senator, great to have you back.

MR: Hey, good morning, Hugh. Thanks for having me back.

HH: How important are the Georgia Senate races to the Senate? And in particular, since you chair the Senate Intelligence Committee, how important are they to the operations of the Senate Intelligence Committee?

MR: Well, let me just say that generally for the Senate, you’ve seen what it means over the last two years. It’s, you’re not, they’re not voting for two Senate seats in Georgia, although we have two extraordinary senators and candidates. They’re voting whether or not they want Chuck Schumer to run the Senate. And you know, if Joe Biden takes office, I mean, if Joe Biden becomes president, it could be the difference between a radical, crazy person running Labor or Treasury, the Department of Defense, what have you, or someone we just don’t agree with. I mean, it’s that, but isn’t a radical crazy. I think that’s part of it. And then the other part of is, particularly in the Loeffler race, but I think in both of them, but the Loeffler race more particular is you know, this gentleman she’s running against. You know, every day, something new comes out, and I know you’ve been focused on that somewhat this morning as well, apparently, but the video of him saying you can’t serve God and the military would, is offensive, and would come as a tremendous shock to the men and women in uniform and their families who in fact put their lives on the line so he can have the freedom not just to worship, but to say things like that.

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Let’s review:

• Nancy Pelosi’s ice cream freezer representing more dollars than the average Californian makes in a year.  This is the definition of “tone deaf.”
• Nancy Pelosi gets a haircut when no one else can.  In this instance oppression begins to raise its ugly head as within a week of this incident “the rules” about salons changed here in California.
• The LA County Health Director references the election as a milestone when it comes to reopening schools.  This reveals that there is much more to the rule makers thinking than simply public health.  Another sign of oppression.
• This past weekend Gavin Newsom attended a dinner that would be out of reach for the vast majority of Californians in the best of times, and currently outside of the boundaries of the covid “rules.”  For some reason when I heard that story the old Soviet phrase “everybody is equal, but some are more equal than others,” came to mind.  I think we found Newsom’s dacha.
• And yet, yesterday The Emperor, er Governor saw fit to hold a presser and tighten down on the “rules.”  Now things are getting downright eerie.  What?  Are we supposed to pretend we did not notice you only called for the tightening after you had your party Gavin? I don’t know whether this is oppressive or just stupid.  Yes, cases are rising rapidly, but a rise in cases does not, of itself, constitute a public health emergency.
• Then just yesterday we learn that in a California where you cannot even go out for dinner if the weather is foul, a bunch of California lawmakers are headed to Maui for a conference.  OK, now it is unquestionably oppression.
• And there may be more to come.

When you line all this up like this, all pretense that the covid restrictions are for the greater public good vanishes into a haze of incredulity.  This is now all about control for the sake of control, or the benefit of the perceived controllers.  That’s pretty much the definition of oppression.

If you drill down on this too hard you are going to get a bunch of obfuscation.  You are going to hear about the difference between “guidelines” and “regulations.”  You are going to be treated to an alphabet soup of agencies on various levels of government and a treatise on who does what, when until everybody ends up looking like the Scarecrow in the cornfield in Oz.  That is a diversion, a cover up for the fact that there simply is no rhyme or reason behind this, it is control for control’s sake and since they are in on it they can choose to ignore it.  Why should we “little people” behave differently?

If this were not so oppressive; if this were not robbing so many people of their livelihoods, if this were not telling people to live the life of a clinically depressed individual, it might be humorous.  But I cannot find the humor anymore.

SCOTUS Justice Alito has referred to these restrictions as “unimaginable.”  Sadly, they are not.  I’ve seen them before – in the Soviet Union and in The People’s Republic of China.  I have no trouble imagining this level of control being exercised by bureaucrats who have no regard for liberty, or faith in humanity to protect themselves and their loved one.  I’ve seen it done before.  History is flooded with this sort of nonsense.  It is hard to think of this happening in the United States, but then this is California and the affiliation is a loose one at best.

All that is what it is and history, ably aided by our constitution, has a way of rebalancing this sort of thing albeit slower than I would like.  Nonetheless it becomes intolerable when we are boldly and openly lied to.  When the rule makers flagrantly and openly violate their own rules they cannot tell us the rules are for our own good.

This is how regimes fall.  I am just praying that in California it can happen without the violent chaos that often ensues in situations like this.