I had a chance to have a personal meeting with Matt Dolan, who is running for Senate in Ohio, Rob Portman’s seat. He is one of many running for that seat; it’s a very tight field. He’s from Northern Ohio; his family is owners of the Cleveland Indians, who have just changed their name to the Guardians under a lot of pressure from the woke politics that are entangled in our sports these days, so going into the meeting with him, I wasn’t too excited. He wasn’t a particularly Trump type of candidate either, so to my mind, there wasn’t much to get excited about. The meeting was with a small group, Warren Davidson was part of it, so I went into it with the most open mind possible. Ultimately, I’m glad I did because it turned out that Matt Dolan was a really ethical guy. After meeting him, my impression was that it was a shame that we didn’t have a political system that could appreciate him. A vote for Matt Dolan was undoubtedly a good one, an honest one. After talking with him for a while, I came away thinking that he was one of the most honest and least corrupt people I had ever met in politics. He is currently working well with George Lang, whom I respect greatly as a Senator in Ohio, and has a proven track record of doing good, hard things in legislative practice. He’s a guy who will get down to work and pound out what is needed with always an eye to the constitutions of Ohio and the Federal Government in all the ways people hope politicians would. He is putting over 10 million dollars of his own money into the race and doesn’t need to do the job for power and finance. He already has access to both. Yet he wants to be a senator for all the right reasons, which left me liking him quite a lot. I wish we had a republic filled with people like Matt Dolan.
However, that wish is a wish for a reason because we don’t have that kind of political system. At least, not at this point of history. I am encouraged that we may have at some point in the future. But currently, the values of honest work alone are not conducive to our political environment, which is a shame. It would be great indeed if there were more places for people like Matt Dolan to work in politics, people who have done well for themselves and want to move into the public sector to give something back in making the world better. Too often, political people get into the business for all the wrong reasons, yet here was Matt Dolan, who wanted to be involved for all the right ones. But those right reasons are not sexy enough for the political world we are in these days. As a senator, one of the essential requirements would be to go on Fox News and other entertainment outlets and talk up legislation and convince people that what he was doing was good and beneficial. As a federal senator, there are only 100 of them, so every seat counts, and in Ohio, Rob Portman has wasted his seat for quite a while now. Portman had turned much more liberal over the years valuing team building more than getting things done, which many politicians fall into. And with the environment we are in now, where Democrats actually have shown they want to sell out our country and destroy our sovereignty to the United Nations under a Great Reset, we just aren’t in the kind of world where good legislation is valued. We are essentially at war, an undeclared war, but it’s war nevertheless. If we don’t meet that ruthlessness in congress, in the senate, on television, radio, and in the streets, then we can’t hope to have a chance to win that war, and that is unfortunate.
As I said, Warren Davidson was there too, and there were some excellent discussions within the small group about ethics in politics and actually getting things done. Warren Davidson, I would say, is a highly ethical and intelligent member of the House. He is by far one of the good guys in congress. But as he will report, even when Republicans had the House and Senate for some time when Trump was in the White House, conservatives were still weak on border security. There were still many Lindsey Graham types who were war hawks worldwide and wanted to stir up trouble wherever they could, much as the Bush administrations had been. There wasn’t a lot of interest in doing the right things in government, even if Warren Davidson wanted to do them. Not getting more people to join him was a constant problem. And the way to build those alliances was through the theatrics of television, where boring topics could be made sexy and build support from people who might not otherwise pay attention. But with all the victimization that is going on now, where Democrats have stolen the House, the Senate, and the White House through Covid rules on elections, with only a bit of a whimper from Republicans on the matter, at the level of Mitch McConnell, Republicans had shown that they couldn’t do much better when they had the power to do so. That leaves good people like Matt Dolan and Warren Davidson trying to do good in a cesspit of scandal where good values are turned on their heads and distorted every which way that can be imagined.
When Trump was running, and throughout his term, I often said that the most qualifying aspect of the celebrity billionaire was not his experience on television with the popular show, The Apprentice. He was in the Hall of Fame for the Worldwide Wrestling Federation. Trump understood the theatrics of television, and he knew how to sell usually boring ideas to a public with the attention span of a nat. And it was that skill that allowed him to do so much in such a short time. It is also why people in the business hated him so much because he simply made the money machines that center in politics worthless. Because try as they might, nobody could out brand Trump on anything. Trump’s ability to build a brand was simply better than anybody else in politics, and people could see that and vote for him. And when they needed to go to war for him, as they are doing now, they do and will. Theatrics in politics is absolutely necessary; it’s not optional. And unfortunately, Matt Dolan presents himself as a person who hates that system. Probably as much or more than the rest of us. But it is the system we have in a culture that progressive politics have shaped for over a century. We might deep down inside want other options and a more stable republic. But we are not socially there now, nor will we be in the immediate future. Theatrics and sexy selling legislation are very much necessary for any politician who wants to do good in the world. Being a good person just isn’t enough. With all that said, I couldn’t blame anybody who wants a good person to vote for Matt Dolan in the upcoming primary. He’s undoubtedly a good person, and I do wish we had a whole lot more like him. But the reality remains, we don’t.
Rich Hoffman
The Gunfighter's Guide: 