145 Comments
Jul 4Liked by Peachy Keenan

I’m normally not a fan of women in combat, but I’ll make an exception for women who vote for Biden. If we get into a war, they’ll be the reason anyway.

Expand full comment

People should really start to suffer first-hand consequences for their political choices. I think it would solve a bunch of the issues in a short time.

Expand full comment

they already do many times, but are completely unable to make the necessary connection.

Expand full comment

Mass Formation Psychosis. That is, what's spoken of in II Corinthians 4:3-4 has come true in their lives. Its rather supernatural, but having chosen to worship all the false gods out there, they are given over to the lie, allowed to believe the lie -- lacking in discernment. Mass electronic media REALLY contributes -- mass formation psychosis cudda never happened prior to the 20th Century.

Expand full comment

That's what I meant with the first-hand part. There are great ideas here and I honestly learned a lot since joining Substack, but let's be honest...most of the people are far too ignorant of politics to be able to make a connection(I'm too lacking in many ways.). Staying with the example...it would be interesting if there was a disclaimer that by voting for one you are automatically get called in.

Expand full comment

American combat deaths are at 20 year lows, stop popping so many Xannies!

Expand full comment

I am wondering if the wars started under the two George Bush's were considered good wars. That was certainly us showing off our muscle big time.

Expand full comment
Jul 4Liked by Peachy Keenan

America, f*ck yeah!

But seriously, and I hate to be ungentlemanly, but for whatever reason many women seem unwilling or unable to recognize the toxic politics engendered in the Democrat party. Worse, many of them wholly buy into the nonsense these nitwits are peddling. How to explain?

Young women should be focused on getting themselves a husband and caring for their families; young men should be focused on getting themselves a wife and supporting their families. The exceptions will do what they have always done: their own thing. This isn't complicated. I'm grateful that the push back is starting. I hope it is enough to restore sanity (at least outside of big cities).

Expand full comment

First of all, the Democratic Party consists of more than women. Many democratic men also fail to recognize the toxic politics

And I am going to assume you mean well but when an older gentleman says something like "young women should be focused on getting themselves a husband and caring for their families" it just naturally makes the hair on the back of my neck stiffen. Nobody likes to be told what they should be doing by a person ,that by definition, has just not walked in their shoes. I hate to be unladylike but I think older men should just sit down and shut up about young women (unless they know them well as an individual ie their father or husband). See, that doesn't feel too good.

I am so grateful to live in the United States where I was able to pursue my own happiness as I saw fit, not as you see fit. Happy 4th of July Jeff!!!

Expand full comment
Jul 4·edited Jul 6

I say "should" because, in general, it is true. I also pointed out that for some (the "exceptions"), this model doesn't work and we should leave them alone. Would you be offended if I said that most adults who lack external sources of support should get a job and support themselves? Even those who don't want to do so?

One does not need to "walk in another's shoes" to offer solid advice. You should think carefully about those hairs on your neck. They stiffen only because you have been told that they should stiffen (now there is a "should" that you can fruitfully challenge). For any rational person,. the two oughts I stated are nothing more than common sense. They've worked for thousands of years, and those who ignore them (i.e., those who have been told that they are "exceptions" but who are really just ordinary) do active harm to themselves.

This is indeed a free country, and you, and everyone else, are basically free to chart your own path. Unfortunately, this leads many to abuse drugs and alcohol, to commit crimes, to treat their bodies like amusement parks, to "protest" whatever the flavor of the day is, to avoid marriage, and to do countless other inane and harmful things. I'm not going to pass a law banning the imbibing of wine just because some people abuse it, but I am going to caution people to avoid excesses.

As a people, we have veered far too far off the path of duty/responsibility (to parents, nation, etc.) and are walking the sad trail of tears known as libertarianism ("Don't tell me I can't do X!").

I will end on a note of unity: we are both glad to be bore in the greatest nation that has ever existed. Happy 4th to you, Suz.

Expand full comment

Calm down everyone. This word police thing has GOT to go. Jeff wasn't telling anyone what to do. He was giving his opinion. You are free to take it or leave it. And THAT is my conservative, Christian, Constitutionalist woman's (wife, mother, daughter, retired career woman with a stay at home husband) opinion. Long live the 1st amendment!! P.S. Great article Peachy!

Expand full comment

I wonder who do you suggest bear and care for the children that are needed to keep our society growing, if not the females of our species? The suggestion was a good one in the general sense but you are free as an individual to ignore it

Expand full comment

Why women who WANT to of course! No one should be forced to bear or raise children.

Expand full comment

But that is exactly what most Republicans Legislators want to force on women.

Expand full comment

I question whether even "fathers or husbands" have any right to lecture the women in their lives. My daughter is 28--and it would never occur to me to offer her advice she hasn't asked for. I'm not a 28-year-old woman--what would I know about being one?

Expand full comment

It's not what you know about "being one". It's about the years of experience and observation one has

Expand full comment

But experience isn't terribly transferable. It's been 43 years since I was 28. The world is a very different place now than it was in 1981. I'm comfortably retired now while my daughter has only barely started out in life. All of those things are factors in the choices she makes. I'd never deny her advice if she asks, but it will always come with the caveat that my experiences and observations are not hers, they may not pertain to her world, and even my experiences and observations are likely obsolete.

Expand full comment

I kinda disagree, but not vehemently. It's more nuanced than just past/present. Some truths are timeless

Expand full comment

But the wisdom to know which is truly timeless and which isn't is an iffy thing. I spent a career in computer R&D and only years after the end of my formal schooling did I evolve an interest in the study of Western civilisation. Even as an amateur historian, it's pretty clear that few "truths" are timeless. Even in my 71 years, thus far, of life, that's become obvious. My mother's world, when she was 28 at about the time I was born, was almost nothing like my daughter's world. Everything changes.

Expand full comment

54 year old woman writing here. My father was a kind man, but absent from my home. He was also absent in providing any thoughts or advice whatsoever on how to live a happy domestic life. (My single mom, wonderful in so many ways, was also inept at such suggestions - maybe, after divorce, they both felt unqualified.) My point is, in hindsight I would have greatly welcomed, and I believe benefited from, a father offering me unsolicited guidance and even lectures on the importance of marriage and children as the foundations for a truly meaningful life. I floundered for many years on these fronts before I met my husband.

Expand full comment
Jul 4·edited Jul 4

You are a parent, Henry. I assume that means you know how meaningful that is? I also assume that the very last thing you would ever give up (including friendships, jobs, material goods) is your children? I also assume that you realize that you are not (gasp!) special, and that your experience is same as that of the overwhelming majority of adults who have walked that path? So I'm baffled as to why you feel you don't have the "right" to offer advice regarding a matter for which you have all of the relevant experience, and your interlocutor has none.

Or let me try this. I'm a 56-year-old male alcoholic. Would I be out of line counseling a 28-year-old female alcoholic to stop drinking (and get the help necessary to do so)?

Now, the advice I gave above is general, and not meant for a specific person. I have two daughters myself, and I do not attempt to dictate the path they take in life. I do feel comfortable saying: "Honey, do pursue that college degree, but realize that for nearly all people family is more important than career, and that you are likely to be happier by postponing the latter to secure the former, than vice versa."

Expand full comment

But your 28 year old female alcoholic already knows being an alcoholic is a world of pain. And, having known a couple of alcoholics, I know quitting, even with help, is agonisingly hard. Such advice is useless.

After finishing her undergrad degree, my daughter had to decide what to do with her life. She'd triple-majored in ancient history, literature, and chemistry, but was considering law school. Ultimately, went with that, then suffered through it for a year, and then quit. A $60 thousand mistake even with a hefty scholarship. But what advise could I have given her? I'm neither a lawyer nor a classicist.

Advice has to be contextual or it's, it best, irrelevant. More often, it's simply wrong. Sometimes, it's harmful. My unexpressed opinion to my daughter was approval of her plan to do law school--and it would have been bad advice.

Expand full comment

You have your own way of parenting, and that's totally your business. In my view, one of the jobs I have, as a parent, husband, lawyer, or coach, is to provide the best advice I can, given the situation. There are obviously situations where my advice is next to useless ("Should I try the rose or the chardonnay?") and, where those situations obtain, I demur. But in nearly all other areas, my children want to hear my opinion. (Very occasionally other people also do!) Do they actually follow the advice...rarely. But that's not my problem.

Maybe we think of "giving advice" differently. You seem to think of it in terms of directives. Do this. Don't do that. This is good. This is bad. I think of it as (a) giving the benefit of my experience, and (b) helping the individual make the best decision FOR HIM/HERSELF. What I want most for my children is that they learn HOW to make good decisions; I don't want to hand them the answers. My job, after all, and inter alia, is to prepare them for my absence.

I do very much agree with you that our advice can sometimes be ill-advised, or even dead wrong. I guess it just goes with the territory.

Expand full comment

You are a good father! I suspect because you show your daughter so much respect and have tried to understand the nuance of how her life is different than your, she would take your advice and thoughts more seriously. I just think it is so much more helpful to offer advice from a place of some humility and love (and yes experience) toward individuals rather than a blanket statement "all young women....." That is all I am saying.

Expand full comment

My three kids are triplets, all born within 90 seconds of each other and all raised pretty much identically until early teen-hood. But even so, and from very early ages, they were all very different people. They made it obvious that no way "all" of any class of people can be said to share any characteristic. My daughter is an absolute academic, not happy unless she's learning something, teaching something, or a mix of both. One of my sons is a born soldier. And my other son is a bit of both, an academic who sees learning only as a means of getting things done.

So I can't even say "all my kids," let alone "all young women."

Expand full comment

More than men, women are emotional beings -- which is good. But, DemParty learned how to manipulate women's emotions , just as womanizing men do when luring a woman to sleep with them.

Expand full comment

I see where you are coming from, and maybe generally true. But I am sure you will agree we cannot lay the blame 100% at the feet of emotional females. Some of us have left brains also and there are many men in the Democratic Party also. Although thinking about it, the ones I have met are not doing it out of emotion but seem to be highly motivated by their spouses. LOL

Expand full comment

It's his opinion. I have no problem with your opinion other than that you express it like a spoiled, entitled, most unladylike brat, thereby losing the argument. Try harder.

Expand full comment

Wow. Sorry I came across that way 🙃

Expand full comment
Jul 4Liked by Peachy Keenan

The current culture is unloveable. Classic America is: Freedom, Guns, competition, cool insouciance!!

Expand full comment
Jul 4Liked by Peachy Keenan

Oh, yes. Right on to all of it! Also

- you are not the only one. Not in the least. Lots of women have enough brains and logic to not be part of the “vote blue no matter who” crowd. The Chardonnay Liberal Mean Girl Mafia just brays a lot louder. .

Expand full comment

"The Chardonnay Liberal Mean Girl Mafia"

Thank you for that. I just spit out my lunch laughing.

Expand full comment

You’re welcome! I’m a Catholic school mom in a blue city (red state, though!) I know these women all too well. Had to show my husband a Facebook post of a bunch of them this morning squealing at the thought that Michelle Obama might replace Joe. One of them even thought Jon Stewart could be her VP! 🙄🤔😂

Yeah, no.

Expand full comment

These people really do exist in an alternate universe, with its own realities (as defined by Morning Joe and Maddow), fictional science (per Fauci/Mengele), and lack of gender. I've lived in California for 25 years how, completely surround by this madness.

But I agree the tide is slowly turning. The sleeper is awakening, at least in the malleable political middle who ultimately decide our elections. But don't dismiss the fraud that will most assuredly occur once again.

Expand full comment

Oh yes. Beyond what you mention, hormones can’t afford to fill up their gas tanks or go out to eat, much less eat out or go on vacation.

Illinois native now in the St. Louis area for 3 decades. Chicago graveyards regularly turn out for elections - a proud tradition since JFK was elected. Hoping there’s a crackdown on voter fraud, but more likely, too big a landslide to contain. At least, we hope.

Expand full comment

*normies can’t afford. Thanks autocorrect!

Expand full comment

Very good examples; Mr. Potato Head, the Russian adulteress bonker and the Seething Sapphite.

Expand full comment

What-the-actual-F*CK?!?!?

Just cannot fix stupid!

Expand full comment

Or brainwashed into cognitive dissonance. The Facebook OP is a lovely woman with six beautiful children who are all high achievers. Her husband is a Republican, but she says they simply don’t talk politics! How in the world is that possible?!?

Expand full comment

When those children are grown, I think the elephant in the room may doom them. Hope they figure it out before then.

Expand full comment
Jul 4Liked by Peachy Keenan

Interesting take from Mrs. P. I'd never thought of it this way, but I think you're on to something here.

"“Republican” has become a stand-in for the father they hate, or the boyfriend who dumped their unbearable self, or the boys who ignored them in high school."

Expand full comment

And in the same paragraph... Even after you grovel, they will never forgive you. That is the reality of the devouring mother archetype.

Expand full comment

I was a child in the 60s, a teen in the 70s and I lived my 20s in the 80s. I was blessed with conservative patriotic parents and had the great good fortune to be a volunteer in the Reagan campaign. I love this country and I'm very proud to be an American. I traveled Europe in my early teens and was truly stunned at how primitive it was. And fairly shocked at how hairy and smelly everybody was. They may look down their noses at us but they have certainly adopted a great deal of our culture. I enjoyed Europe and met many nice people there but Europe will cease to exist if they don't open their eyes and start defending their culture. We are treading that same road and unless we throw the demoncraps out of office and stop the decades long flood of illegal immigrants we too will cease to exist. So ladies teach your boys to be good, strong patriotic men, teach your girls to be proud and joyful women who are delighted to find good husbands and raise happy kids and stand up for God and country. Let the gay crowd live their sad lives. Pray they find Jesus and stop pretending women can do anything men can or that men can have babies. Step up and be proud, courageous, patriotic men and women. We've saved the world twice. Now we must save the USA.

TRUMP 2024!!! is where we start!

Expand full comment

Amen!

Expand full comment

Same!

Expand full comment

Same

Expand full comment
Jul 4Liked by Peachy Keenan

"If you grew up in the 21st century, all you know is our current hangdog, ashamed, self-conscious country, embarrassed by its own shadow, tail between its legs, stooping and supplicating, begging everyone’s forgiveness for its sins."

What you're describing isn't America, it's how the Left, including the "news" people, like to portray America. It's urban, Blue, America, not the 90+ percent of America that's a brilliant red.

I think, though, that we're turning a corner. Maybe it's just a hope, but it looks to me like Red America is, at long last, standing athwart the march of craven Blue and yelling Stop!

Expand full comment
Jul 4Liked by Peachy Keenan

Peachy stuff , as usual. Summoning your Hollywood chops and knowledge of dreary, unnecessary “gay chick, lame” remakes:

What if Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” was not about a bunch of teens guys, but about a bunch of tween girls?

Does it not end in hotter and faster Hell? Fight back we must. 🇺🇸

Expand full comment
Jul 4Liked by Peachy Keenan

YES!! YES!! This! THIS!!! ❤️❤️🇺🇸

Quickly becoming one of your biggest fans Peachy!!

Expand full comment
Jul 4Liked by Peachy Keenan

And Peachy Keenan, that red, white, and blue clad mascot American eagle showed up at the LOS ANGELES 1984 Summer Olympics! If you can believe it. L.A. was very beautiful that year. More than I ever otherwise remembered it. Sparkling clean, blue-skied sunshine and ready to welcome guests from everywhere, with flags in jewel colors flying along all the major boulevards. Gorgeous. Wonderful.

Expand full comment
Jul 4Liked by Peachy Keenan

I'm not like the other girls!

Expand full comment
Jul 4Liked by Peachy Keenan

"Ice cold Diet Coke on a hot summer day" is not all I gleaned from your piece but dang it sure evoked great memories! P.S. in a glass, of course

, and on the rocks. :)

Expand full comment

Or, if you're old enough, out of frosty glass bottle of Coke which required an opener. And cost a quarter.

Now, Coke is Woke and almost as anti-American as Disney.

Expand full comment

I do remember and a great point!

Expand full comment
Jul 4Liked by Peachy Keenan

Another 'peaches and cream' bit of sprightly cheer. Thanks.

Expand full comment

Yep, I was stationed in Germany from '88-90 and my native girlfriends' friends essentially told me "Americans are stupid" and I just laughed as I fixed their 'autos' for them. Oh yeah, and when we defended them from Turkish immigrants who tried to rob and/or rape them. Or navigated without maps. Or cooked real steak on a grill for them...

Be proud and let's go shooting together! Happy Independence Day!

Expand full comment

One thing, among many, that I admired about Trump's first term was when he called out the NATO allies for their unwillingness to pay their fair share of the NATO costs. These "allies" have had a 75 year free ride, courtesy of the US taxpayer. One reason that Europeans have such a negative view of the USA is their media are mostly on the (hard) left, e.g., BBC, "The Economist," and CNN - Europe, etc., so they are often shown very inaccurate and overwhelmingly leftist views of the USA as nation of knuckle-draggers and morons rather than the true picture of our nation as diverse and as sophisticated as any European nation. When I read "The London Review of Books," I something think that this publication should avoid any articles on the USA because these articles are often highly inaccurate and misleading. I also blame their American editor, who's a hard leftist Democrat for this situation.

Expand full comment

Biden did what McStain and Romney couldn’t do—he strengthened and expanded NATO. I think it’s pretty obvious now most Republicans don’t care about NATO and so they voted for McStain and Romney because they are whites.

Expand full comment

Great piece!

Expand full comment

Great job, Peachy! It's past time to Make America Great Again!

We can do and we will! Erika B.

Expand full comment

If things keep going like they have over the past seven days, we will be once again. And just in time for our 250th birthday.

Expand full comment