by Matthew Friedman | Jul 10, 2024 | Commentary, Politics
There’s a scene about halfway through the 1972 film musical Cabaret that never fails to give me chills. The film’s hero Brian Roberts (Michael York) and his lover Max von Heune (Helmut Griem) are enjoying a glass of lager at a biergarten in the German countryside in...
by Matthew Friedman | Jul 10, 2024 | Essays, Politics
The images of Israelis protesting in the streets of Tel Aviv are arresting. They have continued for months, sparked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government’s attempt to introduce judicial reforms that would undermine Israeli democracy....
by Matthew Friedman | Aug 21, 2022 | Commentary, Politics
John Fetterman is a slob. The Democratic Senate candidate for Pennsylvania has been turning up at campaign stops throughout this election season usually clad in a ratty hoodie, sneakers without socks, and basketball shorts. I’m not even convinced that he is wearing...
by Matthew Friedman | May 15, 2022 | Commentary, Politics
What’s in a label? That question has been on my mind since Audie Wood’s most recent column first landed in my email in-box. “We have to call it what it is,” Wood wrote. We have to recognize that the reactionary right-wing movement that is driving the Republican Party...
by Matthew Friedman | May 4, 2022 | Essays, Politics
I can hear my mother’s voice: “You shouldn’t say things like that.” Nancy Salter, who died 16 years ago, was a brilliant writer and editor, a social worker, and an activist committed to social justice and the project of making the world a better place. She was also a...
by Matthew Friedman | Apr 24, 2022 | Commentary, Editorial, Politics
The shabby old man was a “loathsome reptile, engendered in the slime and darkness through which he moved.” And he drew the boy, “a young friend of mine” he said, deeper into his clutches. He ensured that the innocent child “was seldom left alone; but was placed in...
