Buzzwords & Bad Neighbors: Refuting Thomas McFadden Sr.

Thomas McFadden Sr.’s most recent remarks were so steeped in hostility toward this community — I felt they demanded a proportional response.

His letter to the editor offered little substance but plenty of insults, degrading the people of Warren County. Likely provoked by the floundering of his pawns at the school board, the board of supervisors, and on the campaign trail, McFadden chose to lash out from behind the curtain. But the performance backfired — it only hurt his Manchurian Candidates and exposed the puppet master.

Mr. McFadden’s dog whistle is broken. His strings are showing. We hear him. We see him. And we’re still here — where we’ve always been and where we plan to stay. Right at home.

Outside his echo chamber, he’s far less formidable than he thinks. We don’t bow to his will in Bentonville.

He claims “well-educated Catholics” are under siege. He also targets some familiar conservative community figures, suggesting Warren County’s “Good Ol’ Boys” are ignorant bigots — not MAGA enough for his vision — and absurdly compares them to the Ku Klux Klan. He has painted locals with deep ties to this valley as uncivilized, hostile natives. In a spiteful swipe, McFadden disparages my lifelong neighbor, Robert Hupman, and others who left the Warren County Republican Committee, labeling them “drop-outs.” In truth, they walked away from his bullying grip and formed a PAC to preserve our county’s character and heritage.

There are elitists dumping sewage into our river and extremists slinging fiduciary buzzwords at us with an aspergillum, all while dodging transparency, accountability, and trust. Not in the sermon, but in the margins, McFadden’s canons camouflage feint as fellowship and faith – grooming proxies for their faction.

The same folks he mocks for having “nostalgia” and an inexorable connection with our valley are the ones I know I can count on — regardless of political differences — to be good neighbors above all else. They’re the ones who show up and step up when we must come together to achieve common goals and endure shared hardships. That’s who we are.  That’s who my neighbor, Mr. Hupman is.  If that seems too primitive or naive to McFadden and his loyalists, then the real disgrace isn’t who left the Warren County Republican Committee, but who they’re left with.

The problem isn’t the church — but how it’s been weaponized, exploiting the broader citizenry and even those who follow McFadden in good faith.

When the river rises, and the bridges burn, I’ll stand alongside all my People, including those ‘drop-outs’ — despite whatever divides we have — but it will be a cold day in Helltown when I submit to McFadden’s pariah state.

Jarred Hill (aka Parson Brown)
Warren County, VA

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