In Lunacy, Veritas

Powerline ^ | December 7, 2013 | John Hinderaker

[2ndDivisionVet]

Chris Matthews is crazy. Nevertheless, when left-wingers talk openly with one another, their craziness can be revealing. That is the case, I think, with this remarkable MSNBC clip. Matthews, fresh from his kneepad interview with President Obama, praises what he terms a uniquely brilliant insight by Al Sharpton: South Africa’s white politicians of the apartheid era were more patriotic than today’s Republicans:

I haven’t heard anything as smart as what I heard Reverend Sharpton say a moment go in five years. The difference between the way F.W. de Klerk handled the need for change and the election – democratic election of Nelson Mandela – legitimate election, he was never truly elected – for him to recognize his role in history which was to be a patriot at that point is so different than the way [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell handled the election of Obama.

DeKlerk released Mandela from prison, legitimized the African National Congress and negotiated an end to apartheid with the ANC. After the election of 1994, he served in a unity government under Mandela. How this relates to Mitch McConnell in 2009 is mystifying. Is Matthews faulting McConnell for not procuring Barack Obama’s release from prison? For not legalizing the Democratic Party? For failing to offer to serve as Obama’s Vice-President?

They were willing, the McConnell people onto the far right, were willing to destroy the country in order to destroy Obama. Whereas, to succeed in a country he loved, F.W. de Klerk was willing to see it transformed to black rule so it could be done successfully so he could have his country have a better future.

The loss of Mandela and what his history is about and the key statement of why this has been so poisonous the last five years. We have real people in this country with real power and status who have used that status of power to hurt the country so they could hurt the president.

That’s the most damming assessment I’ve heard and, I think, the truest.

This is sheer lunacy. In the first place, when Obama took office the Democrats controlled the House and had a veto-proof majority in the Senate. They could do anything they wanted, and they did. Without permitting any input whatever from Republicans, Obama and the Congressional Democrats enacted the epically wasteful and ineffective trillion-dollar “stimulus,” rammed Obamacare through Congress, and ran up unprecedented deficits. The idea that they were somehow stymied in any of this by Republicans is absurd.

More broadly, is is really Matthews’s view that whenever a new president is elected, the opposition party should abandon its principles and endorse that president’s policies, whether it agrees with them or not? Is that what the Democrats did when Ronald Reagan took office? Or George W. Bush? Do you remember Chris Matthews, or anyone else, urging Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt to abandon their opposition to Republican principles in 2001 and unanimously affirm President Bush’s legislative proposals? Just kidding.

Matthews’s tirade may have been crazy, but it wasn’t random. On the contrary, it reveals what he really thinks: that Barack Obama isn’t just an ordinary president, entitled to the ordinary level of deference–which is to say, little or none. Rather, Matthews believes that solely because of the color of Obama’s skin, his election was a historical event akin to the end of apartheid in South Africa. Further, he thinks that Obama’s skin color, and nothing more, created a duty on the part of everyone–especially Republicans–to ignore all philosophical principles and all considerations of public policy, and to cheer Obama on, regardless of what he might do. This is the import of Matthews’s praising DeKelk for being “willing to see [South Africa] transformed to black rule.”

The video is at the link.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Yeah, that's what I took from it, too. Does Mr. Matthews also desire black rule in this country, despite their 12% minority status versus majority in South Africa?

[Irenic]

I think Matthews is a racist and by kissing black tokus so fervently, he believes it hides what is in his heart.

I think by attacking McConnell they are deviously trying to help him. They want turtlehead in charge if by chance the Republicans win both houses.

That’s my opinion of the garbage.

[saganite]

Leftist definition of patriotism: Going along with their agenda unquestioningly.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Matthews parties like it’s “1899” and the Boers still ran South Africa.

I just realized why I watch MSNBC on ocassion. I studied Political Psychology in grad school but I had never been inside an insane asylum, until I started watching MSNBC.

Now I know what it is like to have the inmates run the asylum - Sharpton, Matthews, O’Donnell, Schulz, Maddow.

If someone made a cartoon show based on “South Park” or a wacked out “Simpsons”, you would have to base the characters on the above mentioned lunatics. You just couldn’d do much better than them.

[Hardraade]

Chris Tingle is a malignant and racist homo.

[GeronL]

Further, he thinks that Obama’s skin color, and nothing more, created a duty on the part of everyone–especially Republicans–to ignore all philosophical principles and all considerations of public policy, and to cheer Obama on, regardless of what he might do

Nope. Matthews would not be doing any of this if Obama was a conservative.

[Ann Archy]

I do not think Spittin Chrissy is a racist, but I do think he recogonizes a VERY FEMININE little man like himself.

Chrissy's wife, Queen Kathleen, as he calls her, rules the roost, just like Moochelle does.....she's an angry, bitter man/woman, and their husbands are angry, bitter woman/man.

[knarf]

"If someone made a cartoon show based on “South Park” or a wacked out “Simpsons”, you would have to base the characters on the above mentioned lunatics. You just couldn’d do much better than them."

Perfect

[jocon307]

“Nope. Matthews would not be doing any of this if Obama was a conservative.”

That is correct, it’s a party line thing. The next R pres will be savaged by Matthews, et al. and when a D gets in after that the calls for civility and comity will return.

These people are (in the words of some witty freeper whose name I don’t remember) full of used food.

[Dqban22]

Mind you, what the ANC completely forgot to mention is that Mandela was on Robben Island for 18 years - not the full 27 years. In March 1982 he was moved to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town (along with other ANC leaders Walter Sisulu, Andrew Mlangeni, Ahmed Kathrada and Raymond Mhlaba) where he was taken on frequent trips to see his attorneys and members of parliament. From there he was moved to Victor Verster prison in Paarl where he lived in a four-bedroom house built for prison staff, and had a White chef and housekeeper. Mandela's "golden cage" is in sharp contrast with the treatment given by his comrade, Fidel Castro, to Cuban political prisoners.