Posted on 07/11/2014 11:38:07 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
On Friday's Hardball, Chris Matthews and Howard Dean slammed the supposedly "lunatic" Republican Party for opposing President Obama's $3.7 billion request to deal with the ongoing crisis at the U.S-Mexico border. Dean likened the political stalemate over this issue and in general in Washington to McCarthyism in the 1950s: "It reminds me of the 'who lost China' debate...where one side is frothing at the mouth and finding communists under every bed; and the other side – including some reasonable Republicans...actually trying to run the country."
Matthews endorsed the former Vermont governor's take, and targeted fiscal conservatives/the Tea Party as somehow akin to Mao's Red Guards: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
CHRIS MATTHEWS: ...I think the governor is right. A lot of these lawmakers are sitting around reading Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged' like it's the Little Red Book of Mao. (Reagan laughs) It's like all the information's in this book. All we have to do is deregulate – which is how we got into the problem, as the governor points out, in terms of the financial crisis. Everybody knows that we got into trouble because of deregulation. They say the answer now is deregulation.
Midway through a segment with Dean and Hardball regular Ron Reagan, Matthews bewailed the current political climate, and zeroed in on the Benghazi scandal and the border crisis:
MATTHEWS: What a joke this all is. I mean, I love politics. I believe the system works somehow. I still believe it. But when they spend all this time on Benghazi, and they spend all this time – you know, refusing to help the President deal with these 50,000 kids – which is not an immigration issue. It's a humanity issue right now. Short term – urgent – let's deal with the kids – make sure they're taken care of well. They get their fair rights.
It's not about the long-term, big questions. They can't even deal with the basic blocking and tackling of politics – which is cutting a damn deal when you have to, and moving on, like Pelosi – who is a pro – suggested you have to do in these situations.
The Vermont politician advised congressional Republicans to go along with the President's funding request. He continued by changing the subject to the economy, in order set up his "lunatic" attack on the GOP:
HOWARD DEAN, (D), FMR. VT GOVERNOR: I think that's right. I mean, if I were leading the Republican Party right now, I'd say, okay, Mr. President. I'll give you your 3.7 percent – your $3.7 billion. Now, in this bill, is going to be some border security. Why not? Then they can go home and declare a victory to all their friends. They have lost their way-
MATTHEWS: Why aren't they doing – you're a politician. Why can't they do that?
DEAN: Because they've completely lost their way. And honestly, there are a great many of them that are completely incapable.
Well, I mean, I've seen – I saw the chairman of the Finance Committee the other day talk about – of – excuse me, the – one of the committees in the House – Banking Committee, I guess it was-
MATTHEWS: Yeah-
DEAN: Talk about how the restrictions on banks are hurting the economy. The restrictions on banks are hurting the economy? How did we get into the economy? We got into the economy by not having the restrictions on big banks-
MATTHEWS: Of course!
DEAN: This is lunatic – this is ideological nonsense.
Dean then dropped his "who lost China" historical reference, which led to Matthews's Ayn Rand line.
And if you start reading it in this day and age it will do nothing else but make you angry—because that world is here now.
It's funny that he's comparing that book to a communist book when she is the product of escaping the Bolshevik Revolution. Looks like Matthews just discovered her as well.
Let's talk about Rules for Radical, Mr. Hissy fit.
Rand's "Anthem" is a shorter book covering many of the same concepts as "Atlas Shrugged" of a dystopian future where individualism has been wiped out by collectivists. Actually, "Anthem" would make a good movie, but I suppose Hollywood would rather make "Transformers 42" instead. Don't want to make any movies that criticize the Regime, even tangentially; look at what happened to Dinesh D'Souza. Make a movie criticizing the Regime, get prosecuted by the Regime.
Much better listening on tape.
The Little Red Book is where we get “politically correct speech” ,, if you speak incorrectly you go to a re-education camp or are shot...
Matthews knows the “Little Red Book” as the “stylebook” used by his network.
I attended the very first Tea Party rally/protest in Arizona at the State Capitol on April 15th, 2009. I carried a sign that said “Going Galt” which got lots of comments and high-fives. I am still a Tea Party, Don’t Tread On Me type of guy. I’ve read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged three times. I will admit I breezed through the Galt speech so as not to get bogged down and I don’t necessarily agree with Rand’s objectivism theory, but the rest of the book is very engrossing and tracks what is going on in this country right now. I no longer have a copy, having given my last one away to a friend to read.
Atlas Shrugged turned me into a conservative. The first time I read it was in college in the 60’s for a course assignment and I didn’t understand most of it. Not enough real life experiences yet to grasp what was being said. I didn’t understand the difference between a conservative and a liberal back then. The second time I read it, was when I was finishing up my tour in the Air Force and I enjoyed the book. I realized I was a conservative (or at least a smaller government libertarian). The last time I read it was during Obama’s first term and I could see exact parallels with Rand’s novel and Obama’s reign of terror as a radical left president.
I don’t consider Atlas Shrugged as a bible for my politics but it convinced me that liberalism was full of holes and unintended consequences of not-so-well-thought-out- policies. Do I like the novel? Yes. Do I subscribe to Rand’s ideology 100%? No. I don’t think it is necessary to denigrate completely everything one does not like parts of. Take the good and ignore the negatives. But as with most things in life, AS has its value and contributes its part in explaining the differences between the moochers and the producers. America’s problem now is how to reduce the moochers and enhance the producers.
Ayn Rand is who won me over too. I actually think The Fountainhead was enough, but I went ahead and read Atlas Shrugged too, and to me it was indeed a page-turner I couldn’t put down. I wouldn’t want to slog through Galt’s speech again now that I’m already converted, but I re-read Francisco d’Anconia’s “Money Speech” pretty regularly.
He is getting the TEA Party confused with libertarians or something. They just make stuff up.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
I burned through RSR in a little less than 21 hours.
I was bored that weekend, and had nothing going!
If its "not an instruction manual", then how come so many Ayn Rand cultists announce that they are "going Galt" like how the book showed them to? Apparently they haven't gotten this memo that the book is fantasy and not a blueprint for what to do.
I was forced to read "Anthem" in H.S. and it sucked. George Orwell told the same story 10X better in "1984". Perhaps that's his book is a household name today and Rand's is not.
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