Chris Matthews Krugmans Himself

As I have pointed out, Paul Krugman made a stupid argument to the effect that Republican leaders were encouraging political violence. Actually I called the argument idiotic. Krugman's evidence consisted entirely of the most ordinary sorts of political metaphors. Krugman himself was guilty of the same, and it turns out that President Obama was as well. That looks to me like self-defeating rhetoric.

Now we see the same from MSNBC clown Chris Matthews, courtesy of Byron York. Matthews seizes on a remark by Rush Limbaugh:

Never in my life have I seen a regime like this, governing against the will of the people, purposely.

Matthews was appalled by the use of the word "regime". From York:

Apparently some people didn't get it. On MSNBC, Chris Matthews appeared deeply troubled by the word. "I've never seen language like this in the American press," he said, "referring to an elected representative government, elected in a totally fair, democratic, American election -- we will have another one in November, we'll have another one for president in a couple years -- fair, free, and wonderful democracy we have in this country…. We know that word, 'regime.' It was used by George Bush, 'regime change.' You go to war with regimes. Regimes are tyrannies. They're juntas. They're military coups. The use of the word 'regime' in American political parlance is unacceptable, and someone should tell the walrus [Limbaugh] to stop using it."

Matthews didn't stop there. "I never heard the word 'regime,' before, have you?" he said to NBC's Chuck Todd. "I don't even think Joe McCarthy ever called this government a 'regime.'"

As a political scientist, I can tell you that "regime" is not an appropriate word to use when you mean Administration or Congressional Majorities, or the sum of the two. Regime means a type of constitution depending on who rules. The American Regime is a democratic republic. The regime of mainland China is an oligarchy.

But the word regime is commonly misused in current political discourse to mean whoever is in charge. York shows that the phrase "Bush regime" was very common in political journalism. Did it ever bother Matthews before?

Best yet is this:

Finally -- you knew this was coming -- on June 14, 2002, Chris Matthews himself introduced a panel discussion about a letter signed by many prominent leftists condemning the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror. "Let's go to the Reverend Al Sharpton," Matthews said. "Reverend Sharpton, what do you make of this letter and this panoply of the left condemning the Bush regime?"

By his own argument, Matthews is worse than Joe McCarthy. What this shows, of course, is that more than one liberal intellectual has rendered himself incoherent. Liberals are searching for evidence that the other side is not merely wrong but illegitimate. They are searching in a mood of desperation. They fling terrible accusations without bothering to examine their own logic or how it might come back to haunt them.

This is pathological. I suspect that the pathology points in the first place to the coming election. More deeply, it suggests that they have not entirely forgotten the long term problems that their favorite policies have created.

Comments

[DanHan]

Ken read about this "regime" flap and found your blog in doing so. The figures of fun on the left are a never ending source of amusement

[Doc]

At this point lefty hypocritical viewpoints are not the exception, but rather the norm. He's either ignorant of the Bush bash years, stupid, or believes as most left wing journalist (I use journalist in its loosest connotation) that they're way too smart for the American public. Or as they're fond of repeating in their heads as they spew their bull, "Shut up you fools and listen to me."

[B. Samuel Davis]

Matthews is, indeed, a fool. As a conservative, my view is the less said about his and the others of his ilk on talk radio and conservative blogs the better. Why give him free publicity? Conservatives are 60% of the American public, and white liberals who by and large control the mainstream media are a VERY small percentage of the population - I've estimated that less than 2,500 people in the mainstream media basically have worked to change the culture (for the worse) for about 80 years. It's time to stop paying attention to them - and to demand news and entertainment geared to conservatives. That's biased news and entertainment, but with the bias in the right direction.

[EdSki]

Matthews is a modern liberal. And I say modern liberal to differentiate the current incarnation from true, classical liberals, who were concerned with things like liberty.

Modern liberals understand their target audience doesn't care in the least about standards or being hypocrites. They just want the read meat. Not one person in his fan base would object to what he said, or even bother to verify its honesty. Its not part of the playbook.

And if his shrinking of his already tiny audience is any indication, his base is indeed quite small. No wonder he debated about going into politics. Its obvious he has no future in television.

[ksp48]

I kept waiting for someone to find Obama or Hillary or Biden or one of a thousand other democrats had use the word "target", as in We are targeting this state, or this congressional district.

[Lavaux]

"More deeply, it suggests that they have not entirely forgotten the long term problems that their favorite policies have created."

I disagree. Lefties lied to themselves and the voters about the mess Social Security was in during the Bush years, and now it's insolvent under current payroll tax rates. Their fix: Raise payroll taxes, for Social Security is holy and must never be "privatized". The same will happen with Medicare, Medicaid and ObamaCare, for we have already witnessed several members of the craven GOP Congressional caucus back away from "repeal & replace". Sum this up and add the ruinous spending, and it suggests that the political class simply doesn't care how much damage their legacies do to America.

[William]

ksp48
Here you go
http://www.verumserum.com/?p=13647

[KB]

Thanks to all and especially to William for his last post. The link nails Krugman. It is so good, I am devoting a separate post to it.

[William]

Thanks KB =|;)

[Stephen M. St. Onge]

I think you're being quite unfair. Surely a man as "intellectually challenged" as Matthews can't be expected to actually remember the things he says.

Besides, Matthews was referring to Republicans terming a Democratic administration as a "regime." Obviously, its different when Democrats term a Republican administration a "regime." Since Democrats are good by definition, and Republicans are, at best, morally suspect, nothing a Democrat says about Republicans is out of line.

I mean, what next? Are you going to be blathering about some obsolete, Fascist comment like "truth?" You should be ashamed!

[KB]

You're welcome, William.

And Stephen: you had me laughing out loud. Please send me more comments like this. Love commenter Guard, but we do need someone to lighten it up.

[tiger tim]

---The diversions aside---

ISN'T ANYONE NOTICING our ongoing, cross-the-boards
blindside, dumb-down and cover for our disastrous,
possibly deadly ---4 decades of enabling sellout
and suck-up to history's --MOST-- awesomely genocidal
regime -bar none! ---ACROSS the Pacific?

ESP. galling as people continue to suffer and die
by---the---million on this, the once again 'mysteriously
overlooked' 60th Anniversary of the staggeringly relevant
---KOREAN WAR...

-AMEN-