The other night, in the wake of Eric Cantor's epic loss to Dave Brat, MSNBC's Chris Matthews appeared with the left-wing news channel's new kid on the block, Ronan Farrow. Farrow was talking about how surprised he was that a Tea Party guy like Brat could be seemed to be so smart. After all, it's simply shocking that someone so conservative is capable of making cogent arguments!
Farrow noted that Jack Trammell and Dave Brat are both professors and, while Trammell wins the "rate my professor" popularity contest, they're both highly respected "intellectuals."
“Is it rare," Farrow wondered, "to see that kind of brazen intellectualism, particularly in populist candidates like this?”
We'll let slide the fact that the Tea Party basically ignored Brat because they foolishly figured he couldn't win - so he's not really a Tea Party candidate - and we'll and jump straight to Chris Matthew's bizarro-world response.
Hell may have frozen over, because Matthews is just plain sick of people looking down on the Tea Party:
“Well, first of all, I don’t think you can assume that the liberals are smarter than the conservative professors. I think that’s crazy talk, and it’s exactly the kind of attitude conservatives can’t stand. I don't know which professor is more popular, but that doesn't mean it’s a better professor.
Secondly, I think that I was listening to Brat last night. I listened to him today. I think he's very sophisticated for a politician. He's certainly up to the ranks of most politicians I've ever dealt with. He speaks in a speculative manner - an intellectual manner. He can handle any debate on this program or my program.
This looking down our noses at the Tea Party people has got to stop. They have a message, they're as American as any liberal is, and they're really angry about the failure of the system."
Chris Matthews Defends Tea Party Against Ronan Farrow
Tingles went on to mischaracterize the European rejection of communism, but you get the point. Suddenly, Chris Matthews appreciates, understands, and respects the Tea Party.
So what's going on here? Did hell freeze over? Did Matthews finally remember to take his pills? Or, did he get his cage rattled by the fact that the ideals behind the Tea Party - not the Tea Party itself - just took down the House Majority leader in a primary for the first time in the nation's history.
Matthews used to think the Tea Party was a "McCarthyite" gaggle of revolutionaries, bent on overthrowing the government...
Chris Matthews Claims Tea Party is 'McCarthyite,' Sees Federal Government as an 'Occupying Force'
He also has a nice, long, history of calling them racist teabaggers....
Chris Matthews: Alot of the Tea Party Movement Is About Race
Chris Matthews on Tea Party's 'American People' Claim: 'Do They Still Count Blacks as 3/5ths?'
Oh, and they also used to be a bunch of violent gun-toting psychos who were performing pretty much the same function as the Muslim Brotherhood.
No Surprise: Matthews Draws Parallel Between Tea Party & Muslim Brotherhood
So remember, Chris Matthews no longer wants you to look down your nose at the people he used to refer to as a violent, racist, McCarthyite political force hell-bent on overthrowing the U.S. government. It's a new day at MSNBC. No longer "un-American," the Tea Party is now just as American as mom and apple pie!
Good to know.
"This crowd doesn’t want to deal because they believe the word ‘deal’ is bad,” Matthews said. “Think about that — they come to Washington with the idea that deals are bad. Compromise is bad. That is un-American." - Chris Matthews
