At the start of the month, Newsbusters noted that MSNBC’s “Chris Matthews Compares Conservative Republicans to Murderous Khmer Rouge Regime.”
Chris ends the month again playing the same weird GOP=communists card to describe the GOP’s stronger than expected performance yesterday during the health care “summit.”
Port of call this week? North Korea!
MATTHEWS: This is what it must be like at those North Korean assembly meetings where they all get together before the Dear Leader.
TODD: Remember the Republicans made the decision to prep.
MATTHEWS: Yeah.
TODD: They did debate prep. Actual debate prep.
MATTHEWS: Boy did they prep! They rehearsed!
TODD: They clearly had a rehearsed talking point. The Democrats had a strategy – that as you noted earlier – they had a wider vocabulary in saying what they were-
MATTHEWS: Yeah!
TODD: But clearly the Democrats went in there to say, “Hey we’re not that far apart, we’re in agreement.” Why? Because it’s these wavering conservative, moderate Democrats that they need to win over and they need to convince, “Oh it’s not radical. Don’t worry. Everything is going to be okay.” And the Republicans are trying to send the message, “Hey we’re all united here. Let’s start over. But we still want to have health care. But let’s start over.”
MATTHEWS: There was an example of Pyongyang democracy, which is “What the Dear Leader told us to recite,” and they recited it as a song.
OK, so Republicans who are against the further socializing and top down centralized control of medicine are the equivalent to a regime that loves top down centralized control of absolutely every facet of their citizens’ lives. Got it. And of course, this is the same trope that the New York Times’ Frank Rich deployed this past fall, when he wrote, “The G.O.P. Stalinists Invade Upstate New York.” But as I noted back then in a Silicon Graffiti video, that’s arguably the first time in nearly a century that the Gray Lady ever used the word “Stalinist” pejoratively.
As far as the GOP equaling Pyongyang, someone should ask CNN founder Ted Turner, or the folks at the L.A. Times that greenlighted this pro-Nork piece back in 2005 what they think of this meme.
Not to mention Thomas Friedman.
And maybe Boris Korloff.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member