During MSNBC coverage of the Republican Party Iowa caucuses on Tuesday, shortly after 8:30 p.m, MSNBC's Chris Matthews lumped "neocons" and the socially conservative Moral Majority movement in with segregationist Dixiecrats as he asserted that Republicans had picked up the "droppings" and the "effluent" of the Democratic Party, causing the Republican Party to be too "junk laden" to open their minds to Ron Paul's anti-war views.
The MSNBC host began:
Well, I think the Republican Party has, unfortunately for it, built itself over the droppings of the Democratic Party for about 50 years.
He soon asserted that Republicans are "so junk laden with these droppings for the Democratic Party they can't think," and blamed "neocons" for Republican refusal to consider Ron Paul's views on foreign policy.
Matthews concluded:
Their mind is closed because of these droppings they've picked up from the Democratic Party. The neocons have closed down their mind just like the segregationists closed down their mind about civil rights and the moral majority closed down their minds about social issues. The party is dying of this intake, effluent from the Democratic Party. That's my thought.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of Matthews's comments as stated at about 8:35 p.m. on Tuesday, January 3, on MSNBC:
Well, I think the Republican Party has, unfortunately for it, built itself over the droppings of the Democratic Party for about 50 years. First of all, they picked up all the Dixiecrats, all the segregationists who went from the Democratic Party after the civil rights bill of '64 and the Voting Rights Act. They all became Republicans because the Republicans were seen as the more rightist party.
Then, of course, you've got the Moral Majority who left after the prayer decision. They all moved over there. And now you've got the neocons who are formerly liberal - some of them - all moved over there. They are so junk laden with these droppings for the Democratic Party they can't think.
If they could think, if they were a dynamic political party, they would listen to Ron Paul because they would hear in him the voice of Barry Goldwater, the old conservative party that took a reasonable view towards foreign policy, that wasn't crazy about this religious zeal to go to war in the Middle East over and over and over again, that wasn't moved around by the neocons. It would be a party that could think about foreign policy.
The Republican Party today can't open its mind to Ron Paul's reasonable question: How can we keep over extending ourselves in the world at no cost? Because there is a cost. It keeps driving us into more and more involvement in foreign policy. More and more defense spending because of more and more involvement. And yet they can't think.
And I think everybody tonight has said so. Their mind is closed because of these droppings they've picked up from the Democratic Party. The neocons have closed down their mind just like the segregationists closed down their mind about civil rights and the moral majority closed down their minds about social issues. The party is dying of this intake, effluent from the Democratic Party. That's my thought.
- Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center