Ex-Newsweek Editor Howard Fineman Slams: Tea Partiers Are Creating a 'Slow Motion Secession'
Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman on Monday berated Tea Partiers for engineering a "slow motion succession" in relation to the budget impasse in Congress.
Appearing with Hardball host Chris Matthews, Fineman summarized the conservative position this way: "This is an ending of the social compact. This is two, three generations worth of agreement about Social Security, about Medicare, about the role of the federal government. The Tea Party people are saying, we want to secede from that society."
The evidence for this Republican succession? The GOP's refusal to agree to Democratic deals to increase the debt ceiling. "What's going on here, as I see it, is a kind of slow motion secession," Fineman declared.
The former Newsweek editor then spoke for the Tea Party, explaining what they really want: "And the way to do it is to draw the line on spending and taxes, to starve the federal government so that loses power, so that we aren't part of the social compact anymore."
Matthews responded to this argument by injecting race into the debate. He blurted, "You know what this sounds like? When I spent two years in Southern Africa. It sounds like what the whites talked about doing."
Continuing this analogy, Matthews suggested the Tea Party would eventually go "into some sort of little circle, like Custer's last stand against the United States."
This proved too much even for Fineman, now the political editor of the Huffington Post. He pushed back, "Well, I wouldn't put a racial tone on it."
A transcript of the Hardball exchange can be found below:
07/25/11
5:11
[On the continuing budget impasse.]
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think it's part of this, this flat-Earth society that doesn't believe in science, doesn't believe in human history, that doesn't believe in global change, global climate change. Nothing.
HOWARD FINEMAN: What's going on here, as I see it, is a kind of slow motion secession. This is- this is an ending of the social compact. This is two gen- three generations worth of agreement about Social Security, about Medicare, about the role of the federal government. The Tea Party people are saying, we want to secede from that society. And the way to do it is to draw the line on spending and taxes, to starve the federal government so that loses power, so that we aren't part of the social compact anymore. And that's the real argument that's going on. And the Congress as an institution, is incapable of deal with that kind of fundamental argument, given the entitlement age and welfare state age, why you have the super committees and super duper committees and the smaller and smaller ring of people attempting to attempting to decide something. Do you hear what I'm saying?
MATTHEWS: You know what this sounds like? You know what this sounds like? When I spent two years in Southern Africa. It sounds like what the whites talked about doing.
FINEMAN: Yeah.
MATTHEWS: Eventually going into some sort of little circle, like Custer's last stand against the United States.
FINEMAN: Well, I wouldn't put a racial tone on it. But I would say the Congress is not deal with the fundamental question here. They refuse to do it. And they're not deal wig it now, because both- because both bills, both plans, both the Boehner plan and the Reid plan don't deal with either entitlements or taxes.
MATTHEWS: Who's the guy that's emerging at the top Republican name year hearing these days? Rick Perry. Who actually does talk about succession, withdrawing from the federal government.
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Comments
My fridge keeps making a funny knocking noise.
Submitted by The Vet on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 6:24pm.
I want to fix my fridge not throw it out. See the difference?
you can do that or.......
Submitted by OldJarhead77 on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 6:28pm.
Let the trolls out that you have stuffed in there!
"A Living, Breathing 'Social Compact'"
Submitted by Chris Norman on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 6:32pm.
"Social Compact"? So, that's going to be the term we're going to hear going forward? How's this one: we simply cannot afford the "Social Compact" as it was designed all those years ago. If liberals believe that the Constitution should be adaptable to changing times, why can't they get their heads around the fact that their beloved social programs have to adapt and change to suit a different time and circumstances?
BINGO! You beat me by a few
Submitted by WarEagle66 on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 6:38pm.
BINGO! You beat me by a few minutes about The Constitution. The Leftists LOVE to say that The Constitution is a living-breathing document that should adapt to the times.
So why shouldn't Medicare and Social Security do the same?
Chris
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 8:38pm.
Another thing that puzzles me is that liberals want to change everything about society that is older than 15 or 20 years. Nothing is sacred to them, except the government social programs. It's ok to them to have a system, flawed even then, designed in the 1930s and not thinking it needs altered one bit.
The Great Society programs are now just about 50 years old, but they're still good enough for them....well, as long as they don't bother with those pesky dollar amounts.
Phil,
Submitted by Chris Norman on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 9:35pm.
All I can figure, assuming that the liberal politicians aren't completely brainless to the point of non-functional, is that their insistence on freezing Social Security and Medicare as they were designed and remain, is purely political. They have such a condescending view towards the average American voter and/or SS/MC recipient that they think people can't handle the notion that these programs, as they currently exist, are unsustainable without eventually bankrupting the nation. The liberal politicians are trying to buy votes in acting like the "saviors" of the current system. As for other liberals who aren't politicians, maybe they are so blindly stupid and wedded to the entitlement mentality they simply won't accept any version of Social Security and Medicare that put responsibility in the individual and isn't simply a government handout.
Why even pay attention to Matthews and his liberal show guests
Submitted by cbeyer on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 6:37pm.
Matthews makes for great quotes such as his 'tingles' statement and many more like it. He has a few conservatives on the show and just shouts them down and insults them as he did Bachmann. Most of the time however, its a rehash of tired old liberals spouting nonsense.
I am more concerned about more mainstream media people such as Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell to name just a couple. Tingles show has a small committed lefty audience that means nothing. Far more damaging is the many so called journalists on NBC, CBS, PBS, ABC and the wire services who perform consistently as a mouthpiece for Obama inspired white house talking points. These combined news outlets have major audiences. They are the ones that should be exposed here!
I maintain what Matthews and
Submitted by Chris Norman on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 6:47pm.
I maintain what Matthews and his ilk at MSNBC engage in is way beyond bias. There isn't even a word strong enough to describe what they do. However, despite the fact that they are commentators, they also pretend to do "analysis", but that "analysis" is biased beyond belief. That said, you're right, the more subtle bias in the "news reports" on the major networks and CNN is far more insidious and damaging than the blatant propagandizing by Matthews and Co.
Of all the juvenile Hardball dialogues I've heard or read . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 6:50pm.
. . . this Fineman-Matthews exchange has probably topped them all. Slow motion secession? White flight in southern Africa? Custer's Last Stand?
Perhaps it's now MSNBC's plan to grab some of the Cartoon Network's audience.
FINEMAN: "Do you hear what I'm saying?"
Yeah, and I still can't believe that I hear that you uttered it.
Well, there goes matthews'
Submitted by Trix Rabbit on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 6:57pm.
Well, there goes matthews' historical context down the latrine.
I've heard of George Armstrong Custer who lost against the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and the Lakota Nations, but I've never heard of "Custard" and his last stand against the United States.
What a moron.
For the MSM: In your pomp and all your glory, you're a poorer man than me. As you lick the boots of death born out of fear.
Ian Anderson "Wind up"
I must have missed the part of the social contract where
Submitted by lsudolemite on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 7:00pm.
everyone agreed it's the government's job to hand out checks to everyone from cradle to grave. I guess I was sick that day in civics class.
Nobody consulted me either about my taxes going through the roof to pay for the retiring golden oldies who expanded the social contract like a helium balloon, and then pass the bill along to the rest of us, as well as future generations.
"The Tea Party people are
Submitted by MightyMouth on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 6:59pm.
"The Tea Party people are saying, we want to secede from that society."
F'in A! Where do I sign up?
Agreed, MM
Submitted by ConservaSerb on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 1:02am.
First response that popped into my head . . . "And your problem with that is . . . what?"
A wise & frugal government, which shall leave men free 2 regulate their own pursuits of industry & improvement, & shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. T. Jefferson
The left is creating a
Submitted by rbosque on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 7:08pm.
The left is creating a slow-motion socialist state.
The Tea Party people are
Submitted by Dave. on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 7:20pm.
The Tea Party people are saying, we want to secede from that society.
Well, no sh*t, Sherlock.
What was your first clue?
I don't know about you Howard, but I was not put on this Earth to fund government, or to have my pockets picked at gun point to pay for the retirement of others.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
This is socialism lite*
Submitted by SLUGGO on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 9:30pm.
Get used to it.
Sluggo
It aint that light
Submitted by Boudin on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 9:36pm.
And he!! no
Come on
Submitted by SLUGGO on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 9:44pm.
Tastes great, less filling
Sluggo
Please
Submitted by Unsane on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 10:21pm.
I do the same thing with your beloved socialism and demand for group rights that I have with Miller Lite.
Spit it across the room because it doesn't taste great NOR is it filling.
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
F'ing bite me, comrade asshole
Submitted by Dave. on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 10:21pm.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
No way commie! Get used to
Submitted by MightyMouth on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 10:46pm.
No way commie! Get used to the Tea Party Kommrade. We Americans get used to nothing but kicking commie butt!
Fineman's position, described thusly:
Submitted by ChrisNH on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 7:40pm.
"We lit all these fires, but the dang fire department just HAD to come along. Those Radical firemen. Then we started breaking into stores, but the dang police had to show up. Those Radical policemen.
Well, if "ending the social
Submitted by UpNorth on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 8:45pm.
compact" means defunding the Dept of Education, Energy, Interior and Agriculture, count me in in ending it. If it means that the 50% of the Freddy and Weezy Freeloaders actually pay some income tax, count me in.
Au Contraire
Submitted by HardRightTurn on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 9:36pm.
We want to expel progressive liberal socialist marxist bloodsuckers from it.
To more fully comprehend the Left, one must read “Leftism As Psychopathy” by John Ray, M.A., Ph.D. Caution, it might scare you a little bit.
http://jonjayray.tripod.com/psycho.html
Not a secession, but sure as
Submitted by ex buff e-dub on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 10:32pm.
Not a secession, but sure as hell a nonviolent overthrow come November you a$$wipe
Slow motion secession? That's
Submitted by ant on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 10:55pm.
Slow motion secession? That's funny because, as a fairly observant person, it seems to me the Progs have been part of a "slow-motion destruction/transformation of America, it's ideals and it's laws." So the TeaParty isn't really talking about seceding, it's about stopping the seditious, decades long 'progression' into chaos and tyranny.
You can't accuse people of seceding from the United States, if you're one who believes in a Socialist Federal State.
Please Laura, stop inviting this hack to be on your...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 4:21am.
morning radio talk show. Why give him the forum? He belongs exclusively on MSNBC where he is seen only by a small number of like minded liberals and not on a show like yours where his idiotic views can be heard by millions.
time for a divorce..
Submitted by OuttaMyWay on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 8:13am.
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/i-want-a-divorce-too/question-1425...
:)