Chris Matthews is doing it again -- comparing the MSNBC liberal laundry list of issues to the Founding Fathers. Instead of a silly "Lean Forward" ad, it's been published as an op-ed in Sunday's Washington Post.
Matthews urged the Democrats to pick Philadelphia for its 2016 convention because it's surrounded by our early American history, and rambled about how great it was for him as a teen to wander around the Democrats' 1964 convention in Atlantic City.
But the greater opportunity is what a 2016 Philadelphia convention could do on television. Consider the themes at the heart of the current national debate over voting rights, marriage equality and pay equity.
Now consider the opening words of our founding document.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The four nights of the Democratic convention could highlight these powerful words and phrases of the Declaration of Independence.
An African American could speak proudly of the election of Barack Obama and of the continued struggle against voter suppression.
A gay couple could talk about marriage equality and their right to the pursuit of happiness.
A female delegate could make the case for equal treatment — and pay — in the workplace.
By gathering in iconic Philadelphia, Democrats could lay claim to not just the flag but what it stands for.
Last May, MSNBC ran a Matthews ad staged in Philadelphia, where Matthews performed the same ideological propaganda, making Ted Kennedy or Bernie Sanders into a Founding Father: "Liberalism always wins eventually, just as it did here in Philadelphia, in the sweltering summer of 1776."
