Are you one of them small-gubmint conservative weirdos? A critter who cringes when someone tells you they're from the government and there to help you? Well, answer this: are you, or have you ever been . . . a fan of The A-Team?
Because, yes: one of Rachel Maddow's guests has, with a straight face, advanced the argument that Mr. T and company were complicit in undermining Americans' belief in the benign powers of government. David Sirota made an appearance with Maddow on her MSNBC show this evening to promote his book that advances the A-Team-as-enemy-of-government-love theory.
View video after the jump.
Watch the clip, break out those gold chains--and at least consider getting a Mr. T do.
RACHEL MADDOW: On that reference you just made to The A-Team: I can tell you, I was born in 1973 and you're a little younger than me, and I can tell you that every reference in the book is something that I emotionally get. I can tell you that I watched every single second of The A-Team that was ever put on television. I was absolutely obsessed with The A-Team. Can you explain to me how that warped my mind?
DAVID SIROTA: Yeah, well you were you like many young people. The A-Team was one of the top-rated shows among pre-teens in the mid-1980s. It had a big effect on people. And think about what the story of The A-Team is, right? The government unduly incarcerates our heroes. They escape, because the government can't even keep them incarcerated. And they solve the problems that the government refuses to solve. In fact, they're solving problems while the government is trying to apprehend them for solving society's problems. Obviously we can see the analogue now. This is how our political culture talks about government. That you can't rely on the government. You have to rely on outsiders, you have to rely on the Blackwaters, the Halliburtons, to solve our society's problems.
