In a desperate effort to tout the collapse of the Republican Party, guest host of The Last Word, Ari Melber was joined by Howard Dean and David Frum on Monday evening to discuss the lack of serious ideas coming from the right. According to the MSNBC liberals, the fearful Tea Party wants to go back to a pre-Civil War America.
The guests swapped theories on the relationship between the GOP and the Tea Party. Howard Dean used the textbook MSNBC talking point that the Tea Party is just frustrated that the people leading the country “don’t look like them anymore.”
Not only is the Tea Party mad that there’s a black man in the White House, but according to Dean they don’t take any solution seriously "unless it’s a solution from 1860." David Frum and Ari Melber agreed that the grassroots side of the Republican Party is unable to take anything seriously. They’re just mad.
Dean marched the line that the Republicans are simply cranky and only interested in ‘lashing out’ and ignoring any serious solutions. Melber brought up conservative bloggers such as Erick Erickson who are helping to fuel the movement of putting establishment Republicans through primaries. Because of the apparent lack of alternative vision from the right, Frum argued that it will continue to get easier and easier for the left to marginalize the right. Melber found it “fascinating” to watch the right “rush to avoid any meaningful congressional discussion.”
The conversation stemmed from reaction of Eric Cantor’s loss last week to Dave Brat. Reacting to Cantor’s loss Dean painted the picture of a battle between "Republicans who want to win and those who don’t care and just want to make a statement." Brat obviously being the latter in Dean’s mind. Dean also complained that Brat appears to be a guy who will not compromise with the democrats or the president.
The segment was just part of a continued effort by MSNBC to paint the Republican Party as a total mess, full of cranky people with no ideas.
MSNBC
The Last Word
June 16, 2014
10:10 p.m. EasternHOWARD DEAN: You know, I think it's much more complicated in some ways. The Tea Party are really frustrated, you know -- if you're 55 years old and you lost your job in the last recession, you either don't have one now still or you're making half of what you were before. They are seeing this enormous demographic shift. People who look like them don't run the
country anymore. The democratic party is this incredibly diverse party, they are not, the Tea Party. And so in their frustration they lash out and refuse to take seriously any solution of anybody. So I think that the establishment Republicans have got a tough row to hoe here. First of all, not only do they not have any solutions, there is no solution that will satisfy the Tea Party people except going back to the '60s. I'm talking about the 1860s, not the 1960s.
ARI MELBER: David, how about that and that idea, that there's a larger cultural undertow here and that as I read, when you have bloggers like Erik Erickson saying, great, ignore us at your peril, we're going to run even more primaries, and this Civil War is by no means over for them.
[...]
DEAN: I think there is a battle going on inside the Republican Party. It's between those who want to win national elections and those who don't care and those who want to make a statement. I think Mr. Brat was somebody who wants to make a statement. I doubt very much he would vote for anything that even looked like a compromise with the president. And I think the Republicans, McCarthy, Cantor, Boehner, are people who have been in Washington for a while and they actually would like to change the views of the -- some of the Republican Party, the Tea Party people, because they know they can't win national elections unless they do.
[...]
DAVID FRUM: Well, the Tea Party is able to articulate a very powerful and compelling critique of what is won the problem is they are unable to offer an alternative of what to do instead. I think this is one of these classic cases where you have to say, look, democracy is about competing. The people tell you what the grievances are, but you need competing leaders to offer constructive solutions. It really is true that Republicans do not like their leaders.
