Chris Matthews: Hard Balls and Thick Skulls

Because watching Chris Matthews make a fool of himself is always a good time, here's a video of a typical example of what you can find on Hardball.


Chris Matthews on gay marriage is always an interesting segment (not) and I'm glad this one doesn't disappoint. Clearly, the best line in the program is the "French-Massachusetts point of view," but what I want to discuss is Matthew's chief lines. One of the guests commented how not supporting gay marriage is a bigoted position... to which Matthews says, "but we can't call everything in the past bigotry."

We can't call slavery bigoted? How about pretty much any way American society treated African Americans? Or Native Americans? Or pretty much any immigrant population over the past 100+ years? Which leads me to...

But if everybody who opposes gay marriage is a bigot, then we have a lot of bigots in this country.

Well, ya, Chris... we do. If it's taken you this long to figure out we have a lot of bigots in this country, then quite frankly I'm shocked you're in the media. Have you paid attention to anything that's happened since 1776?

It's frustrating to see people parrot the lines that marriage is an institution between a man and a woman. Then, when confronted with the fact that gay people have been getting married in private ceremonies for dozens of years, they say "oh, but the state doesn't sanction that." Well, which is it? Is marriage an institution of the state or religion? Of course, we all know this answer: it's a civil right. You get your marriage certificates from town hall, not the local parish. A priest may preside over the ceremony, but that's not what this whole debate is about.

Then again, I do have a "French-Massachusetts point of view." Damn, it's tough to be enlightened.