Chris Matthews Quotes
This looking down our noses at tea party people has got to stop.
Matthews, Chris. Hardball with Chris Matthews. MSNBC, 2010.
He delivered this speech towards the end of the 1st year of President Donals Trump's Administration. Althought he never mentioned Trump by name, this speech was a rare major criticism of a sitting president by a former president. This was also one of the few speeches Bush gave after leaving office. On the same day, former President Barak Obama also gave a major speech and also castigated President Trump although neither of the ex-presidents knew that the other was about to deliver their criticism of Trump. It was one of the very unusal occurances in American history.
Muller warns of a very common error made by most politicians and critics who are faced with populism. To ignore them is also self defeating. Best results seem to come from just calmly present factual counter evidence to whatever is being alleged at the moment. And to acknowledge their right in a democracy to think as they do, but we respectfully disagree. The respect is very important in interacting with populists whose major complaint is most often that they are not regarded with dignity in the society as it now exists. And for many educated, above-average intellect people, there is a difficulty in extending their egalitarian philosophy to those who do not honor, respect or even understand the major tenets and norms of intellectual interaction. In most cases, the politicians who have populist appeal not only treat the people with great dignity and appreciation (feigned or real), but take of the cry for their complaints and suspicions in more eloquent oratory that the disaffected people are able to themselves, and that is a great part of the seemingly magic hold that the populist politician seems to have over his constituency.
Christopher John Matthews is a retired American political commentator, talk show host, and author. Matthews hosted his weeknight hour-long talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, on America's Talking and later on MSNBC, from 1997 until March 2, 2020, when he announced, on what turned out to be his final show, that he was retiring. This followed an accusation that he had made inappropriate comments to a Hardball guest four years earlier. On that occasion, he stated: "The younger generation's out there ready to take the reins. We see them in politics, in media, in fighting for their causes. They're improving the workplace."