Who is this person and what has he done with Chris Matthews? The MSNBC host, who said that President Donald J. Trump’s inaugural address had a “Hitlerian” tone, commented how the Democratic Party had moved too far to the left on cultural issues. On NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Matthews said that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party’s position on abortion, late term abortion, and getting ride of the Hyde Amendment just turned off large chunks of voters. Regardless of Trump’s demeanor on the 2016 campaign trail, Matthews said that Clinton’s position on this issue showed how veering too far to the left can get you in trouble.
Republican strategist Nicole Wallace and American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka also noted how the Democratic Party has done nothing to really learn from their mistakes and address the antics that drove millions of white working class voters away from them. Pletka added how the party has become sort of energized and pushed forward by celebrities, naming Beyoncé and Barbara Streisand as examples. Matthews then circles back to how the Democratic Party really needs to center on economic issues and have a legitimate alternative agenda to the Republicans, but again we hit the cultural leftism that seems to have strangled the party.
“You ask a Democrat, including Bernie and Elizabeth Warren—all those big stars of the party now, you ask them what’s your position on illegal immigration and they’re offended by the question. They don’t have a position. They don’t have a position to bring back manufacturing jobs. The reasons people vote for Trump they don’t even want to address and they’ve got to have a counter agenda.”
Matthews added how being anti-Trump is what’s going to put them over the top. That’s a gross assumption, one that sunk the party before. More or less, John Kerry was the anti-Bush candidate who took on a wartime president and lost. On the Right, Mitt Romney positioned himself as the anti-Obama candidate and lost. Democrats seem content on just wanting to set dumpsters on fire.