“Who is going to watch a debate between the two Cuban guys?”
—MSNBC host Chris Matthews, reacting on the air to the news that wittle Donald Twump will be avoiding Thursday’s Republican candidates’ debate on Fox because he’s afwaid that mean, old Megyn Kelly will wag on him and make him cwy.
The “Cuban guys” are two U.S. citizens and public servants named Mark Rubio and Ted Cruz. “Who is going to watch a debate between Rubio, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz?” Chris went on. (Yes, Chris, we know who you meant). “Who cares?””
I just got back from a New York day trip to do an ethics training seminar for a large law firm. I read about Matthews’ hateful, ugly, bigoted statement just as I was getting ready to leave this morning, and it bothered me the rest of the day. I haven’t checked—has Matthews apologized? Has he been sacked? Have Hispanics and Latinos rallied to support the Republicans he attacked?
There is no spin, no excuse, no rationalization that removes Matthews’ comment from the realm of hateful, gratuitous partisan bile. This is also the guy, remember, who sees racism in the use of the word “Chicago.” Let’s see if we can find any equivalent statement that wouldn’t be legitimately and immediately identified as the calling card of a bigot:
“Who is going to watch a debate between the two black guys?”
“Who is going to watch a debate between the two Jewish guys?”
“Who is going to watch a debate between the two gay guys?”
“Who is going to watch a debate between the two Muslim guys?”
“Who is going to watch a debate between the two women?”
Yet this just vomited out of Liberal Chris’s mouth like it was perfectly reasonable and fair, just like you hear other bigots default to “nigger” without blinking. The statement radiates contempt for a nationality, assumed superiority by a comfortably white hack , and absolute disrespect—because the two men are Republicans, and thus don’t deserve decency or fairness at his hands. That’s how Chris thinks. That’s the culture of MSNBC. That’s the attitude of a shocking number of U.S. “progressives.”
Matthews can’t decry racism when he embraces it and endorses bigotry by speaking like this in public. He can’t characterize two American-born U.S. Senators derisively—not worth listening to as they try to make the case for their qualifications to be President!-—and ever credibly claim to oppose bigotry. Sure, nobody uses bigoted references when talking about people they admire. When bigots reveal themselves is when they don’t like someone, or are angry at someone, and default to the lowest form of denigration. You’re not worth respecting or treating fairly because of what you are, you Jew, you nigger, you bitch, you dago, you Cuban, alien, un-American thing.
That’s exactly what Chris Matthews expressed, and he did it because he felt he was somewhere safe and because he thinks that all so-called liberals are hypocrites like he is.
Are they?
Ethics Alarms 
I remember the outrage over Dan Quayle’s exaggerated pronunciation of “MAHHHHrio” (referring to NY Governor Cuomo). But Quayle was a Republican, so, evidently it was wrong ONLY for HIM to talk like that.
That was just Quayle being romantic.
And this was just Matthews unravelling. Are they all going mad??
Well viewership went up for the most recent Democratic debate but it was trounced by the NFL playoffs: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-latest-dem-debate-856468
This puzzles me somewhat. Perhaps viewers were waiting for Hillary to call Sanders a communist or Sanders to pose a sly question to Hillary about Benghazi. Anyway I’m hoping all undecided Cuban-Americans immediately make their minds up to vote republican. Say goodby to Florida Chris!
Are they?
Of course they are. Those in home team safe seats usually have no problem jeering the opposing team in the arena.
The Left despises Cuban refugees. They committed the mortal sin of not staying in Cuba to witness the wonders of La Revolucion! Instead, they fled to Miami and New York and Puerto Rico and Spain and flourished. Shame on them.
I grew up in Miami among Cuban refugee kids and their understandably and violently anti-Castro parents and grandparents. When I got to college in upstate NY, within the first few days I ran into a junior or senior who was enthusiastically attempting to recruit people to go to Cuba to cut sugar cane during that fall’s sugar harvest. Talk about cognitive dissonance. Never mind the preposterousness of American college kids wielding a machete for more than fifteen minutes without getting blisters or cutting off their other hand or a foot or two.
To the Left, people who stayed in the Castro brothers’ jail are heroes. To the Left, Cuban-Americans are, by definition, traitors to the cause and beneath contempt. Just ask Michael Moore (the ‘documentary’ producer, not my grade school classmate, the District Court judge, who sent Elian Gonzalez back to Fidel [properly, unfortunately] so he could be trotted around as a model young comrade).
Funny a Mick* machine pol from Philly is showing his true colors and no one objects. Whatever it takes. The ends justify the means.
_______
*I’m three-eighths Irish, so I can say that, right Kanye and Cube? But you can’t.
Matthews’ comment reminds me of the Seindeld dentist whom Jerry suspects confirmed to Judaism so he could tell Jewish jokes. Is Matthews a left-winger just so he can get away with racist comments? Probably not, but how many young racists see what he and others on the left can get away with and mirror their politics?
CONVERTED to Judaism. Sorry.
This comment was horrible and sack-worthy in my opinion. MSNBC should get rid of him. But he didn’t use a derogatory word, so using the n-word or other profanity would have been even worse. Now, if he said, “Who would want to watch a debate between two tacos?”, then even I would be sharpening my pitch fork, because firing would not be good enough.
Thanks, Beth, for maintaining a rational response. Chris Matthews is off the rails — actually has been for a while. FYI to all of the Liberal haters here — Chris Matthews doesn’t speak for me or for most other Liberals. I agree, Beth — this was stupid, thoughtless, and sack-worthy.
But frankly, the media have been so irresponsible in recent years, why does anyone still pay attention to them? I don’t. If I can’t get original source material for my information, I am immediately suspicious that any second or third-hand source has an agenda. I’m even suspicious of “quoted” material.
Which, unfortunately, brings us back to the reason Matthews made his stupid statement — Trump is being a petulant spoiled brat. Man up, you little P.O.S.
Oh, nigger would be worse, no doubt. But the underlying—wait, tacos? Do they even have tacos in Cuba?
I once had to sit through all day sensitivity training (mandatory at my firm) where one of the questions was, “Is it okay to refer to a Latino/Latina worker as Taco?” I started laughing — I mean, the legal profession has some serious problems if you need to be taught that “Taco” is not an appropriate nickname.
http://www.yummly.com/recipes/cuban-tacos
It makes me laugh—I’m Greek, and if someone called me “Moussaka” I’d double over.
No worse than being Italian and called “hoagie bender” or “meatball.” Did you miss the part in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” where the kid version of the main character is eating moussaka and her classmates reference “moose caca?”
All silliness aside, Chris Matthews lost half his credibility in 2008 with his “thrill up the leg” comment about Obama, and the rest in 2012 when he said that Hurricane Sandy was a good thing because it helped Obama get reelected. I was so angry when I heard that I was ready to run out the door and find him…then I a) remembered he wasn’t in Secaucus anymore and b) asked myself “what are you doing?” The guy is nothing but a partisan hack and he should be treated as such.
The Cuban refugee guys I attended high school with in Miami were all slotted into courses denominated as “Spanish S,” which was supposed to mean “Spanish for Speakers.” This was in the mid-60s. I found out a few years ago at a reunion that they merrily referred to the classes as “Spanish for Spics.”
Following up on Beth’s point, I suspect Matthews thought it was okay to call the boys Cubans since he hadn’t called them spics.
I keep telling my Cuban buddies how amazing it is there are two young Cuban-American Senators running for president. Only fifty-five years after Castro stole their parent’s country. I think it’s indicative of the fact the elites all left Cuba and came (mostly) to Miami and other parts of the U.S. They were used to running their own show and quickly set up businesses and got into politics because they knew from their experience in Cuba how to run things and control the levers of power.
My Cuban buddies still can’t tell me how it is their parents let the Castro brothers take over their country. What a screw up. And I’m still creeped out by Rubio’s doing favors for his coke dealing turned realtor brother in law. A little too much Banana Republic for my taste, and I don’t mean men’s wear.
Not to belabor the obvious, but the fact that their parents were Cuban have nothing to do with the topic at hand, except to someone, a bigot, who places them in less esteem simply because of their heritage. I have never, ever, thought of Rubio and Cruz as “the Cubans,” or even Cubans, any more than I look at Matthews and think, “there’s that Irish guy again, shooting of his mouth.” Only bigots and assholes see people like that.
Plus, Matthews should have said, “No one wants to watch a debate between a Cuban and a Canadian”
snort
Matthews strikes me as incredibly Irish all the time. Archetypal, blowhard, Irish-American, big city, machine pol. Northern version of a yellow dog Democrat.
Stereotypical Irish American, more like it, speaking as an Irish American who is a lifelong Republican and Anglophile.
Irish-American, sure. But I think the Irish American pol has his roots in an Irish proto-type. Probably a lot more money to be made in U.S. politics than in Irish politics given the relative sizes of the economies and taxpayer bases in the two countries so I suspect the Irish American pols refined their skills.
I feel very strongly both ways about the Irish and the British. Certainly not an Anglophile. Never understood the annoying attraction for members of the royal family. But I think we’ve had this conversation before.
We have. I’m just saying I’m not a typical Irish American. I may post an anti-Anglophobe rant on fb as we get closer to St. Paddy’s Day, but I may just skip it. Most people’s views don’t change no matter what, and they certainly don’t change if you curse them out and call them five different foul names and ten different kinds of ignorant.
I dunno about a bigot, I’m sure Chris is fine with open borders and unchecked immigration, so he can’t be blanket bigoted against Hispanics. He’s more like a selective hater or partisan hater. Anyone sufficiently whitebread and on the other side is a racist, anyone not is a traitor, and in any case no one on the other side is worthy of anything other than well-deserved contempt, whatever form that contempt takes.
http://www.rsdb.org/full
No Moussaka…
That list is exhausting ….
Doesn’t help that it is sorted by slur and not by ethnicity… would be way more useful if sorted by ethnicity.
The British comedians Morecambe and Wise had a running joke, miscalling Nana Mouskouri “Nana Moussaka”. Or was it The Two Ronnies?
Might help if it had a bit more explanation of where some came from, like “Dago” used interchangeably for Italians and Spanish, was originally about attitude, not ethnicity, and represents a cutting down of the word “hidalgo” which was a further cut-down of the phrase “hijo de algo” meaning “son of someone” with “someone important” being implied. It’s not saying you are inferior because you are a different race, it’s saying you seem to think you are someone important when you aren’t.
Matthews has been a flack for the Democratic party for years. Whatever possessed him to make such a statement?– Democrats are the “party for all,” and go after all “minority votes.” Big, big mistake. Just because the Latinos/Hispanics towhich he referred are REPUBLICANS make them fair game for slurs and prejudice and ugliness? This only shows the hypocrisy of the Democratic party and it supporters. Go Hillary! You’ll never make it, especially with these “supporters” on your side.