MSNBC historian Jon Meacham took his overly solemn and pretentious analysis to Friday’s Morning Joe to accuse the Republican Party of not believing in the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence amidst the anniversary of January 6 and the Speaker election drama.
Co-host Willie Geist set the table by asking, “So, let’s talk about this process we've seen and its roots in what we've seen for the last decade, really, in the Republican Party, in the country, its ties to the second anniversary of January 6th. What do you make of what you have seen this week?”
After relishing the idea that the pro-Kevin McCarthy faction is “having the same kind of emotional and political experience that much of the rest of the country has had with them over the last five years,” Meacham rambled on for a while before finally getting to his main point, “We don't have, sort of like in the 1850s, we don't really have a functional two-party system at this hour and the constitutional democracy as it has developed requires that.”
Meacham also lamented that, “we've said it before. And we see it manifested, minute by minute over the past week. The Republican Party, once the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Reagan, the Bushes, that party doesn't exist. It's fundamentally broken.”
That may be more convincing if the media didn’t also denounce the Republican Party of Reagan and the Bushes as irredeemably extremists. Still, Meacham appealed to the authority that is himself to allege, “I believe, from a historical perspective, because they don't actually want to unite behind the pursuit of that more perfect union with the Declaration of Independence at the core and a willingness to lose graciously and keep fighting with politics as a mediation of differences.”
For Meacham, this blatantly partisan statement is simply common sense, “And they're just -- it's not a functional force right now. And I don't say that as I'm not a Democrat, I'm not a Republican obviously, but that's just it, right? As a common sense observation. What else would one conclude?”
One could conclude that Meacham is, despite his proclamations to the contrary, just another partisan Democrat.
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Here is a transcript for the January 6 show:
MSNBC Morning Joe
1/6/2023
6:20 AM ET
WILLIE GEIST: So, let’s talk about this process we've seen and its roots in what we've seen for the last decade, really, in the Republican Party, in the country, its ties to the second anniversary of January 6th. What do you make of what you have seen this week?
JON MEACHAM: You know, It's an interesting microcosm, interesting on any number of levels. It’s kind of an-- I wonder if it's a teachable microcosm to some extent because you have an extraordinary number of the current House Republicans having the same kind of emotional and political experience that much of the rest of the country has had with them over the last five years. Does that make sense?
Suddenly they are being held hostage by people who feel and are out of the mainstream of American democratic, lowercase D, discourse. So people act on incentive as Lincoln said.
Suddenly, the Republicans who were -- enabled Donald Trump, who to some extent enabled the anniversary, the events we commemorate today, the insurrection against the United States of America. Suddenly, they are seeing what extremism can do.
And it shouldn't have taken this long. I don't know if they'll learn from it. But in American politics, when principle doesn't fail, power has to work and so if they're not going to do the right thing on principle, then maybe they will finally figure out a way to move from this extremism because it's essential to their power.
You know and by the fruit, you shall know them, right, so I don't care why they do it, but they need to do it.
We don't have, sort of like in the 1850s, we don't really have a functional two-party system at this hour and the constitutional democracy as it has developed requires that. You can argue whether that's ideal or not.
But we've said it before. And we see it manifested, minute by minute over the past week. The Republican Party, once the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Reagan, the Bushes, that party doesn't exist. It's fundamentally broken.
I believe, from a historical perspective, because they don't actually want to unite behind the pursuit of that more perfect union with the Declaration of Independence at the core and a willingness to lose graciously and keep fighting with politics as a mediation of differences.
And they're just -- it's not a functional force right now. And I don't say that as I'm not a Democrat, I'm not a Republican—
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
MEACHAM: -- obviously, but that's just it, right? As a common sense observation--
SCARBOROUGH: Right.
MEACHAM: What else would one conclude?
