Throughout Thursday’s Hardball, MSNBC host Chris Matthews teased a “Let Me Finish” commentary to end the show about the 243rd anniversary of the start of the American Revolution with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. However, such sanity quickly eroded as Matthews linked the actions and ideals fought on that idea to the anti-gun, far-left Parkland students.
Yes, that happened. And it’s even nuttier when one realizes that the whole reason the Shot Heard Around the World happened when the British were sent to take out a stash of colonial military weapons and banning firearms is the entire mission of the far-left Florida students.
Going to the commentary itself, Matthews began with reverence for American history that one could argue you don’t see from other lefties:
Let me finish tonight with this day in history, the anniversary of the Shot Heard Around the World. It was on April 19th, today, 1775 that shots were fired in the Battles of Lexington and Concord, sparking the American Revolution. It was the first time blood was shed in the fight for American Independence, a fight that lasted seven years.
He added that “[t]o look back at that fight in the spirit that led to it deserves, I think a moment of reflection about how this country came into being and, more important, where it's headed now” and then read the most famous excerpt of the Declaration of Independence that includes “all Men are created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
After that, however, one could tell that Matthews was about go political, stating rhetorically: “To keep those rights and ensure they have meaning today is going to take continued diligence, don't you think? But also aggressive exercise of those rights.”
“To keep those rights and ensure they have meaning today is going to take continued diligence, don't you think? But also aggressive exercise of those rights. With a President now who seems to value loyalty to him personally over freedom of expression and even rule of law, we need to celebrate those who exercise their constitutional rights to speak out,” he continued.
With the Parkland students having been just named to TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, Matthews invoked his beloved Barack Obama since he wrote the entry for the students:
Barack Obama has just today profiled the power of those Parkland high school students who organized the March for Our Lives and he wrote this for — here’s what he wrote from TIME Magazine: “Most of them can’t even vote yet. But they have the power so often inherent in youth: to see the world anew; to reject the old constraints, outdated conventions and cowardice too often dressed up as wisdom. The power to insist that America can be better.” To insist that America be better is, of course, a driving force of the American spirit itself.
After a nod to the brand new Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, this crazy commentary came to a merciful end, stating that the American Revolution is “a revolution that must and does continue today.”
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on April 19, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Hardball
April 19, 2018
7:58 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with this day in history, the anniversary of the Shot Heard Around the World. It was on April 19th, today, 1775 that shots were fired in the Battles of Lexington and Concord, sparking the American Revolution. It was the first time blood was shed in the fight for American Independence, a fight that lasted seven years. To look back at that fight in the spirit that led to it deserves, I think a moment of reflection about how this country came into being and, more important, where it's headed now. As written in the declaration of Independence: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” To keep those rights and ensure they have meaning today is going to take continued diligence, don't you think? But also aggressive exercise of those rights. With a President now who seems to value loyalty to him personally over freedom of expression and even rule of law, we need to celebrate those who exercise their constitutional rights to speak out. Barack Obama has just today profiled the power of those Parkland high school students who organized the March for Our Lives and he wrote this for — here’s what he wrote from TIME Magazine: “ Most of them can’t even vote yet. But they have the power so often inherent in youth: to see the world anew; to reject the old constraints, outdated conventions and cowardice too often dressed up as wisdom. The power to insist that America can be better.” To insist that America be better is, of course, a driving force of the American spirit itself. I'm proud to say as a Philadelphia native, the seat of our republic now is home to a new Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, a wondrous new place that honors the revolution that gave birth to our country, a revolution that must and does continue today.
