At the same time that rising Republican star Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz were making history with a filibuster Chris Matthews, on Wednesday's Hardball, insisted Paul and Cruz must be heroes to hate groups.
During a segment on the Southern Poverty Law Center's new study about an increase of so-called anti-government hate groups, Matthews demanded which politicians they supported: "Who do they root for?! They don't root for Rand Paul? Pat Buchanan? I mean who? They must like this new guy Ted Cruz. They must love Ted Cruz, c'mon!"
The following exchange was aired on the March 6, 2013 edition of MSNBC's Hardball:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me go to you Brian. The way I'm chalking this up,
this right wing hysteria, if you will. Maybe it's logical on their point
of view, the way they're thinking about demographic change. But guns,
immigration and gays. Is that your reading, that those are the stimuli
to these people when they organize these hate groups?
BRIAN LEVIN, CENTER FOR STUDY OF HATE & EXTREMISM: I think it's a
lot of it, but I think we have to put in a context. The folklore of the
far right - and I'm not talking about Mitt Romney supporters. I'm
talking about people who have opted out of our political process and
that's what's problematic. These people see the terra firma under them
as shifting. Something that anchored them before, they no longer see as
anchoring them.
MATTHEWS: Who do they root for?! Who do they root for?!
LEVIN: They don't root for anybody now.
MATTHEWS: They don't root for Rand Paul? Pat Buchanan? I mean who? They
must like this new guy Ted Cruz. They must love Ted Cruz, c'mon!