On the May 13 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, after a train derailment in the U.S., host Chris Matthews seemed to yearn for a central government so powerful it can draw "a straight line" and put train tracks wherever it wanted to, as if public opposition was the only reason train tracks ever included curves and turns.
“We have a country where people can complain. In communist countries like China, they just draw a straight line, whether it goes through your house or not, it’s a straight line. We have this Amtrak, I’ve been taking it for a half a century, it doesn’t go in a straight line. In this case, it tried to make a turn and turned over, because there’s so many turns on that route. How do you get rid of the turns?”