Rachel Maddow Shocks and Awes Republicans By Factbombing Their Election Failures

Last updated on July 2nd, 2013 at 12:57 pm

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow’s appearance on Meet the Press was a total fail for the usual suspects, and this is why she is so rarely given the chance to speak around conservatives. Not only did she school Jim DeMint, but she also made a fool of Ralph Reed. Reed was happily touting his anti-gay, pro-bigotry political strategy, when Maddow stepped in to point out that actually, his strategy has been an epic fail and lost three main electoral efforts.

Maddow was on the panel with chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, Ralph Reed, author and professor at Georgetown University, Michael Eric Dyson, President of the Heritage Foundation, Fmr. Sen. Jim DeMint and NBC’s Pete Williams. Watch here:

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As Ralph Reed was tooting the strategic horn of anti-gay bigotry and saying how it will energize politicians, Rachel Maddow interrupted him to point out that they lost three main election efforts in which they tried the bigotry strategy.

Rachel Maddow: Three main election efforts, electing Mitt Romney, getting that Iowa state supreme court justice thrown out and the Minnesota anti-gay constitutional amendment. You lost all three of those fights in November 2012. Between organize arguments —

Ralph Reed: — Turn out the evangelical vote.

Rachel Maddow: — And it was great and they lost, but between — when oral arguments were made in this case, there were nine states that recognized marriage equality. By the time of the ruling there were 12 states and five minutes later there were 13 states.

In other words, Ralph, go ahead and turn out that evangelical vote, but it isn’t getting you anywhere nationally. Can you say, “Shrinking tent”?

In the world of Sunday shows wherein Republican talking points rule the day, Maddow offered pesky things like facts and actual political analysis, unlike the activist agenda of conservative talkers posing as political analysts in order to spread propaganda.

Maddow wasn’t just saying Reed lost because his opinion is different than hers. The fact that he and his political strategy lost is a political reality. This is called a factbomb. She smacked down Reed’s denial with facts. No one ever seems to say this to Republicans’ faces, and certainly not to social conservative champions like Ralph Reed who has everything personal to gain while he destroys the Republican Party with his pro-bigotry positions.

You can just imagine the shock of conservative Republicans listening to Maddow’s factbomb — these are the same folks who denied the polls showing an Obama lead during 2012. The reality was even worse for them, as the polls were consistently off in favor of Romney. The GOP sold their base bigotry as a get out the vote tactic, and their base bought it.

The base does not believe that these policy positions are losers; the base believes that if only Romney had been more conservative (aka, pro-bigotry), he would have won. This is absolutely inaccurate, and the old guard Republicans know this, but they can’t convince their own members let alone their base, and this is why you see them unable to pass even something as bipartisan as immigration reform in the House.

Maddow brought a little shock and awe in the form of facts to Meet the Press on Sunday, and it was refreshing.

Sarah Jones

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