The Hypocrisy of Rachel Maddow's Hoover Dam Pitch

Never mind the Standard & Poor’s downgrade–MSNBC is still running those silly “Hoover Dam” ads featuring Rachel Maddow as part of its “Lean Forward” campaign.

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Aside from the fact that Maddow is campaigning for additional government spending at a time of soaring national debt, the videos display astonishing hypocrisy, given the following facts about the Hoover Dam:

• The dam was built by non-union labor, and management successfully broke two strikes.
• More than 100 workers died during the construction of the dam.
• The Colorado River suffered lasting environmental damage from the dam.

So, if we were to follow Maddow’s advice, we would spend billions of dollars we don’t have, get rid of public sector unions, ignore worker safety, and damage the environment.

Maddow is so overwhelmed by the scale of the project that she doesn’t bother to think about the financial, social, or environmental implications of what she is recommending. So much for the “triple bottom line“!

Oh–and the dam, named for a Republican president, was planned during the term of Republican Calvin Coolidge. Today, Democrats have a monopoly on big government–and, as Salon’s Joan Walsh says, they might as well own it.

The ideal vision of government promoted by Maddow, MSNBC, and “progressive” Democrats is a centrally-planned, autocratic, retro-industrial 20th century regime.

Been there, done that. Even communist China’s getting over it.

Perhaps MSNBC should change its slogan to “Lean Backward”?