Wow, I didn't see this until today! I just read a few pages of the thread, and I read Matt's official rebuttal in the other thread. I thought it was pretty damn good...except the "complacent" at the end probably should have been "complicit," but that's just me nitpicking.
I understand what rockandrollsouls is saying, and it's possible that Matt's stance may backfire in the long run...but deep down in my gut, I feel that the US needs some more of this kind of "shocking" behavior to break out of the "politics as usual" mode. Expressing personal revulsion in an "I will not break bread..." gesture is a great way to get yourself attacked for rocking the boat, but at the same time it's a great way to set yourself apart from every other backstabbing, pandering, two-faced politician. There's something that deeply resonates with me about a politician making such a bold, no-nonsense statement about where he stands...and I think it taps into a lot of the feelings of anger and betrayal that a lot of Americans are feeling.
Apparently Matt has a history of grandstanding and acting like an ass, but I haven't paid enough attention to that to make a judgment of my own. Instead, I'm taking this incident in isolation: While it's easy to scold Matt and second-guess him for this, and it's pretty obvious that such an action was bound to stir up a bit of a shitstorm, I'm kind of hoping incidents like this will start to shake things up for good and change the two-faced character of American politics...and if we're lucky, maybe this kind of thing will actually catch on and draw support from the "no-nonsense, straight-talking" crowd in America.
