Detroit’s fiscal ruin and subsequent bankruptcy was actually the result of the city being pretty much a “conservative utopia,” Ed Schultz informed us. It’s what happens when “government is small enough to drown in your bathtub” and “exactly the kind of thing many Republicans would impose on us,” insisted Melissa Harris-Parry.

You might have thought that MSNBC couldn’t possibly have any more pearls of wisdom left to cast, dear readers — but you’d be wrong. So wrong.

Detroit’s debt is $18 billion. … While it suffered for years under mismanagement and corruption under many Democratic officials, today Detroit is fast becoming the most libertarian city in the United States. In many areas, there are basically no public services besides decaying roads and bombed-out infrastructure. 40 percent of the streetlights don’t work at night, and that leaves a troubled city stuck in the dark. Even police and emergency services have literally become optional. Think about it like this: Across the country, a call to police brings a response in about 11 minutes. In Detroit now, the average is 58 minutes, and many times it takes much longer if the police come at all.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

MSNBC, everybody: Equating the financial collapse and social and economic decay with libertarianism, one abject and fully progressive failure at a time.