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Krugman says the signs on the right are ominous
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by smkovalinsky | November 10, 2009 at 04:52 pm
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"The point is that the takeover of the Republican Party by the irrational right is no laughing matter. Something unprecedented is happening here — and it’s very bad for America. . . The GOP has been taken over by the very people it used to exploit . . . " ~ Paul Krugman ; New York Times 11/09/09
The party of Limbaugh and Beck is upon us; because they have anointed America, and preached deliverance to its captives, and claimed the acceptable year of a conservative independent revolt.
Yes, Obama and job creation has indeed not yet had any sort of success, and I am in full agreement with Krugman that any economic crisis which will be protracted and brutal - as ours will surely be - is a breeding ground for hysteria which cries fascism even as it bears all the earmarks of it .
Says Krugman:
"And if Tea Party Republicans do win big next year, what has already happened in California could happen at the national level. In California, the G.O.P. has essentially shrunk down to a rump party with no interest in actually governing — but that rump remains big enough to prevent anyone else from dealing with the state’s fiscal crisis. If this happens to America as a whole, as it all too easily could, the country could become effectively ungovernable in the midst of an ongoing economic disaster."
And so we are about to get "Californiafied" as a nation: Made ungovernable and passionate and dwindled down to a bizarre lunatic fringe which has grown like a cancer: Nothing and everything. Like the Mississippi River, a mile wide and an inch deep.
Cantors all too mild rebuke of that awful rally sign was apathy cloaked as sensible calm. Krugman thinks that the alarm has already been sounding with the Tea Partiers and their movement which may be a Trojan horse for god-knows-what independent revolt cooked up in someone's mind who thinks he has come to understand that Madison and Jefferson are their property, and understood by them alone.
Last Thursday there was a rally outside the U.S. Capitol to protest pending health care legislation, featuring the kinds of things we’ve grown accustomed to, including large signs showing piles of bodies at Dachau with the caption “National Socialist Healthcare.” It was grotesque — and it was also ominous. For what we may be seeing is America starting to be Californiafied.
The key thing to understand about that rally is that it wasn’t a fringe event. It was sponsored by the House Republican leadership — in fact, it was officially billed as a G.O.P. press conference. Senior lawmakers were in attendance, and apparently had no problem with the tone of the proceedings.
True, Eric Cantor, the second-ranking House Republican, offered some mild criticism after the fact. But the operative word is “mild.” The signs were “inappropriate,” said his spokesman, and the use of Hitler comparisons by such people as Rush Limbaugh, said Mr. Cantor, “conjures up images that frankly are not, I think, very helpful.”
What all this shows is that the G.O.P. has been taken over by the people it used to exploit.
The state of mind visible at recent right-wing demonstrations is nothing new. Back in 1964 the historian Richard Hofstadter published an essay titled, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” which reads as if it were based on today’s headlines: Americans on the far right, he wrote, feel that “America has been largely taken away from them and their kind, though they are determined to try to repossess it and to prevent the final destructive act of subversion.” Sound familiar?
But while the paranoid style isn’t new, its role within the G.O.P. is.
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smkovalinsky
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (16)
at 16:56 on November 10th, 2009
Krugman is one bright cookie and a great economist. He is usually right in what he says
at 17:14 on November 10th, 2009
Usually doesn't do it this time. This isn't economics. This is politics. Yes, the elite GOP's days of running another mediocrity that doesn't represent the people are over.
California's politicians can't solve their problem because of the GOP? Surely, you jest. Maybe true, 20 or 25 %.
at 17:20 on November 10th, 2009
Well having just got my notice that my state withholding has just been accelerated by 10% effective Nov 1, CA ain't working too well. It has become so partisan here that it is hard to get anything done, but I don't think it the fault of the GOP alone. At a national level however, I think the GOP is in the wilderness years and their big tent is blown ragged and crowded with quite a few clowns. As I have said before though, they will recover but it won't long as it listens to the likes of Limbaugh or Palin
at 17:21 on November 10th, 2009
I have Mr. Krugman's book, and it's next on the list after I finish a biography of William the Silent or Orange as you might be more familiar. lol He was, supposedly, the first notable person killed using a handgun, and well you know what has happened since then. : (
He says the GOP has taken over the people they used to exploit. I would continue, they are still being exploited, but they don't know it. : (
I hope my state California can pull itself out of this.
at 17:24 on November 10th, 2009
Yes, you are correct: They never did know they were being exploited, and they still do not. Yes, California is a great state, but politically sort of a hybrid of types. Who knows where all will lead, but yes, Krugman is all too right that the signs are not good, and handguns and all---yikes :(
at 17:30 on November 10th, 2009
If you really want to read about how they are exploited, I am reading The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Powerat present. Now that is one scary story of the power behind the office! It is enough to keep you awake at night and understanding some of the odd agendas in the political sphere
at 17:32 on November 10th, 2009
OH, reee--eealy.... I will check that link out post haste, thanks!!!
at 17:42 on November 10th, 2009
Rumpright is a term that I conjured from reading this article. The Rumprights have taken over the Republican Party and are such a force that they can make America ungovernable. That is the hypothesis, I guess.
Then again,what should the governing Democrats be called? Dithercats? The outcome seems the same and that is ungovernable.
at 17:46 on November 10th, 2009
Just what we need, eh, smk? A book to keep us awake at night! eeeekkk.
Re California: I have been saying this for years. California is too big. We need to be two states, and this crisis could be what makes this seem like not part of the lunatic fringe or a Communist plot.
North and South California, would that be so bad?
at 19:04 on November 10th, 2009
These days I split my week 3 days North/4 days South and they are like two different countries! I like them both but for different reasons.
Oh and the poster from KY, that is not the reason CA has problems. It may look like it from down there from a distance but the causes are much more complex. It has dysfunctional and very partisan politics on both sides, We are also not homogeneous. Even within Greater LA there is a vast difference between OC and Ventura County for example, let alone Northern CA. KY may be one state but if CA was a country it would be something like the 30th largest and the 6th largest economy. Our issues are way more complicated than you imagine
at 18:15 on November 10th, 2009
California is in the position its in because of irresponsible Liberals at the wheel spending more money than it has. In fact California should be the poster child to all states of what NOT to do and which party to NOT elect.
at 04:26 on November 11th, 2009
The fact that Krugman says anything will likely have zero effect on whatever imagined horrors he may want to imagine.
Because the right refuses to be placidly led by their more much intelligent betters on the left, it is obvious that they are mostly brigands and losers - oh, and racists, too.
At least that seems to be the implied line of thinking.
at 05:51 on November 11th, 2009
Not at all. He calls out some of the silliness. He is actually calling for a robust, cogent opposition not the crazies that are currently acting as mouthpieces. He is actually supporting the GOP and calling for their return from the lunatic fringe.
at 08:48 on November 11th, 2009
He wants a 'lite' version of the Democratic Party. Makes sense from his point of view. Obviously, a resurgent conservation view would not be in the Democrats best interests.
I'll stand by my previous statement.
at 09:33 on November 11th, 2009
Then you'll just stand in opposition a little longer until you guys figure it out on your ownsome. Fine with us. Obama just needs tj drop any attempt at bipartsianship. You can't without a cogent opposition
at 08:56 on November 11th, 2009
Yes, A, you are right, one more book, and I second the eeek. and yes, a Northern /Southern divide would be about right for California, although San Francisco would want to keep with LA, I think, so it would have to be the dividing line, ;).
I think Krugman fears that a degenerated GOP is a real national danger; not just to the Democrats, but to America. It certainly cannot help matters any. Who can argue with it, except for Libertarianism, which both parties need to incorporate.