Going to Extreme
By PAUL KRUGMAN
NYT
Utah Republicans have denied Robert Bennett, a very conservative three-term senator, a place on the ballot, because he’s not conservative enough. In Maine, party activists have pushed through a platform calling for, among other things, abolishing both the Federal Reserve and the Department of Education. And it’s becoming ever more apparent that real power within the G.O.P. rests with the ranting talk-show hosts.
News organizations have taken notice: suddenly, the takeover of the Republican Party by right-wing extremists has become a story (although many reporters seem determined to pretend that something equivalent is happening to the Democrats. It isn’t.) But why is this happening? And in particular, why is it happening now?
The right’s answer, of course, is that it’s about outrage over President Obama’s “socialist” policies — like his health care plan, which is, um, more or less identical to the plan Mitt Romney enacted in Massachusetts. Many on the left argue, instead, that it’s about race, the shock of having a black man in the White House — and there’s surely something to that.
But I’d like to offer two alternative hypotheses: First, Republican extremism was there all along — what’s changed is the willingness of the news media to acknowledge it. Second, to the extent that the power of the party’s extremists really is on the rise, it’s the economy, stupid.
(More here.)
NYT
Utah Republicans have denied Robert Bennett, a very conservative three-term senator, a place on the ballot, because he’s not conservative enough. In Maine, party activists have pushed through a platform calling for, among other things, abolishing both the Federal Reserve and the Department of Education. And it’s becoming ever more apparent that real power within the G.O.P. rests with the ranting talk-show hosts.
News organizations have taken notice: suddenly, the takeover of the Republican Party by right-wing extremists has become a story (although many reporters seem determined to pretend that something equivalent is happening to the Democrats. It isn’t.) But why is this happening? And in particular, why is it happening now?
The right’s answer, of course, is that it’s about outrage over President Obama’s “socialist” policies — like his health care plan, which is, um, more or less identical to the plan Mitt Romney enacted in Massachusetts. Many on the left argue, instead, that it’s about race, the shock of having a black man in the White House — and there’s surely something to that.
But I’d like to offer two alternative hypotheses: First, Republican extremism was there all along — what’s changed is the willingness of the news media to acknowledge it. Second, to the extent that the power of the party’s extremists really is on the rise, it’s the economy, stupid.
(More here.)
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2 Comments:
Let's see, Bennett voted for the bailouts, voted for the stimulus, voted for a different mandate prior to the latest health care reform legislation and said he would only serve two terms and yet served three. He's hardly 'very conservative'.
Krugman once again fails to notice the obvious. Utah Republicans did not throw out Bennett because he wasn't conservative enough. They threw him out because he's become part of the establishment - an establishment that a majority of americans are increasingly rejecting. Krugman is such a hyper-partisan for the Democrats that he can only see disagreement in partisan terms.
The obvious is that there are two classes in America - not Democrat and Republican, but the political class and everyone else. Bennett has become part of the the political class. This is why Utah Republicans rejected him.
I just laugh at Krugman's diatribes because the man has no clue about living out here in the real world. He's just part of the political class living in his ivory tower, looking down their noses at the rest of us and lecturing us on how we should live and what we should think. People like Krugman can pay thousands in higher taxes and still have enough to tip the limo driver hundreds of dollars after sipping champagne in his SoHo penthouse jacuzzi.
Why Vox Verax continues to publish Krugman when there isn't a single Minnesotan Krugman speaks for is beyond me.
Well, in light of May 18 primary results, once again, I have been proven correct - the establishment has been thrown out. Krugman is such a moron. He doens't get what the Tea Party movement is all about. He still thinks the political world breaks down on Democrat/Republican allegiances. It breaks down on the political class and the non-political class and the primary results where every establishment candidate - Democrat AND Republican - was denied.
Oh, and that Tea Party movement? I just hope the elites keep ignoring us...it's worked out pretty good in our favor so far.
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