The Republican old stand by... a military intervention to rally citizens around the flag, hope voters wise up.
10
Yet Conner Lamb barely squeaked out a win. This doesn't sound like some true awakening by voters to me. Lamb was far and away the best candidate and conducted far and away the best campaign on issues and not negatives. Saccone was a cheerless, low energy, fat old man whose only claim to power was that he was a Trump sycophant. Lamb should have won by a landside as I see it. Democrats still have to deal with "Why didn't Lamb roll over the other guy?"
19
We see from the first paragraph, with the lies about what Republicans stand for, that the Republican agenda is a mystery to Paul Krugman.
Too bad. It might stop his mudslinging.
2
What is truly remarkable is that conservatives commenting Krugman's op-ed below, don't even start to address what he's actually denouncing.
They provide no arguments at all, let alone arguments that could refute Krugman's main point: the GOP has become utterly corrupt, and only passes bills that shift money from the 99% to the wealthiest 1%, which has absolutely nothing to do with conservative philosophy.
NO conservative comment below tries to show that yes, this IS compatible with conservative philosophy.
No conservative comment below tries to show that no, this is NOT what GOP bills that Trump signed into law are de facto doing.
Comments from conservatives simply reject no matter what Krugman writes without even reading it, and merely because they know that politically, he's a liberal rather than a conservative.
And it's this lack of thinking and fact-checking that made the GOP base so "deplorable", literally, as it's precisely what allowed the GOP for decades now to lie and betray their own base day after day, without GOP voters even noticing what's happening, as Fox News told them to simply blindly trust the GOP and systematically reject no matter what a Democrat says or does, supposing that disagreeing politically must somehow mean being an "evil person".
Time to wake up, dear conservative friends, and to start thinking for yourself again, because America needs politically engaged citizens, if not it will never become great again ... !!
26
"There’s no mystery about the Republican agenda... lower taxes for the wealthy" New walkway constructions are supposed to fall in third world countries: the reason this is now happening in America is we are now a third world country. The GOP agenda for America has consequences: public debt/gdp now over 100% (not seen since WWII), D- rated infrastructure, collapsing infrastructure where money can be found to build new, kids dodging bullets at school, and a Supreme Court about to make abortion illegal. I hope it was all worth it. Old empires always pick fights with new ones. When Trumps trade war with China turns hot, and the East coast disappears under the ocean, rightwing America can blame it all on the 2nd coming, and Jesusville will reliably swallow it.
17
I've been telling friends for more than a year that we should expect a war (and, as we know from the dear leader, wars are "winnable") no later than April of 2020 to assure to maximize the "Americans stand behind their leaders during was time" card. The way things are looking, could easily be sooner. If Dems take one or both houses of Congress and impeachment threatens? We'll be lucky to not have several major metro areas nuked, either as "terrorist" attacks using shipping containers or outright missile strikes. Not what you were expecting Trump voters? Wised up? Too darn late. Take your tax cut and build a bomb shelter. Oh yeah, hard to build much of a shelter with $1400.
13
Few things are uglier that an old guard going through its death throes.
4
Democrats can win with the right message(s), made to order for each congressional district, and each state. But then, what will they do once they are in office? There is a vast, anti-Democratic and anti-democratic news network, and social media bot attacks via social media run by Russia, to keep Democrats from being able to govern effectively even if they are elected. Democrats are weak, underfunded, and naive. Many Democrats (Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein) are themselves arrogant 1%ers who have little ability to solve the problems of the lower 98%. Obama had the Presifdency, House, and Senate for two years and what did he use it for - complicated, ineffective health care law (rather than Medicare for all) and renewing a Republican tax break for the very wealthy! He bent over backwards pre-emptively compromising rather than fighting for what worked long term - from consumer financial protections to fair loans for college students. Democrats must able to govern coherently in the face of 24/7 tsunamis of fake news. Democrats have terrible media participation, internet security and ability to get facts to all consumers and voters. The Obamas should figure out why they left the country in such deplorable condition and what they should have done differently. Obama oversaw the worst attack ever on America - the Russian hack of our elections in 2016, was warned about the attack repeatedly even by our security services, and SAID NOTHING! HE FAILED US!
4
Is it not amazing that the GOP has been playing this game the same way for 40 years or more and been exceptionally successful.
This is a reflexion on the intellectual quality of USA electorate, an electorate that does not know what is good for itself.
The person who repeats the same ad infinitum and expects a different result is insane. Is the USA electorate insane?
7
It's the anti-white rhetoric on the illiberal left that both helped get Trump elected and pushed certain people towards white nationalism (much as the racism against blacks of the 1960's pushed many towards black extremist groups).
The "eruptions of racism" cannot be blamed on Trump.
2
As Dr. Krugman says: "In particular, regimes in trouble — like, say, the Argentine junta in the 1980s — often try to rally the public with dangerous foreign policy adventurism." The Argentines did not appreciate that Maggie Thatcher had many problems as well and welcomed the chance to distract the Brits with a "conflict" in the South Atlantic. I am very worried that President Traitor will attempt a Reaganesque "Operation Urgent Fury" on North Korea, Venezuela, or some other target that he deems "easy" even though we have an on-going conflict in Afghanistan that is anything but easy.
5
If You’re so Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? Turns Out it’s Just Chance
A recent research shows the wealth goes with luck rather than talent or skill or work ethic or anything like that ( https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.07068 ) ( https://medium.com/mit-technology-review/if-youre-so-smart-why-aren-t-yo... )
This has a profound policy implication and political thrust for the progressives. It is NOT the person's will to work hard or take risks. It is pure luck that largely determines who are the top 0.1% or even 1%. The pure luck or pure chance does not deserve all the tax cut!
Ross Thomas wrote a book titled "The Fools In Town Are On Are Side - And Ain't That A Majority In Any Town." I think that certainly applies today.
2
Your closing line about foreign policy adventurism is a big concern for me. If Trump somehow is still President and nominated for 2020, it would be just like him to start a war in the hope that people would rally round the flag. I wonder if that is actually his plan. He seems oblivious to his terrible poll numbers.
2
I wish to echo what "Spunkychk ' said lower down in the comments section. "The most difficult part of growing older isn't the weakening of my body. It's watching the same old game being played out over and over again by the GOP, and it's watching people falling for it over and over again."
I watched a very good Ken Burns documentary on the Roosevelts, recently. I was amazed to see the Republicans were at the same tricks they are today. Among other fake stories they made up one that FDR sent a navy destroyer to bring his dog Fala to him. Winning by lying is their foundational principle!
Have the people learned their lesson through Trump, or am I too much the optimist.?
6
Just because they are voting for the democrats recently, the lefties think they are wising up. American voters have always been wise and will remain wise but the arm chair reporters and columnists need to respect the outcome no matter who gets their votes.
2
The wisest move voters can make is to show up and vote and work hard to get other voters to the polls. Only a massive turnout against Trump and his Republican enablers can overcome systematic gerrymandering, voter suppression, bottomless dark money, Russian hackers, and the enormous right wing propaganda machine known as Fox News. These are the tools that the Republican Party uses to maintain a one-party state beholden to the corporate fascists that own and control the GOP.
9
"Regimes in trouble — like, say, the Argentine junta in the 1980s — often try to rally the public with dangerous foreign policy adventurism." I'm not at all sure that Trump won't try to save himself by either starting a war or staging a major false-flag terrorist attack.
4
There are only 3 ways Trump goes out:
1) January 20, 2025, he might walk out willingly, as a "winner"
2) The Big Macs catch up to him
3) If he is impeached, or loses re-election, or feels cornered, he is going to reach for that big red button
2
"Are you sure that Trump won’t go that route? Really sure?"
No. I am not sure. In fact I am sure Trump will start a war,
probably against Palestine.
3
**a man who holds office in part thanks to Russian intervention**
Please get off of this drug, Dr Krugman. 70% of registered voters did not vote and Putin had zilch to do with that. The Dems agenda did though.
5
If a stable national security advisor is replaced with a warmongering firebrand, and the scandals keep deepening for the President, foreign ploicy adventurism sounds benign compared with the end of days holocaust that man could unleash on others, then in lightning fast short order find returning against us. The special prosecutor muat know that if the pressure squeeze is too great for the Prez idzilla he may have a tantrum that could change the course of life on this planet. In fact, that is his trump card.
5
Contrary to Mr. Krugman's analysis, if the voters "wised up" they would demand from the Democrats a state by state campaign for the much needed basic social reforms ($15 minimum wage, Medicaid for all, free college tuition, etc.) for which their base is crying out. Instead we get Russia, Russia, Russia!
Every election cycle, what is left of organized Labor donates hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of hours of their members' time to elect Democrats. What do they get in return?
Labor Law reform? Make it possible to organize workplaces in America once again? Of course not. The Democrats rush to help de-regulate the big banks!
And you really think that the workers should support them?
No, Mr. Krugman, the voters will "wise up" when they stop voting for either capitalist party and support a Socialist.
The way forward has been shown by the Labour Party activists in the U.K.
The rank and file must wrest control of the Democratic Party back from the corporations. This is the path to victory for progressives.
8
What you mean is that in Trump country, Dems should start defending policies that only a minority supports and then somehow, miraculously, they would nevertheless wind up winning elections and having the legal power to sign all these things into law.
I hope you realize that that's not how a democracy works?
You cannot govern, in a democracy, without compromising. To wait until an elected official refuses to compromise before you'll support him is to wait until society changed and starts thinking like you do, rather than to accept the fact that before a majority will agree with you, you'll have to work hard to convince them.
It's precisely this kind of "political illiteracy" that leads to having to live with a government that opposes 90% of what the American people want, as is the case today, in the first place.
The difference between Sanders and Hillary wasn't a difference of ideals (BOTH support universal HC, a much higher minimum wage, etc.), it was a difference concerning HOW to get there.
Sanders proposed to simply forget about the impact of 2 decades of Fox News Faux News on an important part of the American people, and to imagine that all that is needed to obtain real, radical, lasting, democratic
change, is to say that you WANT that kind of change.
As to the UK: Labour lost the elections there too, remember? And now they're stuck not with Trump, but with a right-wing Brexit government.
More info: see Saul Alinsky, "A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals".
2
One message from this column that must not get lost - but must be stated loud and clear by Democratic candidates - is that there are 10 times as many hospital workers as steel workers in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. And similar ratios hold in other parts of the country where "traditional blue-collar jobs" are in danger of disappearing or have already disappeared. Saving jobs in steel and coal - if indeed they can be saved - will not be a net plus if it costs jobs in healthcare and other sectors. (And remember that although the number of manufacturing jobs in the US has shrunk enormously, the US output of manufactured goods has actually grown; manufacturing has become much less labor-intensive than it was. Even if no manufacturing jobs had been outsourced to other countries, the number of manufacturing jobs in the US would have shrunk. Those jobs will only be 'coming back' if the US bans manufactured imports *and* the use of robots, etc. to do the manufacturing. Does anyone think the latter is likely to happen?
6
Speaking of foreign adventurism, I have noticed more recruiting ads than usual for the US military, specifically the Air Force. While the job market is tight and the services compete with the private sector for good help, the search for new AF recruits makes me think that they are staffing up for an expected new air war. I'm not anti-military and have more than one family member who served with distinction, BUT I'm against dumb wars. And having a war because beer and circuses aren't exciting enough for the public doesn't sound like a good idea for one. I haven't heard of any conclusive reason to think that Iran's nuclear program is military, tho I just read the papers about it. But I'm not persuaded that it's a threat to Israel. As far as North Korea is concerned, how many tested good-working rockets do they have? 20? 100? 2000? I'm reminded of boxing champ John L. Sullivan dealing with a Bowery drunk. Sullivan picked him up with one hand and said, "Listen, you, if you hit me just one time---and I find out about it...." N. Korea doesn't look like a threat. The big concern is potential for a new war to distract from domestic matters.
9
How many candidates do the Democrats have coming up in the next election with the courage of a Conor Lamb, who campaigned on a promise of compromise and principles rather than march to the drums of its old fogey party leaders? I don't know if Mr. Lamb's victory can be used as a rallying cry for the democrats if they are going to rely primarily on the same tired messages and Trump bashing.
4
In the short term, the Dems and Republicans can say or message anything to sway people, by marketing to voters that they are vulnerable, under attack, and need their help/votes. They make the old shell game new again. Eventually it’s what politicians do that reveals their actual intent. Much of our diminishing access to the democratic process is now controlled by investors in greed (Kochs, Mercers, Adelson, etc.) who simply don’t like democracy.
As citizens, we have to be visible to each other in order to remain indivisible. The attention, education and actions of the people can still create the common good, we see it from the ground level. Our political priorities are helped by the fact that there are more of us than there are of them, and the consciousness of that fact can spark dissent. The groundswell of discontent been coming for a long time, and as Nick Hanauer has said, “The pitchforks are coming...” (Politico, July/August 2014).
3
Most voters simply don't pay attention between the first Tuesday of November in one year and the next one 4 years later. Their person "wins" when they vote because of the "R" or "D" (or in some cases "I") and they shut down for 4 years. They watch their biased partisan newscasts, which are selling them "their story" and not covering anything that is detrimental to "their side".
Civics, history, and government classes have been scaled back in schools and usually only one half semester of any is required to graduate high school. So most of our students only learn when something bad happens and they open their eyes to see the damage done, ie Parkland Florida.
The way to change this is outreach to all voters, with real information, and explain that not voting means you have deferred the direction of the country to those that do vote. President Obama says this much more brilliantly than I can.
6
I would like to see some coverage / discussion of just what if anything Paul Ryan (read the Kochs) intend to do to social security. Ever since it was taken out of the "lock box" and made part of the general deficit it made it vulnerable, and the argument made possible that ss recipients are adding to the deficit, another of the many obfuscations that continue to pile up in the current low intelligence / high fraud era. Or are they intending anything at all that they think they could get away with? Have the Alabama / Pennsylvania wins for Democrats sobered their thinking any in that regard? Discuss please.
1
Gee Mr. Krugman,
What did the Democrats do? Silence. Was the Democratic candidate running from anything? Silence.Was the Democratic candidate for gun control? Silence. Was the Democratic candidate for punitive tariffs on steel? Silence. Did the Democratic candidate tack far to the right even to the point of repudiating the Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi?Silence.
Thank you so much for the one-sided analysis of this special election and the fear mongering about dictatorship and foreign "adventurism" in order to spread fake news and influence the mid terms.Thank you for not mentioning that the Democratic candidate basically ran as a Republican and repudiated or ran from most issues that you and the lockstep NYT EB hold dear. You might consider that 98% of the US electorate consider the NYT as a foreign newspaper run by an elite cadre of condescending armchair social engineers that so out of touch they think Stormy Daniels is going to reverse the tide. It's par for the course however since they still think Hillary is president.
4
Thanks for your perspicacious and thoughtful piece about Pope Francis. However, I must take respectful issue with its overall thrust. No great leader can do anything without upsetting the status quo. If structural instability or palace intrigue is the hallmark or definition of whether a ministry is a success or not, I suppose, by definition, that means that Jesus’ ministry was a total and utter failure.
Rev Graham Baird
Senior Pastor
First Presbyterian Church
Burlingame, CA.
1
Except for the last paragraph this column is an optimistic one.
Except I am not convinced there is much "wising up" of the voters. We will see this coming November.
Meanwhile I am pretty sure Trump will try some "dangerous foreign policy adventurism" especially after the impulsive way that led to his steel and aluminum tariff. I think the Rocket Man - Dotard meeting should be considered one such.
7
Not all of them, but if everybody votes, it will be enough!
1
Are these razor-thin outcomes really an indication that Americans are waking up or is this just what happens when Democrats, who tend to stay home for mid-term elections, have gotten wise to the fact that every vote counts? Americans are still as divided as they were when Trump was elected. Democrats may be wising up, but let's not rush to say that one district represents the whole country.
2
The razor-thin outcomes are what happens when an unpopular agenda is propped up and made competitive by years of shameless gerrymandering.
2
Democrats have now won over 30 special elections since trump was appointed president.
Lets not rush to call over 30 election victories by Democrats all over the country "one district".
2
From the column: "Yet I have to admit that while the wising-up of American voters is deeply encouraging, it also makes me nervous. History says that Republicans won’t change course, because they never do. They’ll just look for bigger distractions."
Yep. Here's the recipe: Tillerson out, McMaster out; Pompeo in, Bolton or Kellogg in. Begin war with North Korea. Should take some of the headlines at least.
5
dems offered neither national voter registration nor get out the vote effort in 2016
The same can be said , so far, of 2018
clearly dems do not wish to win
1
Voters may be wising up, but that does not mean they would choose Hillary Rhodham Clinton, especially after her ugly remarks earlier this week in India. However if they continue to support her, then they are no more wiser than before.
3
Try to keep up. Clinton ran over a year ago, and almost nobody cares what she's doing nowadays. Opposition to Trump's program does not mean support for Clinton. And the hypocrisy of complaining about Clinton's remarks while tacitly accepting Trump's is breathtaking.
3
Far from being "really sure" that Trump won't start a major war to distract us from Mueller, Stormy Daniels, etc., I am deeply concerned that he will do exactly that.
21
The baffling thing is that so many Americans have been convinced to back the gutting of their Social Security, Medicare and health-care coverage, and a massive upward flow of wealth, in exchange for a repeated but unfulfilled promise of a "trickle" down from the 1%.
18
Perhaps they understand that what is in their interest is not best for the nation as a whole. We are a capitalist country, which, by definition, is not good for labor.
If I’m reading your comment correctly, From Where I Sit, you begin with the assumption that Social Security, Medicare and health care are good for individuals but not the nation. Why do you so easily assume that’s true?
8
From Where I Sit - Are you seriously arguing that working people are just mega-altruists in the name of capitalism?
If people really behaved in that way, societies that tried communism would not have collapsed.
2
It is difficult to know what this “president “ will do next. The latest rumors of who might go next are Ben Carson, John Kelly and others. It is rumored that John Bolton might replace McMaster who probably would help Trump lead the nation to world war 3.
10
Why,foreign adventuring and distracting patriotic wars are exactly the next item in the fascist playbook!
16
I'm almost resigned that the inmates of Idiot Nation will continue to vote against their own, better interests. I hope that this time they'll prove me wrong but, let's be honest, there's not a helluva lot of room for optimism.
My generation was handed one of the most functional nations in human resources history. And what are we handing over to our children? A dysfunctional cesspool. Way to go, America.
http://www.tomdegan blogspot.com
Tom Degan
14
Your title implies that voters are stupid. Another offensive slip by the "media elite". Did you mean the deplorables instead of voters?
2
Hopefully Mr. Krugman is right about PA-18, as he has long been on all things Republican. Perhaps even Fox addled fools who against their own interests are finally wising up.
But this is just the beginning - the beginning of the END of the Republican Criminal Organization. We don't want to reform the Republican Party. We don't want to work with the Republican Party. We don't want to reach across the aisle, find common ground, or reach a consensus with the Republican Party. We want this criminal, traitorous party - really a criminal mafia impersonating a political party - removed entirely from American political life, and put where they have long belonged: behind bars. We want commissions, investigations, indictments, arrests, trials, convictions and long jail sentences for 40 years of crooked deals, lies, and numerous attempts - up to and including treason in 2016 - to subvert and destroy our democracy and reduce Americans to serfs on behalf of their plutocratic and corporate owners, and we want their sleazy, vile, and racist propaganda outlets - Fox News, Clear Channel, Sinclair, - removed from the public airwaves, investigated for subversion and treason and scattered to the wind. We want to know how much laundered Russian cash was funneled to the likes of McConnell, Ryan, Nunes, and the rest of them by their terrorist enforcers, the NRA, and we want that criminal cabal in jail as well. NO REPUBLICANS IN 2018! NO REPUBLICANS IN 2020! NONE! NOT ONE!
15
But beware a failure of the two-party system. When one party gets so much power that it essentially takes over, corruption becomes egregious. Even good guys turn into bad guys when the temptation expands and the punishment recedes.
2
A new party, left or right, will arise. But the Republican party, the R]epublican Criminal organization, must GO.
The goal is to move the terms of debate to a populist agenda, to which both parties must respond.
1
But let's not forget that Lamb would have been considered a Republican be all measures until not many years ago. His stated positions did not get any support from the Democratic party, the one more concerned with unfettered immigration and gender fluidity. Sure fire election losing positions.
Said as an FDR Democrat.
1
As problems to be solved, institutionalization of economic inequality, destruction of the mechanisms of representative government, and the categorical refusal of elected officials to acknowledge the rule of law should probably take precedence at this point.
2
You seem convinced by the bait-and-switch. First, Democrats obviously don't support "unfettered immigration" and I'm not sure what you mean by "gender fluidity", but it sounds like tolerance of and support for LGBT individuals.
Lamb supports Democratic positions: he supports the ACA, he's pro-choice, he opposes the GOP donor tax giveaway, and he supports unions. What positions are you talking about?
1
Lamb is personally opposed to abortion but supports current law and doesn't think it should be changed. Put differently: he doesn't think the government should control people's decisions about their own bodies. He is in favor of unions. He is against tax cuts for the rich at the expense of everyone else. These strikes me as the essence of the Democratic positions. (Mine too.)
2
Ignorance begets fear. Fear begets hatred. This is the republican M.O. The divide and conquer can only work if we're stupid. So please DON'T BE STUPID!
7
The only surety crooked lying Trump has to offer is a deep insecurity about the future, as disposed by his crass incompetence and lack of interest about people's fate...unless it contributes to his enrichment at our expense. Trump is a 'classic' bully (a coward in disguise), so insecure he decided to stick with his loyal base, while screwing the rest. The republicans, racists themselves, have been cowed into obedience by the discriminator in-chief...except when trying to belittle 'the other' ( i.e. democrats and independents, as they tend to be more critical in analizing the news, seeking the facts based on evidence and the truth). Voters must educate themselves to reach the proper decisions, and this includes civics to understand politics, to get things done. Republicans have metamorphosed from 'obstructionists' to sheep, led by Trump by the nose. What we see nowadays, if the muzzling of the press is included, is anything other than democracy.
2
These days, I often wonder how many Trump voters, when they are alone with their thoughts, are asking themselves -- what the hell did I do?
3
you assume they have thoughts - they don't. They are programmed and recite as instructed
5
I wish I were more optimistic that voters are getting smart to the perpetual Republican playbook (essentially Lucy holding the football for the ever-hopeful Charlie Brown; always the same outcome). But I sense these recent R losses in special elections - and let's hope in the coming midterms and in 2020 - are mostly just a reaction to the toxic and unforgivable Mr. Trump.
Even when we can get Trump where he deservedly belongs (in maximum security prison, and no twitter or TV for the rest of his days), the whole rest of the GOP will still remain a fun house mirror arcade of authoritarian wanna-be's with not a single democratic impulse or respect for the diversity or institutions which actually have made this country great.
As others keep saying, make damned sure you're registered to vote, and make sure you, your family and friends get out and vote.
5
Hos about Lamb ran a better campaign!!??
Most adults, sane or insane, have learned to ignore political ads ... and I am not sure they influence voters... and PS the current ones only mention the candidate NOT the party affiliation, which IMO is rather bogus when in the end ti comes down to vote the column aka party line or not.
Behind all of this analysis is the hidden question why didn't Hillary win? and of course the answer is the electoral college system.. OTOH it is also true that the Repugs seem to have controlled Congress for numerous years. IMO we need more independent candidates. What does it take to ake a political animal? (Why won't Hillary run for governor of NYS?)
I hopr Krugman's right; but I have no faith in people who allowed themselves to be conned by a stupid snake oil salesman. Trump's stupidity incompetence, mendacity and corruption are truly dangerous for the survival of our country.
8
Something about those tee-shirts on a line in the window that has been battered by weather says a lot. Sure I can foresee Trump going the route of the junta that took Argentina to war w/silly Gr. Br. over the Falklands...yes, foreign policy adventurism. Tillerson for all his weaknesses would not gone along w/Trump on a North Korean adventure with nukes in the foreground and an immature leader at the helm. Two unfortunate leaders are going to face off and we're watching. And there's Iran which has fallen into the same pit of foolish talk by POTUS and his henchmen. We're in one helluva mess. Thank you, GOP.
2
Thanks Paul. Bait and switch - absolutely. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and some of the people part of the time -- but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
The Trump circus continues, now more entertaining than the defunct Barnum & Bailey Circus. However, the ultimate results for our nation are not funny. My guess is that Trump is firing people right and left so that when his miserable performance comes to an end, he will have several hundred people to point the finger at. Not my fault, I did a hell of a job, but was betrayed by underlings. Get ready for it.
3
There is actually a silver lining to the insanity that is Trump. How else would there have been wake up calls such as these were it not for him and the Republicans. For 8 years of the Obama presidency the GOP was hell bent on obstruction and denigration of anyone who didn't agree completely with their way of seeing things. If Hillary had been elected we would be experiencing more of the same but on steroids.
The engagement in what is going on in government is bringing people to the table that couldn't be bothered to participate. I have several friends who are politically involved for the first time in their lives and these are people in their 50's and 60's.
In trying to do what I can to save my sanity through all of this I frequently remind myself that in many ways Trump might just be the best thing that has happened in this country. It usually does take a lot to get Americans to show up but things are so blatant it is impossible for many more of us to remain complacent.
7
The Deplorables who voted for Don The Con and who continue to vote for his terrorist Republican enablers in Congress are among the stupidest people on Earth. Are they finally waking up to the horror they have unleashed? I seriously doubt it. These idiots have been on the wrong side of every issue for decades and will continue in that vein for decades to come. The only hope is that the special counsel will be able to prove the criminality of 45 and get this guy out of office fast. The idea of America is real but the reality is that the ideal has been lost, possibly forever. I fear 45 will unleash nuclear war in the next year or so and that he will cause the end of civilization.
2
"Trump is surely the least godly man ever to occupy the White House."
Agree...and THAT took some doing!
4
It is long past time for the great majority of Americans to realize that the Republican agenda does not work for them.
4
that would require thinking.
2
I know what Paul is talking about because I was in Argentina at the time. He's talking about the Falkland War (Las Malvinas). Gen Galtieri was drunk the whole time. It was a mess and, being American who they felt betrayed by, I had to keep my mouth shut. It was very scary.
2
Personally I am bracing for the next recession which will be sooner than later and of course war. Tillerson was not my favorite pick for Sec of State, but he was more adult like than the remaining Cabinet elites. Due to the the year one budgets cuts, the dismantling of the State Department puts us at a huge disadvantage with no one knowing what is going on in the world.
Chaos equals insanity.
3
There's an old joke about the farmer who hits his stubborn mule in the head to get his attention. You could hit a modern lunatic fringe Republican a million times, you still won't get their attention. When beliefs come from negative emotional responses to the world, reason is useless, no persuasion is possible, the true believer will simply keep mindlessly repeating their stubborn delusional opinion.
The special elections show a change in the minds of certain voters, but we're a long way from the Dems winning back some power in the fall. There has always been a paranoid, hate filled, conspiracy oriented, victim mentality in America, but never before has a fringe group this mentally removed from factual reality gained massive political power. We've seen what happens when a crime family takes over a country(N. Korea, Nazi Germany, Syria, Iraq, many more) and what happens when corrupt aristocracies or oligarchs control countries. Always extreme inequality, lies as a matter of course, the normalization of evil, no empathy for the common citizens that do the work of the nation, punishment of critics, attacks on a free press, "enemies" everywhere, scapegoating of "despised groups", looting the national wealth, always denying any crime or misdeed or lie.
Sound familiar?
5
the old saying is "you can't reason a person out of a belief that they didn't reason their way into
1
My bet is that Trump will invade Venezuela.
Why? It serves as an example where "progressive" policies lead.
this just in! power plants under attack! fake news??
2
We live in a society that believes in the wisdom of waters, as often reflected in the saying, "The voice of the people is the voice of God", or in the Latin original, "vox populi vox Del est". In real world this is far from being true.
The Presidential election of 2016 was a quirk in the electoral law overruling the majority of "the voice of the people". Historical examples are plentiful of the shortsightedness of the people or their elected representatives in upsetting an existing regime of the country. For example, the Civil War in England and the regicide in the 1600s; deposition of the constitutional monarchy in France in 1792; the votes for the bolsheviks in Russia from 1917 on; and the vote in Germany for Hitler's party in 1933.
The current struggle between the Democrats and Republicans is seen by the NYT opinion writers as a struggle between the Good and Evil. Do not mislead yourselves: once one party gains the upper hand, it is as bad as the other.
One should believe in statistical equilbrium: Good and Bad alternating, and lng-term situation fluctuates about zero.
1
"wisdom of waters" is a miss of the spell-checker. It should read "wisdom of voters".
Sometimes, in life, you come across a lie so brazen you believe it. You do so because you think ‘surely this person wouldn’t be so evil as to lie about something so meaningful to so many others.’
But, then, it sinks in. The person is a liar and he doesn’t care about all the harm he causes.
The Republicans and their Liar in Chief don’t care. Hopefully, though, a critical point has been reached and the credulous have wisened up.
2
if you're betting on americans getting smarter, don't bet more than you can afford to lose
1
O course he will go that route. He has been talking about 'updating' the nuclear arsenal since early in the 2016 campaign and prides himself with having a big nuclear arsenal and the guts to use it. The Republicans are firm believers in preventative war and totally deaf to civilian deaths as witnessed by their condoning of the gun violence in their own country and tolerance (glee?) at Iraqi deaths in their failed Iraqi invasion.
No, there is a war in our future if the electorate does not wake up in November. Don't forget that there were many Nazi supporters in the US prior to WW II and many of their progeny are now Republicans.
2
the GOP success formulae goes beyond bait and switch to exploiting wedge issues - gods, guns and gays
3
Hatred of country? Let's start with the amoral Russian plant in the oval office-that is an expert demonstration of hatred for our country.
4
I hope they're wising up but I'm not sure all of them ever will. The GOP has provided ample evidence over the years that its only interest in governing is to enrich the rich at the expense of the poor; yet some of its poorest victims continue to buy its snake oil even as they are being robbed blind. How stupid can you be to support a grifter who gives himself and his millionaire pals a huge tax cut while telling working stiffs it's all for their own good?
4
Lord, hear our prayer!
2
Keep America Stupid! can still prove a winning strategy. The only thing that unites Americans is war. The more savage the better. The weaker the opponent the better (this is where Bush went wrong. Reagan was smarter, choosing Grenada). Trump dare not confront Korea. unleashing a massive operation against undocumented Americans may work, even without the support of defense contractors who wouldn't benefit and who would prefer a hot war any day. Then again, there's Panama - they had the temerity to rule against the Trump organization. Hmmm.....
6
Trump is a bigger danger to America than North Korea. Like Mr. Krugman point out our biggest fear should be that this moron may well use "foreign policy adventurism" to distract from his high crimes and misdemeanors.
As Robert Mueller gains steam Trump appears to be unraveling more and more than usual. He now admits to telling lies in imaginary conversations with Canada. You can only surmise that if he did talk to Trudeau or anyone else he would lie.
Are voters wising up? Maybe, we won't know for sure until November.
5
As a lifelong USA born Jewish atheist: God does not control our power grids, and Czar Putin is in a long line of Russian foes that predate Saint Lenin and Pope Stalin.
I have studied God and Santa Claus all my 74 years of life. Our current President knows less about god and santa claus than I do. Our current President knows less about being President than I do. I would have enough sense to resign before I launch nuclear weapons toward North Korea.
Seriously, our United States is in more danger than when we enslaved people with black skins and shot that until now worst of all Presidents: Abe Lincoln, who wanted to send black people back to Liberia.
Perhaps that is a place for Trump to build a hotel and retire there.
2
Race Hatred is the Prime Mover for Trump voters.
1
Nope. You got it half right. Voters are wising up because the Clintons are not on the ballot anymore. They can finally see democrats as being free of Clinton’s and Pelosi. The democrats plain forgot and neglected middle America for decades all the while they were begging to be heard. The democrats had abandoned middle America, not the other way around. Yet, Hillary has the gall to parade in India womansplaning that middle Anerica let her down and voted for Trump instead. Do you not see the difference? It is like wearing the night shades to blind light out, that democrats were wearing throughout the election campaign season. Hillary’s arrogant campaign did not think they needed to make their presence in PA, WI or MI, they falsely assumed they would win, their campaign HQ in Brooklyn was already planning a victory party before Election Day!! Head Slap. You too was so fooled, Doctor!
4
This was my favorite--“a hatred for our country” and “a hatred for God.”
Made up purely out of thin air. Say anything that might work.
P.S. HRC and Obama are sister-brother devil creatures from the constellation Orion
1
Exactly- this disturbed empty man is, I think, highly likely to go to war against North Korea and, for instance, Hezbollah, to help energize his base and distract from his hollow soul.
The 60 million that voted for him have, truly, no excuse, especially if they are not millionaires or billionaires. Trump is garbage, plain and simple, and a conman, and a racist, and a great damage to the environment, the ugliest of the ugly Americans. He has also fully exposed perhaps as many as 60 million ugly Americans who for some crazed reason voted for this curse over a good if not great woman, Hillary Clinton.
Greed? Ignorance? Racism? We may never truly know. But it is perhaps the ignorant who are now flipping to the Democrats. These are folks who react to reality since they do not read. And they see what we all knew- that Trump is a vile conman- truly one of the most vile conmen to have lived in this country.
Lets hope they continue to see the light.
2
"Trump is surely the least godly man ever to occupy the White House" but God will forgive him right? Just like Roy Moore? Guess God won't forgive Hillary and her emails though.... hypocrites
2
Just can't imagine two less credible liars and vile men like Kim and Trump making a deal that sticks without giving the Pope a remote control that triggers explosives wired to both men's genitals.
2
I am guessing Kim believes he is telling the truth - no matter how wrong that is.
trump knows he's lying
I am absolutely sure Trump will use ever dirty trick; any lie, and every possible distraction to divert us from the truth. I put nothing past him to save his own skin, including starting a mindless war or a staging a cope
8
My concern from day one was that DJT would drum up fear and get us into a war to ensure his job security. I hope I'm wrong.
7
The Democrats need more in the mold of Conor Lamb if they want to regain Congress or the White House. Real issues matter. Trump's 3-ring circus can only blow smoke so far.
3
Well. if Trump can't change the narrative with Stormy Daniels, maybe at least he sends Prince Jared to Albania in order to negotiate some financing. Failing that, it looks like an invasion of Albania is in the offing (Wag the Dog).
4
I like the perspective of time but unfortunately, I won't be around in 100 years to appreciate it. So, I can only speculate on how Trump will be remembered. I'll bet, he is right up there with James Buchanan ..the POTUS who rejected slavery as an indefensible evil but, like the majority of his party, refused to challenge the constitutionally established order. This gave rise to the secessionist tide and left Lincoln with the mess to clean up and a Civil War to prosecute as the solution. Trump's tax cuts, his unneeded wall, his threatened trade war, his alleged collusion with the Russians, conflicts of interest, and misogyny puts him in direct competition with Buchanan for "worst POTUS".
4
The Republicans thought they could use the tax bill as their primary offering to voters in 2018. I just heard on MPR the head of the Virginia Republican Party still clinging to this nonsensical position. He claimed that "the tax cuts have not fully kicked in." According to him after April people will be dancing in the streets because of the big tax cut they will see in their withholding.
This is truly idiotic. My paycheck increased by $86 this month. So, I'm going to vote for some Republican legislator because the GOP sees this as some kind of stupid bribe for the rubes in flyover country? It is laughable. And it is especially stupid to think that this alone could be the showcase argument for the GOP. I would gladly turn back this pittance if I thought it would do anything to curb the greed of the 1% who believes they can purchase Congress.
In fact, I intend to donate this minuscule salary bump (and more!) to Democrats trying to oust reprobate Republicans.
Voters are beginning to wake up. They hear Ryan now doing what everyone knew he would do, namely attacking all social programs to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. This is the real message America needs to hear.
Please keep writing about this, Paul. We need this hammered home to voters everywhere. Our country is in danger. The November election is a true emergency. If we fail to oust these terrible legislators, we have only ourselves to blame when the country goes down the toilet.
13
Dr Krugman,
The Israelis have put American politics under the microscope for 70 years because what happens in Washington has meant life and death.When the shooting at Stoneman Douglas ended Haaretz wrote about the who, what and why before the blood began to dry. I don't know if the NRA, GOP or the White House use anti-Semitic bells and whistles but that is another story.
I have been a political junkie for 65 years and I believe I am seeing the same situation in the USA that my grandfather saw in Europe in the 1920s when he shipped all his children to Canada and the USA.
There has been tremendous reaction to Hilary's comment that her voters are responsible for 80% of the USA economy. The reaction has all been negative but Hilary only spoke the truth. I am reminded of the reaction to Hannah Arendt when she covered the Eichmann trial. The truth is all too often very painful.
It is 54 years since the Civil Rights Act and the GOP convention at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. It is 54 years since the GOP opened its doors to the John Birch Society, the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party. It has been 54 years since Scranton, Rockefeller and George Romney were shown the exit and truth became an inconvenience.
Led by the likes of Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan and a mainstream media that made facts a matter of opinion a war on America's still thankfully large middle class possible. I know Red America and it is not wising up because it has not been taught to ask the right questions.
5
"In particular, regimes in trouble — like, say, the Argentine junta in the 1980s — often try to rally the public with dangerous foreign policy adventurism."
Why go all the way back to the 80's, when we have a much-closer-to-home example from 2003?
2
Democrat voters wising up? They sure are, Paul. Why vote for these rats and wait for crumbs, when it is so easy to become the rat. And eat well. Go Blue Wave, Go.
Must form committee and fill out all of the necessary paper work. Pay a fee. Advertise a get together. Introduce myself. Must get mad at "same old, same old". Must have an answer for "Why am I running?"
Since everything is so important, I won't number these points. They are all number one. Trump must be stopped. If he won't stand still and shut up for impeachment, well, we should stop him using any methods available.
These new tax cuts for the rich must be repealed. And then, collect the taxes that they were given. It is not their money.
Just as every man is a potential rapist, every gun owner is a potential mass murderer. Therefore, I would implement an immediate ban on the sale of guns and ammunition, by businesses and individuals. Everyone must turn in all of their machine guns and war guns and hand guns. Only approved guns for hunting will be permitted. Owners will have to have a tax receipt for every gun, insurance and keep the guns locked up in an approved hunting club.
I'm pro-life. And, yes, women's health and birth control will be paid for by the government. Social media must be monitored for "hate speech" and violators will be severely punished.
If you are in America, you are an American. You have rights.
And that's why I am running to be YOUR congressional representative.
Go Blue Wave, Go.
2
Hope and fear govern the masses; tap that and you have power. GOP knows that. Dems need to learn that altruism, fair play etc are valued but non-energizing. Give people hope for a better future and fear of ABC-Z and you have voters.
3
Thank you for the balanced account of Republican sleight of hand over the years. It has always puzzled me why the rank and file voter would vote for Republicans, who consistently propose policies that are not good for them. With any luck, those voters are, as you say, "wising up." Let's hope the tenure of the willfully ignorant and dangerously unstable president Trump can be completed before he can do any more permanent damage to all of us.
3
Paul, the Republicans along with Trump were always engaged in distributing 'fake news' which suited their main purpose of distracting the attention of their supporters.
No wonder that's all they always did : to distract the attention away from a section of the American people who kept on voting for the G.O.P. candidates in all the elections in the country.
Now we know how Trump won his election to become the president.
He kept on harping on the same theme of portraying himself and the Republicans as the good people while thumbing down the Democrats.
And the same Americans who because of their illiteracy and ignorance, kept on choosing the wrong G.O.P. candidates for the House and the Senate and voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016.
So all these talks first by Paul Ryan, next by Mitch McConnell and finally by Trump that their tax cut bill is only going to help the lower and middle-class Americans are nothing but a big "ball of fire" with nothing but ho-hum.
But for many of the Americans on the right, this fake claim that the last "tax cut are meant for you, you and only you" spread by Trump and the honchos in the G.O.P. played like a sermon coming from God, especially for most of the White evangelicals who wrongly thought Trump is their long lost messiah they had been waiting for so long and his proposed tax cut is nothing but a sign from god that he has finally arrived.
Well I've a message for those Whites evangelicals, "You've given devil a new name : TRUMP .
3
Never underestimate the ignorance, the racism and nationalism of the Republican voters. The Republicans have made hypocrisy the center piece of their Politics. They will do anything, say anything sell their mothers and even vote against the interest of the country to achieve their goals. Machiavelli is a rank amateur compared to the likes of McConnell and Ryan. If he wrote "The Prince", these guys wrote "The King"!!
2
I deeply resent that the Republican candidate in PA18 stated that Democrats hated God. I am not sure what lies beyond death, but I am positive that questions asked by St. Peter will not be whether I am a Democrat or not! Finally, Paul I believe that Trump will try war with North Korea and/or Iran to draw attention away from the gathering “storms” swirling about him! Trump is the worst president in American history! I hope that I am wrong, but you cannot predict anything with Trump!
4
Krugman better hope voters never wise up, if they did no "progressive" would ever be elected to any office ever again. Lamb did not run as a "progressive", if he did he would have lost, the only question here is did he lie to his voters. If not I welcome him, don't care if he is a democrat as long as he is not "progressive". If he did lie then that will serve as warning to voters in other states not to trust what a democrat says.
Today’s Republican Party is the construct of far right radical billionaires who have for the last 40 years engaged in a fifth column movement to end majority rule.
People just don’t want to accept this, but how else can one explain this constant hard right movement toward oligarchy despite the total lack of appeal it has for the majority?
You’re correct in that Ryan is again on the path to ending Social Security. They will run the same plays as last time under Bush. (credit to Nancy MacLean, author of “Democracy In Chains- The Deep History of the Far Right’s Stealth Plan for America”)
> Promise those in the system that they will not suffer any cut in payments.
[This is “pay off” strategy. It removes those most likely to resist hardest and it also makes those coming into retirement that miss the cut very bitter.]
> Tell “high earners” that they will be “means tested, [that they will pay more into the system for others. Make the tiny sting of progressiveness feel like an undue burden.]
>Tell those paying into the system that SSN is some kind of Ponzi scheme. [that they are supporting aging freeloaders. Forgetting that every worker contributed, as well as their employers]
>Tell them that they can do far better in private savings and investment [Think of your retirement going up in smoke in 2008]
> Enlist Wall Street (again)with the lure of all that money going into their gambling casino. [Please don’t think about the 2008 Bubble]
Hopefully, we have wised up to the ssam
3
We'll see how much the voters are paying attention. Trump lied continually during the campaign, and won anyway. There are plenty of the great unwashed masses, who will agree with his lies under the cover of the news lies too, even though there is scant evidence of widespread falsehoods. Kellyanne Conway was right when she said the line about " Alternative facts". Unfortunately ,stupid, is one hard to cure condition.
2
Didn’t this upward redistribution policy also work under Bill Clinton? And Obama?
Clinton and Obama provided jobs and health care. They did not redistribute wealth upwards; they spread it out into the middle and working classes. Obama forgave the criminal activity of banks and on Wall St., because he did not want to destroy banking, loans, and debts owed to foreign banks. He did the smartest things he could do; some major banking criminals escaped; however, we all escaped a major recession/Depression. He got no help from the GOP; they destroyed his Jobs Bill, and he still created jobs. The GOP has used the "small government" meme for decades; we are a country of approx. 333M people; it is not possible to govern that with "small government". We are not the collection of small towns and villages which existed in 1776 and 1789. We need to stop talking about the U.S. as if we were a "small" country. We are not.
The Democrats won this as much as Trump lost it.
Hillary could not motivate the Democrats. The big Democratic motivator is now Donald Trump.
1
Maybe the backbone of America is finally getting a backbone.
46
I just don't see Trump ever losing his ~35% base. Ever. It's almost as if his base wears its loyalty to him as a badge of honour. I was reading on CNN this morning where Stormy Daniel's mother says she'd vote for Trump again and again. All the evidence how these peoples' beliefs are contrary to their best interests doesn't have any effect on them. Confirms the aphorism, "you can't fix stupid."
2
The Roman empire used bread and circuses to keep the masses under control, and it worked for a long time. The Republican party, and particularly Trump, are using the same tactics but without the bread and it seems to be working. Perhaps the race in Pennsylvania was a harbinger, but I doubt it: it was probably a wake-up call to the republicans to come up with more dirty tricks.
A nation gets the government it deserves, and the United States as we knew it no longer exists. Can we bring it back?
1
We have it in CA, OR and WA State. Work on AZ, if you want to clean up government.
Foreign policy adventurism or domestic policy adventurism (tariffs and trade wars), it indicates the same mindset... and I think Trump has already shown his hand. Instead of an Argentinian junta we could be looking at a Venezuelan implosion of America on the backs of reactionary populism.
1
Excellent article, as always. I wish Krugman would be required reading for high school students and, indeed, everyone.
I have one quibble. Krugm and nearly everyone writing about tax cuts says that such cuts offer "relief" to taxpayers. Well, as Krugman writes, one person's "relief" is another person's "loss" and it is often directed at the same person - programs are cut, social security and medicare are reduced, infrastructure stagnates, etc. The Republican idea that those nasty taxes are just there to irritate people and there is no downside to lowering them is wrong. One way is to stop using "relief" because the consequences of "relief" from taxes is more societal stress through cuts to programs and services.
2
For years now Republicans have relied on rhetoric characterized by hysteria that is inversely proportional to their shrinking demographic. They are without convictions, as evidenced by the ease with which Republican candidates in competitive races are willing to start talking about gun control measures they had vigorously opposed right up until they realized they stood a good chance of losing. They act only in the interest of major campaign contributors, their own political careers and their personal investment portfolios. Their increasing desperation will make them capable of nearly anything, and we would do well to be on our guard.
1
At the two extremes you have either a free market economy with no taxes or a communist one with everything (which wouldn't be much) divided equally. Every time someone wants to move in the direction towards a free market economy, Krugman screams
"give away to people that work or are rich" and he would do that even if the economy was 99% communist.
There has never been a capitalist "free market" economy. Markets are driven by those who own the means of production. We haven't been living in caves, trading shells etc. for a few centuries. We have progressed beyond the Middle Ages with nobles and serfs. We have progressed beyond the Great Depression. We now have a regulated environment which includes parts of the economy. We do not need to bring back the old Commie scare; we are not blind, and we see where Putin has taken Russia; it is broke, because Putin and his oligarch buddies have looted the treasury there. We are not Russia, and our plutocrats can be reined in via the vote for honest government. Bannon is part of a long history starting with demagogues like Huey Long. We should ignore him. Trump is part of a long history of some really bad Presidents: Harding, Buchanan, Jackson, and "W". We survived them all. We will survive Trump, another aberration in a free Republic.
2
From the FDR '30s till 1980 the white working class was happy to join up with all workers in a 99% front for wages, benefits, community, and freedom from rich peoples' oppression. Let's hope this is the start of, "Welcome back, folks!"
3
More than a century ago, sociologist Weber wrote his famous book about protestantism and "capitalist ethics".
His idea was that Protestantism (especially Calvinism) had invented the notion that accumulating material wealth during your life on earth means that God approves of how you're leading your life, whereas being or remaining poor indicates that God disapproves and is punishing you.
The idea was that Catholic/pre-capitalist laborers would work less hours on the field once their boss paid a higher wage an hour, whereas Protestant workers in industrialized saw their job as a "calling" from God, and worldly success as a sign of God's approval, so instead of working less hours with a higher wage, they worked the same numbers of hours but harder, in order to earn more money.
Today, however, the GOP doesn't have ANYTHING to do with this "capitalist ethics" anymore.
As Krugman rightly points out, for at least 40 years now the GOP switched to savage capitalism, where workers are told that if they work hard, then somewhere in the future they will earn more money - which then of course never happens, as they pass bill after bill that systematically shifts money to the wealthiest 1%.
And of course, liberals have from the very beginning opposed this kind of ethics, claiming that material wealth or success is NOT what life is essentially all about, AND that your wealth is largely dependent on factors that you don't control, so certainly not a sign of your "character" either..
3
In regard to the PA-18 special election, I think the result would have been different, 350 people who voted D would have voted R, had Trump waited a day to fire Rex Tillerson. But after insulting Putin, Trump could not wait even a day. It makes you wonder if there is indeed a back channel.
That said, what the overwhelming support by Evangelical voters for Trump proves is that "Values" in front of the word voter is and has always been code for Race.
Which brings up the key point about the GOP base and why tax cuts regardless of who benefits does not affect their vote. The base of the GOP are other than economic voters.
Which brings up why are politics is so dysfunctional. Common sense gun safety cannot pass because if the issue is settled, some so called 2nd amendment voters will become economic voters or as they are more commonly known, Democrats.
That is the GOP must, to be successful with its 1% economic agenda divide Americans, get them to hate other Americans, by whatever means available. Remembering that close does not count in politics, but for Trump firing Tillerson for insulting Putin, the GOP strategy I believe would have worked.
In recent years, Republicans have relied heavily on “switch and bait” as a tactic, particularly in the subject of gun control. For instance, if a Republican official is asked about assault rifles, he immediately switches his response to another topic like mental health or arming teachers. The official is hoping that the switch will work and get him off the hook and the questioner will accept the bait of the altered topic. In my opinion, it’s an offensive way to try to dupe people, particularly the kids in the “March For Our Lives”.
3
Will the evangelicals be the last to wise up? As a progressive Christian, it is so painful to see leaders of what they call the Christian church still defending DT, who stands for the opposite of Jesus' teachings. If all they care about is criminalizing abortion, I wonder how they will deal with what Stormy has in store for DT.
1
No mention of voter suppression and gerrymandering which are ongoing. Trump could still get re-elected in 2020 if Mueller doesn't get him first.
2
The only thing we can know for sure is Trump will do anything no matter how reckless to protect himself and to prostitute the presidency for his own personal gain.
28
The "red States" will never turn against their "saviour"
Please register and vote this November.
13
I wish I could share in your optimism about people wising up.
The veil has been lifted and we really see the racism and greed of Mr. Trump and the GOP, this is now the reality.
19
This column doesn't even mention the winning candidate.
2
Some thoughts that get us through these trying days:
1. We survived Andrew Jackson and Joe McCarthy; we'll survive this and be stronger for it.
2. Hitler and the others were defeated and died.
3. There are good Christians and bad Christians, as there are good and bad in all religions and peoples, including our own.
4. In the "Universe" the good and evil you do comes back to you in some way, shape or form.
5. If you want to feel better about America, go see "Hamilton" or listen to the cast album. This is the America we want to believe in.
18
I disagree. Your argument is based on outliers and liars. Single digits. This wave of populism, disrespect for rule of law, and other democratic restraints is unprecedented. GOP's brilliant tactic of perceived deprivation led voters to the polls feeling cheated and blaming the other guy for cheating them. Populism is now institutionalized by global powers such as China and Russia. Climate change is forcing huge migration shifts of people with little time for cultural assimilation. Pain is coming.
43
Thanks for your positive hope, seriously, Hitler alone caused the lives of over 45 million people, so hopefully we can avoid that kind of price to pay simply to have a decent society,
6
this has been going on with the GOP since Nixon (this is Nixon's GOP right down to the southern strategy).
Boy George bush lied us into a war that was to take "weeks maybe months" and cost between "50-60 billion".
5000 American dead, 30,000 maimed - not one word from the GOP on this treason.
we don't even need to talk about the untold numbers of Iraqi dead. americans don't even care for their own
5
All these articles, all these opinions, support one thing only: we have a very dangerous buffoon in the White House, and we have absolutely no way to remove him. Forget about impeachment while the Republicans hold on by even a hair. They are as much the problem as their frontman.
16
Yes they may be wising up, but they still have the Voter-Suppression Hill, the Gerrymandering Hill, and the Rampant-Disinformation (FoxNews+) Hills to climb.
Nil Sin Magno Labore--Nothing without great labor.
VOTE!!!
20
"despite receiving overwhelming support from white evangelicals"
Republicans don't love God. They love the concept of loving God.
23
Actually, they love the concept of being thought of as loving God.
@Old Doc Bailey: I don't think they love that either. I think they love condemning and castigating others.
Trump and Republicans thrive on voters 'feelings', tweaking and provoking voter's emotions. They have to, because any rational analysis of the Republican agenda, past Republican performance, and Trump's parade of promises and provocations will reveal that all are lies, all are directly unbeneficial to the well-being and future health, wealth, and life prospects of the very great majority (let's call them 'the 99%' just for fun) of voters. Republicans have perfected the straight-faced lie, and Trump in his rallies calls to my mind the newsreel images of Hitler's oratorical style. I don't understand German, but with the sound turned off, the body language, movement, and hand-waving theatrics of Trump mimic that demagogue eerily well. Any thinking person will reject the promises and premises that Republican dogma and Trump's campaigning are founded on. Even the flood of money into the Lamb-Saccone race couldn't overcome that thinking vote. I hope it happens again, all over, in November!
16
The GOP is capable of anything, any time. Did you love Iran-Contra? How about the Iraq war? Tie a yellow ribbon?
The blue wave could very well drown the GOP in Nov., but expect a pointless war, complete with flag waving and the usual accusations of "traitor," if you raise any objections.
11
Rep's have been so successful of late as to let their hair down and "show" themselves. But they will just as easily slink back under their rocks and bide their time again, using rear-guard actions to keep what they've gotten. They know how hard it is for anyone to raise taxes back...
5
Voters may be wising up. Trump and the Republicans in Congress have certainly given them many things to wise up about. But even wise voters are not all the same, and the best hope for Democrats in every race is to appeal to the voters in their districts. So we really need to make sure that the Democratic candidates are wising up as well.
13
"the tactics of bait and switch": There you have it. Thank you! The art of the con has two traps: one is to sucker enough people of a certain type and two is to keep their support (almost no matter what!) because they're the type of people who can never admit to being suckered. There are the cons (Republicans) and the patsies (white, rural poor and desperate; and yes, some, bigoted).
13
The GOP is actively anti Gay, anti black, anti Hispanic, anti muslim, antiLabor, anti science, anti woman, anti education, anti poor, anti liberal, anti Science, anti educator...who is left to their base? They keep painting themselves into a smaller and smaller corner. Recently they have been attacking teenagers who are highly motivated to become political. Guess which Party they will not be voting for? Maybe not the Dems, but surely, not the GOP. Good bye GOP and good riddance.
14
The last paragraph insinuates that trump and his henchmen will start a violent military conflict to shore up support and keep them in cahoots, er ... office, another 4 years and possibly longer. That sounds irrational and like hyperbola.
I've been saying similar things for months. And, if you - anyone reading this article by Krugman - had a son/daughter in the military, would you want them sent off to war in N. Korea, or Syria, or wherever on the whim of the charlatan in the whitehouse? If you answer some jibberish about "serving their country" then you are a crazy person. (That wouldn't be serving their country, but serving the egosim and mania of an imbecile. There is a BIG difference.)
10
"The last paragraph insinuates that trump and his henchmen will start a violent military conflict to shore up support and keep them in cahoots, er ... office, another 4 years and possibly longer. That sounds irrational and like hyperbola."
Irrational, yes. Hyperbola, no. There has been speculation that if Trump thinks he will lose in 2020, he would manufacture some "national crisis" and suspend the Constitution, citing Lincoln's suspension of habeas Corpus in the Civil War as precedent, until "the crisis has passed" (which, of course, it never will). Trump has expressed admiration for those who can rule for life (for example, Xi Jinping of China) and may see that as a path to being "President for life."
2
No, Mr. Krugman, I’m not sure.
3
“hatred of God” ......... "the state of conservative Christianity
There are no "bigger distractions" to be found.
How many will die fighting a holy war trumped up by "the least godly man to ever occupy the White House"?
Stop war, separate church from state.
6
Oh yes,
It does.
The Dem hasn't even officially won yet, wait for results before we gloat.
3
The number of uncounted votes is not enough to give the republican loser more votes than the Democrat, since the Democrat has more than enough votes to still have a majority. The only result is that the winning difference will be bigger or smaller, but still a win for the Democrat.
2
The Republican Grass-Roots Formula of Guns, God and Family (traditional, of course) is the last refuge of their scondrels. The Democrats have to counter this with an alternative trinity of Health, Education and Environment as their basic principles of what Good Government should stand for.
Oh yeah, most important for our current and future legislators and Executive branch representatives - getting elected doesn't turn a lie into the truth.
3
Wishful thinking - at best
2
Absolutely “the least godly man ever to occupy the White House”. Even if you brush off the glossy mole from a portraiture of Warren G. Harding or John F. Kennedy, you will find nothing comparable to the un-godly, un-Christian stench of 45*. It is an unparalleled accomplishment for worshipers of self-defined righteousness that they were able to get this man elected head of a nation dedicated to preserving the Christian Church.
4
Paul opens by ticking off the same tired litany of stereotypes about the dominant party and then pivots to unsupported assertions about change in voter attitudes since the presidential election of Donald Trump. Americans don't much care what Krugman thinks about what they are thinking and besides the democrat party would do well to shy away from opinions about them. They are dysfunctional failures at participating in the most mainstream activity of American culture.
Except that a LOT of evidence supports those "stereotypes", when you analyze the bills that the GOP is passing (to discover it, just click on the many links in this op-ed).
And that a clear majority of the American people agree with Krugman on this (whereas a majority voted for Clinton, not Trump, remember?).
So with that ... any evidence to back up your claims ... ?
1
You mean they aren't good at football? Bowling? Racism? Gun Violence? Sexual harassment? Gender exploitation? Hypocrisy? Tax Evasion? Bait and switch (like the recent tax break for millionaires and tax increase for the poor)? Embroiling the nation in unnecessary wars? Allowing the oligarchy to let weapons, pharmaceuticals, big health care, and wall street together erode main street? I guess you are right. The Republican party is better at all that, although the Dems sure aren't far behind.
If after agreeing that there are such stereotypes then why bother asking? News to me that some are acceptable now.
Trump is surrounding himself with hawks(i.e., John Bolton) in order to prepare for going to war. That will be his go-to strategy when the walls are closing in from various illicit activities; we are bound for war.
10
Would someone please convince Trump that he’s done it, he’s made America great again, and now he can quit like Palin and go back to ruling Mara Lago?
14
The median household income is around $58K and that is usually two adults working fulltime and paying somebody to care for their young children. Half of all households earn, at some point in their lives, even less. That's a lot of working people who live in precarious circumstances where one job loss can devastate their lives, not just for a few months but lower their earnings and standard of living for the rest of their lives. Late or missed debt payments lowers their credit rating. The job they get to replace the lost job will most likely pay less. They have no company pensions and their savings for retirement is used to survive the job loss crisis. They may lose their health insurance and if they suffer a major illness or injury before they are covered again, all bets are off. Maybe, just maybe, it's starting to register with more of these voters that the anti-government, anti-tax, pro-corporation ideology of the GOP leaves them out in the cold while the rich get richer.
16
I stand by my email to friends just after the Nov 2016 Trumpocalypse:
Republican elites were rejected by their middle class base, because they had nothing for their middle class base. Like an invasive species, Trump infected a weak host and commandeered it. Add to fact that Hillary Clinton is about as inspiring as Michael Dukakis with ovaries, and you get what you get.
2
How do Republicans get away with their blatant lying, bait and switch tactics, and selling us out to global corporations?
Democrats let them.
Pelosi could have shut down the House to slow down the massive tax cuts for the rich ($5.5 trillion) and used the time to explain exactly how bad these cuts are. Instead she decided to shut down the House for Deferred Action (not a real solution) on 900,000 non-citizens.
Chuck Schumer could have filibustered the two year budget (which Obama was denied for eight years)'with $165 billion in new military spending, but instead he supported it, giving Trump a major political win he can use to normalize himself and get support?
And where was Schumer and the Delighted when Obama's Supreme Court Seat was being stolen? Democrats should have shut down all business in the Senate over that, including themselves to the podium of necessary and calling for all Democrats to protest at the Senate or in from of local Senate offices.
Democrats are helping to weaken bank regulations.
Democrats should be advocating a pro worker agenda, clearly saying they would tax the super rich to pay for education, healthcare, and infrastructure. They should explain how tax cuts for the rich become foreign investment in other countries, while higher pay and benefits for workers becomes crash spent in local stores...
If spineless Democrats spend another year hiding in the corporate "center," making excuses for doing nothing, Republicans will win the midterms.
6
Although I support DACA recipients and think immigration reform is well overdue, I also think Pelosi and Schumer should not have picked that as their issue to shut down the government.
The tax reform bill and the budget affect every single American and deserved the attention and the line in the sand that DACA got instead.
That is what I want the Democrats to do. Show us that all Americans are the priority and the votes will follow.
1
That's absurd.
Shutting down basically increases the deficit and hurts the economy and the dollar, and that's about it.
Shutting down the government is like burning down your entire house when you believe that you should add a window on the first floor and your wife disagrees ... .
It's not how a democracy works, remember?
As to what you claim that "Democrats should be" doing: just analyze what they did under Obama, and you'll see that instead of just "advocating", they ACTED ...
As long as people like you, who clearly support a liberal agenda, refuse to inform themselves and reject the idea of voting for Democrats simply out of ignorance, a minority of Trump voters will keep the legal power to do whatever it wants.
2
you are correct in that each and every crime the GOp has committed against americans was unopposed by dems.
there is only one party in this country and its not the dems
Paul has amazingly ignored the role of having a believable candidate advocating real solutions to problems obvious to voters. Rather than a wishy-washy candidate advocating wishy-washy objectives and being holier than Trump.
2
After that hypothesis has been debunked so many times already, I don't expect a professor in economics to continue to repeat it, just to please some of his readers ...
By the way, this op-ed is about explaining why Trump's candidate just lost to a Democrat in a district that isn't merely deeply red but was even pro-Trump during the last elections. It seems like those CONSERVATIVES are now the ones you'll have to try to convince of the truth of your hypothesis, no ... ?
1
The trump show veers between tragedy and comedy..his delusional self references as an historically successful president,his various pathetic attempts to actually appear presidential,his endless narcissism..all feed the late night comics. The morning news shows deal with the destructive domestic policies,alienating foreign policy,and constant threats of vanity motivated wars. All the while Ryan and McConnell act like business as usual ,as do their robotized colleagues.
There are no voices of dissent within the dominant party...all of the members,apparently being grinning sycophants and enablers.
Mueller and and an (unlikely) Democratic sweep in November are all that stand between this fervent,fraudulent fool of narcissistic destruction and his destruction of critical features of the republic.
3
Just as there no mystery about the trumpican party's agenda, there is also
no mystery about the level of profound detachment from civic life
by far too many who see no solutions to their difficulties in getting by
each day from anyone claiming to or aspiring to represent them. They
have no illusions about the system's indifference to them and have
no hopes it can change for their better. Their education level, their health,
their physical isolation all argue against such hope.
This defeated segment of the society is too large to ignore and
a part of the society that the democratic party needs to energize
and reintegrate into a large coalition of voters if there is going to be
a significant change in the downward spiral of the country.
While waiting around for that miracle to manifest, the source of
change needs to come from elsewhere. But where? The segment
of the "moderate" middle that had supported blue dog democrats in red states
and then flipped allegiance in '10 is the evident group that
could impact matters this fall. But how will they
behave when the inevitable rally round the flag song is sung at
full tilt once some foreign crisis finally emerges from the crises
that are simmering at present? Have they so bought into the
faux news fantasy worlds that they will sign on and rally loyally around
the perpetrator of the crisis?
And will progressives, full of furious righteousness, refuse to cohabit with moderates in the shabby ramshackle democratic tent?
2
Blue Dog Democrats and Republican moderates we need you!
Voters may be getting smarter, but that hasn't stopped the GOP Congress from continuing its quest to shove money upwards. Currently, the House is working on yet another "middle class" tax cut bill. Apparently, they left a few crumbs on the floor after the last cut, and they want to sweep them up as well.
3
Paul Krugman, you're doing real service to our country by speaking in a way that does not resort to cheap theatrics, or arcane and easily misunderstood theory. Thank you.
6
The most important statement you made here was a seemingly throw away line that included: "a man who holds office in part thanks to Russian intervention". It is the single most important issue in the Russian conspiracy, and one everyone seems afraid to confront. You are the first person I have seen contest Trump's oft repeated and unsubstantiated claim that Russia did not affect the results.
If so, why did the Russians bother? Do they like to waste money on futile projects? If negative ads don't influence elections, then why does every candidate spend millions on them? Why did Trump Jr. say he loved it when the Russians promised him dirt on Hillary? The effectiveness of negative ads is something on which agreement is universal. But does this prove that without Russia Hillary would be president? Of course not, but considering the narrow margins in a few key states cleverly targeted by Russia, no American can be sure that our President, chosen by a minority of us, would be in the White House without Russia's act of war. Having the legitimacy of the U.S. president remain on open question is simply not tolerable. The election became official when Congress certified the outcome. It must decertify it, recall President Obama temporarily, and call for a new election. Trump could still win, but we must be sure that the American people, not the Russian, choose our President.
I would love to see someone whose words can certainly reach more people than I tilt at this windmill.
4
Things would become particularly dangerous if Trump were impeached. I don’t think he would have any compunctions about bringing down our democracy to save his own ego. Much better to turn him out and eviscerate Trumpism at the ballot box in 2018 and 2020.
Also one mustn’t underestimate the value of racial hatred, hatred of elites and immigrant xenophobia as motivation for most Republican voters. Democrats must field more conservative candidates in contested elections so they can appeal to independent voters.
2
Voters are finally wising up? I've seen this movie before a couple of times over the past couple of decades. A Republican controlled Executive and/or congress creates a disaster - Iraq War, financial collapse, balloon the deficit, government shutdowns, attempt to dismantle social security and medicare. The voters revolt and install Democrats but never in enough numbers to completely right the ship. Then a couple years later the voters forget and put the Republicans back in power.
4
Hypocracy is the sin of sins. How many times have you heard someone (no doubt your mom was one of them) say I don’t like what you admitted to me but I am glad you told me the truth. Honesty is a great virtue taught to us early. But some people never got that lesson. Republicans chief among them. Judas must be their patron saint. And their conservative Christians are the lowest of the low. Not only do they do great damage to the truth they cast shade on their Christian brethren soiling the meaning of conscience and the words of the Old and New Testaments. Your article makes it quite clear that we are fighting for the soul of this country.
2
It's odd that Paul Krugman would grasp at the straw of PA-18 to argue that voters may be wising up. Conor Lamb's positions on the issues could hardly be more different from the views that have been expressed in this column.
Could it be that Paul Krugman is wising up?
1
PA-18 is just the latest example of Democrats winning in supposedly safe for the GOP elections. It may have been the least likely, but it is far from a unique event. It will be interesting to see what happens in the November elections when most current high school seniors will be eligible to vote.
Lamb is a centrist democrat who ran in a center-right district. He separated his personal views from positions regarding public policy (e.g., personally does not support abortion but does support a woman's right to control her own health-care decisions; is a gun owner but supports increased regulation of gun sales). He is certainly not aligned with Trump on most issues.
3
Mr. Krugman's last paragraph makes me wonder if Trump's enablers will act to curb our modern-day Caligula BEFORE a wised-up electorate has a chance to turn the tide in November. They can't all have apocalypse-safe bunkers at the ready, can they?
1
"...History says that Republicans won't change course, because they never do. They'll just look for bigger distractions." I believe that the Republicans will be making sure that there is plenty of Russian interference in our November 2018 election, and foot-dragging when it comes to guarding election results, plus the usual voter intimidation and suppression. They will do anything to remain in power.
5
“No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” H.L. Menken.
I hope everything Dr. Krugman wrote today is coming to pass. I hope that all the white folks in the flyover states are having a political epiphany. But I think that most of what's happened in recent elections is driven by the disgust people feel over Trump's behavior. That's all good, and hopefully Trump will do enormous damage to the GOP - the ignorant greedy bigoted amoral creeps deserve nothing less. But it's past breakfast time, and, as we all know, hope makes a very poor supper. Once the orange one is gone, the politics of the flyover states will go back to business as usual, and the white folks in the flyover states will go back to playing the fool for their plutocratic owners.
3
PK is right about what history says: "Republicans won’t change course, because they never do." And yet in West Virginia, a Republican-controlled state government actually raised wages for school teachers. It took a strike and lots of public sympathy for the teachers' shameful wages and jacked-up health care costs, but, in the end, Republicans did change. They made a reality-based decision to benefit their constituents. They governed. It can happen, despite History. I'm skeptical that it WILL happen on any grand scale; I'm just saying, it COULD.
2
A lesson to be learned from the health-care aspect of this: the Democrats can and must demonstrate that they are doing something positive to help the middle class. Just preaching to the choir about how the Republican agenda is hurting the middle class isn't going to get the Democrats any more votes.
2
The voters also need a better alternative than the far left, which has commandeered the Democratic party. We are force to choose between bankrupting the country to rich people and bankrupting the country to entitlements. We are forced to choose between ridiculous military parades and a mindset that puts transgender bathroom preferences on the front page of newspapers. This polarization is a bipartisan failure of leadership. I am sick of both sides and of the war between them. Where is the responsible center?
3
Krugman delegitimizes his thesis as soon as he opens his keyboard. "the G.O.P.’s central policy goal has been upward redistribution of income".
As a fiscal conservative and deficit hawk, the line you quote didn't deligitimize the thesis of this piece to me. It isn't going to take the full five years (until temporary tax cuts on the poor and middle class expire, while the ones on the rich live on...) for folks to figure out that the new tax plan is "bait and switch" by Don the Con and his Republican elite cabal. The top 10% get a 2.6% to 4.6% ongoing tax cut, and the poor of the poor not only go up by 2% (10% to 12%) but, even worse, the increase of the standard deduction does not make up for the loss of the standard exemptions for families of 4 dependents of more, even if the child tax credit increase lives on, which it won't. So even if you believe that trickle-down works, it certainly won't work well enough to offset those increased taxes on the bottom 1/3 or our nation. Therefore, Krugman's statement is correct.
1
You mean that you don't share that personal opinion.
That's okay.
But you should NEVER "delegitimize" an opinion simply because you disagree.
The only way to refute an opinion is to (1) study the arguments advanced to support it, and then (2) provide arguments and evidence that effectively prove that those arguments are wrong.
If you click on all the links provided in this article, you'll see that Krugman has a LOT of evidence and arguments supporting his opinion.
If you don't want the GOP to massively loose the next elections, it's time to stop demonizing Democrats and to start engaging in real, respectful debates ... in other words, to start analyzing WHAT Democrats are ACTUALLY saying and doing, and to give some real arguments and evidence that show us why we should disagree with Democrats, you see?
Fox News has taught you to simply reject no matter what kind of criticism, as soon as it's GOP politicians or policies that are being criticized. That's no way to build a thriving society. It's part of what it means to be an American and to reject totalitarianism, to value and take serious criticism, and to take responsibility for your choices, rather than to simply turn your head the other way and imagine that it's enough to BELIEVE that something is true for it to be absolutely true.
Great column! Thanks for this. I think you are correct that voters are finally seeing through the fraudulence of the GOP pitch.
2
Not when 86% GOP still supports Trump. Blue has a long long way to go.
Thank you Dr. Krugman. I feel better knowing there are compassionate reasonable & ethical people out there, like you. Recent election results from Alabama & Pennsylvania have allowed me to feel a glimmering of very cautious optimism that rationality & human decency still exist in this country. Regardless, I refuse to bury my head in the sand and despair. I am going to continue to march for justice & not let the haters silence me. No matter how futile it might seem at times, I will continue to vote because I love my country. I am grateful to all Americans out there who still care about the future of this country, who realize that our children & grandchildren are worth fighting for. Please get out & vote.
2
This column is another is a long line of very self-congrulatory ones where you paint the GOP and its voters as haters of the poor and worshipers of the wealthy. On the other hand those on the Left are the ones that just love everyone.
Very simplistic and hardly true.
Just the title of your article has the feeling of Mrs. Clinton's recent speech in India. "Voters were stupid in the 2016 election. But they're getting smarter."
Is that the message you want to portray?
--
Regaring Lamb, good for him in winning this election. Actually, I think him winning might actually help the GOP in the longer term because it will cause a reckoning of what is working and what isn't while there still might be time to make a difference in November or 2020.
1
Krugman never wrote that GOP voters hate the poor and worship the wealthy.
What he's telling you is to open your eyes and start analyzing what kind of bills GOP lawmakers and Trump are signing into law, because IF you do, you'll see that those bills only reflect one thing: hating the poor and trying to shift as much money as possible to the wealthiest 1%.
And THAT, he correctly recalls, has NOTHING to do with conservative philosophy. Precisely because of course GOP voters cannot possibly agree with such a corrupt way of governing, the GOP should urgently go back to real conservatism, that corresponds to what GOP voters truly want.
And Krugman and I and so many others who aren't conservatives absolutely want a real conservative party back precisely because in a democracy, you need at least two serious political parties in order for the nation to thrive, as you need real debates about real philosophical choices.
What Fox News and the GOP are doing is constantly lying about Democrats and about the state of the union and about what they're doing in DC, so that GOP voters aren't aware of how corrupt they are and keep voting for them anyhow.
THAT is what a majority of the American people denounces and rejects, not the very fact that 35% identifies as conservative and as a consequence wants a conservative party to represent them politically. Many GOP voters are inherently decent and good people, who only want the best for this nation. It's GOP politicians who are the problem.
Trump is not just ungodly in any sense of the word. He will start a war with anyone if he sees that as his best chance to maintain or increase his power. He is a one man insurrection. If he maintains both houses of Congress this year he will shoot for fences. No Republican has stopped him yet and he sees himself as another Xi or Putin. I say this not to shock but to warn the citizens of the US to be prepared for anything from this man, Trump. There have been men like him in history, but thankfully few and far bewtween.
2
Off the cuff prediction, no more accurate than the denigrated "uninformed, no classified intelligence" anti-Iraq War protestors in 2002-3 who said the Republicans war would be a disaster....Trump will leave office with no nuclear changes related to the NK regime, with Iran having kicked out the UN, and having detonated a nuclear bomb, and with Saudi Arabia having secretly bought a nuclear reactor from an unnamed source, with a plan to produce bombs with the (apparent-Putin denies) guidance of Russian experts.
Evangelicals, who got their path to power when President Eisenhower put "under God" into the pledge of allegiance to the flag of a country based on separation of church and state, bear responsibility for the current state of our union. Their pursuit of wealth, while voting for an increasingly corrupt Republican Party, gave that corruption an air of legitimacy that in post-Puritan America, that only "religion" could.
2
And what if the republicans decide they need a "bigger distraction" to win the next elections? Their invasion of Iraq just before the 2004 election was very likely motivated at least in part by their belief that George W. Bush would have better chance of winning re-election if he could campaign as a "war president", as he called himself. So what will they do for Trump? Start a war with Iran? North Korea? Time will tell.
2
Krugman calls it. War will be Trumps last gasp. Count on it.
2
"In particular, regimes in trouble — like, say, the Argentine junta in the 1980s — often try to rally the public with dangerous foreign policy adventurism. Are you sure that Trump won’t go that route? Really sure?"
No, to the contrary I've been worrying about this administration ginning up another war.
2
Wising up is the right term. Trump voters pegged Hillary's worse sin as being part of "the establishment". She had too much experience, she had a long track record. Trump had none, so that's a reason to vote for him? Good grief.
Trump is what happens when the cult of personality trumps actual experience and competency. I value a track record because it is a more honest measurement of one's abilities, and a good predictor of what a person may do when faced with future dilemmas.
How could Republicans nominate for the most powerful office in the land a celebrity showman? I would be embarrassed no end. It's not like there was a scarcity of choices. Almost all the other candidates were better than Trump, even ones, like Fiorina, who had not held political office. At least they didn't come across as complete buffoons.
So wising up is a good thing. What occurred in Western Pennsylvania and is being replicated across the country is a good thing. Also the actions of students who are demanding stricter control firearms is heartening. The reason we have so much gun violence is obvious: we have more guns, half actually, than the rest of the World. Americans are not more mentally unstable, more prone to violence. The days of the Wild West legends are history and folklore. By the way it was in the Wild West where the origins of gun control especially in cities, began.
The kids know this, and they're not about to fooled by politicians who tell them otherwise.
DD
Manhattan
1
I am not so sure that playing the Republican war card will be an effective strategy. The country is more than weary with our 17-year stint in Afghanistan and deeply suspicious of all the other confusing entanglements. Who knew we had troops in Niger before the 4 soldiers died there? Does anyone know, even now, what we’re doing there?
I think people are recognizing that the hijacking of the government budget to create a military many times the size of that of the rest of the world is costing the country in many ways as we watch our infrastructure, educational and health care systems crumble.
Finally, when would we have time to get to Iran? Surely, we have to first get through all the people who Trump has targeted as “enemies of the people” in this country and among our allies
2
The democrats are just as bad. That's the problem. They have far left leadership, unworkable economic policies, and no solutions to the nations real problems. In addition, they are on the wrong side of some hot button issues that draw out the right wing voters are every election. Advocating the expansion of social programs for poor people that are never going to vote is not a way to win elections. Yet that seems to be all they've got to offer.
1
While there is certainly some truth in what you are saying, from my middle-of-the road, fiscal conservative, deficit hawk perspective, only one party stands for keeping the national contractual commitment to social security and medicare: the Dems. Those programs are the main bullwork against rampant horror for elders. Other things may have to be cut--including (gasp) the military--but those commitments must be kept. There are ways to cut deficit spending, pay down the debt and keep SS and Medicare commitments. But time is running out.
An interesting outcome of the Trump presidency is that most Americans have daily exposure to an easy to comprehend display of politicians lying and the proffering of baseless political promises. It's like a used car salesman trying to sell them a junker by pointing out how good the radio works. Some people are finally noticing their information silos keep trying to sell them obvious klunkers. The stench of lies has become too overbearing to ignore. It seems skepticism about the veracity of political rhetoric, even at the local level, is slowly generating a more astute voter. One can only hope.
3
The implication of the title is that the problem in 2016 wasn't the Democrat's flawed candidate and her inept campaign, it was the voters. Oh yeah, and Comey, and third party candidates..........and the Russians.
The idea that political parties are supposed to ATTRACT voters with their past actions and popular proposals is now, passé?
Absent any self-examination by the Democratic party bosses - and so far, there has been no indication of this - the Democratic party will be running neck and neck with the loathsome Republicans for the foreseeable future.
1
What bothers me about all this blather by most commenters is the belief Democrats are sooooo much better.....I disagree. With every next election Democrats are vectoring ever rightward. Progressives, which I consider me being, think a lot of bait and switch is happening within the Democratic party as well. I've had enough of both parties....It's Green for me - Peace People Planet-
Seems like it would be so easy to win big in America. All that has to be done is help hundreds of millions of people.
1
Mr Krugman clearly doesn't understand the Republican party. But he has shown his capacity to demagogue and resent them. That is not helping, and makes Democrats appear ignorant.
4
You mean the PA Republicans I've encountered who mock the investigation of Russian involvement in our elections? Who mock the patriotism of even military veterans if they aren't Republicans?
No, PA Republicans are running very scared. They should be.
5
Worse than that, he is intentionally trying to deceive the readers by not pointed out that the "democrat" elected, holds 90% Republican values.
Actually, he precisely understands the Republican Party.
6
"For at least the past 40 years, the G.O.P.’s central policy goal has been upward redistribution of income (...). This policy agenda is, however, deeply unpopular. (...) So how does the G.O.P. stay politically competitive? The answer is (..) pretending to stand for one thing, then doing something quite different in office."
Now compare this to what Irving Kristol, founder of neoconservatism, 42 years ago wrote in the WSJ, and you see how perfectly Krugman just summarized GOP "philosophy":
"Conservative "stupidity," properly understood, is intimately connected with sentiments that are at the root of conservative virtues (...). But there will always come periods in the life of a nation when "stupidity" is not enough. At such times, fundamental questions of political philosophy emerge into the public forum (...). Venerable clichés, long regarded as self-evident truths, lose their moral standing (...). Intellectuals, who are marginal to a healthy society, suddenly become important political spokesmen. (...) when this happens, "the stupid party" (...) finds itself at an immense disadvantage. (... ) which helps explain why it is today the minority party."
Fox News was founded to stop all intellectual debate and create constant "conservative sentiment" that would become immune to fact-checking, as according to neoconservatives, their own theory cannot possibly be proven through arguments, so IF they're asked to do so, they cannot but loose elections.
Where's the Grand Old Party?
11
Being a wise voter is preferable to being a smart voter. But not all voters are created equally wise in America. Winning is wise. Losing is not. Stupid can beat smart. Ignorance can defeat smart.
In the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Presidential elections the Republican Party candidate won 57%, 59% and 58% of the white majority vote. While the Democratic Party candidate won 95% of the black vote in each of those elections.
Smart Hillary lost running against dumb Donald thanks to his deep insight into the nature of the white voting majority.
10
Trump lost the popular majority vote by 3M votes. Trump had no "deep insight", other than racism and fear of the "other", as in the immigrant communities he scapegoated. The hard working people who clean hotel rooms and motels; those who wash dishes in restaurants, and wait tables; those who harvest the crops this overweight man eats; those who raise their families, and send money home to those who have less. Gerrymandered voting districts, purging of voting rolls in FL, polling hours in some States which made it impossible for many working people, primarily minorities, to vote: open too late for them to get to work on time; closing too early for them to arrive after work; this worked in FL, a key State. Trump did not win in a majority landslide. The damage he and his Cabinet will do to this country and its hard working taxpayers will take decades to undo. The air quality can be compromised; clean streams, rivers and shorelines can be polluted; the ability to discuss civic issues can be damaged due to personal insults and bigotry. This man has the capacity to harm all of us without even realizing what he is doing. He has no interest in the people he now "governs"; he has no interest in policy, domestic or foreign, with the exception of Russia where his son has "business interests". He is a man without any focus outside of opportunities to add to his bank account. His family is not worth talking about.
1
Shocking statistics, particularly during the two Obama elections. The electorate still needs a lot of education and/or elightening
"Deep insight?"
You mean insight into racism? And xenophobia?
Deep?
It's about times the STEELERS became the NURSES. I bet the whole fan base would grow, too.
6
And the PACKERS became the FABRICATORS. :-) Of course, neither is going to happen.
With each day that Trump is president comes an increasing desire to vote against the Republican standard-bearer in November's congressional election. Unfortunately, he can be counted on to exhibit increasingly bizarre, damaging and outright stupid behavior which is detrimental to our nation as a whole. He can fool some of the people some of the time - but he can't fool all of the people all of the time. We have suffered from this fools' folly for too long.
13
Did you also vote for Gov. Phil Murphy? If so, this proves the stupidity of anyone who thinks progressive, socialist agendas are good. #maga
1
Trump is remaking America in his own image.
Heaven help us.
12
Trump likely sees himself as Slim Pickens from 'Dr. Strangelove' as Major 'King Kong' riding an H-Bomb into North Korea, whilst waiving a ten gallon hat.
He probably likes the ending as well where Fonda as President sacrifices Manhattan to avoid total destruction of the planet.
Trump's fantasy of getting back at all the bona fide monied people in New York who have snubbed him for decades.
The rest of us?
We're just in the wrong country at the wrong time.
7
I really believe that a Nuclear War is not out of the question with this egomaniac. I have followed his lies since 1978 when he promised to protect the Art Deco edifices of Bonwitt Teller flagship store on 5th Avenue that was torn down to build Trump Tower. He promised his workers would take care of this artwork, and when they destroyed it in demolition instead, he said he was sorry...
He has always done outrageous things to protect his own skin; to change the focus of scandal...Now he has his little hands on the big button...Worrisome...
13
"Now he has his little hands on the big button...Worrisome..."
Paul, in expressing this dire situation in this way, you trivialize it.
It is unfathomable to me that a single individual has the power to destroy the entire world - either through climate change denial or nuclear war or both. As far as I can tell, we are all living in a madhouse and the force that created us is not going to come to our assistance. Perhaps we are an evolutionary mistake, and, along with the dinosaurs, will be appropriately eliminated from the universe.
I think the only solution is embracing Buddhist principles and trying to do good in our own tiny little lives.
There are safeguards against one man launching a nuclear war. There are trained people who man the nuclear installations. Nixon scared enough of his Cabinet to cause a warning against a nuclear launch without confirmation. Trump does not have his hand on the "button", grown ups do. The damage he is doing is to the Republic, the one Ben Franklin said we had, if we could keep it. So far, we kept it in PA and VA. We will not lose at the hands of a corrupt demagogue who isn't even as clever as Huey Long.
Our unpopular leader and his party need a war, and soon. Which brings up AUMF, legislation passed just after 9-11. AUMF authorizes the president "to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001."
Since 9-11, AUMF has been used to justify military adventurism in Afghanistan, the Philippines, Georgia, Yemen, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iraq, and Somalia.
A target the size of Eritrea isn't big enough to satisfy the needs of either the President's outsized ego or to arouse wartime patriotic unity. He needs something bigger. So who will it be?
3
No. Korea has the potential to build nuclear missiles. Diplomacy via China is important, as it was when Kennedy used Turkey as a vehicle to use back door diplomacy. That requires an intelligent dialogue with China. Xi is a dictator; we have dealt with dictators in the past. We had an alliance with Stalin during WWII, because we needed it. The trade off was Eastern Europe. What does Xi want? What is the trade off? This is Kissinger's Realpolitik in real time. If Pompeo doesn't completely destroy the State Dept., there should be some left there who can rein in a dysfunctional demagogue. We need to step back, get out of Trump's spin world, and consider the reality of a nuclear war. We have avoided that since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, because it is that terrible. Consider Fukushima, and the ongoing consequences. Radiation cannot be confined. Chernobyl? We have to believe that there are enough sane men and women in this Administration who will not accept that risk. This might be where the "Deep State" could be a benefit.
Putting on a war before before Nov. is logistically impossible. Suspect General McMaster told Trump.
The whole "Putin puppet" schtick is childish in the extreme.
Trump and his all American oligarchy are out to hornswoggle Russia and central Asia out of their natural resources. Darling Vhlady wasn't born yesterday, nor the Chinese.The military isn't going to start launching nuclear strikes anymore than Trump can shoot his handicap.
Study the districts like Lamb, run clean respectful races, get out the vote.
5
"Putting on a war before before Nov. is logistically impossible."
But a nuclear attack on North Korea or Iran is not. It is not correct that "The military isn't going to start launching nuclear strikes anymore than Trump can shoot his handicap." If the President, any president, orders such an attack the military would likely obey the order; the alternative is a de facto military coup. That does not mean that the aftermath of such an attack would have been thought through. But since when does Trump think through the consequences and effects of his decisions?
1
You mean that a tax cut of $1.50 per week did not persuade workers to vote Republican?
14
It's hilarious, isn't it, the size of the Republican largess so lovingly bestowed on the poor and middle class.
My initial reaction to the entire tax relief was derision, which has now become pure anger at their gall.
I keep hoping enough people wake up to trounce these charlatans during the midterms.
1
Evidently, Dr K. needs to train his perspicacious analytical eye on why and how the Democratic Party has been hapless in the face of of this self-evident bait and switch for so many years, year after year.
10
Hapless ? nah, I don't think so; if anything they have been aiding and abetting the process for the last 40 years, like partners in a relay race, passing the baton (a very large wicked lpoking club) back and forth, wielding it with singular abandon, intent on decimating the economic stability of the poor and the middle-class, engaged in getting to the finish line in fine economic fettle, having beaten the poor and the middle-class into economic slavery and penury.
That's the plan, always has been, never mattered these last 40 years which one of our corrupt mainstream political parties was in power.
A very long time ago, I was fortunate to be one of the decidedly lesser attendees at a small gathering of movers and shakers; boy, my eyes were opened; I was shocked at the utter lack of empathy, and the fact that these corporate overlords regarded the masses as nothing more than farm implements, needed only to bring in the harvest.
Way past time the American people woke up, because if the don't, very soon, they will become broken useless farm implements.
1
dems offered neither voter registration nor get out the vote effort in 2016
The same can be said , so far, of 2018
clearly dems do not wish to win
“Dangerous foreign policy adventurism.” You have the playbook, the only question is where and when? Guessing late summer or fall.
3
Today’s Progressives have to rely on the Democratic Party to regain our proper representation in nearly every state and county. Like it, or not.
For a template that spells out how that gets done, look no further than the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama: “Obama for America”
He prevailed because he ran his own campaigns parallel to the Party, melded “just enough” with the DNC to grab those pesky “Third Way” types that were then still prominent.
Yes, the historic nature of his quest was a big factor in GOTV for the Dems.
That said, I submit that the huge wave of “anti-Obama” racism significantly diluted the newly energized Black vote.
If OFA’s unique, effervescent campaign management hadn’t been what it was, the Dems would have lost to McCain and his geography challenged VP candidate.
4
You forgot to mention McCain's VP, Sarah Palin. The woman who could see Russia from her back porch. And, you forgot to mention the loved and respected Joe Biden who was the VP on Obama's ticket. There was no way McCain could carry Palin across the finish line.
For almost 50 years I've listened closely to evangelicals warning about the coming End Times. How is it they don't recognize the Antichrist when he finally arrives? I never believed the story, but I can follow the plot well enough to recognize the characters.
But wait. Maybe they do know and the whole point of their devotion is to hasten Armageddon so that Jesus will return in their lifetimes. Witness: slaughtering of the innocents, weather chaos, wars and rumors of wars, ultimately nuclear fire and fury, and especially disrespect for the Saved.
The rest of us, those not standing around waiting to be raptured up to heaven one day soon, spitefully craving the shocked looks of those left behind, must small-s save our society by defeating them using the only weapons available: Love and the Vote.
14
"How is it they don't recognize the Antichrist when he finally arrives?"
Good point ... reminds one of the lyrics in the 1995 song by Joan Osborne: "What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us. Just a stranger on the bus tryin' to make his way home?"
I'd guess that neither the Antichrist nor the Second Coming would be recognized by Evangelicals (or most others). If Jesus did come back, he'd probably look a lot like a Palestinian Arab, not like someone from Scandinavia.
1
GOP is all about bait & switch ... and, is very much a party today of Gerrymandering, which will eventually switch back in turn to Dems.
3
The Trump voter is motivated by four brain stem drives that have hegemony over the prefrontal cortex and completely bypass Enlightenment values. One: self protection. They hold the 2nd Amendment sacred. Two: Food - otherwise known as the economy. The don't want any interference from government through tax, regulation or redistribution to another undeserving tribe. The free market is inviolate and sacred. Three: Tribal defense. They want their people protected against the "other" so "Blue Lives Matter", they unwaveringly support the Police (including ICE) and massive defense spending. Four: Reproduction: They are homophobic, misogynistic and anti-abortion because the opposite undermines their power and numbers.
6
Excellent article, Paul Krugman — thank you.
6
Wrong. Voters are not "wising up". Get out & talk with them & ask them to explain how the GOP policies benefit them. You will either get a blank stare or they'll start to conflate fiscal policy with immigrants, women & welfare.
13
We need veto proof majorities in both chambers of Congress to forestall any diversionary misadventures by Trump. However, we still have over nine months to get through before that change can be effected. We are very exposed as the Congress we have now acts like a bunch of Imperial Eunuchs, supporting an Emperor for their own selfish gains.
5
PK's op-ed today - 3/16/18- - rather captures my awakening thoughts this morning: Trumpsters! Pay Attention! Read! WAKE UP! ...(dare we hope they will?)
Yesterday's half dreaming/awakening thought was imagining the entire front page of our important newspapers given over to two words only: YOU'RE FIRED! ...perhaps a cartoon of a sleeping head with "Y F" newspapers above...?
2
The GOP agenda is bad for the poor and middle class. Fake forty-five's agenda is bad for the globe.
10
The GOP agenda is the same now as it was under Reagan. Clinton repaired that; "W" followed and squandered Clinton's gains; Obama followed and repaired the damage done by "W". Now, we have a President worse than Reagan, meaner than Nancy, and more destructive. We cannot re-elect Trump; we cannot re-elect any Republican Congress people wherever we can defeat them; we cannot assume that time will take care of this mess.
Foreign policy adventurism? What about the “space force”? Can’t get any more adventurous and foreign than that!
4
I hope and pray that the voters are wising up....not only to the lies of the GOP, but also to the lies and brainwashing spewing out of FOX News constantly. I know good people who watch that garbage and believe everything Hannity tells them. It is as if they are living in a different Universe from me! I never thought I would see the day that far right conservatives like Sean Hannity and his ilk would be running our precious country.
12
I’m I sure we won’t go the route of dangerous foreign policy adventurism? With John Bolton apparently a likely pick for national security adviser, no, Paul, I’m not sure at all.
5
The winner is anti-Pelosi, anti-abortion, anti-gun control and pro-fracking. Not a typical 2018 Democrat. Big question: why is the Democratic party moving left when the votes to win elections are to the right?
You’ve misstated his position on abortion. Anyone can look it up.
3
The real take away from this election is how the tax-cuts didn't deliver like the republicans thought they would. The question is why. From my perspective, the 40 dollars I get extra a week is nice, but afterall it is my money, I worked for it, and Uncle Sam still takes plenty even after the tax-cut, so how grateful should I be. How grateful are the rich, they who got millions, what are they doing with their money to show how grateful they are. Are the rich giving their bounty to charity, if they are then I've missed those stories.
I look at it like this, 40 dollars is nice, bit I would rather have social security and Medicaid still there when I'm 64 ( I pay for this out of my paycheck ever week by the way), I would rather see the National debt paid down, I would rather see our government have a balanced budget, I would rather have affordable healthcare. These are the things that matter to me but don't seem to matter to Trump and the Republicans. Bait and switch is a practice with diminishing returns, and I think quite rightly the Republicans are going to see the diminishing of their returns on election night 2018. The democrats have plenty to run on, it turns out the republicans put all their eggs in the tax-cut basket, and the basket is empty.
6
When the Russians finish tinkering with our electric grid, these Trump
supporters can figure out that they wasted their vote in the dark.
2
"they'll just look for bigger distractions" - yup, Republicans are really good at lies and distractions and frauds and con jobs'. Many of these are sponsored by their John Birch patrons developed by their so called 'Think Tanks'. And with Trump as their Con Man in Chief.
2
Dr Krugman -- interesting reading of the election, as usual. How does your reading compare with the NY Times' and others' interpretation that the election turned on local issues and candidate appeal? So much of Democratic (and USA) hopes seem to be whistling past the graveyard, with Americans mesmerized by the Republican propaganda. It's hard to believe they have woken up from their coma.
1
Your are, of course, correct in your assessment of the Republican party. But my advanced years of endless disappointments with the judgement of the American voter tells me you are dreaming if you believe they are wising up. It's not a matter of gaining wisdom, or seeing through the constant Republican lies and scams. It's the power of racism, hate, ignorance and greed … part of the DNA of many Republican voters which (if you will excuse the expression) trumps logic, self-interest or concern for the country.
3
Let's hope his incompetence to create a distraction keeps us, relatively, safe.
2
Trump's firing of Tillerson is a signal that he is moving to a head on confrontation with North Korea. Since it is hard to imagine things getting worse at home, the way out is to involve the whole country in a needless conflict (Iraq). His new Secretary of State could better be called the Secretary of War. And now he is moving to replace Mattis who would surely be against confrontation with North Korea. I can only imagine a post nuclear conflict with North Korea with Trump threatening the world into submission, or else! The time is now to do something to stop Trump!!!!!
3
The next ten months, with Trump shaking his restraints off could be a very rough ride. I am hoping Mueller and his investigators (and maybe previous employees of the Trump admin) will disarm Mr. Trump before he goes berserker...November can't come soon enough, nor the January after.
2
History has shown that despotic leaders frequently start wars to deflect attention from domestic problems. Trump's mentor Putin is teaching him how to do this. The start of WW3 is getting more probable every day. But the truly horrifying fact is that Trump could shoot 20 seven year olds and still maintain a 30% favorability rating. And how any woman could support this guy just boggles the mind.
2
"In particular, regimes in trouble — like, say, the Argentine junta in the 1980s — often try to rally the public with dangerous foreign policy adventurism. Are you sure that Trump won’t go that route? Really sure?"
Truthfully? We can be certain that trump will go that way.
1
"................while the wising up of American voters is deeply encouraging it also makes me nervous." Does Dr Krugman have any idea how patronizing this phrase sounds? Conner Lamb ran as the rarest of all Democrats--a handsome young pro-gun conservative with a military background which resonated with the voters.
That's the problem with elitists like Paul Krugman--they really think American voters are stupid when they don't pay attention to their betters. Dr Krugman is truly wise and we must obey his teachings without question.
Krugman, come on man, they mastered gerrymandering with a little bit of bait and switch, but Americans have understood the double talk for decades, it’s the cheating that’s the story
As an immigrant from one of those “unhappy, poor, uneducated, nonreligious, Socialist Scandinavian countries, Ha Ha Ha”, where welfare system applies to the population and the capitalist system applies to the corporations, finally realized that actually US is remarkably like Scandinavian countries where Social welfare applies to the wealthy and Corporations (they are human) while Capitalism applies to the population.
The founding fathers/Mothers of this country escaped Kings, Barons, theocracy where they let population to starve while kept the wealth and knowledge to themselves!
Now GOP tries to turn the clock back.
1
This connection the Republicans claim with God is offensive when you look at their hateful policies towards the poor. What kind of 'God' supports cutting Medicaid and encourages Assault Weapons in every town. The answer is, there is not a 'God' that supports these things. But there are human beings called "Republicans" who support these policies. We have to take back the Country from these phonies.
5
Let's wait until we see how Lamb actually does before claiming that it's only the Republicans who use the bait and switch to get elected. Lamb campaigned on (1) support of the steel tariff, (2) opposition to Nancy Pelosi's leadership, (3) in favor of the tax cuts, and (4) on the old Democrat (ala Cuomo senior) "I'm personally opposed to abortion but i will enforce the law" (a now unacceptable position among the Progressive woke). My guess is Lamb will vote the straight party line once he's in Congress.
The thought of the Great Negotiator sitting across from the Rocket Man makes me wish that the NYT still had cartoons. I want papers to start running pictures of a blond haired man wearing a bowler hat, carrying an umbrella, and waving a piece of paper, claiming "Peace in our Time." As he announces we gave away South Korea for promises.
2
The seas are rising. Denial of facts is a sorry defense. What the "" United States "" could have done in 2016 is not possible now. Irreperable damage has occurred. We must eat our breakfast and move on. All lies has all the time is not it.
2
We still have to contend with the Trump administration which is grossly incompetent. His appointments of Larry Kudlow and Stephen Moore, two ideologues, who argue supply side economics that has no historical data to support it, would damage our debt crisis. Now he may appoint John Bolton, a failed neocon who would be a disaster for our foreign policy. One wonders that Putin was able to elect a Manchurian candidate who will do untold damage to America. The Republicans and the white Christian evangelicals are our fifth column- blind loyalty to Trump.
3
Better kate than never, I guess, but still almost too late.
Team Trump is looking at more tax cuts to sell to the plebs in the midterms.
Yes hopefully some of dumber and dumbest will eventually figure it out. Actually, Trump has been very useful to me. This is a wonderful detector to sort out totally unsuitable people. I am older and do occasionally date -- unfortunately men over 60 -- not a great pool in itself. It's not the conservative label that I find unsuitable because I am myself "conservative" on some issues. However, my new litmus test is if he would still vote for Trump -- totally gone and a goner. This is an automatic indicator of all or most of the following -- lack of curiosity and education, zero morals or ethics, secret misogyny and racism, and illiteracy. Easy pick.
3
"History says that Republicans won’t change course, because they never do." Republicans just spend more money as the Koch cabal is doing this year to take over our judicial system.
2
Dropping a nuclear bomb on North Korea will start WWIII and the worldwide destruction of the human race. Donald Trump probably doesn't understand that. But, hopefully, our military does.
Just following orders was not a defense at Nuremberg. There will be no earthly court to hear that plea, anyway.
5
Nice op-ed but to ignore the fact that trump was elected, in large part, because the last President was a black Democrat, is nuts.
In a very real sense trump's ascendancy was simply a childish temper tantrum by the poorly educated racists that infect the Koch owned GOP.
"The Democrats put an educated erudite black man in The Oval Office so our only option is to replace him with a petulant, orange republican boy".
9
"You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time."
~ Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, but he wouldn't be today, and he said that.
3
In my view, the Trump Presidency was the end result of the political culture in the Republican Party steeped in nearly 50 years of “the Southern Strategy”, a strategy that gave a wink and a nod to racism, and became the party of white male resentment.
The party has devolved, it’s racist and authoritarian essence further distilled since that time, but the DNA of Richard Nixon and even Barry Goldwater, who disguised his corporatism as libertarianism, remain. But their real ideology, which they once quietly inferred and silently understood is now being proudly and openly proclaimed by the President and his party, and as a result, the KKK believe that they can now proudly march through Charlottesville without their hoods!
At least the Republicans have been unmasked. I just hope it’s not too late.
4
Not buying it - there is a systemic level of stupid in this country driven by "don't kill the babies" and "don't take my guns" that cannot be overcome, at least not in our lifetimes. Then there's the whole helpless apathy thing that keeps people from voting at all; a sense of powerlessness is a hard thing to overcome.
If you want to place hope in something, place it in the kids who have recently decided to become activists on their own behalf. If I was a republican't, I'd be quaking in my boots, because they have nothing to offer these kids.
10
No, I'm afraid I'm more sure that trump will do something terrible as the Mueller noose tightens, like start a war. It is up to Congress to finally do their job and insist that they, not the president, have the responsibility to declare war, or not declare war and to act as a balance to this deranged, mad king.
5
The greatest danger is unwitting Americans.
4
Yes, I totally agree. I have been fearing, for some time, what this orange menace will do as he is increasingly pilloried, his policies are overturned by courts, his inner circle leaves, and he is seemingly backed into a corner. Iran? A blow-up at the North Korean talks? I put nothing past this man and his scary team of radicals.
5
If the Democrats really want to win more elections they need to silence Hillary. Speaking in India recently she again implied that all intelligent and tolerant people voted for her and the dumb, uneducated and bigoted voted for Trump. Her use of the word " deplorable" before the presidential election probably cost her more votes than any Russian interference.
3
I live in this District. While I often agree with Mr. Krugman, I think he is reaching too big a conclusion given the small amount of evidence here supporting his theory.
I wouldn’t read this vote as a clear harbinger of Democrats, Pennsylvanians, the country, steel industry workers, health care workers, etc. “turning around” en masse. In this specific race, the Democratic candidate was a better option than the Republican candidate. Plain and simple. And Pittsburghers, like all Americans, want the better candidate to be their representative in Congress. Conor Lamb convinced people that he was sincere in his commitment to the local voters above all else.
8
Absolutely. in the end this was a local election. The House of Representatives are just that- legislative seats to represent the needs and thoughts of the people living in that district. People who are closest to where national policy meets the real life have a mechanism for expressing their experience back into the legislative process.
Republicans and the NRA are determined to instill that fear in the populace at an ever decreasing age, now we must send toddlers into school to have "mock lockdowns" with live fire. Yeah, and I thought in my youth duck and cover was scary, Republicans have just taken that ball clean off the field into Twilight Zone land. Fear is the not so secret ingredient of every Republican, and I would add Russian, recipe for world domination by the rich in order to enslave literally everyone else. We're having an election soon, I am going to have a very clear head when the fear generating event happens here. I will not be buying it, in advance.
10
Perhaps Kim Jong Un read the way the wind is blowing in America before the American public even did and decided to use the Games in an effort to deflect the war-mongering strategy of the Trump administration. We China-watch; they Trump-watch.
2
You're probably right. Kim Jong Un seems to be keeping a step ahead.
I think 'wising up' means seeing our crimes against humanity and democracy in clearer terms.
America, led by the wealthiest and their lawyers, lobbyists, media, super-PACs, politicians and judges, has become the land of the unequal. We've seen money, income, property and power concentrate; to levels that make the Gilded Age seem quaint. We have the old money and the new money; led by the internet's billionaires and multi-millionaires. And, we have the common citizens in the whirlwind.
Most NY Times readers and writers are so much more wealthy that the average American. This colors even your paper. You are certainly not 'left-wing'. I'm sure Hillary is more popular than Bernie, here.
But this neglect of the working, good-hearted, salt-of-the-earth Americans has helped bring on this calamity of economics. The America First people are desperate for leadership to help them have a quality standard of living. Hillary's 'basket of deplorables' showed how far away she was from the stress, strain and turmoil that being a worker in modern America creates. Immigration is a major issue mainly because the lower income groups grow as the middle class income groups shrink. We like to think we're noble and compassionate to help the immigrant; but once they get here, they're poor and desperate just like the poor natives they probably live around. This is truly our calamity. When will the 'rich', the 'leaders' wise up? When will they see compassion as central to society? When equality?
5
The "basket of deplorables" was a nice way of putting it. It's actually the basket of despicables.
And those who voted for trump and his vile republican cronies are the wealthy and the ordinary American dupes.
Krugman is a broken record, always promoting taking money from working people to give it to the non working, more redistribution and more government instead of private enterprise as the allocater of resources. Of course in a democracy special interests will always try to vote themselves benefits at the expense of the whole. Somebody has to stand up and say no.
No. He does not suggest that we take money from people who work for a living with anything like middle class salaries. But rather, from those who harvest millions from their investments, bloated brokerage accounts, trust funds, and absurd compensation packages. Is it possible to "earn" 50 million a year? Our economy has become like the last stages of a game of Monopoly, where the more you amass the less likely it becomes that you lose your fortune and the more inevitable it becomes that you bankrupt everyone else.
I live in the area and, while I'm not in the 18th district, I saw plenty of Paul Ryan's commercials against Conor Lamb. They were all attempts to twist his words and I couldn't believe how low they were willing to go, with words like "rapist" flashing across the screen in one ad. It was in relation to a case that Lamb had prosecuted, but the words showed up before the actual story. That kind of thing should be illegal. It pretty much confirmed what I already knew: the Republican Party relies on the misinformed and easily manipulated as their voter base. Fortunately, a few hundred people didn't believe their lies. It's frightening how many people still did, though.
18
Convincing people to vote against their own self-interest is a strategy the Republicans have always been good at. I shed my Republican leanings when I was still in my 20's (I'm 72 now). In other words, I wised up early on. I hope Dr. Krugman is right and many more people are finally seeing the GOP agenda for the sham that it is. Please, may the grotesque presidency of Trump hurry this process along. If it does, then Trump will have served in a positive role after all.
9
Republican voters do seem to be wising up, as Paul Krugman suggests, but there still is an amazing inability of some Trump supporters to connect the dots.
Some of those voters may be dull-witted, but most of them are not. They have been persuaded over years, however, that until proven otherwise, Washington is the source of their financial woes.
Republican politicians are starting to sweat because, holding nearly all of the power in Washington, the G.O.P. leaders know that their working-class supporters are beginning to identify the true enemy.
5
Krugman is right to emphasize the distinction between GOP campaigning, where anything goes - racism, anti-Semitism, over-the-top lying in contrast with policy, which is never-changing: give the donor paymasters what they want - tax cuts for them, de-regulation for their business interests, judges who condone fleecing the rest of us.
The GOP's assets are tremendous wealth, discipline, and utter freedom from any moral convictions or concern for the nation's well-being.
It's simple: the GOP is un-American.
No wonder they tolerate Trump.
6
The problem is, if Trump starts a war or some limited military action, his base may be energized by it - but the rest of the country, which is in no way inclined to trust him, will likely be horrified by it (assuming it's clear that it's not being done in self-defense, and it probably will be).
I wouldn't put it past him, and it would be horrific, but at this point, the Japanese could bomb Pearl Harbor, Trump could give the "day of infamy" speech, and a good chunk of the country would still not follow him. And he would've done that to himself.
2
And the men and women who turn to the All-Volunteer Military for jobs offering training and social mobility will be those who suffer the consequences. And those who are hired by the supporting mercenary forces of for-profit corporations will be the ones who learn the limits of SoCal benefits of health care and services.
Donald Trump acts from spite, rage, and resentment - his normal emotions. He does it both for tactical reasons and because that's his personality. Trump is also a man of appetites and impulses, with no self-control. He believes he deserves to be really RICH, like Bloomberg or one of Putin's cronies, which he still isn't. So more likely than a foreign conflict is a large (foreign) scam to monetize the presidency despite the on-going attention from Mueller's investigation. Trump is so deluded that he thinks he can get away with it.
4
A lot of Trump's con artistry emanates from ignorance. Let's take the steel tariffs for example. Trump has clearly stated that he intends to use the tariffs as a bargaining chip. ( at least we aren't talking about human bargaining chips, like the Dreamers). Specifically, Canada and Mexico can be permanently exempt if they agree to modify NAFTA. He has made similar comments about South Korea and Australia.
So tell me, how can the steel industry make the capital investment in factories and personnel if the protective tariffs may be bargained away?
Who is Trump conning...hopeful steel workers? Steel producers?
It is hard to say what is worse: Trump as con artist or Trump as ignoramus.
4
We need to get rid of the electoral college, stop gerrymandering and other countries (Russia) from interfering in our elections, and educate the voters in this country. We may survive Trump, but we won't survive another election like the last one. Our country has changed with "alternative facts," bold-faced lies, election meddling, and a toddler in the Oval Office. Republicans in Congress -- I blame you.
8
In 1960, when I was 10, my mother explained this difference between the parties simply: "Republicans are for the rich, Democrats are for the little guy." Since then, Republicans have remained the party of the rich but too many Democrats forgot who they were. When Democrats remember that they are the party of the New Deal, of workers' rights, of the aspirations of the poor, of retirement and health care security, then all the race baiting, misogyny, and xenophobia in the world won't stop them from regaining the support of the majority of Americans.
6
Democrats may also wise up to the folks who promise jobs, industry, free education, equality as well as expanded Social Security benefits, and Medicare and Medicaid and then produce nothing as the phonies they really are.
Nothing is free or without cost. Inequality is not solved by offering free benefits. And importing everything under the sun while gutting American business, industry and research and development is also not a path to prosperity or equality.
The Democrats did and do as much damage to America as the Republicans. Neither party is honest or without faults.
The first thing the Democrats will do if they come to power again is raise taxes, and open up the imports from China ever wider. More industry will dissolve.
Neither party is a bargain.
1
Extreme voter vetting and gerrymandering were only the beginning. Jailing/disqualifying opponents and cancelling elections are the next logical steps to holding power. The strategy might be to just hold on long enough to pick another Supreme Court Justice, then regroup while the Dems get the economy out of the ditch, again.
2
Americans woke up November 2016. Now we are brushing our teeth, getting breakfast, putting on our work clothes and going to work. We have just started.
2
The Americans I know were awake well before November 2016, and are even more so today.
RESIST.
If Voters (those Americans that actually bother to vote...) are finally beginning to wise up...it is not before time or occasion has so clearly demonstrated for the umpteenth reason and many examples that have presented themselves to Citizens over the last few decades that one would have thought would have given far greater impetus and earlier opportunities to "wise up" than we might only be starting to see now.
Well...let's hope so.
After all...Wisdom attained "Better Late than Never" has gotta be superior to the Folly kept as "Better Bait not Clever" which is what Republicans hope most of their base would remain, to best suit their tried and true agenda and tactics that have served them and their facilitators so well for so long.
1
I think it is too soon to tell if the Democrats are going to be in the majority in November or whether or not the voters are sick of a Republican Administration. Three elections are not enough evidence.
The Trump Administration and the Congresional Republicans have done a ton of harm to the voters, but it appears as if most voters are still not afraid of the circumstances enough to predict that a turnover in November will happen in Congress.
Moreover, it will take a successful Mueller investigation that proves money laundering, collusion, obstruction of justice and consorting with the enemy (in this case Russia) for Trump supporters to yell uncle. We just have to wait and see
2
"The thing is, voters seem to have realized this. Republican groups pretty much stopped running ads about the tax cuts weeks before the election, "
Reversing these destructive policies is always a difficult process.
Frankly, just putting the other guys back in rarely fixes anything.
The Dems, while clearly a better choice, almost always once in office, immediately go into a defensive crouch to achieve reelection.
If they try to restore tax sanity they are immediately attacked by the opposition
and subsequently punished at the polls.
It's a self generating negative feedback loop to the bottom.
1
Mr. Lamb ran an effective campaign against a party hack who did not realize he was in trouble until people had a chance to think a bit about his hollow words. The Democratic party still does not do a good job of getting their message across. Many are just as much in the pay of big donors as the opposition. We will see how this plays out. Meanwhile : Beto for Texas!!
1
I remember as a child my father always quoted me grandfathers take on the views of the political scene in USA, and I'll repeat it here. " All politicians are crooks; but at least the democrats give the poor a little bit while the republicans keep it all for themselves."
4
The Republican "Majority" has always been a FRAUD, based on Gerrymandering, Voter Suppression, floods of Dark Money and the lies of the Propaganda Organs. And let's not discuss the honesty of the Electronic Vote tallies, which seem to favor the Reptilians. With no paper verification.
See the popular vote for President in 2016; There was a similar preponderance of votes for congress, saying they are all (Democrats) packed into the "Cities" is merely code words to justify the actions of the MINORITY party to the rabid 15% of their base.
And places like Arkansas, where the (estimated) 35-40% of Democrats basically have no voice at the state/local level, forget our congressional delegation who were "Elected to Enact the Conservative Republican Agenda"
4
Bait and switch, and pathological LYING about everything, are the components of Republicanism. tRump represents the final exposure of Republicans for what they really are. We should thank tRump for that.
3
If it were possible to "punish" those that through "stealing" from the government agencies that rely on everyone paying their "fair" share of taxes, that would be justice. In that those that are making the most, paying the least still receive~at times even better~services than those of us paying what the government requires based on our income. We have always been lower to mid middle class. Always live below our means. I have paid taxes on the SS disability and federal disability retirement I receive. Early on I made a mistake on our returns to be penalized that cost quite a bit more due to the add on~interest, late fees, and others I cannot recall. Overall it cost us an additional $1,000. How stupid I felt. I actually believed others that told me my disability was not taxed. After that I have taxes taken out. My husband does okay at his job, but we still make no more than about $50,000 joint income. We break even, with a few times of small return. We are debt free so we do not get to use the many loop holes to lower our taxable income. The tax laws were written by and for the wealthy. And yet is is never enough so here we are them getting more at the expense of we the average people.
3
Bait and switch? More like a colossal shakedown. The ultimate infamy.
1
Actually it might be the democrat party that is wising up by offering a conservative candidate. As long as the candidate is a reasonable conservative and NOT a "progressive", it doesn't matter to me if he/she is republican or democrat.
1
He's forming his war time cabinet and staff right now, but he wants to dictate to the generals, so he's going to purge them from his administration. MacMaster, Kelly - men who pause before they go to war - will soon be gone and The Gilded Age will have become the Capone Era.
2
I am not sure any of this matters. The way Trump is ruining our country there will be nothing left of it and we will all be speaking Russian or Chinese shortly. Trump is bankrupting our country just like he did his businesses. Unless the GOP led Congress gets rid of him and Pence our country is doomed.
3
How odd that being ethical and actually representing and reflecting the views of your constituents is being talked about as a political tactic that could persuade voters in your favor. Who knows. Maybe if these candidates actually are what they represented themselves to be, people could once again believe in and trust our government. Who knew?
2
"The question of 2018 is whether the Democrats will follow suit."
For decades, the central political problem has been that Republicans can't govern and Democrats can't hold onto power. Since the Republican party has become the biggest threat to our nation, it behoves Democrats to start using the levers of power to stay in power until a 2nd major party, that can be trusted to govern, emerges from the wreckage.
The G20 Summit was held in Pittsburgh in 2009 to showcase a city that had reinvented itself after the decline of the steel industry. The city and region focused on medicine, education and high tech by leveraging its outstanding Carnegie Mellon and University of Pittsburgh talents. Trump never seemed to grasp that change from his first campaign visit to now. Instead he and his GOP cronies want to hearken back to the 1960's and 1970's (yes, it was that long ago that steel was the dominant industry in southwest Pennsylvania) and if that didn't work, they want to exploit fears that immigrants and minorities are stealing jobs and causing crime. To quote Donald Trump, "SAD".
4
No Paul, I ain't sure. But I believe a lot of us would see through it. Enough? Let's hope so.
Well hope springs eternal.
But this is a constituency that has been led by the nose by non-issues since the “we need laws against flag burning” days of yore. It’s so easy to get them to vote against their own welfare with these campaigns.
Hopefully people are now thinking of real issues like healthcare and trade instead of background checks for guns. Before Social Security is next on the chopping block.
1
My biggest fear is that, in order to lift his approval ratings, which he so desperately craves, he will start a war with North Korea or Iran. This would make him a war-time Commander In Chief, which always improves approval ratings. I sincerely hope this doesn't happen, but time and again, Trump has proven he has no morals and will stop at nothing to "win".
"These days there are about 10 times as many hospital workers as steel workers in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area — and surely at least some voters realize that G.O.P. efforts to slash health care threaten their jobs as well as their coverage."
This is the point which must be emphasized over an over. Dr. Krugman once wrote, in response to the complaint that President Obama in the begining of his first term should have focused on ending the recession rather than reforming health care...that health care is one of the most effective stimulus programs in existence in the post-industrial economy.
Millions of high-skill and semi-skilled jobs, almost all of them stateside and very difficult to out-source, in every community in the US.
This is the sector that Paul Ryan and his mendacious Republican Party now seek to undermine to pay for tax cuts for the 1%.
3
I'm fearful that the next big distraction may be an orchestrated war. A manufactured crisis would rally the American people behind the president and his administration at a crucial time in the election cycle.
1
Democrats should have prosecuted Cheney and Bush for the Iraq war. It would have established again that no one is above the law. Then the crash of 08. White collar crime is seldom prosecuted. Fines that are tax deductible!
The worship of the big money boys is the crime here but then isn’t that the American dream?
3
It was good to see pro-union voters punish an anti-union Republican. Unions have their faults, but all in all, American workers were much better off when unions were strong, backed by vigorous federal and state labor laws that were administered by robust federal and state labor departments.
Steelworkers were once a bastion of American unionization. The gall of Republican Saccone advocating "right to work" laws to steel workers earned him his defeat.
politicsbyeccehomo.wordpress.com
7
It is simply the human nature to apply / attribute to others what one is capable of herself; hence the constant barrage of articles by the liberal mandarins suggesting Trump will start a war to divert attentions of the electorate, asking R Rex Tillerson to back-stab the White House, suggesting the POTUS will abruptly fire his national security advisor, etc. Remember, Mr. Krugman: your perception is NOT the reality. There is a reason the people of the US are standing with our President, while the Democrat Party keeps loosing and winning by the squishiest of margins: we support Our President. You, on the contrary, seem to make a career of disrespecting Him.
Regardless of how much voters may have wised up, and these polls that often show majorities of Americans in opposition to the Republican agenda, the deck is stacked.
Gerrymandering has worked to dilute the majority.
Manipulation of voter rolls dulls the edge.
And we have yet to know quantitatively how much deviance the Russian trolling on the social media produced in our results.
But what else can we do but vote in November?
If voters continue to show they’ve wised up, Trump would be tempted, I imagine, to suspend elections. Particularly if there is mass protest in the streets after he does something like fire Sessions to fire Mueller, or strike North Korea with nukes, or cause a sudden economic meltdown. As nothing he has done has earned him a slap from Congress or pushback fro SCOTUS, he will continue acting like Pere Ubu, American dictator, leaving chaos in his authoritarian wake.
The premise of this piece is fanciful. Evangelicals will always hate abortion and love the death penalty. The NRA will always foment fear and loathing among its gun faithful. The Koch brothers and Mercer's will pour their money into right wing candidates. The alt right, bigots and racists have found a new voice and will stick together behind the party of trump. The tea party/freedom caucus will continue its nihilistic endeavors. All the while Trump's sterling cabinet members will be destroying our environment, national parks and public education system. Never mind the underlying "let them eat cake" philosophy, the republican base is solid and unwavering. With just a little help from either the Russians or some narcissistic third party candidate they will continue to win elections until Democrats unite with positive and effective messaging.
2
"The wising up of American voters is very encouraging" and now we need the wising up of the White House Sarah Huckabee Sanders. You can't refute a candidate for denigrating your voters, when your own candidate declared them easily duped, when he said, "I could murder someone of Fifth Avenue and not lose these voters". So, as you are suggesting Paul, the Republicans have always worked against the interest of their voting base, but now it has come to a whole new level, where you can talk trash about them and still suffer no consequences? Hopefully, they are wising up just in time to avoid more disaster. God help us if they don't!
Voters may be wising up after Conor Lamb's upset victory in Trump's "I love Pennsylvania!" C.D. 18 on Tuesday. No surprise Rick Saccone is toast. He didn't have a snowball's chance of winning that red district against a young handsome and earnest millennial pledger of allegiance to the true America! Wish we could say "Trump is toast". Give it time, and time will tell.
3
Just as television commercials for dog food are directed at human appetites in terms of triggering a buy response, so, too, are the promises of political candidates.
The difference between dog food commercials and efforts at political persuasion is that people don't have to eat the dog food they buy. Whether they end up wanting to eat the slop they are being served by politicians takes longer to determine, and by the time they realize that it is unpalatable, it is too late. Politicians count on voters buying that 50 pound sack of swill.
The cogent, insightful analysis by Mr. Krugman is spot on. But while voters may, indeed, be wising up, too many seem to have short-term memories and a tendency to respond too easily to bromides and the distraction techniques served up by many Republican candidates for office. Deception is always on their menu.
Political messages are designed to tug emotionally at voters, to make sure that they don't go the next step of thinking critically about what they are being sold.
Dogs, apparently, are more discerning than voters. If they don't like what's put in front of them, they won't eat it. Voters, on the other hand, imagine that what they are being sold is the real deal. Once they stick their faces in the bowl, and reality sets in, it's too late.
Dogs are capable of learning. The question now is whether voters are.
2
"In particular, regimes in trouble — like, say, the Argentine junta in the 1980s — often try to rally the public with dangerous foreign policy adventurism. Are you sure that Trump won’t go that route? Really sure?"
Quite the opposite, I very much expect him to. The morning after the election I told my friends that I feared we wouldn't survive the next four years.
I meant it literally.
Voters May Be Wising Up?????
Actually, the special election shows that Democrats may be wising up. How else to explain the pivot from the Warren-Sanders left wing to a anti-gun control, anti-Pelosi, pro-fracking and neutral abortion rights candidate? You want to win elections? Run candidates who are in tune with voters, not donors.
1
If it is TRUE that VOTERS are wising up then it may also be true that TRUMP is getting closer to having a catastrophic problem of his own. Voters turning against him and supports not able to call him innocent when he is guilty. So what if he finds the masses turning on him? What IF MULLER and the team gathers criminal evidence against him? Will he bolt to RUSSIA? A POTUS on the run? Wishful thinking? What would we do? He could do some serious damage to this country as easily from outside as inside. He is perfectly capable.
These special elections strongly suggest that had Comey done his job and kept the Hillary investigation under wraps unless he charged her, that she would have won.
Another example of the Bait & Switch being used to sell Republican policies. The Bait: after the tax cut passed a number of companies got big headline splashes by giving their workers a $1000 one-time bonus. That is a lot of cash, even after a tax withholding, enough to pay one or two overdue bills or buy a large-screen TV. Neat, especially for a worker who earns $10 an hour or less. (Most workers did not get even this, just the thoughts and prayers that they might.)
But here's the switch: Ask folks if they would rather get a $1000 bonus or a $1/hr raise, many will take the bonus. A bird in the hand. A worker who works a 40 hour week works 2080 hours a year, so the bonus amounts to $0.48/hour before taxes, and is a one-time benefit, not a raise. Note also that for that $10/hour worker the tax withholding would be much lower on the $1/hour raise than on the $1000 bonus check.
If you asked a different question:'Would you rather get $2080 over this year or $1000' next week, a majority would pick the former. Ask 'Would you rather get $2080/year for the rest of your career or just $1000 tomorrow' and almost all would pick the former. When is a bonus not a bonus? When it is instead of a bigger raise.
2
How about the idea that people have now seen for themselves for the past 14 months how uninformed and unsuited Dopey Donald really is?
If you are paying attention at all, it is obvious that he switches positions on major issues more often than he changes his underwear.
His recent "photo op" meetings with legislators about immigratin and DACA, and with citizens about gun violence in schools, were hour long opportunities for people to evaluate what an incompetent he is. After he made all sorts of nominal commitments, he backed away a day later, having met in private with his hard line cronies, and with those who make big political donations or weild clout as lobbyists (such as the NRA).
People "get it" and Dopey Donald has nowhere to hide.
People are getting sick and tired of his corrupt admninstration and his "shtick."
Noember 6, 2018 is going to be the day we find out just how many people have figured out that Dopey Donald is a charlatan, a liar, and a crook.
If you want to rein in this walking disaster, vote a straight Democratic ticket to flip both the House and the Senate.
Vote like our democracy depends on it, because it does.
3
Trump would have no hesitancy in stating something to the effect that: "The middle class got a giant tax cut and the rich did not, don't believe anyone who is telling you otherwise, especially the fake mainstream media, your accountant or H&R Block
The political debate may now shift from how many middle class taxpayers actually will pay more or less under the Republican tax bill to the undeniable fact that there will be a massive shift in the tax burden from the rich and onto the middle class. The majority of middle-class taxpayers will see some benefit from the tax bill. However, even they might ponder the question of how much more they would have gotten from a tax bill that provided that 39% of the benefits went to the top 1%, and thus 61% of the benefits went to the other 99% as opposed to the 83% going to the top 1%.
The fact that the non-rich could have had greater tax cuts, if the rich had not gotten so much, is not the only political problem for the Republicans. The tax portion of the Obama stimulus program lowered taxes on everyone who paid social security taxes and gave some extra payments to those on social security and unemployment compensation. However, people falsely believed their taxes had been increased. With the new tax bill, there will be many middle class losers, which was not the case in earlier tax cuts.
Limiting the state and local deduction will mean that many in the middle class will lose their homes.." https://seekingalpha.com/article/4134453
1
Starting unnecessary wars is a Republican specialty. Just look at Iraq. Don't put it past Trump & Co. to start a war when it becomes clear that Mr. Mueller is closing in on him. Let's just hope and pray that the war doesn't include the use of nuclear weapons.
1
Here you have a Marine who ran as a "democrat" who is anti-Pelosi ( will not support her), pro-gun, pro-tax cut, and Anti-Abortion. If the Democrats use this model they have a chance, but if they have socialist candidates like Krugman would want, they are going to lose. This article is absurd because Krugman conveniently forgets that this " Democrat" was touting Republican values.
He's done little else positive, but Trump has amply exposed the glaring weaknesses in the US "checks and balances". The Electoral College failed miserably to protect the country from an unqualified individual, Sessions lied outright in his testimony under oath, nepotism runs rampant, the emoluments clause is useless; all these things that supposedly were designed to prevent such calamities have been proved worthless so far. Toss in Citizens United that allows the outright purchase of politicians by moneyed parties, and you've got a fine cocktail of political mayhem.
2
The GOP is not the party of working Americans. They do not stand up or care about working people, the elderly, the young, or anyone in between. While I don't have any personal recollections of the GOP before the Southern Dixiecrats were taken in after Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, I do think, based upon what has happened since then, that the GOP has sunk to the level of racists, bigots, and yes, rednecks in the worst ways possible.
Everything is a dispute with them unless it benefits the richest in our country. If there is to be welfare it's only for the corporations and the economic upper strata. The tax breaks cost working Americans programs that help them, cost us our infrastructure, and have cost us a decent standard of living. I don't know if the Democrats need to learn to be as cutthroat as the GOP or if we should wait for the GOP to burn itself out. The problem with zealots is that they destroy many others before they destroy themselves.
The GOP amply demonstrated its complete disinterest in the voters decisions twice. Just after Obama was elected they stated that they would not work with him at all. Then, when a second election kept Obama in office this same Greatly Obstructionist Prejudiced Patriarchy again refused to work with him. That's 8 years they wasted when they could have worked with and helped to improve America and shared the glory. There's one word for what the GOP is and it's not strong enough: traitorous.
12
Candidates matter. Clinton was an awful candidate.
4
This "awful" candidate got 3 million more votes than the "winner" (and I agree that she was an awful candidate). But, shouldn't your beef be with the awful slave era Electoral College rather than with the awful candidate?
1
Maybe just one small issue. PK said that the G.O.P.'s central policy goal has been upward redistribution of income: lower taxes for the wealthy, big cuts in programs that help the poor, etc... However, these were not programs of upward redistribution. The policies that do that are policies like the deregulation of banks allowing predatory lending, insider trading practices that go unpunished, revolving door practices allowing regulators and regulated be the same people with major conflict of interests, lobbying rules that help top companies to advance their interests on the account of consumers, monopoly rules that are not enforced that would increase prices for the consumers, trying to hollow out agencies that protect consumers, such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and many other policies which literally take money from lower classes and put them into the pockets of the super rich. Those are the policies that redistribute income upwards.
14
If Republican ads trumpeting tax cuts didn't gain traction, it could also be because many people have yet to see any tax cuts. With my five-figure income, I'm definitely middle class. But here we are, second half of March, and my paycheck does not show any drop in federal income taxes withheld. Not a single penny.
8
Withholding has nothing to do with tax liability. Nothing. It is capricious depending upon what you wrote on your W-4 and what the Circular-E tables than tell some computer to do. The only number that matters is what your actual tax liability is. And you won't know that for a year.
Ah, but don't overlook that Wisconsin teacher whose take-home increased by $1.50 a week!! She can invest in an internet startup, or maybe put it into a hedge fund, and... umm... never mind...
Paul Ryan has been a little too frank in advocating for his agenda to kill Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, and despite McConnell's stalling statements that it's too soon to attack those programs, people increasingly understand what's at stake in a continuing Republican administration. The youth movement is also doing a great job in developing hard hitting slogans (your right to have a gun is not more important than my right to live), maybe they can help the Democrats actually campaign in the mid-terms. This Congress cannot be flipped soon enough.
15
Paul hit it over the fence with this analysis. A frank and clear description of how the Republican Party clings to power -- while their policies are really only to enrich the rich.
All I would add is an overarching thought: the way that Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party get votes is to cater to a myriad set of single-issue voters. Each of these groups are marginal in their size, but when totaled have proven to be enough. Those single-issue voters, like all such narrow thinkers, are largely ignorant of the totality of government.
But to just rub it in -- the Republicans themselves don't even believe or practice those narrow beliefs. Witness an anti-abortion Congressman urging his illicit liaison to get an abortion. Cheating on his wife, urging abortion. Don't think this is an anomaly, there's more just underneath the carefully spun P.R. blanket.
26
Not mentioned in the national press is the Democrat's victory in what was essentially a special election to get rid of Albuquerque's Republican Mayor who bankrupted the city in order to build a useless bus corridor only to pay back his construction industry donors. This was all about robbing the Middle Class and poor to give to his rich buddies. Sound familiar? The Democratic candidate, Tim Keller, another Catholic Democrat, beat the Republican by 2/3 of the vote, and was one of the largest off-year voter turn-outs in Albuquerque history. I believe this is happening all over the country. I'd like to think that American voters are waking up. Conservative voters are finally, finally seeing that they have been scammed for decades, and Democrats are finally, finally realizing that they are partly responsible for all this and going to the polls. I'm guardedly optimistic.
11
Please get your facts right before you spew nonsense. "Special Election", the mayor was term limited and that's why he didn't run, and a democrat winning 60/40 isn't that special when you see the city council was already 5/9 democrat. The ART was prevented from having voter input by that democrat city council.
What voters are doing, are displaying the psychological damage inflicted on them by propaganda. Along with a society constantly changing so rapidly, that they don't know where they belong. They are (voters) at a crossroads; where they will choose the path of independence or subjection.
Arthur Laffer is happy again. He talked about Phase II of the Republican tax plan. May be Paul Ryan does not know about that. May be he thinks the old "lordship" system was ideal when everyone depended upon the Lord and worshipped him and thanks him for letting them eat. Brits still worship their royal family who have none anything useful or productive expect parading as royals. May be that is Laffer's ides of economics. trump wants to be president for life and then pass his President for Life title to his son and .....
1
What's really really scary is that, notwithstanding the power of all these points marshaled by Krugman, Lamb won only by a fraction of 1%. As the Donald says (or at least used to say): "So sad."
There is much more than "bait and switch" going on, there is "What is wrong with Kansas?" Indeed, the closer we look there is a negativity that exists within the voters. Maybe, too many have been weaned on "Fox" entertainment as news and distracted by the Wizard hiding behind the curtain, voicing that your problems are because of those "others". Too many grasping for the elusive gold ring, only to find nothing.
That is the Republican Party, the party of nothing. But while we wait for Godot, there is something more sinister going on. Congress has become nothing more than the party line, the Judicial in being stacked with Ultra-Conservatives and the Presidency has evolved into total chaos.
At what point, America wakes up to the fires consuming our Nation is unknown. Hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later.
10
We risk painting with too broad a brush here, we need to find a way to distinguish between Republicans and well, Republicans. My father and my grandfather were life long Republicans and their politics had very little to do with what is going on today in the Republican Party. I don't have an easy answer, but imagining all Republicans are lying miscreants and evil doers is a form of prejudice. For example, is Senator Susan Collins on the evil list too?
Remember, there are some reasonable conservative voices. If you disagree with someone then say who and why, it's too easy to declare all Republicans as the "others" and it leads to a bad place. We have to tone down the rhetoric if are going to remain the United States (US). Remember who wants us divided and weaker? Russia, North Korea, Iran, etc. Why would we help them hurt ourselves?
3
Most reasonable folks - including myself - could concur with your thought that the hyper-partisan rhetoric and actions (or blatant inaction from elected officials) could be toned down. Kind of like the plea of Rodney King, who got beat up by LA cops, resulting in a major riot: “Why can’t we all just, get along?”
My answer is personal, and likely represents a solid majority of Progressive minded folks.
Our side of things was declared by Ronnie Ray-Gun to be abhorrent and unAmerican.
The republicans have been engaged in open - so far political - warfare with any entity not “with them” since 1981.
I don’t know about you, but when anyone or anything declares “war” against me, I fight back. Hard. In every way that I can.
Thus, I suggest that the first step toward a solution to this political warfare is for the republicans to put down the extreme animus that the RNC has too well cultivated over the past 35 years. Until then, there will be no reconciliation.
1
What is the reasonable conservative solution to climate change, to healthcare costs, to flat wage growth, to corporate power, and to income inequality? What conservative answer is there to mass incarceration, to expensive college tuition and debt? What conservative policy would curtail gun violence or protect reproductive rights? Who among the 14 was the reasonable conservative in the last Republican presidential primary?
It's and old, old tactic to claim we cannot disagree because we have common enemies. Not for nothing, that's a favorite tactic of authoritarians and despots. So let's not say that just because Russia is interfering with out democracy and trying to control out power plants, that there's no room to call out the cynical and disingenuous policies consistently promoted by Republicans.
Is Susan Collins a lying miscreant? No. But she voted for the tax cut believing, or claiming to, in its touted economic benefit. She apparently couldn't see, or didn't care about, the numerous destructive effects, not least on the deficit. She didn't mind the lack of hearings. She ignored the universal condemnation from economists and public policy groups. That 80% of the electorate opposed it also did not matter.
Collins, surely without meaning to, has become a tool of lying miscreants, mistakenly believing that the old Republican Party she remembers still exists, mistakenly supposing "reasonable conservatism" still exists. Any Democrat would better serve Maine.
1
Unfortunately, there are fewer reasonable conservative voices than there used to be, due to the now decades-long campaign of indoctrination by far right propagandists and ideologues aimed at stripping the U.S. of any vestige of post WW2 liberalism, to the point where many Americans are losing connection to the foundational principles of American democracy and rule of law.
And due to the inability of Democrats to act as defenders of those principles as they keep trying to chase their weakening base by giving in to the far right narrative instead of fighting against it with a strong narrative and vision of their own.
Trump's election was at once the fulfillment of the far right's dream of having the chance to remake America in its own image, and the misguided last ditch attempt of many others to save what they were convinced is a failing system, by throwing a spanner into the works.
Add Putin and others getting into the act and the pressures on even the sanest and most reasonable among us to stay divided, angry, and cynical are enormous. Weak and corrupt government is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy pushed by those who benefit from persuading the populace that we have little power to make it work or reason to even want to.
That said - I agree with you. We are fighting for our country and our success hinges on our ability to come together as Americans in reason and good will, all while powerful forces will seemingly stop at little to prevent us from doing just that.
1
I wonder if there's not another factor at work as well: voters are looking for something different.
In 2016 Trump was completely different, and voters who had become disenchanted with government after decades of policies that have failed to do much for them (Obamacare being a huge exception), were ready to try something different. (It also explains the crossover appeal of Bernie Sanders.)
After a year of Trump Chaos and the freak show in Congress, people are realizing Trump is not the difference they were looking for. But, and this is an important but, that doesn't mean they've stopped looking.
Democrats are seeing a lot of new faces popping up to take on Republicans in places the Democratic Party had been content to concede for years. They're winning not just because Republicans are out of favor, but because they are something different.
If the Democratic establishment thinks that voters are ready to return to Democratic centrism and the same old same old faces and policies, they are making a serious miscalculation.
If I recall correctly, the Democratic winner Conor Lamb was careful to distance himself from Nancy Pelosi. Hillary Clinton lost to Barack Obama her first time around - the different candidate. On the GOP side, the TEA Party has managed to drive out moderate Republicans, such as they were, because right wing voters were tired of the GOP establishment that never went far enough for them.
To paraphrase Apple, "Vote Different."
6
We all should be worried that the "big distraction" is all Trump has left in his political hand---and if there is one thing Trump is good at, it is a "big distraction."
2
These are convincing rational arguments. But I think the reaction against the Republicans is happening at a deep emotional level. People are just fed up with the side show. Even people who don't follow politics closely have a sense that it's crazy town in the WH, and they want it to stop. And it's not going to get any better for the Republicans, because things aren't going to improve, and their prospects are going to diminish accordingly.
1
And there are also signs that Democratic voters are wising up also. We are focusing more on winning the election, rather than demanding candidates pass a purity test on progressive issues. We have learned that splitting our votes because we don't have the perfect candidate can lead to disaster.
10
The last year has shaken some voters loose, there is no question about that.
You don't flip a 20% Trump congressional district by accident or because the candidate was just too awesome to not vote for. This move has clearly been initiated overwhelmingly by external, national events, not by local politics per se.
It should be obvious that the combination of Trump's relentless lying and incompetence, coupled with a reboot of the women's movement and our continued pathological obsession with guns and it's tragic consequences has pushed many lifelong GOP women voters to the Democrats.
10
The irony is, for about 1/3 of the voting population, Trump was, is, and always be a winner. And for many of the rest of us (myself included), there is absolutely nothing, and I mean nothing, he could do to convince us that he is redeemable, changeable, educable, or responsible. He won the electoral college 16 months ago. He has had more chances than any president for 2nd, 3rd, 4th (ad infinitum) chances. He is what he is; we have what we have. We either ignore, remove him, or survive him. But we will not change him or the minds of his believers.
7
My point exactly: People like Steve here will blame Mr. Trump for absolutely everything, evidence to the contrary notwithstanding: the global warming, the rain, the clouds, their kids' drug problems, their marital problems, - everything. The lucky thing he is wrong, among other things, in his statistical math: it is not 1/3 but 2/3 of the Americans who stand tall with Our President! P.>S IS the bridge collapse in FL Trump's fault too, Steve?
The heartbreaking fact is that American voters will mobilize, fight and sacrifice for one privilege: the right to vote against their own economic self interests.
I wish Americans had the same vigor to fight for things that make better - clean air, higher education and access to quality health care. The lackluster enthusiasm is always the same.
However, voters will turn out en mass for "conservative politicians" who predictably advocate looser gun regulations, cuts to education, weaker environmental standards and tax cuts for the rich.
6
If Bolton is confirmed as secretary of state we are in even deeper trouble. This guy is an uber warrior. I am afraid of what he and Trump could bring about. At least Tillerson no matter all his faults is at least sane. I am encouraged by the young people becoming engaged; I am encouraged by the voters in PA who seem to beginning to see the light. May that light shine brightly in November and more people who value integrity and the worth of the lesser among us get voted into congress.
3
We've arrived at the outskirts of Marshall McLuhan's 'Global Village'. Our cities are Blue, by the end of the Century, the population will be 70% and produce it's most, if not all, of its own food in medium rise glass structures which are already known to be 10 times more efficient than farmland. There are a few rough patches from here to there, but these may be smoothed over faster than is typically supposed.
1
Paul's ending comment about how regimes try to gain support with foreign policy adventurism certainly resumes. Anybody remember when Bush chose to invade Iraq to keep his approval ratings high as they slid after 9/11?? Well trump isn't half the man Bush was, and Bush was only half a man to start....all i'm saying is "watch out"
1
Love for the country is a good point: Conservatives - in the US, as well as here in my home country Germany, or Britain, France, Italy - always claim to love the country so dearly, but n.b. just as long as it doesn't cost anything. As soon as it comes to paying their share in keeping the beloved country running i.e. their fare share of taxes they plead ignorance; as if the two things are not connected.
4
It has only been a little over a year since the America electorate chose Trump as their president. I think I will wait a while before I decide that they have wised up. I am pretty sure that they will eventually conclude that Trump's tax cut for the wealthy was intended to serve as a basis for a drastic reduction in social services.
1
Paul please refrain from calling the Republican changes to the tax code in 2017 "tax cuts." Although they cut taxes for some, they increased taxes on middle income Americans by capping the state tax deduction at $10,000. This change will cost me $1,300 in extra federal tax in 2019.
2
I think Krugman can also make the same argument regarding the Democratic party. Let's face it the Lamb election was basically a dead heat not a resounding victory. In regards to economic and foreign policy there is very little difference in the performance of the main political parties. Maybe the real message the voters are expressing in is that it does not matter who get elected the results are the same. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
1
Yes, voters are wising up, they supported. Why does Krugman suppose that an actual liberal Senator, who was little known in early 2015, received so much voter support in the Democratic Primaries.
The 2016 election of Trump was a massive rejection of Clinton's so called "neoliberalism". Hillary Clinton helped to elect Trump by not seeing the desperation of vast numbers of US citizens. (She appears to have really thought the economy good--it isn't except for her friends and those of Trump.)
And Paul Krugman worked for months to disparage anyone who raise legitimate questions about Hillary's candidacy and policy choices. In doing so, Krugman aided the election of Trump.
It's not a great surprise that since Trump hasn't fixed anything, which was obvious he wasn't going to to, that voters in a Trump voting House district would elect someone who spoke for them--if only a little bit.
I was living in Argentina in 1982, so I know how it feels. They almost sent me to the war as well.
That is what keep me up at night many, many days when I listen to our celebrity president, for whom starting a war (a nuclear war, most probably) would be the ideal distraction.
1
Have you noticed how quiet Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is about Russia, Operation Dragonfly and guns? He was paid of with a cabinet job for his wife. House majority Leader Paul Ryan received $500,000 from the Koch Brothers for his majority fund right after the tax bill passed. Mr. Ryan and Mr. McConnell aided and abetted Trump and the Russian scandal that they tried so hard to not see. Further evidence, the house GOP intelligence committee report that make voter see republicans do not deserve power and can not be trusted. Americans will remove any untrustworthy representative that strays from democracy and puts our homeland at risk.
3
It goes deeper than just the RNC. The Koch funded organizations are influencing all levels of government from the local to the national and all of them promoting the Koch set of ideas as to how government should function. For all practical purposes the RNC is owned by the Koch brothers. Even the Trump Cabinet and appointed officials are at the beck-and-call of Koch doctrine.
No the Koch brothers do not speak for the majority of Americans, they only speak for the wealthy minority and mostly for themselves alone. While the news is all about Trump all of the time, legislative bodies across America are changing laws to turn America into the Koch brothers dream of a two-tier America with a vast gap between the haves and have-nots. Unfortunately, almost nobody notices because the Distractor-in-Chief keeps the news cycle buzzing with lengthy analysis of the latest tweet-storms.
We may be waking up to Trump but most Americans are woefully unaware of the power of two men who want to rule America without being elected or being held accountable.
4
I think the Republican base has became so conditioned to filtering things out - like Trump's corruption or the blatant class warfare waged against the lower- and middle-class - that they don't even hear, let alone care about these issues.
1
Apparently not only the old Republican bait and switch isn't working, but Donald Trump's personal endorsements seem to have lost their charms as well -- and it's about time.
For those who already knew his presidency would be the disaster it has become, this no surprise. But for those who are slowly "wising up" to his ways, it's a welcome relief.
It's true that the recent election in Pennsylvania may only be a small victory, but given the fact that it occured in a deep red pocket of the state that went solidly for Trump in 2016, it says a lot, especially as it may well be a harbinger of things to come.
So there's every reason to hope that voters may be wising up,
because the same can't be said about this president.
1
Accurate and agrees with my eyewitness history from Reagan to Trump. I would only add to the agenda the popular DONOR centric ideas that the GOP (1) gives priority to National Defense, (2)Human Caused Climate Change is a hoax, and (3) single-payer health insurance would harm the Nation's economy and health.
I love your optimism, but I don't think it's justified - six months from now, the only thing that will register with the voters (once again) is the carefully orchestrated hysteria about the exploding debt and the concomitant need to reduce "entitlements". Nobody will remember the root cause.
Rinse and repeat - sigh.
1
If the GOP fears loss of control they might do something desperate (i.e. 'national security crisis'). They know that the demographics are against them, so they might act sooner rather than later.
Fear is all the GOP attempts to sell the US voters on.
Fear of third-world countries that cannot feed their own people;
Fear of immigrants who come to our country to work low-paid menial jobs because they have no hope of a better life for themselves and their children if they stay in their home countries;
Fear of those who have sacrificed to obtain college educations and are willing to relocate to the coasts where the economy is booming;
Fear of those who look or act differently from themselves; and
Fear of the Future.
You have to feel sorry for those people who buy into this GOP list of fears instead of embracing the opportunities available to anyone willing to take a chance and bet on themselves.
And we cannot these people's fears or the GOP control our nation's future. Vote for the Future - not the Past.
So long as the Democrats follow the centrist-corporatist course that Krugman and the party bosses extoll, their victories, when they happen, will be razor thin, like Conor Lambs.
It isn’t just the Republican Party that is hugely unpopular, the Democrats are right down there in the disapproval rankings with the Republicans.
1
Lamb's victory was razor-thin because it happened in a district Trump carried by 20 points a year ago. Go to the election coverage and look at the "leans more" map with the arrows - nearly every county experienced a very strong Democratic lean, more than enough to sweep away the GOP in districts that were more moderate to start with.
That's not to say the Democratic party shouldn't run candidates that are more in touch with people's issues, but people backlashed against moderates in 2016 and ended up with an extremist. They aren't going to make the same mistake two years later.
"...people backlashed against moderates in 2016..."
People backlashed against a Democratic party that completely lost touch with its working class base.
Election day approaches. Trump has less than 6 months to start a war. Will it be Iran or North Korea. We need "Stop Trump from Starting a War" protests now. Of course Putin could come to his air and invade the Baltic states and Trump could refuse to join NATO and Trump could play "peace maker." By election day we will be iat war or close to it,
Trump wants a war with Iran and/or North Korea. However, if the U.S. starts the war, it will only accelerate the end of the Trump regime since Americans don’t want war with either country and our allies won’t cooperate.
1
I have two words to describe what we can expect next-"Double Down".
Yes Dr. Krugman, you have learned the lesson of Trump. And,painfully, so have we all.
I just hope that the Dems can find their bearings and actually unify itself behind the real issues of its base. In the meantime they can follow the Parkland students lead and actually show up for the battle.
One thing that the republicans have been counting on is the racism that many of their voters seem to have in common. That is the whole concept of social safety net programs. Many are convinced that tax payer money will only, or mostly go to minority communities. This includes the other false notion that undocumented immigrants are receiving welfare and SNAP money along with free emergency room medical care. So rather than even helping themselves, many republican white voters feel that they would deny themselves any government assistance rather than giving away "free money" to these groups.
Most everyone else knows that the so-called "paying people not to work" is another scam perpeturated since the 'welfare queen' argument from the Reagan days. In fact these benefits mostly go to the white working poor citizens. But some people would rather not receive any government monies just as long as minorities don't get "free stuff." It's not true but conservatives have touted this message daily for the past 30 odd years. It's hard to remove the concrete once it sets.
3
While there's little doubt the Republicans will try their same old bait and switch, fear of the other, and God and flag tactics during the 2018 mid-terms, I think Conor Lamb's apparent victory in the Pennsylvania 18th may mark a back to the future change in our politics, at least in terms of the House. Lamb seems to have won by appealing to the needs and wants of the Pennsylvania 18th's constituents not those of the Democratic Party. Members of the House are supposed to represent the interests of the constituents in their district, regardless of what the larger party, the president, or the Speaker of the House might believe is best for their constituents balanced against the needs of the nation as a whole. In my mind, a Republican Congressperson from a district heavily populated by seniors who like and want their Medicare should vote to keep and improve their Medicare benefits regardless of what President Trump, Speaker Ryan, or the Republican Party as an entity wants or believes. The same should apply to every issue of concern to a particular congressperson's constituents. After all, they are "Representatives" of the people not the Republican or Democratic Party.
11
The big picture for the GOP is that their policies hurt most Americans. We rely on imports, so Trump' s trade war will hurt consumers. We all rely on health care, so plans to decimate Medicare, Medicaid and Obama care will hurt us again. And the tax cut bill? Most Americans understand that any short term benefits will be gone after the next election cycle. Many of us baby boomers know we squandered our prosperity. We have left our children with huge debts, and little chance of achieving the American dream. We were born soon after World War 2, and shudder at Trump's alliance with Putin. Democrats will continue to win by running candidates that respect our core values. This is the American heart and soul.
19
Just a thought. We are continually barraged with requests (demands) for contributions by politicos at all levels. Might we be better off giving the money to our school system, thus encouraging a more informed and rational electorate ?
14
Wot ? Wot ? An informed and rational electorate ?
Neither party wants that.
Sure, Trump will do just about anything to distract the people from his disastrous policies. And Republican politicians will go right long. Been like that since Ronald Reagan.
In my life I seen the Republican party go from a principled conservative philosophy (Eisenhower) to one that is deliberately obtuse, racist, mean and divisive (Trump).
The Republican Congress will do anything to stay in power, from taking Russian money (via the NRA), to overlooking Trump corruption and Trump crime, to lying to the American public on Fox News, well, just anything to cling to power.
Mr. Krugman, you are right to ask, "What new outrage will Republican politicians perpetrate to distract the people from Republican past malfeasance?"
29
Voters are indeed fed up with Trump—but for how long? They will probably give the House back to the Democrats in November and kick Trump out in 2020 if he hasn't resigned or been impeached. But then what? The most likely scenario is that the GOP will spend only one presidential term in purgatory and then roar back in 2024 like they did in 1980. One would have thought that Watergate would have banned the Republican Party from the White House for a generation: after 8 years of Nixon-Ford it should have been the Democrats' turn to occupy the White House for the next 8 years. Instead, the GOP held the presidency for the 12 of the next 16 years. The Republican Party's ambition to plunder the middle and working classes to ensure perpetual inherited wealth for the 1% is a long-term project. Like zombies, you can slow them down for a while. But can you really stop them?
17
First the ruin the middle class. Then they make sure the path upwards is limited to the rich. Finally, they destroy the economy so the country become a banna republic. SAD! RESIST! Do not be fooled.
24
A tax cut of a couple of thousand dollars a year for a few years will do nothing for middle-class families facing never ending increases in health, housing, and education costs. How will a $2,000 tax cut help when I can be financially destroyed by spending a couple of days in a hospital?
27
Voters might be wising up, but that is measured from a very low base. ACA gone, tax cuts for the rich in place. Cuts to social programs are ongoing. More money for lock down drills in schools. Larry Kudlow is now the senior economic adviser and Pompeo is Secretary of State. Bolton is to become national security adviser soon. I see no light in the tunnel until 2020. What is your bet on who are we going to wage war with? Is Iran first and then N Korea? Or I have she order wrong? What are the odds that by 2019 we are to be sending special forces and bombing these two countries?
How about small skirmishes with China in the south seas?
Trump is surrounding himself with likeminded, but operationally capable people that are going to wreck havoc and break the world order, stability and peace as we know it.
Congress cannot stop him for now. I hope the forces of reason and progress will gain more power in November 2018, but how do we stop the oncoming disasters at home and overseas that we are going to cause ourself?
Look around! Puerto Ricky is forgotten and it’s residents are slowly moving to the mainland. Texas has a lot left to rebuild and hurricane and flood season is approaching fast. Who is going to change the tax low back or reintroduce a health care law and system that works for all Americans?
The 2nd Amendment is a birth given right, but paid family vacation, affordable healthcare, housing and childcare are not a right. Where is the light?
13
RE: "It’s hard for Republicans to pose as the party of patriotism"
And that's all it is. A pose. A con. A cynical ploy usurping of the image and values of patriotism, wrapping themselves in the flag while working to undermine the values the Patriots fought for and won for us with their lives.
Patriots would never set out to defeat the freedoms and protections our forefathers fought for while claiming they are oppressed by others being free and equal. Patriots would never favor an authoritarian form of rule, or establishment of an aristocracy where a precious few hold the wealth and the reigns over others. Patriots would never seek to establish a Government based on religion.
Too many of today's Republicans would no find sympathy among the Patriots but rather find it in those whose philosophy they share, the Tories, the loyalists to the crown.
10
But will the Democrats wise up or as usual sit on their hands or vote for absurd 3rd parties? and let the GOP win? They let Nixon, Reagan (who gave us Murdoch and Fox), George W (who destabilized the Middle East) and Trump win. They don't understand the harm they do or how selfish their decision to not to vote is.
6
Wising up? The great mystery is how the Democratic party, and in particular, the DNC, will learn to bend left to become more progressive when it has clearly been at the trough on Wall Street for decades. The majority of voters, excluding that sad ~30% that are ultraconservative, and the 10% that should be too-rich-to-vote, are progressive. Winning them over should be the goal of the party. They won't be easily hoodwinked. "Nobody's going to listen to Bill and Hill, chirping, "Oh, well, I feel your pain." The voters the Democrats seek are much more politically savvy than the baby boomers.
3
Look at the Trump turmoil, the threat of war, the repeal of the ACA, the tax cut for the uber-rich and then think about how much BETTER the US and world would have been with Hillary. Vote out the GOP on Nov 6 is the only remedy to the present mess of what is the USA.
1
The truly sad part is how so many Americans listen to the Republican nonsense all of these years and vote against their own self-interest.
7
Typically, the U.S. electorate votes for Democratic and Republican political candidates in nearly equal numbers, this on the premise that balanced representation achieves economic and social policies that benefit all.
For much of our history, this modus operandi worked pretty. But then came the 21st century version of the Republican party, with its deplorable cast of greedy, selfish exclusionists, lately led by a neo-fascist named Donald Trump.
Yes, as Paul Krugman writes, "voters may be wising up" about the GOP's evils. We'll find out in November whether this is true. If it is -- that is, if we Americans vote vastly more Democrats than Republicans to represemt us -- we truly will have wised up.
And should we set this good thinking as a long-term trend, we'll be even more than wise. We'll be geniuses.
1
Frankly, I am sure that he will go that route. Either a well-timed limited bombing or perhaps a full scale commitment to an invasion or war. He is rebuilding his cabinet with hawks who will support his urge and political need to do this.
1
BOOM! SHOCK AND AWE. This is what the Republican Party has delivered. This is the essence of Trump - we must seriously worry if/when he may start a war. If/when he does, it will be another Republican owned misadventure not paid for (just like in Iraq and Afghanistan); a never ending bleeding of American blood and treasure; more American indebtedness, more American "leader" neglect of Americans (who don't own stock in the war industries).
But here's a question to ponder, Is Trump the least godly man ever to occupy the White House? It all depends on your definition of god. There are many terms, conceptions, beliefs, but it is quite clear that Trump has a holy trinity: money - the father, infamy - the son, and calumny - the holy ghost. And Trump is not just a devotee of this religion, he is a high priest.
Lastly, an observation about white evangelical Christians, a bigger religious sham than Trump. Like Trump, there is no redemption for these people. They made a treasonous bargain to sell their religion and their souls in exchange for a Supreme Court seat with the intention to make America a Christian theocracy.
For them the end justifies the means (Trump). They decided Americans have no right to control their own bodies. They decided Americans have no right to secular governance. They decided they will impose their beliefs on everyone else.
They will not prevail. Like Trump and the Republican Party, they will be condemned for their tyranny against America.
6
Our political rhetoric reminds me of Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". In the land of the Lilliputians, Gulliver now a giant is asked to fight on the side of the Bigenders against the Smallenders (sorry I may have the names wrong) who are in a death struggle over which end of a boiled egg to open.
The art of politics should be about achieving "consensus" or then compromise or at least civil majority rule. We are fighting with ourselves and that is disasterous. Russia and China are adversaries who among others are salivating at the thought of a weak US. Not weak rhetoric, but weak as in a house divided against itself. There are still only two governing philosophies Authoritarianism and democracy. We have a proto-despot as president and a Republican enabling congress unwilling to do the honorable thing in restraining him, because they see the end of their party, the end of their rich people support and an end to the philosophic underpinning of their political message of fiscal conservatism, and winning trumps honor. The Democrats are on their heals now because they fumble the message of providing political power to working people who often don't get a fair share of prosperity. They have lost the very heart of their support because of visceral fear of foreign influences, despite our melting-pot history. We are now in a dangerous place. Stop all polemics on both sides and fix this right away. Impeach this incompetent man and start a fresh dialogue.
2
Locally, healthcare layoffs are making headlines and just last month the hospital I work for imposed a hiring freeze. The GOP assault on healthcare is working. It's only a matter a time before it starts showing up in the national unemployment numbers.
This paragraph from the article sums it well.
"Anyway, it didn’t work, perhaps because many Pennsylvania voters realize that steel country isn’t what it used to be, and the old days aren’t coming back. These days there are about 10 times as many hospital workers as steel workers in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area — and surely at least some voters realize that G.O.P. efforts to slash health care threaten their jobs as well as their coverage."
3
When 61% are for banning the AR-15 but can't even raise the purchase age to drinking age, it's clear this 'small minority' gets what it wants & wins.
The 'resistance' is as usual too busy watching their mutual funds to even bother constructing a compelling platform that could possibly out-radicalize trump's nationalists.
And of course there will be a war to lock in a 2nd term, There's always some cooked up 'rally round the flag' cause with the gop.
I have no hope anything will change soon, they're just getting started.
3
A point that should be high-lighted in the comments section at least a few times. Conor Lamb is not a liberal democrat but he is a politician /democrat that other dem's can work with. Not for Nancy I'm fine with that. I donated a few times to CL. A little more as I found him and the race worth supporting. The progressive dem’s and moderate dem’s can work together to make the country a better place for the 99% of us in the US and for the rest of the world.
3
Lamb's most significant move, to someone outside PA, was his non-support for Pelosi. It does not cost him anything to say it and gained him a win. It's smart politics and if the Dems were smart they might convince Pelosi to declare she won't run for minority/majority leadership. It is really no skin off their nose and only pride would prevent her from doing it.
2
It is, as you conclude, "dangerous foreign policy adventurism" that appears to be coming soon with Donald Trump planning a face-to-face meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong-un where nuclear brinksmanship and two volatile personalities meet. With Trump remaking his cabinet into a circle of sycophants the likelihood of a catastrophic outcome has increased significantly. And, if that is not scary enough there is the equally increased prospect of a major Islamic civil war in the Middle East that pits Sunni Saudi Arabia in alliance with Israel and the U.S. against Shiite Iran and Russia. While the "voters may be wising up" no one else has and November may be too late for Donald Trump to cloak himself, as did George W. Bush, in the mantle of a super patriot, war-time president.
1
"often try to rally the public with dangerous foreign policy adventurism. Are you sure that Trump won’t go that route? Really sure?"
All Trump has to do is bomb a small fishing village in N Korea and put us on the brink of nuclear war in order to win the 2020 election. The American public has shown itself time and again completely unable to resist this kind of call to "patriotism"
4
The ugliness of this recent GOP Congress and White House has truly polarized me to become a socail activist an angered fighter for protection of civil rights and medical care for the financially struggling. My "wisening up" is not a change in voting ( I rarely ever voted for conservatives ) , but it is a call to arms to get involved in assorted small actions to help bring about change from the unfair gerrymandered landscape of the GOP. I also try to converse with people around me to get them to see how the GOP has let the people down (again). For me, it is a coping mechanism that hopefully has productive value for our country and community. Because nothing feels worse than believing that individuals are now victims and can do nothing. You can share your brain-power, wit, and charms to help us all. It's rewarding to see that progress is being made.
3
Just watch what happens now. The R's will try to buy the 2018 elections by passing more personal income tax cuts. Deficit? Who cares when it comes to keeping power?
2
I sincerely hope that voters have wised up, but I am not convinced. The lure of money is still there. The GOP is the party of wannabe millionaires and it appears that the wannabes truly believe that if they don't support the GOP they won't become millionaires. Now the GOP is making it clear that all money, including the millionaires' money, must flow to the billionaires....leaving the wannabes as impoverished as ever.
2
"...the bankruptcy of all the political strategies Republicans have used to distract voters from an unpopular agenda."
The strategies have worked to perfection for the wealthiest which is all that matters. As for the possibility of Trump rallying the public with dangerous foreign policy adventurism - Isn't up to Rupert Murdoch whether or not such a strategy works? The old Aussie fox wields such enormous power and has for decades, and yet The Times rigorously adopts the same sort of hands off approach Trump has, until this day, been showing toward Russia and Putin. An instance of friendly collusion between publishers perhaps. It makes a reader wonder.
Let’s hope that Mueller comes up with something truly substantial, and soon. Let’s hope that nationwide protests continue to bear fruit, as with teenagers taking a stand against gun violence in their schools. Let’s hope that Democrats gain considerable victories in November by addressing issues important to their local constituencies.
How did Conor Lamb win? By giving his voters what they wanted in being a lot like them; by being different from the status quo with youth and energy; by riding on a growing wave of disgust for Trump and his agenda. And by taking advantage of less well understood intangibles: time will tell that story.
What is at stake for our country? With Pompeo as secretary of state and catering to Trump’s baser impulses, and with Mueller closing in, war is a very real possibility. With North Korea? Hopefully cooler heads will prevail. Iran? Maybe. Afghanistan? We won’t be getting out of there anytime soon. How the U.S. is handling human rights around the world may be a salient harbinger of things to come.
According to “World Report 2018” from Human Rights Watch, Trump has set back rights and protections for refugees and immigrants; Trump has undermined women’s health services, promoted police abuse, fueled racism and hate groups, denounced journalists and judges, undercut checks on presidential power, and threatened the LGBT community.
Trump’s abusive and discriminatory policies do not bode well. Let’s hope voters don’t stop “wising up.”
4
Yes, the Republican tax bill is dreadful. BUT why make up a false reason to oppose it when there are many good reasons to do so. Especially when this false reason supports the most pernicious idea the public holds about economics--that the finances of a huge, long lived country that can create as much of the currency its debt is in as it needs & which MUST create the money we need to conduct commerce is anything like one's personal finances. Prof. Krugman writes:
"the hard truth that tax cuts must, eventually, be paid for"
This is absolute nonsense. It is easy to see that it is nonsense by looking at history. We had to spend like drunken sailors to win WWII. At the end we came out with a HUGE debt, relatively much larger than today
When, Professor, was that debt paid for?
It never was, In fact from 1946 to 1973 we INCREASED that debt by 75%.
The thing is that there are good ways to spend money & bad ones. Good ones like federal spending for worthwhile projects like the interstate highways help the economy grow & make the debt insignificant. Bad ones like tax expenditures for the Rich add money that is not useful because the Rich spend less of it & use most of it to speculate.
I understand that the Republicans will take Krugman's false statement & falsely say we have to cut social programs, but that does not justify it.
The fact is that federal debt never needs to be paid, AND every time we have even significantly paid it down, we have fallen into a terrible depression.
2
Saccone and the Republicans also ran the usual anti-Pelosi ads near the end of the campaign. Those didn't work well enough this time.
2
The perseverence of conservative 'christianity' is frightening to the core. I lived in a small town where the Planned Parenthood building was picketed for over 20 years. Every Saturday, rain or shine, sweltering heat or cold, these alleged lovers of babies brought their young children, infants in carrriages to spend the day parading up and down the block in front of the building with their horrific photos and chanted lies of PP's mission. The town had to spend money for the police presence. After two decades, the town finally gave in and Planned Parenthood closed. They won. And I also wonder about that generation of children now grown up. What a life these loving parents exposed their children to.
4
While Saccone lost, he should have lost by 99% as is his party's policies benefit only 1%. Why do the other 48% keep voting for candidates like Saccone and Moore? There are more deceits still in play.
2
The Democrat party is the party of nay-sayers and dreamers. The Republicans are doers. That is why the Republican majorities are here to stay for generations to come, occasional set-backs notwithstanding. Look at countries where Democrat-like parties / ideologies are in power: Russia, China, Vietnam, etc. People like I rn from such countries as fast as we could. Sure thing, people like Mr. Krugman would do just fine there, as well as he does here or better, but as for an average American, she is much better off under Pres. Trump than Pres. Putin, and she knows it. That is why the Republicans will continue winning large majorities for decades to come, I believe.
1
We have reached a point where we have competing stupid remarks that make far more enemies than they do friends.
The "basket of deplorables" versus Democrats "hatred of our country & God".
Neither tack is liable to win many in the moderate center of both parties.
Purely anecdotal evidence suggests to me that "a plague on both your houses" is widespread among the young and the old.
If the center abandons the process we are well and truly lost.
Here is King Henry IV's advice to his son Hal on his deathbed, according to Shakespeare:
"Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out,
May waste the memory of the former days."
In other words: "Make it your policy to focus the distracted minds of the people with foreign wars. Military actions abroad will make people forget about troubling matters in the past." Those "troubling matters"? Illegitimacy and dissipation.
2
Lower middle class white people aren’t nearly as gullible as you think. Election returns since Ronald Reagan simply show that economic issues - i.e. taxes - do not matter very much, not that they’ve been fooled for the last 35 years. The issues that do matter, guns, gays, God, abortion, race and immigrants, are where the GOP does speak for them. The Pennsylvania guy who just won checked off on enough of these to squeak by. Plus, he came from their world, an ex-Marine. A successful candidate needs to have some anti-intellectual credibility, preferably via their public statements, but otherwise via a military, law enforcement, church, or professional sports background. Outside of cities & college towns, an ignorant buffoon is still preferable to a schoolmarm. In any case, for lower middle class whites, economics is unimportant and will remain so till the next Great Recession.
1
I hope the Democrat leaders watched Lamb's speech on election night. He spoke about protecting Social Security and Medicare. He spoke about unions and the need for good jobs.
He ran FOR protecting the middle and working class. This is the path to victory
1
A year ago, almost literally, I wrote a blog post on the three things the Democratic party, my party, had to fix to win. Then, I emailed it to the DCCC and the DNC. 1. Fight voter suppression techniques. 2. Go deep into red country. Encourage state level democrats to run for higher offices. Have town halls and listen in places deemed to red to waste time on. Invest in letting these voters learning out our candidates. 3. Better candidates. I think Progressive candidates can only succeed in specific parts of the country. If we want to win in red areas and the presidency, we need moderate candidates who focus on the economy and health care, not social issues. They are all important though. Both Doug Jones and Conor Lamb were recruited by the DCCC. One of the places to get my blog post.
1
"Regimes in trouble rallying the public with dangerous foreign policy adventurism" -- you cite Argentina in the '80's, but I would have cited the Iraq War in the Bush II era.
1
I understand mr. Krugman’s conclusion concerning what will be happening next to deviate American attention span from today’s impending problems .
GOP is a mastermind of diversion even if it implies putting the Country in danger with perhaps another military conflict.
American voters have to wake up and be able to differentiate reality from fiction.
There is a constant turnover in every society and this has been recently proven by the latest elections in various American States and by the strong awakening of the students after the by now “ usual “ shoot up in another school .
I have plenty of trust in these young Americans, they raised my hope that in the future we will become a better society .
2
To answer Krugman's question about distractions, I think the trade sanctions are a crude first attempt. Causing a blow up During the face to face negotiation with Kim will likely be the next one. The American people will not buy it but the damage could be catastrophic.
1
"So how does the G.O.P. stay politically competitive?"
Because the G.O.P. has mastered the politics of single-issue voting, primarily around abortion and guns. It's likely that enough people vote solely on those issues to give the G.O.P. its margin of victory in close elections.
Because the G.O.P. has mastered the politics of hate and resentment, from the Southern Strategy to this day.
3
Nothing to dispute in this column this morning.
And together with the report on Russian hacking of our electric supply grid, and presumably other not publicly disclosed attacks, something is likely brewing.
Not much we can do just now, but if we can survive until the midterms, we need to send every Republican into the wilderness, and every Democrat, and elect only honest Independents with no allegiance to any corporate or special interest entity.
1
I think you do not accurately describe the mechanics of this "wave" - very few minds were changed in this district. Republicans stayed home and Democrats voted. The result amounts to the same thing, but thinking that individual voters "wised up" hides the real story.
1
I am glad Krugman included in his description of Republican tactics their appeals to racial, religious, and cultural enmity. But this is not a bait and switch; only a nasty and maleficent way to appeal to some peoples worst selfish instincts. In Trump's case it is his main appeal by far, and the Republican support of him reveals their commitment to this approach.
1
Trump's core support principally stems from racial animosity. That core is impenetrable. The change I see is in more middle of the road voters who rejected current political leadership and believed it might be wise to try a radical change thinking "how bad could he be?" They now have seen how bad it is and are terrified.
1
I'm not at all sure that we won't find ourselves in a wholly unnecessary war. The fact that Trump & Co have stripped the State Department of its diplomats and also, the collective wisdom and experience combined with Trump's worship of the military and his tough-boy verbiage seems to argue for just such an awful outcome. Not to mention that a bigtime distraction might be required to keep POTUS in the White House - I'm worried.
1
I've been worried about trump declaring martial law for months as a last resort because the President has unlimited power to do so. Martial law has very serious consequences for civil rights, freedom of the press etc. even the '18 elections. This is very, very scary stuff.
2
Yes, Republicans are good at the bait and switch where they've talked social issues to collect votes and when in office promote policies to concentrate wealth in the upper income brackets, but Democrats have behaved the same while saying they are the party of working people. Their policies end up hollowing out the middle and working class the same as Republicans, the trends have increased regardless of who is in office, and they've even done their bidding such as supporting the tax and economic policies of Reagan for starters. The neo-liberal policies supported by Democrats are basically 'Republican Lite'.
Neither party is preening their angel wings on this issue.
1
Bait and switch absolutely, but the crucial glue that connects the GOP agenda for the rich to its voter base is guns. We're taking away these wasteful government programs but we're not going to take your money in taxes and we're not going to take your guns. Surely this makes you feel in charge of your own destiny.
Prof. Krugman's phrase that Trump may engage in "foreign policy adventurism" gives me the chills. He has foolishly agreed to meet with the North Korean leader sometime in the next several months--wonder if that meeting will occur around the fall elections--that would surely be a great distraction.
1
Mr Krugman share my opinion. I've been warning of this inevitable path to war straight from the little dictator's playbook since before the election: A war with Iran is Trump's plan to deflect when either domestic problems will become too heated or to rally support before the next elections. North Korea was not feasible because of mass casualties, but bombing muslims has been good to Trump and the GOP. When Trump tried it early in his term with strikes against Syria, he got praised universally as "presidential". He's been rallying the Israelis and the Saudis against Iran and changing his cabinet with pro-Iran-war nuts for that purpose. There's nothing like a "good" war to rally the country around a weak president. It worked for Bush. He declared a unilateral war and destabilized the entire Middle East, the worst strategic mistakes in American history. He got rewarded by patriotic voters with reelection. Then we paid for it and got the great depression.
2
Trump is putting a team in place to justify an unnecessary war with Iran. A war that will be supported by exactly two "allies", the Israelis and the Saudis. He will get a lot of Americans killed. He will destroy any chance for a non-nuclear Iran. And he thinks it will boost his ever sagging popularity. Democrats better be ready to fight him on it. The American people better be ready to take to the streets.
1
For those who may have forgotten, or never learned, the Argentinian Junta figured that the sure way to preserve their rule was to start a war over an issue that resonated with their country and would be easy to win. They seized the Falkland Islands / Malvinas Islands from that has-been power - Great Britain.
And to everyone's surprise Maggie Thatcher fought back, sending the British Army, the Royal Navy, and the Royal Air Force halfway around the world, taking substantial casualties, and recapturing the territory.
Cornered autocrats, like cornered wild animals, are at their most dangerous.
The concern I have with Republicans is what they do when they are desperate. Like a rattlesnake backed in to a corner they will strike and strike hard. We have to keep in mind we progressives are still in shock after Trumps surreal 2016 win. Our fellow voters let us down much more so then the Republicans won. We've had two flukes in 16 years with the electoral college so who knows what they will do to stay in power and continue with their evil agenda. Beware the cornered rattlesnake.
I am sure that his every impulse WILL be to engage in "foreign policy adventurism" -- meaning, he will eventually attack North Korea. He is already engaged in removing those who would try to stand in his way: Tillerson, McMaster, and, probably down the road, Kelly; and when he is surrounded by the likes of Pompeo and Bolton, he will finally feel at liberty to use the weapons he so admires, which, for a fleeting moment, will make this needy narcissist feel like a man.
War with Argentina over The Falklands did the trick for Thatcher. With Tories slipping in the polls, Thatcher facing a Tory revolt, public outrage over her tax cuts for the rich, her government was near collapse.
A proposed sale/leaseback of The Falkland Islands with Argentina's military junta stalled in Parliament. When talks dragged on, Argentina invaded South Georgia Island. Overnight Thatcher went from "Chamberlain to Churchill," declaring war, rallying a restive public, and quelling Tory challenges to her leadership.
The Falklands War cost over 3 billion pounds and 600+ lives but Thatcher's Churchillian defense of British sovereignty lifted her in the polls by 10 points and the subsequent early election she called gave the Tories the largest victory since Labor's landslide post-war.
For desperate despots and Iron Ladies, war is a miracle cure. Literally overnight Thatcher went from being a failed leader -- the most reviled post war Prime Minister -- to a global hero destined for history. The Falklands War was Thatcher's watershed moment allowing her to galvanize a divided public, vanquish her political enemies, and ram through her "free market" agenda.
By all reports Thatcher, while devious, was nowhere near the conscience free zone where Trump sulks.
As voters get wise, Trump gets desperate and foolish.
Trump is the answer to "War...What's It Good For?" Plus he has a close Russian buddy in the war business.
Another crisis or two and it's not if but when.
People are seriously underestimating the extreme tribal nature of the situation - an extreme that we have not seen before. Imagination required.
One should be careful about reading two much into an off year election. Just remember that Obama won a sweeping mandate, far larger than any other recent candidate, passed the laws that he ran on and then lost big time during the first off year election. Therefore if you say that the voters are getting wise to the Repubs you should say the same thing about Obama after 2 years.
"Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone on Monday evening asserted that his political opponents 'hate' the president, the United States, and even God ... standing alongside Donald Trump Jr." (NBC News, 12Mar2018) This outrageous statement is a classic example of demagoguery. Only in the age of Mr. Trump could such a statement even be considered in a campaign. The fact that Mr. Saccone almost won the election is truly discouraging. I hope the suggestion that voters are waking up to such tactics is correct.
1
I always love Paul Krugman. I used to see him in town. But I don't understand how he can say Trump is Putin's puppet. He and the "shadow government" are in one accord in bashing and sanctioning Russia. That is a very dangerous game and puzzling when that nation could be our best ally. You taunt a bear once and he dances. Taunt him again and he dances again. Taunt him the third time and ...
Dr. Krugman doesn't quite say what I've been fearing for some time - but comes closer to it than any hint I've seen before: that Trump, noticing his falling ratings while intending to occupy a lifetime presidency, he would use a nuclear attack to gain a unified America against the suddenly created all-out enemy of America.
As Mueller edges closer to uncovering truths, does that bring us closer to WW-III? We don't know yet (nor perhaps does Mueller or anyone but Trump himself) whether Trump's determination to end the investigation is because he is guilty of treason - or furious and fearful over exposure that Russia, not America, 'elected' him? Whichever it is, would he press that bigger-button-on-his-desk than President Kim of North Korea's button? Is there really anyone to stop him?
"So how does the G.O.P. stay politically competitive? The answer is that the party has mastered the tactics of bait and switch: pretending to stand for one thing, then doing something quite different in office."
Please, Dr. Krugman, you're being far too generous to the Republicans.
Recall that the war in Iraq was started on utterly false pretenses by the George W. Bush WH, State Dept. and Defense Dept., resulting in the loss of life of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and several hundred U.S. soldiers, and trillions of dollars siphoned off from our Treasury (off-book) to carry on this conflict. Why was the Iraq war started? Because WH Republicans, most prominently Karl Rove (a great admirer of Lee Atwater, who walked the walk on how to lie, cheat and steal to win elections) figured out that a war was needed to win Bush a second term. History shows that voters support a wartime president, so Bush was going to become a wartime president for just that reason. And it worked.
I cannot repeat this enough: Republicans on the Hill and in the WH will stop at nothing to win. This includes: putting a gigantic number of black men in jail and permanently disenfranchising them; gerrymandering voting districts to an extreme extent to favor their candidates; suppressing the vote by whatever means are available (removing polling places in Democratic areas, imposing voter ID requirements, putting out false claims about voting hours, etc. etc).
November 2018: VOTE.
1
Trump proposes the death penalty for drug dealers, claiming that a drug dealer causes the death of thousands.
But Trump's destruction of Obama care or even its individual mandate would kill many more than a drug dealer would.
Equal justice under the law?
3
The Republican Party...bait and switch.
This is a beautifully clear, easy to understand, easy to say, and accurate description. Say it out loud, often, especially if there's another person with in earshot.
Yes, I am sure the Republicans will do anything to hold on to power, but I am not at all sure the American public has wised up.
We have pathetically low voter turnout. Why not make the day we vote for the President and other elected officials a national holiday? States could do the same for special elections. Perhaps we could execute a half day holiday?
And how about $50 deduction on taxes for those who vote? Hourly employees in particular cannot rely on their employers to give them paid time off to vote.
Yup, he's going to start a war. That's another page out of the conservative playbook. Remember Reagan's defense of Grenada? How about Margaret Thatcher's attach in the Falkland Islands? Or how about W sending the troops into Iraq over nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.
If we're lucky it will be a mismatch like those "adventures". Grenada has a population of less than 100,000 and there are more cows than people in the Falklands. It took only 4 days to disable the Iraqi military. But popularity for the fearless leaders went up in every case none-the-less.
But we may not be so lucky this time. North Korea has real nuclear weapons.
Rick Saccone has to be one of the most lifeless candidates ever chosen to run for office by the Republican party. His message and the campaign that was run on his behalf was shameful. The national GOP and their Super Pac's ran 9 million dollars plus of attack ads over the last several weeks. Saccone was so lazy his message was I am like Donald Trump.
Conor Lamb looked like a young JFK in his ads. He spoke in complete sentences and demonstrated that he was his own man and did not agree with every bullet of the Democratic Parties platform. He parted with Nancy Pelosi and was pro gun. Is this the new strategy? I think the new strategy is just being honest with voters. Mr. Lamb came across as honest and authentic. The loser deserved everything that he got and more. The message that he delivered was largely written by those that brought the money, outsiders from the Beltway that never really understood this district. Thanks to Mr. Lamb and the voters in western Pennsylvania that demonstrated that sometimes democracy actually works.
1
How did Trump get elected in the first place, despite his obvious ties with Russia and other things that gave him favorabililty ratings that were never positive? A large number of voters have found that the strategies of both parties are bankrupt. What are Democrats doing to change that? Despite the shortcomings of Obamacare healthcare is probably a winning issue, but Democrats need to promise something really good. There are many systems that work better than ours, but the common factor is that the government, not a "free market", plays the main role in setting prices.
Is defending the corporate-dominated globalism that has been in effect a winning issue for Democrats? I think that Krugman agrees that domestic economic policy since the Johnson administration has been dominated by corporate-friendly policies that were aimed at increasing the wealth of the rich (even if he doesn't agree it is obviously true). Why wouldn't international trade policy have been formulated with the same aims? The TPP was a blatant example but other trade deals and policies had similar aims. Will Trump or his demagogic successor have these policies to hold against Democrats?
Are voters starting to wise up? Maybe. My faith in the ability of the average GOP middle class voter (as some family and friends are) to fully realize their dire predicament under the republican leadership in congress is tested every day. If and when voters in Wisconsin, as an example, come to the conclusion that their representative in congress House Speaker Ryan does not represent their best interest for the most part and seek his removal, then maybe wisdom has finally gained some ground. Until then I'll just hold my breadth.
31
Lamb's win proves a point that we all know is true. Democrats can't run competitive races...especially in conservative districts...unless they campaign as moderates. If Lamb had run as a progressive he would have lost in a landslide. We as a country have moved further to the right. The Democrats have gotten their clocks cleaned for the past 6 years by running against this tide. We can't govern if we can't win elections. We have to do something different. At this point can moderates, & progressives co-exist in the same party given the country's sharp turn to the right? Considering th left's divisive views on so many issues, absolutely not. Far left ideals don’t resonate with Independents or blue-collar workers, some of whom are within our base. Democrats have tried to run local campaigns on a national platform that working-class voters despise. Lamb was smart enough to acknowledge this fundamental truth. That's why he ran ads rebuking Pelosi. We need to do that more often. The voters we need to win back the Presidency, Congress, SCOTUS, the majority of governorships & state legislatures, have different values. To them, progressivism means vile college protests & obnoxious academics who posture as their will on earth. It's time for the Democrats to go in a different direction. We should not abandon our core principles but we have to move to the center. We will have a better chance of passing our agenda. No more symbolic campaigns. This victory is a great sign for moderates.
11
Would love to understand other than bashing Pelosi what we lose moving to the center
Those “vile” protests? Are we supposed to give up freedom of speech and right to assemble?
Sorry if the Dark Money apparently has twisted and perverted these rights even Democrats’ eyes
Game over
Sure he won't go that route? Not at all. I'm (pleasantly) surprised he hasn't gone off on military adventurism already. But with more generals filling his cabinet and November looming, it's only a short matter of time. Sadly, the world is about to become a much scarier place.
4
Republicans always look for ways to turn off the brain’s pre-frontal cortex, the part that controls executive function and higher level thinking. Without the PFC people act on gut instinct and can make unforced errors. This has worked brilliantly for 40 years at least. The solution is keeping an issues focus that ties back to real life so that everyone can identify with it. That’s what happened in PA-18. Going for foreign adventurism after nearly 20 years of war is a bad idea. It would show the GOP getting unacceptably shrill and it would turn a lot of people off. The GOP is in a corner and they’ll do almost anything to get out, so be careful. It’s important to remain focused on bread and butter issues and be logical.
4
The most difficult part of growing older isn't the weakening of my body. It's watching the same old game being played out over and over again by the GOP, and it's watching people falling for it over and over again.
43
I think most people are worried that Trump will use foreign adventurism as a means to distract from the Mueller investigation, and/or the 2018 elections, and the Republicans will back him up. North Korea and Iran are the prime targets. It's not a matter of if, but when.
7
"the upset in Pennsylvania wasn’t just a harbinger of likely Democratic gains to come"
Really? No one is better than the Democrats at shooting themselves in the foot *and then* fumbling in the end zone. For the Dems to win nationally they have to make incompatible promises in different places. The intellectual contortions and contradictions are simply too great to allow a coherent national platform. The GOP will, alas, do better than we expect.
1
The Democratic coherent platform rests in responsiveness to their diverse constituents’ needs, respecting their diverse values as long as those values do not blatantly violate human and civil rights, and respect the Constitution. It’s coherency at a higher level than a national “one size fits all”. Nationally there are shared interests as well: affordable health care, pro-union and pro-labor, affordable education, consumer and environmental protection, infrastructure - to name a few.
My recollection is that Obama won the presidency twice. I think that counts as a national election.
1
Barack Obama was president for 8 years. Democrats are running up impressive wins in the last few months.
I hope voters may be wising up. Even more, I hope Americans opposed to the policies and behaviors of Trump and the GOP keep "showing up" to vote in every election. We must show up not only when polls are close, but also when they predict a Republican defeat. Take nothing for granted.
3
How is the GOP not an enemy within? It fails to place the health, welfare and safety of its populace above moneyed interests and individuals. War against outsiders seems to be their only view of protection. So now we have diminishing protections against poisonous chemicals, foul air, banking and investment malfeasance, unsafe workplaces, regulations on products, civil rights, climate change, etc. The GOP is targeting the population. Unhappily some voters will damage themselves and the rest of us to vent anger and hurt others. Wising up? No arming with automatic weapons.
2
And where are the thousands of coal mining jobs Trump was going to bring back? We haven't heard a word about them in the year since Trump removed restrictions that allow mining companies to remove mountain tops to get at coal deposits and dump mining waste into rivers near the mining sites, costs that increased profits while harming the environment?
7
If voters are wising up then why was the Pa. election so close? It is obvious Republican policies are focused on destruction of programs such as Social Security and Medicare that are broadly popular. The same voters who understand those programs are vital to their well being still buy in to the cultural, religious and gun rights propaganda that make them reliable Republican voters. They accept the propaganda and willingly vote against their own best interests. Voters are very slow to understand and many seem incapable of grasping the obvious. How else to explain the 30 t0 40% support for someone who is an obvious con man who is only interested in himself.
7
Looking at this from far away Australia, it seems to me that the Democrats are the passengers in this debate, rather than driving it.
Democrats need to put a line in the sand, as Sanders attempted to do, and loud and clear dump neoliberal trickle down economics, eat humble pie, and admit they were wrong, and embrace 'inclusive growth' the economic system that grows the economy by reducing inequality.
It is not just a thought bubble, the Scandinavian countries have proved it beyond doubt. Low inequality, excellent social services including health and education, high taxes, and a thriving economy!
8
It is exactly right to say it is bait and switch-a long standing policy process. And when their policies do not work-ie. Kansas, they ignore this.
8
First, Paul, thank you. Yours has been a column of clarity and sanity in what has become an increasingly unsettling world. Second - I really hope you are right and the American people are truly wising up to the Republicans' shenanigans. Finally, each "act" of this Trump tragedy gets more and more profane. With the firing of the remaining voices of reason, it's hard to tell where this Administration will go. One can all too easily imagine Trump, by himself, staggering around the Oval Office in a bathrobe, yelling at the paintings that his nukes are bigger than Rocket Man's - will that be our Dr. Strangelove moment of "precious bodily fluids"?
4
I think we on the left-center-left would be very unwise to start celebrating in March on account of a few oddball elections. There is much work to be done. Hard work. Determined work. And even when elections are won and the GOP has once again been chased into the shadows, we have rebuilding to do. Let's hope America still has the grit and gumption to reinvent itself as what it's supposed to be. It won't be easy.
8
Larry Kudlow, a person who had an acknowledged $10K per month cocaine habit is now to be a principle economic advisor to Trump.
Mr. Kudlow will surely explain to Trump the economic attraction to South American cartels posed by people who spend more than $120K on an annual basis for illegal drugs. Mr. Kudlow will surely explain that this economic motivation will surmount any wall.
Mr. Kudlow will also certainly explain why people dressed like Gordon Gecko, who have done hundreds of thousands of dollars of illegal drug deals, get to pass out of an active addiction through extremely expensive rehabilitation clinics and take positions of senior responsibility in the Trump administration while those who did hundreds of dollars of crack cocaine deals do severe prison terms and can't be employed at Walmart.
20
I think people are rejecting Trump. I'm not as optimistic as Paul that voters have seen through the Republicans' bait and switch. I thought in 2008 Americans had realized the bankruptcy of conservative thought but here we are. Until the defeat of Trump in 2020, at least, it is too early to think that the combination of playing for votes through inculcating fear and bigotry and cutting taxes for the rich when in power has run its course.
1
The nation needs to be split up. It's non-functional. Nothing positive has actually happened for either side since the Clean Water Act. It's time to move on.
2
The Falkland/Malvinas is indeed illustrative. Trump may initiate military adventurism or do like Thatcher, exploit the opportunity afforded by someone else's military adventurism. Remember Thatcher without the Falkland/Malvinas War would have lost Parliament to a no-confidence vote.
1
America has consistently had about 30% of the voters being rigid, uncompromising conservatives, with another 10-15% leaning to the right, meaning in any election the Republicans only need to sway 5% or a little more to win. That's not such a tall order, especially when you factor in the voter suppression efforts and gerrymandering. And then when you get additional help from Russian cyber-interference, there's really no surprise at all that a party that swears fealty to the 1% at the expense of the 99% can hold the reins of power in all three branches and the majority of statehouses.
It will take more than just waking people up, it will take changes to our system to prevent the hijacking of our democracy by money and power.
4
I too worry how Trump will lash out when indictments possibly hit his son and son in law. Mueller seems to now getting to the stage that many of us have advocated for from day one, Trumps business and finances. I'm sure he has already found some extremely shady deals and is building a case for money laundering. I hope he is sharing information with NY state since if he resigns and Pence issues a pardon, it won't apply to NY state crimes. The scary thing is a war with who knows maybe North Korea, or Iran to try and stay in power is not to far fetched when it comes to Trump.
2
How do Republicans stay competitive?
For one, they cheat. They enact voter ID laws whose real purpose is to suppress their opponents' votes. They gerrymander districts so that they don't have to be competitive in the first place.
Secondly, they leverage the antiquated electoral college to win the presidency. In the last 30 years, out of 4 Republican presidential wins, only 2 (Bush I and 2nd term of Bush II) actually won the popular vote. Not very competitive.
6
No, I am not at all sure that "Trump won't go that route" and that the role playing sycophants in Congress won't follow him. My most pressing anxiety involves a Trump initiated military adventure somewhere that could escalate into a wider and broader conflict. I am exceedingly anxious that our President would engage in "dangerous foreign policy adventurism" simply as a scandal deflection tactic or a bold move to inflate his leaky ego. It comes down to trust and how can you trust someone who has such mercurial attachments to virtually everything and everyone but himself.
1
We (liberal-progressives) need to rethink phrases like "redistribute income upward" and recognize that the affluent 1% do pay most of the taxes, so GOP programs really amount to taking less of their money, not giving them more (notwithstanding the myriad advantages that bring them their income in the first place). A different argument is needed.
To the 1%: Given the decades-long trend of increasing inequality, what endgame do you envision? Barricading yourselves (with all the $$) in fortresses? Relying on a police state to keep the rabble at bay? Maybe that would work. But capitalists need workers, and well-trained ones.
I argue that it is in the selfish interest of the 1% to sacrifice immediate income to promote greater inequality because it will grow the overall pie. Then, even though their fraction may be smaller, the increased size of the pie will bring them greater wealth in absolute terms. So don't pay more taxes for the 99%, do it for yourselves (over the long term)!
1
Well, the bait and switch didn't work because I think the working class voters who are looking at the situation with their eyes open can see that Trump has been all for Wall Street and the wealthy, coal companies and steel companies are also benefiting, but the vast majority of working class people in this country work neither in the Coal or steel businesses. People can see where Trump promised to be a centrist sort of populist, and really is just another typical republican, putting people who don't believe in their agencies missions in charge of agencies and departments, and trying to "save" money by getting rid of programs that help the poor. They're trying to cut important work done by the Weather Service and the CDC which helps no one and hurts us all.
Will Trump wag the dog? Oh, I'm sure of it. Let's just hope it doesn't hurt too many people when it does.
267
Why would anybody believe a guy like that claiming anything at all? To find out why Americans are such chuckleheads we need to dive a little deeper than this.
4
reagan told workers to cut their own throats by attacking their only power at work - unions.
Once the unions were too weak to protect workers - businesses got tax breaks for off-shoring jobs.
The great unwashed fell for the oldest trick in the book and looked away while the GOP drank their milkshake
2
The unpleasant truth is that today's white non-college educated working class person is not your grandfather's white non-college educated working class person.
Eighty years ago, there were many very intelligent people who did not attend college because of financial circumstances or because of discrimination against their race, religion or gender. Henry George, arguably the most brilliant American economist of the 19th century, left school at age 14. President Harry Truman was not a college graduate.
Today, with many exceptions, someone under the age of forty who was never interested in college probably is not very smart. That could reduce their wages. That also makes them vulnerable to the lies that got Trump elected. Even some with college educations are not able to understand that NAFTA and trade agreements in general increase employment and standards of living and that immigrants are not responsible for slow economic growth. .."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4134453
3
"In particular, regimes in trouble — like, say, the Argentine junta in the 1980s — often try to rally the public with dangerous foreign policy adventurism. Are you sure that Trump won’t go that route? Really sure?"
No, this poster isn't sure at all. In fact, I've been predicting it because with the latest subpoena from Mueller, Donald Trump is really up against the wall.
What distraction is left except war? That's why firing most of his foreign policy experts on the eve of his trip to the DRNK is so harrowing.
When a man like Trump is cornered, he's capable of anything--sending a nuke, declaring martial law, or trying to jail reporters.
We know Congress is feckless, missing in action. They got their funding for the Kochs of this world, and don't want to rock the boat for even more stuff they crave: banking deregulation, and the like.
Of course, now they want to gut the cornerstones of most folks' retirement: Social Security and Medicare.
Hopefully, they're running out of time for that. assuming Democrats race to the polls in November, voting as if their lives depended on it, because they do.
28
That they are talking about a new round of tax cuts for capital gains suggests Republicans understand that 2018 will be the last opportunity to deliver for the 1%. Talk of new tax cuts doesn’t reflect confidence; rather it reflects panicked acknowledgement that the door is closing on them.
37
I am not sure about the 2016 electorate wising up, but having personally witnessed the amazing student activism on March 14, and working with some of the many women who have been "woke" since the election of 2016, I believe we are playing in a different field.
It the Democratic leadership does not block the path to the future, and supports progressive ideas such as Medicare for All, free community college, and an aggressive move toward a sustainable environment, they could sweep the election in 2018. The Democrats will lose if they again make the election a fight for the white male vote, even the white working class male vote, instead of focusing on promoting policies and candidates who appeal the potential base: non-white Americans, youth, and women.
Mr. Krugman's citing health care employment was absolutely right- now lets see the Democrats start linking good paying health care jobs with having a comprehensive and universal health care policy.
44
In the election in Pennsylvania, Conor Lamb, the Democrat, ran on local concerns and didn't mention President Trump. Local concerns in PA-18 are not the same as some of the more progressive ideas many Democrats favor, but they got Lamb, a moderate Democrat, elected. We have to admit that some districts are more diverse than others, but Democrats need to run in all of them to win. I don't see the value in ignoring any segment of voters, even white male voters. Yes, people of color, youth, and women are now more vocal in their concerns than before, and rightly so, and getting out the vote in these groups is crucial, but at times, in order to be elected, we will need to also appeal to some of the concerns of white male voters. It can be done of we consider progressive policies as good for families and workers without being narrow in how families and workers are defined. Yes, by all means listen to the concerns of women, minorities, and youth, and adopt some policies that attract progressives, but in framing the discussion and the policies, Democrats need to broaden their appeal, and find support among moderates of all kinds.
17
Human, it is hard to argue with what you say, but the trouble is that there is reality. There are facts and simply denying them won't make them go away.
The facts on guns are strongly in favor of more regulations on their ownership and use. For example, countries with way more regulations have many fewer gun deaths:
(Gun Deaths per 100,000 residents)
United States 10.27
----------------------------------------
Italy 2.95
Australia 2.94
New Zealand 2.66
Denmark 2.6
Sweden 2.36
Slovakia 2.17
Germany 1.57
Greece 1.5
Ireland 1.21
Spain 0.9
Scotland 0.58
Poland 0.29
England/ Wales 0.46
Singapore 0.24
Hong Kong 0.19
South Korea 0.13
Japan 0.07
Chile 0.06
What should we do about facts like these?
2
"So how does the G.O.P. stay politically competitive? The answer is that the party has mastered the tactics of bait and switch .."
The GOP stays competitive because they have the more affluent donors?
28
Nonsense.
The GOP stays competitive because GOP voters are gullible children.
1
Maybe, too, enough folks actually know members of the other party to know that they don't have "hatred of our country" and "hatred of God." Thinking folks of which we have seemed to be in short supply at times lately, know that the opponents, the persons with whom they profoundly disagree on any number of issues are not, in fact, the root of all evil. They know them as co-workers, neighbors, spouses, children, cousins, and, yes, even friends. Hopefully the bombastic attempts (by either side) to paint the opposition as disloyal and God-less Americans is effective with an ever diminishing segment of the population.
25
Trump’s election was the first I recall that generated articles recommending how to deal with spouses, relatives, or friends who were on different sides of the outcome.
Regardless of the past deficiencies of GOP administrations, this one became personal, even before such actions as repeal and replace or taxes. The differences were over the personal character and integrity of both candidates, but especially of Trump.
No candidate or nominee in my lifetime has been so divisive, xenophobic, or crude, displaying neither inclination or ability to unite. There are sparks of resistance, but this has been mostly a time of dark days.
If there is one thing that voters should have learned from the outcome of the 2016 presidential election it is that a candidate’s character matters. Candidates generally tailor their stump speeches to resonate with their audiences. They will make themselves appear sympathetic to the causes of the region. However, the decisions that they make once they are in office are direct reflections of their character. The tragedy of Donald Trump’s election is that voters chose to ignore his character, believing that he would champion the causes that he advocated on the campaign trail. It is becoming evident that many voters have learned a very painful lesson.
22
As a former Western Pennsylvania resident I was surprised to learn there are still a few union steelworkers in the area. I do know many retired ones, virtually all of whom encouraged their sons to go to college or get technical training. Those whose children remain in the area have middle class jobs in the suburbs or exurbs at places like Miller Industries in Mercer County and compete quite successfully world-wide, and go downtown only to enjoy the cultural and entertainment centers where the mills used to be. They'll take the subsidies offered, but realise that trade wars will endanger high tech users of steel and aluminum. Hence the results in the 18th district. The rust belt shines again.
38
I'm not as optimistic as Krugman... that there's some collective epiphany occurring in adults due to some confluence of esoteric factors.
As adults, I believe we've failed. Failed to right the course of our country and convince our peers that facts, transparency, discipline, science, public discourse, and accountability matters. But don't worry, in a few years, those survivors of Stoneman Douglas, and the youth inspired by their plight... they'll show up in the polls in 2 to 4 years time to help us do what we couldn't and have a say about many things, not just gun control.
592
They're showing up at the polls much sooner than 2 years! Many of them are voting in the upcoming November mid-term election.
3
Indeed.
It may be America's Children who show and provide the Wisdom that has been so lacking in it's Politicians and presented itself so little by it's moribund Voters and Adult citizens who choose to do so little as they squabble among themselves as they get poorer, more addicted and less likely to prosper by the machinations of those they have supported and chosen to inflict upon them and as such, only make matters worse, problems remain and new challenges rise and little if anything ever solved or made better as time marches by.
4
Agreed with one addition. These up and coming students need our support now. When they are attacked for being crisis actors or lesbians or just too young to understand, we, the current adults, need to back them up. I'm 65 and I'm willing to march with them.
9
Once again Krugman shows that he is a tool of the Democratic Party. Despite his exalted economic background, he fails to understand the basic tenets of economic theory. Any first year economics course points out that when looking at how variables are affected by changes to other variable in economic theory, one needs to be cognizant of the reliance on ceteris parabis (meaning all other things remain constant) in defining the outcome of the affected variable. The assumption that one can change one variable in the economy and it will affect just one other variable is a common Democratic failing. Economic theory tells us that more money in a worker's pocket will have a multiplier effect on the economy and, if you hold all other variable constant, it does. So Democrats propose mandatory raises for minimum wage workers. But this ignores reality because the Democrats can't mandate all other variables to remain unaffected. Higher wages mean higher costs to businesses which has a contradictionary effect on the economy. Republicans will argue that the contraction will overwhelm the expansionary effect of the higher wages. Democrats choose to ignore that other variables are affected. Various studies can be cited proving both sides of the Republicans' argument, but at least Republicans recognize that other variables come into play. Democrats ignore this and shout down anyone who points out their omission.
1
"Higher wages mean higher costs to businesses which has a contradictionary effect on the economy. Republicans will argue that the contraction will overwhelm the expansionary effect of the higher wages. Democrats choose to ignore that other variables are affected. Various studies can be cited proving both sides of the Republicans' argument..."
Please cite those studies.
125
Thank you for the giant word salad making the rather obvious point that mandatory higher wages may be harmful to the businesses that have to pay them. On the flip side of that coin, for a generation the Republican Party has argued that if only we cut taxes for the wealthy they will invariably reinvest their money in businesses that will grow the economy so much that full employment and a thriving economy will pay back all the lost tax revenue. And we know fur sure that that fairy tale doesn't fly. I have infinitely more confidence that if you give ten dollars to a million waitresses or store clerks they will quickly spend the money here in America, priming the economy, than if we give some billionaire a ten million dollar tax cut.
350
@Anna - No mention that in '08, unrestrained GOP'er financial acumen ran the planetary economy off a cliff, requiring the re-capitalizing of Capitalism (the 'makers' getting their bacon saved by the 'takers') through the full faith and credit of Jane/Joe Sixpack's U.S. Treasury ?
Odd.
While you say "various studies can be cited proving both sides of the Republicans' argument", let's look at actual, real, historical data, per Blinder and Watson:
Since 1945 (the entire working life of virtually every living American) Democrats running the nation's economy have always produced better results than GOP'ers, shown by higher GDP, higher stock markets, lower unemployment, lower inflation:
https://www.salon.com/2015/12/28/these_5_charts_prove_that_the_economy_d...
And not once did a GOP'er slip and out-perform the Dem POTUS before him; GOP'ers have become economic pirates, either knowing or unknowing.
The difference persists, even when handicapping for random/unlucky events like oil embargoes, etc.:
https://www.vox.com/2014/7/29/5945583/the-us-economy-grows-faster-under-...
So, actual empiric data across 7 decades disprove the statement 'higher wages mean higher costs to businesses which has a contradictionary effect on the economy' - higher wages resulting from higher productivity help create a virtuous circle.
104
I worry about what comes next a lot and what I worry about most is, will it be war?
I've stopped trying to analyze Trump, ponder over his seemingly endless character flaws but I find it impossible to ignore how much more manic he seems, lately. He's high on Trump, obsessed with modeling his cabinet and advisers to be just like "Trump" - he's even referring to himself in the third person more than ever.
If his ever expanding need to be adored is not met with sufficient worship and buyer's remorse begins to eat into his base, it gets easier to imagine him seizing on a military attack to propel him into hero status. He seems to love all things military almost as much as he loves himself, so a military adventure seems plausible.
My friends and family assure me that will never happen, it's a bridge too far but I can't forget that they had convinced me in 2016 that Trump would never be elected president. He was, of course.
164
No. He will absolutely attempt war if he is allowed to do so by the public. There's no question. What else is there for him? He may never have really wanted to be President, but he'll never want to be removed. That'd threaten his ego. He's hooked on power, always was.
8
What about Trump finding some pretext to declare martial law and suspend the fall elections.
3
The 2018 election of a Democrat Congress is an insurance, a check, against the vagaries of the crotchety Trump.
3
I had the same concern, Paul. Trump might wake up one morning and decide to bomb or invade some small country.
It worked for Reagan, and his absurd invasion of Grenada, and pumped up W Bush enough to gain him a second term.
As we speak, Trump is probably huddling with key advisors like Ivanka and Pompeo about who we will be going after. Yemen? Mali? Venezuela? They will need someone else around to show Donald where they are on a map, though.
Problem is, that will fail. Today’s young people are just not that into war. Trump’s poll numbers will head further south, so he will resign and give us Pence, another Koch hooker, who will retain Pompeo.
The silver lining is that this circus might wake up our country. If, that is, corporate media wakes up one day and decides to tell the truth.
72
The US military as currently structured is absolutely unfordable. It costs about $1million/year per deployed troop. Bush kicked of the Gulf wars without raising taxes (or restarting the draft). The net result of this has been around a $4Trillion (Trillion, with a T, $4000 Billion) debt increase for the US taxpayer, effectively owed to China and other foreign governments. China will most certainly not loan the US money for another war.
The US can't afford any more wars, in spite of what Trump might think of kicking off, particularly in Asia, where wars are taken very seriously.
The cost to the US, and to global corporations (IE, Republican Donors) of a war of any size will be high enough for the various plutocrats that run the US to arrange to have Trump "go away", one way or another.
I disagree with Paul on why Republicans remain competitive. It’s not bait-and-switch. It’s far more complex than THAT, and Paul should know it, if he doesn’t already know it.
Despite his insistence otherwise, there’s a deep Calvinist streak in Americans, and it appeals as well to many who emigrate here, that wants to see people experience life-outcomes commensurate to the effort they put into living and managing their lives. They believe that when society gives too much, people become weak, demanding and they develop rationalizations for taking, by law, what they never earned themselves. The most extreme conservatives might shrug at the prospect of children starving in the streets: “life produces winners and losers”. Most of us, however, to differing degrees, aren’t remotely that extreme, believing in a social safety net that is effective but not destructive. By contrast, liberals have bought off on the damage done by making lives too easy, so continually seek to make them easier, blind to social consequences.
Then, to do what Democrats want is to empower an all-embracing government to achieve its aims, which flies in the face of traditional American insistence that individuals not government must determine individual destinies. It also requires increasingly greater proportions of total production, taken in increasing taxes. This has primary effects: it takes more and more from people to fund it, and hardly JUST from the very wealthy; and there can be no end to its growth.
15
Some police forces, at every level, no longer can fund operations through taxes: they install traffic cams, adjust laws and even set up scams (as with recent ATF antics) to prey on regular citizens to develop additional “revenue” streams to cover the difference. And there is no end to it – every year pressure mounts for pay and benefits increases for public sector workers, yet those same people vote overwhelmingly to deny additional taxes to government; and that pushes government to develop ever-more-artful ways of funding itself by preying on regular people. By contrast, Republicans want to dramatically slow the growth of those “operations” that consume more and more MONEY that voters regularly refuse to provide; and want to limit the intrusiveness of such a government to dictate propriety and necessity in the teeth of our traditional individual freedoms.
Finally, the elephant in the room that many refuse to notice: religion plays a central role in all this. There are plenty of “Southern Republicans”, who are centrist Democrats except for the intensity of their faith. Republicans protect their rights to practice their faith … and Democrats simply don’t.
So, it’s a complex stew of things that make many Americans Republicans. Voters ARE wising up, but not for the reasons and to the ends that Paul supposes. When they examine their true convictions and interests, many will continue to vote Republican. Democrats haven’t convinced them of the strategic viability of Kumbaya.
2
@Richard: You're wrong on so many counts that I scarcely know where to begin. If people are to experience life-outcomes commensurate with the effort they put into living, how does that account for voters' tendencies to elect unethical businessmen like you-know-who whose fortunes are mostly inherited? How much of Trump's own perspiration has gone into securing his life-outcome? Second, the idea of making life too easy was coopted long ago by Republican politicians taking services from the poor (and lately from the middle-class) and handing them over to the rich in the form of tax cuts and subsidies to favored industries (oil, sugar, pharmaceuticals, etc.).
Then, too, there's religion: when did Democrats stop allowing evangelicals, etc. from practicing their faith, except when it's a matter of not allowing these folks to discriminate against others who practice other faiths or no faith at all (i.e., with respect to abortion, contraception, same-sex marriage, etc.)? And, by the way, I'm still waiting to hear from anyone who can tell me just where it is in the Gospels that Jesus came out against any of the above.
Finally, as a (retired) 32-year public sector worker I have no idea where you're getting your information from. Like private-sector employees, I never turned down a pay increase (though I was happier to receive individual promotions) but I was never asked to vote for or against a tax increase.
55
There's a long-running fallacy to the effect that government employees are lazy and incompetent and don't deserve the "astronomical"(!) salaries they so obviously receive. Over the past few decades, those salaries have risen at a rate that's barely noticeable from one year to the next. There's too much in the way of job security (our unions are better at arguing on behalf of poor or undisciplined employees than they are on behalf of securing decent salaries and benefits for the majority who work hard and conscientiously) and yet so many jobs have been lost through attrition and so many retirees have gone unreplaced (and not only at Trump's State Department) that offices and entire agencies can no longer complete their workloads. I won't even tell you how many instances of fraud on the part of SSA and public assistance beneficiaries have been reported but not addressed because there aren't anywhere near enough workers to process the cases of those who actually follow the rules. To resolve this dilemma would require more taxation, not less- something that's not likely to happen so long as the super-affluent and their lackeys- I mean legislators- in the GOP are running the show.
27
Throw the Republican party overboard. Let them walk the plank
98
Howard - into ocean waters replete with Great White Sharks.
1
Over the last few decades, Republicans have become expert liars and wedge politicians. When their main agenda of enriching the rich becomes too obvious they start talking about trickle-down economics and job providers and throw emotional dust in the air (guns, flags, gay rights, immigrants, women's rights, etc.) to detract and polarize voters. Never has this been so blatant and disgusting as today, when Republicans eagerly defend or forgive about every misdeed and lie by President Trump.
With all of this political noise in the air, the best approach is: never listen to what Trump or the Republicans say, but pay attention to what they are doing and vote accordingly. More and more Americans seem to be doing just that.
1110
Actually, the same is true for all candidates for office, no matter the party. How many democrats voted to role back financial consumer protections? ALWAYS look at what a person does, not what a person says to judge whether or not they act in your interests. As the Chinese taoist sage Chuang Zi said,"Its easy to walk without leaving footprints; what hard to actually walk without touching the ground."
3
the simple facrt of the matter is that dems stopped fighting back in the 80's and likely wouldn't begin to understand pushing back.
it doesn't matter how badly the GOP hurts this nation - there is NO opposition party
1
These comments are true and must lead one to the obvious conclusion that at least 40% of voters are gullible rubes with zero critical thinking ability.
2
Saconne said,
"Democrats were energized by ... “a hatred for our country” and “a hatred for God.”.
That's a line that might have come from straight from Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the NRA at CPAC..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2AQN5cEBSU
96
Let us heed this wise man's warning:
"History says that Republicans won’t change course, because they never do. They’ll just look for bigger distractions."
223
And the final distraction the Pubs will fall back on will be the war drums. Unfortunately when you beat the drums constantly eventually some insecure entity will get paranoid enough to strike first.
Great piece, Paul. Now that you have this clearer vision (it seems to me clearer, at least), I suggest you continue to hammer it--much like Blow has been doing with his clear vision.
40
Democrats are motivated by “hatred for our country” and “hatred of God.”
The idea of invoking God as a fundamental element of citizen motivation seems to be a new twist on Conservative thought. We heard the same story from Wayne LaPierre on the right to own guns, not just as a Constitutional right, but one endowed by God.
One would certainly not want to put ones self in a position of opposing God's teaching, but I cain't recawl any religious teachings specifically addressing God's attitude towards guns. Mr Saccone was utterly vague regarding just exactly how God's teaching was involved in the Democratic voter habits. Mr. LaPierre would have to dig for a while to find how Moses found teaching regarding assault weapons etched on an additional stone tablet when he was given the 10 Commandments or anywhere else in the Bible.
What happened to the separation of Church and State? And how about candidates not sinking to a level of maliciously invoking God's ire based on an interest in getting elected rather than any concrete teaching.
214
James Carville “predicted” that Obama’s win would mark about 40 years of Democrats in charge of government. I thought to myself it would be lucky if it lasted 40 weeks…. because:
The Republican propaganda machine is still well oiled and well funded. It will ignite the emotional fight or flight portions of the electorate with the typical talking points and will keep every GOP official in lock step. (something the democrats never get...when Obamacare was criticized and lied about by the GOP, the Dems never lined up properly defending the legislation)
So, look for the GOP stating such as: “they are going to take your money, control your lives with carbon tax to start the new world order and socialist agenda…they are coming for your guns and freedoms…[add other nonsense here]…etc.”
It has worked before and is likely to work again-no matter how much I want to scream.."nooooooooooooooooooo."
62
Exactly. As Paul Ryan put it last year, "We're playing rugby and they're [Democrats] playing golf," or words to that effect. In other words, they don't mind getting their hands dirty, if by "hands dirty," that means lying, deceiving, demagoguing and fearmongering. For anyone who wonders why Republicans, especially Trump, lie so much, it's because they feel they have to. Party above country, you know. People wouldn't vote for them if they told the truth.
3
Saccone's claim that Democrats hated our country, hated God was an even odder strategy than his claiming that he was Trump before Trump was Trump. The GOP outspent Lamb by a considerable margin in this special election, and Trump gave up a weekend of golf to campaign on Saccone's behalf. The voters aren't only wising up, they are coming to understand that our President is a scammer and a schemer, and the least patriotic American in our land.
400
And 50+% of people voting for Lamb said that health care was their number one issue--the GOP has lost that one completely.
Doesn't help that Trump looks out of control at present. Tariffs, Cohn leaving, firing Tillerson by tweet and now McMaster is out. And --so funny-- Trump is bragging about lying to Trudeau because Trump was ignorant of what he was talking about. Bodes so well for talking to N Korea where a nuclear war may be at stake.
936
The only reason Kim Jong-Un's offered to talk with trump is because it's so obvious he could take him in one quick round of negotiations it would be irresponsible to skip the chance.
2
It doesn't appear that either side is upset that our president lies in the face of the PM of one of our most important allies.
Dems already appear as if theyre attempting to lose in NOvember. No registration drive, no get out the vote drive. So why fight?
1
Wait. Who kidnapped David Brooks and wrote this column? “the tax cuts will leave most Americans worse off (while, of course, benefiting the top 1 percent)“ Brooks hasn’t forgotten that he’s a Republican, right? He’s not supposed to tell the truth about tax cuts. He’s going to be black-balled at the country club.
14
I'm pretty sure Paul Krugman wrote this column. At least that's his name at the top of the page.
Brooks would never admit that Republican tax cuts are always -- always! -- written to benefit the wealthy.
2
I follow Krugman, and like his arguments, but have to say we kept about 10% of our workers paid with Bush tax cuts for a few years.
3
Let me see if I understand your comment. You’re saying that you were able to keep about 10% of your employees by paying their salaries using the Bush tax cuts. So, here’s my question, how well is your business doing if needs government subsidies to keep it afloat?
1
But did you see what it cost?
Bush got a balanced budget, zero deficit, from Clinton.
Bush doubled the debt and gave Obama a whopping $1.4 Trillion deficit.
And with his two "tax cuts for the jobs creators" the economy only created 3 million jobs.
Bush also gave Obama the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Obama got us through the Great Recession and cut the deficit by almost 2/3 to $550 Billion.
And the economy created 11.5 Million jobs, almost 400% more than under Bush.
And that was with the "jobs killing" Obama-care.
And 20 Million people got healthcare.
I blame all the deficit / debt on what Bush did since he started with a zero deficit.
Lets say about $15 Trillion / 150 Million tax payers = $100,000 per taxpayer.
So with the small tax cut you got, they put $100,000 on your credit card.
1
Any evidence to back up such a claim ... ?
From your lips to God's ears, Mr. Krugman.
23
I think learning that Rusia has its hand firmly on the on/off switch for U.S. power and other utilities will probably freeze every one in their tracks, except Trump and his base. The former because he will do anything without thinking about the consequences and the latter for the same r3eason and brcause they are too uninformed to know what the consequences might be.
Is that stupid?
I expect that5 Putin is way to smart to blink the lights right now because that would be a real wake-up call and not to his advantage
sigh
15
Yes, Trump's latest effort at distraction is on aliens - space aliens - which is why he's now talking of developing a "space force." I don't think this one will fly either.
22
I think it likely that Trump and his backup singers in Congress will look for a distraction between now and the election. With rumors of direct talks with North Korea, I would look in that direction.
The world is ganging up on Putin. If it gets too intense, he may well try a distraction of his own.
Life will likely get very interesting between now and November.
23
There is only one possible reason that the GOP continues to support deeply unpopular policies and that is because the policies appeal to the most extremist and some of the richest donors and therefore, for them. One piece of compelling evidence of their awareness of the public's displeasure has been their increasing reliance on electoral manipulation through voter suppression and gerrymandering; winners don't have to cheat.
I think that one of the reasons the public is wising up has to do with the readiness of examples of failures, not just the usual embarrassing, personal failures that go along with voting based on blind faith and being smacked down repeatedly by the experience of the opposite to what was promised, but very large failures impossible to hide that have taken place in states following exactly the same plan that was most recently expanded nationally. You don't have to be a genius to come to the conclusion that Ryan mimicking Brownback's Jurassic Park experiment in Kansas is not going to work in your favor.
29
No, Mr. Krugman, I am not sure that Trump will NOT attempt to rally Americans around the flag and the GOP by upgrading the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Africa at a minimum. I also anticipate him going two better with (1) attacking Iran while voiding the USA's commitment to the nuclear deal (thereby simultaneously slapping the faces - again - of our [former] strongest European allies other than Russia (Putin will be pleased, of course) and (2) starting a "ground" war with North Korea. All before mid-terms 2018.
14
Going into the mid terms I think that Democrats will have both confidence that they can win and a determination to keep the pedal to the medal.
7
i think that's metal.....
1
Thanks for this; it's so nice to hear the truth put out there amidst so much false equivalence.
16
" In particular, regimes in trouble — like, say, the Argentine junta in the 1980s — often try to rally the public with dangerous foreign policy adventurism."
Sure, but for now, both Trump and his hard core followers are much more interested in defining and defeating domestic enemies than taking on someone else. Did you notice that Trump's Pennsylvania rally crowd booed several Americans like Lamb and Oprah and Clinton.....but Trump shushed them when they started to boo Kim Jong Un? Yep, THAT'S the person he's withholding judgment on.
17
The only true talent the gop has is distracting low information poor and middle class voters with social non-issues so they vote against their own best interest.
I sincerely hope, for the good of our nation, that Mr. Krugman is right and people are finally wising up.
27
Your optimistic piece touched only slightly on one concern - a foreign policy distraction - and did not address another - a warning against Democratic complacency. The former, especially creating a foreign enemy to rally domestic support, is commonly-used tactic by repressive regimes in trouble and should not be ruled out here. This concern can only be expected to become worse if Trump has to circle the wagons due to the Mueller investigation or the Stormy Daniels story getting closer to home. As many people who know him have said, Trump will do anything to save his own skin.
As for the latter, the Democrats should be wary of interpreting the narrow victory in PA-18 as a sign that more such victories in the midterm elections are simply there for the taking. Voters perhaps realizing that the Republican administration has little to offer them does not mean that they will automatically embrace a Democratic candidate. If the voters truly are wising up, they will be listening carefully to what a candidate has to say and how the candidate plans to better address their core problems than what they currently have. It is not enough to just say 'not Trump' or 'not Republican'. And if voters will be listening carefully, that means candidates have to listen carefully to the voters. It can be argued that Clinton lost the election because she didn't think the concerns of the middle of the country were important enough to understand or address. That mistake cannot happen again.
17
America, that great melting pot, has always been chock full of optimism. Our country has been the beacon of hope for millions of immigrants since it's inception. While the character of most of America's occupants has not changed, the mindset of the current occupant of the White House has. Fear, Hatred, Chaos, Pessimism; these are the hallmarks of Trump. For the first time ever in our history we have a President who spins darkly. He fails to grasp that that is not who we are. It will lead ultimately to his downfall.
15
Part of the Democratic party continues to live in a pipe dream. Most Americans are practical people and like Mr. Krugman says more tolerant than we were in the past. However some of the issues being expounded by Democrats are not going anywhere with the American public. Democrats running for office need to focus on what their constituents are telling them. To date Democrat Leadership has not provided anything other than Trump is bad, Duh! Most Americans already know that. Once again with some of the issues expounded by some Democrats makes me wonder if once again Democrats snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the mid terms?
5
"To date Democrat Leadership has not provided anything other than Trump is bad, "
Nonsense! Read:
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/
Though I am a left leaning Democratic on most issues, I welcome Conor. Lamb to the U.S. congress. Our two party system has degraded so badly that we are seeing an historic realignment. The choice is no longer between liberal and conservative, but between a spinner/liar party, that puts the interests of themselves and their donors first, and a party that tries to hold honest discourse above spin, and puts the good of the American people first. All my life I have believed that our choices are never so black and white, but now they are. If the Sanders and Lamb Democrats can work together honestly and respectfully, they can show the nation how politics should be done. I agree with Mr. Krugman, that the Americans are on the verge of understanding this dynamic. When asked to choose between the honesty party and the liar party, surely most will choose the former.
29
It worries me more that so many voters are not wising up. Yes I know we should not be condescending to those of a different political persuasion - but really why don't these people see that they are being suckered. It is not a matter of opinion, it is a matter of lies and outcome. The tax cuts put money this year into the pay packets of many workers - and next year they will owe that money to some rich person, probably Chinese, who bought US bonds.
10
I doubt the validity of your headline, Dr. Krugman, for Donald Trump continues to hold steady at around 40% support. Let's not forget that 85% (in a recent poll) of Republicans approve of their president's job performance.
You also wrote that "America is on the whole a far more tolerant country than it used to be." I don't share your optimism. You also write that "voters seem to have realized" that the Republicans on Capitol Hill gamed them in their efforts to mollify the one percent. I think (and fear) that Trump Nation is digging in, entrenched as never before, and a defensive and defiant Congress is almost daring their constituents to remove them from office.
I have, many times, cited the "63-millions" of Americans who thought the real estate developer an exponentially greater bargain than Barack Obama. It's as though they thought "any white man would make a far better president than any black man, regardless of his education--or anything else." So, Dr. Krugman, these 63-millions have their white man. How's that working for America now? We have yet to have that national conversation on race.
But before we jump into those freezing waters, we had better--and soon--have that "national conversation" about citizenship and what being "an American" really means. For it means, among many things, an ability to sift and weigh; to assess value and worth; to accept the imperfect promise (of one's self and others) instead of retreating to the hard, brittle comforts of familiarity.
8
Trump ran against Hillary Clinton, not Obama. Polls taken shortly before the election showed Obama running far ahead of Clinton. If Obama had been allowed to run against Trump, he would have won.
1
I continue to love your columns, Mr. Krugman. Pardon the analogy--'cause I think I've used it before. But. . . .
. . .my daughter used to watch real life crime shows. Shows featuring this or that crime--a break-in, a burglary--and culminating in a car chase. Or a chase on foot. OR. . . .
. . .a nighttime helicopter hovering over some dark cityscape. You see some wretched figure down below--dodging and sprinting, cowering, flattening himself against a wall, breaking away suddenly. . . .
. . .all in vain. A powerful searchlight tracks his ever move. The man is PINNED by that relentless beam. Like a small, noxious bug on a piece of cardboard.
And eventually they reel him in. End of show.
You remind me, Mr. Krugman, of that helicopter. Bravo! Keep it up. With this latest election, I seem to HEAR that WHUMPA WHUMPA of the helicopter as it moves in. I see that brilliant beam of light as lies and evasions are ruthlessly pinpointed.
May the good work continue!
And your remark about "conservative evangelical Christianity"?
Sad. But true.
Oh the shame.
Keep 'em coming, Mr. Krugman.
Thanks.
9
I will go so far as to predict that Trump will start a nuclear war with North Korea in order to distract us from the results of the Mueller Investigation. I don't think he cares about the Koreans, either north or south, who will die since they are Asians. As for the American Servicemen based in Korea, well, to quote Trump, "They " knew what they were signing up for".
I hope my prediction is wrong, but I wouldn't bet on it.
13
All very well as far as it goes, but it brushes over the responsibility of the Dems to push what they believe in. It's not enough for the Dems to rely on the shortcomings of the Republicans. That's what happened in 2016 - how did that work out? It certainly was not enough to overcome voter suppression and Russian meddling,
It often happens that some of the most astute reporting on the American scene is found in the foreign press - here's something from The Guardian by Gary Younge, whop spent several years reporting form the US.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/15/trump-presidency-u...
4
There is absolutely nothing on the Republican/Trump agenda that the great majority of Americans want. Nothing.
42
Elections are a war of ideology.
Who winds depends on what less than 10% of the voters can be brought to believe.
The GOP has been plotting their coup for many years. They did it by running for all the lower level offices there are, right down to the dog catcher. sheriffs are a classic example, the majority of them have conservative ideologies.
Notice the emphasis on keeping America safe. America First appeals to the insecure, as does the walling off the country from immigrants. The message is, the GOP will protect you. It will also protect you from those immoral atheists, and your kids from alternative life styles.
Then there is the appeal to your wallet. We will see to it that you will keep more of your hard earned money. The tariffs are reaching out to those who do not have a real understanding of macro economics. They believe foreigners have stolen their jobs, while at the same time going to Walmart for the low prices, quality be damned.
They have robbed SS trust fund, and at the same time are saying it is going to bee broke by your time to collect, realizing those who have paid into it do not seem to know about it. Their argument is is takes away personal responsibility for your planning for retirement.
All in all, it appeals to basic human dislike of believing others are getting something of theirs for free. It has been the theme of the GOP since Reconstruction.
13
It's been pretty plain (to me at least) that Trump has been yearning to drop a (big beautiful) bomb somewhere (Middle East? North Korea? California?) ever since he started his campaign for the White House. And the more desperate he becomes as Mueller's noose grows tighter, the more likely it seems that he'll kick that football. We can only hope that someone in the vicinity tackles him first.
60
Trump doesn't have a mandate. He lost by several million votes when you look at the votes that went to third party candidates. Republican candidates who tie themselves to Trump are asking to lose. Trump was a protest vote by voters unhappy with the status quo that the GOP keeps serving up.
All Democrats need to do is run candidates who are focused on local issues. Mr Lamb didn't use PAC money and he didn't take corporate money. He got out there and talked to his constituents. The problem has never been the voters, its been the lack of quality candidates and that's starting to change.
I'm hopeful that this presidential election was the wakeup call that voters needed. Hopefully we never take our responsibility as voters for granted again. Sadly Trump has damaged our international relationships and its going to take decades to repair the damage but in the end his presidency might just make our country stronger. Voters are starting to see the value in moderates which bodes well for the future.
31
Ami: he won the Electoral College which is THE only thing that ever counts. We do not elect POTUS by a popular vote -- never have.
Trump only lost the votes of illegal aliens, which do not count either.
Mr. Lamb sounds like a moderate and a "straight arrow" whom I could easily support. If the Democrats had more of him, they might not be completely out of power today.
1
Of course I'm not sure he won't start a war. I'm assuming he does. And I'm also assuming that will just harden the Resistance. Nobody's going to rally around the flag if that human garbage is the one waving it.
44
Generally I see this as a positive development. But my concern is if Democrats start winning elections without having to make any changes to their platform. They just rely on Trump destroying himself and the Republican Party. That would not be a win for Americans.
16
Ronald Reagan wanted a shining city on a hill and George H. W. Bush wanted a kinder and gentler America. Somehow, the GOP forgot all about the optimism and hope for America after those presidents left office. Over time, Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh happened to the Republican brand and created a void of patriotism and decency that spawned the 45th president and contaminated the GOP into a party comprised of rich white males and backed by wealthy donors, the NRA and 2nd Amendment fanatics.
Voters in Virginia, Alabama and Pennsylvania said enough and maybe the tide will turn in the mid-terms. Republicans have owned the government for over a year and have accomplished nothing except to promote the president’s agenda and defend him from scrutiny by a Special Prosecutor. Republicans put their party first, except when it comes to Robert Mueller, a fellow Republican whom Congressional Republicans have maliciously impugned from the outset of the investigation. Republicans are loyal only to one man, the Oval Office occupant, not the country or to the Constitution.
Conor Lamb focused on the needs of his future constituents and their economic concerns, not on the president’s tawdry behavior and his scandal-ridden administration. Americans want good government and responsive and accountable elected officials, not tabloid headlines every morning that sully and shame America even more and divide her citizens.
51
The United States still has some tricks up in its sleeves, and Trump's economic principles are failed by design.
Electing an establishment candidate may make things a little bit better in the short term, but reality is, without a WWIII which could revive its industry, I don't see the USA escaping secular decline.
The GOP is correctly understood as the Grand (or Greedy) Oligarchs Party. That is who they are, they believe 'greed is good', increasing their wealth is their religion and, as the article indicates, this will never change. They do need votes to get into power, and, as the article also points out, they get the votes by any of the tools known to dishonest salesmen, con artists and vote buyers. The GOP leadership would be very happy with a society where 90 % were serfs, 9.9% tradesmen, and 0.1% the ruling oligarchy. The fundamental question for democracy is this 'What percentage of the population will fall for this con?' At the end of the day the answer to this question determines whether we will be serfs or free.
23
Trump doesn't think in terms of doing the right thing or doing the wrong thing.
It's all about winning or losing and he wants desperately to be perceived as a winner. He has no morals and would stoop to anything to receive recognition as a winner. And that could include "dangerous foreign policy adventurism," which is scary. It's even scarier when you realize that the Republicans in Congress would just sit on their hands and let it happen.
748
Whole Grains, I was fine until your last sentence. If the past is any guide, the GOP would respond to a military event by enthusiastically urging everyone to rally 'round their Country, Flag, and President. I don't think most voters are wise to this ploy.
3
Sit on their hands? More like stand and applaud.
2
It appears that both PRNK and Iran are cunning enough not to be goaded into attacking the US first, so Trump must create a condition, incident if you like, that is interpreted as an imminent, totally unacceptable affront and threat to their existence. Implementing such a strategy, which really is an act of war, is self revealing and I hope and pray that Congress reassumes its mandated responsibility to be the ultimate arbiter of war, including unprovoked military adventure being contemplated by the WH.
2
What?!? Nothing on Larry Kudlow? I thought that he might be one of your V.S.P.'s (Very Serious Person, copyright P. Krugman).
I guess you're saving up for him for Tuesday. Looking forward to it.
6
The Republican Party has been the party of nationally-assisted suicide for the last 38 years.
When they're not increasing record income inequality, suppressing wages, shredding pensions, worker rights and affordable healthcare, they're handing out guns to every psychopath who wants one.
When they're not deregulating Wall St. to ramp up the next Depression, they're charging a fresh war and 0.1% Christmas gifts to a middle class credit card.
When they're not suppressing votes and purging voter files, they're busy rigging voting districts to make sure they always pick their voters and not the other way around.
And when they're not dumbing down America with white spite, medieval religion and Fake News, they're hijacking the Supreme Court with corporate lawyers to ensure that corporate people get all the protection that a real human will never get.
This has all been obvious for decades, but some folks are a little slower on the uptake.
Perhaps the glaring sight of a raging dumpster fire emanating from the Oval Office Trump Toilet while the Russian-Republican Congress happy tore away at American healthcare for tens of millions while lavishing their donor class with Christmas gifts finally woke up a few Fake News viewers.
Perhaps a few Pennsylvanians came to the stunning realization that the lump of beautiful, drop-dead gorgeous, filthy coal in their Christmas stockings was a sick, twisted Republican joke.
D to go forward; R for reverse.
Even Republican voters can learn.
622
Unfortunately the Democrats seem more interested in helping them than stopping them.
Centrist Democrats, especially, basically accepted Supply Side Economics as the default economic theory behind all policy, even though it has never worked in its 35 year history.
They repeat the mantra that there is no money, so we can't invest in the people or infrastructure, supporting tax cuts for the rich, instead of taxing them, and repeating the lies that entitlements are bankrupt and can't be saved.
The Democrats could lead by going on TV to explain how raising the minimum wage would put money in the pockets of people that spend it locally instead of globally. They could push hard for spending on roads, bridges, trains, airports, and nearly free renewable energy, instead of watching China surpass us.
They could have fought the demonization of teachers intended to give control of education dollars to private corporations, but instead pushed the charter schools just as hard.
They could have opposed the Iraq War and the Bush tax cuts, and the Trump budget.
They could have really tried to save Obama's Supreme Court Seat.
Democrats snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at every opportunity.
And worse, by constantly following Republicans to the right instead of leading to the left, they encouraged the slide to extremism that resulted in Trump.
Democrats spend all of their time saying, "We can't do anything in the current political climate."
Retreat is a losing strategy.
Attack!
2
One other factor to bear in mind: among its "cultural appeals," the GOP will never quit on the NRA and will keep trying to convince voters that Democrats are out to confiscate their guns. With Parkland in the recent past and America's students doing their bit to convince their elders that our constitutional liberties include the right to life, it may well be that voters are beginning to believe that the kids aren't so dumb after all. I'm sure that Republican politicos are counting on the memory of Parkland fading over the next eight months but it's hard to imagine that another such catastrophe won't take place during that time frame. The best they can hope for is that the next perpetrator will turn out to be an undocumented alien.
55
Some of those students will be graduating in June, 2018 and will be turning 18 before the 2018 mid-terms. Thousands of them, all across the country. Just like the GOP/Trump has done with bringing out women in force as no political cause has ever done before (well, maybe during the American Revolution), the GOP/Trump response to the students' pleas to keep them and their schools safe from attacks by crazed gun-toting males has been a massive wake-up call around the country. And yes, I do believe that this time, it's different. This is not going to go away, and neither are we women.
20
Evidence and analytical clarity are required to understand a world view based on denial, whose material organization is modeled in wealth and waste, and which sees justice not as a gateway of opportunity, but as cotton weights of punishment, like the one thrown at Harriet Tubman crushing her skull and giving her lifelong medical problems, or the one hung around Emmett Till's neck that dragged his body to the river's bottom.
Justice as punishment is the negative space around Trump's immigration, environmental, safety, military and foreign policy and it has suddenly become a national meme. Student survivors are bashed in vile terms by adults and elected officials. Trump bashes his own appointees. His notions of greatness only deepen the contrast of his blame-claims—his demand for justice means punishment.
While tariffs are very bad economics, and denying healthcare is worse, especially when it pays for wealthy tax cuts, their real support is not in their logic of false benefits. Their appeal lies in the subtle revision gaining traction from many quarters, justice demands bad actors be punished.
Trump is fast tracking this formula. Today he called Putin out. He is putting justice in a box. England's Old Bailey's drew large crowds on hanging days, a carnival atmosphere that sold pieces of the hangman's rope. For the same reasons, Trump is drawing praise and applause that has nothing to do with truth.
(Part 2 below.)
11
Trump is historic in his relentless use of rhetoric to gather support. The dirty secret of America, seen in the public exposure of sexual misconduct, seen by ballots cast in hollowed out factory towns, or witnessed nightly on Fox, the absence of gun control is the appeal of cruelty/brutality/power—the outlaw as king.
6
If Dems want to win the House, they have to down-play the divisive issues of race, class and gender—the cultural issues—and focus on the economic issues of concern not just to working-class whites, but to ALL members of the middle class regardless of color.
It’s not that the cultural issues are not important. It’s just that winning the House and saving our democracy are MORE important. And economic issues are the key.
In his victory speech, Conor Lamb said, "We fought to find common ground, and we found it" The common ground he found was the universal need for economic security. http://tinyurl.com/yaza2q4h
111
I wish we could boost your message to the top of the comments. You are absolutely right.
3
If we were to look at an individual's actions as an indicator of love for or hatred of God, then surely the man in the White House must rank at the top.
6
"Are you sure that Trump won’t go that route? Really sure?"
Absolutely not. He is surrounding himself with "yes men (and women)" who are either like-minded or simply sycophants. Pompeo is a war hawk and heaven help us if Trump brings in the uber war hawk Bolton. As the Mueller investigation tightens the screws even more, the urge to do something dramatic (and potentially catastrophic) to deflect attention will become greater. We have already seen how irresponsibly impulsive Trump acts. When there are no longer any real checks to his actions the country will be living on the edge of disaster.
207
I just saw now at CNN online that McMaster may be the next to go. That certainly seems to indicate to me that Trump intends to start at least one new war - soon.
6
Here’s hoping.
4
Notwithstanding all of your valid points, perhaps it is as simple as this: Suburban women care for their children and their children dont want guns in school.
66
Urban women too. And even men--some of them members of the NRA.
10
Yet, 53% of those suburban women voted for Trump. Go figure. Also, urban woman care for their children, too.
2
I expect Trump to fire Mueller any day now.
5
No, he'll fire Sessions and expect somebody else to "fire" Mueller for him. And he will probably get away with it, given all of the "Devin Nunes" wannabes in the House and Senate right now.
6
I'm not sure he can. It may be that ONLY Rosenstein has the power & he'd have to be fired first. I think the country would erupt. There may be a case for SCOTUS.
We need to win all these mid year election we can. Who is running in Mississippi? Would that Fannie Lou Hamer was around!
3
If the Trump crowd do start a war in order to re-elect the incumbent potus in 2020 it has to to follow the exact timing and script as the "weapons of mass destruction" war scam used to re-elect "W" Bush.
4
Depend upon it, Trump is not capable of following any kind of "script." The very thought makes me smile before bed time, har:)
1
With Shel Adelson, AIPAC, and Bibi (if he's not in jail) beating the drums of war on Iran to "protect" Israel, it's impossible to believe that Trump and Steven Miller will not at least try their very best to "wag the dog" by attacking Iran, to create a much, much greater disaster for American then the idiotic neocon war with Iraq to "protect" Israel and "re-make" the Middle East did, since Iran has three times the population of Iraq, just for starters.
12
How can anyone "hate God?" I'm a Democrat and an atheist, and I don't "hate" god, any more than I hate Romulans or adore Tribbles. Saccone's desperation is a harbinger of the Republican approach to November's election/
383
Saccone's desperation may be a harbinger of the GOP's November strategy, but as the last few months of special elections have shown, their tired "strategy" of guns, God, and gays (and they accuse the Dems of "identity politics") is finally not working anymore.
5
LOL. Love the Star Trek TOS references. I wonder if that program appears more left-wing now than it did when it first aired. (Setting aside the wildly sexist characters and some plots.)
2
LS: I've always loved "Star Trek" since it was first on when I was a pre-teen.
The last year, I've been re-watching the episodes -- beautifully digitally remastered -- on late night TV. And you are very wrong. The values in that show are very conservative for the most part. Women are subservient and wear mini-skirts. They promote patriotism and American values. The show was actually very traditional, and it's biggest "liberal" value was a multi-racial crew -- something not very shocking in 2018. Beyond that, it was no more progressive than "Wagon Train".
2
Maybe I am an altruist of the myopic sort. I am seventy and for the last twenty years I have held that if the personal economics of life were corrected, working people could make not just a living wage but, one that would grant them the possibility of savings and investments. If people came out from the marginalized life many of them live in America (in America!) and entered the cycle of life that is supposed to be part of the pursuit of happiness, we would have a country, a society where much of what we deal with would be decreased. Instead we could have: Decent wages. Heathcare. Decent habitation. Education, which to me is the greatest gift. Neighborhood security. No contempt for the worker who keeps the country going. No sly business dealings when asking for a loan. The GOP has given the same agenda for decades which now is blatant money grabbing and power holding. Family values? Pence is a curious prude. trump is uncouth, a lout, trashy and a limp leader. McConnell is an old, white man, wanting to get more. To do what, and at his age? Ryan is simply untenable. The House Republicans are wretched and disloyal to the country. Nunes is absurd. running about collecting useless documents and acting the self-important pin in the mighty cog of GOP. A country works best when all its citizens are invested in it, committed to it, and believe that it works for them. Of what is the GOP and its adherents afraid? Money defines them. Power defines them.
58
I hope you are right.
My paranoia is fed by scholarly reports of disconnection and disengagement among Americans (e.g., Bowling Alone). By evidence that most efforts to suppress voting by blacks succeed; registrations are routinely lost. By evidence that 30% of Hispanics voted for Trump. By evidence that 75% of white women in Alabama voted for a republican; despite evidence that he was preying on young girls. By evidence that Millennials pretty much sat out the election in the places that mattered (Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania). By evidence of Trump's popularity among half of Americans, who have found their tribal leader, and are very happy supplicating and repeating the scripts given them by Fox, church, and AM radio. And by the most saddening evidence of all; that sufficient number of democrats threw a hissy fit about about realpolitik, and voted for third candidates based on their anger over Hillary's moves against Bernie during the primaries.
But, I hope you are right.
I am aware that some segment of democrats are indeed worried by the razor think margin in Pennsylvania by a candidate who may as well be a republican, because he is not a far left candidate.
But, I hope you are right.
Kalidan
14
Maybe, but half the voters still voted for the shameless phonies.
14
As I keep reminding my 97-year-old mother when she groans "How did he get elected?"--Hillary got three million more votes than he did. Most people voted against him. His leap to the White House was a disastrous Electoral College trick.
3
Thank you Mr. Krugman. Your points are well taken and I hope you are right that voters are waking up to the false promises of the Republican party. As far as I can see they have never been on the side of the little guy and the fact that people have fallen for this over and over is beyond my comprehension. Most of the reason is the Republicans' sales pitch on emotional cultural, religious and issues of "patrotism" identified with the "real, salt-of-the-earth" America while trying to convince the base that anyone and everyone else must necessarily be un-American. So divisive!
One issue I believe Democrats should exploit more than they have ( I hear that Lamb brought it up in PA-18) is the defense of the ACA, which Republicans tried so hard to dismantle. People, even some Trump supporters, have now had enough time to see its benefits and will need to be constantly reminded how it was almost taken away. So many voters have come to see how vital it is and feel passionately about it.
A side note, but related I think, is how every time Trump does something outrageous lately (lying, bullying, bragging, insulting, flip-flops and, yes, policy) pundits both Republican and Democrat exclaim loudly that there will be no effect on his base, so who cares? I say that a lot of people need to hear constant critiques of all this behavior. There must be plenty of people who are fence-sitters or maybe just couldn't vote for Clinton who will be woken up eventually be the drip, drip, drip.
9
People in power, like cornered animals, are most dangerous when they face losing power...who thinks Trump will go down quietly?
73
Not me. And I wonder if we could use Alcatraz as an "Elba Island" , when he refuses to go politely, kicking and screaming. I think it would be poetic justice to imprison him in California, long his nemesis.
5
It's kind of like the way abusers are most dangerous and prone to escalate their violence when their wife or target finally tries to leave. They see their control slipping away and will do anything, including murder, to retain their power. Wonder what the president will resort to when he finally realizes his support is fading away. I'm not sure what he will do, but it's likely to be violent.
3
It’s been closed for quite awhile now, so most of it’s prior inmates have passed on to the Big Rock, well perhaps not in the sky but elsewhere.
Having said that, they would object to their good names, relatively speaking, being tarnished by Alcatraz being the “Elba of America”.
1
Donald Trump wanted to make Tuesday's special election about him, naturally, and he got it.
When Trump went to PA, ostensibly to campaign for Saccone, he was really plugging himself. His supposed candidate got nominal mention, aside from asserting that Trump needs another Republican in Congress. Trump's speech was disjointed, even by his standards. He mentioned evil being taken out of Washington, but it was so empty that it fell flat. Or there was his grossly inappropriate reference to an upcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un. That may or may not succeed, fair enough, but something so delicate shouldn't be floated around at a rally.
Keep America Great, Trump hinted, will be his next campaign theme. Let's revisit that this November. The major elections of last year, coupled with PA's House seat, were a rebuke to Trump. By the time we reach 2020, the Democratic momentum will be so strong, it will be clear whose leadership makes America great.
18
Since Trump and his inner circle and his Congressional supporters lack any moral compass, yes they could try to use foreign policy adventurism in the near future.
10
Alas, given all the many, many listed reasons to reject the GOP, they came much too close to winning this election in Pennsylvania.
18
I think one thing to learn from this is to encourage Trump to campaign as much as possible in the run up to November's election.
7
I am absolutely sure that Trump will go the route of dangerous foreign policy adventurism.
25
Yeah, Paul, except Conor Lamb supports the steel tariffs. People who support the local industry also knew that Saccone wants to bust up their unions so that any jobs that are kept or do come back will be lower-paying and more money will just go to the executives.
5
The Republicans are attributing the victory by the Democrat, Connor Lamb, in Pennsylvania to his "running as a Republican." So, they are essentially saying that Republican values were embraced by the Democrat, and voters really voted for a Republican who only appeared to be a Democrat. Although the Republicans can be rightly faulted for their mendacity, they can match the devil in cleverness and are the champs at political spin.
5
Will the Trump administration start a war so as to distract voters from it's domestic failures? He might. Professor Krugman wants us to consider it.
The obvious target is Iran. Trump is reported to like John Bolton, who is more than ready to bomb Iran just for the heck of it. Will Bolton get a cabinet seat? If he does, will he bend Trump to his hateful will?
Good questions, and worth pondering. I also wonder how many Americans are ready to start a war with Iran? It will, of course, start with high altitude bombing, a very dainty way to wage war. At a later stage, there will be fighting on the ground.
It will be hard for the average citizen to resist the dogs of war, if Bolton lets them loose. Many of us opposed the Iraq catastrophe, but we didn't stop it. Is there just possibly enough good sense in the chiefs of staff or other military brass, to nip this madness in the bud?
Worth pondering.
8
Well, if Bolton or whoever starts a war, at least all those deplorable's unemployed children will have job openings in the military. And they can see which one of them will be the first one on the block to see...
You know the song.
1
The last card Trump has is a war. If he loses the house and senate, he has minimal power and then there is the investigation.
6
Yup, the Republicans need an even bigger distraction before the November elections. I fear it will be YA foreign war.
3
"Only small minorities of voters favor tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations; even smaller minorities favor cuts in major social programs."
Just turn that on its head, and it's a winning strategy for Democrats:
Lift the Cap on the payroll tax, and apply it all income, earned and unearned.
Lower the Rate from 15% to 10%, giving a net tax cut to 90% of workers.
Boost the Benefits, extending Medicare to all, subsidizing education and job training, providing a secure retirement to all, and rebuilding the public infrastructure (providing jobs for all, which makes it a seller's market for labor, empowering workers through market forces).
Lift the Cap, Lower the Rate, Boost the Benefits. And refuse to talk about anything else--don't get drawn into Fox talking points (make that shouting points). Just those 9 words till the Republican Party is a shrunken fossil.
13