Say your prayers!
2
Would it be uncharitable or uncivil to remind people that if they put a despicable whoremonger into high office, what they get will be a despicable whoremonger in high office?
60
Thank you, Mr. Krugman. You remind me of Admiral Rodney--British commander during our Revolutionary War. Preparing to descend upon some Caribbean merchants surreptitiously supplying us rebellious colonists with arms.
"They deserve SCOURGING--
"--and they shall be SCOURGED!"
Scourge away, Mr. Krugman! They deserve every lash!
Years ago (when I was still teaching) I had a colleague. A young woman--taught history.
When faced with some preposterous excuse for tardiness or misbehavior, she would fixed the malefactor with her long, steady gaze--and then (in that gentle voice) inquire:
"Do I have the word STUPID written on my forehead?"
Soon after the crash of '08, I received an e-mail from the RNC. Over the signature, Newt Gingrich.
It urged me to support Republican efforts at DEREGULATION--so as we would all have more jobs and be happy. I was incredulous.
Do I have the word STUPID written on my forehead?
As if (in one or two years) I had forgotten the CAUSE of that massive, worldwide economic meltdown.
I think, Mr. Krugman, that yes--they really DO think we're stupid. ALL of us. We Americans (as P.T. Barnum would say) really ARE--born every minute. We really ARE--capable of buying the Brooklyn bridge. Not once but many times!
I pray God--I really do, Mr. Krugman--
--that the cynical calculations of these grifters, these con men--
--blow up in their faces.
In four days' time.
In two years' time.
And for the foreseeable future.
36
Future Broadway Shows based on the life of Donald J. Trump
The Lying King
Babes in Arms Taken Away
The Sound of Munich
My Fair Baby
Donald Trump Superstar
How to Succeed in Business with Multiple Bankruptcies
Kiss Me Kate or Anyone with a Skirt
The Flim Flam Man
The King and Myself of Course
17
@PaulKrugman Extremely interesting article. I am a 58 year old retired white woman that spent my entire career needing to be in the political arena. I am also a Democrat, leaning toward the middle. I am happy that you said, that Democrats aren't Saints either, as the truth generally lies somewhere in the middle. Anyway, to get to my point. EVERY Republican, in politics that I have EVER dealt with has always pitched a boat load of lies, or somehow manipulated their agenda to get what they want. Politics is about scratching each other's backs to get what we really want. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't, that's just the way the ball bounces; however, as you said, beginning with George W's Dad (a little) and escalating with George W. himself, the Republican party began to fester. The right began drinking the koolaid and now it is difficult to even have discussions with friends about the stark differences between the Donkey and the Elephant. My guess, is it will take a war to get the rich, white men to understand the black hole we are falling into. Term limits is one answer. I am at a loss what else, we on the left can do to bring our country back toward the middle. It is nasty out there. I guess, I will keep on being kind and always hold out hope that we can bridge the divide. MAKA Make America Kind Again!
20
Don't hold back Professor, tell us how you really feel!
2
"And now there’s the added insinuation that sinister Jewish financiers are the real culprits behind this invasion. Because that’s where people doing this kind of thing always end up."
My Jewish father served in WWII to end Nazism. So did my Jewish uncles. So did my Jewish cousins.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would see what is now happening in America.
I am glad that my father, my uncles, and my cousins are not here to also see what is happening in the America for which they fought.
The Democrats MUST -- for the sake of all that is decent and just -- take the Congress on November 6.
35
If you want to do something about this, then someone is going to have to do something about Fox news and Breitbart. Sue them into oblivion. Pass better laws on fearmongering. Either that or wait a generation until their viewers and listeners have passed away.
29
I stopped reading at "attributing that threat to Jewish conspirators". Now THAT's a lie. It's ONE wealthy conspirator, Soros, and he has a history of massively funding far-left groups. So in fact, it's not a conspiracy theory: it's fact. And who cares that he is Jewish. He is but one man. It's not anti-semitism to criticize one enormously powerful man.
I used to respect Krugman's opinion, but man did he change!
5
Thank you Mr. Krugman. Please stay strong.
11
my sad two cents, Prof: you are too kind by half -
in service of their selfish, evil goals, Republicans have already made it far too easy to encourage crazies to rear up out of the swamp of their madness, armed to the teeth with guns, and mow innocent people down for who they are...
the next logical step is sponsorship of pogroms.
even our US military is worried that the nutty tactic of promoting Republican votes by sending thousands of troops to the southern border to confront assylum seekers will encourage countless armed vigilantes to converge on the area as well.
at whom will all those bullets be aimed?
8
YES!! THANK YOU!
8
"For we live by believing and not by seeing."
(2 Corinthians 5:7 NLT)
Sent to me by someone who agrees with the quote.
Such resistance to facts is thus explained?
6
As a kid, I’m now 78, I remember newsreels in the movie theaters. One was titled, “THE BIG LIE.” It was about the behavior of dictators, and how the repeated lie would eventually be believed. trump, of course, is our leading contender. He has other typical mannerisms that he probably picked up from associating with other dictatorial world leaders. Applauding himself. Kim does it. Erdogan does it. Xi does it. Duarte does it. Self-aggrandizement.
We are not all fools.
16
In the 1980s teenage immigrant welfare mothers on drugs who were blamed for all of America's problems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OZ7ga2cvBY
Today's scapegoat is terrorist illegal immigrant gang member rapists smuggling drugs. Why do people continue to so easily be persuaded by ridiculous fear-based arguments? They have been around for so long. Why haven't people learned to see through it over all this time?
9
What I encounter more than anything else is gaslighting and projection. Everything you say in this article is precisely echoed back substituting "Democrats" or "liberals". They truly believe what they hear as much as we do. They truly believe they have the facts. They truly believe what Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, Hannity and Donald Trump say. They dictate the message. They tell their people exactly what Democrats wants, think, value and will do even though virtually none of it is accurate or true. But instead of listening to actual Democrats, liberals, progressives, they believe it. When I make a personal statement declaring my beliefs, different from what they have been indoctrinated to believe, they say "oh, we know the truth about you."
I have no idea how to combat this; how to deal with it. It frightens me no end.
15
If you grew up in a household of a man who lies for a living—the high-pressure salesman—as I did, you’d see the “credibility” of the Trumpist takeover of the Republican Party, thanks to predatory marketing (and oligarchic Russian trolling).
There is no truth in a “cut-throat” conception of business, called “doing the business” of business. This “ethic” is par for the course in realpolitik and warlord diplomacy.
Trump plays front man in a global regime of predatory capital that enlists the under-educated consumer “citizen” in fantasies that are just like normal product marketing.
Sales force leaders know about attention deficit orders and dissociative decision vulnerability. Trump’s impervious self-confidence comes from knowing how things play among the Big Boys.
But the educated citizen is immune.
The educational journalist immunizes.
The educational leader inspires alternative visions—Better Marketing Through Higher-Quality and Unquestionably Reliable Products.
4
The GOP and supporters of Trump from the cabinet, White House, and family (not surprisingly) to the rightwing white supporters do not care about lies, or morality, or humanity.
So, though I have great respect for Dr Krugman, I am not sure this is the right message, because the Trump
(fascist) people want 100% power, and they do not care how they get and retain it.
I think many Americans need to be very concerned— not just about this election but about the coming years of abandonment of American values and, closer to home, our own safety and possible discrimination if not imprisonment. The parallels with 1930s are growing.
7
For many, the position of the President of the United States is somewhat "Pope-like".
We expect the man in that position to be a world leader for the good of mankind.
How much damage could a Pope incur to the core of his constituents if he lied constantly, while impugning the validity of the oppressed? All the while blatantly skewing new doctrine to enrich himself and his ilk at the expense of the lesser privileged?
2
Consider what you're saying: the 24% of Americans who identify as Republican are either ill-willed, or else dupes. That sounds like saying that 1.2 billion Muslims are knowing subscribers to an "evil religion." Broad sections of population can't be evil, though they can do evil, wittingly or unwittingly. But the term "evil" loses meaning when predicated of large groups. (Which is not the same thing as predicating it of policies.)
3
Wait til Trump and company lie us into a endless war with Iran engineered by Bolton and Jared. This may be intended to rally the nation behind Trump but would more likely becomes Trump's Viet Nam but he could care less only is interested in what is good for him and his greedy family.
9
Dr. K, I am usually barking at you. Today, I must commend you. Stay strong. Be clear: Republican’ts are lying and are producing bad people along with bad policy. Their lies may mean we have but a limited time left to reclaim our democracy.
4
"The addiction to lies has also — let’s be blunt — turned it into a party of bad people."
Thank you, Paul. Thank you for saying what many of us have been thinking for a while now. I'm 63 years old and I'm absolutely stunned by the dishonesty of the American right. I've never seen anything like it. Only bad things happen, I think, when so many people are overflowing with such in-your-face dishonesty.
I worked for a home building company as the top person in the accounting department for many years. The owner, a staunch Republican but an otherwise intelligent (if not wise) man, would come to me every so often with something political. The one thing I could always count on was that it would be false, or based on a false premise. He came in my office in 2008 or 2009 to tell me that Henry Paulson, the Treasury Secretary under Bush when the financial crisis hit, was a Democrat. False (and an obvious ploy to blame Democrats for the financial crisis). One day he said that Obama was waging a "war on business." I promptly showed him a graph showing that under Obama corporations experienced the sharpest rise in profits (as a percentage of GDP) on record.
Republicans live in an alternate reality that they (Fox News et al.) have created in order to confer benefits on the Republican donor class. Why people believe the lies but don't believe people telling them the truth - those people are called "fake news" - is a great tragedy that hasn't run its course yet. Buckle up.
22
I think painting party lines is quite unfair when both parties have their fair share of liars: the democrats are quite good at talking the talk and failing to walk the walk, which I might argue is worse than the obvious lies Trump tells. Look no farther than NY city and state politicians in general.
1
The problem is that in the current culture, a skillful liar is seen as a kind of hero. Morality has nothing to do with politics.
2
Abraham Lincoln said the was better than George Washington. George could not tell a lie. Abe could but would not do so. Trump on the other hand cannot tell the truth.
It's important to mention the massive structures undergirding all the lies. Namely, the vast right wing media landscape, oligarch funded 'think' tanks, and paid spin masters that test, organize, and dispense a unified set of untruths to an aggrieved and gullible public.
It started with the removal of the Fairness Doctrine and Equal Time requirements during the Reagan administration. Then enter the Australian Rupert Murdoch's purchase of the Fox Network and the hiring of Roger Ailes and Bill Shine. Add in decades of fake academic investigations by paid scribes tasked with cooking up rationales for greedy libertarianism, gut meaningful campaign finance limitations, and you get the entire substructure for the modern masters of prevarication.
Rome wasn't built or destroyed in a day. And the question isn't whether outside Russians, Chinese, or impoverished immigrant barbarians will storm the gates. The real question is whether we can stem the massive rot from within. A malignant rot that spews nonstop lies and is otherwise destined to destroy a democratic and informed America.
2
Whether they know it or not, the republicans are destroying the country.
2
A certain desperation becomes apparent when the left wing latches onto Beto’s Bugs-Bunny bite and sad tilt of eye—the Kennedy pictorial trope— in the hopes of resurrecting Camelot, which itself is only a figment of someone’s quiet desperation.
1
How many Americans know that there are 30 countries in the world in which life expectancy is longer and per capita health care is cheaper, while the per capita ratio of small family businesses and farms exceeds ours? That's CIA data, not mine. Those are what the Republicans call "socialist" countries.
5
Many of my neighbors are Republicans, at least in theory. If they are old enough, they were probably Democrats in the 1960s, especially before civil rights legislation and school integration.
The truth is that they are not well-educated, they are not big on critical thinking and they get most of their news from Fox News, especially the opinion shows. It's not uncommon for one of them to say, "I don't like what he says, but I like what he's doing."
If they are elderly, they buy into the fear of immigrants, of blacks, of "the other," mostly because they already feel vulnerable.
If they are younger, they take delight in taunting Democrats online and sometimes in person.
But they don't look at the big picture most of the time. They don't really know what Trump is doing. They have only one point of reference, whatever Fox News shows them.
Thus lies, even big lies, are mostly irrelevant to them. They believe what their "hero" tells them and they choose not to listen to anything or anyone else.
14
I think the medium is the message. When I would talk to blue collar workers in Ohio, who were able to listen to radio while they worked, I was astonished at some of their opinions. "How in the world" I would ask myself "have they developed the opinion that climate change is a hoax? They don't seem to be moonlighting physicists"
So I turned on the sports radio stations they were listening to and found rightwing talk interspersed between the games
It isn't even bread and circuses. It is all circuses. You get your listeners in a team identifying state, an us against them mentality, and then you start the rightwing political propaganda, where the political opposition is a team to be smashed and hated.
This would explain the weird shoot-themselves-in-the-foot GOP working class identification and also the hate for Democrats; it's the rival team.
Unless Liberals can start up their own sports broadcasting networks they have to rely on the GOP spectacularly failing again as in 2008.That of course will happen. But it was only 8 years before people forgot what they learned and voted for the same failed policies again. Memory and sense will be overwhelmed by violent sports fandom
What do you think about this theory?
13
Dr. Krugman, I am often looking for your columns for information to feed my search for the truth. Thank you for your work. How can we compare generational shifts in economics from the majority of the country's citizens, the workers. When we talk about "job" growth percentages as a constituent statistic to the economy, I just want to scream!
How many families were supported by the economy in 1960?
Given that a single income could sustain a family then, where did we go wrong? How can we project those single salaries to today's earnings and lower standard of living?
6
I consider myself to be a good person. I'm also a registered Republican. But Dr. Krugman is correct. You can't be both a good person and a good Republican. I'm NOT a good Republican. I'm a Republican in name only. I've come to despise what the current Republican party stands for. I'm planning to vote a straight Democratic ticket for the foreseeable future, until the Republicans come to their senses or are replaced by a newer and better party. If the only candidate running for a particular office is Republican, I won't vote for that office at all. The only reason I keep my Republican registration is so when I tear the Republicans a new one, I can follow it up with "And I'm a registered Republican."
24
I think it nieve in the extreme to believe that once in power the sort of authoritarian regime that the GOP now represents can be removed by an opposition playing by the rules. Despots don't give up power and position once they gain it. The constitution and our democratic processes did contemplate having to deal with what has been a slow moving coup by an anti-democracy group gaming the system. How to deal with that hard reality no one wants to discuss openly?
17
@Castro, I think you're being premature. We are far from a failed democracy. We are a functioning democracy, although the GOP has tilted the rules in its favor with gerrymandering and voter suppression. That's why it's so important to vote on November 6th. The governors and state houses we elect will determine congressional districts for the next decade.
It's a fantasy to assume that we can recapture our democracy by violating its rules. The only way democracy will survive is if we strongly follow the rules to defeat the forces that would undermine democracy.
7
Here is an excellent summary of this situation. It has become a tyranny on the part of the minority against the majority. Anybody think of the word "coup"? Or at least the Trump/republicans, power grabbers and cynics would seem to be on a trial run for it, so far. Vote to keep it from getting there!
11
Hi Dr. Krugman.
Since you're replying, I've always wanted to ask you this question: What is the value to society, of the derivatives trade?
4
Let us suppose that Trump’s Republican party controls the Federal government for another two presidential elections and two mid term elections. That computes to another 12 years of of the policies we
The elite rich are winning big. Those tax cuts are huge money makers for them. I have never seen a reversal on the issue of the nation's debt just be ignored.
But it won't be ignored. Logic dictates that one has to cut medicare and social security in order to shrink the debt. Stop taking so much from the elite rich, and reduce what you give to the needy. This is how it will be argued. And 43% of people will still vote for Trump in the next election.
I have never seen name-calling bullies convince so many broke people to be on their side. These last couple of years have been bizarre.
110
The GOP is counting on people forgetting even what they read yesterday let alone remember all the lies. The good news for the GOP is most people do forget and worse allow themselves to remember a different narrative of the past.
Even when the truth is made apparent (e.g. that Christopher Columbus was not a discoverer but rather a terrible individual (calling him a human being would be insulting to human beings), most states are still willing to celebrate Columbus Day and keep statues up and not revise the history books for decades).
It is this white-washing of history that allows most Americans to not even realise the nation has been at war (either directly or via proxy) for all but three and half years of the nation's existence and that currently the US is involved in attacks against seven sovereign nations (most are lucky if the can name even one of the countries, let alone show where it is on a map).
A country that represents less than 5% of the world population and yet consumes and wastes more than any other nation in the world its size and thinks they are good global citizens is living in a cognitive dissonance bubble.
It is easy to see how a nation can live with all Trumps lies, because many of its citizens are comfortable living a lie. The US has not been a leader of the free world by example, but rather leads by force and threat of force.
6
The real question is how do we expose the GOP strategy as what it is, a blatant con, in a way that is effective? It's not sufficient to just point that out, it's been done many times. The strategy of doubling down on the lies has been shockingly successful in making the GOP impervious to the truth. At least amongst his supporters.
Trump's genius is that by having absolutely no core values he is as slippery as an eel. (It's less genius than a disturbing flaw in our body politic that aligns with his sociopathy). He can't be shamed. There is no Joe McCarthy "Have you no decency sir?" moment possible. He has none and never claimed to. Every pillar of our American society has been pre-attacked and vilified by Trump. From the press to the FBI.
Let's hope Trump has under estimated the intelligence of the American public. It's only been one election he won, and there's a good case to be made it wouldn't have been possible without the aid of the Russians. We will know when the polls close Tuesday.
9
Not a good thing to conclude - as Krugman did - that they - the others - are "fanatics", "cynics", "bad people", "total dishonestly", and THAT is a reason to vote democratic, because it is "impossible to have intellectual integrity and a conscience while remaining a Republican". Do you really pretend that the 'other' guys realize that and say "Oh Lord, I am so deplorable, I should change". Not a good strategy as was demonstrated in the last election.
You should start blaming yourselves about what you are doing so bad that people that voted for your ideas before, switched. But of course, you are so good people that don't need to do nothing, the other - the 'bad people' should. Every time you do this - insulting the republican voter, the one you are trying to switch - you are failing. I have bad feelings about your next election, as Nate Silver pointed out - as a fictional but probably outcome - last week at their site fivethirtyeight.com.
3
I adore seeing Trumpists wail that it’s really all mean and stuff to call people names.
From an excellent Simon Schama article in the FT: “...the president is too lazy to be a successful tyrant, his authoritarian instincts tempered by the alternation of indolence and impulsiveness. All he truly craves, aside from endless rounds of golf, is the gush of flattery delivered by his cabinet, the obliging parrots of Fox News, and the rallies to which he is addicted: those overloaded cheeseburgers of his psychic engorgement.”
Unfortunately, the rest of the GOP is willing to abet his tyrannical instincts as long as their power is retained.
7
A recent article by the NYY said trump approval rate was under 40%. According to Real Clear Politics, none of the poles listed him under 40% and Rasmussen Reports has him at 51%. Whose lying? Trump said he would bring jobs. 1000 manufacturing jobs are added every single day We have the lowest unemployment since 1969. For African Americans, African American youth, and Hispanics, the lowest ever. That's three evers. The handicapped had experienced fewer job opportunities before Trump. Now their new jobs are up 7-11 %. Obama said he had contained ISIS. The next day Paris, followed by San Bernardino. The NYT has acknowledged that Trump had defeated the ISIS Islamic State. He let the Army make decisions instead of government lawyers back in Washington. Trump haters were saying he should not have the codes or he might attack against North Korea. Instead he sat down with Kim and now they have stopped testing, are dismantling testing sites and the two Koreas are removing the mines separation their two countries. That did not happen under our Nobel Peace Prize winner. So now we have a peace initiative in Korea, the ISIS Islamic State is gone, and hundreds of thousands of people of all races have pay checks in their pockets instead of unemployment and welfare checks. There are over one million jobs waiting to be filled. We have new trade agreements with South Korea, Mexico and Canada. The Democrat have only one platform, to get back at Trump for wining.
3
Republicans are enablers-enabling a bigoted con man to remain in power.Every Republican elected insures that civil discourse will remain non-existant in America and that bigotry and the abuse of the middle class by the wealthy will continue.
5
The horrible part is that the alliance of Wall Street and those who yearn for the resurgence of the Confederacy seem to be winning. Will Trump declare martial law if the Democrats win the house? The fact that this possibility can even considered shows how far we have fallen. I hope I am wrong, but a nation gets the government it deserves
1
Looking on the bright side, Hillary knows how to handle those people and is guaranteed not to threaten the D establishment, even a little. Has it settled on her as the nominee for '20 yet? First woman president, you know.
1
When raising children one of the most important life lessons is to tell the truth. That should be reason enough not to vote republican.
8
Oh, Dr. Krugman, if you go on with this kind of criticism you will receive the dread label of "incivility"!
I don't understand why more Democrats don't cite the work of people like yourself, Joseph Stieglitz, Thomas Picketty etc. to make the argument against tax cuts. It's not necessarily that people don't understand about the cuts, but they buy Republican arguments that we can't afford them. Paul Volker said the central issue is we're becoming a plutocracy. Bill Clinton did try to educate. Obama less successfully. Why have Democrats been so reluctant to make the election about this?
54
@DebbieR: The Republicans probably steal far more from public spending that what they pay in taxes..
4
As someone who had voted for Bill Clinton, I remember thinking on the day it came out that Clinton had lied to the American people about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky that he had to resign the Office of the President.
Oh how far we have come!
38
So we need a dictatorship to save us from evil, because elections are morally wrong and there can never be multiple sides to any issue. Gosh. Where have we heard that line before?
With regard to Paul Krugman's note on "getting news" - recommend reading "Manufacturing Consent" https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/78912/manufacturing-consent-by-edward-s-herman-and-noam-chomsky/9780375714498/
As David Leonhardt points out in his Op/Ed in today's Times: Inequality Makes People Hate
"Trump turbocharged this shift. He did so by running a campaign that was both more economically populist and more overtly racial than any other recent Republican had. The two themes played off each other, as Andrew Cherlin of Johns Hopkins University notes. 'Those who try to distinguish between the explanatory power of stagnant wages and a declining industrial base on the one hand, and anxieties about the ascent of minority groups on the other, miss the point,' Cherlin has written. 'THESE ARE NOT TWO DIFFERENT FACTORS BUT TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN.'" https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/opinion/trump-voters-inequality-racism.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion-columnists
___
"The reverse side also has a reverse side."
- Japanese Proverb
How do you determine who is lying when both sides are making that accusation. The Times prints stories about Trump lying. Trump accuses the media of "fake news". The result is that too many end up believing what they want to believe, by selecting the source to believe. Part of this is the fault of the main stream media. Krugman alludes to this in his opening paragraph. There was a chance to stamp this out earlier, but the effort at a "false equivalence" let this fester- growing into a huge problem.
Science, the results of which are used all the time and the associated technology, which is responsible for so many of the improvements in peoples lives, are now called into question. Two examples-- vaccinations and climate. People now choose to believe sources that are either corrupt or crazy or both. This is a large part of the problem. When there is no agreed upon and accepted truth, lies are just alternative facts.
Unless sane people insist on the truth, and punish lying politicians, it is difficult to see how this ends up well, either for the country or the world. I hope that articles like Krugman's piece serve as a wake-up call. And that publications still operating under the precept that the truth is important continue to call out lies, even after Trump departs.
2
Mr. Krugman, I find it curious that that the NYTimes would prevent you from printing the word "lie".
The Truth is the Truth. A lie is a lie. There are no alternative facts. There are no "misstatements".
People voted into office should only speak the truth. If they cannot state the truth, then they should say nothing. I truly believe, after the election of Donald Trump, that any politician that lies should be removed from office. This should be coded into law.
This is not a first amendment issue. I compare this to yelling fire in a theater. When a politician lies, he is putting the republic in danger, much like causing a panic in a public place, only more dangerous I believe.
The Republican have weaponized lying, and they need to be held accountable for it. The party sits passively by while the leader of our country lies with abandon. My recommendation is that all Republicans should be voted from office.
4
Trump is the master at controlling the narrative from his reality TV White House. It is a pity Trump is only interested in how he is perceived by the media. He wants adulation, that he is the best President, with the best economy, best defence, greatest trade deals. Any negativity is brushed off as fake news. He never has to answer serious questions about his administration.
Now the Apprentice President is armed with distraction. Whenever there is an issue that needs discussing such as the rise in the budget deficit, government debt and the resultant lift in interest rates, Trump goes into his happy place of distraction. Whether it is a few thousand desperate souls seeking a better life Trump starts deploying a few hundred troops to the southern border, amended to a few thousand, which then becomes 15,000 troops to the border, Trump installs fear in his base. Only Trump can save them from whatever imaginary fear Trump is pushing.
Issues of substance, such as the environment and the economy, are either ignored or given a cursory comment. Trump is too busy distracting his base, to deal with real issues in a systematic, informed and fair way. It will not end well, but Trump will keep on with setting the agenda that suits him, while his base laps up his dog whistling as Trump continues to do what is best for his fellow mega rich elites.
4
whatever happened to the value of the iconic story he would convey upon our children. yes Father I cannot tell a lie, I chopped down the cherry tree. 45 needs to take a lesson from number one
2
Thanks Mr Krugman for one of the best opinion pieces ever published!
/Svante
3
I too am puzzled why lying has had so little traction.
Yet, I imagine, with the economy doing well and employment up, it will be very hard to make the case the lies are indeed lies, and dangerous and stupid way to run a country. Truth will out... but maybe like life, life lived forwards, understood backwards, And too late.
2
I share your view and believe the Republican party is bankrupt in ideology and morality. It is no wonder that people are leaving the party to where it represents 24% of the voters vs 31% Dems today and shrinking.
I hope those who left have registered as Independents. Perhaps one day, our two party system will consist of Dems and Indep with the GOP discarded into the ash heap of history. Wishful thinking? I think not if the current trend continues with Trump the leader of the Republican party.
5
@Peter: "Independents" are usually politically ineffective because politics is conducted and funded by like-minded people representing a common interest as a political party.
So what country will take in older Americans and their Social Security/pension dollars if the Republicans win? I want to go there!
2
@Cherie Day: If the Republicans win, they'll cut Social Security.
3
Republicans aren't prisoners, but they always believed in one life boat. All live aboard with the bullhorns. "The boat is stable, if you stay in the middle. The boat is safe, as long as you don't stand."
Ensconced in fog, the boat could be large enough; and "a rising tide lifts all", they say. Finally, today's numbers - stocks, defense spending, tax cuts - are lit. Shooting through a dispelling fog into perpetual night, each firework explodes "Brilliant!" in their cheers.
Bursting grandeur reflects across the shiny, black sea; now its empty horizons sow doubt. Questions, all too valid, arise, until loose talk of an approaching boat raises a general alarm. All join the din. Abruptly, the grackling quiets for news of another boat ..and another.
Worse fears are founded. It's an attack from below, where the rumors of working people losing medical treatment are kept. Where tax cuts reportedly helped little, have an expiration date, and culminate in lasting debt. That deep, dark recess can't really be fathomed, but its sirens rise.
"They come to tax; they come to spend; they come to loaf. If they take control, a tempest. It cannot happen; it must not happen; it really could happen." It matters not that their boat is being torched, they're frozen in place.
2
When passages from both George Orwell's 1984 and Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf are cited by commenters, and those passages ring terribly, awfully true, it is crystal clear that that we have gone well beyond anything normal in our politics. Fight for our democracy as if your life depends on it, because it does.
7
I know my comments will cause most of you on the left to have you hair catch on fire but that is OK I expect outrage from the left over just about everything. Anyway...here is a new campaign slogan for the democrats. " Vote for Democrats because they lie less often." You say you are for the middle class. Well, you were in power for 8 years and the middle class was completely forgotten and ignored ,basicly,
that is why DT beat HRC. "If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor" That wasn't quite true. Just two examples, you don't want to read or hear more and that is fine. The bottom line is simple, politicians lie...period. It is in their DNA. So don't base your vote on who is telling you the truth or you will be wasting your vote.
There is a line in the movie The Hunt for Red October Where the WH Cheif of Staff says to Jack Ryan " I am a politician which means I am a liar and a cheat. When I am not kissing babies I am stealing their lollypops". Now that is what the truth sounds like.
5
@Fred: Mitch McConnell did everything he possible could to prevent President Obama from accomplishing anything.
6
You know, if you guys spent less time moaning about how picked on you are, and more time paying attention, you’d probably get a lot more respect.
Take the silly comment about Obama doing nothing for the middle class—except of course to help bail us out of an absolute economic disaster, pass a big infrastructure that came complete with middle-class tax cuts, pass the PPACA and strengthen Medicare and close the donut hole, pass controls on the banks and banking that got us into the economic disaster, chop education borrowing costs, get you a consumer protection bureau so you wouldn’t get cheated so easily, atuff like that.
There were a few other bells and whistles as well, but you should probably ask bin Laden about those.
Oh wait...
4
Honesty is the worst policy. Truth is looser . Greed is good. Separating children and infants from their parents is the teaching Jesus Christ. Fake, fraud and phony are loved by God and approved by Jesus. Sexual predatory and violence is taught in churches. This is Trump's America. The message is approved by the Republican Party and Evangelical Coalition to support Trump/Pence.
4
I thought the corporate tax cut didn't even make much sense for corporations. The difference between the USA and most countries is that the USA has a huge corporate culture which produces a lot of global income and USA has a large defense budget.
Once the corporate tax is reduced, there isn't much money left to pay for that defense budget which, after all, benefits the US corporations in the first instance.
As the republicans begin to see that there's no room to hollow out medicare and social security - it would simply lead to an impossible social situation which would required multiple social programs to replace the ones hollowed out - they would be faced with having to cut defense or there would be taxpayer revolt and dems would do it for them.
1
@Excellency: The "Defense" industry says weapons will become more expensive if it is taxed..
How do you recommend debunking the lies?
2
@JimBo: There is no way to debunk lies to someone who buys into all the lies about God, afterlife, and messiahs. They are convinced that buying into lies is the stairway to Heaven.
I've been reading your columns since 2000 and I want to thank you for being one of the first, and most consistent media journalists and writers to call a lie what it is - a lie. No matter what words your editors forced you to use, you always let your readers know that they said X - but the facts support Y.
Or put another way by another great philosopher: "you pay for this, but they give you that."
5
Fox News is complicit with Trumps blatant untruths to the extant that it’s difficult to understand why they are permitted to operate as a US business.
5
voters who continue to support republicans after being continually lied to lack basic self-respect. the continuing liars--lying is the primary strategy of today's republican candidates--betray people (like me) who once considered themselves republicans.
the current party should be buried, deeply.
6
But here's the real question: Why do people buy it? It's not like it's a huge secret that Trump is a liar and a bigot. From the minute, he descended from his golden escalator to declare his candidacy, he's been an obvious fraud and racist. And yet ... millions of people voted for him. He won the Republican nomination against 12 candidates and even if he didn't beat HRC in the popular votes, he still got tens of millions of people to vote for him. So ... why? Why? What is it that he's selling that people love? I ask because I truly-truly don't understand.
6
But the lies work! They enabled Trump to become President and allow him to remain in control of the party. There are two reasons. Pervasive racism, as you have noted, is behind most of his support. He can say and do anything as long as he remains the racist in chief. Secondly, voters are braindead. They have accepted the propaganda spread by R's for decades. Ask the average R if he or she believes in socialized medicine and the response will be a virulent NO. Then ask that same individual if he or she support public education, Social Security and Medicare and they will respond "of course." Trump is an expert at using buzz words to villainize policies that the majority accept.
3
There are only two kinds of fools in America and they aren’t the Democrats and the Republicans.
The first group prays regularly that God solves all their problems.
The second one votes regularly so the politicians could solve all their problems...
Don’t those people have the faith in their personal capability to cope with life?
1
How did the Repub Party go from people like Warren Rudman and Sen Charles Percy or Nelson Rockefeller or Arlen Specter?
I think it started to degrade under Reagan who brought in the nasty and psychopathic Religious Right and the Right-wing folks who wanted to destroy the Middle Class. Evil campaighn managers like Roger Ailes and Lee Atwater changed the tenor of the party to one of meanness and divisiveness. All to give the wealthy and powerful n the Right, more power to crush the worker and deny women their rights.
3
Given this past week, if the Republicans retain control of House and Senate, there will be some 'modern' version of the Nuremberg Laws to make their way thru Congress. And there will be no one to say no.
6
Paul! As usual you are so, so wrong!! The tax cuts have increased tax revenue, Central America is invading the US, tariffs are helping farmers, peace is at hand, and Trump is the greatest President EVER! So there!
1
I agree with Paul K and the general thrust of readers's comments.
What scares me is Trump as a person.There are obvious character flaws which are well documented.
Trump does not have any sense of humour.No ability for self deprecation.Compare him to Obamma who could laugh at himself .Even the E U officials re Brexit can do that.
Have you ever met anyone you liked who did not laugh ?
Perhaps you have not been to N Korea or Russia recently
5
Paul, you risk amping up the polarization by saying that all Republicans - or those still voting Republican - are bad people. And I think polarization is one of the key phenomena we are up against. People vote party lines because it’s family tradition, for example, and just because many people don't have your analytical muscles doesn't make them bad.
On the other hand, I would go further than you do in condemning the hard right agenda. It's not just cut taxes for the rich and cut services for the non-rich. I think a key aim is to turn back history to disenfranchise the non-rich and the non-white. To make America great again, let's go back to the 18th century, when to vote you needed to be white and male and, in many cases, you needed to own land. The aim seems reducible to a near-pure wealth equals power state, with the additional condition that the enfranchising wealth should be held by white Christian men. I think we're already a long way down that path.
Now Republicans who agree with that assessment (of course few would admit it) and who continue to vote the party, those people can proudly wear the title Bad People. And I think also Stupid, if they think this road does not lead to revolution.
2
People have criticized me for thinking this and expressing my opinion. To me, you are deceiving yourself if you claim to be a thinking intelligent person and support Republican ideas. They lie about everything! They’ve become the equivalent of rabid animals, so the question becomes: “How do we solve the problem?”
3
@LSM
There are those - I'm acquainted with two or three of them - who generally pass for "thinking intelligent persons," who support Trump because they are racists.
The scary thing is -- what's going to stop people with "no limits and no bottom" from manipulating election results to stay in power?
2
What is most disheartening for me is that such revelations in
the Op-Eds these days seems relevant only for the History Books.
The predominant currency of the day (i.e. medium of exchange?) in American Politics, in this era, is the coinage of lies.
So much (all, perhaps) of what is expressed and uttered by the ruling party the last two years seems Unconscionable to me, more often than not, demonstrably so to the minds of the majority of our population. The ruling party owns the pulpit and it appears that the most effective dissent is academic, in the main.
A “good Republican” is one who, given the current state of the party, urges Republicans to vote for ANY Democrat in the coming elections. George Will, Steve Schmidt, Joe Scarborough, Michael Gershon, Jennifer Rubin and most recently Max Boot (to name a few) have all promoted the concept of Republicans voting for Democrats in the mid-terms. Some of the aforementioned individuals have fled the party. Max Boot goes so far as to say, “Some Republicans in suburban districts may claim they aren’t for Trump. Don’t believe them.”
2
From 1970, Democratic presidencies have resulted in exactly 2 criminal convictions from investigations into their administrations. During that same period, Republican presidencies have had a total of 91, not including the Trump Administration. This is the reality of the Republican Party: 50 years of criminal behavior. What is shocking is the fact that nobody seems to speak about it.
To Democratic voters, the Republican Party is no longer a legitimate political party in America. It is led by a murder of crows – scavengers who don’t necessarily kill their prey, but survive splendidly on their carcasses. For Democrats, the means justify the ends.
But to Republicans, the ends justify the means. For Republican voters, each ethical assault on our nation is symptomatic of nothing. The nation, defined by their own party’s founder as “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”, refers only to them and to their own narrow personal interests. To them, each blow to our environment; each brutalization of innocent children imprisoned in internment camps; each violation of treaties intended to maintain global stability and economic order is merely a temporary deviation from the well-trod path of our American democracy.
So, how did the Republicans evolve from the party of Lincoln to its outlaw culture of today? We're here because we have tolerated their incremental deviations from a path of democratic governance for almost five decades.
1
On the topic of reporting where are the sassy irreverent profane reporters we loved so much in the screwball movies of the 1930's ? They took no guff from anyone and would have got right in Trumps face and called him all sorts of names . They were absolutely fearless and would rather lose their job than bow down or keep quiet.
Yeah they could now find a place in the second tier newsrooms of the internet but we need them now everywhere even in these "august" pages.
1
I am so tired to hearing my Republican "friends" say, when Republicans have done something unacceptable, even despicable (again, every day), that they are "not that kind of Republican." For me, as a gay American, it has come to a point where they no longer get to have it both ways.
A person voting Republican supports a party that has unashamedly, unabashedly declared itself to be against GLBTQ protections. A person voting Republican is voting against my basic civil rights as a citizen of this country, and have therefore declared themselves to be my enemy.
Further, any voting American who is a woman, African-American, Latino, GLBTQ, a union member, Muslim, Jewish, middle class -- basically anyone who is not a wealthy white male -- and who is still voting Republican may want to consider giving that some serious thought. They are probably not voting in their best self-interest.
2
Thank you, Mr. Krugman, for summarizing the litany of Republican's deceptions so well. Trump's and congressional Republican's barrage of lies leaves their base focused on their made-up enemies while their pockets are getting picked.
2
Further nonsense from a person who's political affiliation has completely dissipated whatever intellectual capacity once warranted a Nobel Prize. It's really sad how that happens. Once you become a partisan, you're like a sports team fan; unable to see that any call against your team was warranted and always looking for that holding flag to be pulled on the other team.
You can most definitely be a good person and a republican. Only a fool would say otherwise.
Me, I've always been willing to switch parties when the party I was with was on the wrong side of history, which is where deranged democrats are now.
Democrats may claim to be nicer (whether they actually are in their personal lives is anyone's guess), but the mere sight of all the virtue signaling makes us all a little sicker. In this day of great opportunity, we can scarcely afford this.
I got news for you; this is the human race. We're not angels. So be it. I say embrace that, and at least be a good version of yourself. Meantime, vote Republican, and let's keep this glorious Trumpian economy going!
The Democrats will eventually get their act together and realize people don't like being lectured all the time, but it might take some time and perhaps a second Trump term for them to come around to it. Plenty of time to make America even more great than it already is!
3
I left the Republican Party after George W. Bush lied us into the war in Iraq. Nothing the party has done in the past 15 years would encourage me to return, but with the current occupant of the White House they have reached a new low. This is a person without a shred of personal integrity. He has systematically lied about everything he has ever done in his entire life, which makes him a fitting symbol for what the Republican Party now represents. I feel sorry for those of my honest, hardworking relatives who continue to hope that this party and its Leader are on their side, because they have come to believe that the Democrats are not just the opposition, but are essentially Evil and thus must be combatted by any means necessary. That is why they forgive their Leader’s faults, or rather they see them as at worst necessary evils, which become virtues when used to combat the Evil Other (sexual, racial, religious) represented by - shudder! - Democrats. Many Republicans who accept this world view aren’t bad people, but their minds have been effectively poisoned, and it won’t be easy to find an antidote short of total catastrophe.
1
"Democrats aren’t saints, but they campaign mostly on real issues.."
An interesting thought. One might think that the brazen theft of American intellectual property and skewed trading rules might have been considered "real issues" by an economist - but one would be wrong.
One might also think that the extent of illegal immigration - 10-15 million pushing down wages and driving conservative backlash would be an issue but what I hear from Krugman are crickets. Even though the recent Economist made it clear that the homeless crisis in CA has been precipitated in part by the enormous influx of people who undercut wages for the local unskilled labor.
When facts do not fit the talking points i guess we'd better ignore them.
3
Jobs smash estimates with gain of 250,000, wage gains pass 3% for first time since recession
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 250,000 for October, well ahead of Refinitiv estimates of 190,000.
Average hourly earnings increased by 5 cents an hour for the month and 83 cents year-over-year, representing a 3.1 percent gain, the best pace since 2009.
The unemployment rate stayed at 3.7 percent, the lowest since December 1969.
2
I can't help but think that today's issues of partisanship and fear mongering could have been avoided by a stronger, more independent and ethical journalistic standard. I am saddened to know that the NYT prohibited journalist from telling the truth plainly and simply as late as 2000.
Despite inevitable resistance amongst some readers, it is the duty of the NYT and other sources of journalism to report facts, keeping the public informed and the government accountable.
If George Bush insisted that the sky was green, when he knew that it was blue, I would have expected journalists who had reliable, inside access to that information to be unafraid to tell the public frankly— “George Bush lied. He told the American people that the sky was green. But, the sky is not green; it's blue and George Bush intentionally misled the public to subvert the will of the people, and here’s our proof.”
Democracy dies in the dark and we need to demand better from our journalists and other professional watchdogs. How else can we know the truth of what happens in Washington and hold our elected officials accountable for their actions? Of course, disinformation stems from the outright lies of the Republican Party and pseudo news organizations like FOX, but let’s not forget about lies of omission. If journalists are aware that a particular politician is lying, they owe it to the American people to tell the truth and point out obvious falsehoods.
1
Bravo!
Parties should be defined by their actions for or against the public interest. And in this election, more than ever, Americans should care about the future safety, health, and well being of all of us. See
https://www.legalreader.com/elections-why-you-should-care/
1
Hating Trump fills the void. The Ds have no issues. The economy is roaring & hegemony has been restored.
If hating Trump is the driver, the painful contrast with Obama is the catalyst.
The bogeyman the Left sees is itself.
If Trump's tweets & rallies are "politics of hatred/paranoia," what is the fantasy assassination of Trump that The Times ran concurrently with the breaking pipe-bomb story & its daily dose of anti-Trump agitprop, increasingly rabid to overcome the law of diminishing returns, Trump's increasing success & the Left's increasing psychosis?
Predictions—Social desirability bias is again masking support for Trump—but this time the error is far greater owing to the Left's enhanced Stalinist tactics: Inquisition. Evisceration. Mob rule. Violence. Death threats. Madness.
Stalinism pushes people of all stripes to reason & the rule of law.
The D-party set itself up for sudden death. Not because of a deep ideological divide—polarization actually increases vitality & decreases threats. One could argue that the complex infrastructure of the modern political party protects against collapse, but that would confuse physical collapse with ideological. Sudden death will occur only when a disalignment develops between party & base on a fundamental issue of existential importance.
Justice is that issue. We see evidence all around us that Justice in D-America is neither blind nor balanced. Two-tier Justice is de rigueur in DC.
I predict a blowout & the D-party's demise.
5
Fact Checking:
A look at the Lie of the Year Award,
awarded annually, by the non-partisan PolitiFact.com organization, a Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking media outlet
Obama won it in 2013
Lie of the Year Award - Healthcare
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/dec/12/lie-year-if-you-like-your-health-care-plan-keep-it/
Trump won it in 2015
Lie of the Year Award - Campaign statements
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/dec/21/2015-lie-year-donald-trump-campaign-misstatements/
And again 2017
Lie of the Year Award - Russian Interference
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/dec/12/2017-lie-year-russian-election-interference-made-s/
So Trump is ahead 2:1.
Stay tuned
Republicans have been lying for a couple of generations now. Obviously we have Nixon and his "dirty tricks" but most people do not know that Reagan's campaign manager Lee Atwater met with the Iranians during the campaign. A private citizen cannot negotiate with a foreign power - but he did. And the hostages were held in Iran through the campaign so that Carter would lose. Then the hostages were released AS Reagan took the oath. Within a year American was secretly arming Iran.
“There is something I want to tell you,” [Yassir] Arafat said, addressing [Jimmy] Carter in the presence of historian Douglas Brinkley. “You should know that in 1980 the Republicans approached me with an arms deal [for the PLO] if I could arrange to keep the hostages in Iran until after the [U.S. presidential] election,” Arafat said, according to Brinkley’s article in the fall 1996 issue of Diplomatic Quarterly.
On the day of the inauguration President Carter looked disheveled. He has stayed up all night trying to get the hostages released before he left office. Reagan was fresh and chipper - because the Gipper knew that the hostages would be released very soon.
For more see the award-winning book "Reckoning with Reagan" by Michael Schaller.
2
However, given the polarization, venom and anger, it is necessary to turn down the heat or the country could explode. Thus I suggest the offer made by Adlai Stevenson who ran against a ticket including Richard Nixon, If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. Adlai E. Stevenson
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/adlai_e_stevenson_107311
2
Thank you Dr. Krugman for your words these past few days. They are a clear and clarion call about the dangers we face - and will continue to face even if this election begins to wrest control of the government away from the Republican Party.
They will not go quietly, and neither will those working through them. We have been coming to this moment ever since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, aided and abetted by talk radio, FOX, and now social media. It goes all the way back to the Powell Memo.
The systematic destruction of our institutions of governments has been planned in a network of conservative think tanks and astro turf groups. The Federalist Society has provided the judicial shock troops. Newt Gingrich turned language into a weapon. The southern strategy primed the party of Lincoln to become the party of George Wallace.
So here we are - and all that centrism/third wayism is proving about as viable as tofu-reinforced concrete.
BTW - Kevin Drum anticipated this column back in August in Mother Jones. Great minds and all that:
"Today, the Republican Party exists for one and only one purpose: to pass tax cuts for the rich and regulatory rollbacks for corporations. They accomplish this using one and only method: unapologetically racist and bigoted appeals to win the votes of the heartland riff-raff they otherwise treat as mere money machines for their endless mail-order cons."
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/08/nos-victi-reipublicae/
2
I first realized that the Republican tax plans were based on lies during the 2000 election, but for different reasons than those in the article. During the campaign the economy was still in a high growth phase, and Bush said his proposed cuts wouldn't result in overheating and inflation. Then after the dot com bubble burst, those same tax cuts miraculously transformed and became the stimulus that the economy needed to end the recession.
Paul - Thanks for laying it out so clearly. If you consider yourself a Republican or a conservative or an independent voter and you are not for tax cuts for the rich or racism there is no reason to vote R. That is what the Party is now.
If you are a Republican and don't believe this watch what happens if the Republicans hold both chambers of Congress. Programs for citizens will be eviscerated in the next Congress to pay for further tax cuts for corporations and the rich. McConnell has already admitted as much - http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/mitch-mcconnell-medicare-social-security-bloomberg-news-entitlements-deficit.html
1
I agree with Ted in terms of Democratic leaders not being forceful enough in calling out Trump, Republican leaders, etc. on the never-ending flood of mendacity spewing from their mouths. The only thing I can conceive of as a justification is perhaps they are concerned that by being too responsive, they would merely be calling attention to the lie(s) in question, and perhaps lend legitimacy to it. Sort of like the "discussion" on birthright citizenship. Why even talk about it? It should be dismissed for the pure nonsense it is, and then we can move on to more important issues, like the Honduran Invasion and soldiers being able to gun down rock throwers. Because, as we all know, rocks do hurt.
"At this point, good people can’t be good Republicans."
For some time now I have been trying to retain in my thoughts some vestige of the notion that the Trump base and the odd mob of Trump enablers must surely include some good people who have simply made a remarkably terrible mistake. Sadly that story line is losing steam. Are any of them now digging in precisely because they were wrong and they know it? It can't help that we keep telling them so, but how could any decent, skeptical and rational American do otherwise? Our dead Venn diagram has circles that no longer intersect. In one circle please find our traditional American aspirations and hopes. In the other please find the soap bubble that is Trumpism. "There's nobody in the center but the yellow line and dead armadillos [and lost untethered souls like David Brooks]."
2
Do you think it's fair to say that the recent spate of threatened and actual right-wing violence is a logical consequence of GOP anti-intellectualism and attacks on "elites"? This species of class resentment goes at least as far back as Joe McCarthy. Or is that simplistic and unfair?
I wonder what Trump's remaining siblings are thinking, where they are hiding,and whether they voted for him.
After all, they grew up in the same home,with the same parents,during their most impressionable years. The family home must have been far from a refuge, with Donald John lying, cheating, manipulating and causing pain and turmoil.
It would be interesting to read what it was like.
1
This column remarkable for its audacity. I get opposition to policy, even vehement opposition, but Mr. Krugman seems to have drifted into the realm of baldfaced, full-bore opposition with intent to destroy. It's rather unbecoming, actually, for a man who has had a prestigious career and been deservedly rewarded for his economics insight. But this is something else, resembling the immature rebellion of a teenager.
2
The modern Republican Party's only objective is to achieve total power on behalf of the rich and powerful, and they will do whatever they have to do in order to obtain it. The modern Republican Party is - without question - the current greatest threat to our Constitutional Democratic Republic. VOTE!
The quantity and brazenness of Trump's lies is stunning and the complicity of elected Republicans is truly shameful. Given these factors, it's not surprising to me that the public, which is variably, but generally, ill-informed, would believe what they're hearing.
My question is: How do we better inform the people who are only watching Fox News or reading right-leaning publications so that they can make smart decisions (for themselves and our country) in the voting booth? Gone are the days of 3 news networks providing relatively balanced, objective coverage. Very few people will spend the time to fact check what they're hearing and instead just take as truth what is floating around in their bubble.
1
When politicians "lie" it is much worse than just a lie. Politicians are our employees. We hire them to represent our interests in our government's decision making processes. When they lie to us about whose interests they are serving they are committing a crime against democracy.
Political lying, propaganda, is how autocratic governments stay in power. Our politicians must be forced to tell the truth, it is the only way we can hold on to our democracy. Maybe we need anti-propaganda laws to combat these dishonest politicians.
1
Judging from Norway the republican party has become a party of no substance.
Not one stands up against Trump who is a loose cannon who knows how to play the media and it is called "gaslighting".
It is frightening how this man can tell blatant lies all the time and still have support.
There is no spine left in the republican party and Lincoln must be turning over in his grave full time..
SAD as a certain one would say…
2
Both sides lie. Shocking I know!
I voted for President Obama but was aware that when he promised all Americas could keep their healthcare (during the ACA push) and that his bill would 'bend the cost curve'; the President was making promises to get the bill passed that were hopeful at best, lies at worst.
Politicians by their nature are often not bound by the truth. While the current President stands out for his outrageous lies; I don't expect most politicians to be fact based. Otherwise, we not have websites that 'fact check' politicians on both sides of the aisle...
2
here is what we have in the UK:
A disastrous Brexit decision brought about by constantly lying, mostly right-wing, politicians. An even more disastrous actual Brexit process run by the most of the same liars, whom we can now confirm 100% as being utterly incompetent as well. As a result, whole sectors like finance and autos are making plans to leave the country. Some companies have already packed up and left, at least some of their operations. Businessmen like Dyson who supported Brexit are moving their factories.
Now, search Google to find what the main opposition "party", Labour, has done through all this. You would expect them to be against Brexit, it turns out starting from their leader, they weren't. You would expect them to aggressively attack the Tories for their criminally negligent management of the whole thing. Nothing of the sort, not a significant peep.
Just as Labour is our main problem, the Democratic party is the Americans' main problem. There has, and will, always been/be right wing stooges, nutters, racists, whatever, in both countries. Reagan and Thatcher were orders of magnitude worse than what we have on the right now. But back then we had hope. Now, I cannot bear to look at the left side of the aisle.
1
Totally agree.
A flurry of pipe bombs targeting political figures and the media.
A black man and woman are gunned down in a grocery store.
A mass shooting at a synagogue.
In the face of such tragedies, a president is expected to serve as the consoler in chief, setting aside the petty elements of partisan politics to comfort and soothe a shocked and grieving nation. Historically, the role has been pretty straightforward, as the presidential historian Michael Beschloss noted this week: “They heal. They unite. It’s not exactly rocket science.”
But with Trump, things don’t work that way. “It’s not in Trump’s mental makeup to do this," Beschloss observed . "He’s a one-trick pony. His single political m.o. is to pit groups against against each another while declaring himself the Savior of America.”
Trump's carefully scripted calls for national unity are brief, ephemeral, and recited in a dull monotone as if proving how little he cares. It is painfully easy to distinguish what comes from the heart and what he sincerely doesn't believe..
Speak not a lie yourself.
Yes, way too many politicians lie. Way too many have left their zippers open and are owned by blackmail and their own perversions. Check out your democrat politicians too.
But running away is no way to build back our country. Any senator or congressman too inept to earn a good living outside of being elected is to ignorant to represent us. And that applies to both parties. Want to have republicans run away and join you in a one party nation? Then you can really have a totalitarian state. But it will be one party running.
Yep the terms Many of the current republican senators and congressmen need to be run out of office and replaced by real, responsible politicians. And so do too many of our democrats.
Let us build a nation of compassionate leaders and citizens with the norm of our democracy the fashioning of individual and social responsibility and the information and resources to provide the ability to respond, to design and build for many generations to come.
What rivers and deep waters, souls and air, plants and animals and peoples do we want for our nation and our world the fast arriving years 2020, 2030, 2050, 2100, 3100?
And let us return to working both sides of the aisle and in the many, many committees where the real work is mostly done and mostly ignored by the news.
Let us drag our finest men executive leaders kicking and protesting forth to run for President. For no sane man wants to be president. Unite the United States.
There's room for some both-sides-ism here, I'm sorry to say.
The Democrats have been willing accomplices to lies that benefit Big Finance, Big Pharma, and Big War. (There's actually no "Little War".) Ask one of Obama's drone victims, somebody robo-foreclosed upon while Tim Geithner was worrying about the health of bankers that did it, or anybody paying $48.75 per pill for their drugs whether Democrats are "Good People".
Both parties bow to, and tell lies for, their donor class. The main difference is that Republicans also lie to pander to the white evangelicals without whom they'd be out of power. This is not a religious group, not really: their actual religious beliefs are expressed by black evangelicals, who follow the same theology, but remarkably vote the exact opposite of their white counterparts. (The two have little overlap: 86% of evangelical churches are monoracial.) The politically-active white evangelicals now function as a fascist party, complete with adoration of charismatic all-male leaders, a need to gather in large crowds, persecution of scapegoats, distrust in free speech and democracy, advocacy of militarism.
So the Republicans are much, much worse, there's no equivalence here. Just don't ever forget that Democrats voted for an illegal war, and propagated the lies that justified it, refused to prosecute torture, picked our pockets of $80B for Big Pharma to get that ACA sold, and also spent public monies to bail out Wall St. but not Main St.
4
The lies are voices. Written and uttered. The lies are the harmful done-deeds. Temporary and more permanent ones. And if each of US, in our enabled, toxic WE-THEY culture, which violates, daily, by words and deeds, intentionally or not, created, targeted and selected "the other(s)" choose to be accountable we need to confront the "personally-unaccountables." Daily. Wherever they are. Gather. By more than just words! Complacency to harm's trajectories and outcomes is not semantically treatable. Immunizable. Actual complicity, to violating a person, family, group of...is not just to be noted. Described. Characterized. Reported as changeable-news items. Shameless behaviors are not to be sanctified by sermanticized "principles of faith." Voiced by faithless-faux-religionists. The "centre an not hold," if and when, each of US chooses not to be a pillar for viable menschlichkeit. Ongoing battles, in a global war, is not about words; politically correct or incorrect. The violating conflicts are about the threats to equitable well-being. For ALL. About equitable sharing of human and nonhuman resources which foster menschlich living. We risk losing the trees which we climbed down from. THEN. The caves which caringly sheltered so many THEN. The choice to BE willfully blind, deaf and ignorant does not transmute any lie into a truth. Any alt-fact into a generalizable reality. Each of us can choose, alone as well as with others. to "fail better." Or to unfailingly BE dehumanized.
When reading this piece, my mind conjured up Paul Newman in Cat of the Hot Tin Roof, when he said "All is mendacity!" There is so much mendacity today, so many lies, you don't know where to start to unravel it all. It's like a large ball of string with no end showing. Perhaps we need this to lead us to a paradigm shift in human thought. In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer, and this will be based on a "survival" algorithm. This program will provide irrefutable proof of how we have tricked the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. When we understand this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
1
Speaking as a registered Republican whose party seems to have abandoned fundamental principals of the party & our democracy: Vote against all Republicans. Every single one. Feel the way I do? Then get out and vote.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/sick-and-tired-of-trump-heres-what-to-do/2018/10/31/72d9021e-dd26-11e8-b3f0-62607289efee_story.html?utm_term=.95c846a5c87f&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1
In former speech writer for W, David Frum’s book Trumpocracy, Frum argues that the authoritarians in the party of Trump are wedded to an ideology that cannot succeed democratically. Trump & his authoritarians have virtually abandoned the democratic process, and have chosen to support a demagogue who can push their unpopular agenda.
An expert in rhetoric, David Zarefsky, professor emeritus at Northwestern University suggests that reporters must adjust themselves to someone who has thrown out the classical rules of debate.
An historic Blue Wave that retakes Congress is our civic & moral responsibility. We must awaken independents, & Dems across the spectrum to vote Blue.
And why do so many people believe these lies? It is not just Fox News. Part of the answer is right here in the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/us/young-evangelicals-politics-midterms.html?action=click&module=Trending&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer&contentCollection=Trending
You quote Alexandria Beightol, a young evangelical: "I was Republican like them. Before, I supported whatever my church told me about candidates and issues."
Tampering with voting machines--in order to sow skepticism about the veracity of the whole electoral process--also amplifies the alienation of many people from the democratic process.
Has this report from WIRED magazine been covered by mainstream press? Or is it too a distortion of the problems we are all facing?
https://www.wired.com/story/i-bought-used-voting-machines-on-ebay/
I agree totally with the basic premise of this article, but you left a few things out, things I've gleaned from talking to actual, living Republicans who support the Republican party as it now. there are many of these people in the country. they fully believe that the information sources they use are accurate and correct. they don't need or care about fact-checking because they believe in what makes them feel good. logic is not important, facts are irrelevant, and power is more godly than truth. money is power and it's always good except when a person with money supports the devil. The devil is a real being and is embedded in the Democratic Party, directing and guiding its every move. Then there is connection with Israel. For this sub-group, being Jewish is good because that's the way to fight the world's current enemy state religion. There are some good things about this religion: it has heaven (correct), and it makes people worship (correct). Too bad it's got a few flaws, like not being us as its major problem. Immigrants are good if they work cheaply and bad if they steal jobs from true Americans. their status as human beings is not relevant. government programs are the worst thing that ever happened to this country, except when my loser relatives need them.
your column does little good in this venue. try to get these thoughts into Fox of the Drudge report; you might have an impact.
@rjb: Under cronyism, truth is whatever the boss says.
Krugman would be a little easier to take seriously on Trump's lies (or W's) if he'd not spent 2015/2016 inventing reasons why Hillary Clinton was a good candidate proposing solid policies in answer to Sanders. Then as far back as the 1990s, Krugman was caught out inventing in aid of Enron and Goldman Sachs--see the Fortune essay "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit". When Enron et al were causing massive rolling backouts in California during the summer of 2000 to make a quick buck, Krugman declared that an impossibility in these pages.
4
I tend to agree with your sentiment Paul, but half of America has a different view of the meaning of the word "good" than the other. Mr. Trump's approach to politics is simply that his chaotic and emotionally disturbing actions and words prevent measured, reasonable, rational defense against him. He uses the deflection and reversal techniques quite well, like many five year olds, to great success it seems. The GOP love him as he is the ultimate antithesis of a world leader, and they can get him to break things they were too afraid to contemplate. Its a match made in heaven. And they control all major branches of government i.e. no democracy in sight. To preserve all this, the GOP follow Mr. Trump's lead and lie to preserve this unilateral power. Snowden said that all governments lie and he was perfectly correct on that score. Nothing new here.
2
Given Professor Krugman's record of predictions and prognostications since the wee hours of 11/9/2016, one might be forgiven a certain skepticism regarding his latest offering.
To his credit, he has been nearly as dismissive of status envying academics as he has been of Darth Trump. Nearly.
2
Is it fair to credit Trump with any of the strong economy? Or would it be more or less as it is now no matter who was president, because of normal cyclical or other factors?
1
@David L.
Yet it is fair. Under Obama 100's of Billions of $ was lost to regulations/year. In excess of $1 trillion was lost to regulations over the period of Obama regime's reign. Releasing that money to efficient purposes is partially responsible for the booming economy.
4
@David L. Trump has very little effect on the economic growth of the past two years. The trends of growth were already set was just starting to bloom. As far as control or growth of the economy is concerned, the biggest cause was the prudent and diligent stand of the Fed. It certainly has had nothing to do with any fiscal policy because the Republicans are inactive on that front. Instead of creating a larger deficit with an unbalanced tax cut, they would have had greater growth by using that deficit on a comprehensive infrastructure bill.
1
@jaco what you say is mostly Right-wing propaganda. The rest is misunderstanding business. Obama did far more for this good economy than Trump. 99% of what we are seeing was planted by Obama 8 years ago. Trump is in the process of wrecking it all.
1
As the old saying goes, when America sneezes, Canada catches a cold. Lately we've been learning, when America elects a race baiting opportunist without a conscience, try as we might, we just can't shake that sickening feeling.
2
The party of Lincoln, Roosevelt [Teddy], and even Reagan is dead. The old GOP republican party is gone.
What has replaced it?
The American Nationalist White Party.
Its racist, isolationist and elite, vote for them at your own peril.
3
‘You know why I do it [attack the media]?
I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.’”
The Donald.
1
Here is a thought. Articles after articles, opinions after opinions, fact checks after fact checks, all have revealed a pattern of demagoguery, lies, suppression of voting rights of minorities and mistreatment of women and an imposition of conservative views upon everyone else by Republicans in general, culminating in the foremost exponent of all of these bad qualities rolled in to one, now being the divider in chief!
What does the media do? Even with all these repeated reporting, take a look at this paper how I think most people look at it these days - on a phone. Here is what I saw: First four headlines had one name! You know who. 7 out of first 8 headlines had that name. Not to mention his pictures. A picture of Stacey Abrams, way down and guess whos name appears un the headline associated with it first? You guessed it right. Look at this article. Whos picture do you have?
Despite the best efforts at great journalism by this eminent newspaper, why do you cede so much real estate (yeah!) To just one name? This is like giving away free advertisement to somebody who least deserves it while suppressing those voices that deserves your amplifier! Where is 'balanced' reporting?
All day long while you spread the truth, you give visibility to the one person who lies the most and who seems to be thriving. Here is an experiment for you. Shut him down completely till election day and promote opposing views. That may actually get you to present a balanced view! Thank you.
1
God gave us Trump
1
@Pete Rogers
Did she give us Trump because of what Trump promised to do or because it was a test for Christians to determine if they would vote for the antichrist?
I think they failed the test.
@Pete Rogers
Hillary gave us Trump. Krugman gave us Trump. Blow gave us Trump.
1
...as punishment for what?
"And yes, it’s a Republican problem (and it’s not just Donald Trump). Democrats aren’t saints, but they campaign mostly on real issues"
this is so patently ridiculous to say it's not even funny. we have somewhere over 1000 political (1+435+100+50+xxx) and this author has determined that one side of that 1000+ doesn't lie and the other side basically only lies.
this oped is ridiculous. doesn't the author see that? doesn't the NYT board see that? wake up.
4
How could they deliver to their donors if they don't lie? Fundraising is hell.
Trump fandom is fueled by attitude more than facts. Given a chance, the average MAGA-head isn't patently racist or misogynist. They are surrendering to the joy of choosing a side in a breathtaking grudge match between caricatures like Gorgeous George and the Iron Sheik, announced in feverish shouts by El Donaldo.
Unless they can dig up Will Rogers or Yogi Berra, the democrats will be hard-pressed in 2020 to counter the lies with simple truths. Does anyone know any politicians that can tell jokes and spin a rope? Let DNC know.
Here's what they aren't lying about: the desire for the US to be a fundamentalist white Christian theocracy.
3
The economy is unarguably better. The middle class is better off. The working minority is better off. Tell us why you think he is lying?
As far as being a racist you are wrong again. He doesn’t want illegal aliens in this country. This applies to everyone, including whites from Venezuela and Brazil etc.
3
@Marika, oh dear, you are so wrong. The Middle Class is worse off!! Don't be a naive, Right-wing sycophant! That Tax Scam Trump passed is going to harm all of us...except the 1% in the next year or so. What we are seeing is the good seeds Obama plated 8 years ago. It has reached it's zenith and is blooming now. Trump is desperately trying to destroy everything.
Despite knowing about the lying, Repub voters are getting exactly what they are voting for, up front, out loud bigotry.
1
It has always seemed to me that whenever the fanatics and the cynics get together in a single party, then people like Hitler, Stalin and Mao also tend to come into power. So yeah, expecting the worst is not unreasonable. However, I do not think that the other side is just that yet. I mean, their agenda might not be all that good for the common folk, but if you think that they won´t jump at the earliest opportunity to impeach the bully after they have repealed Obamacare and got the bully to sign the repeal into law you are terribly wrong. The bully would have been impeached a long, long time ago, if they did not need a scapegoat that they could blame for the loss of coverage for millions of people. They are going to say that the bully made them do it. That it was the bully´s plan (Trumpcare). I mean, there has never existed a better patsy.
WORD: mythomania, mythomaniac
Paul Krugman writes: "During my first year as an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, I wasn’t allowed to use the word “lie.”"
Too bad. Had you been allowed to call lies what they were, the world might be a much different--and much better--place now.
3
Wow, Mr. Krugman, I wish everyone would read this, especially all Republicans who still have a shred of moral conscience. You have really pierced through to the truth of what is the meaning of the Republican's lies. You say:
"it’s foolish to imagine that there are any limits on how far a party of fanatics and cynics will be willing to go...What we’ve seen over and over again is that for these people there are no limits and no bottom. If they pull this midterm election out, expect the worst."
The fact is that for a long time, reader comments that brought up Hitler, the Nazis and the Holocaust were scoffed at as extreme, inappropriate views if they got approved for publication at all. Now, as you've pointed out, the Republicans' lies are "increasingly" claiming a threat of Jewish conspirators. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see it was headed there, but a lot of people put their heads in the sand. The fact is, it was clear a long time ago that there was no bottom to how low the Republicans were prepared to go. As soon as the shift from spin to brazen lies started, that had significance that few people would let themselves recognize.
2
You should read your colleagues. "... we objected a third time when liberals tried to suggest that personal derangement, not Islamist sympathies, explained acts like Omar Mateen’s 2016 rampage at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub." In fact, we listened for 8 years to Obama's lies about ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism, lies repeated by Hillary Clinton and the rest of the Democrat Party. Bombings in San Bernardino, Orlando; shootings in Dallas and Chicago were ignored by the administration; only with the Charleston church killing did we have a killing that interested Obama who made hay of the killer's right-wing rantings. Just as the left-wing mobs today are ignored, the incitement by Holder, Clinton, and Waters are overlooked, and the most pro-Jewish, pro-Israel President in history is accused of anti-Semitism by advocates of Iran, a country that dedicates itself to the destruction of all Jews world-wide beginning with the Jewish state. We live in 1984: words and meanings are wrapped in double-speak and double-talk, much of it coming from Mr. Krugman.
4
You can’t have your cross, and burn it too.
1
I don't care if you're a Republican and you consider yourself a good person. If you continue support a party that employs flagrant bigoted and antisemitic propaganda--even in the wake of a massacre in a synagogue--to procure the votes of the murderous dregs of American society, you're not. If you support a president who defends and praises neo-Nazis, while attacking American war heroes, the disabled, and African Americans, and the press, all of whom have done nothing but exercise their First Amendment rights, you're not. If you haven't walked away from a president who went ahead with a campaign rally and then tweeted about a baseball game the evening of the bloodiest anti-semitic attack in this nation's history, you're not. I could go on, but it's late.
You can be a good person or you can be a supporter of the Trump Party. You can't be both. Be an adult and pick a side. Hopefully you'll choose wisely, for all of our sake; and our children's.
1
@Kip
Thanks for letting us know. I guess I'll have to embrace being a bad person.
1
Keep telling it Dr. Paul K.!!!!!!
2
Democrats are an outrage to morality. They destroy the country and look the other way when things get ugly. People are fleeing CT, NY, PA, IL, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, etc, etc, etc. under Democrat administrations and they criticize Trump because they do not like his manners. What a nerve!!!!
6
I remember thinking in 2016 that calling people deplorable lying, ignorant, racist haters was not the way to win an election. Shaking my head...
4
Good people can't be good Republicans. America has no consoler-in-chief. Not until president Trump is removed from office -- however that can be legally accomplished -- will America be free of a would-be dictator who has ordered 15,000 troops to our Southern border to stem "the Invasion" (DT) of "evil" migrants into our country. It was sufficient that a demented Trump loyalist sent IED pipe-bombs to dozens of Trump critics, two former presidents and other Democrats. It was sufficient that an insane anti-Semite massacred 11 Jews at worship in their synagogue in Pittsburgh. And now we -- who loathe the Great Divider Trump -- await Mid-Term elections on Tuesday with hopes and prayers that the malign Republican Party, defined by its lies, will be defeated in all races they are running on that day.
1
I admire Krugman and his well thought out opinions, as a Nobel Laureate, I put a lot of weight to what he has to say about the economy, and the new Trumplican party.
I believe that we as citizens and voters are partially responsible for not holding these people we elect to a much higher standard. I think that we've come to a point in this country, that politicians need to be held to account for lies, and misrepresentations, as well as any consequences that arise from inflaming racial tensions, or just playing on people fear(s) that stokes people that are already unbalanced, or outright unhinged. This should hold true for both parties.
We should also have truth in political advertisement(s) instead of uttering unfounded, and baseless "fake" facts just to get votes isn't doing the voters justice. Mandating, true factual adds, mandating that politicians can't outright lie, would be a step in the moving to a higher standard for politicians. We also need to keep mandate the separation of church and state, religion has no place in the decision making processes of our elected officials.
Politicians also need to be truthful about taxes, and tel the people if you want government run healthcare for example, then it needs to be paid for, via a federal sales tax, or an added payroll tax that is defined for healthcare only. To satisfy republicans that don't want to participate, have an opt out box, once opted out, that person is solely responsible for the full medical bill.
2
It isn’t just fanatics or cynics that are going along with the GOP’s agenda. It’s the one-issue voter—one woman interviewed said all she cared about was about right to life—the “evangelical” who thinks, like Franklin Graham, that God had something to do with Trump’s win— the voter who doesn’t take the trouble to inform himself because he’s never voted otherwise and thinks things may be a bit wierd right now, but it’s nothing to worry about—and, of course, those who are happy that the White House is now headed by someone who looks like them.
Nothing seems to sway them, not the sight of nazi symbols, vulgar talk, or the taking of innocent life.
4
Just this morning, the NYT wrote about what Trump said yesterday, and started off with this... Last night, the president gave a speech full of inaccuracies..."
STOP!
It was a speech full of lies. NOT "inaccuracies"...Lies.
The headlines should read...
President Trump Lied To The American People Last Night.
In a speech, that was full of lies and untruths, President Trump continued his policy of always lying about everything, and anything...etc;
If it's a lie say so!
If his spokespersons are telling lies, call them out.
That's what the free press should be doing. Call out the lies as soon as he/she/they spew them.
Or, better yet, if it's proven to be a lie, DON'T PRINT IT!
7
Zinke is grabbing all he can get before the mid-terms. Honest.
3
Yes, the Republican Party has something to offer which is very enticing: lies. Lies have been the soul of all wars, it has been brought to perfection after WWII actually by the Republican Party, the "Internationalist" for no other reason that advancing their "private" interest as if it were the "people" interests worldwide. And, we, the herd, are here for their propaganda "specialist" to play with "our emotions and racism" and suppress our rational part. How ironic, the NYT didn't allow the word "lie" in its newspaper and at the Supreme Court, Alito clearly proffered "lie" at President Obama and... what at about its recent addition to the Supremo, Kavanaugh.... To change this state of affairs, we should begin by teaching respect towards us, the herd . We need new propaganda "specialists" to appeal to our reason and not to our emotion--where are worst irrational instincts reside.
4
I have - as usual - one gripe with this. Why does the online version of this and every other piece in politics need another picture of Trump? Why not Mitch McC, another big liar? Or no photo? Pls stop with the visual adulation where not needed. Give the photo editor something better to do.
2
George Washington wrote, "Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience." It is an aspect of this celestial fire that the more we neglect conscience the more conscience disappears. It may even be said that the neglect can be so dire that conscience disappears entirely. It is thus that we slip into barbarity. Such was the case in Nazi Germany.
4
Trump will be coming out with his new book in 2019:
“ The Art of the Lie”
2
The efficacy of Trumps lies is possible only because they are supported and publicized by Fox News — which is not a news broadcaster at all but a quasi-government propaganda agency for a fanatical white nationalist political movement.
2
The dems passed the largest theft legislation in our history: Obama care.
3
And to think, something like 90% of evangelical Christians think this is all okay and can be counted on to, like loyal lemmings, support President Trump! It has gotten to the point where black is white and white is black.
3
I used to envy New York Times opinion writers. What a great job to be able to persuade possibly millions of people!
Now, I pity them. In the time of Trump, it must be one of the most frustrating jobs imaginable.
2
Understand this is coming from an American that voted for Hillary, Obama twice, even Dukakis and Carter. Now brace yourself: You are wrong. Your entire view of Trump is wrong. Is he a loudmouth? Yes. A demagogue? Yes. An idiot? No. He's dumb but he ain't stupid, he is owning the Democrats and having his way. Yes, the Democrats are losing. He is even owning the Republicans like paul Ryan for example. And come November 7th, they are going to see that Trump holds his own. I know it's a tough pill to swallow, even for me, because I don't like Trump. But facts are facts. He is winning. He is pushing his agenda. Democrats are losing. And they have no gleaming candidate to lead the way. Booker? Warren? They will not win they are compromised.
3
Another person in a glass house throwing stones. Morally flawed people like Paul Krugman condemning others who are simply enjoying a wonderful economic turn around thanks to the current administration.
6
Voted some GOP before turning 60. Thoroughly ashamed of myself for it now. Corporations, very rich people and pea-brained racists can all sit in the boat together without me. Like in the 60's it is time to "fight the powers that be."
2
Oh, Paul, you think his lies matter. It's really people like you and me that care about that. We're really only playing Trump's game and losing.
Curious that the anti-abortion and anti-gay mania that fueled their earlier success at getting middle and lower class voters to vote for tax cuts for the rich (i.e. Republican representatives) has now been substantially replaced by fear of migrants. Does this suggest that when migration gets really massive with people fleeing sea level rise that neo-nazi governance will make even greater gains?
1
Well before Donald Trump the Republican Party trafficked in lies, whoppers in fact. I’ll site just two of them that you, yourself have debunked. 1) “tax cuts pay for themselves” and 2) “deficits don’t matter” (this one from Dick Cheney). That anyone still believes these inveterent liars mystifies me.
2
The Republican Party, the enemy of life on earth, doesn’t intend to cede power. Ever. That’s what they’ve been busy making sure they can queer the elections with falsifying software in voting machines, disenfranchisement, inconvenient polling places, insufficient polling places, gerrymandering, etc. It’s why they’ve driven thousands of career public servants out of their jobs and refused to fill vacancies. It’s why they’re packing the courts with white supremacist corporate stooges. It’s why they’ve directed all flow of wealth toward their own oligarchic cadre. It’s why they praise and normalize authoritarians. It’s why they sow distrust of the press. It’s why they refuse to support gun control, and why Trump has told his supporters that if he’s ever removed from office they should take to the streets. They don’t believe in democracy, they don’t respect the constitution or the law, and they won’t obey it.
2
"At this point, good people can’t be good Republicans."
At THIS point...?!?
The Republican Party has become possessed by the ghost of the Soviet Communist Party. They're now using exactly the same tactics on the bet that American voters are too stupid or lazy to realize they're being lied to.
3
So what?
The truth is that a lying crooked moral degenerate cowardly dishonorable unpatriotic serial adulterer sexual assaulter and harasser is the one and only Article II executive office President of the United States of America in 2018.
The Republican Party is defined by control of the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court.
3
Just about every Democrat running for office says they want border security..but are unable/unwilling to differentiate legal and illegal immigration.
5
Applying for asylum is not a crime.
Mr. Krugman writes "On one side, they have gone full black-is-white, up-is-down on policy substance."
Why not say it in detail?
"On one side, they have gone full war-is-peace, freedom-is-slavery, ignorance-is-strength, 2018-is-1984 on policy substance."
1
"President" Trump, you seem to want to protect Americans from violent crime. If so, there's no need to look south of the border. I have two words for you: gun control.
2
GOP party of lies and Fake info.
100% agree with Krugman, now let's work to explain that to our brothers in middle of America.
lying has been GOP policy for years; you might say
it is a "pre-existing condition
the latest media cop out is "racially divisive" the correct term is racist
word
1
Excuse me but did you use the phrase: “ Defines the partiy’s character.” Huh? What character? The Republican partiy has character? Not only are they devoid of “ character” but they’re also devoid of principles!
1
One thing the GOP likes to do--it's also, generally, an authoritarian syndrome--is to accuse others of what you yourself want to do. A Republican PAC is doing that in Florida, accusing Bill Nelson, who is running to keep his Senate seat, of voting to cut Medicare and Social Security. At best, it's twisted logic, and at worst, it's another example of the GOP's obfuscation.
This website gives some background.
https://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2018/jun/15/new-republican-pac/republican-pac-misleads-ad-about-sen-bill-nelsons-/
Just recently, it was Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who blamed increasing government debt and deficits on Medicare and Social Security spending.
The wealthy in the GOP just don't like the idea of federal government providing health care and retirement benefits. And they don't want to pay for them.
2
Not raise the minimum wage and give away a trillion in the tax cut. The claim huge pay increases upward mobility and the like. Ending in program cuts to programs for the middle class and the poor.
We are all struggling with a fear that our beliefs are somehow hollow and inconsequential. The surety of "confident rhetoric" has become a powerful and seductive salve. While all politicians have practiced this for centuries, the current climate has seen the metastasization of this in forms of "absolutism" in order to feed a base populism. That we become cynics by default is an unfortunate result. It is difficult to present solutions from that position. We must realize that the fiercest cynicism is fueled by hope. I struggle on a daily basis to remember that is mis-spent energy. The current Republican Party will either recover or disappear. At our core is what we are practicing here: The free expression of our thoughts and ideas. The test of validity is a test of time. Unfortunately, there are bruises to be suffered along the way.
1
I was aware of the Southern Strategy but thought it was a cause celebre that would pass. Then Reagan gave his states' rights speech in Neshoba County, MS, and I stopped voting for any Republicans from that point forward.
I realize that not everybody pays close attention to politics, politicians, and policies... not everyone enjoys being a political junkie. Still, I was able to just shake my head as I watched millions vote against their own economic interest, having been hoodwinked by cultural issues.
However, when GW Bush was re-elected in 2004 -- after it was widely known that we were lied into the Iraq "war" that, combined with tax breaks, swallowed the budget surplus -- I quit thinking it was "good" people who just weren't paying attention.
About a year ago, I was in discussion with a friend who was trying to defend the Trump voters in our town... a very small rural, conservative, hugely Republican community with <300 population. My friend stated that our neighbors were still "good people."
TRIGGERED...
I snapped back, "Don't you understand that 'good people' would never vote for Trump?" My friend, a Republican, voted 3rd party; I voted for HRC. I asked, "What's the difference between you and our neighbors who voted for Trump? What bothered you that didn't bother them?"
My friend just shrugged, "I don't know."
It's tough to admit that people you considered "good," aren't all you thought they were.
3
Maybe “good” means they don’t throw their garbage on your lawn or let their dog bark all night.
"Temperate, sincere and intelligent inquiry and discussion are only to be dreaded by the advocates of error. The truth need not fear them." - James Rush
Everything Trump says is about himself. If we assume this premise to be true, then when Trump says "fake news" he really is saying that is what he spouts. When he says the other side incites mob violence, he means he does. When Trump sows fear, it is because he is afraid.
Trump is a weak man with a single gift: conning people. That he has conned what remains of the shambles of the Republican Party is not a surprise. That those Republicans remaining have adopted the same tactic - lie about everything and sow because people are stupid - should be abhorrent, but it works, at least in some places such as here Texas where it filters down to almost every level of government. Holding on to power is all that matters and any means that gets them there is justified.
Voters are out in huge numbers here. Would that we had some idea what that meant. We cannot afford another November surprise.
5
Mr Krugman
Can you comment on National Public Radio’s current policy that they may never call any falsehood that trump says is a lie. This is because the leaders of NPR say you can not know the president’s intention when making an untrue statement. Look it up. There is also a petition calling for NPR to call a lie a lie! NPR Reporters and guests go through verbal calisthenics avoiding use of the word lie. This control goes right down to the local stations such as NCPR. See my comments of my local station’s North Country Public Radio, Community Advisory Board meeting just this week concerning censorship of the use of the word “lie” to describe any comments by the president no matter how atrocious by reporters, guests, those interviewed. Frustrating and Plutocratic.
2
It's as if our "progressives" have their eyes, ears, and minds closed. By all measures the economy under Trump's policies is fantastic.
2
Since 2016 I have frequently wondered why the constant political and economic lies of the Republican Party haven’t become a political issue strongly emphasized by the Democratic Party.
I have also wondered why the NYT hasn’t called out these lies for what that are, and I have come very close several times to cancelling my subscriptions (2–one is a gift to someone) because not to call them outright lies misleads readers and fails to inform them.
Thank you, Mr. Krugman for calling attention to this serious omission. A lie is a lie, intended to misinform and deceive.
3
Republicans lie.
And they want you to die.
Mostly 'cause they want your piece of the pie.
Just keep repeating that mantra through your trip to the voting booth on Tuesday.
3
'It is the worst of times, it is the best of times'. The best being the resistance to Trump and GOP lies and seeking the truth. The worst is that, as you pointed out, these lies do not stop coming.
Some of their lies are not heinous and egregious but outright laughable farce especially the lies of Trump. Trump is unhinged in his lies now and they are so separated from reality that even Paul Ryan had to step in on one. Trump is suffering a public nervous breakdown over next Tuesday's elections much like Graham suffered one over Kavanaugh.
I always enjoy your columns as you are not only an intelligent man but a rational one. You were originally unable to use the word 'lie' so had to keep a thesaurus handy when you first started writing your op ed column.
I was taught that to lie was a deep and moral shame as liars are cowards seeking to duck accountability for their words or actions against another. I started out as a child with a moral compass that told me to lie was to shame myself. I was also told I took a piece of the real me away each time I did not face a truth but offered up a lie.
Trump was taught that to lie and have that lie accepted and believed meant everyone else was a fool. He was the bigger man. This is how he looks at his base. He thinks they are bigger idiots than his opponents.
So many pieces of Trump lost in a lifetime of pathological lies. No-one knows the real Trump only the public and professional liar.
2
This right-wing extreme subversion falls under an abuse of power by the president to incite, to harm. The list grows to indict, impeach and imprison.
While this protest song was written in the early 70z about Nixon and lying cronies and the military elitists, the lyrics are the measure of our current Monster in the WH. We will need to do more than just sing along. (partial lyrics).
(Suicide)
The spirit was freedom and justice
And it's keepers seem generous and kind
It's leaders were supposed to serve the country
But now they won't pay it no mind
'Cause the people grew fat and got lazy
And now their vote is a meaningless joke
They babble about law and order
But it's all just an echo of what they've been told
Yeah, there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watchin'
Our cities have turned into jungles
And corruption is stranglin' the land
The police force is watching the people
And the people just can't understand
We don't know how to mind our own business
'Cause the whole worlds got to be just like us
Now we are fighting a war over there
No matter who's the winner
We can't pay the cost
'Cause there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watching
(America)
America where are you now?
Don't you care about your sons and daughters?
Don't you know we need you now
We can't fight alone against the monster. Writer/s: JERRY EDMONTON, JOHN KAY
The lies, I agree, are terrible, but beyond bemoaning this fact, the question for me is, are they working? Can it really be that large proportions of our population don’t actually see through them? Why, with our collective education, culture, and life experiences, do these politicians believe we’ll believe all the nonsense they say? I hope we wake up Wednesday with a clear answer that shows we know better. But we did elect a terrible person to lead us, so I’ll vote, and wait with baited breath.
Only the fools would vote in the coming elections.
Only the fools cannot learn from the previous mistakes.
Only the fools could trust the politicians that have been exploiting and using them for decades.
Only the fools believe the media outlets repeatedly betraying them because those are the privately owned businesses with the sole objective to maximize the owner’s profits.
Neither the free press nor the politicians have any guiding principles. They simultaneously claim that the people previously expelled from their homes don’t have the right to return while the refugees that never lived somewhere have every right to illegal cross the borders.
If you still cannot comprehend what I’ve just told you, please read again those first five paragraphs!
Republicans have been successful in poisoning our politics and democracy with lies and conspiracies -- blaming: immigrants, blacks, women, Jews, the educated, coastal elites, Democrats, Progressives.
The one group they do not blame is the one group that actually is "invading" the US: the Russians.
3
"Promises made, Promises kept." To add to Lincoln's (??) comment, all you have to do is fool enough of the people, enough of the time. Take the wall. Despite the fact that it hasn't been built yet, and Mexico seems to be in no mood to empty their pockets to seed it, the fundamental point about the wall was always that thereby jobs which had been lost to those crafty foreigners, would return. I doubt that the wall, if built, will generate a single American job - except for a temporary surge in employment prospects for wall builders, whom I suspect will mostly be speaking Spanish while they ply their trade - and so even if it is built, how could that ever be a kept promise? The most depressing thing about the Trump presidency has always been that while his type has ever existed, we never knew that sixty-some million people would think it a good idea to make such a one, President. Sad, bigly sad.
2
Vote every republican you can out of office. They all need to go in order to get some sanity back in our government!
1
Don't forget the big lies, "if you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance; if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." The $787 billion stimulus will create millions of shovel-ready jobs (years later, the president admitted there was no such thing as shovel-ready jobs).
Politicians, whether Democrat or Republican, lie. The commentator who pretends otherwise, or who just talks about the lies of one side, is himself a liar.
6
Thank you Paul Krugman!
2
There are bald faced lies, patented lies, white lies, whoppers and Trump style hip wader lies. When the trump style hip wader lies are the main course, the VR googles are the only utensils for ingestion.
Paul, the operative question is, How does one detach the 30% of Americans, be they white, uneducated or poorly educated lower strata from the party that knee caps while strokes their deepest fears?
The Corporations, 1%’s who skim the actual rewards say, let trump be trump and keep the loot flowing into my accounts.
1
Republicans also lie about Democratic policies and positions. They make people believe Democrats are pro-open borders, pro-illegal voting, pro-abortion (rather than pro-choice), that we want dangerous criminals free, that we will kill Medicare, that we are the ones responsible for the country's financial problems, etc. It's frustrating to see people falling for these lies.
1
Thank you for this timely column, Paul. But I really do fear what will happen on Tuesday. We have seen how effective lies have been in past elections; it is a strategy that has worked well for the Republicans (think Willie Horton and the swift boating of John Kerry). Now they have taken dishonesty to entirely new depths. I believe the GOP has become a party of cowards. Cowards lie and they cheat. I know there are some Republicans who would stand against the lies but they don't. They, too, are cowards.
2
What does this say about the intelligence of the American electorate? And democracy? If a majority or a substantial minority can be convinced that tax cuts for the wealthy will benefit the poor or that cuts to social programs are really for their own good, we are in trouble. Somehow tribal politics has emerged as the issue that cleaves the right from the left and makes rational discussion between these camps impossible. Sure, Trump spouts lies almost every time he opens his mouth but these are lies his supporters want to hear. They want to hear that we are being invaded by rapists and terrorists, that the country is being run by a dark state cabal and that we are being taken to the cleaners in our trade agreements. You will never convince someone their belief is incorrect if they believe their life depends on the opposite.
Political lies need to be made a federal crime. It would not be easy to write such a law - but without something like it this Republican psychotic fever of lies will ruin our nation for good.
1
The question to ask is: Do the lies bother you? The question assumes everyone knows he's a liar. It makes people examine
their personal morals. If the answer is: "no, the lies don't bother me", then the questions become: Do you lie on your job?, What would happen to you if you got caught in your lie?
The guy in the White House obviously doesn't care about his lies, or who they hurt. He has never been held accountable for his foolish, hurtful, uneducated lies. Hopefully the mid-terms will change that.
1
Is this all a racial reaction to the Obama administration's "governing while Black"?
I thought the 2008 election meant America had finally turned the corner on racial discrimination.
Now I'm sadly wondering if over a third of America's voters are bigots.
It's hard to be anything but sad about our trajectory and the hateful face we have shown the world through pure selfishness and resentment of all the world's poor, and of others' rights to a decent life.
1
I agree with you, Dr. Krugman. The lies go way beyond policy and point instead to moral fiber. All those Trump voters who hear the lies and choose to believe them after so much proof that they are lies lack a moral compass that lets them understand or empathize with those not like them. It goes beyond racism and economics. It focuses completely on “the other” - brown, black, Jewish, educated, female, immigrant, LGBTQ. Anyone not like me is deserving of pain and hate. Only I am deserving of happiness and plenty. Trump speaks directly to that. So yes, if you’re still voting Republican you have some gigantic character flaw - greed, envy, bigotry, whatever - that keeps you glued to this destruction. And it’s long past time for real leaders to start calling that out, not negatively, but by positing a better way. At the same time, it’s also way past time for the media to stop giving Trump undeserved airtime. His rallies are not news. He’s not running for anything and he doesn’t say anything newsworthy. Shut off the oxygen!
Growing up in Central Pennsylvania, conservatism is something that runs in our family's blood. Gun-owning, pro-life Republican's consist of 90 percent of my family. I would know, I used to be one of them.
Chair of my high school Republican Committee, I was actively involved in politics since the 2008 election. I can recall the great political discussions my father and I could have during dinner at our family table. Anything from how bad Obama was to hoping the GOP captured the House and Senate. That all changed after 2016.
After a contentious GOP primary, I was beyond irate that our nominee was Donald Trump. At first glance, I had been open to the idea that I may support him. But by the time November came, I decided to go against my party and support Hillary Clinton. After waking up that cold November morning and seeing that he had won was a huge disappointment, but I let it go.
Telling myself I would go back to voting for GOP candidates, 2017 happened... Roy Moore, Stormy Daniels, Russian Interference... they all were household topics.. 2018 was no better. After racial undertones, and rhetoric that promotes hate, I had enough. I wasn't surprised to hear it coming from Trump, but the fact that a lot of Republican officials mirrored him, I couldn't believe it.
So, I will be voting Democratic this year. Not because I want to, but because I am scared to see what direction our country is headed in. We need adults in the room to fix our tempest America.
482
@Brandon Until 2016, my, then, 94 year old father, had always voted Republican. However, he couldn't stand Trump's constant lying. So far, his opinion of Trump hasn't changed. Therefore, I'm assuming he'll vote Democratic to curb Trump's power. I'll find out at Thanksgiving.
45
@Brandon Half of Americans are more conservative than the other half - conservativism (and liberalism) are not mental illnesses, they're traits. I think it's good that the US has conservatives pulling the hand brake when liberals are stepping on the gas. Ideally, this will be the state once again in the not-too-distant future. Ideally Republicans will decide they want this, too. With population growth, global warming, and America losing traction in the international tech race, we've got a lot on our plate.
I'm not holding my breath. The right's afraid of the left's agenda, and vice versa. Fearful people do awful things.
@Brandon Good for you.
9
It seems that for my entire adult life (Reagan Mondale was my first vote), the GOP has parroted these simple no pain, no effort paths to national prosperity that are being held up by special interests, etc. and the Democrats have been more realistic and less popular. That seems to have reached its zenith in 2016. Hopefully, the pendulum is swinging.
2
It always seemed to me that "character matters". Beyond the policy positions, I always thought it was important that a political candidate show some integrity, some honesty, and some real honor. Even when I did not and do not agree with the policy positions, and would not vote for them because of that, I could respect them as a choice, for some other people, maybe the right choice, as a political leader.
With Trump, and with many other Republican politicians, it becomes apparent that for many voters, 'character' matters little or not at all... so long as they get what they want, or get fooled into believing they will get what they want (because that is what leaders who are liars will do for those who vote for them, is lie to them...). Trump lies, and because his base believes he will do things for them, which he actually has not done, and has no intention of doing, they vote for him. And then because to admit that they were fooled, that they were lied to and believed it, they go in even deeper. Eventually they will turn on the lying politician, who can't resist going one lie too big, but before the turn so much is destroyed, so much is lost.
Character matters. Character is fundamental. Trump lacks honesty, Trump lacks honor, Trump lacks integrity. Character matters. Vote like it matters... and you can't vote Republican.
552
@Jim Brokaw
Years ago when Trump was commenting on running for office he said " I'd run as a Republican because they'll believe anything if you promise to cut taxes." or something along those lines. He was right about that.
11
@Jim Brokaw
It would be interesting to talk to those Heartland voters who fell for the rich con who flew in on a private jet to get their votes. Their factories installed robotics to be run by engineers. The manual labor jobs were exported to factories in Mexico. Pence got his 7M in bribe money from Carrier, and we moved on. Maybe the Dollar Stores were able to keep people going with their low pay no benefit jobs. Voter suppression worked worked in many places: Hours opening too late in the morning for people to stand in line and miss work. Hours closing too early so voters would have to leave work in order to vote. Polling places in rural areas placed where no transportation was available for those didn't drive or have rides. Polling places moved from town centers and schools to remote areas, hard to reach. Gerrymandering is not the only rough tool in the GOP toolbox. Voter registrations purged, or not put on the rolls in time to vote. The demographics do not favor the GOP; their answer is to look for ways to deny or suppress the vote. They will eventually go the way of the Whig Party, or they will purge their membership of crooks, thieves and liars. They might start by not supporting a grifter who had to settle a 25M class action suit before he could start his campaign.
19
The most troubling Republican trend over the past 20 years is their clear, growing hostility to any political or democratic outcome that does not go their way.
We saw this first with Bush v. Gore in 2000. We saw it when the Republicans impeached Bill Clinton. We saw it again with Trump's repeated assertions in 2016 that he would only accept election results if he won (an assertion echoed by others). And we have seen it in the past 3 years with Republican blocking of judicial nominations and then the ram-through of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
It is also more widely (but perhaps less glaringly) evident in Republicans campaigns to suppress votes, to gerrymander viciously, and to rig electoral procedures — as Brian Kemp is attempting in Georgia, and in Kansas where Kris Kobach has systematically attacked democracy and Ford County Clerk Debbie Cox has acted as Kobach's willing executioner.
Republicans are steadily ratcheting up attacks on democracy. They show no signs of being satisfied with anything short of pre-ordained GOP victories, like autocrats around the world.
747
@Hugh Sansom
Instead of the generalized “republicans,” why not point at the Koch brothers who have been financing any move against democracy in their horizon very effectively.
12
They never wanted democracy. They wanted to rule.
19
@Hugh Sansom
Well said, and let's not forget that even Senator McCain said prior to Trump's win that if the Republicans held the Senate, President Clinton's SCOTUS pick would not get a hearing. At this point, one can only conclude, horrifying as it is for Americans to face, Republicans oppose democracy.
31
Recently I was on a 4 hour flight which included live television on the video monitors. I noticed that a gentleman a few rows ahead of me had Fox News on his monitor from takeoff to touchdown. I asked myself how anything or anyone could ever convince this gentleman to expand his horizons and consider view points other than the pro Trump propaganda put out by Fox nonstop 24/7. I sadly don’t think there is anyway to reach these true believers even though in many cases the republican platform is counter to their own best interests. Fear and race baiting is for them more than enough to get them to fall in line. It’s been this way for a long time. Trump hides all pretense of cloaking this in coded messages. His false narrative is promoted by Fox or at times is generated by Fox. The end result is the same as his loyal uninformed base marches on.
1
Don't leave out Bush's biggest lie of all - that we had to invade Iraq because of WMD.
I tentatively supported the war only because I did not believe a U.S. President would lie about such a serious issue.
I know better now.
1
"At this point, good people can’t be good Republicans." It has definitely come to this. You ride with the outlaw, you hang with the outlaw. Thank you for saying it.
3
It would be nice if the media would call a lie, A LIE, and not falsehoods or untruths. In fact the media gived power to Trump by a making story out of the lies we all know he's telling like getting rid of the 14th amendment. We all kmow he cannot do this but the media acted as though he could just because he lied as said he could....
There is more than a strategy of deception and distraction. There is also vote suppression, voter intimidation and gerrymandering to allow the minority party to win most of the seats.
Max Boot is right. Nothing but utter defeat at the polls will convince Republicans that they must scratch everything and start over.
We need Democrats to check Donald Trump, but we also need honest conservative voices to moderate the conversation on the left.
"If they pull this midterm election out, expect the worst."
They're Republicans...ALWAYS expect the worst.
Tell that to my own mother!
It is not the liars, it is those who believe liars. While you are correct in stating that Republicans are all liars, you do not follow it by saying Republican voters buy snake-oil.
It does not help to call every Republican a "bad person".
2
@Boston Barry Would you rather he call them unintelligent? Because at this point, I don't see that there is another explanation.
1
@Liz
How about "my political opponent"?
That wasn't so hard now, was it?
Maybe the liberal blue states should consider seceding from the USA if the Republicans emerge triumphant on Wednesday November 7th. Isn't that what the South did after the first Republican president was elected in 1860? Hey Hillary Clinton can be the first president of the Blue Enlightened States of the former USA.
There is an old saying that you cannot con an honest person.
Trump supporters are anything but honest themselves.
I do not respect nor trust Trump supporters.
If they can support such an amoral psychopath and an amoral political party, they are themselves amoral regardless of how often they go to church.
1
What could get worse than losing health care, raping the environment, persecuting minorities, and the lies? Turning the troops, those who are told to equate a rock with a rifle, on those who question the lies, on us.
What else is new? Trump is bereft of any redeeming virtue.
"In fact, at this point the G.O.P.’s campaign message consists of nothing but lies; it’s hard to think of a single true thing Republicans are running on."
And that is the bottom line. Every time a republican opens his mouth, I assume he is lying. I really can't listen to them anymore. I mute them, I switch channels. It's not just Trump...it's the whole party. When I use the tag line for my comments....VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS...it's not just tokenism. Anyone who would be a republican in the current political environment is untrustworthy, at the national and state levels. I'm sorry, but that is the truth. The only exception might be at the local, community level, where people have jobs and don't want to switch parties even if they fret about national politics.
In my TV media market, both republican incumbents are employing exactly the lies that Paul mentions. They claim they were protecting people with pre=existing conditions and they claim that Democrats will hurt Medicare. Both claims are outright lies. I fear many in both districts will fall for the lies...after all, they get their news from Fox and Breitbart and Limbaugh. One of the local TV stations is part of Sinclair broadcasting, so you know they aren't going to tell the truth either.
The only hope we have is to vote out these charlatans. Everyone needs to get of their butts and...
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS
2
we are at a tipping point..whither goeth USA?
We shouldn't vote for liars and dividers, because they are bad for all of us. Right now there are too many of them in the GOP, from the Offal Office on down, even in the SCOTUS. (Yes, I'm talking about Kavanaugh, his testimony, and his rant.)
Vote early if you can. Vote like the country's future depends on it, because it does.
2
I left the Catholic Church in large part I didn't like being judged good or bad by people who weren't very good themselves. They thought they were good but they wanted was really the power over you. I doubt I could ever be good enough for them. At least I stood out of jail.
Who appointed you the moral judge of me? I grew up during the 70's when being put in moral box was rebeled against. Maybe being your version of good isnt the ultimate goal of everyone. Otherwise your self righteousness sounds like old time religion to me.
Does Trump know he is a compulsive liar? I don't think so. Does he know he is making things up? Maybe, but he thinks that's part of the show. Gets him good ratings. Does he care about the impact his words and actions have? Care....about anything or anyone -- no.
I believe that the people around him tell him every morning that he is beloved by his base because he is a genius with a big brain and impressive male parts. They tell him whatever they need to so he will stay out of their way. The GOP congress follows orders from their owners (Koch Bros, etc.) and continues the 40 year assault on our government. They like Trump because he is so easy to manipulate.
If you say up is down and black is white often enough and with enough conviction, people will believe. The cleverness of the propaganda spewing from the WH and FOX is staggering in its effectiveness. Truth is lies and lies are truth. The press is the enemy. Propaganda 101!
Many still do not say, Trump, you are lying because he will deny it. Even if you played him a tape, he would say it was changed. Liars can only lie. If we have another two or, god forbid, 6 years of this psychologically pathetic man as Pres, we may look back at this time in a year two and say, "remember how good it was in the old days of 2018, before we had Emperor Trump."
Gruesome stuff, Dr, Krugman. Thanks for your columns.
When the House of Trump cards comes a tumblin' down, the remnants of the GOP will blame it all on him, but the Party...will be over. May they all repent at their liesure.
Each of your columns is a must-read in the Thrope household, Dr. K. Thank you.
Why would the (R)s not lie? That tactic has been a mind-boggling success for them. In the last 11 election cycles, the (R)s have controlled the House 9 times and the Senate 6 times (w/ 2 ties).
As Grover Norquist said as few years back - "We're winning!". The electorate repeatedly rewards the (R)egressives by allowing themselves to be distracted by the bright, shiny lies du jour - race, crime, sexual orientation, religion… - and voting (R). Why change?
I've said it elsewhere: this is matter of VOTE OR DIE. Sitting this one out is suicide...
If the Democrats do not take at least one house of Congress, then the USA will likely not have any more elections and will become a dictatorship with a king and a dynasty, just like Saudi Arabia. That dynasty will also emulate, Putin, Kim Jong-Un, and other brutal dictators.
Frightening.
1
Reagan was revered, but I can still hear him threaten the country with a Nicaraguan invasion by way of Mexico.
Was it Bush 1 that Willie Horton-attack-any minute threatened suburbs or was it more Reagan?
We know Bill lied, but not to provoke hatred of others.
Bush 2 is made almost fun now by comparison to donny, but he turned science on its head, and corrupted good intelligence to get the war and slaughter he wished. As pleasant as he seems now, he may have been materially worse than donny.
Barrack wins again.
donny would turn on his family to get what he wants, and he has; the rest of us are collateral damage to the 100 years war he has waged on the truth and our values. God is a democrat.
1
I am- zero irony- glad that things I might drunk-post these days ("all unrepentant Republicans/Trump voters are either sociopaths or stupid") are now being published in only slightly more decorous form in the national paper of record. It cannot be said enough. No Republican should ever hold any political office anywhere ever again.
1
My brother is a deplorable. He believes trump and will not accept any suggestion that he is lying. I send him articles from various news sources, from PBS & NYTimes to WAPO and others. He says all those are not to be believed.
Is it mental illness? Is it GOP brain washing? We look back on the people who thought that if you floated you were guilty, if you sunk and drown you were innocent, as insane. I wonder what they will be saying about us in a 100 years.
1
We've moved well beyond "lies" both big and small and are now facing an existential crisis in a President and his Republican Congressional "willing accomplices" who are undermining the Constitution. From Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's refusal to adhere to his Constitutional oath to provide "advice and consent" to former President Obama's Supreme Court nominee; to ignoring Donald Trump's blatant violation of the Constitution's "emoluments clause;" to Trump's incessant attempt to undermine the Constitution's 1st amendment's guarantee of "freedom of the press" by yelling "enemy of the people," "fake news," and "scum" resulting in the brutal death of Washington Post columnist; to his attacks on his own Justice Department and F.B.I. charged with enforcing the Constitution's "rule of law; and now to his proposal to rip up the Constitution's 14th amendment guaranteeing "birthright citizenship," we have a president and his entire party undermining our Constitution. The choice next Tuesday is between the Constitution and the civil society of "law and order" it provides and the lawless autocracy of Donald Trump and his Republican enablers.
I feel that the republicans have made it very clear that they are running as white nationalists. If the country keeps them in power, we have become a white nationalist nation. They aren't hiding it anymore.
Their ads are openly racist.
2
“The greatest liar hath his believers: and it often happens,
that if a lie be believed only for an hour, it hath done its work,
and there is no further occasion for it.”
Jonathan Swift
The Republican Party is owned and operated by extreme right wing corporatists who have financed the corruption of our entire political system. The Republican Party is their vehicle for slashing taxes and reversing every single step of social progress ever made in this country including the destruction of Social Security and Medicare. They are backed by a powerful propaganda machine called Fox News/Breitbart/Sinclair. Ryan and McConnell are nothing but the paid stooges of their mega-rich bosses.
We are witnessing the results of the Roberts majority Supreme Court decision that opened he sluice gates of the dark corporate billions that flow into the political system to corrupt our electoral process. Trump is the revolting symptom of this broken process. The Republican Party has lost its way as a "good faith" member of a two-party government. The GOP even willingly accepted Russian participation in the creation of political chaos.
The lying ignorant, incompetent, amoral sexual predator Donald Trump is the face of today's Republican Party. American voters including Millennials must rise up and take back our government by voting out the anti-democratic and shameless Republican Congress.
The 2018 elections are the most critical in modern US history. Get out the vote!!
1
Preach, Paul! This is spot on!
Classic Democrat behavior, when losing on the facts just start with the vitriol and attacks. And the lines of attack really have not changed in 40 years - they did it to Quayle, Cheney, Bush 2, and on and on. A complete lack of creativity. It has been terrifying to see the transformation of a Nobel Prize winner into nothing more than a mudslinger. Even worse are all the minions who faithfully endorse him all because their candidate lost in 2016 and they just can't get over it! Someday they will take the time to step outside their confirmation fueled echo chamber and be shocked by what they learn
1
The Times: not calling a lie a lie is a lie to readers. Not calling the Republican Party a party of liars is lying to readers and the public at large. Not calling Trump the Liar in Chief is a failure to be honest and factual.
"If [Liars] pull this midterm election out, expect the worst."
"If [Republicans] pull this midterm election out, expect the worst."
"If [Lying Republicans] pull this midterm election out, expect the worst."
Even if Democrats win in every election, Lying Republicans will not go quietly. Expect litigation to challenge Democrat wins. Expect a special session of Congress to push legislation through before newly elected Democrats can be seated. Expect the worst.
But, back to the lies....On a daily basis, various media and organizations track Trump lies. Stats show he lies multiple times a day. And when asked about his lies, the Lying Republican Party shrugs.
I would advise media to stop reporting Trump lies. Instead of tracking his lies which are par for the course when he speaks or tweets and when Huckabee Sanders spins, the media should report and track when he tells the truth. That would be real and more meaningful news. Lying Trump and Lying Republicans are the norm.
And on the subject of the media...you have treated Trump and Lying Republicans with kid gloves for way too long. Hesitant to call a lie a lie, you also do a disservice to report the lies themselves and have given the Lying Republicans and Lying Trump cover with false equivalencies.
The question is how to we get people to believe facts again? Fox News just won the ratings war last month, with better viewership than CNN and MSNBC combined. I never watch TV news, preferring to get my info from nytimes.com, reuters.com and other places where you can read and not have someone beat you over the head with their opinion. But when you try to share these facts with people they just plain don't believe you. It is really discouraging.
It's safe to call perpetual liars-bad people. So yeah, mutual exclusivity at this point--Trump Republicans and Good People......
"At this point, good people can’t be good Republicans." Nice. Pithy. True.
Forget morality, forget intellect, forget right or wrong, heck, even forget what your mother tried to teach you about always telling the truth and respecting others, just what is being accomplished here, and why? How much more money does anyone need, how much more can one tolerate being labelled greedy or a fascist or even a criminal? Being reviled and isolated and roundly hated can't be that much fun, trump will go down as a failure, mcConnell will be quickly shunted to the dustbin, the republicans may lose elections for the next generation and where will all this current corruption and slimy behavior get them, or our country? Internecine political warfare isn't a virtue, it's just destructive to our society and values. Witness mass shootings, widespread drug use and fatal addiction, sexual abuse of women and children and the rise of nazism in our progressive, diverse nation just to name a few things, is this a positive state of affairs? Is this what we want? To be honest, I don't get it. Why are so few behaving so stupidly and badly when they have to live in this country, even on this planet with a whole lot of people who ARE honest and well-meaning. Somebody please explain it to me!
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Fool me once 2016. Fool me twice 2018....
If the Republicans remain the dominate party after next Tuesday, it's no longer Trump's fault it's on the American people.
Your country is no longer great if it can not take care of its sick and disadvantaged.
Your nation has become immoral under it's current leadership.
Do something about it.
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Here’s a question: why do Americans vote against their common interests?
Answer: they’ve been brainwashed. Gaslighted. Lied to, interminably.
Please, take the time and vote on Tuesday. Bring a friend or neighbor, maybe a millennial, too.
It’s time to say “enough”!
Would somebody please tell this to CNN?! Because they're still committed to "both sides". Please. Someone bring this article to the director of news. Even better, hand deliver it.
BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink struck a supportive tone on crisis-torn Saudi Arabia Thursday, saying that he expects to continue to invest in the country and that it’s unclear who killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi. “We don’t know who is responsible for the murder” (Bloomberg)
To be a loyal Republican, you now have to be willing to support the party line even if it means covering up a murder. They have gone down the slippery slope of moral compromise, and landed in the abyss.
These people are abhorrent.
"Bad people" need a party too...
The thing I find most appalling about right-wing politicians is, they won't come right out and say what they believe. They hedge and couch, because they know how lacking in reason and compassion their opinions are. They don't want to be unpopular and lose votes, so they use a kind of code to cover the shame. Worse still, people determined to believe that right-wing ways are superior are willing to be fooled by this, carelessly damaging the many people in their lives who will be negatively (maybe even mortally) affected.
The constant stream of lies by Trump and the GOP is accepted by a large part of the American population because
(1) the lies are spread without correction via highly effective and profitable propaganda outlets, foremost the shamelessly lying Fox "News" and the unfiltered social media that act as an echo-chamber
(2) once uncovered the lies they are either repeated (doubled down on) or replaced by new ones - thus drowning out the truth
(3) the lies fall on fertile ground because they fit well researched prejudices and frustrations of their target audience using the profiling tools of targeted marketing
(4) a lie is easy to put out, but it takes much more time and effort to expose it.
How to counteract this onslaught of misinformation effectively is not clear to me. The free press and independent media are critical, and voting these liars out of office is our only hope.
The GOP has always been the party of the rich. In the past they were rarely in control on a level like the past few years. They were the “bomb throwers” sabotaging the efforts of the Democrats. Now they are in full control but cannot break with their negative policies. They have proven incapable of governing responsibly. The American public is not stupid and will throw them out unless the GOP has rigged the system. Voting machines without paper confirmation, gerrymandering, voter suppression. The economy will collapse much like with George Bush and end this sham, hopefully sooner than later.
It seems that most of the Trump people justify his lies because they feel that making abortion illegal is a Absolute Good.
I wish someone would take on the lie, even if it means going against the Catholic Church. The unborn fetus does not have the absolute right to life as opposed the rights of the pregnant woman.
Even if we do not approve of abortion it is not the government's responsibility to enforce this belief on others. Many things, like lying, are wrong, but net necessarily illegal.
There’s a reason “Thou shalt not lie” is a fundamental principle of not only Christianity but also just about every legal and ethical system human beings have devised. If people can just lie whenever they feel like it, everything breaks down. You can’t have science or history. You can’t have justice. You certainly can’t have democracy. Most of us understand that honesty is fundamental to our marriages, our business relationships, our friendships. And yet we watch, day after day, as the most powerful man in the world tells lie after lie after lie.
I truly fear that the worst damage Trump has done to our nation and the world is that he has normalized lying. In years past, if a president made a false or misleading statement, it was a scandal that would dominate the national conversation for weeks. There would usually be a lengthy debate as to what the facts were, and whether the president actually knew that what he was saying was false. (Remember Bush’s WMDs? Reagan and Ollie North?)
Now, we’re confronted with so many blatant lies about so many things, we’re no longer even surprised by them, let alone outraged. Trump lies constantly about matters great (“millions of illegal immigrants voted in the last election,” “climate change is a hoax”) and small (“the stock market was open the day after 9/11”, “my inauguration drew the biggest crowds in history”), and we’ve just gotten used to it.
It all goes back to money in politics. These politicians lie because their paymasters tell them to and their livelihoods depend on it.
Mr. Krugman, I just hope that you will have a lead role with the 2020 Democrat Presidential candidate’s campaign so that we can all revisit your column. It will remind Republicans like me of Hillary’s deplorable’s comment just like it is doing right now. Thanks in advance!
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i think you misunderstandings - Krugman is talking about the Republican candidates, not the voter.
The purpose of a lie is to fool someone and the voter is the obvious target. Krugman's premise that the Republican platform is based on empty promised results, threats and fear mongering seems to be true from all the facts.
@Frederick Round that’s not what he is saying! You are being conned and lied to. Open your eyes! That’s what he is saying.
I am convinced that the lying, in and of itself, is what holds this Trumpist movement together. The content of the lies is the bright shiny object that catches our attention (but remains immaterial to them) and obscures the much more sinister conclusion that it is the deviation from fact that garners their support, not the ostensible fairytales of the lies themselves.
Everybody knows that conservatives want to blow up Obamacare and that an approaching crowd of mostly women and children on foot 1000 miles away present no threat at all to our national security, yet the Trumpists revel in the utter profligacy of their hero and his sycophants. The appeal to their supporters is not in the idea that we are threatened by immigrants or that Republicans really intend to craft effective health insurance policy but the distance from truth and the wanton disregard for convention that that their made-up claims represent.
The true danger to our nation is not that conservatives are deluded about the facts, they're not. They just don't care any more about facts. And for some strange reason seeing their leaders and representatives demonstrate a cavalier disregard for the truth makes them happy.
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Republicans of any kind have lost all credibility and I don’t trust a single one of them.
From family doctors to tennis pros, if someone is standing by Trump values and Republican politics, I’m not doing business with them.
How can you believe them?
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While the lies of Trump and Republicans are a huge, huge problem, the larger problem lies in the conservative electorate. Far too many people are willing to either uncritically accept those lies as truth, or worse, to willingly overlook them in order to server some "greater" agenda — Usually anti-abortion or anti-gun-control (or, from their perspective, "pro-life" and "pro-2nd-Amendment"), or worse yet an ingrained if unrecognized personal racial bias and fear.
Another, possibly greater swath of the conservative electorate votes entirely their own pocket, based on a flawed understanding of economics. "The economy is booming," they reason, therefore why risk a good thing? That faulty economic policies simply haven't ruined the economy that Obama's tenure laboriously rebuilt doesn't come in to the picture, because the cause-and-effect is lost on too many.
The lack of actual impact on their paychecks (although a lessened fear of losing one's job seems to be equal compensation for not getting a raise) doesn't seem to matter. Nor does the fact that most of the Trump/Republican policies — the tax cut, the trade wars, including tariffs and withdrawing from trade agreements, and the military spending — will almost certainly lead to a sooner recession, and will certainly make any coming recession deeper, longer and more painful.
So, yes, the lies are a problem. But why are so many voters willing to swallow those lies?
The answer is easy! Term limits. However, how we get term limits is the question
Who speaks for the Democratic Party at this point to highlight Republican lies, hypocrisy and evil? I remember John Boehner as the minority leader of the senate speaking for them. He was on TV every night as a counter to President Clinton. Chuck Schumer just doesn't have it as a leader or spokesperson. He comes across as a whiny ninny. Dems should bring in leadership that can counter. This election once again proves that leadership of Democratic Party are inadequate to the challenge.
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Just imagine human history going back thousands of years. If nearly fifty percent of the population supports trumps racist nationalism in 2018 just think of how bad it was in years past. Very disturbing to think that human history has been riddled with war and murder since the beginning.
Humans are the top predator. That includes going after those with even slight differences in color and look. We’re animals if you didn’t already know. And trump appeals to that lowest and most offense aspect of our primitive behaviors.
The GOP has always been the party of the "bad hombres and bad mujeres"; the only difference is that they held the power in most of the nation at all levels of government, and did not allow any minority to work in the government reigns.
Minorities were "inferior", "the poor were poor and uneducated because they were lazy", and also they ate "parts of animals that were only fed to dogs" or grains that were fed to swine. It was the party of the "correct people, "and the right "family values."
Now, times have changed with the social media, the presence of "real cuisines" like French, Chinese, Mexican and others.
It is like the "Caravans" that we better call them "Exodus" like the European exodus to America in the XIX and XX centuries. People prefer to abandon their countries to be entangled in a civil; war; than to end like Syria": many dead, many nations in both sides and the people paying with their blood their quest for freedom and a better life.
And, yes, the GOP is the party of the "Pessoas más" (bad people) like the Portuguese said of Guinea in their time: They killed the colonialists and have them for lunch.
What’s infuriating and frustrating is the number of people who choose to believe the lies and vote time and again against their own self interest. Republican lying is more than repugnant. It is unconscionable.
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Fabulous and true. Thanks!
@Rebecca Yes, agreed! And to Dr. Krugman, thank you for so many articles that gave me hope amidst all the bad. Have never disagreed with anything you have written and your style of writing, such poignant words! Many thank yous!
But, but, but...what about the holy grail of civility? We can't call lying liars what they truly are, can we? The grand poobahs of both-sides-to-it maintain that words such as "lie" are corrosive to the body politic. I need my fainting couch!
Some of my favorite lies republicans love to repeat:
a) That they are "conservatives"; not even close, try reactionary or fascist.
b) That the press has a "liberal bias"; we now see what that really means, the press tells the truth.
c) There was a tax cut: more accurately there was a Cash Advance on our Grandkids credit cards.
d) Government is the problem; no, Government is how caring people come together to solve common problems. It is the very thing the Constitution of these United States describes.
e) There is a Death Tax; Nope, never was. There was a tax on inheritance, and please note that...the vast majority of republican big donors come from inherited money. These rich spoiled kids never really did anything except have a rich daddy.
Why do so many republicans not believe in the 9th Commandment?
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“For we’re not just talking about a party selling bad ideas on false pretenses. The addiction to lies has also — let’s be blunt — turned it into a party of bad people.”
Ah yes! The Deplorables! Hillary’s remark evolved from exaggeration to understatement.
@WineCountryDude - my neighbor - supporting bad people for top leadership positions definitely would make you a bad person. Don't do that. This President is using our US military - who put their lives on the line, and lose them, to defend us - as a political prop against a trickle of Central American refugees (many of them women & children) who want to apply for refugee status here. That is without question a BAD person - treating our troops like disposable office supplies for his re-election props, and treating refugees like shooting targets. On that one action (there are countless others), if you don't agree he's a terrible person, then you definitely are also a bad person. Truth hurts, my brother.
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I have some friends who are hard core Republicans, the primary problem, as I see it, is their echo chamber. They are not bad people, but when all they hear is the same noise from Fox News, they oddly start believing it. When they ask me what show I heard my facts on, I have to politely tell them, "None, I read newspapers."
It is the lack of intellectual curiosity that is fueling a good part of the Right's following. Be that driven by religion, fear or hatred, they cannot bring themselves to believe that something else may be true.
It's like trying to think of why you once thought Vanilla was the best flavor of ice cream, when you actually like Chocolate now.
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People believe what they want to believe. Trump has tapped into a base of the predominantly white working class who feel that minorities are profiting at their expense and who are willing to support anyone who acknowledges their hatred of the "other" and feelings of rejection by the ruling class, (sic, Soros and the Jews). The powerful have always sought to pit one group of oppressed people against another.
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Mr. Krugman,
Preach! But how can you preach beyond the choir?
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What happened to the “blue wave”? Too many lies and cheap shenanigans by Democrats have reduced the “blue wave” to the “blue ripple”. Now, Democrats will NOT take the senate, and will only BARELY take the house. Yes, the Democrats, a party defined by its lies, and a party that will pay for its lies with anti-climactic election results.
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..."good" republicans can't be good people. You can be a good person and espouse their agenda of hate and division.
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This piece tells readers to hate a sizeable number of their fellow Americans. That is not what we need right now --- or ever.
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Like many commenting on Dr. Krugman's column today, I am appalled by the lies espoused by Trump and the Republican Party, but even worse is that so many people believe the lies or more likely they don't care. But there is one lie of Trumps' that is most egregious to me. It is the one that dishonors his father, Fred.
Trump states that he is a self-made man and that the only help he received from his Dad was a loan of 1 million dollars that he had to pay back. If you saw the recent article in the NY Times, "Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father," you will see that he actually received $413 million from Fred during his life and from his estate. So much for being a self-made man. What an ingrate. Fred Trump was actually the self-made man. To dishonor ones father like this is despicable and reflects horribly on the character of Donald Trump.
And amazingly, even when those multitude of lies contradict each other, the true believing Trumpistas keep on following.
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I enjoy Dr. Krugman’s writings even though I diasgree with him on many policy issues. However, as of late he has become somewhat single-issue on this concept (GOP = party of LIES) and, while I agree with his general thesis, I think his argument suffers from convenient amnesia and one-sidedness. One can discuss the election-eve hysteria surrounding the immigrant caravan without falsely labeling it “small”, and I clearly remember a number of “factual inaccuracies” promulgated by Democrats around the ACA (in fact, lying about the bill was later admitted to be a “necessary” strategy.)
In tv and movie versions of the high school bully, that pathetic but dangerous creature is always surrounded by a handful of pathetic weaselly hanger-ons and admirers who echo the bully’s statements to curry favor with him/her. That is the GOP congress. The bully is Trump and the shadowy puppeteer in the background, often an older rich person, is the Koch, Mercer, Addelson trifecta.
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Any terrorists in the caravan would mean Trump was losing the War on Terror, which was supposed to kill or at least keep them at a far distance.
From the tone of this column, it's clear to me that Krugman must have advised Barack Obama about how to be "bipartisan" -- another lie -- oh, no, wait, that party doesn't do that ....
As usual, Paul, you are not right, ok. To try and tell me I’m not good, you reveal your consummate thought that you know everything. You don’t. For me President Trump is bafonish, clumsey, full of himself, and inartful in his methods. But one thing, and one thing only allows me to support him. He is breaking all the right things. This country really is not like you try and describe. There are many people who through no fault of their own who have become throwaway people because of lame economic policies foisted on the governance of this country. He ain’t for your thinking, therefore he must be doing things correctly. Sincerely Mike
In your opinion, is the 14th amendment something that needs to be broken?
@Susan
Hey, language is frequently subject to interpretation. Gov. Brown, when California's AG, argued that Prop 187, which forbids racial preferences, actually*violated* the Equal Protection Clause. For sheer effrontery, it's hard to top that. No one, I recall, suffered a stroke over his action (and his position was rejected!)
Yes, we know: constitional litigation is a tool reserved to the left, to enforce its vision of social change.
Mr Krugman would be more persuasive if he stuck to making arguments on the issues rather than his juvenile rants about the"bad" Republicans who may disagree with him.
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US politics is approaching that of a tribal society. Expect to see more occurrences of low-intensity sabotage of democratic institutions done by "nationalist" patriots.
Paul,
I am a a graduate of Princeton. Once again your arguments make no sense. Under DJT our taxes are lower, regulations have been reduced, employment is up and growing, and China’s leaders has been forced to respect us at the risk of sending their country into a catastrophic recession that would happily end with the toppling of Xi and his thuggish counterparts.
Trump’s tweets are simply noise to appease his base and infuriate the left wing media and leftist academics like you, DJT has accomplished more in two years than Barack did in eight years
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Trump relies on three things from his followers:
fear, anger & ignorance
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I see the local Repub personnel clamoring for the full GOP slate; no exceptions, no conditions, no qualms. Then I recall that humans are just the tiniest step away from the social primates who roam the savanna.
Wow, the Republican party is now a "party of bad people" according to Krugman. The disdain he feels for almost half of America is breathtaking. It's like he always wanted to believe the Democratic line about the Republicans being a basket of deplorables. Perhaps he should try leave the city once and awhile?
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Very true indeed! However, the root causes of this problem are:
1. A segment of the population who believe and welcome these lies
2. The lack of "intellectual integrity" on the part of many in the party.
The war between data vs dogma and science vs belief feed the intellectual shortcomings.
Intellectual integrity, meet intellectual capacity! Hey, where are you?
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A recent article by the NYY said trump approval rate was under 40%. According to Real Clear Politics, none of the poles listed him under 40% and Rasmussen Reports has him at 48%. Whose lying? Trump did something different among politicians. He did what he said he would do before the elections. He brought jobs. We have the lowest unemployment since 1969. For African Americans, African American youth, and Hispanics, the lowest ever. That's three evers. The handicapped had experienced fewer job opportunities before Trump. Now their new jobs are up 7-11 %.Obama said he had contained ISIS. The next day Paris, followed by San Bernardino. The NYT has, acknowledged that Trump had defeated the ISIS Islamic State. He let the Army make decisions instead of government lawyers back in Washington. Trump haters were saying he should not have the codes or he might attack against North Korea. Instead he sat down with Kim and now they have stopped testing, are dismantling testing sites and the two Koreas are removing the mines separation their two countries. That did not happen under our Nobel Peace Prize winner. So now we have a peace initiative in Korea, the ISIS Islamic State is gone, and hundreds of thousands of people of all races have pay checks in their pockets instead of unemployment and welfare checks. There are over one million jobs waiting to be filled. We have new trade agreements with South Korea, Mexico and Canada. The Democrat have, one platform, to get back at Trump for wining.
It’s hard to know where to start with Krugman.
Should I start with the simple fact that democracy is premised on a desire to work together and submit to the will of the majority. When one side sees the other as fundamentally evil, our democracy is in serious trouble. “It is now impossible to have intellectual integrity and a conscience while remaining a Republican in good standing.” It’s also impossible to have a democracy when political opponents think that about the other side.
Should I start with the ironic way that the Left claims that the Rs are selling fearing and hatred by spewing … fear and hatred? We hear the Left say, “Love trumps hate.” When will see the love? It’s very clear that Krugman hates Rs and fears what we will do. While I, of course, think he’s wrong, I think we can all agree that he and the Left have no standing to accuse us of spreading fear and hate when he writes columns like this. (The same, by the way, is true of Obama and his recent speeches. Not a lot of love, but a lot of fear-mongering.)
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Come on. If Bush was ‘systematically dishonest, saying false things’ then why wasn’t he ‘going beyond spin to outright lies’? Just less of a compulsive, habitual liar than DT?
We see pundits giving bad office holders a pass if they’re not as outrageous as Trump. That’s how our standards get distorted, and politicians can take advantage of this into the future.
Democrats ‘aren’t saints’? Compared to Trump they are now. We're very aware of decades of Repub ideology--- ‘cutting taxes on the rich, slashing social programs.’ And the sly excuses they scam voters with.
So PK what’s the comeback to this? What tax rates are you for? Give us a range ---what rates fair and adequate for social support and publicl services?
Compare to our 91% marginal rate for the richest under GOP President Eisenhower, when the middle class was rising. How did that work, can the economist give an explanation? And see David Leonhardt column— “ When the Rich Said No to Getting Richer.”
What tax rates work for truly universal health care, using dozens of other capitalist democracies as examples? Don't keep it dark. Don't just bash our worst president/party so we get emotional catharsis.
Sure the GOP distracts and deceives voters----to kow tow to mega donors, right?
So does Krugman dare to consider any ideas on how to finance elections for more honesty, and citizen represenation? Or would that be going too far?
Better stick to Gop/Trump bashing---we all enjoy it.
Time to trust the wisdom of the American electorate?
I wonder what would have happened if the NYTimes hadn't been so squeamish when Krugman first came on board and had been willing to call out lies?
Everyone needs to get a spine and say something when you hear a bald faced lie and to call out bald faced assertions based on absolutely nothing.
My favorite accusation lately when I do is the added accusation that I don't shy from confrontation as if I'm supposed to curl up in a ball of shame. When I don't the white male leaves quickly still spewing still more silly accusations over their shoulders because I have stuck to my guns with, well the truth they have no ability to actually refute. And yes, it's always a white male.
He inevitably leaves behind other women who mealy mouthed mutter almost under their breath they don't have any tolerance for confrontation, peaking at me from eyes looking down. It's genuinely hard to tell whether they are feeling their own self-inflicted passivity or trying to see if I am falling into line, ashamed of myself.
As bad as he is, these women are the real problem. It is the same problem that allowed the Times to be too "principled" to use the L word when it was sorely needed, therefore propping up the lies.
Multiply my simple example from running a simple errand times every person. The problem is us allowing it as much as it is the liars because we let them. Don't! it really is that simple.
I agree with Paul.
I cant really agree that "selling racial fear was easier in the 1980s and early 1990s", because it's still the gift that keeps on giving to a G.O.P. agenda built on racism and racist stereotypes, regardless of how much "violent crime has plunged".
And just because there was a senseless shooting in a Pittsburgh Synagogue doesn't mean that anti-Semitism is suddenly a problem, because like racism, it has always been there -- and with Donald Trump it is going nowhere.
That much was certainly made obvious last year in Charlottesville, Va. when he effectively pardoned those tiki-torch marching neo-Nazis.
And now, since the G.O.P. is the de facto party of Trump, there's no way to separate the lies he tells from the lies repeated, and accepted as the party's line, whether it concerns the economy, immigration, climate control or racism.
What you see is what you get -- and it isn't much.
Paul, you must have not heard the old joke: Do you know how you can tell if a politician is lying? Answer: He/she opens his/her mouth.
All sides are guilty.
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"At this point, good people can’t be good Republicans."
There. Someone who writes for a major publication finally spoke the truth. repubs are horrible for our health, our democracy and our Constitution. And you are not a good person if you espouse repub "values".
The folks on the "right" cannot be trusted and should not be published by any newspaper that values its' reputation.
Article VI of the Constitution requires Officials to take an oath “to support this Constitution.” Today, 5 U.S.C. 3331 specifies the language of the oath for federal officials. According to this statute, officials must “solemnly swear (or affirm)” that they “will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic”.
It's crystal clear that not only are elected Republicans breaking their oath, they have become the "domestic enemies" of the Constitution they swore to defend it against.
I could not possibly loathe Republicans more than I already do. I believe there are tens of millions more who feel as I do, and next Tuesday I'll find out if that's so.
Vote Democratic all the way down the ticket!
Fear and hate, fear and hate.
Everyday drummed into people like a mantra.
What is so scary about immigrants?
Nothing: they pose no actual danger to anyone. Climate change however does.
But we have to fear and hate: if our lives aren't golden it's someone else's fault. In this case Central American poor people.
The problem with hate as a platform is invariably it ends up hurting the hater.
These are very extreme views — and completely accurate.
“fanatics willing to do anything in pursuit of power, or cynics willing to go along with anything for a share of the spoils”. Talking to you, Senator Lindsey Graham.
"And now there’s the added insinuation that sinister Jewish financiers are the real culprits behind this invasion. " It is far more plausible to believe that Republican operatives themselves are pushing money to the Caravan to make it seem a more present threat and push voters towards "protector" Republicans. Prediction: the Caravan will disappear as a "pressing issue" in another week or so.
I often wonder about the basic ideas of Republicans. As an engineer working with dynamic systems, I spend a lot of time on spring / mass type systems, making sure they have enough damping to be stable.
Aren't taxes and social benefits the equivalent of damping?
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As an outside observer who monitors Canadian, US, and world news sources i am feeling increasingly disheartened by the deepening social divide becoming evident within the boarders of our great southern neigbour. Should the political landscape remain unchanged and Trump secure a second term I don't think it inconceivable, God forbid, that the US could find itself on the brink of civil war in six years. Impossible you say? Too big and to great to fail? Think about it, what great empire has survived in perpetuity? How many of those that failed collapsed from within? Profoundly sad and very scary to watch.
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Why do my educated - otherwise normal friends and family members - buy into the Republican and Trump lies? Somebody help me.
I am waking up in the middle of the night trying to understand this. Does that mean these believers - these enablers - have just been feeding me a bunch of bull since I've know them?
I am deeply troubled.
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If I was writing for a news organization and they told me there were words that I wasn't allowed to use, I'd quit. I guess that's one of the differences between me and Dr Krugman.
I totally believe every thing in this article is true. So why, seemingly at this point, half the country wants to vote Republican. It is seriously beyond my understanding. I'm petrified of the election results. But Kearns was on CBS this morning saying that we have been here before and survived.
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We are currently in Oaxaca City in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. The people here are lovely, hardworking, family oriented, and many are very talented artists. The streets are safe. The food is fabulous and the museums are world class.
We have met any Americans while visiting here, both ex-pats but primarily tourists like ourselves. And not of them are Republican. This makes total sense. The GOP has created a Willie Horton campaign stunt out of an entire people...brown people south of our border. The GOP has no decency and neither does its' enablers and followers.
Republican voters ought to be traveling here. It would open up some minds. The truth is very easy to see here.
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Those who vote for Trump might well believe that it is the Democrats who are defined by their lies.
I voted for Obama because he seemed to support universal health care. Hillary Clinton had fought for universal health care while first lady. Ted Kennedy had pushed for universal health care, and Obama had Kennedy's endorsement.
Universal health might have have encouraged a realistic accounting of health care costs. Do we have enough doctors to provide health care to everyone in the US? If not, shouldn't we train more doctors, perhaps through a program that offers fellowships to medical school?
But Obama provided Americans with something less than universal health care. Instead of universal health care we got a mandate to buy insurance from insurance companies. The all-important discussion of why medical costs kept exploding was put off to the indefinite future.
Was that not a lie on the part of Democrats?
Obamacare was partly designed by MIT economist Jonathan Gruber. According to Wikipedia, Gruber bragged that an advantage to Obamacare was its lack of transparency, which made it easier to sell to gullible voters.
Some Trump supporters believe liberals tell a second lie.
US population has grown by 86 million since 1986 when the last Immigration Reform Bill was passed. Democrats have worked to undercut that bill by declaring certain cities sanctuary cities.
Democrats seem to lie when they say that population growth does not impact health care resources.
There must have been many turning points that led to this sad state of affairs where dishonesty is coupled so clearly with power... My feeling is that for all the advances in science, technology and art, we are actually less "smart" now than we were in the 80's (my somewhat arbitrary peak of Western Civilization). Whether its root is fear of the future or the narrowing of a liberal (humanistic) education or rampant consumerism or the result of media/internet sowed confusion... To be determined.
1
I have an hypothesis regarding polls and subsequent predictions for this election: I think they're all wrong. Pollsters call; if I don't recognize a phone number, I don't answer. If pollsters go to door-to-door I'm unlikely to be home. I get a dozen texts from Beto every day, but I don't reply although I have sent him money. Most of the people I know are in the same situation: we're invisible to pollsters. Younger people are probably more invisible. I really hope my hypothesis is true and Beto and other liberals countrywide win by a landslide in spite of the polls that predict Republicans will win.
3
As a former registered Republican, I remain astonished that for Republicans, lies have replaced policy. An example from this election year is John Faso who, on WNYC said that he supports the protections against pre-existing medical conditions and that what Democrats said about him was a lie. But the truth is that he supported a bill that would have allowed insurers to raise rates for adverse medical history, so any protection is imaginary.
There are so many more examples, as when faced with debt, a Republican answers, wouldn't you rather have growth than no debt and no growth? But the growth is really not out of the range over the last 8 years - and wages, even with full employment are not all that high. But the debt is astounding!
3
Krugman is right that the Republican tax cuts should have taxed the wealthy more heavily. He's also right that the Republicans have no coherent strategy for reforming the healthcare system. Where he and other progressives are blind, however, is in attributing the majority of voters' desire for secure borders to widespread racism. The vast majority of Americans (of every ethnicity) want an immigration system that is under control, not one that allows unauthorized residence in the U.S. to continue unabated. The progressives may lose their chance to win the midterms because they assert that ICE should be abolished, that borders should be open, that a caravan of people seeking illegal entry to the U.S. doesn't pose a threat to the rule of law, and that anyone who feels differently is racist. Racism is a defect in an individual's thinking. Attributing racism to whole classes of people is hate speech. The only reason that Trump can exploit the caravan is that progressives refuse to respect majority opinion on the issue of secure borders. Is that failing enough to overcome the Republicans' failings on tax cuts and healthcare? Perhaps.
2
Paul,
Stephen Colbert's show last night perfectly illustrates what you're talking about. Colbert had as his guest Chris Wallace from Trump TV. Wallace is far more rational and reasonable than some on the same network - say, Sean Hannity. And Colbert is just a comedian. And yet, in their friendly debate, Colbert took his lunch money.
Now, Wallace is no dummy, but his debate muscles have so atrophied from being on FOX that he tried to get away with saying things he would have never tried to say on an honest news network. I was embarrassed for him when he, the journalist, gave out statistics about the asylum seekers that were just plain wrong, and which which Colbert, the comedian, called him on.
5
Its all about education -- being an informed and engaged citizen who is able to understand his or her rights and civic responsibilities, spot the deception, look past distractions to the substance and truly hold elected officials for what they say and do. So, teach your children well, or we shall all perish.
2
The Republican Party has been running and winning on bringing out the worst in America for a long time.
It has been operating as a political Dorian Gray for many years- and now, in Donald Trump, we have found The Picture of the Republican Party.
But what is most disturbing of all is how many Americans like the picture depicting the real thing better than the facade that once hid it from view or the Democratic Party, which, while flawed, and sometimes ridiculous, is not a horror show.
The only thing worse in our politics than the Republican Party and the far right wingers who own it, is that so many Americans drink their poison and repeat their lies.
It *doesn't* have to be this way.
3
What comes first? Chicken or egg? Does he lie constantly cause he knows his fans love it and want more or does he lie cause he’s done that forever and it’s worked for him? I think it’s both and both Trump and fans are in a tight symbiosis cuddle of “lie to me” cause those lies feed their broken souls. The lies often include a bullying narrative too.
What I want to know is if Trump lies in court under oath (in his many lawsuits pre-presidency)? Does he suddenly start telling the truth under oath? If the ratio changes a lot in that context it proves that he knows what he’s doing. To me it’s pretty clear that lying is his strategy and the other republicans too. I never believe a word.
1
Trump has stoked the fear of immigrants very successfully to his base. But we need to recognize that from an evolutionary standpoint fear can be a life saving response to a perceived threat. Trump, however, has gone beyond a healthy fear of a threat, to the negative response of cowardice. This cowardice is now the hallmark of him and his base and when acting on cowardice, bad things are bound to happen. I am 70 years old and I used to be comforted the day after an election that people seemed to do the right thing most of the time. I don't feel that way now and there is no question it is because of the Republican party and it's agenda that has been sold by outright lies as you point out. I can only pray and vote and encourage all patriotic Americans to vote for American Democracy, and that excludes almost all Republicans.! How sad!
Mr Krugman nails the issue of the republican party politicians, their apologists and their propaganda outlets.
He implies, but doesn't explicitly call out the complicity of those who vote for republicans.
The political battle is for those remaining Americans who retain their intellectual integrity and moral consciences.
They are people who rightly believe that the political elites have been ignoring their needs in pursuit of party agendas.
They do not buy the democratic kool-aid of identity politics and the courting of every marginalized class. They did not buy Hillary. They wanted political change. They did build their businesses or their careers without government support. They are proud of who they are.
They are the voters who were conn'd by Trump and the republicans.
The battle is for the hearts and minds of these voters. They may not align perfectly with the progressive's views on all matters of capitalism, of proper use of taxes, of individual accountability, on immigration. But they are closer to the historical democratic agenda than to the current version of the GOP's jihadist orthodoxy.
Persuade, but do not browbeat these voters. In their hearts and minds they know that Trump is wrong for America and that the republicans lie. They may be gullible but they are not stupid.
We as a people have lied to ourselves since our founding. If we were interested in the truth about almost anything it would be clear and, as it is, opposed by those who benefit most from the falsehoods. However men who are the overwhelming beneficieries do everything in their power and control to keep gloves on their otherwise stained and dirty fingers.
Our politics has become a parody of the words penned in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. "All men are created equal" is the reality of existence, but not our political reality.
Why we as a nation of people raised to believe in freedom knuckle under to the clear falsehoods woven into our present national fabric is beyond me. Most of us know Mr Trump and his sychophantic followers are absolutely wrong yet under the guise of freedom of speech allow his non stop lies to divert the consideration of recognizable truth.
It isn't only the Republicans who benefit from his fabrications as the Democrats accepted his tax breaks without so much as a whimper.
We are being played by both sides of our accepted, albeit limited, political spectrum. I can only hope our kids get the idea and bring our present acceptance of the professional grifters who masquerade as our reoresentatives to a halt.
Governing is a job and the last thing in the world I want is for some person to be appointed on popularity and wealth rather thanhis or her ability to reason with clarity.
1
Realistically, the best we can hope for next Tuesday is Democrats taking control of the House -- it's possible they'll also take the Senate but unlikely. The problem is that the dutiful masses - a minority, but a substantial one - who believe the Trumpian blats, will still be here no matter what happens. What do we do with people who are willfully, gleefully ignorant? Who are ruled by fear and hatred? And most frustratingly, who are unswayably certain they are right?
Anyone who's dealt with an addiction can tell you, you can't fix it until you can recognize it. The first step of AA is to recognize one is powerless over alcohol. Trumpistas literally do not believe, CAN not believe, they have a problem. A third of our country is careening drunkenly down the road. How do we survive that?
1
For a time, my reactions to Trump supporters was one of bewilderment and incredulity. Now, I find it difficult to harbor anything but contempt. Why? Because there's absolutely nothing remotely dignified or respectable about their self-proclaimed justifications. Mendacity, truculence and hate .. driven by irrational fear of cultural extinction .. numbs capacity for reason and dealing responsibly with legitimate national problems.
Let's hope that the upcoming election represents a referendum on the constant betrayals of democratic values. Its past time to call out the treason, and shame this Party for the ruin they've caused.
4
Trump has a 40% approval rating, it only takes the other 60% to do something about it at the polls. Trump has made it acceptable to lie. I see it every day now in business and people are doing it on an increasing scale without shame as they watch Republicans do so without suffering negative repercussions. Instead of making America great again we will be known as a nation of liars not to be trusted. We will be isolated and shunned. Sad.
1
Perhaps I'm naive but I have a question. Why would a respected journalism source issue a blanket issue to writers about word choice? Aside from profanity, I don't see how self-censorship aligns with freedom of speech. The news media appears as though they were trying to have their cake and eat too. Civility without accountability. The accountability got outsourced to fact-checkers which only the opposition ever checks. The accountability came too late to stop the Iraq invasion. Now we're in the age of Trump.
Can someone please explain to me how the Times ever justified the policy? Editors can debate word choice with a writer but censorship is a different category entirely.
Look at Republican lies a little differently. When they say they do and have supported health care plans that cover pre-existing conditions, what they really mean is that they support those plans for the wealthy, not the middle class or poor. So they advocate "skinny" health care plans for poor people, plans that don't cover things like maternity care, mental health treatment, costs over a specified limit or care for pre-existing conditions. But if you can afford the resulting high costs of comprehensive care insurance, then yes! your pre-existing conditions are covered. Tax cuts will benefit the middle class - as long as you're in the top 10%. The same is true of their other "promises." Military assault weapons for the alt-right, but probably not for people of color. Armed marchers carrying tiki torches are fine people, but peaceful demonstrations by liberals are mob assaults. Absolutely you are innocent until proven guilty, unless you are an immigrant, a woman or a liberal. You just need to add these modifiers and all their lies become true. The trick is to make the Republican voters understand that none of the Republican promises apply to them.
The Reeps are all about hate and denying it as well so they lie to themselves and when Trump the Liar showed up and told them the lies they so desperately needed to hear and became the monster we know today. Our country has up until now been all about suppressing the votes whenever wherever possible. From the absurd Electoral College which blatantly tells us out votes don't count, gerrymandering, and the police keep as many voters at bay as possible in short we have become the bad guys the villains and seem to want more hate. As long as we have the irresponsible media doing it's neglectful job on tv we the people will be crushed.
Thank you for spelling out what we all seem to realize. Lying has become the norm. When I was a child, I had a younger sister who was a habitual liar, she lied to get attention. She made up bizarre stories and attempted to make you believe her. Our whole family knew her to be a liar. It happened that our Aunt was in a car accident that my sister witnessed, when she told us about the accident no one in the family believed my sister.
It is so difficult for me to understand how Trump's supporters believe a word he utters, he has lied to them thousands of times more than my sister ever lied.
Yes Yes Yes
If We the People are too lazy, too stupid, too cynical, or too full of false equivalence that we don't get out and vote in such numbers as to overwhelm the roadblocks and the hacking and the Russian/republican interference then we don't deserve to live in a modern Democratic Republic.
And my wife and I will be leaving for someplace sane.
I am a bit more optimistic about the numbers this year and feel that enough true patriots will come out and show McTurtle the door; but that is just the start.
There are 40 years of vandalism to undo beginning with reinstating the Fairness Doctrine so that the right wing hate/propaganda machine doesn't get to spread lies with no consequences.
Then we need to reinstate the top tax rates on the 1%.
Then we need to reign in the Military Industrial Complex, followed by the rest of the industrial complexes that republicans (mainly) have allowed to propagate.
Lot of work to do. Don't know if Americans are up to the heavy lift.
1
"...good people can’t be good Republicans."
What is a good Republican? Not Bush, McCain nor Romney. When the left always demonizes the Republican candidates, the Republican electorate will get the message. The message was, go the other way.
I for one, am glad with the new direction. Hmmmm, about those Trump lies. Black unemployment, lowest ever? Ditto Hispanic unemployment? Better trade deals and less regulation leading to higher GDP growth? Those lies? Trump approval at 51%?
After 90% negative coverage? Now, there is some lying going on.
How about Russian collusion? Why does the report have to come out after the election? If all of the evidence points Trump guilt, shouldn't the American voters know BEFORE the election? Unless there is no proof. Admit it, liberals are worried about that. If there were no proof, Democrats would stay home and not vote. Why vote to impeach Trump, if there is no evidence of collusion?
Hey, how 'bout them rallies?
1
I think of Trump not as a liar but as a well poisoner. The damage from his lies (and those of the vast, powerful, wealthy, Republican political machine) is that they convince a big slice of the electorate that up is down and black is white.
No issue is more important to the health of this nation, and the rest of the world, than the devastation to come (and in places already here) from global warming. But Trump has assured his followers that, while no longer categorized as a Chinese hoax, it's just a transitory condition that will pass, not to worry. Who knew we elected an armchair climatologist.
This election is not a horse race, it's a struggle to grasp the life-ring.
Republicans lie about their agenda because they must. They lie because the greatest threat to human survival cannot be talked about. Look at their policies. Taken as whole, they point to a single objective: environmental sustainability. How to get there? First, secure the power of the wealthy by helping them build legal and political walls around their wealth; make their class unassailable. Second, weaken the masses; reduce food support; take away health care; keep wages low so the poor are so busy making a living that they have no time to protest, or even to know that they are dispensable; take away social security so people have no free time to evaluate what's happening to them; make it difficult for people to vote. Third, close the borders, reduce immigration and cut subsidies to foreign countries; make the dark-skinned people of the world know they too are dispensable.
Republicans are dealing with a problem Demcrats refuse to even talk about: overpopulation. The world has five billion more people than it can support sustainably. The rich don't want to curtail their lifestyles, so Republican have come up with a solution: let nature have it way with the masses. Quietly orchestrate a massive die-off. That would return the world to health in a couple of generations. The rich could then hunt elephants and lions with no fear of their going extinct.
The only sensible way to solve the problem of overpopulation is through lower birth rates, but population control is taboo.
2
"The G.O.P.’s problem is that this agenda is deeply unpopular. Large majorities of Americans oppose cuts in major social programs, while most voters want to raise, not reduce, taxes on corporations and high-income individuals."
Evidently, Dr. Krugman, it's not the GOP's problem, it's your problem and mine.
Because, as of today, right about fifty percent of voters are choosing Republican candidates, swallowing Republican lies and gleefully voting for income inequality, poverty, healthcare failure and economic chaos.
Busting unions while bolstering corporate election influence, putting women into the 18th century while bringing back the Guilded Age for billionaires, all seems to be delightfully okay to half of our active electorate.
The problem is Corporate Democrats. They're like church mice on most social and all economic issues because they drink from the same cool, overflowing waterhole as those lying Republican beasts.
When was the last time you actually heard from Tom Perez, not including when he's drug around by the collar by Bernie Sanders.
How many more elections do you have to see won by The Liars Club before you figure this out?
1
thank you for explaining something that has bothered me for decades - why nobody called out GWB, Cheney & Co. for their lying? may i say that this lack of candor on the part of the press has helped to put us in the situation we are in? trump correctly realized that there were no longer any lies and he has taken that to the extreme. we will see if he has taken it a bit too far in a few days.
The Republican campaign is actually pretty simple:
Lie about who will protect the citizens from health problems and insolvency;
Stoke fear of a demonized minority, be it Jews, or Black people, or Muslims, or Mexicans;
Foment hatred against a couple of cherry-picked opponents and claim that they are representative of the opposition; and
Give a scintilla of hope should the Republicans win.
Don't forget that last bit. Hope offers a pathway out of fear and hatred, and it's a critical part of their message. It's hard to survive without hope.
I must disagree about there being only two remaining categories. The third category could be called true believers, those who believe that the Republican Party is the cure for their ills because their trusted sources keep telling them so. They do not seek power just for itself even if they seek to maintain old hegemonies and privileges, as many of them are relatively humble in station. They are not cynics going along with the spoils. They hope for an improvement in their lot, and fervently believe in their political leader.
Personally, I think a large chunk of the true believers are brainwashed by very effective propaganda techniques, but I am sure they would not agree with me.
Moore NAILED what we have to do (Dem politicians that is).
Stand up UNAPOLOGETICALLY for liberal values.
So when your opponent says, this LIBERAL wants to spend YOUR MONEY on healthcare for everyone...say "YEAH, I DO"...and my opponent wants to spend your MONEY on tax cuts to the rich.
When Republicans say..."we support protecting people with a special pool for the sickest. everyone will be taken care of...and don't worry about pre-existing conditions..." Say.."THOSE ARE LIES. My opponent and his party are LIARS and contemptible.
The Republican base does not follow facts...they follow fear. Those capable of follow facts and remaining in the Republican base do so for mostly economic reasons. The larger percentage can be SWAYED with fear. But I don't mean the same approach of LIES as the right. I mean the UNVARNISHED truth as to: What Republicans are Doing, What Progressives Want to Do.
The need for blunt & politically risky rhetoric (universal healthcare) is the reason Pelosi needs to go. We need someone with courage in charge and a clear message. Our agenda is great...our presentation is weak.
The corollary to "a party defined by its lies" is that republicans only win by cheating. Voter suppression and dirty tricks flourish as part of their strategy. When you say they have no limit as to how low they will go, we should not be surprised if they manipulate easily hacked electronic voting devices to flip democrat votes into republican... it is already happening in Texas. They will steal this election if they can, and I believe that if they win, it will because of theft. What will become of this democracy then is anyone's guess. What happens when the elctorate loses faith in the system? We are in perilous times.
What we need is a political purge. The bowels of our political system are festering with the corruption and the lust for power of a minority in our country, called Republicans, who present themselves as the only cure for our distress.
On November 6, the stomach pump election will either purge enough of the toxins from our system so that what remains will be manageable, or the walls will burst, enabling the political poison to spread and metastasize throughout our body politic. If the latter happens, 2020 hopes may become merely a mirage on the national horizon.
Lying is what built Trump's empire. It is a formula that works for him. In politics he simply changes the verbs and amps up the adjectives.
There is a fine line between willful ignorance and honesty. We will see very soon what side people will fall on.
Democracy needs a free and informative press. A press not able to call a lie a lie is dishonest. We have freaks like Hannity, Coulter, Santorum, Gingrich and many others like them with lots of TV time and no corrections, they might get offended and don't come back. But people like Chomsky, Jeffrey Sachs, Stephen Cohen, Chris Hedges, and many, many others with very little TV time and only some people who even know who they are.
All the Republicans need to do to destroy ACA is to scream socialism. It works because Americans don't know what it is, it is a taboo subject, and the people don't ask.
I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.--Adlai Stevenson
Paul: relations between the US and Canada have been as bad as it was in the 70s under Nixon. The real sinister stuff is going on behind the scenes while everybody is watching the distractor in chief. The US border is becoming the new Berlin Wall. No people aren’t being shot at a barbed wire fence, but Canadians are now being denied entry because they are now accusing every Canadian coming in of being a drug trafficker. They’re subjecting Canadians to drug tests, in one case a canadian is being denied the right to go to his home in Arizona because he admitted that he used marijuana once.
It’s worse if you’re an MMJ patient with epilepsy. Now you can’t bring your life saving medication with you.
Many can’t see their kids and extended in the US now because of this issue.
Cruelty has become the order of the day with Trump and the compliant GOP has become complicit in this cruelty.
1
What's the deal with the migrants? Why are they leaving Hondurus. All I've seen is a PBS Newsour segment on the problems in El Salvador; I don't see much anywhere about Hondurus. When I google it, I get three stories in Spanish.
Trump wouldn't be able to say what he does if the media would sleuth out the Honduran drivers, and bring that to the fore of political discourse. Just saying they're 1,000 miles away says nothing about why they're headed here. Please take this up so Trump's lies can be put in proper context.
Other than that, great column. Thanks!
Alexander Pope expressed it best, "Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise" and the American people who will not realize the importance of this election remain blissfully ignorant of the consequences to them all.
1
Dear Mr Krugman...thanks for spot on column. BUT you forgot a key thing: the republicans are engaged in systematic voter suppression, and possibly even in rigging the ballot boxes. Not only are the health and well being our our citizens being assaulted. Our very democracy is being undermined.
1
I wish Democrats would come up with a loud, clear, moderate message on immigration. Their relative silence is easily interpreted as favoring defacto open borders, which most Americans fear.
I recall watching Hillary Clinton’s last campaign rally in 2016, the day before ballots were cast. Her expansive rhetoric about welcoming “everyone!” was alarming, and I knew in that moment that she could lose.
It’s easy to oppose Trump’s clearly racist rhetoric, but please tell us, what is a reasonable alternative to admitting all comers? It seems there is none. Must we choose between the two extremes?
Everything Dr. Krugman says is spot on. It is still worthwhile to state explicitly something that is only implicit in his comments. Lying about the problems America faces includes not only hyping imaginary threats, but denying real ones - climate change above all.
2
Paul, how do you explain today's job report? What people want are jobs. Could it be possible that tax cuts have lead to an expanding economy and more jobs. Now, we are actually seeing wage growth.
We hear from highly educated people, making their living in the elite intellectual economy that people who vote Trump don't understand what's best for them. But seriously, making a living is their number one and most basic desire. By and large, gainfully employed people are generally happy citizens.
4
@Landlord, People can do two things at one time. They can hold down a job AND do intellectual stuff, maybe even hold values to which they give their energy! I'm sorry you now have to sneer at people who don't just live to work as thankful citizens to dearleader.
'elite intellectual economy'? That's good. Book learnin' is now your enemy too?
It isn't, or shouldn't be, a surprise that Republicans want to slash social programs. They never wanted, and fought hard against, the creation of Social Security and Medicare from the beginning. Why any working American would EVER see the Republican Party as a friend to the average, everyday American is a mystery. I guess people really do just believe what they want to believe in spite of facts.
3
If we've learned anything in the Trump era, it's that there are only two political factions in this country.
Decent folks and people who would have supported the Confederacy. Obviously, Trump supporters fall into the latter category.
2
While I agree with you that the GOP platform is mostly based on lies these days, I give at least some of them the benefit of the doubt that they believe their own lies.
Meanwhile, there is a larger point. I work in a numbers based business, where 'facts' matter and those who can't arrive at them can/will destroy the economics of operation. As such, I've reached the point where I no longer trust the judgement of anyone who could vote for Trump as a fair arbiter of the facts of any situation.
They've entirely lost their credibility, and I no longer worry about dancing around the issue.
9
Dr. K, I realize you are an economist and not a philosopher, but I have found your advocacy of shared truth and morality (in a world which devalues both) a constant lodestar.
I am not sure why a clear-eyed sense of history, justice, and proportion are so rare in the OpEd world, but sincere thanks for yours.
14
The problem is that people tend to believe what they want to believe. And that's the truth.
9
@zenartisan - "A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." Paul Simon
1
I finally had to leave the Republican Party, after forty years as a registered member, in 2008. Every word of your column is true. I do however think there is still a measurable minority of registered Republicans who are simply going about their lives, not paying that much attention, and voting out of habit. Will Trump wake them up?
9
All the hate and fear mongering about immigration overlooks a key fact. A comprehensive immigration reform bill was passed with bipartisan support in the Senate, but never brought to a vote in the House. It’s time to build a new House.
11
"What Republicans truly stand for, and have for decades, is cutting taxes on the rich and slashing social programs. "
Those are the means to a darker end - subjugation of the masses into a neo-feudal society.
80-90% of US citizens will work in a paycheck-to-paycheck debt peonage system until they die. Retirement will be a thing of the past.
10-20% of American society will comprise a middle class that will require advanced job training that will require a young person to risk years if not decades of debt with education loans to achieve. Education will be limited solely to the acquisition of job related skills - anything else being frivolous.
And then there is the 1%. They will control government, the military and nearly all commerce - including the media which will be in the business of telling everyone how lucky they are to be "free".
29
@yeti00: The US is already an interlocked directorship controlled by less than 100,000 people.
They very well could pull out the Mid-terms. This is especially so in the Senate. But let us say that Democrats take the House and the Senate.
What is a Trump to do?? Well, he would just refuse to recognize them or to give Congress any quarter. If you thought that Obama with a phone and a pen with a headwind of Republican control of Congress was a bit much with the Executive Orders, Trump with a Democratic Congress would go full Unitary Executive. Full Autocratic. He would take up the idea that the President can declare Acts of Congress unconstitutional and refuse to enforce laws that he does not want to execute.
And when Congress tries to force his hand, then the Kavanaugh appointment pays off. A Democratic win could just accelerate the Trump run to make of the US an autocracy.
6
Except for subpoena power and the 24/7 wall to wall hearings that are surely to happen if Trump declares war on the house
Trump will capitulate like he always does when faced with a real live adversary
1
Thank you Paul, for finally being able to call such true and utter dishonesty what it is, for the term "lie" has a far more direct moral and emotional meaning and impact on the broad classes of people making up this great nation! Now it's time to address another important term, to identify their long-term agenda of slashing taxes on the rich and cutting or eliminating social programs. Because our nation's strength and wealth is built through every individual's economic contributions to the common good, with support for those who contribute in other ways, their agenda can be seen as a systematic looting of our nation's wealth and strength, through self-serving laws, or just under the color of law, as most of Trump's wealth appears to have been obtained. When reporters and economists are able to call this top-down looting for what it truly is, rather than something like "trickle-down," the people will begin to see what is really happening to them.
10
My first Republican vote was for Goldwater, my last was for Bush Jr. Since then it has been all downhill for the Republican party as far as I am concerned.
As so many Republicans say these days: "I did not leave the Republican party, it left me."
18
'Back in the day' of more than a century ago, Republicans were actually called Democrats and vice-versa. So much for permanently stereotyping political identities. More recently than that, it seemed as if politicians were first recognized by their names and accomplishments instead of their political affiliations.
Regardless of that, yet still related to this article, the real reason Trump won the election was because he was the first and only candidate to inaugurate the Overton Window principle of discourse. Check it out!
@Guido Malsh: When the US was founded, "federalists" favored a strong national government over "state's rights". This has flipped too.
@Steve Bolger
Thx. for sharing!
Vote my friends - time the values of the majority are actually be reflected in our government.
14
We are , I believe seeing something I call "end stage capitalism". the vast majority of the wealth is now controlled by the few. Logic would say that the overwhelming majority would eventually use the ballot box to push back the pendulum that has so failed them.
What we now see is the trend towards authoritarianism by the wealthy and powerful. Aware that they have most of everything, they need to destroy the system that could take it back - democracy. We are seeing early stage authoritarianism. Attacks on free press, gerrymandering of the election process, destruction of government institutions, creation of nationalism and isolationism and encouragement racism and hatred of minorities. They sow the seeds of fear of going back with relentless lies and propaganda - which eventually become accepted and drives society to accept authoritarianism
The big problem in America is that most Americans have yet to accept that unregulated capitalism has failed. It has not lifted all boats etc. etc. Unregulated capitalism without at least a progressive income tax is the inevitable consequence we now see.
Most Americans are still focused on narrow wedge issues like gun rights, abortion, gay rights, etc. They are not looking at the really big issues. The Gop encourages and fuels this wedge issue approach whilst it goes about its main task of destroying democracy.
32
Bravo, Mr. Krugman. The Republican assault on intelligence and truth is astounding.
13
We may ponder why the Republican party is so enamored of lies and the simple answer is they fear the consequences of telling the truth. It would be fair to say also that lies are the opium of the republican base. The republican base is addicted to lies and when they tire of one lie they leave themselves open to even greater lies.
Being addicted to lies is not new. There are those of us with long memories and we can recall when the south was solidly democratic, and we can also remember a very brave president that signed civil rights laws...and see the republican party step into the south promising to undo ...civil rights !
Republicans tried to convince the south that they believed that separate could be equal and not every american had a right to vote , especially if they had a skin color other than white. Today the party of the rich has not strayed far from the republican strategy ...they have tried it on the west, midwest and lies have been weaponized being now attached to religions, sexuality, skin color ...so far it has worked...the rich have gotten what they really wanted ...and laughing all the way to the bank...Our only hope is the democratic vote and that the turnout is so resounding come tuesday that republicans come to fear the lies they have made their only currency !
9
Trump has turned hate into a many splendored thing.
6
unemployment at a 48-yr low. avg hourly wages at a 9 1/2 yr highs. this is a high bar for the Democrats to have any hope of reclaiming Congress, let alone the Senate
Is it possible that they have infiltrated the BLS and corrupted its data? If they lie about everything, why should they stop at this bastion of government reliability? How can one check to see?
4
My guess is that BLS is putting out honest numbers. Probably. Well, most likely. Problem is, Trump lies so much and is so willing to warp government that it’s hard to tell.
I know this is uncharitable but, I am coming around to the view that if Trump supporters continue to support Trump even though he pursues and implements policies that are anathema to their interests, they deserve the pain that is coming to them. Yes, they may lose their healthcare. That will be bad. Yes, they could lose their jobs. Also bad. But here is the kicker: even though the coming problems will have been of their own electoral making, the Trump people will no doubt double down on the erroneous view that mongrel hordes with dark skin amassing at the southern border is the problem. The vicious cycle will continue. What then?
120
@Susan
It's probably true that there's a hard core of Trump supporters who will never face up to reality here. But not all of them! If even a fraction realize that they're being conned, that's enough to produce a complete reversal of political fortunes.
202
@Susan I feel the same, much of the time. I don't care if the willfully ignorant, racist, etc. suffer the results of their poor judgement. But we care about their children - how horrible it must be, to be subjected to that added ugly shouting all the time from the TV! What a shame to have parents who are unable to draw a line from Trump's disastrous EPA picks to the floods and fires, bad air and water that will be their children's inheritance. What a shame to have parents who are unable to discern that the tax bill was not for them, that there is no GOP healthcare plan or riches for them, just pain, illness, death and bankruptcy. What a shame to have this abomination for a president.
44
@Susan How on earth can they not see that they are the ones that are going to be hurt the worst. They are hurting now and want to pin the blame on anything but the GOP. Yet, how can they not see that after healthcare is taken away, then SSI, disability...the works? All taken away by conmen that are easily seen to have no clothes but reptilian tongues and skin?
17
What ever happened to the basic tenant that lying is wrong? As children we were punished for lying. Christianity and Judaism both hold the commandment: thou shalt not bear false witness....
clearly in Trump land and GOPtopia morality is just another word for 'who cares.'
There shouldn't be anything fundamentally more important than the truth, than the facts. It's more important than tax breaks, it's more important walls; it is in fact the lynchpin of an enlightened society, of a We the People.
It's by voting for Democrats on tuesday, and continuing to call out, to challenge the lies that our children will understand "the truth will set us free."
6
Republicans are delusional. I responded to a Yahoo poll, I have done this before and found most of the respondents seemed to be older with money. The poll went as follows. Protect preexisting conditions in healthcare big majority to yes. Medicare for all, to my surprise a small majority yes. Which political party would best protect your position on healthcare 55 percent said republican. How can you cure delusional.
15
Republican rhetoric reminds me of a famous line from a book review: "Every word in this book is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'." Whenever I hear one of their leaders speak, my default reaction is that I'm being sold a bill of goods.
I may be paraphrasing a little, and I want to attribute it to Dorothy Parker, but I'm not sure on that point. Can anyone clear that up for me?
@Marty I think it was the author, Mary McCarthy, who said it about playwright, Lillian Hellman.
When you have politicians accountable primarily to their wealthy/greedy donors. This is what we get.
2
Republican candidates now claim to have always supported policies requiring insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions.
What they are really saying is that their policies will allow you to purchase coverage including pre-existing conditions so long as you are able to afford such coverage in the utopic free market of Republican healthcare. In practice, they promise coverage for pre-existing conditions for those able to afford it. Which in the end means most will not have access to health insurance for pre-existing conditions.
Just more lies from a party no longer constrained by facts and truth. And for reasons devoid of logic and reason, the Republican base will believe the lies and support Republican candidates.
In keeping with the theme of Paul’s comments in a previous opinion, Republican lies about healthcare make them the new Nordic posers.
5
Perhaps as heinous as anything, and that's being kind, is that Republicans and Trump specifically have wrapped themselves in the cloak of false patriotism, questioning that of those who dare to disagree with them. George W. Bush did that as well, and was elected twice, but today's GOP has taken it to the next level while pretending to be the party of the people.
What happened to the old, proverbial Republican cloth coat? There is no longer any pretense to that. The party is wearing gold threaded attire, visible for all to plainly see, and manifests no shame in doing so.
103
@Quoth The Raven
Of course the people betraying America on multiple levels portray themselves as great patriots. It was always thus. The thing is not to let them get away with it.
166
@Paul Krugman
“Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels “.
4
Unemployment at all time low, wage growth exploding, GDP is excellent. Stocks up. Any of this news make it into the echo chamber?
4
@Tim Dowd
Stocks up? Have you taken a look lately? Wage growth 'exploding'?
It would seem that the FoxNews universe has done their job well in defining down as up.
I admire Paul Krugman for pounding the drumbeat of truth about a depraved GOP, and refusing the ruse of seeing Trump as some outlier, rather than the inevitable result of extremism. Far too much of the US media are complicit with the extremists. The Cleveland Plain Dealer recently endorsed Jim Jordan. The Columbus Dispatch called Republican Campaign Committee Chair Steve Stivers "civil" and "credible" in its endorsement. We need accountability for a sick party. We also need accountability for complicit media sources that give a corrupt GOP cover.
2
The thinking of a Trump supporter, intelligent, affluent, or destitute and low information:"I wanna punch somebody. Which politician most seems like he will punch somebody?" This is pro wrestling. This is also theater, where the hero punches through obstacles in a car chase, in a dramatic way, or a superhero. Lies are part of theater. Lies are pro-wrestling WWF, or Marvel Comics or National Enquirer. Or Apprentice. The promise of resolving a conflict. The party that can actually show Thousands $ saved annually, or that they and their loved ones have a higher percentage of healthy living, or education, or clean land-- "But I'm miserable right now" The Democrats need a "Justice League", one that involves a wonky presidential candidate, but is also a cast of characters. The "Big Tent" of Democrats needs to be first projected on the national screen.
@4Average Joe. I think this is true. I find it endlessly funny that these folks have landed on a flaccid libertine who has never exerted himself physically and can't even walk his own golf courses.
The Democrats literally could put forward a vigorous Justice League. But this will require a sincere "thank you for your service" and retirement to those who delivered what was needed in the 90s and a turn to those who can deliver what the nation needs NOW.
Unfounded fear and hatred combined with deception and lies is all the folks on the right have had for probably most of a few decades now. Beyond taking care of corporations and one percenters they have absolutely nothing other than the wealthcare bill to offer the commoners.
Lets face it folks, deception is the only means they have to extort the commoners in order to cover the cost of ensuring that those who need nothing get more. Trump is the perfect companion to their scheme. He like them has no scruples and could care less who gets hurt in the process as long as it isn't the wealthy.
2
Paul Krugman is my favorite op-ed writer. otherwise I live in a haze of cognitive dissonance between the lying and cheating that smacks me in the face from the Republicans constantly and everything else I hear. Only Krugman is honest and precise enough to make me feel like I'm not the crazy one. I do think he missed one pillar in this particular article which is the cheating. The Republicans have now built their party on vote suppression and corrupt financial interests. So inverting their positions, fabricating issues, and cheating in a fundamentally anti-democratic way.
6
I feel the same about being Democrat...I guess we'll just have to fight it out.
1
@John
If you haven't figured it out by now you probably never will -- it's hard to miss the sheer mendacity of this president's and his party's lies.
My previous comment where I addressed Paul's assertions point by point and noted his hypocrisy wasn't allowed past the NYT minders. So let me just say, both political parties are grossly guilty of spreading lies. Although both can do much better, I don't see that happening. The only way to get beyond this is to outlaw all political parties, hopefully requiring everyone to think for themselves rather than what politicians say. I see the elements that Paul is against present in abundance right here in these many comments. Now to the NYT comment minders, if you can't see to post this comment, then cancel my subscription immediately.
3
"At this time..."??? Where have you been?
So why did you allow the Times deny you the use of the word "lie," if it fit then and fits now? "Lie," is standard English and objective if substantiated. Your statement reveals the Times lied to its readers. It's proper for the Times to admit its mistake.
Perhaps the Editors of The New York Times ….whose standard
is to print ….all the news that is fit to print; would therefore
print ...on the front page of this Sunday's edition...
All the Lies which the Republican Party is telling those who they
are depending on to keep them in office.
All the GOP liars should be listed as well;
Just Tell the Entire very ugly truth...for the benefit of all voters..
right on the Front Page of The New York Times...and do real
battle for the benefit of preserving the integrity of the Fourth Estate....and ;please be as truthful as possible ...and show
your intellectual muscle.....enlighten the rest of the media...
Wash Their Lying Souls with black ink and fine type....don't hide
the truth on the opinion page....Go Bold...Go To The Front Page !!!
5
Voted early here in MA, all the way democrat down ballot. Here Charlie Baker is a popular Governor. He poses to be a democrat in Republican clothing, breaking away from Trump rhetoric when convenient and even speaking out doubting Kavanaugh. He is a Republican surrroubded by Democrats so by osmosis he is socially progressive financially conservative. Thanks for your service, Charlie but the fact remains that his party is run by Trump who campaigns daily for the party, on our tax payers money and time. We don’t pay the President to be president of one party less than half the country! He is spending more time speechifying for his party with lies and fear mongering than he is behaving like a leader who was elected to do the job for all Americans not just half of us.
Sorry Charlie, couldn’t get myself to vote for you. Go Blue, folks, all the way! Send the Republican Party a message that either they stop their lies or we will vote out every republican from school committee town selectman county office state office all the way up!
7
@Petey Tonei And i voted straight BLUE in WV
It’s important to also point out they feign dire concern and also run against deficits that they are responsible for creating .
I’m no Austerity hawk nor certainly is the GOP. The difference is I don’t pretend I am because I’m not a liar .
1
Republicans, from Trump to my cranky old public-pensioner MAGAn neighbor, live in a synthetic reality. They love that reality. They live for it. Their belief system is a theology of malice. And that is a remarkable thing to behold.
1
The Democrats should adopt Wealth Tax as part of their platform. It is, truly, the answer to much of what ails us. Tax the thing that should have been the thing getting taxed all along: the accumulation of wealth. Tax it progressively. Higher wealth brackets get taxed at higher percentages. The Times itself has published pieces about this, they are worthy of review and study. And while we’re at it — eat the rich!
2
Mr.Krugman, as usual ,you are correct. The gop doesn't even care any longer about anything but getting,keeping and exercising their power for their padrones.
But,let's be honest. The world has become anesthetized to lies. Like the liars themselves, the people being lied to ,evidently, don't mind that much,either. From the big liars like the Catholic church , the ayatollahs, the Saudis,corporations, advertisers, drug companies, down to bosses , cable news hosts, etal. People are numb to liars, and many people make huge sums of money "controlling the messaging". The actions and facts have been rendered meaningless,relegated to white noise in the background. Even these so-called noble republicans like Corker,Flake and Costello,while feigning indignation still voted with their gop brothers almost a hundred percent of the time. But it is all about the "messaging." The tobacco companies lied for decades and oversaw hundreds of thousands deaths and yet they are still in business. And many of their puppets are still in office. Two judges in Pennsylvania sold juveniles to private prisons ,in America, and some people still want more privatized prisons.
It is when someone actually tells the truth that it becomes really newsworthy. That is sad.
4
Put another way, the modern GOP is a party of grifters and flimflam artists taking the working and middle classes as a bunch of born-every-minute suckers.
We’ve heard them on talk radio for 30 years now. They moved on to cable news, the internet and social media.
Trickle down.
4
The Republicans approach to governing, for the past two decades, is best characterized by "my way or the highway".
They have been unwilling and/or unable to reach across the aisle to forge compromises with the Democrats -- instead they throw wrenches into the gears of even mildly progressive legislation, and hold up federal judicial appointments until they're in a position to stack the courts with hard-right judges with lifetime tenure.
They resort to whatever dirty tactics they can to gerrymander voting districts, and foster minority voter suppression through unnecessary and restrictive state laws.
They're experts at stoking fear and resentment, "inspiring" their rank and file constituents to vote -- election after election -- against their own economic interests.
Once again, right on target, Mr. Krugman!
4
It is difficult, as Krugman asserts, to see how someone who is tolerating lies, a lack of decency, and full-blown narcissisim to the detriment of events outside himself, can be a good person. We can be sure that if such a person is a decent to others in normal relationships they are radically different - based on the honesty and decency required to be a good person - than who they are in their support of Trump.
Trump allows the individuals in this country to think, as the movie "Wall Street" said, "Greed is Good." Trump enables selfishness. He governs about 40% of the country as if the rest of us are not his fans and therefore don't exist. He brings new life into the Vince Lombardi slogan, "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." He also seconds the Reagan notion that "govenment isn't the solution, its the problem"type of thinking.
Good people could beTrump supporters, conceivably, but they are operating on a level of ignorance and deviant standards that they would not likely tolerate in everyday life.
2
Mr. Krugman, the problem with your wholesale condemnation of the Republican Party is that you are saying that approximately half the population of the country (about 165 million people) are bad people. That is a lot of evil. It is a lot of people that you hate--or at least dislike. You have too many enemies. Your writing is way overboard. Mr. Trump and his hard core supporters are pretty egregious. But they are not all of the Republican Party. They are a pretty small percent, actually. There are tens of thousands of Republican office holders at the local, state, and federal level who are fine people and fine public servants.
I live in a famously liberal state (which isn't really all that liberal)--and the Legislature has a couple more Ds than Rs and it works pretty well. Maybe a couple of radical Rs. Few if any lefties. Plenty of moderate liberals--who don't really fit the NYT liberal stereotype. The government works, people work with each other.
You need to calm down. I know that you have your audience and you know its hot button issues--as does Mr. Trump. But there is hardly a word of fact in your wholesale condemnation of the GOP. The Republicans are not going away. Wildly overstated condemnation of about half the population does not help the country to calm down and get along. There has to be some respect for the other side, even when you disagree with them. That respect is pretty fundamental to democratic government and peaceful decision making.
1
@Gordon Wiggerhaus - "you are saying that approximately half the population of the country are bad"
The demonstrable premise is that prominent Republicans lie and that the party consistently lies. If you support lies, and those that lie consistently, than what are you? Good people?
It is hard to respect people who would happily legislate you into non-existence.
Later on today, I will take advantage of early voting in my state, MA. I'm an Independent and I was considering voting for Charlie Baker, our Republican governor and going Democrat on the rest of the ballot. But lately, with everything coming out of Washington, I'm wondering how I can do that. Governor Baker hasn't denounced Trump or any of his lies. I've been thinking that I might not know the Democrat running against Baker except that he is an Hispanic man. So it will be a straight blue ticket this time around for me and the foreseeable future.
2
@MKathryn - "I was considering voting for Charlie Baker, our Republican governor"
Baker is the nations most popular governor. He is held as an example of parties getting along. And had this been any other year I would have likely voted for him as I considered the choices. But it isn't.
The thing that caused me to change me mind is support for, and vote for Geoff Diehl as Senator.
If Baker had said, I can't in good conscience for Diehl, that would have been enough. Rather not only did Baker endorse Diehl he said he would vote for him.
http://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2018/10/18/charlie-baker-voting-for-geoff-diehl-miles-howard
This means that he is willing to vote for someone who will, at a national level, vote in the Senate against everything that Baker has claimed he is fore. It means he is willing to support the entire Republican platform even though in Massachusetts he has said he does not support all of it. This means, surprise, even good guy Charlie has been lying to us.
His support of Diehl, and the national Republican agenda, is why I can't give Baker my vote even if I am pretty certain he will win.
1
@Marie Me too!
The willingness to accept the broad-based lying is grounded on the simple premise that current GOP supporters agree with the underlying racist positions. They also understand that one can't openly agree with them (lest they be blatantly exposed as racists). It's everyone in the small town knowing their sheriff is lying about his treatment of minorites but not caring about the lies b/c his actions are 'the right thing to do' to keep the status quo just like'the good old days' when,,, America was Great (for them and their families).
This was the George Wallace platform, this is the Trump platform, this is now the GOP platform. The line doesn't matter to these voters b/c it's for'the right cause'.
So the rest of us need to stop being surprised that GOP voters aren't bothered by the lies and double down on calling out the racist positions and that if those GOP voters aren't upset by them, then explicitly explain that they must agree with them. That they are in fact being bigots. There needs to be a reinstatement of the social cost of bigotry which Trump has dramatically lessened. If one is all in on bigotry, accept the consequences.
Not many things in life are certain but it is certain that, if you live long enough, you will get old. Without Social Security, millions of Americans will reach retirement age with three dollars in the bank. Without Medicare, most members of that group would be unable to afford health care. Republicans are in the process of wrecking the national treasury with their rich folks tax cuts. Their next step will be to slash the best social programs ever conceived by the Democrats. We pay for this stuff our whole working lives. Supporting a political party that would slash these programs is just dumb.
2
Here in Illinois, there is an ad for a Democrat running for congress wherevthe couple says health care is not about Democrat of Republican. Actually, it is. Republicans don't want people to have health care , Democrats do.
3
When it is all about winning and maintaining power to enforce your will on others, then you resort to anything to do just that. Lying is fundamental to success, since it manipulates uninformed voters, who have their own prejudices that can be easily exploited and are.
I think, though, that people are confused about Trump. He is a narcissist. He doesn't believe in anything other than that. He is not a racist, but he would not hesitate for a second to encourage racists to support him by saying things that appeal to them. Hey, this is our country. There are a lot of people who are uninformed, and prejudice requires ignorance to exist. The fact that it seems to be flourishing speaks volumes about some of the people in our country.
But lets think about "tax cuts" for a moment: as the rates have become compressed over the years, the wealthy and now the corporations have reaped gazillions, while the average American has benifitted little, if at all, since any of their gains have been wiped out by other events, costs, or inflation. For me, what the Democrats should be talking about sooner or later, but hopefully sooner, is the need to restore rates to what was in existence in the late 70's. In this way we could do so much more as a country to benefit the people in all the ways that we seem to be fighting about now. Yes, the wealthy would have to pay more, but we have a progressive tax system, and it should be implemented properly.
2
The sad truth is that there are many people out there who hate democrats and liberals so much, that they willingly swallow the lies. I'm thinking of those in my family who will admit he's not telling the truth, but they don't care. Trump channels their anger for them, and that is enough for them.
The lies appear to be working because the media treats these people with the respect they don't deserve, not to mention trying to understand the constituents so willing to believe them.
2
To lie requires a knowledge of the truth. Trump has mixed falsehood, fact, and fantasy so much for so long that he is umoored from reality where truth resides. The man will say literally anything that suits his purpose.
2
Key questions are whether the verdict of falsity is reaching many voters and if so how much this concerns them. As for the latter, if they accept Trump as essentially a blowhard-showman they have already acceded to the over-the-top, Wrestlemania discourse. CNN begat this nightmare. They've been pushing entertainment politics for years, and they staged the whole preprimary traveling Republican candidate freakshow in the summer of 2015. They'll likely be back at it in 2011-12.
After Charlottesville Trump claimed there were good people on both sides, and that was nonsense. Now in the wake of the shootings of blacks and Jews and mail bombs, we're told that Republicans and Democrats alike need to tone down the rhetoric and work together because, after all, there are good people on both sides of the aisle. But that too is nonsense. Mr. Krugman is right. The Republican Party is now the party of bad people. It is a party whose leadership is composed of demagogues, racists and xenophobic fear mongers who feed their gullible followers a full salad bar of lies about immigration, taxes, health care, trade and so on ad nauseam. Sorry, this is not the time to come together. This is the time to speak out against lies and a party that if it prevails on Tuesday will feel empowered to Riverdance on the Constitution and complete its trampling of the truth.
2
And what might the worst be? Based on the experience of other countries led by reckless unprincipled dictators the prospect is downright frightening. Stop the runaway train. NOW!! A vote for a Democrat is the only hope.
Your election is not between candidates but between the people and their degree of self awareness. The self aware realize understanding is the way to deal with their anxiety not fear while their narrow self interest brings to mind the line that all the misery in the world comes from wishing for happiness for oneself. Unfortunately your schools like ours do not stress these fundamentals. We teach technique not love of life. If your candidates do not espouse these values, don't vote, run for office.
1
Here is the real problem though Pr. Krugman: how is it possible that 35% of the US population buy these lies, repeatedly, over a period of several years? We should see a major wave of indignation, and yes there is indignation out there, but not enough to guarantee a rout in both the House and the Senate.
How is that possible? What does it say about the people living in America? Can 35% can really be bad? Just disinformed? Why? Lack of a quality education? Over-abundance of brain-dead media financed by a moneyed elite aiming to cement their hold on power? Where did it all go wrong?
When you realize that we, the people, are the problem, you are submerged with a powerful sentiment of powerlessness. Yet only by admitting reality can we start working to change it.
Professor, your work in analytics and sound reasoning is noble. But lies are only the visible and audible aspects of the Republicans. The truth is Republicans are the party of Corruption, and Corruption on a massive scale. They don't just lie about Climate Change, they take money for blocking sensible energy policies. They don't just lie about health care, they take money from pharmaceutical and tobacco companies that poison Americans. Down the list from the munition makers to crooks on Wall Street, Republicans sell out their souls and sell out the American people. It's their Corruption that steals the future and the hopes of a nation.
So this article has put in a more elegant way what I have been saying for a long time. Name for me the law that has been passed by a republican that has helped the middle and lower class. I do not think one exist!
1
Republicanism is the ideology (though not in the classical sense) not conservatism.
The radio is full of right wing media. Then there is Fox News. All echoing falsehoods. Human nature does not help. Drama, fear and sensation sells better than thoughtful, kind and just. Only this time our country may be going backward if this onslaught of horror triumphs. Vote. Vote. Vote. The people still have a say in what our country stands for.
1
Thank you for expressing what I have been feeling since Trump was elected. You can't support a dangerous pathological liar and be a good person at the same time. Trump has already committed a crime against humanity by separating children from their parents. You can't support a President who does that and call yourself a good person. The worst of it is the support he gets from Christians. It is abhorrent that they align themselves with the antithesis of their Founder.
Truly excellent writing. Bravo.
I knew a couple of truthful, respectful and scientifically oriented Republicans. They raised me up through the 50's and 60's. The behavior of the Republican of today would kill them, except they both died ten years ago.
2
It's this, and so much more. Republicans have been blocking meaningful efforts to address AGW for 25 years. Science is only useful now when it's convenient. Higher education is constantly under attack by the right wing. To republicans, Social Security is an entitlement program. Just today, Duncan Hunter described the refugees walking towards our border as an "army." Trump calls them "invaders." Jews are slaughtered by a right winger wielding a weapon of mass destruction and it's their own fault for not posting armed guards in front of the synagogue. 600 people are shot at a concert and Republicans (and only republicans) block any and all legislation to address it.
No, republicans are not good people. None of them. Anyone who calls themself a republican is complicit, and supportive. This goes way too far and way too deep to justify remaining in the party to push for tax cuts and closing abortion clinics.
Mr. Krugman tells us that Trump's "lies have come nonstop since his inauguration address, which conveyed a false vision of American carnage.”
But two Chicago reporters have talked explicitly about this carnage. They found that "the 4400 block of West Monroe on Chicago's West Side is the city's most dangerous block, a stretch plagued by heroin, shootings and murder." "I don't think it's safe here any time," said a landlord on the block, who asked that his name be withheld out of fear for his safety.
When Trump used the word 'carnage" in his inauguration address, some upscale, influential blacks were offended. Mr. Krugman went along with them because it was the politically correct thing to do. But the fact is that, on West Monroe, there is pervasive carnage, just as Trump said.
Clearly, Mr. Krugman affirmed the error of the upscale, influential blacks because that was the politically correct thing to do. Politically correct, but factually wrong.
Krugman is guilty of the very accusation that he directs at Trump. He is very wrong and not at all inclined to admit his flagrant error.
1
Penning a piece that accuses an opponent of lying, by citing examples that are all bald-faced lies, gross exxagerations, or straight out of the Little Red Book of Democratic Party Talking Points, is hardly the way to convince persons still undecided about their vote.
But the Clintonesque codescencion, arrogance, smugness, and elitism of:
"At this point, good people can’t be good Republicans"
is perfect.
It remonds everyone of why they voted for Trump in the first place.
3
"Democrats aren’t saints, but they campaign mostly on real issues..."
Is that so? What are the real issues they campaign on? Abolish ICE? Ban guns? About the only 'issue' I see Democrats campaigning on is anti-Trump. Is that a 'real issue'?
3
Wow. The 62,000,000 Americans who voted for a Trump are not fellow citizens with whom we disagree, but bad people. I guess the Civil War comes next?
1
“Good people can’t be good Republicans”
Funny, after being exposed to the Feinstein/Booker/Harris/Blumenthal et al embarrassment during the Kavanaugh hearings I feel the same way about Democrats.
5
It's been quite some time where any good person, i.e. an honest person with morality and ethics could be a Republican.
1
From Plato to Bismark, Paul, you keep forgetting the first rule of political commentary: "only a fool looks for virtue in politics." In politics as in war, a good lie is worth 10 divisions, and the winner gets to write the definitions that make history books come out right. Isn't it ironic, that the greatest crisis of the modern world (according to the NYT), Climate Change, is not so much as mentioned by any Democratic candidate? Why? Because along with all the other exotic PC dogmas of the Left, it is being mocked around the water cooler as another elitist fraud. Climate Armageddon, the UN tells us, is at the door. But if even its most fanatical advocates deem silence the better part of preaching right before the election, do they themselves really believe what they preach? The trumpet is giving a very uncertain sound here. Good Democrats would sweep both House and Senate if they really believed their messengers. They obviously don't.
Recently on NPR, a journalist (I forget his name) described his interview with the head of The Heritage Foundation, a right wing "think tank" celebrating its 50th anniversary. And what we have today is a government of single-party rule in all three branches, a principle goal of this organization, on the brink of autocracy in the worst form. Why? This is not a blatant power grab like some tin horn dictatorship. NOPE! This is disguised as a democracy.
With packed courts of sycnophantic, right wing "originalists," gerrymandering, doing away with the Voting Rights Act and other forms of voter suppression, the former party of Lincoln now has become the party of lies and conspiracy theories using its own state-sponsored right wing media and their lying gasbags at Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, Michael Savage, Ann Coulter, Richard Spencer, Stephen Bannon, and dozens more.
Our democracy is on the verge of being crushed while the Republican Party wipes its muddy feet and bloody hands on the Constitution.
With a mere five days from salvation or armageddon, which means getting the millions of Americans who didn't vote in 2016 to the polls to save this fragile democracy.
1
Any institution built on lies and ignorance will fall. it has to.
1
Oh please. There are lots of good Republicans – perfectly nice people who believe in limited government, free speech, freedom in general, honesty, and the rule of law. If you don’t know any decent Republicans, then you live in a bubble. Really.
Which is not to say that our current President isn’t an embarrassment. Watch some pretty good people from the Republican party run against him in 2020.
1
Dr. Krugman Sir!
Don Trump had initially planned a massive Military Parade on Veterans Day, this coming November 11th, just 5 days after the election. I raised the possibility that Trump was planning to commandeer the nation's government by military force if the Democrats won. I don't care if you think I was paranoid. The military then claimed the parade would be too costly and it was canceled.
Am I really "Ridiculously stupid" as "TIM" of "DCish" portrayed me?
And still, after all the lies and decades of proving just how much Republicans hate anyone who isn’t rich, white and male, polls show races in dead heats. While some may say that it shows great strides when a black woman is within real distance of becoming the governor of Georgia, it also exposes the great ignorance of the populace that can’t see through the lies of her Republican opponent. She should be 30 points AHEAD of him. Americans have just become too dumb for their own good, voting with their emotions instead of their pocketbooks and health. Perhaps we really do need to burn this country to the ground (metaphorically speaking, not in a civil war) before we can rise once again from the ashes as a great nation.
Out with the old and in with the new.
And the new will come from the East.
RIP America, we hardly knew you.
@JB
Sorry. But those of us who know America are hardly likely to give up on it.
The new will come from right here...and soon.
Mr. Krugman, didn't you say Trump would destroy the economy in his first few months in office? And your political expertise -- this editorial about politics is based on your many years in .... economics.
Respectfully, painting all members of a group (in this case Republicans) with the same brush is nothing to be proud of. As a lifelong liberal, I am concerned that in your effort to tell the truth as you see it, you are using the very tactics we rightfully abhor.
It is easy to assign qualities to all members of a group, but when we remind ourselves that people are individuals with unique qualities, we move toward the diversity we desire & celebrate. What would life be if we all thought exactly the same thing? Expressed ourselves exactly the same way? We'd live in a world where we were talking to ourselves while looking in the mirror -- boring.
I hope you will find something to be optimistic about, happier. You sound angry. I'm sorry you believe that the only Republican is a fanatical Republican. Your life must be sad & filled with fear. Do you ever venture out and meet people one on one? Talk to them? Encounter people different from yourself?
I have met wonderful Democrats & terrible ones; wonderful Republicans & terrible ones. Who one is as a human being is measured by daily action, not political party. Let's not forget that our worst fears & highest hopes are rarely realized. Be kind -- kindness is very under-rated.
Peace brother. Peace to all.
2
Eighteen years ago, Krugman could not use the word "lie" in an op-ed column. That was a time of civil discussion when both parties talked with each other.
Krugman now says that the Republican party is defined by its lies. Republicans might say that Democrats are defined by their lies.
As a young man I remember listening to Walter Cronkite explain the first landing on the moon. There were only a few television channels then---everybody shared the same news.
Now editorial boards select among thousands of possible stories. The NY Times makes a different selection than Fox News. You can tell Facebook to feed you the news sources you want to hear from. Many different versions of the news are available. Therefore people live in different realities.
There was a time when the NY Times had high standards of journalism. But the NY Times has become increasingly partisan in the last 18 years. Once editorials were separated from news stories. But now the headlines go beyond actual news and preach to the reader how he should react to the news.
The NY Times has an agenda. If you believe that population growth is a problem you don't find much sympathy with the editors. The simpler viewpoint that it is racist to oppose any form of open borders sells more newspapers.
Trump saw that democracy was on its last legs, that politicians were corrupt. He was cynical. Will he succeed in replacing democracy?
Or will we see our freedoms destroyed by liberal extremists instead?
It is pretty clear that, having accomplished nothing useful for the vast majority of people, republicans are running on fear and nationalism. Democrats appear to be sticking to healthcare and a message of delivering specific, positive policies if elected; they are not taking the bait. That the republicans feel compelled to respond with lies about their positions on these issues suggests that voters---outside of the core basket of deplorables---aren't taking the bait either.
Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld told half-truths and distorted intelligence to get support for invading Iraq, which was an otherwise hugely unpopular idea. They drank their own Kool Aid and seemed genuinely shocked that there were no WMDs and so they started outright lying about things that were plainly false. Aluminum tubes! Mobile biological weapons factories! Ah-aha, a spent chemical weapon, made in U-S... uh-oh. Shortly after W's approval tanked and democrats were swept back into power.
Why wouldn't this pattern repeat itself? W burned through so much good will and patriotism and eventually the lies went from a threat to democracy to a farce. Remember how smug Rove was, telling us about the coming generation of one-party rule?
This is a very old pattern in American politics: You can fool some of the people all of the time or all of the people some of the time.
Is this the weekend column or the daily. Poster Boy for the Dems: Bob Melendez. There is a man we can all trust.
Whiles the lies are "in your face" the real travesty is the gerrymandering and blatant voter supression. Look at South Dekota, Georgia, Kansas, Dodge City for some of the most egregious examples. Republicans do not even have faith that their lies will work that they have to change the playing field as well.
1
In Chicago they are running ads that literally say voting for "any Democrat" will take away your health care and increase you taxes.
Notice to passengers:
The Republican Party is not going back to what it was, however that can be defined. It is now a nationalist, right wing, racist, trolling, propaganda driven, authoritarian party that is transparent in its moral and ethical bankruptcy, and is unfathomably corrupt. No one should think there is going to be a reversion to some less heinous form of this institution. Every consideration you may have from here on out of politics and the future direction of this country, and what you should do about it, need to face this stark and incontrovertible reality.
For those Republicans you may know, if they do not want to among those judgemed of history, they should have by now made a decision of whether or not to get off this train. There is no saying ‘I am an economic conservative,’ that is dishonest anyway. One can no longer parse Republican party membership. The party is despicable. For such Republicans who are uncomfortable with the current racist, authoritarian, lying, hate mongering state of their party, recognize the following: You are in or you are out. If you support them, if you vote for them, you are one of them, and you own it.
If those ‘conservatives’ who leave the Republican party do not want to support the Democratic party, then it is up to them to form a new political party that is intellectually honest, responsible, fact based and that holds country over party. The Republican Party as an honorable entity is not coming back.
The senate, with two members from each state regardless of population; the electoral college, in theory originally intended as a firewall against the election of a demagogue, but now only amplifying the undemocratic senate; and now extreme gerrymandering coupled with overt voter suppression - in combination these superbly thwart our democracy, and now threaten it. The GOP long ago recognized the demographic trends, and formulated a long-game strategy to use these structures to advantage in overcoming those trends. Now, having succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, they also have captured the judiciary, the final hurdle, likely for decades to come. Meanwhile, Trump is working overtime to undermine the free press, the last bastion of truth. This morning's NYT companion editorial about the increasingly dire situation in Hungary is a clear warning. The very same is happening here. In fact, the dark money mission is almost accomplished. We'll know in five days whether it is in fact complete.
1
Sadly, my wife and I rarely mix socially anymore with our Republican neighbors/friends. There was a time where we could have some spirited conversations about policy disagreements---with business men and women making some good points about taxation and regulation. But no more ---all they care about now is a party in control of both taxes and governmental regulations---the means by which these policies are passed is irrelevant, it is always about ends. Trump, in the words of one of my Republican neighbors is a "certified buffon," but he is our buffon.
3
The lies are coming home to roost. States that refused to accept Obamacare's offer of federal funding for expanding Medicaid now have twice as many uninsured as those that accepted. Texas, that bastion of rugged Republican "get government out of my life" individualism, is now the least insured state in the union, and suffering healthwise because of it. People are beginning to notice, and Republicans running for Congress now know they can't win without lying. The Economist has an interesting article on Australia, the only country in the world that enjoys universal health care, low public debt, an affordable social safety net and popular support for mass immigration. The GOP would do well to read it.
7
This is what happens when we stop teaching history and civics. Keep the people uninformed and uneducated and they can be easily manipulated. What other explanation is there?
“Socrates” quoted Adolf Hitler from Mein Kampf about the big lie. It was chilling true.
7
@Stephen Harris
We haven't stopped teaching history and "civics."
The problem is we are not only letting people squeak by when they're not bothering to pay attention, so we need to teach it MORE, until everyone understands it.
People read less than they did 20, 30, 40 years ago. That's also the problem. The uneducated, undereducated and illiterate are the most vocal.
4
If the masses weren't fickle and if democracy was healthy and robust and true, voter turnout would be in the 90 to 95 percent range.
8
Lies define GOP policy in every area--choice does not improve schools, fracking and expanding off-shore drilling does not create energy independence nor do foreign pipelines across America; exorbitant military spending does not improve readiness and is no deterrent to cyber attacks, the new arena of winners and losers; tariffs are a tax that didn't lower costs, increase demand, or balance trade, tariffs only collected money for the government as a tax; GOP healthcare proposals drop coverage for pre-conditions, guns are sacrosanct despite the growing list of tragedies tied to AR-15 knock-offs; raising fees for the national parks hurt families, failing to protect the vote undermines democracy, privatizing veterans healthcare goes against what veterans' organizations want; the tax cuts did not spur higher wages, houses are still unaffordable, and women are daily shamed and humiliated, name called collectively and personally.
A man who invites Kanye West to the White House is a fake. The party that observes his spree is a louse. A nest of vipers! Vote them out!
31
Republicans have one additional goal besides slashing taxes to favor their donors and then dismantling almost all government except for our grossly over funded military to pay for it and it's even a darker goal: institutionalizing Dominionist Christianity as a kind of state religion to the maximum extent they can. Republicans are doing this to stay in power because they need that particular block of voters and politicians and it further advances the nativist message they are using with such success. I want to applaud Paul Krugman for having the courage to write this column and I'm pleasantly surprised that it passed the editors. It has been increasingly clear since the invasion of Iraq that it was very difficult to subscribe to the Republican Party view and be a "good person". That is even truer today and it's about time that conscientious journalists said it.
20
@Mike1968
Religion was the original big lie, the original fake news; the original sin.
Throughout the last two years, with vitriol about immigrants, the elite, healthcare, women's body grabbing parts etc, I thought that we hit bottom and the republicans would stand for their country. Unfortunately they continue to swim in an ocean of deceit and hypocrisy. I've voted Democrat my whole life, my parents were working class dems. My mother is 85 years old, lived through the depression. My dad served in Korea and would be considered a WASP. They were solid democrats. I think my dad may have voted for Reagan, he may have been his only republican vote. My parents and grandparents were not part of the elite. My parents wouldn't follow a person like trump. My dad died years ago but my mother [who is Sicilian) describes trump in words that can't be printed in this platform. In memories of my childhood, the assassinations of JFK, MLK, RFK, the riots in the 60s, Watergate, etc I watched my parents and family struggle to achieve the American dream without maligning minorities or people considered different. My dad was an Archie Bunker type but still believed in equality for all. I hear myself telling young adults that my childhood had been very different than theirs and the sadness I feel that common decency in politics is gone. It has never been this bad in my lifetime. I've early voted for Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat in this changing red state. I'm voting for change, sanity, a return to decency and to honor the America I remember. We are better than this, we have to be.
22
In the 80s and 90s the GOP celebrated itself as the party of ideas and bolstered its power through ideological training, teaming up, gerrymandering.
Starting in the 90s, the most important aspect of the process was obedience to the party line. This has now so dominated the GOP, for so long, it cannot tolerate new ideas. It has become a machine of pure power and money.
What gets me is the people who so deeply identify as Conservative that they cannot see how those underlying principles do anything other than consolidate money and power.
These Conservatives seem to say "so what if money is merit, money is power and money is speech and so what if the economy depends on trickle down. As long we have really rich people who will raise wages without being compelled by government, everyone will be ok. Thus the problem is Trump, not Conservatism."
2
@WJL
Yes, celebrated "itself."
Conservatism is a character fault, along the lines of Fascism and Communism, that denies the inevitability of change and celebrates their fear of change manifest as patriotism.
GOP devotional offerings to working Americans:
1. Gift billions to millionaires and billionaires.
2. Undermine affordable health insurance.
3. Look the other way as wages erode and profits explode.
4. Bankrupt farmers.
5. Loot public education.
6. Do nothing as Medicare and Social Security face ruin.
7. Bestow bounty of public debt on those most in need of help.
21
Print and modern broadcast journalism have undergone a seismic shift in attitudes toward calling out falsehoods as outright lies rather than misstatements or questionable facts. As I recall, the trend began with Donald Trump's claim before the election that Hillary Clinton started the birther movement. That abject lie prompted this newspaper to break with a standard that lasted more than 75 years of not calling presidential candidates liars.
I also noted that in this column Dr. Krugman stopped short of connecting Trump's efforts to spread conspiracy theories involving Soros had potentially contributed to the terrible tragedy in Pittsburgh. Dr. Krugman didn't have to say it because we're thinking it.
16
I call myself Republican, consider myself a good person and resent your thesis. You just don't understand why Trump won, do you? It has very much to do with the press' arrogance and insularity.
Then again, I consider just who it is who is stating that I cannot be a good person, and move ahead with my life.
17
@Wine Country Dude
How about if we try to have a conversation? Do you support Trump? Can you say why?
My strong rejection (I would say even revulsion) of Trump has little to do with his policies. For example, I am for strong borders, but I am revolted by the divisive way he is pursuing this objective by stoking irrational fear, taking extreme and cruel actions (creating permanent orphans) and dividing the country, in what seems like a cynical political strategy. (He sends troops to the border just in time for the election, weeks or months before the caravan arrives.) It seems he doesn't care how much damage he does to the country as long as he retains power.
My deep disappointment with Republicans is again, not so much for the policies they are pursuing - they are not much different from what they have pursued for decades - but how they are allowing themselves to be led by a narcissistic, thoroughly corrupt, anti-democratic, erratic and cruel pathological liar. And many seem to enjoy what a horror show he is. This is why I largely agree with Krugman on this. I can't see how a good person could support him at this point.
683
@Wine Country Dude
If you are a good person and I'll take you at your word why don't you address the issues that Krugman raises? Can you honestly look in a mirror and deny his central thesis that Republican party in general and Trump in particular lies most of the time about their central agenda and even most simple facts which can be easily checked? Perhaps you should consider the parable of the good Samaritan and those who crossed to the other side and moved ahead with their lives.
68
Thomas Kean, a Republican, was probably better than Corzine, a Democrat, but Trump has ruined the GOP forever. Or maybe Bush Jr did that with the Iraq war. Or Reagan, with trickle down economics.
24
On Nov. 6th we are going to find out what kind of nation we have become. Never in my 67 years have I looked at a thing with so much optimism and trepidation at the same time.
I am hoping for truth to be victorious.
28
Here’s the satire we need so we can laugh, when we really feel like crying.
“Americans Would Feel Safer If a Huge Caravan of Angry White Men Left the Country."
By Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
MINNESOTA (The Borowitz Report)—A vast majority of Americans would feel significantly safer if an enormous caravan consisting of angry white men left the country, a new poll indicates.
The poll, conducted by the University of Minnesota’s Opinion Research Institute, suggests that the concept of an angry-white-male caravan could be the most wildly popular policy proposal in the run-up to Tuesday’s midterm elections.
In an indication of just how much support the proposal has, many Americans said that they would personally contribute gas money to help get the caravan on its way.
Despite the popularity of the caravan, however, there was disagreement over what the optimal number of angry white men to depart with it would be, with some suggesting a figure of twenty thousand and others preferring a number as high as forty million.
Additionally, the implementation of such a caravan could face major obstacles; the survey indicates that both Mexican and Canadian voters overwhelmingly oppose any influx whatsoever of angry white American males.”
17
Trump, Newt, Grover, Mitch, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney...a real rogues gallery of lying liars who lied. Yes, they lied and led millions of people to ruin (no hyperbole, no exaggeration).
The lies are but the icing on a cynicism cake: as another op-Ed in the NYT pointed out today, large chunks of the electorate feel disaffected and aggrieved about the state of their lives in America. Lots of reasons why, but a key point was the cynical manipulation of those feelings by folks like Trump for the sole purpose of personal gain, as opposed to a motivation to perform real public service.
I voted early. Straight Democrat ticket. It let me leave the polling place with a lift in my step.
7
Sorry Prof. Krugman, but “our party is less dishonest than their party” is hardly a compelling argument. It does, however, reinforce my disdain for political parties.
5
Professor, the myth of the International Jewish Conspiracy is a confluence of a few economic factors and Jewish characters tied to an interpretation of the book of Revelation.
Because plenty of Evangelical Christians buy into this interpretation of the book of Revelation, they believe a variety of things about the present State of Israel and its role in ushering in the return of Jesus.
They also believe in the role some sinister Jewish characters will play in helping to set-up Jesus' return. Some have speculated about the House of Rothschild; in the 1970's at the heigth of Kissinger's influence, they speculated about him.
Now, some of these Evangelical Christians are speculating about Trump and his role in this whole theory about Jesus' return to the planet, ala their interpretation of the book of Revelation, equating Trump with an Old Testament foreign king, Cyrus.
It seems they see Trump as a necessary means to an end, and have found ways to grant him any number of means of absolutions for his numerous flaws, shortcomings, and sins.
Like it or not, the Party of Lincoln is dominated by such visions.
8
There was a time when the GOP would at least pretend to tell the truth about what matters. No longer. They have no shame, no scruples, no reflection to divert them from Job 1, which of course is handing everything to the rich.
So, the US steams inexorably toward a world envisioned by the Koch Brothers with their cowardly enablers firmly entrenched in D.C. - a nightmarish time at best.
9
There is one thing that Trump does without fail,
he shamelessly commits the sin,
violates the biblical prohibition
against bearing false witness.
With or without the faith, we all condemn sinful acts.
Killing is unacceptable, unless you are at war or threatened
physically by lawless practice.
Stealing is not approved.
Coveting is good marketing, taken a bit too far,
especially if it's your neighbor's wife you covet.
But false witness is something altogether different.
Recounting to others a thing that did not happen,
saying that such a thing took place when it did not-
always in line with your personal gain-
is universally condemned, everywhere.
President Donald Trump does this every day,
hourly, intentionally, with flagrant design.
Somewhere some have to steal to eat.
Some kill to be able to steal to eat.
But bearing false witness is the bottom of the pit.
Saying the thing that is not harms us all.
Everyone is a victim, even his own clueless base.
7
@Bruce
Thanks for your insight. The truth is all that matters.
1
Trump is an income tax and real estate thief who has gotten away with his thievery throughout his adult life.
His admirers -- of whom there are many who are gullible and broke or near broke -- envy and covet his success and believe that as long as he remains President they may be able to achieve similar results.
The manifest negative effects of his Presidency do not concern them at all.
All they are concerned with is the possibility that (1) he may be able to help them achieve their foolish pipe dreams; and (2) he can help them get even with normal Americans whom they accurately perceive as their betters.
This is what rational, common sense Americans are up against as they go to the polls.
An irrational con man with the votes of millions of gullible, envious and broke and near broke followers already in his pocket.
11
The economy has been rising (thanks to prudent measures taken by the government under the Democrats' watch).
Now the GOP says "embrace your inner huckster and go get that money".
It's been a cycle for the last 200 years. Socially responsible governance creates a stable economy, people get complacent and bored, ambitious business people get hold of the reins, grind away the rules and in the feeding frenzy, they crash the economy......
and then it happens all over again.
It's a game, sort of like musical chairs. Lies keep the music playing.
9
As scary as it is that one of our two major political parties is now rotten to its core, far scarier is the fact that almost half the voting population shares, even propagates, this party’s dangerous ideology. What will save our nation from this worsening division and its inevitable consequences?
4
I agree that GOP politicians are doing just what Paul says and it's quite horrific. On the other hand, I think that bad-othering any who identify as Republican is part of the problem with us liberals. If we treat our fellow citizens with condescension (that we are morally better than them), how is it possible for any kind of healing or understanding? Like it or not we have to share a country and if we're not prepared to give up on democracy, we need to restore understanding and tell ourselves better stories than "they're bad uneducated hicks."
2
@Joshua Green: sorry, but voting for fascism makes Republicans morally wrong. A party that chants “lock them up” about their political opponents cannot be negotiated with.
10
The funny thing is, this party is being led by a guy who declared bankruptcy six times. If Republicans truly did believe in social Darwinism, they'd illegalize bankruptcy.
A word comes to mind if the Dems don't capture one legislative branch: Hoovervilles.
8
I supported Trump because I thought America needed to wake up to what the GOP had become. Trump is as I thought an enabler of hate and corruption but It was Reagan who destroyed America. Trump is the GOP but Reagan kept the portrait of Dorian Gray out of sight.
1
Dr. K,
My theory is Republicans lie to capture media attention. Their lies drag public attention to their lies rather than the real issues.
Very talented liars who can appear authentic or sincere as they lie can command public and media attention and this attention feeds on itself. This GOP manufactured agenda for the nation becomes the only game in the country and because of our position in the world can become the agenda for the World.
Don't forget the big one from a Republican President, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
Ronald Reagan said this in the context of a speech from his first inaugural address about the late 1970’s to early 1980’s recession and “stagflation,” where he was pointing out that more taxes and regulations were not the solution to the economic “crisis” that was created by two huge oil price hikes in the 1970s.
However, the anti-government spirit continues to dominate U.S. politics.
1
@james jordan
I've always wondered why that entire inauguration crowd didn't react like the guy with the plaid shirt decades later.
To me, that "problem, not solution" quote stands the test of time--after almost 40 years it's still one of the most illogical, divisive and ridiculous statements a recent GOP president has come up with, and that's a pretty high bar.
The sad part is I want a healthy Conservative party even as a liberal.
I want someone to push back on government getting too big or taxes getting too high. I don’t want unions running businesses that employ them. I don’t want some huge NSA / CIA apparatus that spies on its citizens.
Yet with Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump we’re left with a party of lies and tax cuts for the wealthy. We are living in a time where 8 men own half of the world’s wealth according to Oxfam. That’s crazy. And you want to cut their taxes why?
I can and will never support this.
Please produce a Republican Party that would tempt me to vote for them. Please. Until then I’ll vote Democrat.
2
Paul Krugman would have us believe that Democrats are neither saints nor sinners, but Republican's are Demonic by nature.
Democrats do not hold the moral high ground contrary to this columnist delusional rants. They hold the needs of their wealthy donors in reverence at the expense of their constituency. The 8 years under Obama were not Camelot, but rutter less and dysfunctional. Republican's are all about keeping the US competition and the economy moving forward. Trump has made immigration and securing our borders a focal point. The Obama administration chose to ignore the immigration problem. What we are seeing a rise in radical socialism within the Democratic Party with a push towards income redistribution through great taxation and expanding entitlements. One need only look at the economic fate of the State of New Jersey, for a microcosmic view of what Democratic control would bring.
1
If the Republicans retain control of Congress, yes, expect the worst, but do so knowing that you deserve it for not having voted for truth and sanity in enough numbers.
4
When power is the only goal, truth and the moral high ground are neatly abandoned. Trump has never had much to do with truth or morals and really, neither have modern Republicans; the two are a perfect match.
1
How could an entire American political party turn so bad so fast? That is what I cannot understand. In the past, there was always a core of honorable Republicans. I might not have always agreed with their policies but I respected that they were fine people who saw public service as a way to contribute to American society and values. There was a consensus as to what those values were -- protect the vulnerable and the environment, provide opportunities in the workplace and through education, support science, research, and medicine, support law enforcement and the military, and support women's healthcare, including abortion rights.
It is all upside down now. Republicans seem to viscerally hate immigrants, women's rights, minorities of various kinds, and have some overpowering need to dominate others through bullying, insults, and lies. This happens in Congress itself. They attack the FBI, victims of sexual abuse, and the environment; they associate with white supremacists; and they have no problem with dictators and Russia.
Sen. McCain was the last great Republican. The party is broken now, corrupt, always looking to demean others and attack whatever doesn't personally benefit them.
Trump attacking as "unqualified" Stacey Abrams with her Yale law degree, M.A. in public administration, and years of successful legislative experience exposes the racism and misogyny once again.
Abraham Lincoln's picture appeared in many black households in the past.
Never Trump.
5
@smb
Senator McCain was part of the problem. He's no political hero.
Dr. Kugman has stepped over the line into a Rush Limbaugh style argument. Good people can’t be good Republicans - it just does not read well. We we will still have to look into each other eyes on November 9. We will sill have our children going to the same school. What is the alternative, another civil war?
Let’s dial this rage thing down a notch.
1
I don’t believe all Republicans are bad people. And a lot of Democrats I know are shrill, narrow-minded and self-righteous - hardly my idea of what “goodness” means in a person. But this is totally irrelevant to my voting patterns. We are not in the kindergarten where good kids get an award for cooperating in the sandbox. Realpolitik has nothing to do with morality. It is a realm of power and of conflicting ideologies about how society should be run. The GOP has crossed the line, as far as I am concerned, by encouraging antisemitism, xenophobia, fear of immigrants and anti-globalism. It is not only because I am a Jew and an immigrant but also because such ideologies, when unleashed, can tear countries apart. On the other hand, I am happy with the tax cut. I don’t believe in redistributive justice and I think that income inequality is necessary for the economy to function properly. So I am not enthused about the Democrats’ program (insofar as there IS a program). But the GOP has gone too far into populism. So I hope that the midterms will be a check on Trump. But let me caution you: there will be no return to the centrist days of Obama. I’m afraid the US will have to face the choice between two flavors of extremism.
Who can keep powerful people from lying to hold onto power? I think the answer is that no one can. The only way democracy continues is if voters can can listen to their lies and say "no" anyway.
There are lies and then there are lies.
Anthony Scaramucci says that Trump intentionally lies. Not sure if that's what makes Trump come up with his falsehoods. I think Trump lives in another world - he doesn't really know if he's telling the truth or exaggerating or lying. Indeed I think he's a sociopath - paranoid and schizophrenic - and not in this world. He ought to be constrained in a mental hospital - not in the Oval Office.
As for the other Republicans who repeat his lies or come up with their own, they ought to be in prison, not Congress or any state or local government capitals for being complicit in the destruction of our democracy.
2
If we have to beg and plead to get people out to vote what does that say about our plutocracy? Exactly.
What does that say about the American Character?
We deserve what we get.
"Raw falsehoods,"?
Most Americans are asleep at the wheel.
The corporate tax cuts are not going to matter, when the wheels of justice, (which by the way seem to be on Geological time), leap into action against Russian collaborators, Constitutional violations, and really ugly people working this year in the white House.
1
I totally agree. We have been flying an American flag on our home since 9/11. I told my husband if the Democrats don’t at least take back the House next week I am taking down the flag. I can no longer relate to those Americans who support Trump.
2
This message from a person who claimed a Trump presidency would put the economy into recession and destroy the country.
Hmmm seems not to have any credibility due to hatred of Trump. Hows that economic prediction he made going?
Record employment, record low unemployment for minorities and a roaring business economy.
@Mr Chang Shih An
And yet, it's been less than two years, which, from an economic standpoint says absolutely nothing.
It took GW Cheney & Company, LLC nearly eight years to bust it all up. So stop gloating, supposedly from Taiwan.
Amazing honesty and frankness from Paul! Thank you!
"the G.O.P.’s campaign message consists of nothing but lies" and yet it has millions of supporters and enablers - what does it say about the character of Republican voters - all of them? Hillary was way too kind in her description of them - you know, as they called for her to be locked up.
Trump is the pied piper of dog whistles mesmerizing his weak minded cult of followers still in the nihilist Republican party of trump.
"turned it into a party of bad people" - of mini-trumps.
Imagine "how far a party of fanatics and cynics will be willing to go" in 2020, especially if they lose in this go around!
2
I'm sorry, but when you get to this point - they're bad people, all sixty million of them - you prove the worst of them right. There are good reasons, very very good reasons, to reject the progressive agenda and either vote Republican or don't vote at all. I know too many good people who vote Republican - they don't like Trump - because they think that the progressive agenda is actually worse. I may disagree with them, but that's what they think, and because my job has me routinely leaving my urban liberal bubble and mixing with people from suburbs, the country and even Texas, my efforts to confirm the Republican stereotypes just don't work. One thing for sure, though: columns like this confirm their stereotypes of east coast liberals.
The lying is costing the Republicans members. The is why the panic in the eyes of Trump and what lies behind the continuous voter suppression efforts. It's time to dissolve the party and start another with honest conservative values.
So what's the greater threat to our national security, the caravan or pipe bomb packages? Trick question - neither one. Despite Dr. Krugman's pronouncements, political propaganda is fed to us from BOTH sides. Since the pipe bombs appear to have been nothing but a PR stunt and the immigrant caravan is a true, political and humanitarian issue (one that Europe experienced the year before last), I guess the Democrats would win the award for most political spin - but they're both losers.
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Runnymede, he FBI said the bombs were not a hoax. Why do you think they were?
But, Paul, I see Trump voters on television and read their comments in this and other newspapers and they're happy with him, thrilled in some cases in how much better things are since that inept Obama left and the "he keeps his promises" Trump took over the presidency. They don't think he lies--well, sometimes he exaggerates--but they are utterly convinced that the Democrats are inveterate liars and haters. They and I seem to be living in alternate realities.
If a certain portion of the country insists, obstinately, obnoxiously, and repeatedly, on voting this malevolence into office, at what point does separation become a serious option?
The hour grows late, but it is heartening at long last to hear the unvarnished truth plainly spoken.
In our post-truth world lies and anger win. Republicans own our country because Democrats are still self-righteously denying this Fact.
Since lies and anger win even if you're a minority party like the Republicans, then lies and anger are good. Deny this fact at your peril.
In war, Winning is Everything. And values are meaningless if you don't win. That's why Winning is Everything.
Better get with the program.
Trump is an income tax and real estate thief who has gotten away with his thievery throughout his adult life.
His admirers -- of whom there are many who are gullible and broke or near broke -- envy and covet his success and believe that as long as he remains President they may be able to achieve similar results.
The manifest negative effects of his Presidency do not concern them at all.
All they are concerned with is the possibility that (1) he may be able to help them achieve their foolish pipe dreams; and (2) he will help them get even with normal American whom they accurately perceive as their betters.
This is what rational, common sense Americans are up against as they go to the polls.
An irrational con man with the votes of millions of gullible, envious and broke and near broke followers already in his pocket.
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Wow, judging from some comments you sure did make some people angry, Paul. Besides their anger I noticed some themes. There was name calling. There were requests to moderate your tone. Oddly, the Obama and Bush presidencies played a role. But no one made a serious effort to refute your specific criticisms of today’s Republican Party.
Those citizens defending Trump in interviews and at rallies have swallowed his lies, ignoring the truth and rationalizing their choice by saying his policies are better. It's a sad day when lies are OK only to get the hateful, bigoted ends you want in your deepest, darkest soul. I have no hope these folks will wake up any time soon to the reality TV nightmare we are enduring.
<<< President Trump epitomizes the problem of lying by Republicans, but he is far from the only one. >>>
Indeed. Last week, I’ve had the misfortune of watching Senator Grassley spout on national TV the nonsense that Soros is funding the caravan. With a straight face, a member of Congress, meaning someone who is salaried by our taxes, lied.
Day in and day out, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, another mouth we are feeding, is lying every time she has a press briefing. This time with thinly disguised hatred unlike Grassley’s tired, I just want to be done with this job look.
But Trump always takes the cake.
He read another prepared speech yesterday and, in full Trumpian fashion, went off-script and revealed his true self via old school projection. Said he on national tv:
“These people. They are just given a piece of paper and they read it. They don’t understand what’s on the paper. They just read it. They don’t understand it.”
And in full cinematic irony, Trump goes back on-script. But not before turning the page to the next so that he can read the words written by Stephen Miller.
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Trump is the final fruit of 50 years of Republican fraud. Its Frankenstein.
You’ve been doing crucial work for a long time, Mr. Krugman.
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It would be nice if someone could legitimately argue with your observations, but unfortunately, it's true the Republican campaign has nothing to offer the average (non-evangelical) citizen except for their growing mountain of lies.
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Now that the GOP has been hijacked by Trump & Co, real conservative Americans are left without a relevant voice to represent their interests. I cannot help but wonder if the Republican Party will ever recover from this train-wreck of an administration. Perhaps the days of the American 2-Party system are numbered. A new centrist party may prosper in this political climate.
This is perhaps Professor Krugman's finest hour, his most insightful column among a lifetime of brilliant, unanswerable columns. It is not that I could not have said it better, but I could not have said it at all, but it all is unanswerably true. We must vote every last Republican out of every last office until that party is consigned to the ash heap of infamy and disgrace.
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It's not Trump's base. It's the base he has temporarily borrowed from Fox 'News'.
It was Fox 'News' that created the large run-up in lying, and collected the base that supported that kind of politics.
Long time, past Fox news director Roger Ailes got his start in politics by creating the big lie that there was 'a new Nixon'.
Rupert Murdoch is the biggest liar in the history of our small planet.
After 2000 VP Cheney expressed surprise and appreciation for the support from Fox 'News' for dishonest GOP policy.
Mayer's 'Dark Money', Kruze's 'One Nation Under God,' MacLean's 'Democracy in Chains', and Rothstein's 'The Color of Law' are fairly new books that show the scope of social engineering by right wing billionaires and conservative corporations extending back decades to promote concentration, of wealth and power, and racism. Democratic policies to ameliorate that had a much smaller, but beneficial impact. But the modern conservative movement grew based on opposition to those attempts at amelioration.
Reagan got too much credit. He was only riding that conservative waive. E.g., Gerald Ford objected that he claimed too much credit for negotiation with the USSR. By 1981 premier and former KGB head Andropov recognized their system was not working.
We labelled Reagan the biggest liar who ever occupied the White House. G. W. Bush matched his record. Now Trump and today's GOP have blown the roof off that record of lying.
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" I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me..."
-Bene Gesserit Litany against Fear
Dune 1965 (novel) by Frank Herbert.
There are too many Americans allowing fear to kill their minds and the Republicans are betting on it, just as so many have used it before to control the hearts and minds of so many in the past to achieve their aims/fulfill their agenda.
We must stop the growing Fear being used to kill so many minds and creating millions that can not be reasoned with, stopped, or swayed from their path.
There are too many other issues, challenges, concerns and dangers we need to contend ourselves with and solve...The LAST thing we need is a Zombie Apocalypse War against the living dead minds!
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Yeah all those lies are the cause of low unemployment, low inflation, strong dollar, strong economic growth.
The reason Republicans lie is because it’s effective for gaining political power. This is the same reason Democrats lie. Libertarians and Socialists seem obsessed with truth telling and fail to dazzle.
I prefer lies that cause the least amount of damage to social cohesion. Chaos management seems to be the cause of the Democrats at the present. I will vote for Beto and against Republican divisiveness.
Lies test positive for contempt and loathing. You don't lie to your boss, your family, the people you trust and value.
You lie to those who work for you, those who you think don't deserve honesty, those you view with contempt, and you lie to all your enemies.
So to be clear: Trump lies to the American people because at some level he despises those who either oppose him or those who venerate him, because they're just suckers who don't deserve or want honesty.
He gives his folks what they want, which is fire and brimstone raining down on those Americans who are different, look different and think differently -- the "them" to the deplorable "us".
To his base Trump's lies are a weapons he uses against anyone and anything that's not on his side. It makes Trump clever like a fox for his people to see how he perplexes and vexes those who can't keep up with him, slowed by lie after outrageous lie.
Of course it's the news that lies all the time so why can't Trump just lie right back since he's so good at it?
People rise to the level of their achievements, principles and ideals. Those who don't either dwell in a purgatory of losers or they lie to themselves and fantasize their imaginary success, which requires facility with lies, which leads to the next lie and soon it's a threatening mob of dangerous lies marching malevolently to the border.
It's simple. Trump lies because everything about him is a lie.
And besides, he's made it the new normal.
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Americans vote with their gut based upon whether they simply like the candidate or not.
What they should consider is party platform. Sadly they do not appear to do that.
I’ve not been aligned with the GOP (Greedy Ornery Persons) platform for decades. Hence I cannot vote for anyone who registers as a Republican.
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Over the years Republicans have mastered doublespeak. Since the days of the double meaning of their Silent Majority messaging, right through to MAGA every word that came out of all the GOP's two sided mouths was a naked lie and an appeal to racism and fear mongering dressed up as plain talkin policy of plain Americans.
Lest we acknowledge that truth, one day, after we are afflicted with a President worse than Trump we may look back at Trump as but a mild aberration in the continued and dangerous devolution of all GOP political candidates.
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Another major threat is xenophobic republicans running as independants in blue states like california. they are wolves in sheep's skin. steve poizner a republican running for insurance commissioner, bashed immigrants in 2010. In 2018 he is running as an independant, and claims he does not attack immigrants any more.His democratic opponent ricardo lara is screaming foul. If poizner's tactics worked in california, he would do exactly what trump does in the red states. trump, while he paints every immigrant as a criminal, has sent his lieutenants with a soft message to the other states-'we will preserve pre-existing conditions'. of course they are lying. when trumpism goes out of fashion, if it does, the screaming gop xenophobes will all change their tune for sure. after the gop lied about controlling the deficit, only to increase it by 2 trillion, only they believe in their own lies.
Did you ever see Andrei Tarkovsky's "Solaris"? In an attempt to rid himself of his suddenly-resurrected wife, Kelvin puts her on a rocket and launches her into outer space. She reappears. And no matter what he does, he cannot rid himself of her.
The Trump phenomenon, I fear, is a bit like this. People like Ross Douthat are, even if understandably, quite wrong about GOP voters. Talk radio, Fox News, and the internet have warped the minds of so many people, that their nebulous rage and brutishness will be with us for some time. Trump benefited from special circumstances, but he's an expression of their prejudices and, frankly, their ignorance.
Trump himself may be tied down after next week, and perhaps defeated in 2020, but the kind of paranoia and ill-mannered illiberalism that his elevation evinced is not about to vanish over night. What do we expect from the GOP once Trump is gone? (What will Trump do in his post-presidency?) ... Maybe it isn't fair to say half the country is insane; but it does seem as if madness has befallen many Americans.
They're sleepwalking. They don't see a problem with Trump -- quite the contrary -- and such obliviousness is overabundant. For the sake of us all, the GOP must, in time, change -- it must diversify and become tolerant. As of now, it just has to be defeated. Policy is almost irrelevant. There is a danger lurking here. Sentient Republicans should take note and not fool themselves about what's transpiring, and what's at stake.
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Mr. Krugman ably dissects the GOP lies as an issue of facts versus fiction. But then he writes, "And it’s foolish to imagine that there are any limits on how far a party of fanatics and cynics will be willing to go.” We need to pause and look beyond the mere lies to the attempted actions to see what Trump would really like to do.
We have see the effort by the Trump administration to bar people from entering the US because of their religion. We have seen violent bigotry in the separation of children from their families because of who they are and where they are from. We have seen the calls to “lock her up” and “beat them up” with fatally tragic consequences. These are not dog whistles but actions and calls for acting out bigotry.
There is more at stake than an election. Trump in continued control of the federal government is a Trump unleashed. Supported by a GOP base with its chants spewing hatred will grant him license to act. Lies will be the least of his sins.
Trump intends to do harm and his base will cheer him on. The darkness in his heart will be exalted.
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Whatever the outcome of the November 6th election neither side will be happy with the results. Both sides will cry "Foul" and yell "We wuz robbed."
I dread the aftermath of the election on November 7. It won't be pretty that's for sure.
Cory Booker is a liar, too. All politicians are liars. That's not the issue. The issues are racism, economic ruin, inequality, tax breaks for the rich, trade wars that we're losing, anti-immigration policies, cruelty to animals, global warming, destruction of the environment, religious idiocy and endless violence. And a president whose main accomplishment is bankruptcy.
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Reminds me of the Bietnam arguments, where one side opposed the war and Nixon/Johnson, the other did not necessarily support the war, but they definitely opposed the people who opposed the war.
S
ome of Trumps support come from people who believe in him, and some from people who still oppose Hilary and her supporters
In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. Friedrich Nietzsche
Whenever he lies, they are not falsehoods or misstatements, they are bald faced lies and should be called as such.
The great Republican lie is about gullibility. They attract millions by impressing upon them that only the gullible doubt the veracity of their message.
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