Jane from Alexandria (et all)
Don't give political party migration another thought because President Trump already has a substantial portion of democrats voting for not against our MAGA agenda in November. Men in the trades still own semi auto rifles, still lock their doors, still don't want to be ideologically separated from their wives or children and still pray to God to save America.
8
Scapegoating of the innocent and powerless based on race will naturally provoke comparisons with the holocaust—and should. Isn't that the very meaning of "Never Again?"
88
I am a Jew, and I am aware of some of the history you write about. I am overwhelmingly angry and also terrified for my family's future and for the future of America.
146
It comes down to exploitation of 'white fright' - the fear of losing a majority voice, the fear of other cultures affecting our 'way' of life. Throughout Western history the Anglo races have perpetuated a myth of superiority over non-white cultures. Trump is a knee-jerk reaction to the debasement of that myth by treating the lower cultures as potential equals and not working toward maintaining a white majority.
38
“Novelists made free use of it in their work, scholars used it to prove their theories, politicians to win votes. In doing so they cheapened the Holocaust; they drained of its substance.”
Elie Wiesel 1975.
20
Like fresh cool water, your words are a tonic. It's time for all of us to stand up and do whatever we can to stop this demagogue who now sits in the White House.
118
Well stated sir. There is no crisis at the border.
48
Funny how the Central Americans are fleeing gangs that WE exported to the streets Tegucigalpa and San Salvador by deporting gangsters from L.A. and Chicago in the '80s and '90s. Why do we think vilifying these people, snatching their kids, detaining them and deporting them to countries with some of the highest homicide rates in the world will solve the problem?
78
What's truly depressing is that I can think of no way to reach the guy in the picture.
He's too armored up, first of all by his hatreds. Then there's the fact problem, which isn't just the gobbling of nonsense and the invention of more, but the refusal to listen, the refusal to go look it up. If something real does get through, there's a network of conspiracy theories to paper it over.
And he's afraid: scared of brown people because he suspects that theywork harder than he can, scared of Asians because he suspects they can think better than he can.
To top it all, he's got the same prob as any devotee of Bernie Madoff: he bought in, and can't bear to see that he's been played for a sucker.
Look at the bizarroworld comments here: leftists are this, leftists are that. Krugman's a smarty-pants who don't know nothing. The numbers only show that I'm wrong because Obama cooked the books. Anybody who disagrees wants open borders. You better do what I say, cause we got guns.
I do not think that these guys can be reasoned with: they ain't interested.
They can, however, get whupped this next November.
Please vote.
258
Sir and others,
What is happening in the USA under Trump now is a repeat of what happened in history many times before when nations got in economic or power decline. Lower middle class and labor are the first to feel the pinch i.e. decline in their wealth. Leaders before Trump have exploited the consequent dissatisfaction and subsequent anger as a feeding ground for generating scape goats. Often this lead to racism or wars with other nations to deflect from internal failures. Trump has been doing all of this. He wants Americans to believe the lie that the whole world is the enemy of the USA, immigrants, Canadians, Europeans and the independent press included. And the more the independent press opposes his falsehoods the greater the controversy which he likes because it feeds the image of besiegement. Unless a high calibre and true leader emerges in the USA with a positive, convincing and clear vision for the future to change the present negative mood Trump will remain in power. Just criticising Trump, easy as it is, will not change the mood.
53
I ask my friends in Christ, what would Jesus do? For decades the U.S. has interfered with what's going on in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. We broke it and as Colin Powell says, we own it. The solution is to admit our interference and provide reparations to get these societies back on their feet. The other thing we can do is end drug imports by providing drug treatment to our own citizens who consume the illegal products sent north. In the mean time, we owe these migrants safety from the havoc we've created in their own country.
65
Just like with immigration, Trump has a unique talent for finding disastrous solutions to problems that don’t exist and undoing agreements that do. Trade, nuclear threat, travel bans, Peace accords, military funding, businesses regulations, taxes, just to name a few.
He’s got it all wrong on everything.
41
Why doesn't The Times keep and publish a Dashboard of Accurate Facts on important topics on its front page that the country would have access to and use to widely and powerfully dispute the Fake Facts that are being shouted loudly and constantly by key leaders of out country for their own purposes. The 1st Dashboard could be "Immigration Facts". This one would incorporate the kinds of facts that Paul Krugman included in his June 21, 2018 column "Return of the Blood Libel" that puts the lie to what President Trump is saying about all the immigrant and crime . The media jumps to report every word - including every Fake Fact - that comes out of President Trump's mouth. I strongly believe our country, and our democracy, needs an objective, credible voice that ALL Americans can view regularly to counteract the propaganda that President Trump, and other politicians, put out daily.
68
Great column, Krugman, but it's time to acknowledge the foundation of white supremacy in everything this man has done, from his discrimination against black Americans in real estate, to birtherism, to his presidential campaign, to his immigration policies, to the confederate heading the Dept. of (In-) Justice, on and on and on. Until we as a nation recognize white supremacy as a building block of our country and confront and destroy it, we'll never get it straight.
117
I agree with all that Dr. Krugman says, about the myths that lead to hatred hard to understand. And I, too, with some reluctance, have made the comparison between Trump and Hitler, long before he was elected. But despite all the sophisticated contempt for this country expressed in many of the comments, one thing the Germans did not demonstrate in the initial stages of what became the Holocaust was the moral outrage we are seeing in this country today. Those of us who have been marching since the inauguration wondered when Trump would cross the Rubicon. Dare one hope he finally has? The American people are horrified by what is happening, horrified in numbers -- and possibly even a bipartisan manner -- that is new. We ARE better than this, all our past mistakes notwithstanding.
73
Good point about hatred being the driving force for what is happening. Hatred is the last resort of those who look to find a cause of their misfortunes.
40
Journalists: do not stop the pressure on Trump until all those children are reunited with their parents. Trump may make another mess - as is his habit that is hugely newsworthy, but please do not let up on this one
39
The lies by President Trump about immigration should be widely stated as being wrong.
If immigrant commit less crimes than native citizens, for example, this should be widely publicized.
In fact all the lies by President Trump should be repeatedly shown to be false statements.
61
I'm a retired probation officer who worked at a camp for juvenile offenders near L.A. Most minors at camp were gang members. There were always a few illegals there also. In my 21 years they never gave me any problems. They were grateful and took the opportunity to learn english. Many committed petty crimes on purpose so they could get three hots and a cot, which beats a condo under the freeway. When there time was up they got deported. Many were not gang bangers. If they were from MS-13 they went back to El Salvador. The gang members who were born here and were citizens presented the most problems, being defiant and out of control. But in a few weeks they too were compliant and just wanted to do their time. The recidivism rate was high until they turned 18. Trump's blame of MS-13 has some credibility but it is a blatant distortion of the truth. Latino immigrants are not rapists, murderers, or gang members. They work very hard and don't make waves. Trump is using them as a scapegoat to feed red meat to his xenophobic supporters. He's the racist. Yes illegal immigration is a problem, but zero tolerance is not the answer. It's inhumane and not viable. Of course, if are a billionaire Russian or Arab or Chinese then Trump can let you stay here. You just have to buy one of his properties.
82
I do not doubt your aggregate data, nor do I differ from you in your fundamental analysis. However, it is useful to know that in many rural communities, the meth epidemic has been linked to central American immigrants. Not everyone in rural America is a rube and some have gang experiences you don't have.
Rural America is a generation or two behind the cities in its experience of this immigration. On average, you'll find that the immigrants we know and we work with are fine - it is the ones we don't know. Sound familiar? I heard the same from my racist in-laws in NY and NJ 40 years ago.
A real barrier in any of us understanding each other is to use stereotypes that identify those we don't know well - immigrants, rural folk, city slickers, eggheads- that are derogatory. We all have experiences that are valid and useful for others to understand. Not just economists.
14
Exactly right, Mr. Krugman. Also, I wish the media would spend more time talking about the Border Patrol's own data about the number of undocumented immigrants coming through the Southern Border. According to the figures on the Border Patrol's own website, that number is at its lowest level since 1972 and falling, not rising. It also dropped steadily during the Obama administration. (The data can be found on the Border Patrol's website here: https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/media-resources/stats
Yet, the President and his minions persist in spinning this as a crisis, where none really exists.
As you note, Mr. Krugman, it is being done for other reasons. Nothing keeps a racist base riled up than making them believe there is imminent danger from people who are different from themselves.
46
Mr Krugman, I'm afraid you're correct about all of this. It is a matter of hatred. It is hatred being stoked up by those who hate. I recently read in an article in Mother Jones Magazine about men trying hard to leave hate groups. It is very difficult for them. They find camaraderie in these groups, a common cause. Many times they aren't fully cognizant of who and what it is they hate, but they are deeply triggered emotionally by them, whoever they are.
The damage being done by our present administration and the lack of action on the part of of the party in power will reverberate destructively into the foreseeable future. This is the grim reality. Men and women of good will do have it in their power to be vigilant and vote would be despots and corrupt officials out of office. The truth may be under attack here in the US, but it hasn't won.
22
I am surprised that PK is not using the 'R' word. +plain and simple - rabid racism
19
Since the end of the Civil War until today millions and millions of immigrants have come to America and taken up (mostly low income) jobs. Yet during that time we became the richest country on earth with the highest wages. Until Trump and his enablers took office, we maintained that position, despite having at all times millions of new immigrants working in our economy.
So I would argue low wage workers have never depressed wages, at least not here. They have consistently been a positive addition to our society. We need to throw the haters out of office pronto so we can return to leading as the beacon of freedom of the world.
Steve O’Donoghue
Sacramento, CA
30
Our economy has dramatically changed. Thanks to automation and outsourcing, we no longer have enough low skilled jobs to employ everyone who needs one. While the official unemployment number is low, it does not include those who have become too discouraged to continue looking for work.
We should not be allowing people who have come here, without permission, to compete with our own citizens or with legal immigrants over the remaining jobs. Only 5% of the undocumented work on farms. The rest are filling jobs that our own people would be glad to have.
What is more, the Harvard economist George Borjas found that the undocumented are depressing the wages of our lowest paid workers. While Krugman says there is debate among economists on this, he provides no link to any reports. All of the reports I have read which said uneducated immigrants might help an economy were about other countries, not our own.
In our country, the undocumented allow their employers to save money on wages. Since their employees are not paid enough to live on, they depend on government services and subsidies to get by.
The government subsidizes even the undocumented with free medical care, help on utility bills, free bus passes, and welfare for the working poor such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, and so on.
While the undocumented benefit their employers they cost everyone who pays taxes.
13
There are simply no hard numbers on the number of crimes the undocumented have committed across the country. Every study says this in its introduction.
What Krugman fails to ask is how much our federal and local governments are spending on subsidizing the daily lives of the undocumented. How much are we paying for their medical care, education, heating and cooling bills, free bus passes, free pre-school and after school care, and supplements to their wages under the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit? (The IRS claims it does not have the authority to determine who is legally entitled to be here so it pays all who apply for the credits. It is not necessary to pay income taxes to receive this money.) No one has added up all the money we taxpayers have been spending on people who are not supposed to be here.
This money could be directed to helping our own citizens, of all races and religions, who are having trouble making ends meet. We could be doing a better job of educating their children and of re-training them, if we had not the immediate burden of helping the undocumented.
I do not think that most of our citizens, who are struggling, hate foreigners, but many of them wonder why our government spends so much helping the undocumented when they, themselves, are suffering.
While no one knows how many crimes are being committed by the undocumented, we do know that they are using our country’s resources … resources that our own citizens need.
23
Hello?
While I can find ACTUAL sources for the stats that Dr. Krugman states I can find ZERO sources for such things as “free bus passes, heating and cooling bills, yada, yada.”
Let’s take one--medical care. I have a medical clinic in a casino town. The casinos fly in Mexicans from a town in Cuidad. They are the housekeepers, the maids, the chefs and food prep, the waiters, landscapers, painters etc. They live in horrific sub-standard barracks owned by the casinos. Husbands and wives leaving their children back in Mexico to be cared for by relatives...the casinos won’t pay to house the kids and the local schools won’t let them in.
So they work for abysmal wages so they can send money home to their relatives. No one will deport them as the casinos NEED them to stay open and make obscene profits. The town wouldn’t exist without these INCREDIBLE people.
Only after learning to trust me, did they start coming to see me. They ALWAYS pay their bills even when it’s a public health problem paid for by the state--the state pays for rabies shots after a bite. But this man STILL gave me $600! I told him NO in every language I could think of. I finally gave it to a naturalized citizen and he uses it to help with any expenses that these people sustain.
The casinos take OUT FICA (fund for soc sec and Medicare) In their checks but they get back NOTHING. These are proud good people!
ann--Would YOU travel to another country to support YOUR family at risk for jail?
Prob not!
114
Since most undocumented aliens like to keep their heads down and not draw attention, they pay their taxes and do NOT ask for services. Too risky.
This is just another form of the "blood libel" and it's unAmerican.
48
I can certainly agree that part of our problem is that people repeat the silliest lies, and respond to the facts that should dispel them with conspiracy theories, far-right shibboleths, and truisms.
19
Krugman wrote: "There is no immigration crisis; there is no crisis of immigrant crime."
I am very sympathetic for immigrants, whether legal or illegal. I admire many of them for being hard working and for simply surviving in a foreign land that speaks a language different than their native tongue.
I agree with the second part of Krugman's statement quoted above. I don't think legal or illegal immigrants are any more likely to engage in crime than Americans are.
But Krugman denies reality and exists in some never-never land when he states the first part of his quoted statement above, claiming that there is no immigration crisis. There are an enormous number of immigrants who have entered the US illegally. The tactics they need to engage in just to work create huge problems for tax collection and for administration of Social Security and Medicare. The huge number of immigrants, both legal and illegal, also present substantial challenges due to the demands upon social services that occur even though most want desperately to work to support themselves.
There is an immigration crisis. During the first 150 years of US history, travel from foreign lands to the US was difficult, time consuming, and expensive. Therefore, the numbers that came were limited and our nearly empty land could accommodate them. Today, there are over 6 BILLION people who could be here in less than 24 hours for the price of an airline ticket. We have to limit immigration.
22
"The tactics that create huge problems for tax collection and for administration of Social Security and Medicare” are not those of the immigrants; they involve falsified employee information created and used by employers to hide the income they earn from these underpaid immigrants.
22
Beyond enjoying the bizarre fantasy of six billion people jumping on airliners tomorrow (boy, those Dreamliners are a lot bigger than anybody knew!), may I ask where you get your facts from?
18
The Minnesota rally was a shameful display of bigotry. NIMBYs from small-town areas of the State, and out-of-state ringers, where Somali and Hmong legal immigrants live, flooded the Duluth venue screaming for policies to rid their communities of brown people.
This is not the case in urban areas. The Minneapolis DFL (Democrats) just endorsed Ilhan Omar, the first female Somali legislator in the nation, for Keith Ellison's Congressional seat. Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, is running for Attorney General, and has a good chance of success given his 80% approval in his Congressional district in Minneapolis.
Minnesota has an urban/rural divide as in many states, but the over-the-top hatred expressed by white racists using "immigration reform" as code for raw bigotry, fueled by Trump, was a new low, Many Minnesotans expressed shock and dismay at this vile event.
34
Trump can't rail against his Russian masters, so he needs another enemy that he can claim to be defending against. Immigrants make an easy target for him.
21
Language is a medium by which knowledge is passed and reserved.The ancient the language the more wisdom one might find there.A Nation or people can not fail to embrace ,accommodate and respect knowledgeables and still remain vibrant and prominent.Some Nations remain under the grip of interests who only want to promote themselves and their interests and end up killing Nations' and their peoples' future.Dictatorial systems make a lot of their people hopeless and leave them trying only migration.Some places perpetuated so much grudge and hatred and some carry that baggage with them and did cause damages and much more numerous their quest is to change their lives for better and assist the people of the country they left behind.Pres DT's Admin deserves for consummating the essential elimination of some major threats to the civilized World.However, when it comes dealing with the intricacies of the immigrant fabric's layers consulting Pros whether they belong to past Repub or Demo Admins is a must.Moreover,people shouldn't only try to run away from problems in their homeland they should 1st try their best to influence a better outcome in their homeland.UN and Major powers and regional Orgs have to continue applying pressures on Govs that control power so that they make genuine effort in tapping homegrown talent and resources.Scapegoating through a vulnerable Gp makes things worse, it didn't work in the past and won't work 2day or in the future.TMD.
1
Thank you, Mr. Krugman, for so succinctly describing the true nature of our current situation. My Jewish wife frames the conditions leading up to the horrors of the past in exactly the same way, fearing for her life as we devolve further into hatred and chaos.
Your editorial should be required reading for every woman, man and child in our country. We must denounce this hateful madman (and his cult) before we no longer have the ability to do so.
23
Thank you, Dr. Krugman, for continuing to tell the truth in the face of evil lies.
21
Anti-immigrant vitrio and fervor is rooted in this countries original sin, racism. A permanent, indelible stain on our national conscience. This country is "browning" by the minute. The white race, especially white men, have feared this approaching reality ever since Ellis Island closed its doors and the southern hemisphere became the source of immigration. Peopled browned by their proximity to the equator also strived for a better life for their children. Better education, better employment opportunity and safer environs with a stable government that promises freedoms not available in their world. As a result, this country benefits from new and diverse cultures. Law abiding men and women looking to strive and thrive. Building better lives for their families and contributing to the general welfare of our society. However, the anti-immigrant, Trump supporter sees or more likely, ignores all of these facts. All they see is skin color and the country they once protected by use of violence, discrimination, bigotry and intimidation is no more. "MAGA" is a desperate, feeble attempt to reclaim their white Christian nation. What these "haters" do not realize is that they already lost. Trump and his brand of hate is the last gasp of a campaign of racial hatred. If anything, his term in the role of president, no matter how long or short it will be, will only reinvigorate the very ideals which made this country the desired destination of immigrants wanting better.
16
reverse the tropes.
say They ARE sending their best people, proved by drop in crime rates in big immigrant filled cities.
say they ARE good parents, because they are saving their families from murder and persecution.
say seeking asylum is NOT a crime , so the immigrants are NOT criminals,
say Trump IS a criminal, for closing ports of entry and forcing the applicants to cross somewhere else.
36
Some variation on this could make a good poster.
6
Exactly.
Whenever trump opens his mouth, you can be almost 100% certain that whatever comes out, the absolute opposite will be the truth.
18
I think that the tycoon and the poor white dislike immigrants for the same reason: a desire to retain social status. For the poor person, it's a kind of basic fear of the other who may displace them plus some amount of racism. For the tycoon, there are probably also racist reasons, but as the source of decline for the lower rungs of society, as they greedily hoard an ever larger share of the economic pie, I have to think there is a large amount of cynical scapegoating meant precisely to inflame the hatred of the lower classes toward the immigrants and away from themselves.
14
In December 2016, I read the article below about a 96 year old man's observation of the parallels of our present time and Germany pre WWII
I didn't see it or fully believe it was transpiring here when I read the article. After all the things that have happened and the rhetoric since it's publication I now see things very differently.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/franz-wassermann-96-remembers-...
8
Who are we to believe about violent crime committed by migrants in Europe, Mr. Krugman or the numerous reports in the New York Times which have described the extent of the problem. It certainly is not as bad as Donald Trump makes it out to be, but neither is it as easily dismissed as Paul Krugman makes it out. And therein lies the problem, are we capable of discussing these issues without demagoguing them? Mr. Krugman should use the privilege of having a column in The Times to persuade and enlighten. Instead he makes the angry angrier, the uninformed no better off, and divisions wider. And, seeing as his training is in economics he might occasionally put down his political megaphone long enough to write about the economic problems which underpin so many other debates.
11
"The most anti-immigrant states seem to be places, like West Virginia, where hardly any immigrants live."
'I want to emigrate to America and move to West Virginia', said no immigrant ever. At least for the last 20+ years.
Sorry West Virginians, you have a proud and beautiful state, but you know I'm right.
15
Clinton initiated sanctions against Iraq that ultimately killed 500,000 Iraqi children - but I can't recall a peep out of Krugman at the time.
Both parties have engaged in savage human rights abuses. i'm not pointing this out to absolve Trump.
I'm pointing it out so that the corporate-media and pundits like Krugman will stop sugar coating the bloody episodes in US history - and stop the silly, hypocritical partisan condemnation of the Republicans while ignoring Democratic Party atrocities.
12
Ah, Mr. false equivalence is back.
Take some advice: stop making the perfect the enemy of the good.
16
The picture of the very repulsive man in the foreground typifies to me trump supporters. What is he espousing ? Nothing essential to our democracy I assure you. Such incivility and poor manners and overall coarseness is "infesting" our republic. Heartbreaking.
36
the man in the picture is at the head of a long line of angry Americans. they are seething with fear and hatred, so easy to manipulate.
the question is: what do they fear so much it manifests as hate... and causes them to work against their own self interest?
it's easy to pin it on Salvadorans, or Jews, if the inchoate fear is a hard-to-define abstract: a dawning future that has no place in it for you.
24
The title of this article is unfortunate. It misrepresents Krugman's point. Krugman isn't saying that Trump's paranoid fantasies about immigrants are a new blood libel. Krugman used the blood libel as one of two examples (the other being the Protocols which convinced Henry Ford) of how complete utter lies without a shred of evidence can become rallying points for gullible people.
8
Is there really any doubt that the Trump administration would gas all of these people if it thought it could get away with it?
15
Two wrongs may not make a right but where are the “ Protocols of Right Wing Billionaires “
when we need them?
With Putin as fearless leader their selfish plans go unimpeded.
5
If Congress funds Trump's wall and it is built, then the country will from that point forward be memorialized as a having a hateful and protectionist society that has shut out the rest of the world. That wall would remain long after Trump as a symbol to the entire world that the United States has abandoned it principles and it's leadership role as a democratic country. That wall will remind us daily what we have allowed ourselves to become. Will we eventually have to "tear down that wall" to re-establish ourselves as a compassionate and and truly democratic nation? Congress, under no circumstance provide funding for that odious monstrosity.
12
America evolved as a society to a point where it was possible to elect a black man as its political leader. Its citizens also evolved to where they would accept a woman with a “foreign accent” as First Lady. The photograph that accompanies Mr Krugman’s essay is most revealing.The red accents of the new “uniform” have replaced the brown shirt attire of the 1930’s. The facial expression, however, remains the same.
17
“who tries, for example, to turn it into a “both sides” story — is, in effect, an apologist for crimes against humanity.”
Equivalency arguments have enabled our system to eat our own.
The press strains for balance but ends up legitimizing specious arguments.
Imho, all hate can be traced back to a type of self hate.
Look at the Ancient Greek wars, The Fratricides, look at our civil war, look at family arguments and anger filled divorces. The more the other reminds us of ourselves, the freer we feel to hate, and to fight.
Understanding it is the beginning of changing it.
3
"...we’ve gone from a nation that stood for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to a nation that tears children from their parents and puts them in cages."
Common Mr. Krugman, we done things much more horrific than that. We used biological warfare to slaughter Indians and did a lot of other bad things.
3
Another perceptive column by Dr. Krugman. Tom Brenner's photo should become an icon for the age of Trump.
8
I've seen some theories in the comments about why rich white people would share in xenophobic scapegoating of foreigners. A couple of reasons come to mind. One, it makes them feel less guilty about their own role in causing lower class white suffering. Second, it's just the same paranoid attitude that leads them to live in gated communities. They literally want to turn America into a gated community with a big wall around it.
4
Warehousing might become an ominous trend. Stir in a recession or some sort of bizarre disruption like an electro magnetic event or an attack and it will certainly get worse. Sounds like the mid terms are going to deliver a verdict on the next leg of immigration debate, and how committed voters are to the current agenda.
2
Well said! And what happens after America's next crisis? I shudder to think!
1
Hatred is on both sides of the aisle. Do we want borders or not? Do we want a legal process for immigrants to become US citizens (like most of us) or just allow anyone across the border at any time? That’s what this is about - it’s not racism.
8
It's not a plunge into barbarism as much as it is a release of the innate barbarism that has characterized this nation since it's inception. It's ugly but you can't say it just happened or that Trump caused it. I think we all knew it was there. I am just surprised that the level of intolerance is so wide spread and so deeply felt after so many decades when the arbiters of hate were hiding under their rocks.
9
Somehow there's this notion that a) the U.S. is like Greece, and b) the explosion of immigration will increase the U.S. National "Debt." Not to mention c) People are angry, and immigrants are a convenient scapegoat.
Most of this is misguided. Certainly the racism, xenophobia divides and conquers the electorate.
First of all, Greece gave up its monetary sovereignty to the Eurozone. The U.S. maintained control over issuing currency, so no external, unelected force can threaten to close its ATMs (the ECB did that to Greece).
Second of all, National "Debt" is completely different from household debt. Households are currency users, while our nation is a currency creator.
National "Debt" is more like bank debt. When you have an account at the bank, that's your asset, but the bank's liability (i.e. "debt"). How often do you hear of depositors going to their bank, saying "We're worried about your debt to us, so please reduce interest paid on savings, and increase fees charged on checking so your liabilities (our accounts) grow smaller!"
That never happens...because you don't bank at the Bank of Crazy People...but you will hear plenty of that kind of talk when it comes to National "Debt." In fact currency is just checks made out to "cash" in fixed amounts, good because they retire an inevitable liability (taxes). The Fed carries currency on its books as a liability too.
See http://rooseveltinstitute.org/federal-budget-not-like-household-budget-h... for the history.
3
This chaos and outrage is a deliberately manufactured crisis to create more chaos and disorder in the country, to undermine the rule of law and the moral mooring of America. I believe this is a precursor to the summit with Putin, and that the G-7 meeting, the Kim Jung-Un meeting, and this crisis at the border are all meant to undermine our democracy so that we are unable to manage the great chaos as the Putin meeting begins. Donald Trump’s aim is to destroy the country. This has been his intention from the beginning (recall the in-progress plan to “dismantle the administrative state). The aftermath of the Putin meeting will seal the deal on the destruction of the United States of America.
11
Unfortunately, preaching to the choir. I find myself wondering how to get this message across to those that have no intention of ever hearing it or changing their views? Just trying to respond to friends on social media for fact based discussion ultimately turns into a profanity laced debasing communication from a stranger on the friend's feed. People no longer wish to discuss issues; rather, criticize, insult and win ... so much winning.
5
Absolutely! It is time to prosecute Trump and some of the members of his administration for crimes against humanity. Even if the United States is not a signatory of the International Criminal Court, cases can still be filed and justice can at least be given a forum.
2
MUELLER TIME - AGAIN: I'm with Prof. Krugman on his thesis, current and historical facts and actions he distilled. And many other including Mr. Trump points to the President's affinity to 'very strong' head of respective nations world-wide. Not to say that perhaps this warped policy, actions and consequences are not to deflect from Special Counsel Mueller's investigation. Me thinks it time Special Counsel Mueller 'drop a few more high-valued shoes! And incidentally, isn't Congress suppose to be part of the government? Internationally the USA is failing and 6 billion people know it!
2
Families in modern countries were using artificial means of birth control to limit the number of children they had while the cultures in Mexico, Guatemala,l Salvadoran, and Honduras were encouraging large families. The result is that these countries are way over-populated.
Most rural Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Salvadorans have no more than a 6th grade education, and many have less. Until a few years ago, most rural Mexicans had stopped attending school by the 7th grade, and many Mexican Mayans had never even started school.
The political and financial elite in these countries are happy to have their excess undereducated populations move away.
Their people move here where they continue to have many children. With little education, they are heavily dependent on government services and subsidies. (Many get modern forms of welfare such as the Child Tax Credit. In 2010, the Inspector General for the Treasury Dep’t. said the IRS was paying the undocumented $4.2 billion a year under this program. The IRS also supplements the undocumented’s wages with the Earned Income Tax Credit.)
Many of our own citizens are having trouble making ends meet. Not having enough money has led to the break up of many couples, which means children are growing up in poor, single parent homes. Instead of spending our resources on the undocumented, we need to focus them on helping our own citizens, of all races and religions.
7
Wait. Maybe I am missing something here but don’t you have to be PAYING taxes to qualify for those credits? AND you have to be poor. Everyone receiving these tax credits is poor. And struggling. Just like the non-immigrant folks you are identifying with. I know. I used to be there.
6
"No, the real crisis is an upsurge in hatred — unreasoning hatred that bears no relationship to anything the victims have done."
Hatred has been the name of Trump's game from day one beginning with his hatred of President Obama and his "birther" lies. Trump's speech on the first day of his campaign was a hateful rant about Mexicans.
The people who support Trump are racists and haters -- that's his appeal -- nothing else because he has nothing else to offer.
7
I see more anger and hatred on these pages than Trump supporters could ever generate.
5
People seem to be having a little trouble with the comparison of the "blood libel" and Nazis, to our current situation. Perhaps it is an issue of scale, but then again, very large crimes against humanity generally start off smaller. Hitler started with the physically and mentally disabled and went on from there.
The bigger issue is that the threat being presented is not real, but is peddled as if it were.
Do we have an immigration issue? Yes we do, but it is of our own making. People coming here, both legally and illegally, are coming here for the same reasons that people have always come here (...and our history is not one of welcoming immigrants with open arms.) Perhaps if we create an immigration system that is not designed to prevent immigration in the first place, it might work better.
On an related tangent, that is a mighty pale looking crowd of well fed people who do not appear to have a lot to be worked up about. Truth in advertising might have called it a Make America White Again rally. Face it, the issue with illegal immigration from South and Central America is that the people are descendants of the native peoples of the region, and African slaves, and not the European conquistadors (or people from Norway.)
3
wow, what a photo.
4
I disagree that anti-Semitism was not about anything the Jews did. It's was about everything they did, from shamelessly practicing their religion and celebrating their culture while gaining high positions in elite institutions, running successful businesses and raising even more successful children. It was because they became prominent and constructive members of society, while creating widespread envy, jealousy, fear of differences and the fear of a god-given country being taken from them during their time of economic need. It was because wherever Jews went, they did something to be purged out of that other country, and so they should be purged again. Jews were the vermin, and an entire modern country became complicit in their attempt to eradicate them from the face of the earth, using the most advance technologies available. Not nearly enough Germans fought back, spoke up, reacted at all. Be careful, America, how your minorities are treated in this country, and be vigilant in your desire to fight against the poor treatment of any human being. Because here in our great United States, everyone is a minority- even you, white people.
6
The racism, xenophobia and bigotry fueled by Trump’s ascent will not stop at targetting undocumented immigrants, they are the weakest link but Everyone who is not a christian white evangelist has a target in his/her back and should not rest until this country is rescued from the forces of evil.
12
Bigots and "haters"are hopelessly unevolved.They are void of gratitude,empathy and introspection.If they were forced to take a long, hard,honest look at themselves then have an honest conversation with someone of different views, they would see many similarities.Regrettably people of like nature only feel safe with those like them.What a waste to miss out on such an experience.My favorite thing is meeting new people unlike myself.Always end up learning something and finding something in common...it's what keeps me going.
2
The hatred crisis is right here, right now, in this column.
Radical progressive lefties like Krugman cynically portray all who do not accept their warped statist-collectivist worldview as haters.
They throw the word "hate" around like candy.
Simple actions like enforcing existing law become horrible actions when performed by their opponents. For example, keeping illegal immigrants in chain-link fenced enclosures is currently described by the radical left as cruel and fascist.
But when the same action was performed by the Obama administration, and the illegal immigrants were sleeping in chain-link enclosures wrapped in foil blankets. all was well.
The monumental hypocrisy of Krugman is available for all to view, in this piece.
8
And let's not forget Hitler's "stab in the back" theory, the complete piece of fiction that the Jews were responsible for Germany losing WW1. Trump has already taken steps toward promulgating such a theory; illegal immigrants are responsible for crime, they're responsible for weakening the economy, they're responsible for harming 'family values' (whatever that phrase means in the GOP lexicon).
Soon it'll expand to more grandiose and deluded conspiracy theories similar to the stab in the back theory; illegal immigrants are responsible for the United States becoming a third-rate power, for destroying the economy and American families, for pitting brother against sister. Every one of these objectives would have been achieved by the GOP, and yet each one will be chalked up to illegal immigrants. The stab in the back. The treason that calls for the most unsparing measures. The final nail in the coffin of the American experiment.
6
Your comments are right on. Thanks. It's about time journalists stand up and call out Trump and his supporters on matters of race. The photo with this op-ed is priceless and confirms a picture IS worth a thousand words. There is hatred in those eyes and the snarl bares this fellows fangs and heart.
It's about brown skin and those speaking Spanish.
A warm up to all this immigration stuff is how quickly and deliberately Trump strove to undo what Obama had done. Oh, did I mention Obama is black?
A border is an imaginary and arbitrary line drawn to separate people. Why is crossing that line a crime? Crime is something criminals do. Immigrants don't commit crimes; they just want a better life.
5
The presumed context of Trump's and the Republican's policy is that we must protect the border. From what? Why?
More immigrants have been heading back south of the border than coming north (minus net migration) in the last five years. Numerous studies have demonstrated that immigrants, legal and illegal are a net plus for the economy. They pay more in taxes than they take in in services and with our extremely low unemployment, businesses need the added labor. Working age individuals are a higher percentage of the immigrant population than the native born, thus benefiting all of us. And immigrants are incarcerated at half the level as native born citizens (illegal immigrants even less than that).
However, all of this is irrelevant to the anti-immigration folks (as it is based on facts and logic) and Trump knows it. What's motivating his people is the desire to inflict pain on scapegoats, and unconscious fantasies of being "infected" by those brown bodies who are unconsciously experienced as carrying all of the negatives we feel in ourselves, which we then project out on to "them."
While Trump is not Hitler, and the U.S. is not Nazi Germany, these are the same dynamics that operated in Germany in the 1920's and '30s. And when the economy unravels in a year or two from the tariffs business and the huge deficits from the tax gift to the rich, our natives will be even more angry.
We may overcome, but I wouldn't bet the ranch on it.
7
Humans are programmed in their prehistoric hind brain to fear the "other". It meant survival back in the caves because the people in the caves two hills away want your waterhole, or your women, or your children and they'll kill you to get it.
And they probably looked a bit different. Easy to kill them because the "others" do not look like real humans.
Many humans have strong empathic responses which makes it easier to combat this reflex.
Most do not.
1
People in Phoenix have lost jobs to illegal immigration. Dry Wallers lost jobs because they could not compete with the illegal immigrants who stayed without families and didn't have expenses like citizens. This is a fact. Only the depth and breath of this issue needs to be explored why reject this reality at all. For theoretical purposes, assume that everyone coming over the border could write like Paul Krugman for the NYT. Won't this impact Pauls job writing for NYT. Isn't this what happens with low skilled jobs. Why don't we accept this reality of many low skilled Americans.
11
Justin Joseph, those are very fair points and I don't doubt a significant degree of validity. But I'm totally against Trump's anti-immigrant bias and the lies underlying it. Immigrants provide a net economic benefit, they commit crimes at lower rates than citizens, and we have treaty as well as moral obligations to accept our fair share of legitimate refugees.
I do think we need massive immigration reform that regulates the numbers and skills of those coming in. We need a bipartisan agreement based on immigration, economic, and labor facts. We also need to separate the issue of legitimate refugees from economic migrants.
Lastly, we need to recognize that base level skills like hanging sheet rock (as opposed to the more demanding finishing work) are entry jobs and the initial stop before higher skilled and better paying jobs. Our indigenous population needs to value lifelong education and demand the best available be provided. Healthcare benefits, leave, and retirement should be at levels that optimize individual security. They should be at prescribed levels, ideally across states, so companies compete on a level playing field.
Again, I appreciate your comments but wanted to give context for my objections to the Trump demagogic white nationalist response to immigration.
9
We need to reclaim our national spirit and reject this jingoism and hatred.
6
So strange how so many well read people think that by comparing anything Trump to Jewish persecutions is somewhat of an intelligent explanation of the wrongs that are being committed today even in their name. As if they were the innocent bystander in the name of whom those wrongs are being committed and they don't know how to handle it.
Btw, the BBC reported in January 2018 that Lower Saxony, considered an "average state" in Germany, had seen a10% rise in crime in the last 2 years, 90% attributable to young immigrant males. They further reported that this isn't surprising as most crime everywhere is committed by this demographic group, immigrant or native. Hard to believe young male suddenly settle down because theyre an immigrant.
2
Yesterday data was released showing the death rate among Caucasians is exceeding the birth rate in this country for the first time. By 2045 whites are projected to make up less than 50% of the US population. Causative to recent events? Unknown, but certainly a very high correlation and likely explanation for the fear mongering and racist concerns coming from individuals previously thought to be “good people”. Fear of becoming the minority could be a powerful motivator.
2
BrewDoc, one thing sometimes overlooked is the increasing rate of interracial intermarriage. That's only likely to increase. In one or two hundred years, and maybe sooner, the issue of whiteness will hopefully be irrelevant unless the shrinking white power structure wants to make it so. By then almost every extended family will have numerous interracial relatives with the usual range of faults and accomplishments based on individual and not racial characteristics.
I'm stipulating Trump doesn't get us all killed in a nuclear war or climatic meltdown. And we learn a major lesson about the evils of racially motivated demagoguery. I know, slim chance. But here's hoping.
1
And yet we are reminded by serious people that these camps aren't exactly Auschwitz. For sure they aren't. But as Krugman pointed it out, all of this is heading in the same malodorant direction.
To those that would say "it would never happen in America", I would like to remind them that not too long ago we did not think splitting kids from their parents and putting them in cages for the "crime" of fleeing crime-infestated, poverty-ridden places would ever happen here.
How many things we used to say the same, and yet all came to pass.
Folks, this is done in our name. History will judge us harshly if we do not deliver Trump and his minions the thumping they richly desserve in November. Stay angry, and turn that anger into resolution.
8
Well said. I loved the snarky "yeah there is correlation, negative correlation". Unfortunately for the rubes and bozos they may find out too late, we actually need these people. Reason, the rubes and rural layabouts of the MAGA white race won't do the work these people will at the wage those wonderful billionaires are willing to pay. So say a prayer for the hard working people, say a prayer for the salt of the earth. In this case an immigrant.
6
I guess I'm not sure where to start. Has Mr. Krugman not been outside his rarefied environs of New York or Coastal California? The country is becoming a bumper-to-bumper swelling mass of (both native and immigrant) illiterate, diabetic, low-skilled, celebrity worshiping idiocy. It makes absolute no sense to mass-import an immigrant underclass into this reality.
Beyond this, while questions of crime and income are important, there is the question of culture. Most of us in America wish to remain in the Anglosphere, not drift into the Latinosphere as a hybrid of Guatemala and Honduras.
3
If that picture doesn't perfectly represent Trump supporters, nothing does.
10
This situation did not happen overnight. People like Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Bill O'Reilly, and the other haters sowed the seeds for this ugliness. Making unfocused anger fashionable became a trade craft on Fox, and that mental sludge was going to find an outlet somewhere.
8
The connection between fear of immigrants, fear of crime, and anti-Semitism goes back even further. Political anti-Semitism was unknown in Germany before 1881, the year in which Tsar Alexander II, the liberator of the serfs, was assassinated. In the aftermath, pogroms were organized against the Jews, and the response was massive emigration from Russia to Germany. This prompted a reaction in Germany, the leaders of which were the historian Treitschke (“the Jews are our misfortune”) and the Kaiser’s preacher, Stoecker. The message they were putting out was that the Jews were responsible for an increase of crime in Germany. It wasn't true. A Jewish historian of the Papacy, Samuel Löwenfeld, published a pamphlet, “The Truth About the Jewish Contribution to Crime,” in which he proved, from published data, that the crime rate among Jewish immigrants was lower than that of the population as a whole. But by that point, facts and rationality were beside the point, and the poison had already entered the nation’s blood stream.
3
Don't want to support the billionaire Koch Brothers' politics, don't buy Georgia Pacific/Koch Industries products which include Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Quilted Northern toilet paper etc.
4
Starting in the 1990's, many of us lost our careers as corporations laid us off and replaced us with cheaper foreign workers. These jobs were not for the poor or illiterate as they required - at least - a Bachelor's degree. Corporations lied to Congress. Most recently, the same scheme has hit workers at Disney. Donald Trump believes the lies and wants our immigration plans to favor the highly-educated. This scam must be stopped or many more of us will end our working careers delivering pizza.
1
“A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles.” – Thomas Jefferson
2
Sorry, I have NEVER heard Trump rail against ‘immigrants’; only ILLEGAL immigrants.
6
Whites know Trump is their last chance, their Great White Hope.
Reagan never panned out. Bush 41 was a major disappointment. Bush 43 had great potential they thought (born again, Texan, willing to kill Muslims on a sub continental scale) but not even HE was virulent enough despite being the proto-Trump.
No, white America knows there will never be another for them like Trump. They view him in eschatological terms.
That is why I've maintained all along that it would be more productive to "re-educate" Trump's base through the same methods used by Trump himself: selective use of legislation and the tax code that targets red state America.
There cannot be a return to normal order once Trump is gone. No olive branch, no comity and bipartisanship, no more being the adults in the room.
From the January 20, 2009, crowd who met at the smoke filled steak house in DC to plot against Obama to Merrick Garland, to Kremlin/Comey/MSM, no more!
No more Joe Scarboroughs and Steve Schmidts using Democrats as stalking horses to defeat the party of Trump and return to power the party of Lincoln.
You are either a Democrat or you are against us. We need our own SB1070 papers please law: "Show me your voter registration card."
No more enabling Republicans. No more negotiating from our own 10 yard line and no more excuses from white women who wake up the day after election day wondering "how can THIS happen?"
4
Thanks for telling the truth. Paul, you are right there is no immigrant crisis, no correlation between illegal immigrants and crime. This is not about facts and reality.
But is about a murderous fantasy of hatred and anger and resentment against scapegoating minorities, that is used by a demagogue like Trump for his political advantage and his own personal popularity.
The truth is that Trump is a demagogue of utter moral depravity and in the tradition of the Fascist tyrants of the
1930s. He uses his Wall and his malevolent immigration policies as they used anti-semitism to bond with his deluded and infatuated supporters who are full of anger and hatred like him. They love him for this.
It has happened here. Tell the truth Paul! Repeat it over and over again and envision his rallies as an American version of Nuremberg!
3
In my view the answer is quite simple. If our hatred is directed at people who cannot defend themselves it serves as cover for the people (the top 5 percent) who are really doing the raping and pillaging of our recently but not currently great country. Soon they will have it all and we will be the scorned poor being put into detention facilities.
6
Is Trump hateful or is he purposefully being hateful? Does it matter? Trump has released us to hate...
What if Trump is punishing America for allowing his impeachment investigation to proceed? For disallowing the myth of the all powerful white oligarch shaping history in his own image? To drown out the trumpeting elephant in his boudoir as a ploy to demean and delegitimize the institutions, processes and people that are going to find him guilty?
Perhaps. But the truly extraordinary thing about the hatred and ugliness Trump has unleashed is how he has brought along the GoP rank and file and its vested interests. Is it really possible that a Trump addicted Republican plurality does not recognize that tearing children from their immigrant parents is wrong? That we are treating our allies badly and making friends with thugs? That we are trampling Christian teachings?
Motives are interesting. Important in criminal proceedings. But the darkness Trump has loosed on us supersedes discussions of motives. He has released and stoked deep frustrations turning them into hatreds on the part of his white, right wing adherents. But he has also released the rest of us, the vast majority, to hate intolerance, bigotry, mysogeny, greed, bullying, cruelty and dishonesty. And he has released us from tolerance for those who harbor such beliefs. That alone is going to cost the nation dearly. Trump has released us to hate. And that's something we're too good at...
3
It's gotten where you can't even associate what's happening to National Socialists. But the thing is, we really should be associating ICE to the Schutzstaffel (or in German the Protective Echelon). I really feel that the ones that think should think and converse with the right analogies, veiled or not!
One last thing, you forgot Tennessee when you said West Virginia.
2
Please - share this on your Facebook page. I've had a few "friends" who support the Trump view. If we can turn a spotlight into their souls, they may come into the light.
3
The comparison with Nazi Germany, despite any protests to the contrary, is quite apt.
No-one's being outright murdered in the streets yet, but I suspect that's only because the scapegoating hasn't been legalized yet.
The thing we must remember is that not only immigrants are being scapegoated; but in a twisted way, Trump is being scapegoated as well, by his own party, the Republicans.
Ultimately, it is the Republicans who are responsible for all of this, as they enable it every day, let it happen, support it quietly by inaction, and then applaud that Trump is taking all the heat for their crimes against humanity (for which there will be trials, no question).
Another, larger thing we must keep in mind, though: we are seeing, throughout the world, the first signs of the consequences of climate change pressure. Mass migration is at its highest level in history. This is due to climate change, and thus inevitable now (too late to fix what's been broken).
The rich want to lock out the poor, the refugees, the immigrants, above all because - despite all their seemingly ignorant, loud-mouthed denials - they absolutely know that climate change is very real. And that, when push really comes to shove: they will be the first to be wheeled over the cliff. They are the ultimate target in all this.
So meanwhile, they take out their fear and hatred and plotting against the rest of us in this way. Until we finally react, and go beyond incivility on Facebook.
1
Even NYC has became much more civil and friendly with the increase in its Hispanic immigrant population over the last 20 years. It was much more rude before then.
3
"Where does this fear and hatred of immigrants come from?"
Hmmm. Maybe I'll watch this Lou Dobbs guy and see if I can come up with some answers. What network is he on?
2
Thank you for this piece Paul.
2
The U.S. seems to take in 1.3 to 1.4 million migrants a year whch is less then .4% of the population. Perhaps 300,000 or 400,000 on the Southern Border. If worried about the influx one could deport immediately people engaged in criminal activity, require new migrants to have jobs and pay taxes So far an open Southern Border would not appear to overwhelm the U.S. It it becomes a problem it can be dealt with later.
Separating Families against their will and placing children in "tent cities" should be called by its proper name kidnapping. Unfortunately, when the state engages in criminal activity one cannot easily prosecute the persecutors as was famously found out in Nazi Germany and elsewhere. If this activity continues it would be good if England, Germany or even Russia brought this crime before the International Criminal Court. While not likely to change the U.S. at this date any country engaging in mass kidnapping of its citizens or aliens should obtain at the minimum this sort of adverse publicity.
4
Unequivocally, there is a crisis of hate, and it has been brewing for decades with the spread of Fox News and other hateful propaganda networks.
The other close analogy that comes to mind is Rwanda, where the Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines played a key role in whipping up hatred for political gain that resulted in a genocide.
We know how this ends if we don't stop it.
4
Donald the Menace was born upon the close of World War Two during which time, and for many years into the following decades, numerous War movies and shows were compiled and played. Our conquest of Nazi's may not have played well in the Trump German family. Of course, as you know, that abundance of war movies was largely propaganda continued following the wartime theater newsreels teaching the public movie goers. It's unfortunate that Trump, of German ancestry, may have been enamored in his formative years with the Nazi's depicted in films and may have even felt sympathy for the Nazi's following their defeat and occupation. Most of us learned from all those Nazi movies not to be Nazi's and some people may have sympathized with them and chose to follow them. The parallels are staggering.
1
How does one understand the mind of someone like Lou Dobbs, a Harvard-educated man, whose views on immigration have become more rabid over the years? I used to watch him, when he was criticizing government bureaucracy. I assumed he was a conservative and Republican but not a racist and a hate monger. He used to have a program, I recall, on CNN, but then switched to Fox News. Maybe he started talking with Sean Hannity, Bill O"Reilly, and Laura Ingraham and few others with different opinions.
2
The body politic is sick with a devilish fever afflicting one third or more. Trump is both the purveyor of illness and the peddler of snake oil treatments.
He makes up a problem, repeats the same lies daily, and offers the most extreme and unproven remedies.
He’s surrounded himself with incompetents, fellow grifters, and moral cretins. And then he’s downgraded them at regular intervals in a fashion suspiciously suggestive of recursion to the level of his meanness.
The resulting toxicity is seconded by right wing media. All the while, supposed congressional statesmen run silent and deep, too afraid of their own shadows (and sick voters) to stick their heads up. Or at least express an honest thought or degree of moral outrage.
Even the ‘honest’ ones won’t go so far as to threaten caucusing with Dems, because, you know, those folks are worse than lepers.
Only radical surgery will fix this. Trumpism and all its underpinnings need to be named for what they are and then extirpated.
Those temporarily deluded might be saved, and every effort should be made, but a winning and governing majority won’t require much more than the HRC vote plus the third party delusionists of 2016. Add #metoo for good measure.
One wave election in 2018 and healthy optimism will quickly return. Trump‘s fellow charlatans will scurry for the shadows and being irrelevant, largely ignored. Trump under assault will probably quit before he’s fired. A sentence to a cool jail cell would be the topper.
2
Thank you Paul Krugman. A most erudite, and chilling, column. Things are getting scary.
2
Cmon. They're not using cages. The issue is cultural. It is qualitatively different to live and work among illegal aliens and others. Ask someone who does it. We're not talking about trends and inflection points of the "problem" but simply the issue as it exists. It needs to be addressed. Heretofore not so much obviously. Call it antisemitism. Societies should choose their norms while respecting human rights. That is a liberal value. An ordered society.
1
Repeat it,again and again, the real crisis is an upsurge in hatred — unreasoning hatred that bears no relationship to anything the victims have done. And anyone making excuses for that hatred — who tries, for example, to turn it into a “both sides” story — is, in effect, an apologist for crimes against humanity.
Repeat it.
1
“With great wealth comes great responsibility.”
With our current president, his administration, and plutocrat supporters, all that their “great wealth” has conferred on them is the power to inflict gratuitous cruelty on the most vulnerable among us - now including thousands of migrant children. They have no desire to give back, only to take more and more. They must be stopped before they destroy everything good and decent about this country.
Mr. Krugman. Economics.
In the digital age of closed circuit channels there is gold in them there hills. Lou Dobbs is making more money holding peoples attention with bombast than with reasoned thought. It is the tenor of our "modern" age. As usual follow the $$$$
this is the calm before the storm. i suggest we'd be in a much different place were it not for the plunge of our purported representative democracy, into an abyss of corrupt career politicians guided by $$$. tetm limits and finance reform now. that should drain the swamp.
I read yesterday's transcript of trump's cabinet meeting and, while reading this deluded exhortation to justify criminal charges for a federal misdemeanor or why Democrats are lawless ingrates, it struck me that this president speaks like the Citizen, a character in James Joyce's Ulysses. It is the same xenophobic, tribal intonations sputtered in a stream of consciousness, the sheer disjointed connectivities of which reveal a paranoid, distempered mind. It is as though Joyce's character found physical form in this president. Remarkable. Joyce accurately captured the thought process of trump through his rambling, semi-coherent rants a full century ago.
6
An afterthought about Henry Ford: There's heartening evidence that the bigotry of an individual does not have to become a family curse.
A 2014 article in The Washington Post notes that the anti-Semite's grandson, Henry Ford II, campaigned "to support both the American Jewish community and the State of Israel — positive efforts that helped erase much of his grandfather’s negative impact."
I believe that something similar lies in store for many American families, in various walks of life, that are now tainted by the pagan cult-worship of Donald Trump.
I suspect it will be until Trump's grandchildren are mature adults where we'd see even a remote possibility or a reckoning of their grandfather's actions. If, at all.
A high percentage of immigrants have very little formal education, if any. To pretend this is not at least, cause for concern is dishonest to say the least.
1
"A high percentage of immigrants have very little formal education, if any. To pretend this is not at least, cause for concern is dishonest to say the least."
As do many of Trump's supporters. And it is great concern.
3
Ugly reality about life in a community of immigrants........Most crime goes un-reported, since there are additional language, cultural, societal barriers to trusting the cops. Most immigrants come from a despotic culture in which it is assumed that the cops are even more criminal than the criminals. Better to pay extortion money than get beaten senseless in a jail and have your watch stolen....
3
My heart is breaking and I am scared and I am not even an immigrant.
3
This not just about the immorality of separating families. Trump and the trolls at the Heritage Foundation and Koch Bros fronts are continueing the attack on Blue States by stressing social services local government and even schools and housing. They don't want to pay for it and so make harder for True Blue Americans to keep the DREAM alive. They are Destroyers.
4
As Thomas a Becket once said, “of course, one always hates what one wrongs”.
Human nature hasn’t changed much in the 900 years since he said that.
5
Dr. Krugman, thank you for your compelling voice. I too wonder and fear where it will all end, including the spectre of flash murdering MAGA mobs and pockets of genocide. But at least on our country we used to welcome immigrants, whereas in Nazi Germany, like the rest of the world, the hatred fell on ripe, well tilled earth. They already hated Jews. We've periodically hated immigrants (Rachel Maddow has a great show about our anti-immigrant convulsions) but it doesn't have the entrenched myths of anti-Semitism. Maybe that's changing and we'll see our first pogrom. It seems like there is no bottom for Trump and his supporters. And we're well into the throes of hatred for each other. I can't think of Trump and his people without loathing. It's a horrible time in this country - and yet we have a strong economy and low unemployment, crazy, not comprehensible. Is this really what happens when a people have to share, and thus to their mind, lose some of, but to them all; their birthright of privilege? But you're right, that's not what the Holocaust was about, the Holocaust too is simply beyond ken. i.e. unless good people act, and it is happening here
2
Isn't it true that all empires travel like paths, from some form of "we the people" through bloody fascism and suppression of dissent, to the final worship of the wealthy as owners of the people and the country?
Such is life, and while we can fight for our democracy, one has only has to look at the face of the far right trolls who infest out lives, to see the face of our future if we just let things go.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
2
A little over a year ago many Brits were laughing: "Did you see who those crazy Americans chose to be their president?" We stopped laughing around the time of Charlottesville and now that our jaws are permanently in the dropped position, we can't laugh at all. Mr Trump recently stated that the U.S is now respected around the world. It is not. I mean, really! Tearing apart families? Using words like "infest" in the same sentence as "migrants". What is going on in your country is chilling. The slope is slippery and it appears your president had already dragged you half-way down.
7
Prof Krugman-
What about those of us who work for free taking care of illegals who show up here with nothing? Almost 40% of my city hospital business? What about schools in NY and TX who educate illegal children whose parents pay no income taxes, and work off the books?
1
What about them? Have you ever heard of the Good Samaritan? You, sir, underestimate your privilege and underestimate the value of helping the needy.
3
Eileen- to what end?????
I have never heard a progressive define when 'progress' ends and it seems that it means when working people give everything away to others.
Enough. we cannot take care of everyone in the world. My privilege is in part luck, but mostly earned.
"Democrats are the problem. They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and INFEST our Country,"
- Donald Trump
"INFEST: (of insects or animals) be present (in a place or site) in large numbers, typically so as to cause damage or disease"
- Oxford English Dictionary
"EXTERMINATE: Destroy completely.; Kill (a pest)"
- Oxford English Dictionary
90 PERCENT: President Trump's approval rating among Republicans for the week of June 11-17. (This is a high as it has been since he took office).
- Gallup
ZERO: Number of Adult Americans who will be able to credibly claim that "they did not see it coming' if this hatred continues to escalate to point of mass violence as it has so many times in history.
"No, the real crisis is an upsurge in hatred — unreasoning hatred that bears no relationship to anything the victims have done. And anyone making excuses for that hatred — who tries, for example, to turn it into a “both sides” story — is, in effect, an apologist for crimes against humanity"
- Paul Krugman
7
As one comment said correctly, immigrants are the target of non-college educated whites. The issue is that humans will almost always target the next lower class instead of the upper one.
And it is such a paradox. The discrepancy between the have and have-nots has been the main reason for most Trump supporters' discontent. It is the culture of winner takes all that is the real cause here, and Trump voters fervently support the very man who is the ultimate representation of the worst side of that culture, the ruthless, bullying, immoral, cheating and lying sociopathic extreme of it. The sick person who will grab anything he can and say anything to get what his small minded ego wants.
I am coming back to Hillary Clinton's description of the "deplorables". In a place where as a white middle class American one does not have to fear persecution and death threats in drug-war ravaged countries and then having ones kids separated from you when fleeing from it, that description is very appropriate for the shameful behavior of Trump supporters.
This is not ignorance, this is not a lack of education, this is willful, conscious indulging in hatred. That is and always will be the expression of a deplorable person.
4
My wife and I have worked in manufacturing for over 30 years. Every single facility we have worked at has been shut down and moved to Mexico.
That's not hatred, it's fact. There are 11 million able bodied legal citizens who don't have jobs and half of them are on pain killers, but Krugman and his cronies are angry about 2,500 illegals.
Can we get our priorities straight please?
3
Wrong article. Krugman isn’t writing about tariffs or trade conditions with Mexico, or the locations of factories. He is discussing the upswell of hatred toward immigrants.
We can care about opioid adicts and separated immigrant children at the same time. Loss of a child is not trivial. The lack of paperwork means some of these children might never see their parents again. Do you wish that on anyone?
Our priorities can be to show the same compassion to these immigrants as we did to those at Ellis island and also address opioid addiction and the down tick in manufacturing jobs. Why don’t we agree here today that we can make both our priorities
4
This 4th of July I will not be celebrating, instead mourning the nation the United States is becoming.
3
The Time Magazine cover says it all. A big bully towering over a two-year old Honduran girl. The hatred is remarkable. And somehow all this hatred is engendering more hatred. Krugman is right.
4
Conventional, as ever
First they came for the illegal immigrants, but I said nothing because I was not an illegal immigrant.
We can already see where this is going, and thank God millions of us are speaking up. Among the more notable - Steve Schmidt, long-time Republican strategist, has just condemned and left the Republican Party and is urging everyone to elect Democrats; Michael Bloomberg, ex-mayor of New York City and billionaire, is pledging $80 million to electing Democrats in the midterms.
I'm just a little guy, but I'm looking for a progressive candidate or two in swing states to whom I can contribute what I can afford.
Down with Trump and the rest of his horrible, fascist bunch!
5
It is dangerous to paint everyone concerned about illegal immigration as haters. Many, of course, are, but many have a legitimate concern about the need for a reasonable immigration policy that includes control over the borders and other points of entry. We need and should want immigrants. But we should want them to come here in an orderly and legal manner. Trump is a nasty piece of work but the concern about immigration is not limited to bigots and no nothings. Many Americans have honest concerns about uncontrolled borders and trespassers. Let's not allow ourselves to take all or nothing positions but rather support practical reforms of a broken system
3
I have lived among reactionary Republicans my entire life and I have come to the conclusion that they are not thinking with their rational minds. They cannot be reasoned with because their sadistic behavior has nothing to do with any problems in reality. Krugman is dead on with this article because their defining feature is insane hatred.
They believe God will cause the apocalypse within their lifetimes. They believe global warming and natural disasters are caused by working women and gay sex. They see all those who are non-white, non-Christian, and non-conservative as sinners who must be punished. Their punitive and paranoid worldview has been the backdrop for American politics since its founding. That white Christian America is now finally in danger of losing its iron grip on power is what has thrown them into this frenzy of mindless cruelty.
I have no hope that any of them will ever be repentant or less crazed and spiteful.
Democrats are on the whole rational and want to solve real problems. Ignore the frantic blame game the media and the reactionary right are playing. The appalling hatred of the Republicans is not about money or the mistakes of the Democratic Party. Anyone who says so is an apologist for unspeakable crimes against humanity. If you care about the future of America vote in November for the best candidates available. We can start solving our real problems when the sadistic bigots are on the sidelines, where they belong.
6
Every Christian needs to visit Jerusalem and walk the cobblestone alleyways of the old city and everything else including the Via Delarosa, but decidedly above all else, "The Holocaust Museum". They need to plant a tree and understand " Never Again". Ideally, they'll visit the Arab section, Armenian section, as well. The best way is with a private guide that speaks using yardsticks of time immemorial.
2
Is there a way that is simple enough for your average Fox viewer or listener of late night hate radio to understand the point of this article? A short pithy marketing expression e.g. "Lock her up!" is a lot more powerful than an erudite explanation. While the bigots have crawled out from under the rocks, the only way the tide can turn is to win over the Trumpsters with equally powerful marketing, because having another world war is not an option.
1
I will never understand what is so hateful about wanting to know who is entering the country and giving them permission to take advantage of social services. Liberals like to scream hate. its really just being a grownup.
4
It’s the separation of children from parents that’s hateful, and calling humans an “infestation”.
2
Years ago James Carville projected the inevitable time when Caucasian’s would become a minority and the Republican Party would die. His awareness coincided pretty closely with the Republican strategy to take over state houses and gain control of the apportionment process that resulted in widespread gerrymandering, voter suppression and ultimately control of the House of Representatives. It has also focused attention on the reality that the constitutional design for the allocation of seats in the Senate has resulted in a completely unjustifiable overrepresentation in the senate by states with small, rural, conservative populations.
And now comes Trump riding a wave of ginned up hatred of any immigrant who isn’t white. The Republican Party has heard the message loud and clear: they are quickly becoming a minority party. They are willing to do anything to fight for their survival. Their politics are not about public policy or anything that has to do with the welfare of the country. Their policies are all about voting and power. Those 10,000,000 illegal aliens in the United States may never all get deported, but neither will they ever vote. DACA recipients may get to stay but they will never vote. Immigration law will change to allow immigration for only wealthy Caucasians and Asians. The United States will no longer grant asylum. Trump and Republicans will inflict any cruelty to survive. Trump isn’t a Hitler nor was Hitler until it was too late. Trump has made a good start.
6
I encourage ever MAGA supporter to make a pilgrimage to DC to visit the Holocaust Museum.
2
Scarily, this article rings true. How could this be? How could this happen in America? Because the GOP embraced hatred, anger, frustration as their party platform. Then they embraced Putin. Fox news is just gasoline on the fire. The GOP OWES us some energy to fight this insanity. The GOP needs to show IT has a heart, and it's not just a part of a target at an NRA rally. Our country is disappearing and these fools are just trying to get re-elected, or hang on to their piece of the pie. What about your oath? What about ALL of America? Time to repent, GOP.
2
Trump weaponized immigration throughout his campaign. The Kremlin made this one of its main features, as a New York Times article on "Secured Borders" Facebook page which was by the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg. It had 133,000 followers. Russia did this in Europe also, spread anti-immigrant fake stories and amped up bigotry.
In this country, it wasn't just RT and Sputnik, but Fox and others (including Breitbart, Limbaugh, Infowars, Drudge Report, various right-wing trolls, et al.) which have spread anti-immigrant lies and conspiracy theories. https://www.mediamatters.org/people/alex-jones. Trump has also employed several officials from two anti-immigrant hate groups - CIS and FAIR.
The whole 2016 Russian interference during the campaign found wedge issues.
Immigration really wasn't that big of an issue in the past in such a negative way. The 2013 bipartisan immigration bill was widely supported by most Americans.
Like the birther racist lie, Pizzagate, and other conjured threats and twisted lies, this is really a deliberately orchestrated hate campaign. Evidently this was the Republicans' plan to win the midterm elections - drive up the anti-immigrant fever and drive irate older white GOP voters to the polls.
This strategy has backfired badly on Trump and his cabal. Millennials and Gen Z, women and others actually care very deeply about not having crimes against humanity involving vulnerable immigrant children.
3
I always gain from reading your columns, Mr K, and today's is no exception.
But today all you would have needed to do was post that photo. All thousand words are right there (and you could have taken the rest of the day off!).
2
You don't know why they do this, you say.
Had you studied the history of Germany, and the making of anti-Semitism as the "anti-capitalism of dumb guys" (August Bebel), that might be different.
I am coming to suspect that American intellectuals, in their unshakeable belief in the myth that their nation stands for equality, justice, liberty for all, and whatnot, really never bothered to learn about the dark side of modernity.
Now that it has its teeth out, you look at the beast in surprise.
Adorno and Horkheimer said that you can't talk about Fascism, if you don't want to talk about Capitalism.
As long as Capitalism is with us, it will return to its barbaric, natural state, and it will give fresh fodder to ideologies that celebrate inequality and strength, while heaping scorn and abuse on the weak.
2
Henry Ford was threatened by the emergence of Unions. He knew that intelligent people wanted work place protections for themselves and other workers. The Jews were good at organizing people and getting people to work together. Ford saw that as a plot to take away his financial Empire.
I enjoy Krugman's political and social commentary even more than his wonky financial analysis. I live in Los Angeles where there is a high percentage of immigrants, and where Trump supporters are about as common as snowstorms.
That photo by Tom Brenner of the NYT has a good chance of becoming the iconic image of this ugly time.
2
Krugman makes much of the oft-repeated claim that the undocumented commit crimes at lower rates than natives. And that crime rates are lower in areas with lots of undocumenteds. Two problems: first, even if undocumenteds commit crimes at lower rates than natives, we still have thousands of crimes committed by those who have no right to be here. Second, one problem with citing low crime rates is that, according to the cops, those in fear or deportation are reluctant to report crimes in the first place, so the stats may be misleading.
2
A conservative friend once warned me about the danger of President Obama destroying our country with socialism that would inevitably lead to Stalinist communism. He was right, we passed the ACA, and now we’re building a wall, separating families, imprisoning children, keeping certain citizens from voting, and we have a leader is idolized by his followers and feel comfortable palling around with all the great dictators of the world.
The reason for fomenting hatred against immigrants, or Jews, or any group that can be branded "other" is to scapegoat, so that people don't look at the real group that is responsible for their deteriorating conditions, the ultra rich who are exploiting everyone else.
6
Fine and sobering essay, Nick. Hitler leveraged the circulating discriminatory myth from centuries before. Given the horrible German economy, he found takers.
Scapegoating works on a poorly educated population, and today we have the trumpkins in this nation. They should be smart enough to know that Trump is lying to them in order to game their unwarranted insecurities. And this in a gangbuster economy that is radically different from Europe's in the '30's.
Trump's dialog is humorous to educated people, and late night commentators have a ball with it. A Trump myth is that émigrés are *invading* this nation. It stirs the trumpkins who are too dumb to compare this with the skillfully executed Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. How many armored divisions do the migrants have?
This nation has been invaded, maybe twice?, from the British and Japanese (today, burning the White House doesn't seem such a bad idea). Trump's surly hyperbole that gets his trumpkins to imagine hoards of weaponized combatants penetrating our border is bereft of any intellectual content.
But worse, and trumpkins won't understand this, is that Trump's "approach" solves no problem. It is Trump who has failed here, and he attempts to blame someone else, as he has done, probably since he was a child. But again, trumpkins... and Fox News and the "National Enquirer"... all reinforce Trump's behavior. He thrives on their adulation, and immigrant children suffer.
3
Paul Krugman is right. Trump uses language not only to rile up his vile backers, but too justify his cruel barbarism. He speaks of the arrival of immigrants at our borders as an infestation. They "infest" us,I believe he has said. One of his spokesperson's calls them "vermin". Others say what is happening is an invasion. This is very scary language. If your house is infested with vermin, the response is "extermination." If your country is being invaded, the response is to use deadly force to resist the enemy, killing as many as possible until they retreat. What we have in the making is a war against the innocent!
Stirring up hatred is a wonderful smokescreen for wage disparity. The white working class left behind want to hate someone for their plight. They used to earn 1/300th of what their CEO's earned. Now, some CEO's of publicly traded American corporations earn over 4,000 times more than their average worker.
What better way to keep anger at their greed than to blame it on immigrants. Trump is their cheerleader and doing a fine job.
3
I'm truly terrified at what is happening in this country, it doesn't bode well for us in the near future and especially for the next generation. Trump's racist policies are nothing short of attempt at ethnic cleansing. And the argument that these people are rapists, murderers, gang-bangers, etc. doesn't pass the smell test; most of these folks are in a desperate situation fleeing horrific violence, I'd risk everything for my children if that were me. Finally, the notion that these folks are taking away jobs from Americans is largely untrue; most Americans don't want the the jobs these people provide. If you're anti-immigration based on this, instead of vilifying this those who are most vulnerable, you should be pointing your fingers at the employers who hire illegal workers and then be prepared to pay more at the grocery store. You simply can't have it both ways.
5
America, truth will be in November, if a red wave come then you will have what you deserve. Time to push people to vote and help Dems to find a simple message (as simple as MAGA) and stop thinking that saying Trump is the worst will make you win anything in November!!
3
One and only one side commits these horrible moral crimes against immigrants, and that is Trump and his enablers in the GOP. It is their deeds, their crimes that are the disgrace of our country. They must be indicted, prosecuted, convicted for these heinous acts.
2
Sorry Krugman, I don't accept your moral authority. Trump never said that all illegal immigrants are murderers and rapists, just that some non-zero percentage are - and that is a true statement. Someone who misrepresents the truth has no moral authority.
The "progressive" attempt to accelerate demographic change via illegal immigration for political purposes is morally reprehensible. Sorry bud, but Trump was elected, in part, to stop the open border policies you and your fellow "progressives" favor and he is delivering. Trump has my full support.
4
Unreasoning hatred of "others" has always been present in American society. What changes with time are the targets of that hatred; African and native Americans, and Jewish, Asian, Irish, Eastern European, and Central American immigrants have all been vilified in different eras. Our best presidents provide a model of tolerance for us to follow: think Washington's letter to the Jewish congregation of Newport, Lincoln and slavery, and LBJ's support for civil rights for African Americans. Our worst presidents exploit those hatreds to divide us for political gain: think Andrew Jackson's treatment of native Americans, Nixon's southern strategy, and Reagan in Philadephia, Mississippi. Trump is the worst of the worst, and has given comfort to those who hate all "others." Trump didn't instill this hatred in his followers, but rather has made it acceptable for them to parade this ugly, long-held strain of American culture in the open, for all to see.
4
Even a broken clock is right 2 times per day.
I believe Trump is a pathological liar and by all appearances megalomaniacal to boot. He is both intellectually and emotionally unfit to be president BUT his policy re immigration from 6 Muslim majority countries makes sense.
It doesn't take a statistically significant number of immigrants to wreck tremendous damage/carnage in the US. The nature of crime has changed. Accordingly, statistics about immigrant crime and general crime levels are not relevant today.
It is not about being mean spirited towards foreigners. It is about preventing a very few immigrants from countries that cannot properly vet their inhabitants from entering the US in order to carry out acts of terrorism that would cause great damage and carnage.
It is unfortunate that many deserving people will be prevented from immigrating to the US, but that is the price for keeping out those few who would commit terrorism. That makes sense to me. I care not one bit whether you call me racist, xenophobic, or Islamophobic (LOL). Most who use the later term don't know jack about the tenets of Islam except, of course, Muslims who either refuse to acknowledge the inherent bellicosity of Islam, or worse, seek to deceive in order to propagate their supremacist, intolerant, political ideology cloaked with a religious veneer.
The other business about the "wall" makes no sense and unfortunately gets conflated with policy towards the 6 Muslim majority countries. It's a shame.
2
I am sorry but to me it seems that the answer is very simple - you promise easy immigration to immigrants with large families abroad and they vote for you while bringing in more immigrants who vote to bring in more immigrants and so on. Meanwhile, you escalate the denigration of locals who oppose immigration and could vote for the other side by naming them deplorables, racists, bigots and other words to create a fear in these immigrants that promised easy immigration is not going to last if they do not vote for you. Classic divide and conquer strategy.
3
If you sacrifice your principles to win elections and compromise with the Greater Evil, you become evil.
That is why the Democrats slogan is "vote for the lesser evil" (worst slogan ever.)
Appeasing the Party of Trump just emboldens them.
Your principles are not a liability. Your principles are your strength and your power. Reclaim your principles, unite with the left and win.
The alternative is for Trump to be President for life.
Lying, hate, greed, violence
Or
Truth, love, sharing, peace.
Whose side are you on?
“And you know what this reminds me of? The history of anti-Semitism.”
One may hazard guesses but it’s not really clear why the first thing that Krugman is reminded of is the history of anti-Semitism. Really, Paul?
In the US there is a history of anti-immigrant hatred which has nothing whatsoever to do with Jews or anti-Semitism.
Paul may recall that for several decades during the first half of the 19th century the “Know-Nothing” party espoused a virulent ant-immigrant platform based on the notion that Irish and German Catholics, then flocking to America in the millions, somehow threatened the very essence of what it meant to be "American." They were the American political system’s first major third party.
“Trump” and “Know Nothing”. Seems to fit closely.
2
Will we find all the children separated from their parents?
There is nothing new here. These are the same people who defended the use of torture: http://www.rweconomics.com/Torture.htm
2
This is straight from the the fascist standard playbook. George Orwell understood this with his portrayal of the Two Minutes Hate in 1984.
As Eric Hoffer put it in The True Believer,
“Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all the unifying agents. Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a god, but never without a belief in a devil.”
2
The pure products of America go crazy...
No one
to witness
and adjust, no one to drive the car
The Democrats need to be crystal clear to the voters that they oppose illegal immigration. Otherwise,Trump will paint them as the "open borders" party and we will lose the midterms.
"And anyone making excuses for that hatred — who tries, for example, to turn it into a “both sides” story — is, in effect, an apologist for crimes against humanity."
Which describes about a third of our population.
6
Trump and the GOP. Family Separation Values.
1
Paul, its exactly this sort of obtuseness on the left that got trump in the white house in the first place. Crime "rates" are irrelevant; do you know acknowledge , say, that MS-13 contributes greatly to number and types of crimes committed in zip codes that have taken up residence in ? It defies common sense to suggest there would not be fewer crimes committed in say all Central American immigration were cut off. (Why import criminals and drug dealers? Dont we have enough native ones ? Why import poverty ? Dont we have enough already ?) I abhor trump ,his policies or separating young kids from their families; but as long as the left continues to insist we dont have an immigration problem, that we dont need to control our borders, and compelling everyone to respect/admire, not just tolerate, gay marriage, transgenderism etc, I fear you may even be more surprised in 2020 than you were in 2016. You are doubtlessly in the same crowd that excoriates Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton for their tarmac meeting- but because it was "stupid", not corrupt and extralegal, or insist Peter Strozk's animus for Trump had zero influence on the investigations... Can you imagine he high dudgeon on the left is Jeff sessions "ran into" Cohen at Reagan Airport, or STrozk had texted he would "stop Hilary" ?? Hello, wake up !
2
The Democrats have never said we don’t have an immigration problem.
A picture is worth a 1000 words. Look closely at the picture, how many non-whites do you see? Reminds me of the white backlash against the civil rights movement. How long will it be before Trump, et al start paraphrasing the 1963 speech of George Wallace...
... today we sound the drum for freedom as have our generations of forebears before us done, time and time again through history. Let us rise to the call of freedom- loving blood that is in us and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny . . . and I say . . . segregation today . . . segregation tomorrow . . . segregation forever....
And for the next election:
Let us send this message back to Washington by our representatives who are with us today-- that from this day we are standing up, and the heel of tyranny does not fit the neck of an upright man . . . that we intend to take the offensive and carry our fight for freedom across the nation, wielding the balance of power we know we possess in the Southland . . . . that WE, not the insipid bloc of voters of some sections . . will determine in the next election who shall sit in the White House of these United States . . . That from this day, from this hour . . . from this minute . . . we give the word of a race of honor that we will tolerate their boot in our face no longer . . . .
1
The picture at the head of the article appears to it all. Anger. Loud voices. Perhaps hatred, too. None of these things have ever lead to good.
1
Anti-Semitism differs from other types of prejudice because practitioners of it have convinced themselves over the course of centuries that Jewish people are smarter and more financially astute than they are.
That is why it has persisted so long over time and that is why it appears in odd places like Poland, Japan, Greece, Botswana and Red States where very few Jews live.
The fact that Jewish people sometimes are smarter and more financially astute than other people compounds the difficulty of solving the problem.
2
Please, Paul, don’t stoop to mischaracterization to try to make a point. “Cages” for children? Really? I’ve seen them and they’re simply fenced-in areas -would you instead set them loose to end up God knows where [like the many unaccounted for NYC Central American refugees in today’s paper]? Their parents committed felony offences...children can’t stay in an adult prison...so the children have to be safely housed.
Are the children even worse off? Many of the adults are not the children’s parents; they’re adults paid by cartels to take advantage of our laws. Why isn’t Mexico responsible? Most of the children have terrible, unsafe histories - the Border Patrol has to teach them how to use toilets! Enough with the emotions, Paul; stick to the facts and solve problems, don’t try to create them!
1
I would encourage you to engage with organizations that work directly with immigrants so you get an accurate and unmediated picture of who they are and how they get here. Or volunteer to help. You will see that these are people just like you and that only desperate need drove them here.
These aliens are breaking our laws in a calculated assault on our borders. What is so hard to understand about that? If this were a game of football, it would be called illegal procedure.
1
The Republican party has been playing the same racists tropes over and over for the past 40 years from Reagan's welfare queen to Steve King's calves like cantaloupes. The only difference between them and Trump is that he states these things unequivocally. So you know what these "Republicans" aren't the poor downtrodden who are fighting for a place at the table. They are bigots who relish is punishing those who aren't white.
Its Day 519 of the Trump Administration. It's 137 days until 6 November 2018. Remember that. Vote.
4
Thank you Paul! There can be no defense of hatred, no mitigating circumstances that justify these feelings, behaviors, and actions. It is the face of pure evil breaking out into the world as a conflagration, a fire storm, just as it did in Germany in the early days of Hitler's National Socialist Party. Trump-Republicans have been hijacked by fear, resentment, and unrestrained hatred of out-groups who don't share their skin color or ethnicity or agree with their politics. This didn't happen overnight. Fox News has been stirring up this mob with conspiracy theories and "be afraid" stories for decades. Trump is literally a "demon possessed" embodiment of his constituents, giving shape and purpose to the inchoate evil that is boiling over in their hearts. There is no time to lose in rooting out this evil in our society. Just as State Shintoism drove emperor worship and the Japanese atrocities of World War II, American Evangelicalism has become the conduit of American hatred and Trump worship in our time. Our nation faces a stark choice, either root out the perpetrators of hatred or allow them to metastasize and suffer the consequences.
2
No borders, no country.
The Canadians get this and enforce fair but tough rules that send most people claiming refugee status back to their homes.
Why is it so hard for American liberals?
1
Thank you for saying this.
1
The math goes back to ancient Rome. Two thirds of a nation wants unity, peace and the pursuit of happiness. A third always wants hate and easy fascism. Trumpers, many of them police, want the easy fix.
4
How do we fight this?
2
The reasons aren't hard to understand. The white lower economic classes are look for scapegoats to blame their loss of privilege on, and the billionaires are more than willing to provide it.
Getting the less powerful to turn on each other, or blaming those least powerful has been the ruling class' tactic for ages now. Last century it was the jews, now its muslims and non-white immigrants.
1
Isn't there some way we can swap all of these immigrants who are obviously seeking a better life in America in exchange for all of those Trump supporters (aka Deplorables) who want to "Make America Great Again" ? These deplorables fear the immigrants may really be better than them and the rest of us will find out just how much more valuable immigrants have been for our country than the knuckle-draggers who now support Trump and his world view?
3
As usual, Paul, you've hit the nail right on the head. That being said, for me the issue has become my own feelings of hatred.
I'm a 61-year-old man and can honestly say that until November of 2016 I had never hated anyone in my life. That's when 62 million of my fellow citizens voted for the 21st century version of Mr. Haney, the smooth-talking' peddler from TV's "Green Acres."
Donald Trump is a lying sack of you-know-what, a pathological liar and malignant narcissist who has only ever cared about one thing: HIMSELF.
And, while he may not be THE Anti-Christ, he is obviously anti-Christian. It's almost as if he thinks to himself, "Hmm, what would Jesus do?" and then does the exact opposite.
Having zero experience feeling hatred of another human being, some days it seems as though this negative energy is going to kill me. Anger wells up inside me every time our President spews his vicious lies (aka, every time he opens his mouth) and I get a little more depressed.
Each night I go to bed thinking Trump and his confederacy of dunces has gone as low as they can possibly go.
And every morning proves otherwise.
America the Beautiful 1776-2016 R.I.P.
Having lived in Minnesota for the past 45 years, I was absolutely disgusted to watch Trump's speech in Duluth, MN. Trump's words were manipulative, malicious and dishonest. Although DT sports a completely different hairstyle and fashion style, his speech eerily reminded me of documentary film footage of Hitler's early speeches. I shuddered listening to him and kept thinking... the man is insane. But what was even more terrifying...bone-chilling really... was observing the crowd of " Minnesotans" strategically placed behind him... screaming vile, violent messages of support for Trump's demonic vision. I was stunned. How can this hatred be erupting in the state of Hubert Humphrey and Paul Wellstone? I will bet you that the history of almost everyone sitting in that sports area is connected to an immigrant experience. Have Minnesotan's gone mad? Are people being brainwashed? How do we stop this river of hatred that is erupting everywhere? Where does this hatred come from? Trump's claims are certainly not based in fact or truth. Do we fight this racism and misogyny with more hatred? I don't know what to do but I do know this. APATHY & INDIFFERENCE are not options.
4
Krugman doesn't mention Charles Lindbergh, but I'm not sure Lindberg was a strong anti-Semite so much as an overall racist who strongly believed in ideas of genetic inferiority of non-white "races". These ideas have even recently been used to support the idea of Jewish genetic superiority with respect to intelligence. This has been proposed by Charles Murray and even by James D. Watson himself, as reported by David Reich in his new book "Who We Are And How We Got Here". That book will provide a good counterbalance to these unscientific ideas.
1
It's already too late to stop "Trump's Willing Executioners."
We don’t have an open border and never will. That’s just crazy Trump-Fox nonsense. If Trump really cared about common sense immigration restrictions, he wouldn’t be telling Republicans to drop it until after the midterms. His goal is clear. Keep hate alive.
1
Back in the day, preparing for masters degree orals in modern European history, I read a piece that struck and still haunts me: in the mid-1930s, the central German Jewish agency published a well-documented and factual reply to poisonous Nazi accusations about Jews in Germany - pointing out how Jews were not a threat to society, comprising less than 1% of the population; that despite stereotypes and selected examples, Jews were in all walks of life and economic strata, mostly middle class and many poor; how Jews were and had contributed to German culture and society and fought loyally in World War 1, etc..
What saddened me then and now is the authors didn’t fully recognize the hysterical campaign against Jews was not about truth or reality. It was about creating a scapegoat and enemy to channel popular resentment and feelings of helplessness. And to use fear and hatred to consolidate power.
I think of this old article when reading of Trump’s and his enablers’ vicious dehumanizing of migrants fleeing violence, poverty and corruption south of the border, or seeking a better life as all our immigrant ancestors did. With rare exceptions, these people are not threats to America, in who they are or in their relative numbers. Our border controls plainly are able to stop and process the vast majority of those crossing the borders, and there is no reason visa decisions can’t be made rationally and humanely. That is, if truth or reality mattered to the Trump team.
1
Anti-semitism not only growin in the usa but also in other part of the world.deception, machination,mendacity lie at the core of human intelligence like worms coil at the core of apple.rift among countries upsurging ,especially most of the backward countries not taking care of their own citizens, failed to provide basic necessities so that people are migrating from one country to another for better livelihood support-this is called survival extinct (Action of usa and action of immigrants both refer to survival extinct so here i am not blamming anyone beacuse the nature of human is always based on deception mendacity and machination .
Paul there is a difference between illegal immigration and and following the law to enter the country.You don't have to be a hatter to want to control of the borders.
The cruel people are not the lawful but people like you who try to destroy the order of the democracy.
3
I believe we are in turmoil largely because of white masculine identity crisis.
It's kept aloft by the torrent of lies that spill forth from this wretched administration.
Our grifter knows how to work a crowd.
In fact, that's about all he knows.
Watch for more use of 'separate but equal.'
1
Look at that sad excuse for a man in that red cap, baring his teeth in what I'd imagine he thinks is a display of power, but is only pathetic rage stemming from fear. Imagine being so uneducated and ill-informed and so, from what it looks like from the curled brim, protected and coddled in his frat-boy glory, that he has that much fear and hatred of something about which I'm sure he knows so little. Gross, and just such a sad statement about this country.
3
Doctor, ask Lloyd Blankenfeld why he supports Trump? Tax cuts are the new religion on Wall Street, in Boardrooms and every private, segregated Country Club in America. Political filth has no demographics, just hate and self-interest.
2
Brilliant. Thank you, Paul Krugman.
4
Your post hearkens to Godwin's Law, which was first posted a few years before I got really active on Usenet. This is it: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.”
However, there's a caveat. When the people in question are actually behaving like Nazis, it's fair to call them out on it. Even Godwin said so--last year, even, by tweet, regarding Charlottesville alt-righters:
"By all means, compare these shitheads to Nazis. Again and again. I'm with you."
I have said it before and I'll say it again: It depends on the timeframe for comparison. Even 1920s Hitler wasn't 1940s Hitler. Trump is closer to early 1930s Hitler.
That scares me.
1
Yes, there is a blood libel being perpetrated by the media and this column is but an example. Any white person who expresses an opinion about an IDEA (in this instance, the simplistic idea of the rule of law, which is the foundational basis of society) is deemed to be a narrow-minded bigot. The photo that was shown captures a small portion of the spectrum on the right, but is intended to color the reader's perspective. It would be equally inappropriate to show a photo of an antifa activist screaming at some senior citizen, if the article was anti-left.
The Fox TV crowd trying to maintain a white, Christian majority America in the face of declining white birth/death replacement rates and the immigration of non-whites and to a lesser extent non-Christians. They are doing it because they think its the right thing to do and because they remember what the majority has done to the minority in the past. Think Jordan Peterson's lobsters and all that. How does anyone think the inevitable transition is going to play out, smoothly, without a hitch? Fasten your seat belts, we are just getting started.
1
IMO, the root cause of the anti-immigrant hysteria is fear - the political/cultural fear of the likelihood that immigrants will - either themselves or by procreation - increase the number of voters who will oppose and thwart the realization of their vile right wing, White Supremecist fantasies.
2
Reports are now surfacing of inhumane and degrading treatment of children held for years in the gulag system of detention centers. Some of these facilities are for-profit, others non-profit; some are not so bad, others are horrible.
Concentration camps. Let’s not hesitate to say the word.
1
It's not immigration and immigrants that bothers me and others, it's ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND IMMIGRANTS.
3
Marvin,
And also the companies that shamelessly, lawlessly, and unfairly employ undocumented aliens bother me greatly. Punish those employers as nearly as harshly, and much of the problem goes away... Where is Jeff Sessions, Miller, and Trump on following the rule of law in this regard.
BTW, there is a difference between illegal immigrants and asylum seekers who present themselves at a check-point. Even these families are being split up. And many have documentation of who they are.
1
"The mass influx of murderers and rapists that Trump talks about, the wave of crime committed by immigrants here (and, in his mind, refugees in Germany),are things that simply aren’t happening. They’re just sick fantasies being used to justify real atrocities."
Thank you Paul for making it so crystal clear the Trump administration's horrendous and inhumane policies are based on constant and provable lies about an immigrant crime wave that simply does not exist.
Too bad that your colleagues on the news reporting side of the Times won't do the same.
Was Shelley forecasting our future when he wrote Ozymandias?
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Change the names and the result is the same. Tyranny, hatred, and maybe worse - even destruction - may be our destiny. I hope not.
3
I wrote this comment during the Roseann controversy, but it fits this Krugman column as well as the photo of the fanged trumpian running with it:
Why does such an immensely talented woman, who created a sharp-tongued but (at least originally) beloved tv character that will be remembered for generations, who is known all over the world, and has made hundreds of millions of dollars, choose to use her very large platform to viciously denigrate others who have done nothing to her, and to spread blatant and evil lies about individuals and entire groups of people?
What on earth has happened to our country? This crazed, buffonish hatred is coming out of the mouths and twitter fingers of wealthy, incredibly privileged public figures, whose lives are blessed with wealth, fame, families, satisfying careers, and talent.
What is it that the Barrs and Trumps and Jones' and Bannons et al. have to complain about, or want more of?
It's unfortunate there isn't a deus ex machina that could magically transfer (via taxes) all their wealth and privilege and distribute it to the children and families around the world who need good education, health care, housing, and respite from war that would allow them to become the thoughtful, mature adults we so desperately need right now.
2
You don't need to go to Germany for a historical comparison -- we Americans are well practiced with blood libel against Africans, Native Americans, Japanese-Americans, Jews, Mexican-Americans, the list goes on. Once you classify a group of humans as "animals" as Donald has done, anything is permissible.
2
There is no better example of carnage than the hundreds of innocent people being mowed down by assault weapons used by a population of white males who somehow go unmentioned in Trump's hatred-filled tirades.
The hatred is an expression of the level of scarcity people are experiencing in this country, and the envy people feel towards "liberal" social programs geared toward helping the immigrant population. When Kennedy welcomed Cubans, real wages were much higher, and the average home cost $20,000, a minimum wage job was sufficient to pay one's tuition through college, the U.S. was an economic powerhouse. When times are good, people are happy, and it's hard to hate. Hitler rose out of a financial crisis when a wheelbarrow was needed to carry stacks of worthless money to buy a loaf of bread. Economists are always out of the loop, still predicting good times when a crash is just around the corner.
1
I didn’t think of it first, but someone else said the Republicans should rename themselves the Blood and Soil Party and be done with it.
3
I'd like to know how many undocumented immigrants work at Trump properties. I'm sure those numbers would surprise his cult.
7
Hate is addictive and empowering. Fills empty lives with meaning.
3
no crisis? Caravans of undocumented immigrants being serendipitously escorted into the US isn't a crisis for you? Sounds like you'd prefer no border at all Mr. Krugman. Just one big happy world where whoever wants can show up at our doorstep and be accommodated at the expense of the tax base. Thank God you only get to write about it and not make any actual decisions.
Of course there is no "immigration" crisis, this wedge device was first mentioned by "Bush's brain" Karl Rove in early 2000's. Trump uses it to disrupt because that is what Vladimir wants.
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
From the beginning of this debacle I've maintained that this is not even politics, just raw hatred. The pathetic Americans at Trump's heart-of-darkness rallies are not there to hear about the future of America or policy or anything else. They are attending a Rock the Hate concert, to shriek anger-filled slogans and hear some vulgarities in an atmosphere unacceptable until Trump came along.
8
Krugman speaks the truth, as Trump and his cohorts in inhumanity lie,lie, lie.
2
Of course our president who is under investigation for being the biggest presidential criminal in the history of the country says the media is fake and the immigrants are criminals.
Donald Trumps presidency resembles the behavior of a desperate man futilely trying to escape his unconscionable past, pointing at others and desperately crying: Stop looking at me, everyone else is guilty, not me.
3
Ugly.
Just plain ugly.
Paul I think we are feeling the same sinking feeling.
That when the county has been 'cleansed' and only those who are deemed 'loyal' remain, will this movement violently spread itself ever wider around the world.
November cannot come soon enough.
And if that vote is tainted, then the jig is up. We will have lost our country with all the decency and civility it once stood for.
If you cannot be a 'loyalist' better pack your bags.
Else one day they will come for you as well.
Never in my life did I fathom this happening.
Ruled by a madman drunk on power.
Only the misguided can support the continued perversion of our Country.
Clearly we cannot rely on Congress or the courts to stop this.
If not the ballot box what's next?
2
This is a tremendous essay. I am nearly 70 and what I have seen in my lifetime here in the USA is HATRED bred by willfully ignorant people. Truth? Forget it. Actuality backed up by statistics and science? My God can beat yours up. Racism? Definitely part of the willful ignorance of the American true-believer. I wish it had been different. Maybe it will be if the young can carry truth and honesty forward. I will be out of this soon enough and won't have to see it...
1
Why can't we say anti-Jews in the same way we would say anti-Christian or anti-Muslim. My wife is an Ethiopian Semite and not Jewish- Semites are commonly Orthodox Christians, Muslims AND Jews. Jew is not a dirty word and we shouldn't let Jew-haters turn it into one.
I don't think Ford was exceptional among blue blood Americans of his era. Jews were very good at many things Protestant aristocrats made their money from. They didn't like Jews because they didn't like the competition. Certainly the Morgans and most of their important partners tended to be strongly anti-Jew.
The less educated in this country feel threatened by low skill workers that come from anywhere that makes American minimum wage seem like a God-send. They don't read economic analysis and believe in their "common sense".
They've been treated like garbage since Reagan began dismantling union power, but the right wing propaganda machine has them blaming whoever it serves the right wing donor base for them to blame.
Feels good to feel better than someone.
2
open immigration can’t coexist with a strong social safety net; if you’re going to assure health care and a decent income to everyone, you can’t make that offer global.
- Paul Krugman
https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/the-curious-politics-of-imm...
2
Ever since Trump starting whipping his followers into a frenzy with his promise to deport 11 million people the hair's been standing up on the back of my head.
2
The president of the United States is using propaganda to foster the hatred. And, the media is trying to figure out how to report on the president's propaganda without actually being a vehicle that just repeats the propagandists message. Pretty sure that if a poll is conducted as to whether Mexicans are rapists, murderers, and drug smugglers, you will find a significant portion of our nation agreeing with that assessment. This is how propaganda works.
2
Paul Krugman is pretty outrageous. An assimilated Jewish person of the decidedly political liberal persuasion attempting to tie the Conservative political stance, a stance that among others is subscribed to by the majority of strongly self identifying, non-assimilated, non-intermarried American Jews, to Nazism. He may be a Nobel Prize winning economist, but that accolade in a very specific field of knowledge, is here most obviously not generalizeable to the complex political realities we now face.
1
We are constantly warned not to be too quick with comparisons of Nazi Germany, and the warning is well taken. But while we are not Nazi Germany, could we be in Weimar Germany? Could we be in 1932 when Von Hindenberg, a "savior" for Germany in World War I, but now elected for a second term as president of Germany only to appoint Hitler, as yet a simple, poorly educated pol with a gift of tongue tuned to populism, as chancellor? Trump is no Hitler, and our history will never perfectly mirror Germany's or Italy's or any other fascist government's. But isn't it fair to warn that the claim "it can never happen here" is dangerously naive?
2
Nearly every other country in the world has a rational approach to immigration but in the US even discussion is impossible because progressives shut down any dissent from their open borders policy by screaming "Hate!". Krugman should be ashamed.
1
Some people just have hate in their hearts. So much hate.
My first thought as I looked at the image of the man at the rally was this is the new UGLY AMERICAN-an angry unrepentant white male bigot who projects his manufactured hate on to people he does not know. American has lost it's soul and humanity. It is heartbreaking and depressing.
4
>we’ve gone from a nation that stood for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to a nation that tears children from their parents and puts them in cages.
How is that worse than tearing children from their mother's womb and putting them in a bio-hazard bag?
In another part of the paper today there is an article about how the national discourse is coarsening, and they caution strongly against using Nazi analogies, but I don't know what other example to use. The fear, the hate, the anger, the propaganda, the lies (oh the lies), the cowardice of our feckless leaders, the bending of our laws, the changes in the very character of a country. Sports analogies won't do and this particular historic moment is rife with similarities. I don't want to be right about what might come next, but I can't help, as an informed citizen, being alarmed, appalled and alert.
2
After reading an earlier article about Trump's Minnesota rally, all day I have been thinking Kristallnacht if Trump is to remain in office for any length of time. With hate speech about immigrants now condoned and encouraged I am afraid we are on the path to government encouraged destruction of their communities and persons.
1
Most (probably all) of the racist people I have been around are extremely insecure. Insecurity and self-hatred drives their need to make others inferior to themselves. They also tend to be disinterested in learning about other cultures and meeting people different from themselves. It’s a shame.
"Either you are closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge, or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated by the presence of a pool table in your community"....Professor Harold Hill. Immigration lies, Iraq lies, Red Scare lies, Japanese internment lies, Segregationist lies, Salem lies, in fact, everything going back to the American Indian lies have all been embraced by people, so confused, so ill at ease, so underwater that they will believe the first fast talker who blames someone other than them for their problems. In the "Music Man" they were called rubes. Now they're called Republicans.
There's a legal way to immigrate and an illegal way to immigrate. One is good and one is not good. You'd think a Nobel Prize winner could master that concept.
2
What's the legal vs. illegal way to flee for your life, and the lives of your children?
Especially considering that Americans who choose to buy illegal drugs are the ultimately fueling the lawless carnage that they're fleeing.
1
It’s a sad fact that Americans -not all but enough- are turning out to be no better than the Nazis.
People forget that not everyone who lived in Germany during that time was a member of that party- but they were enough of them in key positions - so they were able to take over in a relatively short period of time.
The rest wrung their hands and later feigned ignorance of the atrocities happening to their neighbors and former member of their communities.
It seems that Americans have learned nothing from history and so we are doomed to repeat this horrifying scenario.
Jesus wept.
And then overturned the money changers’ tables.
Where are we church? Is this our Bonhoffer moment?
Reading this from Vienna, Austria, today. The headlines look a lot like 1937. Or maybe a lot like American-Japanese internment.
1
Exactly and thank you Paul.
My question when speaking with affluent white rabidly antiimmigrant individuals is simple: "Can you tell me exaclty what the current immigrants or undocumented have done to you? How have they in specific terms harmed you or interfered with anything you wanted to do or buy?" They have no answers but love to quote unsubstantiated sources about some horrible crimes or financial damage, without substantiation,
Meanwhile they drive off in their BMW, stop at Starbucks and order a grande Capuccino then have lunch at the latest rave restaurant. But they are sure their lives have been ruined by the little Mexican guy picking strawberries in Salinas,
1
Using government power to cause drastic harm (or worse) to people the regime doesn't like. It's here. It may have different targets, it may have different paraphernalia, but at its core it is Nazism. It is way past time to tell it like it is.
This photo is so very disturbing. It looks like a still from a horror movie where people turn into raging vampires after their ties turn red, or a Stephen King tale where soulless jerks turn into blood thirsty hoodlums.
The utterly mindless rage in this man's face is, I am sorry to say, completely reminiscent of all the fascist crowds in the 40s, American lynchings, paintings of crazed medieval villagers, Ancient people impaling each other, and - gosh, how far back can we go? A long way.
I am a teacher, and since Trump's vile lies began, I have long thought of the blood libel as well, but when I mention this in my classes, my students have never heard of it.
Maybe if world history was required - and taught better - this tired old, evil demagogue routine would be a little harder for corrupt parasites like Trump to be get away with.
2
Paul asks why "someone like Ford — not only wealthy, but also one of the most admired men of his time" go down the path of antisemitism. How can a nation like ours "plunge into barbarism"?
From William Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," Chapter 7, "The Nazification of Germany":
"The big businessmen, pleased with the new government that was going to put the organized worker in their place and leave management to run its businesses as it wished, were asked to cough up. . . . [T]he assembled industrialists . . . responded with enthusiasm to the promise of the end of the infernal elections, of democracy . . . ."
Paul's column the other day addressed to Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was, unfortunately, right: this IS who we are.
Anyone who thinks the Trump administration's current acts of xenophobia, nationalism, bigotry, and cruelty are appelling, ain't seen nothing yet. They're just getting started.
3
The photo of this young white supremacist in training says all we need to know about Trump, his supporters and the country in which we live. Imagine what he will grow to be.
1
This is the U.S.A. baby! Own it! And once you do, try and talk some common sense to the Trump base. The Democrats have no answer for what to do about these folks...They got nothin'.
Don't worry about us Jews - the supreme kangaroo court has given us all the tools we need via the LGBT wedding cake decision. My religious beliefs forbid me from aiding people who are anti-semitic, which I define as all trump supporters (after all, it is MY prerogative to decide who or what violates my religious beliefs - if the bible says nothing about homosexuality, then that baker's claim that gays violate his religious beliefs is simply something he decided for himself). Therefore, according to the supreme court, Jewish doctors are perfectly within their rights to refuse service to trump supporters. But of course, no trump supporter would ever go to a Jewish doctor - he would rather die (which would be quite likely).
2
The Times pick by Rundog says it all. What a sad sad county we are in right now. I hardly recognize it. There are two visions of American greatness and mine is miles away from Trump’s and his hateful followers.
2
Call the hatred what it is: Racial hatred, specifically the hatred of (too many) white people toward non-white people.
1
How is it possible in todays day and age that people still read krugman? How on Gods green earth does anybody think the man has talent or intellect...He's been proven wrong for decades...
3
Dr. Krugman, I think you’re right in the gold when you liken the broken immigration system that Donald Trump is exploiting for maximum political and electoral reference to the anti-semitism that ran like the plague through Europe. Let’s take Germany as an example.
The Brothers Grimm, the keepers of the nation’s lore, were, perhaps the greatest purveyors of hate in “der vaterland.” In several of their tales, Jews are held up to ridicule and scorn and contempt. The Brothers Grimm took the Jews of the Diaspora and told Germany that “those people” (sound familiar?) were the enemy of the “pure” German race. In many of these tales the stereotype of the Jewish person as a scheming conniving cheat took hold. Anti-semitism was rife in Germany but the Grimms exacerbated it. Neither was Wagner (“Siegfried”), e.g., exempt from demonizing a minority.
My point is that Trump is well on his way to unleashing the destructive and perhaps irreversible forces of physical violence against immigrants, particularly those at our southern borders. The unrelieved hate on the face of the man in the MAGA hat clinched my argument.
No longer is the society-killing potential for a race war kept in the silent shadows, away from the “politically correct” keepers of democracy’s flame. Donald Trump is directing his own unique updated version of D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation.” The gloves are off. Congress, quiescent and indifferent, lacks any moral capital with which to stem Trump’s tide of hate.
3
There is another parallel. During WWII many nations, including the US, turned Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe away. Conflating amnesty seekers with economic immigration from Mexico and calling for a "wall" to keep everyone out-those fleeing injustice and in fear of their lives-as well as those seeking work seems eerily similar to that precedent.
Not all amnesty seekers should be granted asylum but until their case is heard they should be given the benefit of the doubt and treated humanly. If deterrence for illegal crossing is what is desired the better way is to make clear that crossing illegally without applying for amnesty first will adversely prejudice their hearing when they are caught. trump is using this fight to shout out to his base how tough he is on illegal immigration. The moral aspects of it, as usual with trump, don't enter into the equation.
1
You forgot to mention that 20% of just the federal prison inmate population is illegal aliens. I never saw the numbers for state and local jails.
Only somebody completely unfamiliar with the Holocaust would compare rounding up, feeding, and deporting IAs humanely. None of the illegals have been gassed, used for slave labor or forced prostitution, experimented on, starved to death, etc.
MS 13 tattoos are not the same given at Aushwitz.
The 3rd world doesn't often send us their most sought after people. With rare exceptions, if a criminal from South of the border makes it to the US, there will be no extradition request.
No, I don't hate refugees. We just don't have the room or such a demand for unskilled labor.
2
Basically, we have the three branches of our government (meant as checks and balances) controlled by a very small number of the richest people in the country.
Their main goal is more wealth for themselves - that is the problem with unchecked greed.
Their policies are continually making life more difficult and insecure for the majority of Americans.
Fear and insecurity are pitting the majority of the country against each other.
As our congress continues to cut security for more Americans (Social Security, healthcare, fair wages) you can expec to see more fear based reactions as the rich play the American people against each other.
We are a country of "rugged individuals" now, competing with each other for survival as the richest few reap the spoils.
3
Exactly. I made the comparison to Nazis with my teenage son, who said I was hyperbolic. I asked him about the language when humans are called an “infestation”. I pointed out historically we has seen families sorted and placed into camps before. Accurate records were not kept by our border forces, which means some of those children may never be reunited with their parents. Permanent loss of a child is the punishment in the US for seeking asylum from persecution? Sounds like Nazis to me.
4
"And anyone making excuses for that hatred — who tries, for example, to turn it into a “both sides” story — is, in effect, an apologist for crimes against humanity."
Dang Peter Baker. That had to leave a mark.
1
The hatred was always simmering below. Trump turned it into anger. That's what's been released.
Where was the hatred and anger when Obama was president? People from many of these same areas that elected Obama twice put Trump into office. What, indeed, are we to make of it?
1
I think you make a fair point, and I appreciate your courage in making it - as always!
2
People in general don't like to take responsibility for their actions. The oldest defence of all is saying they made me do it. They want to balms someone else foe their unholy drives.
The jews had different beliefs from the Christians about God's intent. Any success by the jews put into question the Christian held belief that God favored them. Not much has changed over the centuries.
Immigrants are in the same boat, any minority of color is. Some white folks don't want any competition.
Usually, the country looks to the president to uphold the law to control the worst instincts in the citizenry. But Trump, he wants to harness these instincts to put them to work creating a distraction that he then takes advantage of to win against his perceived enemies. He would be a natural battlefield strategist.
Trump doesn't care what tool he uses in his chaos theory of winning. so, his henchmen like Miller and Bannon channel their fears, inferiority complexes and superiority issues through Trump who gobbles it up and spits out poison. Some lands right on target and he lashes himself to it riding his wave of admirers. We can only hope he over reaches, as his history suggests, and crashes to the shore.
4
To the readers reflexively criticizing Dr. Krugman for “playing the Nazi card,” I ask, if we can’t bring up Hitler when we see a national leader fanning hatred towards a minority using counterfactual rhetoric, then when can we?
14
Krugman’s main premise is that there is no immigration crisis in this country, whether it be jobs or crime. Anti-immigrant has always been woth is but the backlash today is based on Trump’s racist demagoguery. The Nazi card comes in through the appeal to fear and hatred. Do you deny there’s be a resurgence? We may not be Nazi yet but with the cages and the camps, we’re working on it.
7
Donald Trump was elected president because the Democrat party has acquiesced in the growing income gap. This acquiescence has happened because the Democrat Party has come to be dominated by well educated, well paid bi coastal professionals - of whom Hillary Clinton is an obvious example.
These lack the public enthusiasm for tax cuts for the rich that is expressed by Republican businessmen, but they don't complain because they are on the right side of the income divide.
For years public opinion surveys have revealed popular support for a more progressive tax system.
When Barack Obama was inaugurated his approval rating was 65%. He had Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. He should have raised the top tax rate and introduced programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps to hire people at government expense.
Instead, he forced through a health care plan most Americans disliked.
Meanwhile the unemployment rate continued to grow.
New Jersey 1963.....Union construction labor......4.25 per hour with benefits. Penalty for scab labor? Shut the project down or worse.
New Jersey 2018.....Scab construction labor......16.00 per hour
Penalty for scab labor? None.
3
Purchasing power of $4.25 in 1963 is equal to about $35 today. So it seems that the penalty for scab labor is wages cut in half for workers.
1
Scapegoating to exploit fears. During the Great Plague, Jews were the ones who were blamed. Poisoned the wells. When ignorance can be manipulated. As it still is.
3
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
We are seeing the rise of our own Hitleresque personality cult: Twitler. This evil is not going to go away by changing the channel. This is an organized powerful wind of totalitarianism from Stalin and Hitler's progeny. It is not going to blow over.
6
We are seeing history repeat itself. As the Nazis swept to power in the 1930's we are seeing the extreme right wing do so here in the U.S. We all need to take a step back and study what happened and then take action to prevent it from going any further. We all need to remember to vote as that is the first step.
2
"Trump's carnage is a figment of his imagination." This phrase is not appropriate. Our POTUS has demonstratively shared that he lacks imagination, and he likes figments in cookies. His psychotic nightmares are not aligned with any view of reality. We may try to find meaning in his spew, but, it is like looking for figments in cookies.
1
It also reminds me of a return to the barbarism of dehumanizing black people in the Jim Crow South and the dehumanizing of women as in Ibsen's "A Doll's House."
4
The picture of the ugly, vile looking man in the red hat accompanying this article speaks volumes. It's a clear example of what's wrong with this country and easily explains how and why someone like the cretin currently defiling and debasing the office of the presidency was elected. Sad. I can no longer say I am proud to be an American. My country has become an embarrassment and a spectacle for all the world to see. Shameful and disgusting to say the least.
2
THANK YOU!
2
I think those that are wealthy, the President and Republicans in Congress are using immigrants as a way to gin up their base to vote in the 2018 election. Jews were used as scapegoats by the Nazis and Republicans are using immigrants as scapegoats for their plan for permanent Republican control of the U.S. Unfortunately, so many apathetic non-voters are helping them along by not voting out of office every single Republican. Until that happens, this hatred of the other will continue to be used to the advantage of Republicans. And while we are distracted by the cruel and wrathful treatment of children, the Republican Congress is proposing to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits to pay for the tax cuts to the wealthy.
2
That picture is worth way more than 1000 words. It looks like a Nazi, it makes white people look bad/hateful/ugly, and I really applaud that photographer for capturing the moment.
Wish it were only a moment.
7
My neighbor is Jewish and told me the story of his father who, as a young boy (maybe 8) went a barbers shop in Germany with his elder cousin. While he was getting his hair cut, the cousin was arrested and dragged off by the Nazis never to be seen again.
This young boy, with Schindler-style assistance, eventually made it to a convent somewhere in Europe where he was cared for and he then made it to Israel where he became an accountant and did well. He never saw his cousin or parents again.
Imagine if that same boy had managed to walk though a time bubble and had arrived at the Southern border of the US today, what would happen to him?
These are truly dark times for the USA, if we can't pull this back to fact and truth-based government by and for the people, I will plan my exit.
November is a watershed in the story of the USA and We are going to write it; you MUST GO AND VOTE. Vote straight democratic even sensible (ex)Republicans are saying this. Only with control of Congress can we begin to fix this truly awful situation.
Blow blow thou winter wind, thou art not so unkind as man's inhumanity to man. Wm. Shakespeare
8
Here comes my second attempt to respond to your appeal that tells me that you need my voice. Do you? Really? Or is it just advertisement? In any case, here goes:
Krugman, you see hatred everywhere. Your rant about evil overtaking our world reminds me of sermons of Savonarola (it is just as boring). Remember, it's all in the eyes of the beholder. You live in a bleak and joyless world of your own making. I do not think that many Americans would want to enter your world. Try to have some fun in your life and stop writing your columns. Good luck to you, man! Take it easy on yourself. OK?
3
The Trump administration us filled with people who only care about rich white people and hate the rest of humanity. I think you are closing your eyes to it because it is painful and we all don't want to face it. But it is now necessary!
When Mr. Krugman equates the the "Blood Libel" of antisemitism to fear of immigration he is creating a false equivalency.
To equate the false and horrible accusation that Jews killed Christian babies and drank their blood to the treatment of children at our Southern border is the use of words and the New York Times to inflame the worst fears of Liberals is its own outrage.
The mistreatment of young children by separating them from their parents is a terrible example of fear mongering of immigration raised to a new level but certainly not to the level of the "Blood Libel".
Mr. Krugman should know better.
2
I think Mr. Krugman is referring to the demonizing of immigrants and non-whites.
People say Trump is no Hitler or Nazi but what i know is that if this was the 1930's he would be greeted in Germany with open arms.
People say that Trump would never become another Hitler...from 1933 on Hitler was the state no opposition, the complete subservience of the armed forces, complete control of all media, a platform from which he spewed his racist hatred to young children so that a whole generation became vicious killers who perpetrated killings on a massive scale.
If Trump ever attained that level of control...well people say he's no Hitler...i am not so sure.
3
The face of pure hate.
3
Recent scholarship reveals how Hitler dispatched agents to to learn about American race laws when he took power. Hitler was deeply impressed by the slaughter of Native Americans from sea to shining sea, which inspired "Lebensraum", or "elbow room", that along with virulent anti-semitism, formed the base of the Third Reich.
Henry Ford not only circulated Nazi propaganda in the US, his early diatribes against Jews were avidly read by Hitler, then a struggling oft-homeless artist in Vienna.
Think about that: Hitler the definition of unblinking depravity was enthralled by Ford's wildly anti-semitic pamphlets and guided by US Southern race laws. To build the Third Reich Hitler essentially stole US intellectual property and replicated the institutionalized hate of remnant American confederacy.
Hitler's Third Reich was German, but with salient American characteristics.
Anti-semitism is American as apple pie as much as it was German as apple strudel. (Worth noting that apple pie is an immigrant and apples are a non-native species.)
Trumpism at its worst is Krugman at his best.
Let the conscience of a liberal be the voice of our resistance.
11
As a Catholic, Al Smith also learned a soul-shaking lesson about the 'anti-Papism' of southern and rural Americans during his presidential campaign against Hoover in 1928.
There were often burning crosses displayed next to the rail tracks when his campaign train would arrive in town.
People close to him said he was never the same after that.
1
When people's rage against immigrants extends all the way to children, because they are "illegal" and thus deserve any horror our country puts on them apparently, I can clearly see how people descend into things like Nazi-ism.
When the time comes, if it hasn't already, I know that man in the red hat pointing the angry finger will be more than happy to fulfill his role enforcing "the law" which apparently supersedes any concept of morality to them. I always wondered who were the people who had this sort of personality to do horrific things in the name of their leader. Now it is all too real.
3
Rather than a column deploring the upsurge in hatred, I'd like a column that identifies the causes of the upsurge and proposes effective methods to end the upsurge. Cable news is full of pundits deploring the upsurge. Could it be that expressions of outrage without explanations for the upsurge is good for the news business?
American carnage is not a libel. It’s real, and it’s being perpetrated by the White House.
2
I'd like to note that Trump's housing of undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers on military bases is not just for convenience. It's a way to lock them away from the media, lawyers, pediatricians, psychologists, and other aid groups seeking numbers & facts and trying to help reunite children and parents, so those pesky negative images go away. Trump's language of disparagement reveals his and his supporters' view of them as less than human, much as people historically talked about many groups, from slaves and Native Americans to Asian, Irish, Italian and other immigrants. That language makes it easier for people to act out against subgroups and accept inhumane treatment of them by the government, much as Hitler's propaganda about the Jews and others sought to do. As someone whose family members voluntarily joined the US military to fight for this country and our democratic ideals in WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, I find it despicable for Trump to use our military and taxes in his attempts to rewrite our American ideals in his twisted zero-sum, no-win view of the world. What next? Will he and his supporters take down the Statue of Liberty and sell it for scrap?
6
The NY Times and its writers have a responsibility to educate the ignorant masses of America by publishing the hard facts about immigrants, illegal or not. Support Krugman’s statements with exposes on crime in America - and who the perpetrators are. Provide the stats on the gangs Trump keeps mentioning, etc. Unless news organizations and journalists do the research and report the facts re immigrants they’re only stoking the fires of hatred and ignorance. I see no hard facts from reputable sources here. No reliable data. And I’m a democrat who believes what you’re saying. What do you think a Trump supporter says to articles like this? “Fake News.”
Give us some credible hard research and data to fight back with. Start with an expose of the gangs Trump loves so much. Perhaps another expose about how his mother and Melania became citizens. Perhaps another about his love of Hitler. ( Wife number one, Ivanka, stated in an Atlantic magazine interview years ago that he kept a book about Hitler beside the bed.) And how about another expose about his hiring of immigrants at his resorts, now and as he rose to power, and another on the employees (immigrants included) he didn’t pay in Atlantic City ? Trump is an ignoramus of the highest order, and ignorance begets more of the same.
Stand up and be counted as writers who set things straight and counter the ignorance or writers who stoke the fires of hatred and leave the waters muddied.
4
Scapegoating and fear are favored tools of fascists because they always work on a large percentage of the population. Are authoritarian followers created by patriarchal religions and their worship of monstrously dictatorial gods?
1
The crime is not illegal immigration but kidnapping, extortion, torture, & terrorism. Worst, it is being done by our government.
I have no doubts that Rump is a nativist, xenophobic and racist. That only partially explains his actions. It also whips up the vile, we call his base. Here are some simple definitions to make a point.
kidnapping: criminal offense consisting of the unlawful taking and carrying away of a person by force or fraud or the unlawful seizure and detention of a person against his will. The reinterpretation of immigration law is the Fraud. But what is the motive?
Extortion: The practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.
1 To democrats stop opposing my polices, especially my wall. If you do not stop I will hurt people you care about.
2 To immigrants, stop coming to this country, even if it is to save your family because we will ruin your family. Different people in the administration have made both these arguments publicly.
Finally, terrorism the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims. He can't get the "laws" he wants passed so this is how he operates. Terrorist and Rouge regimes go after family members because it works.
This is being perpetrated by our government. Its shameful and Mr. Krugman is correct, this president is paving the way towards violence against these people.
trump the American fascist. Swastika with gold plates.
Vote to end this
1
I can hear those folks in the photo chanting, "Cut my healthcare! Cut my Social! Dissolve my union! Uninsure grand-ma! Abolish public transit! Pollute my river! Starve my school! Spill some oil! Chuck our friends! Embrace our enemies!..."
6
All of the billions the president is willing to spend to jail migrant families has to be taken from other programs like infrastructure, Medicare, Medicaid, education, and Social Security.
The new budget proposal is designed to destroy what little is left of our institutions to proverbially drown them in the bathtub.
He is using your hate to destroy the republic. Do ya still want to lock them all up?
3
Again, well done
Two days ago Hadley Freeman, an American, wrote in The Guardian:
“The Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 was written to prevent immigration by “abnormally twisted” Jews, who were deemed “filthy, un-American and dangerous in their habits”. It did not go far enough. So in 1924 the Johnson-Reed Act was proposed... As congressman Albert Johnson put it, to “keep American stock up to the highest standard – that is, people who were born here”. It too passed in the House and the Senate without a glitch... Immigrants have been othered so effectively by politicians that people who talk proudly about seeing their great-grandparents’ names in the books at Ellis Island, or boast about being able to trace their family tree to the Mayflower, will tut anxiously about illegal immigration, as though the Mayflower travellers all had visas… This is how Republicans like Ivanka Trump and Paul Ryan can tweet cheerful photos of themselves with their children during this saga: they might be, respectively, descendants of eastern European and Irish immigrants, but in no way do they relate their families to the ones being ripped apart…Trump ran a racist campaign exploiting decades of demonisation of immigrants, a lot of people liked it, and this is the result. The policy… has Trump written all over it. But the path that led us here is, alas, all too American….”
3
Amazing that Krugman was silent when Obama put kids in cages
Here are a few of the pics, many used by the mainstream media to actually attack Trump not knowing the pics were from 2014
Fake outrage by the media due to their hatred of Trump
http://www.businessinsider.com/migrant-children-in-cages-2014-photos-exp...
3
This has alway been about racism.
3
Anti Semitism lies at the core of America’s far right wing ideology. From Cliven Bundy, to Pizzagate, to Charlottesville (“Jews will not replace us!”) to Deep State fantasies—they all loop back to the belief in a vast conspiracy of international Jewish bankers and media magnates looking to create a New World Order (a single, socialist government). I used to think these ideas were just kooky claptrap from the fringes of the internet. Depressingly, this year has shown just how widespread and mainstream these ideas are; as American as apple pie, and utterly terrifying.
3
Thank you! I am so tired of people saying, "Try to understand the other side and what people are going through, blah blah blah." This hatred and racism is not ok. People of color are not keeping these angry white folks down. There is no rhyme nor reason for their hatred: it's simple racism. Just look at the guy in the photo, my God. This is not a debate about the death penalty or gun control, issues on which reasonable people might disagree. There is no debate to be had. It's wrong to be a racist hater. Ask any kindergarten child and they could tell you that.
2
Blind racial and ethnic hatred are an essential part of republican family values.
3
It is hard to be good. I think we forget how addictive righteous indignation is and how tempting it is to lose ones individual conscience to the intoxication of the crowd. It is a kind of genius to identify a relatively powerless minority (Mexican immigrants or Jews) and inflate them with a malevolent power that exists only in your own mind. I know there is supposed to be some sort of "law" that says whenever you compare anything to the Nazi era you are by definition exaggerating the current threat, since nothing can ever be as bad as the Nazis. But how can we pretend not to see the parallels The current situation is the most serious test of the American soul since the Civil War. I think the outcome is very much in doubt. American Exceptionalism is a mirage. The Constitution will not save us, Congress will not save us, the Supreme Court will not save us, only the people can do it.
I have never known a general election that was not considered "the most important election in a generation". But this one really is.
1
It Trump's message and behavior is the classic profile of a fascists.
2
But if chain immigration is cut off, how will Trump find his next wife?
2
Perhaps Krugman should figure out the difference between legal and illegal immigration. As a Jew I don't feel threatened by a President who supports Israel, moved our Embassy to Jerusalem, and has a daughter and grandchildren who are Jewish. All ignored by those with Trump Derangement Syndrome. More fake news from Krugman. We need to defend our borders and support LEGAL immigration. More lies too about crime - no recognition of the spike in VIOLENT crime in Germany these past few years. Anti-Semitism - I challenge Krugman to put on the garb of an Orthodox Jew and walk through the Muslim neighborhoods of Germany, France and the UK. Likewise - want to see full-blown HATE - walk across San Francisco wearing a Make America Great Again hat. Just make sure your life insurance is paid up.
4
For those who feel this op-ed is over the top, please read: Mutz, D.C. (2018) Status threat, not economic hardship, explains the 2016 presidential vote. PNAS May 8, 2018. 115 (19) E4330-E4339 (http://www.pnas.org/content/115/19/E4330)
I think Prof. Krugman has hit the nail squarely on the head.
1
True. I live with Mexican immigrants, papered or not, and with people who descend from Mexican immigrants. This is why I live in Tucson. I love the culture that these people bring and, of course, they were here before me. People in West Virginia have no real understanding of our reality in a borderland just as I can't know about living under the thumb of a coal-mining company. tRump is ignorant of my world, too, but he understands, just as the European Fascists did, that a tyrant needs a cultural enemy to build his (and it's never "her!") crowds. He is a monster.
12
Paul, you are not just a Nobel guy, but noble as well. Thanks for your wonderful, decent, clear statement of the real problem with the immigration "debate"
3
I say and say again: Let US not romanticize America. Last summer, we in East St. Louis, Illinois and St Louis, Missouri commemorated the East St Louis pogrom of 1917 (aka riot). It was white mob violence against the black community that at least one journalist compared with the barbaric atrocities of World War I. Next summer will be the centennial of the Red Summer of 1919 where white mobs attacked Black communities from sea to shining sea. As bad as the situation at the border, it is better than what history shows us. The good news is that most people in the United States are disgusted by the inhumanity of taking children away from their parents.
2
Paul praises illegal immigrants that knowingly put their kids at risk but accuses American citizens of bigotry if they oppose that criminal immigration. Paul you'd get more recognition if you admitted you are pro open borders and against any American that opposes your chosen policy. Admit it Paul please.
2
The photographer, Tom Brennan, should get a Pulitzer for his shot of the rabid anti-immigration man. This man, complete with MAGA baseball cap and sharply pointed incisors, epitomizes the problems.
11
History books, if they exist in the future will describe the Trump era as our dark ages. It will be described as a time when Trump, a dead ringer for Jack from “Lord of the Flies”, revealed the nation known for compassion was just a bunch frightened people, where for a time evil gained control. A cult of personality created a rabid group of followers who adored their leader’s strength and vulgarity that he used against their common enemy, the beasts, he told them, were about to devour them. His attacks against democracy and those who defended it will be compared to earlier dictators; Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Franco, leaders who used hatred and fear to mobilize followers to violence against perceived enemies. This is not a wild exaggeration. Compare a Trump rally to one of Hitler’s and its hard to find much difference. It is hard to remember a time when a president wasn’t causing a daily outrage.
5
Dear Paul,
Imagine, if possible, that there is no anti-Semitism to compare this immigrant situation to. What would u write?
Regards,
Suzy
1
This is a teaching moment for all of us.
Since the founding of this nation, people of another color or religion have never been fully accepted by much (the majority?) of our population.
This week's outrage gives us an opportunity to reframe the way we see one another -- the way we embrace one another.
This is not just about immigrants. This is about everyone who is different. This is about being an American.
Today, my multi-colored class of English learners spent much of an hour discussing Trump's "Zero Tolerance". I wish you had been there with me.
They are so hopeful about a better life, while all this is happening. Being "white" makes it impossible for me to be inside their skin, to feel their heart racing, to appreciate the rage, resentment and disillusionment they tamp down.
During the German occupation of France (and every other occupied country), the initial rejection of the Nazi demonization of Jews was slowly, but steadily eroded by the never-ending flood of anti-Semitic propaganda. By the end of World War II, anti-Semitism was prevalent in occupied Europe.
We scoffed at the report that Donald J Trump kept a copy of Hitler's speeches on his nightstand.
Scoff no more.
This racist has the rhetorical power to corrupt everything for which our nation stands.
And his acolytes, sycophants and minions have now fully revealed how evil can manifest among us in the blink of an eye.
We must not let this corruption of our principles prevail.
This is not our America.
7
Sorry, this IS our America. We just need to get it tamped down.
In liberal Upper Montclair NJ I witness a garage owner go mad and beat up a man whose name just happened to be Ibrahim. So scarey that this can happen here where everyone thinks they are tolerant.
3
Delighted to read this column.
“Both sides” false equivalence infects the media in ways that demanded the Fairness Doctrine in the past. If the Fairness Doctrine was re-instituted then FOX and Sinclair and Breitbart and the National Enquirer would have to give equal time to “both sides”. The notion that Americans can make up their own minds, denies the power of suggestion and persuasion, and plays into the hands of the oligarchs who fund Breitbart (Mercers) FOX (Murdochs) Sinclair Broadcasting (Julian Sinclair Smith) National Enquirer-AMI (Pecker). Krugman asks why would they and all other oligarchs promote hatred, racism, misogyny, and xenophobia. The answer is Power. In a democracy the wealthy are always a minority, that perceives “government as the problem”, unless they can subvert democracy, and get people to vote against their own interests. The most blatant example in American History was Bacon’s Rebellion wherein White and Black servants in rebellion were successfully divided by British Elite who enslaved Black servants and gave White servants a small increase in pay and told “at least you are not Black”. The beginning of racism and the division of White and Black workers persists because it advantages the oligarchs.
American Jews must be terrified to see the GOP demonize immigrant Hispanics and Muslims. The forces that led to Nazism are at work in the GOP. Trump is inept, but his defeat coupled with a Democratic sweep is essential to restoring democracy.
5
This is not something new. Throughout history, those who are in power oppress those who are not. To go as far as Hitler, Amin, Kim, or other sick leaders, is difficult to avoid because power corrupts (especially when those in power are already corrupt i.e. trump).
trump has empowered his base, who for reasons of personal failure, greed, or just a lack of empathy and education, must scapegoat those who, at the moment are less fortunate. This makes them feel more powerful and gives their lives purpose.
We have only one recourse, assuming it continues to exist, which is not guaranteed. VOTE in November.
4
So MAGA stands for "Make America Germany Again."
3
The photograph at the head of this column says it all: a white, business suit-clad male, topped off by his bright red MAGA hat, his face contorted by hate, points an accusing finger at who-knows-whom for doing, or being... what? Everything and everyone that pathetic human being despises is a figment of his own imagination, overheated as it is by a juvenile, self-pitying sense of victimhood. Poor, pitiful him; putty in the hands of a demonic demagogue like Trump.
9
I notice historians sometimes write about how Hitler "tricked" Germans into supporting him.
And in years to come Americans will claim they were "tricked" by Trump ... but it will not be true. A significant minority willingly followed him and embraced the descent into evil.
6
Go to the CIA FactBook, Country to Country Comparisons, Total Fertility Rate and look at the rate in Latin America. Mexico is at 2.24 children per woman, this is just slightly above replacement. El Salvador is at 1.87, this is well below replacement. Guatemala and Honduras are at 2.7 and 2.6, above replacement but not growing fast. This is true with all of the countries south of the border: Costa Rica 1.89, Panama 2.3, Nicaragua 1.89, Jamaica 1.89, Colombia 2.0, Brazil 1.75 (1.75!!! That is lower than the Netherlands!!!). These are European type numbers and yet most Americans (both Liberal and Conservative) think that there is some kind of population explosion going on down south. There isn't: No, non, nyet, nein. This misconception is what is driving this foolishness. There are almost no economic illegal immigrants left. The ones that are left are refugees escaping violence in their home towns. Please people, educate yourself.
5
So your saying that with Donald Trump it's hatred but with Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who all argued loudly of the illegal immigration problem, that it wasn't? And you throw up a photo of some buffoon to argue your point? Just when I think you guys can't get any lower, you do.
2
Human populations tend to follow the bell curve. There are a group at the high end, hard working and disciplined. There is the largest group in the middle, your average joe. There is a group at the bottom, who are marginally able to deal with life. Immigrants who have the gumption to look for and move to greater opportunity are usually in the high end group. The problem is not with high end immigrants coming in, but with low end groups not emigrating.
1
Right after the election, white woman in her late 60s was my Uber driver to the airport. She changed lanes abruptly, cutting off a car - driven by an African-American - who honked at her. She said, angrily, "Now that Trump is in president, he will put Those People in their place. He'll show them. They don't know what's coming." She then proceeded to tell me that Michelle Obama was a man, and Mr. Obama was Muslim, etc. etc. I listened to a racist tirade triggered by an African American driver honking at her dangerous driving. She was unmoved by my arguments against her "facts." (I've met Ms. Obama - she's definitely a woman).
So, here's an angry, retirement-aged, white woman (with poor driving skills) driving for Uber to survive. There are millions like her. Income inequality is pushing formerly lower-middle class people into poverty, addiction, and despair. These circumstances are fertile ground for sewing hatred of The Other, which not only serves as a scapegoat for their misery (exonerating any of their own choices), but also gives meaning to their suffering by elevating it to part of an epic battle against The Other.
Yes, this was rank racism, but income inequality is feeding this country's racism and feeding it's hatred. Our politicians are riding that wave of Hate to power. Once there, they fail to address growing income inequality, which exceeds 1929 levels.
9
Ignorance. As an uneducated white mid-westerner I moved to Los Angeles in 2000 and my first job was a humble bus boy position working side by side with immigrants. I quickly learned there was nothing to fear. They treated me like a brother. After our shift we would sit and drink beer. These are some of my warmest memories of what can actually be a very cold city. I sit with immigrant families everyday in Los Angeles and all I see are kind humble people who deeply love their children and desire their education. 98% of all the immigrants I come in contact with fit this "family simply trying to survive" profile. Frankly southern California would cease to function without them. They are our backbone.These people have been demonized by powerful racists as Mr. Krugman suggests. This is a false narrative and will become another sad stain on our history, if it does not destroy us.
13
What is not mentioned in this article is racism and white supremacy. The both outward and hidden racism is present in much if not all of American life. Each case of immigration and asylum need to be judged on it own merits. The violent conditions many are fleeing is real but those in power currently are consumed by hatred and fear. What is most difficult for us to do right not is to hear the pain of another and learn to evaluate for ourselves solutions to the problems we face. Hatred is fueled by racist stereotype that are false. Policies based on the myth of racial difference and other falsehoods will only cause more pain in people's lives.
2
Turns out America is not exceptional after all. America is plagued by the same demons and inclinations to commit acts of inhumanity as other nations have over the centuries.
The wealthy fan the flames of hatred to divert attention away from their manipulation of domestic policies and markets. As long as the poor and middle class are fighting each other over the economic crumbs, there’ no time for critical thinking.
1
I couldn't agree with the sentiments of this editorial more but I have to say, as a liberal West Virginian, I'm getting a little tired of my state being the poster child for Trump's mental illness and cruelty. We have only five electoral votes. West Virginia did not make Trump president. Out of over 3,500 counties in the nation, Trump carried all but 57 of them. Slice New York City and Buffalo off the edges and New York is a Red State.
And also as a fellow liberal, I can't explain to anyone in Middle America how there isn't coastal elite that is out of touch with the rest of the nation when a deservedly respected writer refers to us as "rural rubes," as he stays in his New York rose garden.
Yes, yes, I know. West Virginia went for Trump more overwhelmingly than any other state. But West Virginia voted Democrat for almost 100 years before all this, and we were hillbillies, inbreeds, and roadkill eaters then. So stop acting like this hate for us and the rest of Middle America is new or warranted. And also stop acting so entitled to it, as though you've earned it and we deserve it.
I want this hatred for immigrants to stop. I also want the coastal hatred for anyone provincial and poor to stop. And that NYC lawyer seen in a video all over social media castigating immigrants didn't happen in a vacuum. So much for those "rural rubes."
Stop the hatred at both ends. I always thought that was what all liberals wanted.
3
Point taken David, but the 100 years that W.V. voted democrat was back when the democratic party was at least as anti-black as the republican party.
When LBJ forced his own party to live up to America's true ideals in the mid-1960s, by passing the laws that finally put an end to almost 100 years of Jim Crow segregation, W.V. began turning red. Deep red.
There is another reason for the growth of fear and hatred of the new immigrant population in the US. The "great white hope" syndrome. These individuals are predominately white middle class and they are being fed the fear that they will no longer be in control of the US in the not to distant future. They will become the minority group in the country and this idea runs counter to all they have been taught. The white European is the master of the US, having taken the land away from the Native Americans via Manifest Destiny. Now a new group of immigrants, mostly non-white, are gaining in number and will soon overtake the white European population. The white European racism is the last hope for this segment of the population to retain their dominance in the US.
I'm willing to wager that there are more than a few undocumented low-wage workers folding sheets in trump hotels and resorts.
Anyone want to take me up on that?
2
I think Trump is despicable, deplorable and hope voters oust the Republican party in November. However, the media and the Democratic party are missing the real issue: Illegal Immigration. And, the US Congress failure to fund and enforce laws on the books and update our immigration policies. Most people can agree the US needs immigrants who may eventually become citizens. It also needs to provide more Work Visas to our neighboring country, Mexico so they can come to the US to work and return home. All paying taxes and buying goods in the US. What American's don't want is an Open Door to the world. That's what we have now.
So it is ok to exploit migrant people in the name of “immigration” or “diversity”? Mr. Krugman, you even morally bankrupt than DT. The reality is the fact that nobody really knows how many undocumented are in the US because most are hidden. It is in the economic interests of those receiving direct benefit from this system to keep these people hidden. In commercial kitchens, in warehouses, in areas where the public never goes. Not only does their presence undermine our labor laws, they do not produce adequate income to pay for the services they use - such as ER rooms. It is the less affluent who end up paying for the services the undocumented use - maybe that’s why they dislike them so much. There are no benefits in this arrangement for them - why should they like it? Paul, if you were an average wage earner, you would not like this, either.
1
The cruel and criminal act here is the thoughtless implementation of a family separation process with no consideration of how to reunite them. "It Can't Happen Here", but it has.
I am surprised by how many commenters are insisting that Dr. Krugman is wrong. The main parallel I am seeing is the repeating of "the big lie," which is if you repeat something enough, people believe it.
Much like OJ is still looking for "the real killers."
This entire anti-immigrant tone is a lie, and it is driven by hatred, not economics. I don't see many Americans willing to work as busboys or yard workers, so the Hispanic immigrants aren't "taking your job."
That was done by corporate America when they decided to outsource everything.
1
Bravo, Krugman.
America is a nation of ideals, of defining documents, of a shared experience that at some point in every family but native Americans is one of immigration and assimilation, notwithstanding each wave of immigrants has been treated with dismay and prejudice by those here before. We are a melting pot with, ironically, a discomfort of of those ‘melting’ as we or our forbears did once.
Connecting the current barbarism with the irrationality of anti-Semitism is only too painfully apropos. But what we are seeing is a willingness of a large part of American society to believe such lies and indulge in such hatred. That is even more disturbing than the hate itself. And we have seen it before, as in the ‘Red’ scare after WWI, or fear of the ‘yellow peril’ of Chinese immigration no longer welcome after the first transcontinental railroads were built that led to our first immigration laws to restrict entry. American immigration policy, as opposed to actual immigration, has always been racist at heart.
But I think the discussion has just started, because the real question has to be how some 40% of Americans support Trump’s vile language and ‘zero tolerance’ ( if not the separation of families). Not all of them are white supremacists or neo-nazis. It will take a lot of soul-searching to answer the ‘why such hatred?’ from them.
Isn't the "zero tolerance" policy that this country's current chief executive, along with his staff, still has in place, indictable as a "high crime"?
In other times, when congress members had any sense of integrity, there would be a publicly broadcast congressional hearing on what's been going on. Witnesses would be called. If they "took the fifth," so be it.The American public was wise enough to see through the masquerade.
Finally, trump, sessions, miller, et. al, HAVE YOU NO SHAME?
1
Thanks, I appreciated that. Some times the YUGE volume of lies, the incompetence and the cruelty of the Trump administration overwhelms one and can make one question there own sanity. Actually, most of the time.
Thanks, Dr. Krugman, for once again being a lucid, elegant voice of sanity, setting forth the actual facts and distinguishing them cleanly from the insidious lies of the right wing. The truth shall set us free, and we must stay clear on what is true in this maelstrom of foul phantasm the tRump people throw in the faces of caring, concerned Americans to confuse and try to silence us. You and your fine intellect are a beacon in this dark time!
Regarding illegal immigrants, it doesn't matter whether an average crime rate is lower or higher than legal immigrants or native born US citizens.
Illegal immigrants who commit crimes should not be here in the first place.
This is especially the case where the illegal immigrant was in custody and then released by law enforcement officials.
That's one less murder, robbery, rape, fatal car crash ...
The average or historical level is irrelevant to the victims and their families.
Those law enforcement agencies that release such criminals have at a minimum an indirect responsibility for the subsequent crime.
Krugman's attempt to tie preventative measures to anti-Semitism illustrates his moral and intellectual bankruptcy. He truly has the conscience of a liberal.
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The very real dangers of a trump administration are now coming to fruition. This dangerously bigoted, unprepared and likely crazy president is systematically hacking away at the institutions and policies that made us a great nation. Like a neglected child, he is breaking all that is good around him simply because he feels neglected or threatened. He needs to be in an institution - not leading a nation. Unless he is removed from office either as a result of impeachment by Congress or criminal prosecution for other misdeeds, the US of A is going to continue to lose all the things that made it truly great and worth looking up to. The world cannot care at this point - they will not help while the administration insults and tries to bully them. Yes - trump is an example of how dangerous it is to forget history... it is ironic that Germany has now taken the lead in becoming the moral center against authoritarianism and fascism, while the US is regressing into that darkness.
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I'm sorry, but how is being wealthy insulation from being an anti-Semite or any other form of xenophobe?
And classifying states as being anti-immigrant? While there may be a preponderance of the population who leans in that direction, the wording doesn't seem accurate.
Hatred feels good. That's why people continue to do it. Those with a conscience figure out how to control their primitive impulses. Others let it rip.
When you have a moment today give Frank Turner's Make America Great Again a listen. And let's use this as our message for each other. Good day all.
Well said, Mr.Krugman. Thanks so much for your moral and insightful writing.
I have been thinking this one over for a long time: why do smart people fall prey to such lies and conspiracies. I see it a lot. A LOT! And the answer I come up with is vanity. There is this idea inside people that because they are smart, then everyone else must be dumb, that the whole conventional wisdom must be wrong. But they are there to solve it! They are not only vain but heroes of some internal story they are inventing. It's disturbing but very common.
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The GOP has relentlessly and openly pursued racial bias with its Southern Strategy dating back to Richard Nixon when he pledged to fight Civil Rights in exchange southern state loyalty - turning them from Blue to Red. More recently, President Obama courageously bore the heavy burden of being the first black president in America, a country whose politics still display the scars of the Civil War.
The GOP paved the way for Donald Trump who built his career on his relentless racist Birther attacks on President Obama. Trump has attempted to legitimize racial hatred and has built a devout following of like-minded people. This voter base is critical to the political power of the Kochs, Mercers, Adlesons, Murdochs, Wynns and the other ultra-right wing corporatists. Trump’s bumbling trade policies are part of the cost of doing “business”. The slashed taxes for the super-rich far outweighs any near-term corporate losses arising from the shear ignorance and incompetence of the Trump so-called "administration".
These racist, anti-immigrant voters plus the hypocritical religious fundamentalists that continue to support Trump creates a huge voting asset that the ultra-right wing corporatists cannot afford to lose. Without that voter base, all of the gerrymandering and voter suppression enacted by state governments bought with Citizens United corporate money would not maintain the right wing one-party state this money has created.
After all, business is business.
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Thank you, Professor Krugman...for eloquently reminding everyone of past historical atrocities and for holding up the mirror that so many Americans need to look at.
Hatred of others sometimes starts as hater of oneself, or being hated by others. A loop of tragic consequences. A life lived in hate is a life squandered, a life poisoned.
Jimmy Carter: a life well lived...and continues to inspire
Donald Trump: a life lived in poison & immersed vitriol
Do you suppose deep down mt feels like djt is talking about her and her parents? Sounds like she and her parents fit the bill EXCEPT they are white. I believe that djt despises immigrants: BUT needs to feel superior, hence he chooses immigrants for spouses to assure himself of always having control over the other person.
This article is just so... well, bad. I admit the prose is eloquent, but so much of the content is so off base, it makes reading it nearly impossible. Granted, it is opinion, and to each his/her own. That said, if every point is presented as a declaration of some truth, then it has deviated greatly from opinion. And so much of this is so obviously slanted to the writer's opinion of the current president, that is is no better than an entry in the comment section on many news sites.
Is lack of enforcement the basis for the actions of those who rally against illegal immigration as one commentator suggested? Is there no hatred in anti-immigrant expressions? There is a difference between those who shout obscenities against any immigrant and those who genuinely feel that the law is not enforced. So, WHAT IS THE LAW? Is there any law that states that children must be separated indefinitely from their parents?
Is there any law that justifies the actual inefficiency of the governments’ agencies that deal with immigrants and immigration? . So far, the answers have been wrong, judging by how the administration has handled the fate of children and parents. The nation is now burdened with the cost of immigration centers for an indefinite time with no solution in view and with tactics that have caused revulsion in millions of citizens.
There are no long-term plans. Ask those who are in charge or support these ad hoc measures if they think that they are really solving the problems of immigration. Really, this is not the way. And in the meantime, those with unspeakable emotions against foreigners will continue to spew hatred—yes, hatred, to poison the air and stall any possible logic an well-planned policy
“... immigrants, both legal and undocumented, are significantly less likely to commit crimes than the native-born.”
Do not be too sure of that assertion. Most of the crime committed by undocumented is against the undocumented. The undocumented criminal knows his fellow migrants are vulnerable and will not go to law enforcement because they fear deportation. The reality is the fact that no one knows how much crime happens because it is largely unreported.
Blame over-population first and foremost for most current societal ills including immigration, garbage in oceans and on beaches, droughts and conflicts etc! Added to which things will get worse without draconian mesures.
Thanks to the media we in the many charitable developed countries are even more aware of global suffering than we were 50 or more years ago. We are also more aware that there seems to be an endless supply of billions of migrants from developing countries. Women of other nations in refugee camps in Sudan, Kenya or Jordan hosted by the kindness and generosity of these countries and funded by foreign aid are having far too many children considering their predicament. We all saw on TV news women fleeing bombardement in war zones with 3-5 small children all born during a conflict: where were the emergency contraceptives for them, the vasectomies for the husbands? Why would any woman living in such dire circumstances have so many children? Why do governements and NGOs, the UN/WHO/MSF/Red Cross/Save the Children et al et al not make any effort whatsoever to cut exploding demography in these impoverished countries or conflict zones, but happily wash their hands of their overflow when they emigrate at the same time as they accept our foreign aid (paid by taxes; aid funding isn’t printed to order!)? Venice in Italy and Barcelona are now radically cutting down or cutting out on tourist numbers due to the sheer numbers of tourists. The same goes for migrants, sadly.
Arm women and disarm men and the birth rate will go down.
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The greatness of a nation, and of a human being, is in part measured by how they treat the most vulnerable. By that metric our leadership has failed.
Time for new leaders.
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A powerful point made eloquently, and exactly why a national movement to locate, bring visibility to and ultimately rescue those babies and toddlers is so urgent. We cannot afford to mince words. Some of those babies will be subject to this hatred. Yes, of course there are good people everywhere and hopefully they will work underground to assist and prevent abuse. But to mobilize engagement & protest we need to keep bringing it to mind, no matter how awful. Some of those babies are in cages, and some will be in the charge of those who hate them for no reason other than myth. Pray that the good people around them keep it in check, and find those babies as soon as possible.
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Krugman finally alludes to the essential question, not what is occurring but why is it occurring. In order to improve things, we must deal with the realities of what is human nature, how humans behave in groups, and what may be essentially genetically coded "values." Too much of the energy objecting to the degeneration of our sociopolitical reality is spent documenting what is occurring, as well as the wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth. For the most part this only leads to bumpersticker "analyses" and "solutions."
If we really want to make progress, we need to spend less energy engaging in moral posturing and more in figuring out why "the others" profess and act the way they do. Minds need to be changed, and we will only develope the understanding and credibility necessary to change "their minds" if we listen to what "they" have to say, thus giving "them" an opportunity to believe they might change "our minds."
Krugman is absolutely right about the dynamics of anti-Semitism. It doesn't even need Jews, let alone Jews actually ever doing what the self-perpetuating myths claim. Though the internet and 500-channel TV have made things much worse, by and large people have always lived in echo chambers, cherry-picking input to support what they already believe. Though Krugman avoided specifics on the topic, he could have pointed to the Dreyfus Affair, the lynching of Leo Frank, and the Kielce Pogrom as evidence supporting his contention.
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I am increasingly fearful for the USA. Many of us watch on from afar as Trump stokes the fires of hatred and anti-immigrant feeling, knowing that similar political manipulation is happening in our own back yards. Trump’s America is not alone. In each of the current cases I can think of (Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Austria, Italy for example) there is a would be demagogue whipping up fear, lying about the threat that foreigners pose, scapegoating, and preying on the ignorance of a poorly informed population. And, it seems, helped on by a compliant (or controlled) media.
There are profound populist, nationalistic and anti-democratic feelings being fomented, maybe even to the point of readiness for widespread civil action, or maybe strife. You can see and hear the empowerment felt by audiences at Trump’s rallies.
I believe that we are witnessing a power grab. In the first stage, gaining power is through ‘democratic’ means. Once in power however, these demagogues begin to manipulate the constitutional structures (law makers, courts and justice systems, elected bodies) in order to reinforce their own power. I fully expect a challenge to aspects of the USA’s constitution from Trump, as we have witnessed in other countries.
Why are such rich and powerful men doing this? My view is simply because it has been proved historically to work: they want power and more power, and they want to hang on to it. And they won’t let a little thing like democracy get in their way
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The problem, Prof. Krugman, is the tendency to think anecdotes tell the whole story. Journalists use anecdotes to tug at heart strings or to illustrate broad data. But demagogues do the same. They cite a person murdered by an "illegal" immigrant and say that undocumented immigrants are killers. Men like Lou Dobbs -- who I also knew in the late 1980s as a reasonable man -- are saying things we could never have dreamed they'd say back then. What is missing from our stage today are the men and women who fought intolerance that was so horrible during WW II. These people are silent. What is worse, however, is that their voices wouldn't be listened to now today, anyway. Trump's supporters don't want facts, seasoned voices, experts or real morality (that Rev. Graham came out against this specific border policy does not give him an out on his complicity with other border policies).
We're in dangerous times, but we've been here before. The country has survived, damaged, but survived.
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Let's imagine that immigrants really did stop coming to the US. Not just the low skilled ones but all of them. The population growth rate is already declining. There won't be enough people working to support and replace those retiring. How does that make America great? Trump himself is descended from low skilled immigrants from Germany that came over and started "businesses".
The Land of the Free is turning into the Land of the hate. The real American Carnage is being committed by young white males with guns, not immigrants or minorities. All this is just a distraction to avoid the real issues plaguing Americans. A way to blame someone else for your problems.
Republicans need to remember "America is great because it is (or used to be) good". Not the other way around.
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Mr. Krugman.
Whenever the discussion broadens past the point man Mr. Trump and envelopes the larger American public I remember an article I had read years ago (not in the NYTimes, sorry). It was by a person who, while attending dinner parties and social engagements, this was in New York in I believe the 40s, would wile away her time by looking around at the other guests and try to pick out who were the fascists
As an exercise I periodically do the same. It is a healthy way to remind oneself of its ever presence and insidious draw.
I am afraid its not much of a parlour game in your country these days. If anything it seems to be the other way around. So many fascists trying to pick out the, what, non-fascists?
Kind regards.
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Our seething Id demands an outlet: Scapegoating is a vent. Often the government, the police, and other authorities get the blowback; but 45 et al. are selling immigrants as a huge source of our national problems, e.g., crime, drugs, unemployment, a chaotic society with bizarre customs appearing, families confused and splitting apart, rapid, uncomfortable change.
If I can blame someone or something else, god even, I'm off the hook, often to a large degree. Swearing is also known to relieve stress and anxiety. And if I can join a hate group, I can enjoy that family, belongingness feeling, like at a sports event.
Sometimes the whisky and the religion and the sports, though, just ain't enough. We gotta have more action, and politics supplies lots of outlets. We're not, as a nation, stay-at-homes.
"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."
-- Blaise Pascal
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"There's nothing to fear, but fear itself".
And we have an enormous amount of fear in this country whether it be demonstrated overtly (i.e. Trump rallies, Charlottesville, etc.), or passive-aggressively (reactions to kneeling during anthems, "they're taking our jobs").
I have relatives in the southwest. When I noted that Trump won with a large percentage of the undereducated white vote, they took offense even though was not directed at them. It was a statistic that was true, but somehow that comment felt directed at them. It was ironic since they run an extremely successful family business built from the ground up. However, I learned that educational insecurity and insularity can be powerful driver of fear and belief regardless of financial success.
Businesses depending on more menial labor love it and will support Trump (ironic they aren't supporting zero-tollernace on hiring illegals). The struggling, feeling more left behind, latch on to Trump's fear-stoking, redirecting it towards immigrants.
I see Trump's desire to change the Education department to refocus on training folks for jobs businesses need, rather than focusing on true education is telling. The GOP needs the ignorant, fearful masses for cheap labor. Being an "elite" (i.e. having a critically thinking brain) gets in the way.
Yes, I fear the fear that is in the eyes of the fearful.
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What are those people pointing at in that picture, anyway? Clearly not the stage. Had Trump turned them toward the press area? Do any other readers know?
Congress' inaction over the past several decades on the southern border immigration issue is the root cause of the problem. Perhaps Trump's policy of taking children is a ploy, do something so horrible as to call attention to a problem that can only be solved by congress. We need a guest worker program. We need a solution to the undocumented issue that cannot be undone by the future occupant of the white house. Only congress can fix this.
The most pivotal question: As one of the millions of Americans (and the majority of contributors to these Comments) who is appalled by everything Donald Trump and the sycophantic Republic Party have done to unravel the moral and civil fiber of this country, as a practical matter, what should I be doing, day in-day out, over the next four months that will turn out the voters who will elect Democrats to Congress?
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It is a fair statement to make that people who hate are attracted to Trump. How this hate is diffused will determine the fate of this country.
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It's not that mysterious. They live in fear of demographic trends showing white people becoming a minority. In California, where that trend may be further along than elsewhere, it has been accompanied by a near total loss of Republican power on the state level.
I’m so grateful for this and similar coverage. And I’m desperate for more coverage of what - if anything - would convert trump supporters from blind adherence to questioning of what are plainly, to others, malicious lies (or “falsehoods,” in common media lingo).
" ... a lot of the funding for anti-immigrant groups comes from foundations controlled by right-wing billionaires ... "
A lot of the funding for groups that organize the undocumented comes from our largest philanthropies, such as George Soros’ Open Societies Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Read about it in the 11/14/14 NYT article “The Big Money Behind the Push for an Immigration Overhaul” by Julia Preston. These philanthropies fund social service agencies which organize the undocumented to make demands of our government. They are the ones which pressured President Obama to created DACA with an Executive Order even though he had told them repeatedly that a president lacked the power to do so.
Philanthropies have been using their tax-free money to push for the legalization of all undocumented immigrants.
The undocumented are also supported by the Koch Brothers. Various media have said the brothers are spending lavishly for commercials, etc, through their Libre Initiative, to force
Congress to find a “fix" for Dreamers.
Philanthropies are undemocratic. They get to use untaxed money to force their own agendas on the public. If the public had a vote on how the philanthropies use their money to help the undocumented, we might vote for the philanthropies to help people in their own countries, not here. Otherwise, more and more people will be coming here, without authorization.
We reached this nightmare period because we allowed powerful people to compare the worst of Communism to the best of Capitalism. Greed won out over sharing. Corporations were allowed to rape our Central American neighbors until they had to follow the river of money back to the thieves' den across the border. In our hearts, many of us know we would be doing the same thing, fighting for our families.
Killing trade unions, perpetuating a minimum wage that multiple jobs by every member of a family still can't add up to a decent middle class life, suppressing education to smother the arts, history and humanity itself...
All this was planned and carried out by those in power; America today is the logical result of these policies.
I witnessed Jim Crow and am horrified that so many lament its passing; Trump rallies show their faces. I like the idea by an earlier poster that we should show the crowds, and never the speaker at these events.
Thanks Paul always enjoy your column. This reminds me to remember that shaming a bully will never get more than his wall of defensiveness acting big and loud and angry. But Love is more powerful that hate, Love will win in the end while ie hard right now.
My father was a southerner descended from slave-owners and I learned from him that love was the most affective tone to create change in attitudes, moralizing only deepened his shame around northerners who saw southerners as disgraced. We on the left have every reason to feel righteous anger at those billionaire haters, though we need to remember to be kind be loving the power of gentleness - even Mr Dobbs knows he is wrong deep inside - you can see on TV in Lou's eyes he looks very unhappy.
That Minnesota face on your column looks stressed, fearful, low self esteem, he doesn't know how he appears to other people so we need to forgive him. He even looks like Lou Dobbs. Don't give away our power, remember the power of LOVE! Smile at them gently.
I will continue to enjoy your column as one of my favorites.
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One of the main reasons Americans have exaggerated views re crime rates is that local news stations report "all crime, all the time". Add to that the fact that white middle class people commit fewer violent and property crimes (proportionately) than poor people of color (sorry , its a real fact), and the public is indoctrinated into the view that dark skinned people (immigrant or not, legal or not) are generating a massive crime wave that doesn't exist.
And the reason local news does this isn't institutional racism, its simply because crime reporting is cheap and generates great ratings- its good for the bottom line.
Remember, its always about the money.
American nativism has been part of American exceptionalism since before the founding of the Republic. Ben Frankin deplored German immigrant prominence in Pennsylvania before the Revolutionary war. Historically, that fear and hatred is tribal and has no basis in genuine empiric evidence. It is, rather, a mindless dehuminization of “the Other” that cannot be controlled by rational argument based on facts. Science and reason are impoten when their methodss are arrayed against magical thinking.
When co-opting prejudice for political advantage pays big dividends, the political class and its supportive regiment of enabling theorists must be held to account by the two weapons they fear most: public same and personal contempt by their peers and political defeat for the pundits and defeat at the state and local level for the ambitious politicians who use prejudice of others for political advantage.
The majority of Americans—perhaps 60-70% in some polls—must no longer stay passive. Vote. Protest, and contribute to political candidates: in a word wake up!
Stop believing evidence and argument are a potent answer to vile prejudice. Fight back by non-violent political activism. You cannot change virulent prejudice but you can defeat the political class and its theorists who use it to preserve their power.
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As with fiscal and drug policies, when it comes to immigration all we ever hear debated is the supply side. Why does no one ever address the demand side?
If your goal is to efficiently cut the number of undocumented immigrants, the most effective intervention would be to simply revoke the business licenses of their employers, starting with the largest. Just say "you broke the law, now you no longer own this business, and you can never open another business again--go get a job". Sell the business to someone who'll run it in a responsible law-abiding manner.
But somehow it's the immigrants, each guilty of a single misdemeanor, who incur the popular wrath. Not the big-time operators who violate the laws thousands of times a day and use their ill-gotten gains to undermine our democracy and communities.
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The rise in crime in major cities is directly tied to the rise of illegal immigration and open borders letting drugs flood poor and black communities.
The real libel is that for years black Americans were blamed and told they needed to just get some moral fiber and clean up their communities.
Yet this article and others just absolve these illegal immigrants of any responsibility for conditions in their countries. Just as white drug addicts are portrayed as victims while black drug addicts are criminals.
Typical racism 101 in America. Everyone is a victim except Black and Native Americans. Then it is an issue of personal responsibility.
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>
“[W]e spring from an endless series of generations of murderers, who had the lust for killing in their blood, as perhaps, we ourselves have today.” ...... “by our unconscious wishful impulses, we ourselves are, like primaeval man, a gang of murderers.”
Freud
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Money and power corrupt the human soul in terrifying ways
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Did anyone notice Trump's use of a new insult against the protesters of his MN rally, "they're going home to their mommies?" I heard that as also making fun of the immigrant children who were heard crying for their mommies.
His own wife is an immigrant! The First Lady! This is where the analogy to 1930s Germany becomes baffling, because it highlights Trumpism's basic intellectual incoherence. At least the Germans were consistent about who they hated.
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MAHA mission accomplished.
Making America Hate Again.
It's what the photo that leads this article shows.
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Ah yes, the perfect picture here in The Times, capturing Trumpism in its most vicious hatred. I would wager The Times in no time could scour its Archives and find a facsimile photo from 1930's Germany, showing another crazed zealot supporting another deranged madman. Ah yes, the irony is inescapable.
DD
Manhattan
Please VOTE this November.
Save our Republic!!!!
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Lovely photo accompanying this article. As if we couldn't find thousands of recent, similar photos at women's day marches, BLM rallies, and so forth showing equally ugly, frothing maniacs filled with hatred.
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The blood libel? This is so offensive. This was used against Jewish civilians to justify slaughtering them--it refers to a christian or Muslim belief that Jews kidnapped & murdered gentile children & used their blood in ritual food like matzah. There are plenty of non Jews who still believe this & seek to act on it.
To compare this to wanting to keep our borders secure is deeply offensive on all levels. You get your own feelings, not your own facts. Facts aren't malleable & an invented reflection of your own fears & fantasies.
NO ONE is spreading a blood libel against illegal immigrants. NO ONE. NO ONE is murdering them. Actually it's the opposite-you may not like this fact, but MS 13 gang crime is on the rise. Obviously the majority of illegal immigrants are normal people. But you cannot pretend MS 13 crime doesn't exist because you don't like the facts.
Here's the thing--The vast majority of people I know who are in favor of unfettered illegal immigrants:
1. Have zero personal at stake. They are wealthy, live in all white/upper class enclaves, send their kids to private schools with nary an illegal immigrant in sight, etc.
2. Do not care at all about low income folks, including nonwhites, who are impacted by millions of low skilled workers. Do NOT tell me that black people in the inner city I work in are lazy.
You hate Trump so much it makes you irrational & frenzied. You are driving people away with your hate.
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That photo is a horror unto itself.
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I appreciate Dr. Krugman calling it for what it is. Yet, even now, on a supposedly liberal publication like the New York Times, there is a propensity toward false equivalence. As I am posting this, there is an article on the front page talking about how "both sides" are using crass language. The example is Trump accusing immigrants of "infesting" the country, evoking comparisons to Nazis referring to Jews (and other undesirables) as "vermin." The example of "on the other hand" was Robert De Niro using a profanity (one most Americans learned by puberty) against Trump.
The president of the United States using his bully pulpit to compare human beings to vermin should be a clear sign that there is something extremely wrong with this country. Even some hardcore neo-cons like Bill Kristol see it. They see that, past the usual political differences, here is someone dragging this country down a very dark path that might have no return. But the publication Dr. Krugman contributes to seems to still be mired in hand-wringing about "a lack of civility on both sides."
In the middle ages, kings often expelled Jews from their kingdoms after they had borrowed huge sums of money from them. It was in their economic interests to remove their creditors. Where is the economic interest here? It has to be a factor.
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I'm not a Trump fan, but reading your article, looks like the 45th President roped another dope. You should run for Congress, party affiliation not important.
I'm not a Trump fan
Liar.
Minor quibble with characterization of the "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" as a forgery.
As Christopher Hitchens said "A forgery is a counterfeit of a true bill. The Protocols are a straightforward fabrication, based on medieval Christian fantasies about Judaism."
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"And you know what this reminds me of? The history of anti-Semitism, a tale of prejudice fueled by myths and hoaxes that ended in genocide."
You're absolutely right. What makes it even worse is that its author--Stephen Miller--is himself a Jew. Shame on him!
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To the comment reviewer, to whom I turn because I don't know where else to go, the following Q:
When did "View all replies" turn into "View one or two more replies"?
This new policy is most irritating and leaves out some very good and thoughtful discussion and comment.
Would a higher global average temperature lead to less rational world population? Trump might be the biggest buffoon but he's not the only buffoon with a following in this world. Fear turns to hate and hate gives you a reason to live. Maybe its just what humans are, destructive.
This time I am rattled to the bone. Thank you Mr. Krugman for waking me up. I have been putting off for quite a while sighting- in my AR. This I will take care of very soon. I will order more ammunition. This will not be a repeat of Nazi Germany. I will not go quietly in the night.
The Congress is a mess and cannot, will not act as a constitutional check on Trump. The only hope is the Judiciary will reign Trump in. But what if he ignores the courts? Congress is so splintered it may do nothing. All I have to say is good luck to everyone, and may God bless you.
Managing the ignorant, aggrieved and ill-informed has always been easy. Bread and circus tactics laced with continual doses of fear and xenophobia work wonders for plutocrats and demagogues. #MAGA
Just look at the photo that opens this article, look at the hatred in that man's face. Listen to the anger and hatred in the crowds of Trump supporters. People don't like the Hitler comparisons but they are getting harder to ignore.
Fox News and right wing radio started this in the late 90s, too many of us didn't take the racism and the non-stop hate mongering seriously. I only hope it is not too late for us.
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Lou Dobbs has struck me as two faced when he screams anti-immigrant screes while being connected to the horse racing and horse show industries which have been taking advantage of undocumented workers for years. He is pathetic.
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Krugman comes closer than about anyone in getting at the truth ... along with Bill Maher, Robert Reich, Stephen Colbert, and Seth Meyers. Humor relies on honesty. I don't know any of my right wing friends who watch late night TV ... other than Fox News.
When you have one party that supports a man who has already told over 3,000 lies since he took office it is impossible to discuss the important issues such as health care, climate change, and income inequality.
On health care ... we pay double, get worse outcomes, and don't cover something like 30 million fellow citizens.
On climate change .... one party calls it a hoax in opposition to the rest of the world and 97% of climate scientists.
On wealth inequality ... one party's solution is cutting taxes on the rich and creating massive deficits.
Let's hope the Dems can elevate the political discussion to solving these three problems (as Bernie was able to do) while calling out Trump's lies. If they do they might find a more receptive audience.
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Indeed, there is no rational basis for anti-immigrant animus. In fact, with near zero population replacement, the U.S. is sacrificing future growth for nativist nostalgia and fear. And, of course, the GOP would rapidly oppose any pro-natalist policy demanding public funds, such as subsidized day care to lift female labour force participation.
Germany's response to these conditions is strikingly different, that is, rational.
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The U.S. immigration system and our borders have been broken since 1965. Both parties broke it, neither party wants to fix it - the law or the border.
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Thank you Paul. Sadly, very apropos, and clearly stating how history repeats itself, and how base instincts and paranoia can be so easily facilitated by a leader such as Trump.
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"I don’t know what drives such people". I have an idea - power. Giving people something (or someone) to hate is one way to bring them together. Create an "us vs. them" mentality, and the group gets stronger. The last step is to take it one further and create siege mentality, where their entire way of life is under attack. The people controlling that narrative will have tremendous power. Fox has been setting this up for decades.
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The eloquent power of Krugman's words is exactly why a national movement to locate, expose and rescue these toddlers is so urgent. We cannot afford to mince words. Some of these toddlers will be subject to this hatred, for no reason other than myth. Pray the good people involved keep this in check, and we need to mobilize nationally to find and support them every way we can.
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Thank you Paul Krugman. Once again you have clarified the chaos. Hate is the driving fuel, and it is hard to defend oneself against hate. It is even harder to protect others, which is why we are in the horrific situation we are in now.
I am grateful for your column.
2
Attention Mr.Trump ,remember and keep before you “sic transit gloria mundi “. You are as one writer points out ,72 ,and as Shakespeare wrote out of the mouth of Marc Anthony” I have come to bury Ceaser not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them and the good is oft intered with their bones”.
Alas your future is shorter than your past as it is for all people of 72. The evil you perpetrate on the American soul will be your legacy and there will be no good to inter with your bones. No, Nazis are not “some fine people”. No, immigrants like your grandparents and mine were not thieves and rapists. No,every Latino is not m-13. No, those little kids were not a threat to America. Kids that grow up stiffing suppliers, shareholders ,and college students , and collude with our foreign adversaries are a threat to America. History will not be kind and what history notes and opines will be your legacy until eternity well after the “Wall” crumbles.
1
I cannot bluff myself in saying I, for example, have been speaking or thinking of it, as if I were a shadowy lone activist against tidal waves all the time. But, twenty + x years ago in this country, “God Bless Atomic bombs” was acceptable by more Americans than today. Even today, for a certain electoral constituency, that Japanese people are associated to *the* insects is an acceptable topic in casual (or maybe non-casual as well) conversations. The association also appears in “GBA”. ***** Twenty + x years ago, the non-combatants immunity was not much of a debate either. If any then and now, the course of the debate often was/is directed to the sinuous question and labyrinthine logic: how to define non-combatants? All those belonging to (living in) the other side (= enemy country) are enemies... and so on. One landmark of a change, in my observation, was the Iraq War, the broadcast of airbombings in which raised the public awareness. ***** The Nazi propaganda aimed to complete its elimination plan. The government decided who would be eliminated, according to ethnicities, physical or mental incompleteness, judged by the government’s own criteria. *If* there really is a comparable point between the Nazis and the current administration in America, that would be, in the latter, attempts to eliminate inproductive members (judged solely by the government, partly or majorly based on social or economic data) of the country.
There seems to be some deep, primal human need to identify a group as the "other" and then gang-up and de-humanize them for sport. On the Fox News website, the comments sections are also full of hatred and dehumanizing terms about "liberals"...vermin, rabid dogs, roaches. People say they don't even want to live in the same State with "them".
2
It has often occurred to me that what Trump is doing is in someways like what Hitler was trying to do in Germany against the Jews.
And, so, I am totally baffled by the fact that Trump appears to be Netanyahu's best friend among foreign leaders.
3
You’re baffled? Consider this Trump is not Enrique Nieto’s best friend.
Trump = White Hate, plain and simple.
3
For those who support this travesty, I suggest you take a long hard look in the mirror and ask yourself how you would feel being treated such as this? Do these actions do anything other than expose your hatred? What are you so angry about? Hint: is is about you, nothing else. Live according to your values and morals. Perhaps you need to review those as well. The latest oxymoron: mob intelligence.
1
Krugman hates Trump because Trump has proven the failure of Krugmanomics so Krugman makes these idiotic Nazi comparisons. Sorry Krugman but the majority of Americans are for controlling our borders.
3
Yes and separating these “criminals” from their children! America has always opened their arms to people that want to be here including those with brown skin.
Krugman dislikes Trump because he is a lying, evil, racist ignoramus who is destroying America while trying to make a buck off the presidency. Every person of moral integrity should have Trump. What's s the GOP excuse?
3
This makes no sense. What “failure of Krugmanomics” ? What are you talking about? Do you know? And Trump proved it? How? When? Trump has proved nothing. He’s lied a lot, but facts continue to elude him. As they do you.
4
The #Trumpcamps should make him forever infamous. We must continue to call them what they are. #Trumpcamps must be part of his legacy. Please, comment everywhere #Trumpcamps
6
My beautiful daughter is interning for a Democratic congressman for the summer in DC. She is a bright, energetic, and politically aware. She is everything one could hope for in a child and represents the best of our future.
Every day she fields calls from non-constituents.
They call her the "c-word". They call her a whore. They say she will go to hell.
I can only hang my head in shame. What has happened to this beautiful country. What has happened to the country that my father fought for in WWII. The country that destroyed fascism and its putrid ideology. Like my father, these men and women are all gone and what remains are those who did not experience the horror of the 1st half of the 20th century. It is so appropriate that the gates of Dachau say "let us not forget".
Many of our people are being brainwashed. The propaganda machine is working. I believe the only way to end this is to end the propaganda. Fox "News" and it's ilk must be cut down to its knees. Also. We cannot fight propaganda with propaganda. We must fight with truth. It does not help if MSNBC slants coverage the "other way".
I believe the way to do this is economically via boycotts. We must stop the propaganda.
I still believe most people are good in their hearts.
I must believe that most people are good in their hearts.
9
I expect others have made similar comments - but here goes - i love Paul Krugman, love esp the way he makes sure to remind readers often of the bad influence of "both-sideism", and that we have not become so polarized by accident, that it has been the work of the conservative media, AM talk, republican party, and how radical they have become. But my comment is that (and I am sure Paul knows this already), when he says that he does not understand while so many, like Lou Dobbs for example, seem to follow along and "believe" that immigration is a big problem in this country - they know it is not - but they also know that hatred is a very powerful emotion, and that it can be oh so effective as a tool to gain political power, if they harness it and use it to their political advantage. Ann Coulter, the rest, they know better, but yet it is easy money for them - to speak to the ignorant, to lie, and to stir the hatred. Unfortunately, for many folks, hate just feels great, blaming others, joining together with others with a similar easy theme of hatred, is just too much fun, and Trump and his advisors certainly understand this. So ti is not so much about what the republican leaders actually believe, it is about what they think is the most advantageous side to be on, for them politically, and of course financially, which goes hand in hand now.
7
Trump talks up immigration because it's a way to stoke fear, and fear sells, especially among his base. This narrow base is all it took to get him into office and all it probably would take to keep him there -- no need to govern for a majority or even a plurality. Indeed, doing so would likely alienate his key voting segment. So this is perfectly rational. The Electoral College, so we're told in school, was to screen candidates for qualifications and character. It hasn't, and never has. Any political system that not only allows such un-democratic baiting to take place but encourages it borders on illegitimacy except in the most narrow, technical, legal sense. We need a new one. This is what I'd like to see more opinion makers, Dr. Krugman included, talk about.
2
Long ago, before I escaped to Europe, I worked in the garment industry in Los Angeles. In my fifteen years in the industry, I never once saw a white, black, Asian or Hispanic native-born American hunched over a sewing machine in a hot factory for many hours a day at minimum wage (and taxes were taken from the paychecks of course, and since so many of the workers were undocumented and working under false names, they did not get those taxes back, or build up Social Security benefits, etc.). And on my way to work, I often saw the groups of men, all Mexican, standing on certain street corners every day hoping they would be one of the "chosen" when the landscaping contractor drove up in his pick-up truck and took on his casual laborers for the day (working in the hot California sun, mowing lawns and pulling weeds, often for less than minimum wage, paid in cash). Those were the jobs the "illegals" were "stealing", and I doubt things have changed much now.
At one point, I had to visit a sewing factory across the border, and I got lost in the slums of Tijuana. And looking at the grinding poverty, the houses made of tin cans and old tires, I remember thinking that if fate had put me in that situation, that I hoped I, too, would have had the courage - yes, courage - to cross the border to El Norte in an attempt to earn enough money through back-breaking labor to feed my kids.
9
My 95 y.o. mother in law was a refugee from central Europe. She is living comfortably after a lifetime of sewing on an ILGWU and war widows pension. Her co workers from that era are at least comfortable if not rich.....don't you see what happened? The Triangle short-waist deaths seem to have been in vain as we have returned to the sweatshop model of manufacturing.
1
Blood libel? Can we cool it with the Nazi references and comparisons, because there is no comparison. I understand where PK is coming from, and he's right, Trump is a nightmare, but the Nazis were something else. Rwanda was something else, Cambodia was something else.
1
Don't think for a second that Germany, Rwanda and Cambodia happened overnight. There is a clear comparison: Trump desires to be a dictator to exert power over the masses.
2
They all had to start somewhere. I'd rather we sound the alarm now. Your's is the "it can't happen here" error. It can. It is.
2
The analogy is clear: derive power through fear and hatred. Concentration camps and ovens were the end game. We’re at the beginning of that road.
2
You don’t know why the plutocrats spend so much time drumming up hatred for immigrants?? Come on, Paul! It’s ‘divide and conquer.’ Oldest trick in the book.
3
Paul, I have been reading your columns for many years, but your last several columns have been the most brilliant and needed ones you have ever written.
Many Republicans, most notably Trump, but also Alex Jones, Dobbs, Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and others, appear to be filled with hate and rage, traffic in conspiracy theories and/or exaggerated and even fabricated facts and disputes, and seem to believe the lies and hate they spew on a regular basis. But the Republican party has taken this approach from the Willie Horton ads in the 1980s to Swift Boating to Trump's birther lies to the Comet Ping Pong Pizza hoax and more. It's really nothing new, just more virulent and now led by the President himself.
We live in very scary and potentially dangerous times. While it is unlikely America will devolve into Nazi Germany, there is a real risk that as Trump fills the courts with hard right-wing judges, decimates government agencies, and seeks to erode voting rights and consumer and environmental protections, the damage to our country is likely to be severe and long-lasting.
The real issue now is how do Democrats, reasonable Independents, and fair-minded Republicans come together to prevent this monster from winning a second term. Democrats and their like-minded friends must set aside tests of ideological purity and resist the temptation to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The future of our country and perhaps the world would seem to depend on it.
5
Show me a like-minded Republican who isn't in his grave.
1
And what about the children torn from parents to get killed in Vietnam....
2
Whatboutism is the laziest retort. We can multi-task. It's not this or that. It's is this and that.
1
For the Deplorables their "human" nature is Lie, Cheat Steal, Kill -- and as populations increased slowly the Deplorables came to out number other human natures.
___________________________________________________
So Sad. Bye-Bye Miss American Pie.
2
Nobody believes the rapists & killers meme, they simply can't condone a stupidly loose border where America is taken advantage of while Liberals gloat. And that goes for this Liberal. I'm sick of ideological liberalism marching lockstep with any identity or outrage based crisis like a mob of robots. Krugman lost me last article when he couldn't enumerate the utility of Latin and Rome to various modern dilemmas, ending his nonsense spiel with malarkey about Russia. Now, antisemitism. I've never heard a word out of Krugman about Israeli human rights abuses and murder of Palestinian protesters. That's a point he agrees with Trump on.
1
Great piece, Paul Krugman.
Oh, how I wish the NY Times and the larger media would ask one simple question:
Who built the "cages" that are being used to house illegal aliens at the southern US border?
Turns out, it was the Obama administration:
"The cages aren’t wholly new. During the Obama administration, unaccompanied immigrant children who arrived at the border were kept in them as well, as this tour by Representative Jim McGovern shows. Then-Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said unaccompanied minors would be deported, labeling the practice a deterrent. There was outcry at the time, especially from immigration groups, and the Obama White House was forced to stop detaining families by a court."
That's from the Atlantic. So, it appears that the exact same "crisis" that we're facing now was also taking place under the Obama presidency and his solution was exactly the same as the Trump administration's.
This being the case, where was the outrage when Obama and his White House built those cages and initiated this practice?
The hypocrisy of the Left is so draw-dropping that it literally makes one's head swim.
When will the Times report that it was Obama who built those cages?
No time soon, I'm sure.
4
So what if Obama built them? Trump filled them.
1
Unfortunately, Trump's lies about immigrants are similar to lies against Jewish citizens and Catholics (remember when some people swore that Catholics hid the bodies of babies in the church walls?).
A president who rams little children into gulags on false premises puts him into the same category as Hitler and Stalin. And worse, he aggressively defends his actions, while at the same time he blames others with bald-faced lies.
And even worse than Trump are the Republican Congress members who refuse to act on behalf of the vast majority of Americans who deplore Trump's barbaric actions regarding the immigrant children seized at the border. They act as the puppets of the Kochs and the NRA and other wealthy donors and corporations, abandoning any pretext to fulfilling the responsibility of their positions.
7
Who gave the order to build those cages? Under whose administration were those cages built?????
2
The “violence” being done by immigrants is, to Trump, the pain he feels on the sight of brown skin. The “crime” is speaking Spanish.
Dear America,
Stop hiding behind Trump, he is not the problem he is the alarm, and you can keep telling yourself it'll be ok just 5 mins more fumbling for the snooze button or get up.
But that is unlikely.
Apathy put him there and apathy will most likely keep him there.
Apathy towards the effectiveness of Washington, the health of institutions, the morphing of the American dream, disinformation, the coarsening of debate and the possible election of a troll.
And if you do get up remember non-Ameticans are going to remember for a while that time you got sad, drank a bit too much and started telling the rest of us what you really think.
And for what it's worth its better to have heard it.
It must be tiring living up to the myths you've told us about you...
2
The hatred is a radical scheme by oligarch-billionaires to prevent societal change. Fundamentally, it’s about energy and shifting away from fossil fuels. Quelling crises around the world will take creative effort to make more fresh water available but there isn’t enough fossil fuel left to do the job. So the rule is to marginalize as much of the global population as necessary to provide a good life for fossil fuel users and ignore the rest. This is an ideal condition for the rise of Fascism and war. You might think I’m crazy but check out Hitler’s concern for running out of farmland to feed his country and the effort he made to kill populations east of him so that he could take over their land. We have the ability to change course but do we have the will?
3
thank you for weighing in on this issue. I wish you had described the controversy among economists about immigrants depressing wages in detail. the decision to offer starvation wages to desperate people is after all a human decision and, although it seems on the face of it to simply be immoral, I would like to have read a defense.
1
Unfortunately, the loud voices on the far right and far left have silenced the rational voices in the middle. Because of this compromise appears impossible.
2
There is virtually no "far left". The right is so far right the center right is left and the left is the far left.
2
“Trump won whites making less than $50,000 by 20 points, whites making $50,000 to $99,999 by 28 points, and whites making $100,000 or more by 14 points. He assembled a broad white coalition that ran the gamut from Joe the Dishwasher to Joe the Plumber to Joe the Banker.”
- T. Coates
“Economic anxiety” was a joke brought on by a media eager to avoid discussing about the real reason for trump’s election: Hatred.
10
See this lucid Washington Post reporting showing the real hoax is about the border crisis - the lies spread by Trump, Fox News, and all the right-wing crazies. Manias, panics, and the madness of crowds may take over big chunks of a country when the opportunity is ripe for a psychopathic, lying charlatan with murderous hatreds and pleasure in manipulating the gullible.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-real-hoax-about-the-border-c...
5
Thank you, Mr. Krugman.
2
So who are you, America?
Are you the land of the free and the home of the brave? Or are you a nation that says that children chasing the American dream "are not the best" and "bad hombres"?
In Canadian media, we're talking about how the current rhetoric from the Trump administration is very similar to the rhetoric of slavery. How soon until the children and families in custody are going to be made to "earn their keep" while they wait for some sort of status in the United States?
Why is the Trump administration going after foreigners? Because it isn't just "bad hombres", it isn't about "MS-13" members. People are getting arrested who are families and children, people are getting arrested who are legal residents of the United States with green cards and permanent residency, people are getting arrested when they are citizens. Citizens of other countries are being told to go to heck.
So why does the Trump administration go after foreigners? Because we prove the lie of the Trump administration. There is no difference between an American, a Canadian, a Mexican, a European, or anyone else except place of birth. When immigrants exist in a neighbourhood, Americans stop being afraid of them. Who, then, will the Trump administration tell you to be afraid of? When Canada has social policies, Americans will look to us and say, "Why can't we do that?" How, then, will the Trump administration take those away?
Who are you, America?
You know who you really are.
8
Mr. Krugman, you got it! The hatred, covered or thought to be gone, by pundits after the election of President Obama again raises its ugly head. this is hatred for those who are 'different,' even children who, heaven knows, have no control over how they look. Conservatives? Ha! If so, deliver us from their religious convictions.
This is not a right or left orientation. The is lack of humanity. I'd like David L. below to know that.
2
Does this mean know all of his hate has embedded in his face?
It's really impossible to ignore, and hard to look at.
4
"No, the real crisis is an upsurge in hatred — unreasoning hatred that bears no relationship to anything the victims have done." And the GOP has done a thorough job of spreading the hatred and misinformation about immigrants, African Americans, the poor, single payor health care, science, etc. What's new is that it's coming from the very top of the country, from our president who is expected to represent every American in the country.
As a white Jewish lesbian who is currently unemployed I do not feel represented by anyone in this country. There are plenty of others out there who feel the same way. I feel threatened when I hear Jefferson Sessions drawl away about the New Testament and the law. I am alarmed beyond words when I read that the GOP wants to make it harder for single adults to receive government aid: as if it's our fault employers don't want to hire us because of our age and experience. As an American I feel very disturbed watching the country I was raised in become even more racist, discriminatory, prejudiced, unkind, and cruel than it was even a decade ago.
Trump and the GOP, but mostly the GOP because of how it spread the fiendishly spun words and phrases it uses to distort the truth, have turned America into an uncivilized place to live. It's not safe to be anything but a rich white Protestant male in America. Welcome to the United States of Tyranny and Buffoonery where all that matters is skin color, not merit.
11
Trump is a genius, in a way. He understood that cherry-picking the news, and elevating a minor problem into a crisis that only he could solve would frighten and enrage people to be as amoral as he is. And stupid, by the way. Sorry, to all the people who feel slighted when their ignorance and hatred is revealed and question. Trump has already won the immigration fight. Even, by doing something as heinous as separating parents from babies, infant, toddlers and adolescents, he has kept it in the news.
We are headed to a bad place, for us, and the world. Germany and Japan tried to ruin the whole world and were only eventually, and not by much, defeated. We will likely succeed, with Russian helpling. China may end up being the victor and ruler of the next phase of the world order.
3
When I was young (long ago) I read the book Fear, Rumor and the Madness of Crowds. This photo of an ordinary man's face twisted in ginned-up rage should become iconic. Trump, his party enablers and his ignorant followers are engaged in the opposite of MAGA - Making America Despicable.
6
There was a time that when not just some, but all President's would use their office to bring and calmness and assuage peoples fears or misconceptions about the influx of immigrates or displaced woman and children fleeing their countries for safety and asylum at the southern borders, where they are turning themselves in to border agents or points of entry for safety.
Instead of being a welcoming presence to the frightened families and children, we have a President that welcomes the opportunity to lie like everyone else breathes, he stands in arena in Minnesota which can only be equated to a Nazi Bund Rally of the 1930's, spreading lies, falsehoods , stoking hatred and vitriol that feeds into the worst inclinations of the White Supremacists, White Nationalist, and hate by pointing the fingers at everyone but himself.
Last night’s exhibition of virulent xenophobia was a display of something this country, this man Donald Trump and everyone cheering him on, should be ashamed of themselves to be a part of that disgusting spectacle.
7
Vote, Americans. Vote. Your country needs you.
7
Does the forced separation of children and their parents represent "crimes against humanity?" America has become unrecognizable under our authoritarian president. Our principles, our values have been torn asunder by a racist, misogynist bully. A national tragedy. Trump must be replaced asap.
4
The Nazis came to power because Hitler said he would save Germans from the effects of globalization.
10
Therefore to have doubts or concerns about globalism is to be a Nazi???
4
No, but being for Trump is the same.
I used to respect Paul Krugman. He was rational, deliberate, and knowledgeable. He now suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome like my Dad and so many others. We Jews see the world differently as a discriminated against minority group who have found sanctuary in the USA and remember vividly what happened when German Jews fled the Nazis only to be turned down by the rest of the world including the USA. Unfortunately, we are also subject to false analogies. Those cages? They are temporary processing centers not for slave labor camps or gas chambers but for legal determinations. Those Jews who entered the USA prior to 1924's restrictive immigration act? Entered legally. The "catch and release" policies of Europe and the USA prior to Trump? They led to illegal immigrants becoming virtual slave labor, countless dead including children as they tried to enter the country, and a massive increase in human trafficking. This is what happens when people become possessed by their emotions. They start making mistakes. It will greatly concern me when these same people come to power. Another group came to power with an emotional narrative about betrayal and revenge. It was 1933 in Germany.
11
Krugman’s analogies are accurate by example. I disagree with your post.
3
Dream on until they come for you. Not liberal x3. Not liberal at all.
1
You should know better. The Germans also had reasonable explanations for and mild terms for things like intake centers.....didn't prevent them from eventually becoming a horror. Your ancestors who entered "legally"? Understand this- these current migrants are entering pretty much the exact same way. Only difference is that more is required now and quotas are in place for them that were only there for Chinese in your pre 1920s scenario (and not even for Chinese before the exclusion act). Your ancestors scraped together enough money for the passage and a little extra to get started, transported here, checked out as healthy (only 2% were sent back from Ellis island) and walked onto a new land and got started making a life.....same as these from Central America. Shame on you for not seeing the common humanity. You are worried about "emotional" people in charge? It was those who railed against emotion, positing themselves as sensible, sane who were the America firsters who started stopping Jewish refugees and emigre so from coming here to safety. You have it all wrong......
1
A Wiki entry describes the Trump schedule of 2018 rallies he has been hosting around the country. Incessant. This, to me, is news. There is a broad, well-functioning GOP strategy featuring Trump. But for what? I thought our president was watching TV and hanging around DC. Apparently, there are many behind-the-scenes actors carrying out an coordinated agenda that puts him before stadium sized audiences every week. Like the on Duluth, MN featured in this column. This doesn't sound presidential, or harmless, and worries me.
10
Steve Bannon's go to philosophy when things were going bad during the Trump campaign was "turn up the hate." I just watched James Cordon's wonderful show with Paul McCartney. What a balm of decency and fun. Its unclear how long this weird disgraceful Trump interlude will last. Facebook is awash in hateful unabashed ignorance that people pass around among themselves. Krugman's anger is not some politically motivated show.
3
Well said Mr. Krugman! I would add that Trump is simply following the playbook of the totalitarians that came before him. Hitler claimed that Jews and socialists "stabbed Germany in the back" and were the reason Germany lost WWI. Trump claims Canada (of all places!) stabbed America in the back, and that democrats and Latinos coming over the border are destroying America. Hitler (like Stalin) discredited the free press and the independent judiciary. Trump can't stop tweeting about #fakenews and #thefailingNYT, has referred to federal judges as "so-called" judges, and just suggested that we shouldn't hire more immigration judges because they would just be corrupt like the lawyers defending asylum seekers. (First we kill all the lawyers -- so the rulers won't be held accountable!) Nobody should be surprised that Trump is following the "How to be a Totalitarian Dictator" playbook given that Trump ran on the historically despicable catchphrase "America First." These past weeks have shown thoughtful people the threat of an unrestrained Trump. Hopefully the GOP will stop playing lap-dog and start protecting our liberties -- or be swept away in the mid-terms.
1
In the US, bigotry is feeding discriminatory immigration policy. During the Nazi era, the film The Eternal Jew depicted Jews as rats. During the Rwandan genocide, Hutu officials called Tutsis "cockroaches". Donald Trump just referred to all individuals who have crossed the border as "bad" people who "pour into and infest our Country". Worse, according to Trump, these people directly threaten Trump's followers. According to Trump, all are "potential voters" for Democrats, who "can't win" without them.
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum Website states: "One crucial factor in creating a cohesive group is to define who is excluded from membership. Nazi propagandists contributed to the regime's policies by publicly identifying groups for exclusion, inciting hatred or cultivating indifference, and justifying their pariah status to the populace. Nazi propaganda played a crucial role in selling the myth of the "national community" to Germans…Exploiting pre-existing images and stereotypes, Nazi propagandists portrayed Jews as an 'alien race' that fed off the host nation, poisoned its culture, seized its economy."
Just as the Nazi vision of a "national community" was not limited to excluding Jews, but to all who the "master race" deemed a burden on society, Trump and the Republicans are excluding from their "new society" many who have not crossed the border. Republicans have just passed a "Farm bill" which will starve millions of American children simply because they poor.
3
This column is spot on about hatred in the USA. I agree there is no immigrant problem but there is a rise in bigotry, misogyny and racism in this country stoked by Trump and the Republican Party Those who try to rationalize this with some false equivalency argument because of their political allegiance are appeasers just like in the days of the rise of Hitler. Trump calling immigrants vermin and an infestation is the same rhetoric used in Nazi Germany against Jews, Gypsies and other groups not considered Aryan. I shudder at what our country is becoming as it dives into the abyss of hatred. For the media, this is no game. This is real. Wake up and vigorously oppose this deep dive into hatred. No more false equivalencies. You cannot embrace a Nazi, KKK, and Alt Right and then say you love America a diverse nation of immigrants.
12
As a moderate, I don't think it's fair to compare Donald Trump to Adolph Hitler but they are similar in one way.
Here's a report by U.S. Office of Strategic Services in describing Hitler's psychological profile.
"His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off,never admit a fault or a wrong,never concede that there may be some good in your enemy,never leave room for alternatives,never accept blame,concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one:and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it."
I couldn't help but copy the above because it so reminds me of our current president. I'm pretty sure this is not plagiarism because i revealed my source---An office of our government.
3
Thank you.
1
Exactly!!!
1
The face in the picture- nasty, finger pointing - is the face I associate with the stalwart Trump supporters - those who come to his Nazi-style rallies and wouldn’t care if (as a Trump bragged) he shot someone on 5th Ave.
Personally I would rather have one of the migrant families living next to me than this so-called American.
21
Our immigrant neighbors are the salt of the earth. They put one foot in front of the other to build a life against difficult odds.
4
Both sides stories. Like the ones we read daily in the New York Times?
He was in Deluth, MN talking about the problem of Mexican immigration, how absurd is that? Is there a Mexican in Deluth?
3
Billionaires promote anti immigrant hysteria to keep the rural rubes voting Republican as you pointed out the other day.
2
It's a little strange to equate what's going on with immigration and antisemitism. Trumps administration has basically taken what minimal restraints we had on the Israelis and let them run wild. It doesn't wash with the nazis either. Jews were trying to get out of Germany. People are trying to get into this country by almost any manner imaginable. Some of us, I suspect not many nyts commenters, work every day with Hispanics legal and illegal entrants into this country. They are by and large very hard working, honest, fun people to be work around. I get along with them better than most of the pretentious whites I work with. The problem many of us have with immigration is the basic, undeniable numbers. The u.s. is 5% of the worlds population using 25% of its resources. We are per capita the highest co2 producers on earth. The only way forward toward a sustainable future is for us and the rest of the world to aim for a smaller population using fewer resources. There is no one on either side of this issue talking about what we want the country to look like in a 100 years. We should be heading in this direction and helping the rest of the world as well. Racist or bleeding heart liberal when we hit 5-600 million in the next 50 years, it won't make much difference whether you hated trump or loved him the country and the planet will not be a better place no matter who lives here.
6
The largest threat to the planet is the out-of-control reproductive rate of humans. What happened to Zero Population Growth? Why have so many people gone back to having three and four children?
It's more than a strain on resources—it is the main cause of resource depletion. More people covering more acres of land (especially in the U.S., with its seemingly endless suburbs of single-family dwellings, well-watered lawns, two-car garages, etc.), leaving less land available for growing food.
More people less food = disaster. What kind of future are the many-childrened families thinking they are offering said children?
3
Religions, the root of all evil, demand procreation to survive. Another way religions are destroying creation.
2
Also people trying to get out of a country are the same as people trying to get into a country. Where did you think the Jews of Germany were going and from what do you think the current migrants are fleeing?
The photo of the unhinged young Trump fanatic in the red hat and red tie should be on the front page of every news outlet. It says it all.
3
We are cautioned that we run the risk of legitimizing Trump when we go as far as to compare him to despots like Hitler, even though his modus operandi closely resamples that of such dictators. Perhaps we need to take that risk, because the actions of DJT require and demand it. We're not putting humans in ovens yet, but the things being done by Trump and his ilk are far from what's normal and good in America. The alarm must be sounded.
See: RevolutionOfReason.com
7
Trump knows only one thing well: How to pick at scabs until they bleed.
2
I LOVE that Krugman included the "both sides" folks. Every single time I hear that phrase from a pundit I want to rip my teeth out and scream.
Cable news is the beating heart of the "both sides" epidemic. Killing objectivity for some ridiculous feigned neutrality is utterly useless. It's less than useless, it's poisonous. It provides a nonexistent balance to extremism. Looking at you, CNN.
And oh yeah, Nazi comparisons are becoming less hyperbolic with every passing day. Goodbye Godwin. Hello Adolf.
3
Waiting for Kristallnacht, and I'm dead serious. Scary times, then and now.
7
What drives these haters, like Lou Dobbs and Trump and all who practice anti-immigrant behavior? The answer, as surely most psychologists would agree, is extremely low self-esteem and even self-hatred unconsciously projected onto the most accessible “Other”— the nearest person or persons who are nothing more than “Different from Us.” In the predominately white Christian U.S., that means mostly non-whites and immigrants, and ESPECIALLY non-white immigrants. In other words, these haters are sick and dangerous. Just like Nazis and make no mistake about it. They must be fought and defeated in every way legal. The question is, if THAT fails, what then?
5
How to control people....Fear. The ones most susceptible to fear are the poor and uneducated. Ie, West Virginia. People also need a rabid cause to project their unhappiness. With the "right" person, t-Rump, that unhappiness turns to hatred. T-Rump is the best at stirring up a rabid crowd. Look what he did during his campaigning. He hasn't stopped campaigning yet. He feels in "control" turning all of these fools rabid. They are fools for listening but something should be done to stop this maniac from undermining life in the US. We are on a dark path and unless the repulsives put a stop to this we are doomed. Vote folks. Vote as your life depends on it.
3
As we entered the new century, one felt that anti Semitism, racial prejudice and other "sins" were abating. Along comes Donald Trump, the Coney Island barker, and he inflames these feelings. He accuses the Latino immigrants of terrible crimes, even though this is false. He has used the immigrants as scape goats similar to what Hitler did with the Jews in the 1930s. In the mean time he has filled the swamp, passed a tax law favorable to the top one percent and now wants to cut the safety net. His base falsely believes that he represents their interests. Instead he plays to their fears. They continue to vote against their economic interests.
7
Height of hypocrisy; Lou has an Hispanic wife, Trump has an east European 'immigrant' wife, Mitch an Asian wife. Amazing they spew so much hatred and division in a land of so much diversity.
7
Black shirts brown shirts what do we do?
Stop them here and now before they come for you...
We pick apart issues and try to plug the dikes
While they just keep on moving collecting their 40%'s LIKE's
Our majority's wracking consciousness
While sitting on our hands
They will soon be in stadiums
Screaming in the stands
2
Spot-on comparison to the rise of Nazi fascism in Germany. An authoritarian gains control of the Executive by underhanded behaviors, playing to and stoking imagined fears and injuries of a segment of the population left behind by current economic conditions.
Now for a made-up story:
Like a bellows blowing (hot) air over glowing coals the Leader calls out the fictional misdeeds of 'those people', enflaming the emotions of his misinformed and uneducated followers. Toady legislators, fearful for their positions and a cowed press, fearful of public backlash, do little or nothing to oppose the Leader.
Once the legion of followers reaches a critical mass, The Great Father-leader calls on them to unite to smash their opponents and drive them from the sacred soil of the Homeland. A few small victories stoke the mob's thirst for more....
Thus is born the Fascist State of America.
It's just a made-up story, for goodness sake!!!
1
“The Strassenkämpfer had seized control of the resources of a great modern State. The gutter had come to power.” (Alan Bullock: 'Hitler: A Study in Tyranny')
Ring a bell, Mitch and Paul?
7
This is so reminiscent of the distortions used by the up and coming Nazi party in the Germany of the 1930's. The major differential between then and now is that the United States is not suffering from both a world economic crisis (The Great Depression) and post World War I embarrassments and punitive damages. But rest assured, had Trump muddled along in say 2008/2009, I fear that the likelihood of him further deriding immigrants, particularly Muslims and Latin Americans, would result in events that would be much uglier.
It is true that we are at the point where people who support Trump must also be called out for what they support. You can no longer be with the president and not be labeled a racist. That was the problem in 1930's Germany.
People who weren't all that thrilled with the Nazi's attacks on Jews, Communists and others like those that were suffering from mental illness, still supported Hitler and his party without deference to the long term affects of propping up a regime clearly bent on using hatred as a tool to unite the rest.
Sadly we right now sit between the Great Generation that defeated Nazism and hopefully, the Next Great Generation that perhaps will someday defeat the hatred this president has sewn. But know this for certain, that the events of the past few weeks must be remembered and repeated from now through our next election day. I pray that we all remember those that perpetuated hate come election day.
3
Wait.....the migrants want in the US and out of their native countries....so how bad are their native countries?
Paul, there was a time when Trump supported the Democrats and donated heavily in Dem party related affiliations like Planned Parenthood et Al.
But while he was patronizing all the Democratic officials in New York like Governor Cuomo or Black NYC Mayor like David Dinkins, he noticed that he could never become the president with a Democratic ticket because of his inborn hatred for other people who were not White Christians or White Jews.
So the term Blood Libel" that you described here fits Trump's narrative of dehumanizing certain people who're not like him or his racist supporters just like ignorant Germans under Nazi rules used dehumanizing tactics to kill the Jews at random.
Thanks to the checks and balances that still exist in modern America,Trump and his minions are not being able to carry out the atrocities that made Hitler so infamous.
After signing an executive order of not herding the children separately from their parents, Trump is now calling for the expulsion of these immigrants back to their countries where they sure will die at the hands of same hateful elements who made these recent arrivals' lives "a living hell" in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.
With Trump and his hateful supporters behaving no less than wild animals, it seems these country-less human beings will die here too at the hands of Trump's supporters who're ready to use the myth of "Blood Libel"again to kill the immigrants just like the Jews were killed in mediaeval centuries.
4
It seems that there is enough hatred to go around. Obama characterized people he didnt like as "bitter clingers" and Hillary called a large segment of our population as "deplorables". Despite the putdown, they expect these people to vote for Hillary in 2016. I am also curious where Krugman gets his statistics. Violent crime is at an all time high in London and Brussels, and 2 weeks ago, a Jewish girl was raped and murdered by an Iraqi immigrant in Wiesbaden, Germany. So without providing sources, I am unwilling to take Krugman's word as gospel truth. Finally, Krugman seems to have done a little cultural appropriation by using the term "blood libel". I am much less worried about right wing wackos in Charlottesville than I am about the red-green alliance of the far left, Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. It is why western Europe has basically become a no go zone for Jews
5
Well, Herb, I will thank you to stay where you are.
1
I think the Jews were treated badly throughout history because they had the money. They were the money lenders and accumulated wealth, especially in cities like Vienna, Berlin and Prague. Most of the Europeans who were happy to see them killed or evicted just wanted their houses and land for themselves, in my opinion. Hitler had assistants in most countries, especially Croatia and Lithuania, where they were clubbed to death in the town square with crow bars. One of the Nazi officers occupying Croatia said the Croatians black shirts (Sulfatase) were even more cruel to the Jews than the Nazis themselves. A Czech once said to me that Czechs would be angry if you bought a dog better than their's. The jealous Czechs would then work out how to kill your dog without being caught. That is Europe in a nutshell.
6
In medieval times, money was seen as a dirty but necessary evil, and so the handling of money was turned over to the Jews, who were considered barely human by the Christian majority. Thus, Jews became further reviled, further removed from humanity.
It is possible to do this with any of the world's peoples. Portray them as "other"—the "wrong" religion, the "wrong" part of the world, the "wrong" hair color, the "wrong" skin color—equate their otherness with the lowliest of jobs, work no American will do.
We did it with the Japanese during WWII, and this is what we're doing right now. People are coming to our borders from countries where the United States overthrew the elected government and installed a dictator in its stead (Manuel Noriega in Nicaragua, for instance), seeking asylum after having found themselves on the wrong side of this equation. This is a "problem" of our own making, and what the White House is doing in response is right out of the Nazi playbook. And, sadly, we have become those Croatians, those Lithuanians, those Czechs of Hitler's time.
Our saving grace is that so many Americans are standing up and saying "We will not be part of this." Shouting "This is not who we are."
1
That is "humanity", including Americans (who are largely just transplanted Europeans, anyway, at least the angry white sections of it), in a nutshell.
The reality here is simple Trump and his followers are racists, white supremacists who in my experience generally are very poorly informed. So poorly informed and effectively indoctrinated throughout their lifetimes that they will believe and even savor any negative that one of their fellow cultists might throw out there. Reality does not fit well with their agenda so they rely heavily on garbage politics to support their hateful and venomous agenda's. They are among the worst society has to offer. Unfortunately and sadly to the rest of the worlds detriment they now have a leader they can admire in the presidents seat. History will not treat these folks well. Trump will be fairly compared to the likes of Hitler, as he should be.
4
So you're OK with people illegally sneaking into the country, right?
4
You are either over-simplifying the matter because you don't know any better -- or because like Melania Trump, you really don't care.
I believe we are but one piece of kindling short of turning the smoldering race-baiting hatred of Trump and his supporters into a full-blown Reichstag fire.
1
Stupid, ignorant, delusional and angry. The deplorables who are mostly non critically thinking ignoramuses should not be allowed to pull the country and the rest of us down with them. I've spoken with many of them and I can tell you that invariably they have no idea about the issues they say they care about and are intellectually ill-equipped to do so.
Basically, they're people who have an uninformed and static worldview which is particularly ill-suited to deal with the rapid and profound changes thrust on us by the information age. So out of this sense of frustration and impotence, we get mindless rage and anger. Giving into it will only make things worse. These are people who only learned via direct personal experience. Consequently, they are not subject to reason debate and must experience what they have brought upon themselves.
3
Dr. Krugman is sadly misinformed about immigration and American's response to it. All he has done in this column is illustrate why many American's reaction to the condescending, self-righteous preaching of their "leadership" has been so vitrolic....like that of a good dog that simply been beaten too much.
#1....as someone from WV I absolutely RESENT Dr. Krugman's implications about WV's intolerance of immigrants.....thats just plain ignernt on Dr. Krugmans part...I demand a retraction....if there appears to be little immigration in WV it is because there are simply NO jobs and my observations of what immigrants there are in WV, they are very well accepted, without even asking if they are legal or otherwise. So here we go again, trying to blame policies created by wealthy, high-minded, well educated powerful people on the regular american that has to live with the results of over-educated stupidity. Poor Dr. Krugman is still losing sleep trying to figure out why a heavy unionized, pro-democrat state like WV so overwhelming supports Trump. I guess all those deplorable evil coal miners should just shut up and do as they're told....go to tech school...you're too stupid for college, med school, engineering or law school....isnt that about right Perfesser?
1
It takes my breath away. How could supposedly normal and rational human beings be so absolutely stupid!
1
And then there is the propaganda of hate from the left. Geez.
1
We can take it as axiomatic that we won't turn into Nazi Germany. But that doesn't mean we aren't becoming like Nazi Germany or, though I would not predict this, that we mightn't become worse. (As an aside, at least Hitler was a good speaker. Why Americans would follow a leader that presents as a narcissistic idiot is beyond me!) I am hoping a strong tradition of American liberal democracy (as against the tradition of American evil, which seems to be alive and well) will overcome the tribalism that seems to lurk in every human society.
11
Trump is a fascist. What really scares me is that so many ordinary citizens are also. We are told not to use the N word. If the word fits, use it. That word is Nazi.
3
At the risk of offending the moderators, when I see these photographs at Trump rallies, what comes to mind is a moron stirring more morons about affairs that neither fully understand.
When Trump claimed to make America great, he didn't explain it is "grate".
4
Watching Trump in Duluth was like watching a summer 2016 re-run. Same message, same words. A thug bating a white crowd to go low. Except now the thug is our president.
5
Good on Krugman for calling out his own newspaper's ludicrous bothsidesitis.
3
This from the guy who in his columns accuses anyone who disagrees with him of being a moron or even describes them as quislings part of a vast conspiracy that still hasn't a shred of evidence? And then without missing a beat decries our country's descent into intolerance? Okay: blood libel. Does this mean even the thought that someone is breaking the law by sneaking into the country and is therefore an illegal alien is a blood libel?
5
The Germans were not virulently antisemitic until Hitler showed them that it was all right to be antisemitic and he gradually built that hate. Each escalation made it permissible to do more and more horrible things to Jews until they made it to the ultimate step, The Final Solution.
We are seeing that strategy applied now to the immigrants. If a step goes too far, they pull back and wait. Later, they believe, it will be accepted.
24
Let the refugees in. Deport THESE people. Let them take their "leader" with them. Our country will be so much better off.
4
What an unfair comparison. The Nazis were efficient.
3
Drip by drip....into fascism we go. Divide and conquer.
3
NAZI isn't nation specific.
Substitute nativist and you get the same acronym.
2
The deranged man in the lead picture needs to be put in a cage. I feel sorry for his neighbors.
2
Good photo of a snarling ape in a trump hat.
6
Why impugn the nature and character of “Apes”?
This type of vitriolic hatred is a characteristic that is exclusive to the genus Homo.
By the way, Koko the gorilla died a couple of days ago. She had more kindness, inquisitiveness compassion and intelligence than many people possess, regardless of political affiliation. RIP Koko.
Bull.
My brother who is in Calif and sister in Texas tell different stories...of dangerous gangs crossing over. People ARE scared near these areas and your pie-in-the-sky analysis if what you'd like it to be isn't accurate to those that live near borders. Just like the little girl on the Time cover that was NEVER separated from her mother and who's father validated it.
NYTimes....you really owe more accuracy rather than fanning the flames of hysteria here.
9
They are scared not because they are in danger of gang violence, but because conservatives told them they must be afraid of that non-existent gang violence. Their irrational, hatred-stoked fear does not stand in for facts and statistics.
2
The elegant, silent dog whistle reborn as the vulgar, audible dog whistle? Of course that is what happens when the gross "entertainer" manages to wrestle his way to the top of the GOP pile. For years the GOP has relegated facts and history that don't support their wealthy, unhinged taskmasters' goals to the burn bin. For-profit prisons and their nonprofit (on paper) siblings bought the policies they wanted. If it gives our current cinc an excuse to get tough on foreign people to curry favor with the base, that is just a bonus.
Paul,
Paul, I'm surprised that you don't know why people like Ford & people in general will look for Scape goats.Like all prejudices it originates from the Church & is carried into the home, & passed unto the children.In other words all hatred stems from religion, yes even Christianity, which is supposed to be the religion of love.Christianity is full of love & forgiveness as long as the recipient is Christian.There is no room for competition in religion, we are talking about heaven & hell, two very important factors in life, any religion that casts doubt on one religion, is commiting a crime punishment by death, especially if your complicit in the murder of one's God.
Henry Ford with all his money was no different than any other devoutly religious person.
5
I guess the Whitehouse needs a new doormat.
"Welcome to Hell"
2
Clearly Trump is a psychopath. Clearly the people in his audience yesterday believe him. This is incalculably bad.
2
Thank you for telling it exactly as it is, and to hell with the ignoramuses such as David L., Jr., who get a "Times Pick" rating because of the NYT's well-known and oft-demonstrated worship of False Equivalence. The truth is obvious and anybody denying it is not making things better.
3
I knew from the moment the lunatic badmouthed Muslims and Mexicans, that this is probably how my Jewish ancestors life felt like in 1930’s Europe before they got killed. This is how it starts, folks. Who would imagine that Americans, who lost lives fighting Nazis, would support a hater. Sad!
5
The Holocaust was not perpetrated in America by Americans against other Americans.
About 42% of the world's 16 million Jews live world live safe,sound and secure in America. Another 42% live in Israel. About 98% of Americans are not Jews.
The holocausts that occured in America involved black Africans and brown Natives as victims of white Judeo-Christian Europeans.
Africans were enslaved and separate and unequal in America by white Europeans. About 40% of the 2.3 million Americans in prison are black. Even though blacks are only 13 % of Americans. Blacks are persecuted for acting like they are white without any any criminal justice consequences. America's has 25% of the planets prisoners with only 5% of humans.
Natives were conquered and colonized with their land, lives and natural resources stolen by white Judeo-Christian Europeans.
8
One of the deepest ironies, likely already pointed out by one of the 400+ commenters, is that the sadistic little pissant architect of the ripping children from their parents policy, Stephen Miller, is actually Jewish. Oh and Trump's daughter married a Jew as well. But we're dealing with people who have no moral standards at all. It's a terrifying time to be an American. We need to fight back for the sake of our world.
4
The consistent lying hateful words coming from the mouth of this president is evil. To condemn all Brown and Black people as vermin infesting our nation, rapists, violent, etc, can only appeal to the bigoted among us. This at the same time lauding white supremacists and autocrats, and supporting a pedofile Roy Moore for Senate, abusing immigrant children, blaming everyone else for his mistakes Decent people are appalled, feeling powerless. It is beyond my conception that tax cuts for the top percents, tripling the deficit, and a desire to cut health education and social programs can be supported by so many.
2
Hate and anger are usually manifestations of fear, which is or can be a healthy reaction. If one is walking through the forest and hears a mountain lion, one ought to be afraid. One need not and ought not panic, but fear is a better reaction than, say, "oh, let's pet the big kitty...."
But fear, when used as a tool -- whether by Goebbels or Trump (and, yes, I know we are not supposed to make Nazi comparisons, but I think the time for that prohibition is over) -- can be a potent motivator. And when fear of jews, immigrants, refugees, the "other" is weaponized, it begets hate and anger as weapons, too.
And Trump is a master of this, exceeding Nixon or Hitler in his abilities to create fear, then anger and hatred.
The solution? NOVEMBE 6 2018
1
The explanation is pretty simple: white America is losing its majority status to black, brown, and yellow.
2
People who support Trump should be seen as unAmerican, not disgruntled variations on a theme of, “Jobs, jobs, jobs,” or victims of anything but their own ignorance. They haven’t suffered anything a majority of Americans haven’t suffered; yet, somehow, their suffering, unlike everyone else’s, by a logic columnists of all stripes keep insiduously spinning like malevolent spiders, leads them accept, and approve of, the caging of children, supporting Neo-Nazis, shreding historic relationships with allies, thumbing their noses at nuclear war, rolling back other Americans’ voting rights, and General Inanity. They do not hold American values; they are the dregs of our society. They are our least informed, productive, creative, and accountable deomographic. Lost, abused, unloved souls, in their psychological emptiness, we are in danger of their being formed into a genuine threat against US. They are history in the making of repeating itself. Do not allow your understanding to supercede the circumstances. These people are dangerous.
1
Old Trump rallies: "Lock her up! Lock her up!" New Trump rallies: "Lock the children up! Lock the children up!"
1
What happened to our christian GOP neighbors and friends?
How can they bear to watch little children torn away from their parents and put in cages ?
If Mary arrived at our boders carrying baby Jesus asking for asylum would these Trump supporters be okay with tearing her baby from her arms ?
The answer no doubt is yes!
I
1
Thank you Paul Kruugman, for not implying the problems of capitalism here.
The white working-class has been thwarted by a strive towards equality among the races. Once when they could experience reality as a delusional people who share an identity with their ruling class, now they are forced to face their existence face on, as working-class invalids of a capitalist system that cares nothing for their humanity, without the luxury of juxtaposition to "a lower-race".
Of course, as they are children spawned from the capitalist education system, they cannot tether their minds to the material reality which rendered their person expendable. Holding onto past comforts is easier. So the right, just as with the Nazis, denote the immigrant as the sole arbiter of their problems. The problem of accumulation is morphed into "distribution". They are told, immigrant carves their reality into pieces by taking jobs that could have been theirs and "use tax payers money to commit benefits fraud". Without a real ontological examination, they are thrown back into a falsely shared identity by the aforementioned opinions. The immigrants is now their point of distinction from the rest and the adhesive which binds them to their foolish, self-inferred betters.
It is not a matter of "hate"; it is a matter of not addressing their issues head on and leaving them in the hands of the people whose interests the liberals have never refrain from supporting: The ruling class which produces these sentiments.
Stefan Zweig witnessed Hitler's rise to power in Germany and writes about how no one with any intelligence actually took him seriously until it was too late. Zweig's observation is made clear in the New Yorker article by George Prochnick:In his memoir, Zweig did not excuse himself or his intellectual peers for failing early on to reckon with Hitler’s significance. “The few among writers who had taken the trouble to read Hitler’s book, ridiculed the bombast of his stilted prose instead of occupying themselves with his program,” he wrote. They took him neither seriously nor literally. Even into the nineteen-thirties, “the big democratic newspapers, instead of warning their readers, reassured them day by day, that the movement . . . would inevitably collapse in no time.” Prideful of their own higher learning and cultivation, the intellectual classes could not absorb the idea that, thanks to “invisible wire-pullers”—the self-interested groups and individuals who believed they could manipulate the charismatic maverick for their own gain—this uneducated “beer-hall agitator” had already amassed vast support. After all, Germany was a state where the law rested on a firm foundation, where a majority in parliament was opposed to Hitler, and where every citizen believed that “his liberty and equal rights were secured by the solemnly affirmed constitution.”
2
I am just reading a book, Berlin at War. The author, Roger Moorhouse, writes that as British air raids against Berlin mounted in 1941-43, the Nazi-led popular reaction was to blame everything from petty crimes to attracting the bombers on the city’s foreign workers—and on the Jews. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, since both foreign workers and Jews were the most oppressed and passive groups in the city. The parallel to today is clear. As Paul Krugman points out: demagogues will always deceitfully try to blame social upsets on marginal groups.
1
Here's the answer to your question: It’s the vote. The Kochs, Mercers, Adelsons fear that immigrants who become citizens will vote as Democrats – and even if never attaining citizenship,their presence means more representation in Congress. It makes their task of buying elections and legislation more cumbersome, more expensive and dilutes their ability to control policy.
As for the rise of anti-Semitism: recall that Jews had lived in Germany for 1000 years before the Holocaust. Moreover, Hitler and the Nazis were able to take advantage of the desperation Germans had because of a post-World War I Depression. What is the excuse for uncorking such virulent racism, misogyny in the US, particularly (as Trump never fails to remind), the economy is still booming (thanks Obama!) and unemployment is negligible. Answer: Americans have always been racist, misogynist, never really espoused freedom of religion and were always perfectly willing to practice ethnic cleansing (hardly Exceptional). A visit to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia will show that whoever was in power was able to exert their tyranny over the rest. But throughout our incredibly brief history, there were moments of liberalism.
As for belief that American institutions can withstand falling into Fascist despotism: Greece’s vaunted democracy only lasted 200 years; Rome was a Republic for only 200 years, and as we are witnessing in Russia, China, Turkey, Philippines, Hungary, democracies can be swept away.
1
You don’t look live in Los Angeles, do you? Have you ever even been to Los Angeles? Not the Beverley Hilton, but the neighborhoods and stores? Where people live. Oh, I’m sure you looked at a bunch of statistics about the impact of the millions of “migrants “ on our roads and other infrastructure and institutions on the taxes we pay in this state. Do you know how many “migrant” diabetics live in Los Angeles, requiring free medicine, doctors visits and hospitalizations while the citizens pay $12,000 per person per year for health insurance? And how citizens feel about their quality of life living among the migrants? How citizens including Hispanic and Black citizens feel about having their job opportunities and wages suppressed by “migrants “? It is almost certain that Trump will be re-elected in 2020, by a larger margin than 2016. Because he actually trying to solve problems that the Democrats only let fester. By then, he will also likely be a fellow Nobel Laureate, you can be the first to welcome him to your club.
4
Hatred and fear are not rational and those who deliberately fan the flames of these emotions towards a specific group always have an agenda. Offshoring jobs, outsourcing jobs, h1b visa holders being used to replace American workers; all of these things benefit the wealthy and corporate America while crushing labor. Those in power long ago figured out that if Americans could be manipulated into blaming illegal immigrants no one would threaten the power structure that artificially keeps labor from being paid a living wage.
We did it with slaves. The plantation owners convinced poor white people to hate black people to prevent them from banding together and upsetting the power structure that kept the slave owners wealthy. Notice that many plantations went under once they actually had to pay for labor.
We will never be able to reason with those who are filled with hate. The question we need to ask ourselves is what is Trump's agenda. With Hitler, he wanted a war and power. W and Cheney used our post 9/11 fear to justify the war on terror and attack Iraq which has made a lot of people rich. We should treat this horror show the same and find out who is profiting and how.
In the meantime like slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings, the Japanese internment camps, our abuse of native Americans; this will not be remembered as our finest hour. At some point we will end up apologizing for our treatment of these people and we will recognize it as a stain on our nation.
2
Why, why, WHY hasn’t this array of facts been our response from the beginning to this insane narrative that we have an immigration crisis? Every time these lies are put forward they have to be met with the truth. A lie must be called a lie, immediately, and the liar labeled as such! Not as “ making false statements “ or “unsubstantiated information “, and god knows not as “ alternative facts”. Lies. These have been unrelenting lies and distortions from the start!!! We all must ask the hard questions and not let up! Why is the government not allowing the free press access to these incarceration centers? Why can’t we find out what records are in place to reunite these children with their loved ones???
Facts don't matter to Trump's base. Trying to convince them with facts and reason is a waste of everyone's time.
When it comes to Trump and his followers, I'm reminded of the famous question from Hitchcock's film Lifeboat, which was about Germany and its enemies during WWII, "What do you do with people like that?"
In the film, the sane, reasonable people throw the villain (the Nazi) overboard and beat him back. But what if half the boat had been filled with Nazi sympathizers?
1
Thanks, Dr. Krugman for keeping up the essays when the rest of us are literally traumatized.
Today?
Traveling to Texas shelter, Melania Trump sparked controversy as she donned the jacket saying: “I really don’t care, do u” (sic).
Wait!
Traveling to Texas shelter, Melania Trump sparked controversy as she donned the jacket saying: “I really don’t care, do u” Sick.
People who support Trump should be seen as unAmerican, not disgruntled variations on a theme of, “Jobs, jobs, jobs,” or victims of anything but their own ignorance. They haven’t suffered anything a majority of Americans haven’t suffered; yet, somehow, their suffering, unlike everyone else’s, by a logic columnists of all stripes keep insiduously spinning like malevolent spiders, leads them accept, and approve of, the caging of children, supporting Neo-Nazis, shreding historic relationships with allies, thumbing their noses at nuclear war, rolling back other Americans’ voting rights, and General Inanity. They do not hold American values; they are the dregs of our society. They are our least informed, productive, creative, and accountable deomographic. Lost, abused, unloved souls, in their psychological emptiness, we are in danger of their being formed into a genuine threat US. They are history in the making of repeating itself. Do not allow your understanding to supercede the circumstances. These people are dangerous.
1
Readers will seize on the word Holocaust, become emotional, and disregard Krugman's solid conclusions. Krugman does not believe this is a Holocaust or that we're heading for a Holocaust. He's merely pointing out that every so often, fear and hatred allow for rumors s about an immigrant group to take hold. The immigrant group is blamed for something, whether it's Jews being responsible for a depression 90 years ago in Germany, or illegal Mexicans being responsible for violent crimes in today's US.
The curious part of this is that the truth will be overlooked by the followers believing the rumors. No, the Jews were never secretly trying to take over the world 90 years ago. Today's illegal Mexican immigrants are less responsible for violent crime than American citizens. But the truth doesn't matter in the face of insecurity. Rumors will take hold. None of those duped into believing the rumors ever admit they were wrong.
2
I thought you focused on economics.
1
Over decades now, Repubs growing hatreds make them feel alive.
They ceratinaly hate the poor, working and middle clkaas and the elderly with incomes under $25,000 per year.
The Dems don't hate them as much: they are an annoyance to them, inconvenient Americans who are objects of disinterest, less experienced in red-hot hated which we clearly see being harbored by Repubs.
We keeping being told from all sides that comparing Trump to Hitler or Stalin is hyperbolic and hysterical; that Trump is a man with a heart and making America great is his only goal. I disagree. Trump and his cadre of underlings have their eyes on conquering this nation and controlling its citizens through the very same techniques used by both Hitler and Stalin. He has already divided us. He has defined our enemies. He has begun to separate and lock them up. He is busy refining a definition of who is the enemy and who is the friend. It appears that most of the enemy is black or brown skinned. Most of the friends are white. Most of the enemies are non-Christian. Most of the friends are Christian. Most the friends are heterosexual. Most of the enemies are of a different sexual identity. Soon we will see how these divisions are used to gain the upper hand by the friends of Trump. I cannot envision a positive outcome.
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“Follow the money.” — Mark Felt