When money is your god you will do anything to put it in your pocket.
5
The Republican Party has many honorable Members. But they are now a distinct minority. So many of those who would have opposed Trump were driven out by the Koch Brothers, the Mercers and other billionaire ideologues. It is they who financed the Tea Party and all the Wing Nuts that now dominate the Party.
If there is to be a GOP in the future that is not a minority Party, such as Libertarians, a true cleansing of the Rot within is required. Hopefully it starts at the ballot box this Fall and then Congressional and State investigations of the Trump Family Syndicate.
Impeachment is too easy for the Republicans and will not clean the ROT. Two years of investigation and indictments are necessary both to do the job and simultaneously educate as many of Trump’s base as possible that the man is a Con.
4
As of yesterday, 8/22/18, all bets are off on presidential predictions. Now that Trump's fixer has come out with 'under oath truth' about Trump, we just have to wait and see when it all happens...not IF it happens.
3
Krugman perfectly summarizes this pattern.
2
Hey McConnell and Ryan, do your jobs!
6
Well it's not all that difficult to understand republican thinking and reasoning as to why they support any and every aspect of their party's path to 'ruination'. That last word(in apotropaic marks) is not what most GOP'ers would admit to worrying about. It does seem to be quite the mystery though, is just how far an open, lying incompetent trump will be given enough rope to hang himself.
No, the unifying force I suspect is singular common thread. That is their shared hatred of Government and programs. Republicans have never initiated any public support programs. It's true that some GOP politicians have co-sponsored many safety net and even some infastructure projects. Though most times the votes for any of the domestic spending was overwhelmingly supported by both parties. But much of the time the conservatives usually ensured that spending either be limited and imposed strict requirements, most recently for drug urine screens for anyone already on welfare, food stamps, and other government assistance.
Again we have to ask, as many of us did as far back as the 80's why no great projects continued like the Grand Coolee Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, the National Interstate Network of Roads, and the Space program that created NASA. Even the Space Shuttle Program was built in the 70's.
There has been nothing since then. Republicans hate Government. So they certainly don't want any official government projects to undermine their hatred.
7
Thanks to this forum and NYT for reading my comments!
2
Regarding the sinister spinelessness of Republicans, I can't help but think these people are acting outside the range people normally do for these characteristics. Spinelessness generally means an inability to stand up against someone.
A boatload of kompromat and generous NRA contributions from the Russians would go a long way toward both enabling and salving the wounds of inflicted spinelessness.
Since we don't know that for sure, a sinister quality is cast over the reasons the GOP will not stand up for this country.
3
Thanks for speaking up. It is truly now or never for the United States.
21
I can understand Mr. Krugman's hate of the "terrible prison" President Trump. How does a Nobel prize winner in economics, face a class of students who know he is the one who predicted, "So we are very probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight." They also know the terrible person, as Mr. Krugman calls him, who proved him totally wrong, is a self-promoting, self-aggrandizing, bombastic reality show host. What has actually happened since that prediction was made. The DOW up 5000 points. I wonder how all those retirees feel when they look at their pensions and retirement plans. How about the unemployment rate? That's the lowest in decades. For African Americans and their youth, as well as Hispanics, the lowest ever. Even the disabled who were losing jobs before Trump are up 7% - !!%. It turns out that people would rather have a pay check in their pockets than an unemployment check. Another op-ed contributor pointed out that even those most vulnerable to unemployment are going back to work and their wages are going up. The economy is up to 4.1%. So, what does Mr. Krugman do? He joins his colleagues with name calling. Not just Trump, but anyone else doesn’t buy Mr. Krugman’s proclaimed path to follow. But what else does the Nobel prize winner have other than name calling. Prior to the election Trump supporters were called were underemployed, under educated, white guys with bad or missing teeth. Now they are sinister etc. I wonder if they still have bad teeth
1
A “dog” (“that dog”) Trump called a back woman who saved his first reality show by morphing into a no-holds-barred villain, and then worked for him in the White House, declaring all would have to “bow down” to Trump after his election—that black woman/dog/lowlife/former White House staffer broke the rules and stood up.
She unleashed a triple combination of media attacks brought silence from the White House and its targets, including Trump and Kelly, caught lying on tape. The last nail sealed the coffin: A tape of Trump's daughter-in-law offering Omarosa an $15,000 a month job, equivalent to her White House pay, to say “good things.”
It is this White House that needs a leash, that bites and snarls, that is out of control—and has gone from deplorable to unhinged.
Even before this latest brouhaha, Omarosa had a one-word name and mad respect for her savvy. She has always used the tools of race for personal benefit (as did Trump's pastors!)--she likes high fame and narrow roads. Omarosa will never advocate a cause. She will whisper and reveal, document and expose powerful men as fools, but her pilgrimage is not Selma or the bus lines her path is a singular journey of competitive aggrandizement, a television allegory with layers of easy lies, the coin of the realm.
Hers is a complete, documented, irrefutable exposé! Family, staff, operations, charm offenses, lies, corruption, threats in a normal day, a broken security system that couldn't stop her, much less the Russians!.
3
It is important that everyone reading votes. But it is most important that ALL of you get at least THREE other people in your lives to vote. Go to League if Women Voters site, vote411.org. Talk is cheap!!!
3
The existence of DJT is accounted for. His supporters....?????? Total mystery.
4
Turns out politicians have more in common with criminals than we knew. Trump acts and speaks like the head of a New York crime family (see John Dean type "RAT"). The fact that Republicans are so in the tank for Trump is representative of their intensely corrupt party DNA. The greatest desire of all criminasl is to be above the law. Birds of a feather...
2
While I am in full agreement with Mr. Krugman, somehow I cannot let go of expectations of honor from Republicans such as Senator Susan Collins. She comes from a long line of Maine female politicians beginning with Margaret Chase Smith and Olympia Snowe, known to stand up for what is RIGHT 1st and what is political last. Yet Sen. Collins has gone down the spineless shute with the rest of the dishonored republicans referenced in this article. Things honestly could not be much worse, but worse they surely will be if sufficient numbers don't stand up for democracy in November. God help us all.
129
@Joan Parsons
I felt as you do for quite awhile. Going back to pre-election I thought there was some legitimacy to the " forgotten". I never thought Trump would be their champion but I was sympathetic to their "plight".
But I no longer have a scintilla of confidence that Trump enablers will ever stand up. Principle example is Paul Ryan. I thought his background and intellect would prevail and he would shout out against Trump. Guess I was self "trolled".
Trump will not be displaced w/o a down-and-out fist fight. Mussolini was not capable of backing off or compromising - Trump and his cult are not either.
8
@Joan Parsons: I recently moved to Maine. I'd like to support Sen. Collins. I can't, for the reasons you mention. It's time for her either to quit, switch parties, or get defeated.
10
The political cartoonist, HERBLOCK, gave us a preview of what we can expect from people who do not speak out, writing about Joseph McCarthy in "Persona Au Gratin" in his book, Here and Now (1955)
A copy is available at the Herb Block Foundation. Excerpts: https://cellmate.wordpress.com/
This is way too much of a rant to be credible. Please put you intellect to good use.
In all the reams of opinions I've read since Trump was elected, there isn't much of finger pointing at the real enemy of the people of the Wonderful United States of America...the greedy oligarchs of this nation who have manipulated and managed the populace into believing their democracy is alive and well while undermining it, with the singular objective of keeping the nation hostage to their needs and greed for more.
All the stooges, collectively known as the GOP, are nothing more than that and getting them into the true seats of power (the Congress and the Senate) to do their bidding, is the singular, consistent strategy of billionaires like the Kochs. Trump is but the result of the actions of another, more racist camp of billionaires led by the Mercers. Legislation is the name of the game and they're getting away with much more than they could have hoped for right now.
It's critical that media spend more of their resources turning the spotlight and the heat on them more fiercely or they will continue their hegemony through another obliging puppet in due time.
10
Certain of the Republicans , like Lindsay Graham , will say that they are against the way that Trump rules, but in the end the Republicans, including Jeff Flake, wind up backing Trump in the House and the Senate almost to a man. How can they say that he is an atypical Republican when they do this. Trump is the Republican Party to a T. He is every wacky feed-the-rich, starve-the-poor program the Republicans have put in their platforms since before I was born in 1950. Furthermore, after the successful votes in the House and Senate, they all gather around to get nuzzled by their alpha male, the corrupter-in-chief. They are all painted with the same brush. Birds of a feather flock together.
4
Trump sides with the perpetrator Putin in Helsinki against our own intelligence agencies and the FBI, a firestorm rightly ensues, and most GOP leaders join the ensuing protest – if only for lack of a better political option. But then comes the pathetically lame and patently false “would / wouldn’t” equivocation, and then the walkback of the walkback, and then it’s all good again between the GOP and the president. They’ll let that one slide because he just used the wrong word. Pay no attention to the Russian behind the curtain – there was no collusion – nothing to see here, let’s move on… Power at any price.
With all the “blinking red light” warnings from the intelligence agencies regarding ongoing election hacking and manipulation programs by the Russian government, Congress debates spending a mere $250 million on election systems security to help protect the midterm elections, but GOP House members quickly vote it down. (But of course there’s no problem with passing a $700 BILLION defense authorization bill.) Somehow, apparently, we just can’t afford to spend some tax dollars on protecting our elections. We can sacrifice their security and integrity. Power at any price.
8
Paul - You are surely correct that most political commentators grasp how deep the rot goes. But I'll go you one better and venture that you don't either (or at least are either unwilling or unable to write about it). The Republicans in office are behaving as if they possessed electoral immunity. Even with Trump (and his still historically low approval ratings: 21% Strongly Approve, 40% Strongly Disapprove - those are the data points that matter, because those are the voters that vote in midterms) hung around their necks, they soldier on and double down, spitting into a gale force headwind. And we see election after election, from 2002 forward, through 2016 itself, through Ossoff, through Balderson, through Kobach, throwing up bright red flags indicating manipulated votecounts. And we know how easy that is to pull off, especially for those with insider access (the equipment vendors and programmers virtually all have strong right-wing ties. The GOP behavior makes sense only in this context. They have enough thumbs - overt (voter suppression, gerrymandering, Big $$) and covert (computerized votecount manipulation) - on the scale to raise the stakes, make E2018 and E2020 the "Battle for Everything," and quietly smile knowing they are "fated" to win. Unfortunately, by the time you and your influential colleagues connect the dots and warn the public, you're right, there ain't going to be a democracy left to protect. Tragic.
4
Even if you think this column is exaggerated and the media’s portrayals of Trump are overly dramatic and unfair, one thing remains undoubtedly true: Trump needs a check on his power. No one with his authoritarian tendencies should be given free reign.
8
@Ted
But he and his unusual tendencies were elected by the people. Short of impeachable, criminal behavior or a change in our Constitution, I think you'll have to sit tight for a couple, more years when he could become voted out of office.
1
Bingo.
11
Professor Krugman,
Why do you always stop at Republican representatives? In a democracy, the people who vote for them (again) are responsible for these outcomes. The real question is: Why do so many people vote Republican?
We are responsible for slipping down this slippery slope. We will have to stop this.
11
At this point, a big chunk of the blame falls on those who know better than to vote Republican, but for whatever reason won't vote Democrat.
A category that includes both centrist "neolibs" and leftist "Berniebros."
1
@NG
Maybe you should ask a Republican that question....
1
@NG
Maybe you should wait until you know more WHY they are doing this before trying to stop it.
I think there's an element of truth in Mr. Krugman’s proposition that the GOP’s complicity in Trump's corruption and his anti-democratic, autocratic agenda is due to their own cowardice. But I think there's also a new political calculation and stratagem at play; I would call it “power at any price.” (Maybe it’s not really so new, but in its level of corruption and dangerousness, it is.)
The GOP's leaders can see clearly enough the demographic writing on the wall that promises to relegate them to a long-term minority party status. So, just in the nick of time a semi-skilled conman and egomaniacal demagogue comes along who is (as I've seen from the mounting evidence) willing to conspire with a hostile foreign power to manipulate the electorate, subvert the electoral system and seize power, and the GOP seems to have quickly evolved to be all on board with it. Power at any price.
The checks and balances of Congressional oversight and the justice system should be a firm counter to this corrupt power grab, but the GOP side of the House (and probably a good portion of the GOP Senate, if it comes down to an impeachment battle) seem firmly committed to practical obstruction of justice, even to the extent of colluding with the President and right-wing media to hamstring, lay siege to and maybe even demolish the Justice Department, FBI, and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Whatever it takes to preserve power, they’re all in – power at any price.
10
@Steve S.
This is truly conspiratorial. The Republican establishment were clearly forced by their constituents, some time after the election, to get on the Trump train. Do you believe ALL this was a grand performance? Remember, FusionGPS was first financed by the Republicans.
1
There is no appeasement, bit by bit or otherwise. There is only getting elected. Why are a third or more of Americans willing to vote for this agenda? Where is the reporting on that?
5
@RobinOttawa There is reporting on it. As in this Paul Krugman column.
1
First, it was Gabriele D'Annunzio, a fascist poet who was the first to popularize that system of ideas. Mussolini, a successful journalist, copied him. Second, why all the negativity? The Donald, "notre tribun."is not against the press as a whole, but the fakery, emphasis on news that favors the politically correct, exemplified by, say, focus on sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, but nary a mention of ongoing trial in England of Pakistani born Muslims charged with abuse of minors, of running a sex trafficking ring. Why not invite Tommy Robinson, arrested for taking photos of the accused, to write an op ed for Times newspaper? Third, if anyone tried to weaponize the IRS against Tea Partiers it was Lois Lerner, at Obama's behest! Donald Trump is no more authoritarian than you or I , and if we don't have The Donald, we have whom? "Soyons honnetes:" If it were not for TRUMP'S presence in the WH there would be far more layoffs of good journalists in print and t.v. media.Finally, why not say a word on behalf of us anti progressives, conservatives , mainly old whites, "vieux de la vieille ecole, "who have defended in our writings causes like "For White Rule in Rhodesia," NYT 10 August 1976. Have a video on Youtube now which should be of interest to you and would be grateful if you would view it, since it goes to the very heart of the matter: "The Dissimulation of Professor Richard Hull!" You will find it educative!
Sorry, you can try to dress it up with allusions and quotes all you want, but there is no comparison here. For all the evils of the Obama administration--and there were many--Trump is far, far worse.
When we get rid of Trump, we must make sure that politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, do not revert to the same behavior that allowed a Trump presidency possible. A big reason Trump gained support from voters is because he spoke in plain English. His audience didn’t care that he never supplied detailed plans to solve their problems. They became enamored of a politician they felt respected them enough to talk to them in a way they understood.
Politicians who engage in what I call political-speak know exactly what they’re doing. Their campaign speeches and interviews sound like the disclosures people routinely click through because they’re full of deliberately convoluted language. By using political-speak, politicians use a lot of intelligent sounding words to explain nothing and make no promises.
The press needs to start calling out these politicians that give non-answers. Many have started to do so, but it’s a result of dealing with Trump surrogates and apologists that spew outrageous garbage, not to mention Trump’s attacks on the media. It’s imperative that this practice becomes the norm. I saw a clip of a Trump supporting politician giving a television interview in the Netherlands. When he attempted to give a non-answer, each subsequent reporter repeated the question. When the politician attempted to give a different non-answer, the reporters bluntly told him, “You can’t do that here; this is the Netherlands.” US reporters need to be equally brave and diligent.
9
@NCognito
One problem the American electorate is incapable of understanding anything more complex than a bumper sticker.
Fantastic column and right on target.
Two thoughts: If spineless Republicans give him enough rope, will he hang himself? And, after mid-terms will they speak up when the imminent threat of their removal from office is past? Scary times.
3
@Susan A.
Nobody thought Trump could get elected. THIS is the source or all the rope now out there. Time will tell.
1
Professor Krugman’s moral authority is intimidating.
@Ed
Intimidating moral authority? Isn't that an oxymoron?
1
The Dems must take control of Congress and fund Mueller`s investigation to the hilt. There are Trump-GOP crimes under every rock that Mueller turns over and he needs resources to develop the cases against them. Mueller`s job is just getting started.
Remember in November !
7
What I read in these comments is a tremendous lack of understanding about Trump supporters. Most commenters here seem to think they have Trump's base figured out - and that they, not surprisingly, are on the winning side of this equation. They are quick to conclude that Trump supporters are racists, bigots, misogynists, etc., unlike them, of course. That's just too comfortable and simple. Concerning Trump supporters where I live, their relationship with WORK (and to a lesser extent, religion) has a lot to with their view of people. Trump folks here question people who don't know a hard days work. They may be negatively predisposed toward inner city blacks for this reason, just as they are toward management or even salaried employees. A wage-earning "working 'man'" gets paid for what he (or, yes, she) produces - no more, no less. There is little appreciation for benefit packages or "benies". In general, they respect Mexicans for their great work ethic (and food - though maybe not their language, religion, and overall culture... but this is a tall order for unprivileged people who aren't very educated or can travel much.) As far as them being foolishly manipulated by Trump using their bigoted tendencies against their own best interest, I see it differently. Despite their hard work, they struggle - abused by an increasingly unhealthy, complicated and brutal society - underrepresented at the national level and disenfranchised, in general - and, to them, Trump seems to get this.
2
@carl bumba
They think Trump "gets" their problems, but why? Just because he makes a lot of noise and repeats his lies over and over? Because he offers simplistic solutions like a wall on the Mexican border, then cuts the taxes of the wealthy and slashes medical assistance? Because he kidnaps refugees' children in the name of "national security" but does nothing about the Russian infiltration of our elections and industries? If these "hard-working people" (I work hard too) are so gullible and naïve, they shouldn't be voting at all.
21
@carl bumba: We have all heard and seen quite enough from the tRump supporters. They and they alone are responsible for the situations they find themselves in. I know because members of my family are tRump supporters.
1
@Cindi T
This is very common (though I obviously don't know your particular situation, Cindi.) There are many educated and worldly liberals who have family members, usually distant, who supported Trump, giving them the sense that they 'know' Trump supporters (not unlike how they might 'know' urban blacks). The probable fact that these relatives are among their least favorite and, not surprisingly, least respected then substantiates their politics. This sounds like an unfortunate blend of social, cultural, famial, and political dynamics, leading to division rather than shared viewpoints.
Cindi, it is true that roughly half the voting public are responsible for the election outcome. I would add to that about a qurarter of the voters who supported Hillary over Bernie in the primaries (of a likely stolen nomination), since Bernie would have likely beaten Trump, substantially. (I could also include the Democratic voters of NY, who knowingly allowed Hillary to advance her national political ambitions for their own state's gain in her sham residency and representation as a senator.)
The slipperiest part of the "complicity slope" Mr Krugman ........should be a concern for the "select" beneficiaries of Don the Cons largess........ the 1% financial elite with trillions in future tax benefits and repatriated offshore money.......fossil fuel and mining interests with removed pollution and environmental constraints to continue their global warming...........and opening of public parks,nature reserves,and rare pristine wilderness sites for unregulated exploitation......including defendant corporations responsible for super fund toxic sites,now regulated by one of their own!
Of course drug and chemical producers now,also, dictate policy at the EPA and FDA with their ex employees running both agencies...........and it goes without saying that Wall street is delighted with all these developments ............the list of Trumps destructive and corrupt, cronyist, policies destructive the the American people and society is too long to enumerate !
However if Trump is found to have fraudulently influenced the 2016 election by conspiring with a foreign power.....he is a toxic fruit POTUS of a FRAUDULENT election.........and ALL his "executive"actions,appointments,and policies ALSO BECOME TOXIC......this is the "slipperiest slope"..........WHY is this not addressed in the media or by politicians in either party......even as evidence of Russian fraud ,conspiracy,and obstruction of justice is publicly.........OBVIOUS !!!
8
The issue is not primarily Trump's beliefs and opinions, which are slippery and change with his moods and,for all I know, the phases of the moon. The issue is his playbook which he has taken straight from Mussolini et al.:
-suborn the judiciary
-attack the press as "enemies of the people"
-lie and repeat your lies
-foment race hatred and bigotry
-find willing appeasers in the conservative political establishment
-turn the government into a private trough for your friends to feed on
I can't argue with your gloomy predictions about the future of our democracy. I do what I can (give money mostly) but my vote in a solidly "blue" district doesn't affect the big picture much.
11
Please come help us knock on doors for Beto in Texas. We’re trying to take the Senate majority away.
Trump has us on a really slippery slope. Trump even looks like Mussolini when they show the head shot of him scowling into space. Facisim starts with a disgruntled part of the populace who listens to a liar who promises to fix everything. Everything is coming up roses trump says to the people who put him in office. He and his Republican minions passed a tax cut for the rich and adopted the trickle down economy from the Reagan era which was a disaster for us. Great for the 99%.
He had demonized an entire religion. He is terrified by the free press so he is taking measures to suppress it. He has degraded immigrants like other dictators in our not to distant past even to kidnapping their children. He has a past of bankruptcies and needing money badly. American banks wanted no part of him so where did he get the money he needed? Where are his tax returns? He pays off the people who he fires or he has had affairs with him. He is abusing his presidential powers to punish the people who don't agree with him. He flies in the face of science and is undoing environmental rules that were put in place to protect it. He doesn't care about the environment he only hates President Obama. He is breaking treaties and agreements that made our country safer.
I think one of most ignorant misstatements was to Kim when he said, I know you're people love you. I know he doesn't read but that statement is flagrant. You either 'love' Kim or your dead.
4
The Slippery Slope of Complicity - do you mean Asia Argento, the child abuser who started the #MeToo movement and is now being exposed in court?
No, more like Jim Jordan, accomplice to serial pedophilia. Jordan will make a great minority leader, like his pal disgraced former speaker and also wrestling pedophile Denny Hastert.
7
R's are indeed fully vested in their reckless self serving folly.
4
We are getting to the point where the public is going to have to force Congress’ hand by staging an economic boycott. The Republicans do not care about marches, but they will care if we strive to shut down the economy. This will require planning and people helping each other. Ideally, business owners would support this and at the very least, refrain from punishing boycotters by firing them. I know there will be a few business owners that do this, but not every business is owned by a plutocrat.
6
Trump can't win if we don't allow him to win. That means getting out now to register voters, talk to them about local candidates, including Congressional candidates, and helping them get to the polls in November.
We CAN prevent a "Trumpocracy." It takes action now. If we don't act, we will be the ones at fault for allowing it to happen.
6
To all those people who look back at the Weimar Republic and ask, “When they saw what was going on, why didn’t they do something?”, I ask you, “Why aren’t you doing something?” Whenever I try to answer that question myself, I keep coming back to the same hopeless answer—what can I, as one individual, do in the face of such insanity, to help alter the course of events? It feels as if the winds of history are building to a category 5 hurricane and “…Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore!”
12
When someone starts out a comment about how "I'm no fan of Trump" or "I'm a moderate" or moderate liberal and then gives ten bullet points of twisted Trumpist propaganda they are a fan of Trump. Surprised the Times fell for this ruse with a "Times Pick".
13
Thank you for using the word "propaganda". That is exactly what it is. I hope the press will use that word, too.
6
I used to work with a guy that was just like the republicans; he would see behavior by the boss that was flat-out wrong and in many cases, illegal, and blissfully sing her praises but never, ever did this guy have any backbone to speak up. Where is he now? Still working for the same queen. I left years ago because I wasn't going to do her bidding and I was punished for speaking up. This is a culture that has been going on for quite some time and we see it every single day from the top of the establishment all the way down to a government contractor! It won't end until the power is removed from this "president" and his minions.
5
Even Fareed Zakaria who I once respected wants to treat Trump and his Republican supporters as normal. It is awful. American will have to steal ourselves for a Republican victory this November, even as everyone much vote. How most of the country and it will be most of the country will stand up to Trump is not yet clear.
2
In all the WWII movies, those that were part of the Resistance were the heroes and those who who were the collaborators were the cowards. Those of us born after WWII wondered if we would have been brave enough to be part of the Resistance or would we be the ones labeled collaborators for going along with a government we knew was evil. The Republican "flag lapel pin patriots" have decided they are the collaborators when this chapter of history is written.
17
Paul Krugman is correct.
17
Trump's "base" hates socialism but participates in most every social scheme available -- from the drunken free-loaders chanting "Lock her Up" to the Richbich Country Clubbers getting a $1.6-TRILLION dollar "tax cut".
--->
We need more everyday Americans (of all colors and both genders!!) willing to work, sweat and if necessary die for America and Democracy -- not more thieves and Russian Puppets.
24
Of course. Same basic principle, in reverse, as all the bankers' and lawyers' kids that you see in college wearing Che Guevara shirts and spewing a whole lot of stupid about revolutions. It's always the people who benefit the most from a system that don't see it for what it is and get the bright idea that they should tear it all down. (Look at the number of plots against the throne, in the good old days of monarchy, that were hatched by the nobility).
1
@CP
Ditto on the T-shirts. When revolution is watered down to the level of a “fashion statement”, it becomes a re-faux-lution.
Fashionistas label themselves “activists” just because they took a selfie wearing a “we are all feminists” t-shirt and posted it on their “influencer” blog.
Or accidentally walked into a protest like Kendall Jenner becoming the defacto leader of the refauxlution by handing a Pepsi to a cop.
and if somehow the GOP survives as a party how will they ever be able to hold anybody accountable for anything?
Oh wait. I forgot. They have zero problem with total hypocrisy.
20
Wow comparison to Mussolini very apt indeed...who is his complicit Pope.. read Keutzer's "Mussolini and the Pope" very disturbing comparison to this presidency.
8
The most frightening thing is not that Trump is a wanna be Mussolini. We have known that for months. The worst is that the Republican Congress is basically fascist to its core . Thus they have no plans whatever to save America from this evil man but rather to collude with him and repress the populace.
33
"The truth isn't the truth". Pass the Victory Gin...
12
Note the grand scheme of GOP governance.
"All we have to do is replace Obama. ... We are not auditioning for fearless leader.
We don't need a president to tell us in what direction to go.
We know what direction to go.........
We just need a president to sign this stuff.
We don't need someone to think it up or design it.
The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate. [...]"
- Grover Norquist.
"Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States.
This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills.
His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared."
- Grover Norquist.
Grover et al have found their useful idiot with useful "working digits".
The corrupt leaders will cut taxes and move to disable Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Will the GOP throw Trump under the bus after he locks in the overall GOP legislative agenda.
When he is no longer needed the GOP could stand idly by when impeachment kicks in - a happy thought but the damage will have been done.
Trump is a tool, a fool, and/or Putin's Poodle.
The election was hacked by exactly what entity .... and for what exact purpose.
13
Don the Con was "elected" by a perfect storm......resulting from the confluence of three conditions 1- the repressed racism underlying American culture....... which was,deliberately surfaced,expressed,and and cultivated by the GOP....while Obama was POTUS ......2- Clinton campaigns ignorance of the "populist uprising", underestimating both the number of "deplorables" and the popularity of their "point of view" 3-Putins ex-KGB agents..........and used both racism,deplorables,and corruption in the Democratic party......to CREATE a win for his,already long compromised, candidate Don the Con........with millions in propaganda spent on social media sites i.e. Facebook,Twitter,and countless others as yet undetermined !
The Republican and Democratic parties and the American people and the American people have to face the fact that the 2016 presidential election was RIGGED and FRAUDULENT as the Special Prosecutors findings will show......IF he is allowed to complete his investigation........which will be a CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS for the country !............hence all the obfuscation and resistance by Trump and his vulnerable cronies.
12
4- American woman didn't want a woman president. I was shocked at the vitriol from Democratic woman towards Hillary.
5 - Bernie Sanders was a sour puss. I loved Bernie but he swung too far left. He would have lost the center worse than Hillary.
6 - the media, they focused on the email scandals and took cheep shots at Hillary,
7 - last but not least - Comey reopening the email investigation!! I think that finally fatigued the voters and lost the election.
8
Republican response: crickets
3
Make no mistake: if Republicans hold both houses of Congress this November, Trump will go full authoritarian, abusing institutions like the I.R.S., trying to jail opponents and journalists on, er, trumped-up charges, and more — and he’ll do it with full support from his party.
President Obama actually did all this... Paul Krugman is a great propagandist, terrible journalist.
1
Utter rot.
Obama did pursue journalists, to his shame, but I remember only one who landed in jail. He didn’t daily deny that journalists had a job to do, or assert every unflattering story was false, or call the press the enemy of the people.
The IRS “scandal” proved baseless, and had nothing to do with Obama. The IRS routinely vets nonprofits, and the allegation that conservative groups were being singled out turned out to be hyped-up specious nonsense, ginned up by conservative “news” outlets. Nothing less than riding the ref.
In eight years, not one Obama cabinet member resigned under a cloud of scandal. Even Clinton was exonerated by the FBI. Her private email server, far from criminal, was sanctioned by the government. Many others also maintained private servers; they just weren’t women running for president.
Obama never suggested his political opponents be jailed. Trump said he’d jail Clinton without even suggesting a trial.
There are things Obama did that I didn’t like. But he was never a threat to the republic. Trump has pardoned his political fellow travelers, and called for jailing opponents. He proposed revising libel laws to make it easier to sue reporters and newspapers. He befriends our enemies and attacks our friends. It’s hard to see how he’s not a threat to the republic.
13
I wonder if lefties, progressives, socialists, and the rest of the guys and gals up on that soapbox of holiness (you know, the one with the Hillary and single-payer bumperstickers) are ginna figure out that they better climb the heck down, find a mirror and look hard into it, and figure out what sort of common ground they can work out with us sinners before it's too late.
We helped elect Trump once already. You really wanna go for twice?
1
Gosh. I wonder what that common ground would be.
3
Wait. Because you elected Trump with 3 million less votes, you’re feeling smug about your majority?
I don’t know where you think I should climb down from, or why you think I don’t know my own face. I understand reality. I don’t understand why so many of my fellow citizens deny it.
Trump promised you a healthcare system better and cheaper than Obamacare. Then he celebrated, in the Rose Garden, a standard-issue Republican bill that would have raised costs and deprived tens of millions of healthcare insurance. He never even claimed to offer any legislation that would have expanded coverage or reduced costs.
Are you tired of winning yet?
Unless you’re part of the 1%, single-payer healthcare will benefit you and your family. That’s the reality. Deny it at your peril.
15
The big question is what will the Republican Party be when Trump - hopefully sooner than later- leaves the scene. At the least he will hang over the Party for year like an albatross similar to Herbert Hoover. At the most the Republican Party will break up like their Whig antecedent and end up morphing into something else.
5
We focus too much on Trump, and Pence. Time to look at their supporters and enablers.
19
Well stated Mr. Krugman! The level of corruption in this administration, and the republican party, is unprecedented in our nation's history. There is a full frontal assault on our democracy happening right now. Not only are these assaults being committed by foreign interventionists, but more disturbingly, by factions within our own country. These factions are committed to power and profit above all else. They spend untold millions of dollars advertising and promoting 'fake news' that is deliberately designed to sow emotional discord in our nation. Meanwhile, the powers that be are laughing all the way to their off shore accounts.
14
My chief concern with Trump and his enablers in Congress is that voter suppression will become awesome. That is their best chance to hold onto power. My wing nut friends on Facebook talk about voter ID like it is a measure sent from God that will protect the integrity of our elections from illegals voting which by the way the fake news will not report because of their liberal agenda.
8
Opening paragraph is a bizarre word salad.
"The real news of the past few weeks isn’t that Trump is a wannabe Mussolini who can’t even make the trains run on time." Because if it were the real news I would have to give examples.
"Republicans who defended Trump over the Muslim ban, his early attacks on the press, the initial evidence of collusion with Russia, have in effect burned their bridges."
Not a Muslim Ban no matter how often you repeat this lie Enemy Of The People Krugman. What "initial" evidence? "Attacks" on the press calling them liars(exercising his free speech) cause they are liars. Defend the lies the press tells and stop making this about Freedom which its not.
“No evidence of collusion” becomes “collusion is no big deal” becomes “collusion is awesome — and let’s send John Brennan to jail.” Best way to refute this is to PROVIDE EVIDENCE.
1
Then shut up and let Muller finish the investigation. I've been under investigation (for an administrative violation), I was innocent, I knew I was innocent, the accusers were liars, the investigators knew the accusers were liar,but they still had to do their job! My full cooperation quickly ended the investigation. Trumps mouth and ego got him and his peers into this mess. He should have shut up, done his job, advised his people to do the same and they wouldn't be in this mess. OR, possibly they are guilty-because they are acting guilty. You Trumpsters should demand transparency from this president and demand he fully cooperate to bring this matter to a close! You conspiracy guys should demand the tax returns. Trump is hardly the only capable republican leader. If he and his ilk are criminals boot them and get some decent leadership. Same for democrats, if the leaders are criminals-boot them and get decent leaders. All we are asking is that you republicans keep your side of the street clean, and your side of the street is a mess right now. Quite frankly I'm sick of hearing about your "guy" and his foul mouth. I personally know at least five educated republican men who would represent the party and this country with dignity and respect, while forwarding the conservative agenda without being for lack of a better term - gross. My parents and some good friends are republican, and you can do better. In fact you deserve better.
16
It’s not a Muslim ban, eh? Because it doesn’t apply only to Muslims, and doesn’t apply to all Muslims?
Two odd things about it, if that’s not what it is.
First, most people affected by the ban are Muslims. So it’s funny that Trump called for a Muslim ban and then banned a bunch of Muslims, but it’s not a Muslim ban.
Second, Trump has never explained what exactly was so terrible about the immigration process in those countries that a ban was necessary. He’s never set a standard for them to meet, after which the ban would be lifted. He simply asserted his authority to act as a matter of national security. No one knows the problem or the remedy.
Add to that two more observations. 1) No one from any of those countries has ever been convicted of terrorism. 2) As far as we know, Trump has no financial dealings in any of the affected countries.
Could the financial issue alone not explain why some Muslim-majority countries were not banned? How likely does it seem to you that Trump, a man who cares deeply about money, chose not to put assets at risk? Does not the ban send a clear message that dealing with the United States is easier if you make a lucrative deal with Trump?
The idea is ridiculous and unamerican that some people are irredeemably dangerous merely because they were born in a particular country. Only a bigot would pursue such a policy. That’s proof in itself.
5
@Disbelief
As is the grass always greener on the other side, so is the street always messier on the other side. They don't see much of the garbage that you plainly see - and they think most of this was thrown there from your side.
I doubt you needed to concern yourself with public relations, investigation creep, pushing through an agenda, midterm election, etc.. Beside his cheap rhetoric, I thought Trump was pretty much giving the special consul have free reign.
Nobel Prizes are awarded to a true diversity of individuals.
Sometimes, one completely "outside the box", like
Bob Dylan for a Nobel in Literature. (Hey, fine with me.)
Then, say giving a Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama
for getting elected President, not for doing anything as
President. Suspect his drone-dependent foreign policy
strategy for eight years as President might make one
doubt the sagacity of that choice. Hopefully premature?
And of course, Paul Krugman is a renowned awardee of
a Nobel for Economics, clearly deserved.
However, in reading his stilted partisan political commentary in the New York Times since the defeat of Mrs. Clinton and the valid installation of Mr. Trump as Potus, his brillian tobjective analysis applied to his specific discipline of Economics does not, to me at least, transfer to the related discipline of Political Science.
So much so, that even his dire predicitons of immediate
economic disaster within the first year of Trump's presidency seem to be the hope of a saddened liberal,
and not the reasoned analysis of esteemed Economist.
1
I'm a democrat and I hate to say this, but I'm pretty sure Trump doesn't read the times comment section....If Trump simply shut his foul mouth he would be hailed as the greatest Republican President since Reagan. The man is just so ignorant and repulsive! Instead of revoking Brennan's clearance he should have embraced his free speech. Trump forgets that he is already president. He doesn't have to punch down all the time. It makes him appear weak and pathetic. He can be just as evil in silence and be hailed as a "great leader". But he's like the uncool, unconnected kid in the class that spouts off the obvious and gives up the class prank. He's by far his own worse enemy because of his own insecurity.
Trumps mouth and insecurity started that Muller investigation.
On second though, maybe we should give Trump a bigger megaphone and his own TV show, with Muller sitting behind a oneway mirror......
9
I have observed that both parties have an unfortunate tendency to defend the indefensible. This occurs when loyalty to party and basing one’s ego on being right supersede being true to one’s self: principles, family, friends, and country.
No, you have not observed that both parties defend the indefensible. I know that, because there’s no example of Democrats defending the indefensible. And I note that you provided no example. Why am I not surprised?
Provide proof, or accept that there is none. Republicans have been lying and denying for a generation now, whether about welfare or climate change or abortion or tax cuts or evolution. They suppress the vote through voter ID and gerrymandering. What defensible about preventing a fair election?
Trump defends and exhibits outright racism. Republicans do roughly, say roughly, nothing. How about attacking the indefensible instead of riding it?
4
Mr Krugman notes smugly that he warned us about Trump, saying: "...as some of us warned when all the cool kids were busy snarking about Clinton’s emails." The emails were more than just some jejune issue, they represented actions by a secretary of state that ignored security; and there were 30,000 emails that she managed to delete. At the very least they represent Mrs. Clinton's sense of entitlement: she did not have to follow the rules of security for a high government official, she could jet around the world making deals with all sorts of people without an official record. Letting her act that way was a naive mistake on the part of President Obama, as well. Neo-liberalism turned into "neo-oligarchism", that's what happened. And the widespread reaction against neo-liberalism (i.e. globalization), proves the point: it was great for privileged people; not-so-great for the common woman and man, their children, and old folks. As it happened, Krugman was imperceptibly co-opted into this world of luxurious complacency, like the frog in the pan of comfortably warm water slowly coming to a boil, Mr. Krugman bought into Mrs. Clinton and left Bernie Sanders out in the cold. And Mr. Sanders was the man we needed. He had the populist smarts but also the integrity to make a stab at reform. He was fuzzy on the details, it is true, but had the big picture. Mr. Krugman and others could have helped him. Wouldn't that have been better than the macabre circus now on a downward-spiraling loop?
5
No and no and no and no.
No entitlement. Private email servers were legal, and Clinton was not alone In using one.
No security breach has ever been demonstrated, despite a thorough FBI investigation. In any case, email is not a secure medium, as anyone with any knowledge of SMTP will tell you.
No obstruction. Deleted email is not a crime. It’s not even unusual. Have you ever deleted a message? It’s easy to believe Clinton received, literally, a million messages. 30,000 would be 3%. Why is that even suspicious?
The whole email nonscandal was a noghingburger. There was no there there. If the was, there would have been an indictment.
Meanwhile, we very likely have a president selling United States policy for personal gain. We haven’t seen his tax returns. He continues to profit from his businesses, about which the public knows little. His cabinet is a stew of scandal. His associates are queerly cozy with Russian operatives.
Trump’s story, his real story, is not yet told. If there’s no there there, I’ll be astonished.
124
@James K. Lowden Well,your opinion is beating mine 25 to 1 just now; so I will pay attention to it (though I am used to being a minority!). In any case, my comment was not meant to let Trump off the hook or compare Hillary to him. I still believe Mrs.Clinton lost because she did not see clearly, and that she did not because she had become "entitled". And I still wonder why Paul Krugman did not support Bernie Sanders when he was on a roll and could have won both the nomination and the presidency -- that was my main point,something that will puzzle me until Mr.Krugman addresses it.
@James K. Lowden
Love your comments. Hang in there!
1
The biggest lie Americans have been told for more than half a century is about Russia. In 1917 when Russia had its revolution socialism hadn't been tried and when the Mencheviques were overthrown by the Bolsheviks it was the first time "socialism" had been attempted in a a large powerful nation where top down governance had always been the norm.
Socialism didn't fail Russia, Russia failed socialism. Democracy is needed for socialism to work and only government of the People can temper the one size fits all of authoritarianism whether left or right. The Kings, Czars, Kaisers and oligarchs who ruled most of the world were not socialists and neither were the commissars and Prime Ministers and Presidents who ruled the Soviet Union and China. The Scandinavians have it right socialism is needed when the plutocracy has too much control but when the socialists interfere with all of life's searches things the people must vote for change.
The Communism of Russia was more GOP than Democratic Socialism. The strong men of Communist Russia had more in common with William F. Buckley Sr. than they had the Socialists of Denmark, Sweden or Finland.
Russia under Communism was like the America of Rockefeller, Carnegie or Melon. It was top down governance with virtually no power resting with the Russian people. Whether it is rule by the Czar and the aristocracy, rule by the politburo or oligarchy or we call it Russian Orthodox or Atheistic Communism it is Russia.
8
@Memphrie et Moi
Capitalism had worked in the USA but is failing because just as Russia failed socialism America has failed capitalism. Democracy must temper capitalism. Strong government must control business' desire to control. America has shed democracy for the pie in the sky promises of an ideology of an unrestricted market.
Moderation in all things has been the winning formula for the citizens of liberal domocracies where the policy of more or less government and higher or lower taxes is the responsibility of the voters not the party leaders and their sponsors.
6
"Socialism didn't fail Russia, Russia failed socialism"
Eh, sort of. It's one thing when it doesn't work in Russia, but when socialist revolutions also pop up in China, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba, and elsewhere, and all end up in more or less the same place, the problem is no longer Russia.
It's kind of like the Ayn Rand libertarian capitalism the right keeps preaching at us, in that sense. They keep saying that rising tides will lift all boats and tax cuts will pay for themselves and whatnot, but over and over the reality ends up being skyrocketing deficits, skyrocketing unemployment, and nobody seeing any benefits except the very rich. And they keep coming up with excuses like "oh but that's CRONY capitalism not REAL capitalism," or "oh but Bush was a liberal RINO, not a REAL Republican," but after they've done it enough times you kind of have to conclude that the problem is in the premise, not the execution.
3
Would that this was just a US problem, but the rest of the world has to suffer it's consequences as well
9
"We're not going to Make America Great Again," Cuomo said in Manhattan. "It was never that great."
Judging by the sneering smile in the accompanying photograph he may be right.
1
Where was Mr. Krugman's outrage when the Obama administration co- opted the IRS, the NLRB, and the CFPB to promote their liberal agenda ?
@LTJ
GOP MOTTO: Working hard today to make a better yesterday.
That about sums up your argument. Good luck in your time tunnel.
Btw, there is no Obama outrage. We still love and respect him.
13
@Dee
"Btw, there is no Obama outrage. We still love and respect him."
And miss him.
2
First, no. The IRS wasn’t misused by the Obama administration. That accusation didn’t hold up to scrutiny.
Second, carrying out policy is not co-opting an agency. If you have evidence that Obama used the NLRB or CFPB to punish specific political opponents, do please tell us. If you just object to his policy, at least admit it was legal.
It’s pretty clear to me Trump is abusing his power. Stripping Brenan of his security clearance is one example. ICE is another: the have been numerous reports of ICE and the border patrol lying to immigrants about their rights in US law, and using their power to detain to persuade people to waive their rights and just go home.
Deception by any government employee has no place in this country. My tax dollars do not pay for deceit. It should be a punishable offense.
5
GOP cohesion allows the interests of the many to be subverted to those of the top few. You've commented nicely on the success of this bate and switch strategy. One of the pillars of the strategy is Hillary & Barack hatred mongering. Nearly half of the country and huge percentages of the rural values folks are firmly convinced that Democrats are pathetic and their leaders dangerously unacceptable. Sadly, any Republican, even Trump, appeals to this crowd. Arguably, they aren't a majority but they are in control. Look at the purple states. Places like MI are dominated by the GOP at all levels even though Trump and Clinton essentially tied in vote count.
4
"It would be deeply embarrassing to admit that the elitist liberals they mocked were right...."
Really, Paul? Embarrassing? That is so 2016. No, they are way past being concerned about embarrassment, They have gone over to the dark side and there is no road back.
They must be dealt with, finally, in November.
11
The GOP members of congress are endangering all of us with their cowardice regarding Trump. Thank God they will be in the minority soon
8
Trump doesn't have to make the trains run on time. He just has to call reports they're late FAKE NEWS.
14
I would have taken the logic re spinelessness one step further. Spinelessness -- like willful ignorance -- creates vacuums into which evil seeps. Ergo, can we say spinelessness is evil?
4
These are the last years of the Republic.
Get your families out while you can!
Good luck and godspeed.
11
remember that Trump is a tool. he does not decide. everything he does has the support of a large number of Republicans and rich liberals. and don't forget foreign interests. they still have a lot of leverage in our interconnected world. those want to remove the United States from the equation and Trump , with his diminished brain is the ideal agent of chaos.
5
“...spineless rather than sinister...”
I’m sorry, that’s ridiculous.
They’re sociopaths, they’re autocrats, they’re well-paid servants of the oligarchy, and they know exactly what they’re doing. They’re not spineless and they’re not stupid.
But let’s tell the truth. The media could stop this tomorrow. They could bring it crashing down. Peel away the lies of McConnell and Graham, and the blackmail they labor under, and it would come to a halt. The material is there. It’s in plain sight. The media won’t touch it out of some absurd propriety. It’s long past time for that. Either the Times and the Post and MSNBC do their job or we’re finished. It might have to be the Post, which has no obligations to private ownership. Unlike the rest of the American media (except Murdoch’s WSJ), Bezos owns it and can do what he wants to do. As Mr. Liebling so famously said, the power of the press belongs to those who own one. Mr. Bezos is the only guy in America who owns his own. Somebody had better work up the nerve quickly. The clock is near midnight.
10
“No, it isn’t truth,” Mr. Giuliani replied. “Truth isn’t truth.”
Well then, Mr. Guiliani, what pray tell is truth?
....and what do such beliefs do to destroy our democracy?
13
@Political Genius
The cult of Trump took "deep state" from Mike Lofgren, a disenchanted Republican who used the phrase to refer to the very sort of Republicans who hold power now.
"Fake news" was the blitz of propaganda videos that the Bush II administration snuck into real TV news programs.
Anyone remember these things?
Now the Trump Administration is taking yet another talking point from the left - the skepticism about truth flaunted by faddish leftist academics.
Hey, conservatives, aren't you supposed to be the upholders of unchanging truth, and aren't we liberals supposed to be the relativists?
@miriam
In fact I DO remember the blitz in GW’s presidency. Orchestrated by Karl Rove, I believe. A diabolical wizard of propaganda. And here we are today.
Best description ever of my Republican Senator Cory Gardner: a spineless careerist. That's all he's ever been and all he ever will be until the day he retires and cashes in from all his crooked friends. He pretends to be a man with principles but those principles disappear whenever he has to take a stand against the Rump. The photos are priceless: he's always hiding somewhere on the edge of a confab. We all know McConnell is a rat; he doesn't even pretend to be an honest man. But bad as he is, the minor crooks and creeps that make up the Republican Party will sell our country down the river just as quickly.
11
Yep, the KLEPTOCRATIC KAKISTOCRACY is courtesy of the AMORAL GOP.
Kleptocratic: Agovernment or state in which those in power exploit national resources and steal; rule by a thief or thieves.
Kakistocracy: A system of government which is run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.
17
@cosmos
Krugman uses “Trumpocracy” which combines both. It’s the word that will go down in the history books describing those to the right of Conservatism. It’s also easier to say than the other two.
1
"If you're worried about what all this means for America's future, you should be."
That sentence is from a review of historian Nancy MacLean's 2017 book "Democracy In Chains:The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America." The book is for those who want to know much more about the GOP's slippery slope.
8
@ChrisDavis070: Yes, I have that book on order (after seeing her on Bill Maher a few weeks ago, I was intrigued & read some reviews of her 2017 book). It will arrive by Friday.
The smart people don’t hate anybody.
You hate only if you feel helpless.
The helplessness is just an indicator that we aren‘t smart enough…
The smart individuals know how to neutralize, defeat, change, join or attract their opponents…
1
"...most Republican politicians are spineless rather than sinister — or, more accurately, sinister in their spinelessness."
Truer words were never spoken. Surely these people must realize they will go down in history as the feckless fools who allowed Trump to degrade our nation. It really is baffling that they would rather have those fleeting dollars in their pockets than an honorable legacy.
13
Meanwhile in the shadows, the Koch Bros. are bankrolling an effort to call a new Constitutional Convention, the theme being more States’ Rights. (Slavery, anyone?) So far five states have signed on. Google it.
8
@Sarah L: yes, described in Nancy MacLean's book: Democracy in Chains (although I believe it is more than five states, now).
1
"...they're not really ideologues so much as careerists..." So this is where we've slid to....Hannah Arendt's "Banality of Evil".
7
This article is spot on.
6
It shan't be long before we have our own Tiananmen Square protest. How many will lose their lives?
"The students called for democracy, greater accountability, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech, though they were loosely organized and their goals varied. At the height of the protests, about 1 million people assembled in the Square."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989
5
Stealing children from their parents with no plan or effort to reunite them. Just straight up kidnapping them. Republicans in Congress went along with that and I don't think we've hit the bottom yet.
196
Cry about Trump and the Republican Party all you want, but you had better address the problem of leftist extremism in the Democratic Party if you want to hold on to moderate liberal voters like ourselves. We will not be voting in favor of abolish ICE, sanctuary cities, citizenship rights for illegal immigrants, and other highly controversial issues recently championed by Democrats-Socialists-Leftists. Identity politics and race-baiting is also a major turn-off...we wont be voting gender, white, brown, black, purple or polka dot. We’ll vote for the citizen candidates who appear sane, intelligent, and willing to promote the interests of all American citizens.
8
@Shenoa. There will always be extremism on both sides. The difference is the right allowed theirs to take over power and more moderates went along. So use your arguement to vote for a Republican in this election. You will be abetting the extreme right with that vote. Is that what you want?
9
Electing more America-loving true moderates of both parties will help. Where are they?
He’s a true American hero.
1
Sorry...Your judgement is way out of kilter. Trump is not a hero...he’s a disgrace and a threat to our future.
5
The commenters pointing to Obama to compare with Trump that still don't get this is not that, or about party, Obama or Clinton are profoundly mistaken and sadly, it will be too late when the lightbulb finally goes off. There is nothing that can be said, no matter how many times you say it, that fairly compares the dangerous situation we're in with anywhere we've been before. Your inability to see we're in unchartered territory and getting closer to a catastrophe of epic proportions, is a stark reminder of how we got here in the first place. As long as you remain ignorant of what the enemy at the gates has in store, we are all in jeopardy, our future in peril and it won't matter what your party affiliation is.We will all go down together.
14
Like people being hypnotized, we're paying attention to the shiny object (Trump) while ignoring the pickpockets in the crowd. Trump's clown act provides a perfect cover for a much more sobering GOP agenda, while the architects of that agenda are allowed to distance themselves from the silliness on stage.
24
Exactly I wish the press would quit covering him and focus on McConnel and Ryan. If they don’t after Nov I’m done reading the papers.
10
Elect a clown, expect a circus
7
@Calleen de OliveiraYou are assuming there will be papers after November should McConnell et al retain control. The buffoon has done a marvelous job of constantly moving the goalposts, a strategy that fits his attention span. Meanwhile, the Dems waste time trying to argue with Trump. Time for a brief platform.
Our republic can remain a liberal democracy only by mutual trust may it continue to exist. The last time this ceased to exist the country collapsed into civil war.
Trump is showing his contempt for the country Americans invented and called the United Stars of America. The Republicans like him because in his contempt for the liberal democratic republic he will turn it into a country that exists without laws nor institutions that constrain people from using their wealth or situational advantages according to their own wills. They see themselves as naturally superior humans who nature has destined to be on top and only silly misguided people interfere with this with stupid ideas of equality and like treatment for all.
It angers those who wish to live in a free country to realize that such a crucial proportion of our citizens prefer living in a repressive state rule by authoritarians to tolerating so much diversity in a country that maintains liberty and justice for all. But if we let our anger and frustration drive us, it will be the end of our country as we have known for over two centuries. Some how we must restore trust which Trump has revealed no longer exists.
8
Mr. Krugman intensely dislikes President Trump's policies; that much is obvious. And, it's his right to do so. Ad hominem attacks add little to the discussion.
I approve of most of President Trump's policies; fortunately, my opinion and voting rights are still legal and permitted in America, at least for the moment.
There you have it; Mr. Krugman and I disagree. The difference is I can disagree without being disagreeable; Professor Krugman cannot.
It’s convenient to forget the alternative: “Four more years!” Hillary Clinton probably lied about that. She might have challenged China. And, with more class than the Trumpster, also unwound Obama’s overregulation, helped small business, improved job security, reduced minority unemployment, and restored job mobility. Maybe she would have put the clamps on illegal immigration. Who knows? Trump told everyone what he planned to do. (So did Bernie). The 17 Republicans and Hillary ran on falsehoods. The amazing thing is that a conventional nice sounding politician hasn’t adopted Trump’s program. It’s easy to dislike the man, and his performance art. But the basic ideas are good, and they’re working. Xi and Merkle might keep their countries growing. But it won’t come at America’s expense any more.
We are at the point of no return, if Americans fail to vote (in Nov) to protect our Country, the Rule of Law and our Constitution.
17
Reason oriented Republicans may be intimidated by their Wizard of Id invading their dreams and threatening their existence, but that should only prove to them the malevolence they are confronted by has to be thwarted, or our nation will be damaged more than any war or any time of upheaval has before. This President may not be the genius he claims to be, but he does have a genius ability to manipulate people with lies and intimidation, underestimating him will come at this nation's and the world's peril.
9
Now is no longer the time for debates. The nation is in crisis. Everyone needs to vote only for Democrats so every republican is voted out, from dog catcher to President. Plenty of time later to discuss the faults of Democrats.
27
Should we expect anything different from the Trump-GOP alliance whose slogan is: "No Billionaire Left Behind"?
12
Let’s not forget SCOTUS too, in supporting the Muslim ban. And McConnell doing his own brand of party over country by blocking Garland, and now Grassley blocking information about Kavanaugh. It is Trump, but it’s not just Trump. There’s something rotten in these United States. And yes, democracy is on life support. November will decide whether we continue on as a democracy or become an autocracy. Complicit: all Republicans in Congress. Let’s just hope our elections are safe from Russian (or??) interference.
21
would everyone doing mail -in votes (where they can do them) help avoid interference?
1
The greatest damage being perpetuated by Trumpism is the removal of all civic and governmental protections and norms that contribute to a healthy society. Compassion and civility? Gone. Economic policies to raise the earning potential for all Americans? Not at the expense of further lining the pockets of the wealthy. Unburdening the debt load being foisted upon our children and grandchildren? Let them fend for themselves. Saving the planet and all species from the effect of global warming? A hoax. Preserving our democracy and Constitution and the institutions that have served us well? Let’s try authoritarianism.
This is what the once-proud Republican Party has become. Centrifugal forces are tearing our country apart and Trump is the tornado. All people of character and compassion must rise up in November and say in unified fashion, “ Not in our country!”
17
I was just watching "Darkest Hour"
How one courageous person changed the course of history. Where are the heroes among us, where are Churchill, FDR, JFK, MLK, RFK, who will stand up and fight for our country.
Now is our darkest hour, we have no right to wait for heroes, organized non-stop protests are in order and then we vote.
No more GOP, they betrayed our country and our constitution.
They will forever remain Black Spots' in our country's history.
"What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?", Winston Churchill
21
There is so much at stake for certain special interests (both domestic and foreign) that I'm starting to worry about the well-being of highly placed individuals who dare speak out. This may sound ridiculous and I hope it is. There are so many things happening that I never thought could happen in my lifetime, and I have this persistent unease that it's going to get much worse. I even wonder what Manafort is really afraid of.
6
Excellent article. One of the reasons I left the Republican party.
12
The modern American GOP, upon aligning with Evangelical Christianity in the 1970s, embarked upon a goal of creating a permanent republican majority. Karl Rove would brag of this. And in doing so, they've implemented strategies that go against the very grain of a democratically elected representative republic. From voter suppression techniques like voter caging, which the GOP plead guilty to in New Jersey, to extreme gerrymandering of congressional districts, now voter ID with strict requirements for documentation often limiting where and how those documents can be acquired and the whole concept has always been to limit the number of likely democratic votes. (See Paul Wyerich, co-founder of the moral majority on Youtube talking about GooGoo Syndrome) On top of that, they used the power of the office of the president, when they've had it, and turned the Justice Department and the IRS against democratic donors, donation bundlers and state and county level democratic office holders. Always remember, the Bush Attorney's General firings were all about Using the power of the executive against Democratic office holders.
The GOP, long ago gave up on governance and now only seek power. And when they have that power, they turn it against any opponent. This is not new, this has been building for decades, slowly and often in the shadows, but they have relentlessly pursued single party republican rule since the advent of the southern strategy.
They are undeserving.
17
@Dan Tomkinson. This point should be stressed. The long-term GOP goal has been steadily and effectively to create a permanent GOP majority. They have been very effective at long-term planning and maneuvering: witness, most particularly, the Federalist Society, which works continuously to stock our courts with right-wing judges. Citizens United, tax cuts for the rich, gerrymandering (even though both parties do it), NRA, ALEC, etc. are all steadily pushing right wing agendas in a much more organized effort than Democrats do. If you want to see what a one-party system (which is what they are aiming at) looks like, and you want to get really scared, read Masha Gessen's "The Future is History." The GOP does not believe in democracy (note also the Hastert rule). That's the bottom line.
8
We are witnessing the weaknesses of our democracy. We are witnessing our democratic institutions failing. This is all merely a reflection of who we are.
12
Trump continues only to represent his ‘Base’. A previous commenter informs us that ‘the Base’ complaining about ‘taxes’ ....sales, real estate (?)... is
probably not complaining about Income Taxes. I suspect that the Base probably doesn’t pay the high level of Income Tax that those living ‘outside’ the Base are paying. There must be statistics on this, but if confirmed, Trump’s Base has been freeloading on the non-Base.
The real issue then is taxation without representation.
8
@BBB
Besides income tax, Trump's base are not too concerned about property, real estate, inheritance, corporate, capital gains and other taxes outside of those that they have to take into account when trying to afford what's in the shopping cart, i.e. consumer goods. This is certainly not the case for Dr. Krugman and most of his fans here.
As far as "freeloading" goes, I think your bigger beef would be with rural and inner city minorities who have higher unemploment rates and social services, like ETB, utilization. But these targets are not as easy as the Trump folks. (And, of coarse, they generally don't freeload out of choice.) The Trump base is mostly low wage, non-professionals who pay taxes with each paycheck through minimal "withholding", but do not earn enough to have to pay much additional, income tax in April (especially with dependents). But yes, they are probably under-represented politically for the taxes they supply. Being less educated, over-worked, disenfranchised and pessimistic their voting rates are generally low. (Just taking the time off work can be a problem.) They do not donate or have the luxury to volunteer to political campaigns. They tend to be Independents, ie. without or split between the main party choices. Until Trump (and Bernie), their voices went largely unheard.
2
@carl bumba..."the Base" is exactly that...base in character and performance and little deserving of our sympathy especially considering they have participated in ripping this country asunder form air to water to national parks to the very office of the petty dictator in the White House.
--->
They squandered the finest FREE (ok socialist) education ever provided to anyone smart enough to walk into a public school building...and now whine and complain that THEY ARE VICTIMS of my hard work.
--->
DUMP TRUMP and DUMP HIS BASE and let's get back to baseball and religious tolerance and cherry-pie and an honest days work for an HONEST DAYS PAY and learning AGAIN to compromise and tolerate and enjoy the fruits of our labor AFTER TAXES
@EdwardKJellytoes
Again, a reply I made (a day ago) still isn't up. Except for the religious tolerance and 'baseness', everything that you attribute to Trump supporters (vs, say, Hillary's) , ie. whining, victimization, not working honestly and not supporting baseball or liking pie (of all things), seems to be only a product of your speculation.
Dr. Krugman, I have followed your increasingly dire but well understood political warnings. I completely agree with your current opinion.
In "How Democracies Die", Professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, make a documented case that the ideologic right of center parties, in young and struggling post WWI constitutional governments in Spain, Italy and Germany, instead of compromising with left of center parties, believed that the path to their goals was to fully support slowly emerging populist authoritarians, who they thought they could "manage".
History doesn't always just rhyme, sometimes it repeats. I never thought I would agree that the solution to the current "situation" must rise from the Republican Party. Hopefully this occurs before a next actual crisis, otherwise....
32
@george
Being crass and irreverent does not necessarily lead to constitutional change. Our constitution is pretty robust. And anyone wanting ZERO challenge to our political system should support reforms to our country's obscene income distribution. Sooner or later the natives get restless.
2
Establishment Republicans want to get re-elected and jumped on the Trump Train. Establishment Democrats, like Dr. Krugman, are also forced by popular demand to now consider socialism, social democracy, democratic socialism - things they rejected only two years ago.... so is the desire to keep control. The truth is, democracy is speaking loud and clear. Rather than being duped and not knowing what's good for them (but should listen to the "halves" of society), Trump supporters actually demonstrated electorate wisdom in 2016. The established order needed breaking (and Hillary was the last person to do this.) While the writers and readers of this paper may continue to protect the establishment, the "halve nots" of our brutal society will demand a re-evaluation of globalized capitalism and the use of our military to control world order. In general, Trump supporters respect workers more than management and soldiers more than the military. This is not how they're portrayed here though... but I ramble.
8
@carl bumba, consider this:
Granted that "Trump supporters (may) respect workers" the overriding question is does Trump himself respect workers. From the evidence inter alia tax breaks for the himself and the elite, decimation of labour unions, it more like "Trump PLAYS supporters to BELIEVE that he respects workers.
19
carl bumba writes ,"Rather than being duped and not knowing what's good for them (but should listen to the "halves" of society), Trump supporters actually demonstrated electorate wisdom in 2016. "
Anyone who believes that Trump demonstrates wisdom has really drunk the kool-aid and drunk a lot. Lie after lie after lie. Trump knows nothing and is proud of that fact. Trump 's base knows nothing and is proud of that fact.
Trump and the republicans hand a huge tax cut to the wealthy and it has resulted in huge deficits which the republicans in congress will use to justify cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and education. Who will be most hurt by all this? The have nots. Yeah, that's some wisdom they've got there.
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS
11
@Mithearcha
Odd, my original reply wasn't posted. I'll try something different:
You wonder if Trump supports the worker? Is this a hypothetical? Trump supporters ARE the worker. They know who supports them and who doesn't. For many too many liberals (unfortunately), a hard days work is just a romanticized ideal.
It is beyond obvious that history will treat Trump badly, very badly. It will also treat us just as badly and justifiably so.
41
@yes ultimately it is we the people who voted for these folks. We have a chance to undo the catastrophe in nov.
8
@Tom Jordan, Maybe that's why Trump wants history to end with him.
1
What most "normal" people miss is how different the world looks if you spend most of your time filtering it through conservative media.
To Trump's supporters, he's doing the right thing.
I honestly don't know how we fix this.
68
@I Shall Endure
It's not so bad. Remember, there are as many Independents as there are Democrats and Republicans, combined. Many voted for Obama (even twice) before backing Trump (or Bernie). They want fundamental change; they are not dyed in the wool Republicans.
But yes, there are clearly two distinct realities supported by mainstream/corporate media, on the one hand, and Fox news, on the other. Actually, Fox cable news was strongly opposed to Trump until the people nominated him (only two of their radio programs supported him.) ALL major news outlets filter and package the news for us.
I think there are three important things we can do to try to be objective: One, balance your intake of one side's news product with that from the other side. Two, get news from alternative, web-based news sources (knowing that their margins for error are very large). Three, get information regarding news events from PRIMARY sources - not from journalists, who interpret all the information for us. If you happen to know a lot about a particular news event or subject, then use the coverage of this by news sources to evaluate the sources, themselves. This helped me to see bias (or what looks, to me, like bias).
10
@carl bumba - Newspapers ARE examples of primary sources.
@carl bumba . I periodically check in on Fox news...Sean Hannity in particular. It is crazy-making. It is not an alternative view of events, but instead simply a propaganda input to the Trump campaign. If you can believe it, a significant amount of Hannity time continues to attack Hillary Clinton, gone from the election picture more than 1 1/2 years. What president has ever...or what media has ever...continued to attack a candidate who lost the election so long ago? So is it worth seeing "the other side" in today's politics? Only if you want to see what "the other side" is not a side at all, but a corrupt organization dedicated at any cost to promoting Trumpism while it waves the flag at the same time doing untold damage to that very flag.
Thanks, Dr Krugman, and by the way, thanks to John Brennan, both of you, for saying it plainly. I have felt since inauguration day that the current occupant of the Oval Office is not fit to be there. It just seems to get worse every day.
I respect the office of the President, but it is plainly obvious that Trump not only does not respect the office, but does not understand that that office requires that he be President not just of those who fawn on him but of all Americans. He does not seem to realize that he works for us, that America depends on his supporting our Constitution, that he swore that he would do that - and he is not.
I was encouraged by the Senate resolution last week supporting a free press (though I sure haven't seen much about it in the news) - that is a welcome beginning from Congress; now let's hear it from others.
56
@Planetary Occupant Trump gleefully insults many of those who 'fawn over him'. The NY Times recently had an excellent piece on a soy bean farmer who supported Trump and has since fallen victim to Chinese retaliatory tariffs on soybeans in Trump's trade war.
2
I'll try this again.... There seems to be some denial among democrats about their own wealth versus that of Trump's core supporters. Life expectancies tell a different tale. Trump's base are not Bill Buckley-like, affluent republicans of times past. While they may also hate paying taxes, these are SALES taxes. April 15th is no big deal to them (or me). Democrats who feel righteous about their willingness to increase their tax burden (somewhat) for the common good are thinking INCOME taxes - a very different thing. It's not pretty.
15
@carl bumba
Would you consider sharing your prescription?
2
@New to NC
Good vision is important, but I doubt we match.
I only partially agree with Dr Krugman. Yes, Republicans have abdicated their duties. But what about the American people? The voters who have sent those Republicans in Washington.?
All educated voters, who will go ahead and vote in November for the GOP will bear responsibility as much as the Republicans in Washington.
The danger that Mr.Trump poses to this country should push any patriotic American to vote against the GOP in November.
What country do they want their children to live in?
- A country where Truth doesn't matter anymore?
- A country where the President can take away security clearance of people who don't agree with him?
- A country where the President appoints family members with no experience in important government positions?
- A country where the President goes after the intelligence services and the Justice department?
What will tax cuts and less regulations be worth, if there is no America left.
80
@Chaks
Intrellleigence agencies which lie and are treasonous should be attacked by president.
@Chaks
If it’s not America, it will be Kochlandia or Mercerdonia.
1
God bless John Brennan!
60
Mr. Krugman nailed it and more journalists need to come out
call this situation what it really is. The United States Congress
is enabling and encouraging an autocratic president to violate
our democracy on a daily basis. A president could not do what Trump is doing if congress was acting to check his obvious gross and willful abuse of power
76
Trump now says he plans to remove Bruce Ohr's security clearance, which would effectively remove him from the Justice Department. Republican congressional representatives again remain silent, complicit. Trump doesn't care about Ohr, who is not involved in Mueller's investigation. Trump's next step in the cover up will likely be to remove either Mueller's security clearance and/or those of his team. If Republicans don't block Trump, their complicity will be about complete, and Trump's tyranny will know no bounds.
63
@B
You may want to wait a bit before mounting your Bruce Ohr defense.
@carl bumba
Trump said he plans to remove Ohr's security clearance "very soon". So, this is the time to push Republicans to pop that trial baloon, so he doesn't move on to removing Mueller's clearance.
Growing up I looked at what the better politicians were doing as acts of longevity...ways to live on. Legacy goals. But ones that improved things for the many, even if a few had to take a hit. There was of course a great deal of disagreement, but it was still the age of mutual lunches, drinks after work at local watering holes. As a child my dad would shake hands with local politicians as we made our way to a table at a local restaurant. Or run into them at fairs and local events. He knew them, they knew him. He was not a power broker, but a volunteer, and a man with a voice who could get things done and get others to do it with him.
His lesson at the table; great men work for all of us, lesser men (and women) work for themselves and their cronies. The great ones care about their work and the record they leave behind. Their legacy.
He also said; You will know the lesser ones when you see them at work. They have a particular stripe.
And I see them now. Lesser men and women. Who bear that stripe. To me its the cowards stripe. Or it could be the apathetic stripe. Or in the case of McConnell, the stripe of the do nothing meaningful, while making a lot of noise type.
The GOP is overflowing with them.
Locally, I have always voted for one in their ranks. A man I met many years ago with my dad. Peter King. I used to think he had the right stuff. No more. He's complicit. He sees "new clothes" on the wannabe King, where its obvious the man is naked.
King has lost my vote.
63
Paul - remind me what your position was when Lois Lerner used the IRS to go after conservatives. Didn’t she work for Obama? Remind me what your position was when Obama’s went after the AP and Rosen’s emails. Remind me what your position was when Obama did nothing about Russian hacking. Remind me what your position was when Hillary had classified information on her private server.
10
@Jackson wasn't lerner investigated? and wasn't it proven she went after liberals as well as conservatives? and wasn't it concluded there was no crime?
on the subject of mrs clinton's email server: what's your position on trump using an unsecured cellphone?
2
@Jackson As I also responded above to another commenter with same point as you: Be curious. Don't just take for granted your right-leaning sources are accurate because they're telling you what you want to hear or have come to believe through their filter...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRS_targeting_controversy
Even Trump's own DOJ declined to pursue any further action on this front -- because there was never anything wrong to pursue.
7
@Jackson: I can’t tell what Paul Krugman’s position was on the things you mentioned. However, on the matters Paul has mentioned, you could be the bigger man and speak out first. This would at least be a step in the right direction. Surely this isn’t simply a zero sum gain situation?
When checking one of your accusations, however, I note that, in October 23, 2015 the Justice Department notified members of Congress that it was closing (without charges) its two-year investigation into whether the IRS improperly targeted the tea party and other conservative groups. Why do you overlook that exoneration? I also note that the NYTimes spoke out about Rosen’s case - https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/opinion/another-chilling-leak-investi... . Perhaps you are indulging in “whataboutism” to distract us?
5
"abusing institutions like the I.R.S., trying to jail opponents and journalists". Sorry, Paul I thought for a minute there you were referring to actions of the Obama administration. Remember the strenuous push back from Democrats back then? Do you remember any push back? Me neither. My bad.
12
@LibertyNJ
Trying to use the "whataboutism" trope and comparing comparing Trump's actions to Obama is the height of absurdity.
@LibertyNJ yes, amazing, isn't it. all those crimes and yet not one led to a convictionor even an indictment, no matter how hard the gop tried, and how many hearings they held..
@LibertyNJ Be curious. Don't just take for granted your right-leaning sources are accurate because they're telling you what you want to hear or have come to believe through their filter...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRS_targeting_controversy
1
Powerful essay.
34
I don't know if there is time - or the will with our do-nothing GOP-ruled Congress, for the November election but the U.S. desperately needs to get rid of computer voting machines and go back to manual voting and hand counting of ballots .
We also need to get rid of the Electoral College so the candidates we want run for office. As is, our uber-wealthy are buying candidates to form a government who works for them alone.
There is no other way to be sure our elections reflect the actual votes of the majority of our population. All other 1st world countries realize this.
Our government should not be run by bills being passed that aren't carefully constructed by Congress. Each part of a bill needs to be read - carefully constructed - and the whole, including changes, voted on item by item.
So it takes a day or so to get final results to do hand-counting - at least our votes would then reflect who the majority of us want in office and the type of government the majority of us want.
We also desperately need to get rid of the Electoral College so our candidates are who most of us want - not just $-takers for corps.
There should be public accounting of who (and which corps) are buying their reps way into office.
We also need to get rid of the huge corporations pumping $ into our elections. Make all $ donated (or paid to candidates) public and put a strict ceiling on the amount that can be donated.
40
@Shirley
we also need "instant runoff voting" ( aka "ranked choice voting", ) so that 3rd party candidates are not put in the "spoiler" position, so people will feel that they won't do damage voting for their prefered candidates.
and we need a better selection of candidates, meaning more of them, from more parties. for this, ballot access must be made easier. and parties who truly represent thepeople, with a media that gives good coverage to all candidates.
verifiable paper ballots are a must, as is either making election day a holiday so working people can get there, or having many early voting options. and sufficient voting booths everywhere to prevent long waits.
as new york's "boss " tweed said : " i don't care who does the electing as long as i get to do the nominating"
5
I don't know if there is time - or the will with our do-nothing GOP-ruled Congress, for the November election but the U.S. desperately needs to get rid of computer voting machines and go back to manual voting and hand counting of ballots .
We also need to get rid of the Electoral College so the candidates we want run for office. As is, our uber-wealthy are buying candidates to form a government who works for them alone.
There is no other way to be sure our elections reflect the actual votes of the majority of our population. All other 1st world countries realize this.
Our government should not be run by bills being passed that aren't carefully constructed by Congress. Each part of a bill needs to be read - carefully constructed - and the whole, including changes, voted on item by item.
So it takes a day or so to get final results to do hand-counting - at least our votes would then reflect who the majority of us want in office and the type of government the majority of us want.
We also desperately need to get rid of the Electoral College so our candidates are who most of us want - not just $-takers for corps.
There should be public accounting of who (or which corps) are buying their reps way into office.
We also need to get rid of the huge corporations pumping $ into our elections. Make all $ donated (or paid to candidates) public and put a ceiling on the amount that can be donated.
16
@Shirley
Sorry for the dup - don't know how that happened. My first attempt was too long so I changed it and submitted. Sorry!
I'm embarrassed for, and concerned about the mental health of those who:
1) Buy into the Trump-Russia collusion narrative (no evidence, no crime committed, no quid pro quo, no impact of Russia on the election, no rational theory as to why Trump and Russia would collude).
2) Believe Trump and Repubs want to destroy America, eliminate democracy.
3) Think Trump is some 21st century version of Mussolini or Hitler
4) Assert the electoral college is some sort of aberration rather than an integral part of the constitution.
5) Believe that if the election were held again today with the popular vote determining the winner that HRC would become president. (Hint: You can't take results obtained under 1 set of rules and assume they would hold up another set of rules).
6) Want to disenfranchise those who voted for Trump because they don't like the outcome of the election.
7) Actually give credence to columnists like Krugman who merely are playing to the Times audience by throwing these daily temper tantrums.
But go ahead dems. Adopt the anti-Trump platform and these outrageous views, nominate Bernie or Liz Warren as your candidate in 2020, push open borders, identity politics, openly make ad hominem attacks on Republicans or anyone you suspect of being one, promise free everything for everyone -- and you can kiss the White House until mid century or later. Of course by that time I'm sure climate change will have destroyed America if Trump doesn't do it first.
6
@Ralphie, I can smell bad faith from a mile away. Trump reeks like none other.
28
@Ralphie
clinton lost because she was a bad choice and people were angry, and she had a bad record. but if you are concerned about climate change , as we all should be at this point ( more like terrified), you must know that bernie sanders is quite aware of it and would have worked to make the changes needed to improve our odds of survival on earth. trump is the antithesis of anyone at all concerned with climate change : almost everything he has done has made the situation much worse, and we are indeed running out of time. sanders may have been our last hope to correct the climate disaster before it was unstopable : 4 more years of trump and his fossil fuel heavy anti environmental policies will doom the planet, ALL of us.
3
@Ralphie It's disingenuous and wildly inaccurate for you to state the Mueller investigation has "no evidence, no crime committed, no quid pro quo", when NONE of us know what Mueller's team has. Federal investigations don't blab their evidence and lines of investigation to the public, and Mr. Mueller is running a tight ship with no leaks. You're taking the no leaks as proof there's no evidence, while you'd be screaming if there *were* leaks.
Complex investigations like that typically take years, according to history and the statements I'm reading on Twitter from former federal prosecutors. There's a lot in the public domain that points to *conspiracy*, including the meeting with Russians that Don Jr., Kushner and Manafort held in Trump Tower to get "dirt" on Hillary (that's a felony). One can only imagine the evidence Mueller has with the subpoena power he's exercised with Deutsche Bank and a host of other corporate entities, and the inside information from Gates, Flynn and others who've flipped and are cooperating.
There was no forensic audit-not even one basic complete audit-of the ballots in WI, MI and PA thanks to Trump's successful lawsuits to halt them so we can't be certain his conspiring with Russia didn't affect the outcome of the election. Lastly, since Trump is now the sitting POTUS and the most powerful man in the world, how can you claim there's "no rational theory as to why Trump and Russia would collude"? It's all there in plain sight, if you open your eyes.
7
Among the most disgusting are the Republican "leaders" who are not running for office but who are still pulling their punches on Trump. Craven lot, all of them.
40
Republicans care not for the people only money and power. Some like McConnell are truly traitors to Democracy. I believe a civil war is coming again. With a nation as heavily armed as ours I think it will be a terrible reckoning.
21
@Kevin. Let me know when the Dems cut back on their fundraisers.
3
@Kevin, This is why rabble-rousing is such a bad idea right now.
7
Don’t know Steve, but I am always drawn to his comments because we are of one mind. Go steve!
Remember when Obama unleashed the Justice Department on conservative journalists and used the IRS to attack the Tea Party? Or did you forget those facts because they get in the way of your “Trump is EVIL” narrative?
3
Didn't forget. Simply prioritized.
2
@Fred the tea party was created after the supreme court create citizens united.
2
@Fred There were no orders from the White House to punish conservatives and no conspiracy to silence anyone or shut down tea partyers. The charges Republicans made were utterly bogus.
8
For the most part, Mr. Krugman, you got it right....let me correct two errors:
1) "as some of us warned when all the cool kids were busy snarking about Clinton’s emails." ...truth be told, if you and your establishment bro's had not done everything possible to derail Sanders, we would be signing up for universal healthcare now.
2) "democracy really could die just a few months from now"...your error derives, once again, from your establishment perspective...if push really comes to shove, those same "cool kids" will show you how democracy really happens (while you sit at your computer pontificating).
To sum it up...you ain't the expert you think you are.
9
@brian lindberg, Trump would have mocked Sanders into an earlier grave.
17
@Steve Bolger
sanders would have shredded trump and we would now be addressing climate change, not how big the president's hands are and what a "stable genius " he is.
Stop it. Just stop it, okay? St. Bernie lost, okay? He LOST a political campaign. And he lost because MORE VOTERS WANTED HILLARY. And then, you lot did everything you could to get people to stay home, or vote for Bernie anyway, or whatever.
I for one am sick of this pompous alibi-writing. YOU helped elect Trump, and you can't deal with it. Left to your own devices, you'll help elect him again.
By the way, bet you can't define single-payer, explain the diff between the Canadian and British systems, or offer a realistic appraisal of what wingle-payer would cost or what rationing would be necessary.
I can. It's one or the top reasons I didn't vote for Bernie, attractive as his socialism is.
3
This is where we start separating the Patriots from the Collaborators.
61
The truth is the truth!
This is the worst president in modern history.
The Republicans are complicit by standing by their man!
Nov 6th will be when we can change this horror show!
36
"...as some of us warned when all the cool kids were busy snarking about Clinton’s emails."
Sorry Krugman, we were just hoping for a candidate that reflected the needs of Main Street, not Wall Street.
"Trump will go full authoritarian...trying to jail opponents and journalists"
You mean, jailing journalists like Obama did?
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/the-conversation/sd-before-t...
https://www.amnestyusa.org/president-obama-keeps-a-yemeni-journalist-in-...
It's a shame that centrists like Krugman refuse to admit that it was the center-right economic policies of the Democrats over the past 25+ years that made Trump's success possible.
Perhaps Paul should focus on the Democrats who refuse to resist Trump, you know, those Democrats like Pelosi and Schumer who tell us we should make nice with the rogues gallery of Trump appointments out in public.
6
Keep it up, Ed. Maybe you can follow up your victory in 2016 with another.
1
Elect a nihilist mobster, expect a nihilist mobster circus. His Congressional enablers believe in nothing...
Their Christianity is fake (witness Stormy and the grabber), the fiscal restraint (witness slashed taxes for the rich coupled with wild military spending sprees) is fake, the patriotism (witness bone spur patriotism, Putin as our friend, and attacks on most of our former, Republican, national security experts) is fake, the enthusiasm for dependable market systems (self-destructive oligarchic casino capitalism again on steroids and about to go off the rails) is fake...
Why are the Kochs, Murdochs, etc., and their Congressional employees, so demonstrably nihilistic? Their kids and grand kids are, just like ours, smothering in the same inescapable global hydro-carbons and other toxics, broiling together.
So vote and get every rational person you know to do the same.
40
The midterms are going to be brutally hardfought till the last minute of campaigning. GOP gerrymandering since 2010 has rendered many elections undemocratic. Also their voter disenfranchisement and suppression. Putin is still hacking elections in america
20
It never fails. No mater when I post a scathing critique of Dr. Krugman or other, establishment Democrats it appears in the last quartile, at best (usually among the last few hundred comments or simply not at all). In Charles Blow's forum, on the other hand, they all get posted - and without delay.
5
[scans up and down the comments section]
Yeah, it's really hard to find a critique of Krugman anywhere in these comments...
1
"Scathing" is the key word you seemed to miss. I doubt that in Maoist China or Stalinist Russia every critique of a party spokesman would have been be removed from view. Your standards for this paper seem a little low.
@carl bumba, I've noticed your comments throughout this thread. Methinks you doth protest too much...
1
Those few Republicans like Flake, Corker, Sasse, Collins, McCain and their ilk have a momentous opportunity to pull the rug out from beneath the cloven hooves of the leaders of their party who have degraded party and country for personal gain.
These folks have chosen either to resign, which is cowardly, defeatist and useless, or to mute their disagreement except in the most egregious of issues.
If they were true patriots, they'd switch to Independents. Perhaps in concert with the more conservative Democratic senators from red states, like Heitkamp, Manchin, McCaskill, Tester and Donnelly, they could and would exert a very strong brake on the extremes of both parties and broker compromises that at present no politicians seem willing to consider.
21
@Shar
Maybe some of them want to be president in 2020
Trumps buddy Kobach in Kansas rigged the Kansas city districts voting machines turning what was a 10 pts down before the voting machines failed to a easy win when they came back up five hours later. The Republicans will lie ,cheat and steal to stay in power. Dems. better get the rest of the free world to hack our elections to favor us.
10
Democracy has the life cycle of about 200 years. It flourished the past 200 years. May be it is time to die. If Democrats loose in November, we may be heading to a one party system with enemies of the Republican party will be jailed. Trump could become the most powerful person by becoming head of the Republican Party with title Chairman with life time tenure.
5
Oh come now, don't be so negative. The Dems will be back, next time the economy is as thoroughly in the shitter as in 2008 or 1992 - *someone* has to be the national maid, and it ain't gonna be Republicans.
Of course, four or eight years after that, enough centrists, leftists, and professional apathetics will get bored and also unhappy that the Dem president hasn't single-handedly ended all war and poverty and put a sparkling unicorn in every garage. And then we'll be back to someone even worse than trump. But, you get what you vote for.
Here's a crazy suggestion:
Congressman/woman: 1 term of 4 years. That's it. Can't run again. Ever.
Senator: 1 term of 8 years. That's it. Can't run again. Ever.
And a person can't run for the other house after completing their term. Ever.
No spinelessness here.
That's how we do it on Mars. Maybe USA on Earth can adapt?
15
@Zane Z, sure, if everyone is independently wealthy to afford it.
3
Venting may make us feel good but does little to effect change."I told you so", likewise. Democrats need to come up with a platform that relevant, forward-looking and above all, honest. Let's start by not conflating legal and illegal immigration and agreeing that victims of domestic violence are not candidates for Asylum, a program created to allow those at risk for political reasons to seek refuge in the US. We can also make it clear to voters that, for better or for worse, like other Developed countries, we now have a class system which means the playing field is not level and some people who are not necessarily "spongers and losers" do need help and a safety net. And recognize that while it's not about MAGA, we do have to up our game to win in a globally competitive and increasingly automated world while working to make that competitive landscape fair. That means relevant education and skill building as well as geographic mobility.
8
The biggest mistake is to characterize Trump as an outsider of the Republican Party mainstream. What he was able to do was to expose the veneer of civility of the Republican Party: The earlier desires to believe in the myths that a grandfatherly Dwight Eisenhower, and not Joseph McCarthy; that the pleasant and jovial Ronald Reagan, not Jessie Helms and Strom Thurmand; and that George Bush (the "compassionate conservative"), not Dick Cheney, represented the soul of the Republican Party.
Just as Nixon did with his "Southern Strategy" to attract segregationist voters, Trump must be given credit in recognizing the widespread support of people even more frightened and resentful of their loss of perceived "American" privileges. "Make America Great Again" is a transparent promise to restore their perceived "rightful" privileges of wealth (at least to owners of corporate and individual wealth), race (primarily white), and religion (primarily Christian). Neither civility, nor individual integrity, of a candidate is important to people who have such an uncompromising hope.
23
After all this time "just following orders," the current cabal of Republicians is likely quite reluctant to turn any of the reigns of power over to a party with investigative authority. They've had this tiger by the tail since 2016; They can't let go and survive.
Thought of the embarrassment alone must be debilitating, the potential for indictments would be downright terrifying. Given what appears to be have happened, and currently is happening, the former is a foregone conclusion, the latter, quite likely. There is more obstruction in Washington today than Ex Lax can solve.
One party rule must look pretty good.
I think anything that keeps the Republicians in full control is now on the table. Suppression, Russia, Trump empowerment and abuse, and even specious legal challenges to 2018 election results are probably all acceptable, especially when they consider the alternatives.
The GOP has more to lose than just an election. If the House falls in November, its not beyond the pale for congress to put The Enabling Act on Trump's desk before January. Right after they approve Trump's Supreme Court justice.
A stable Democrasy did it 85 years ago. I suspect that GOP would love to spend the rest of their time in office doing little more than singing the National Anthem. Its easier than governing and better than jail.
21
@GlobalVillageIdiot
And pays well
1
Additionally--the high likelihood that Trump has done "opposition research" on every Congressperson, especially Republicans.
As we saw this week, Trump hoards ammunition (eg. security clearances) to be let loose when things get too hot for him.
And the Republicans know he has it.
13
Exactly. We have a lazy and kompromatted (and treasonous ) congress.
8
Krugman's appraisal of the Republican Party could easily be applied to the Democrats. Despite the overhyped rebellion of the so-called socialist wing, at general election time Democrats of all stripes go-along-to-get-along, supporting whatever hack their leadership tells them to. In 2016 that spelled disaster for them, but it doesn't seem to have persuaded them to change course. They have mostly written off ordinary working people so offering them a hand in order to get them to vote Democratic is rejected in favor of scaring upper-middle class liberals, centrists and independents so they rush to the polls in desperate fear of the Republicans. Hate to harp on it, but that didn't work in 2016 either. The Democrats are on a slippery slope of their own, and it means that there is no serious, organized political opposition to Trumpism and it's mendacious but seductive appeal to ordinary working people who need help from government but get none.
4
"They have mostly written off ordinary working people"
I'm ordinary working people, and the only reason I have health insurance is because the Democrats made it possible eight years ago. That doesn't seem like nothing.
"Hate to harp on it," but if enough "ordinary working voters" insist on forgetting whatever's done for them as soon as it's done, they're going to continue to get shafted by the political system. Politicians pay attention to what they're rewarded for. That's how the system works.
2
it's important that the Democrats take Congress in November because then at least there will be a check on Trump. If they don't get the congress the mess that will be left to them in 2020 will be once again (like 2009) so large that all they will be able to do is clean up and right the ship so the Republicans can wreck it again. We need to get out of this cycle of abuse and start going forward into a green progressive future. The world will never be 1950 again it is now a cooperative global enterprise that needs new and updated rules for a successful labor force.
18
There is a dangerous
paralysis. The Republicans
go along to get along.
Other than McCain,
Corker and Flake in the
Senate, there is
deafening silence.
The Democrats don't
seem to be articulating
appealing messages.
Pelosi determined to
"hold-on" and Socialist candidates
who won't take us anywhere
but to defeat.
It is a positive sign that
high profile people in
our intelligence and security
fields are speaking out.
John Kasich speaks out.
A number of commentators
such as Max Boot, Bill Kristol,
Ana Navarro and even Karl Rove
use their voice. What happens
if Trump fires Rosenstein and Mueller
or if there is a Trump subpoena
or if the process plays out and there
are grounds for collusion and corruption?
Will our leaders and media
demonstrate integrity and honesty?
Will there be a reckoning?
History says that there will
be so but generally only
after terrible wars and
catastrophes. I feel that we are on
a cusp and as Harari writes in
Sapiens, history has not decided
where we will end up.
15
Perhaps many are spineless, but when 90% off your party feels favorably toward your leader it's hard to go the other way. I suspect many GOP legislators are still waiting for the other shoe to drop so they can distance themselves from the White House.
As long as Trump maintains such high ratings within his party, GOP legislators know that gainsaying him will just result in their own political demise.
3
Doug, isn't this, then, the definition of careerism and spinelessness? Also, it shows a kowtowing towards the party versus a reverence for the greater Republic. Those persons in office, and many of their staff, took oaths to defend and uphold the constitution.
What is the greater principle and calling? To maintain the fawning adoration of minions or to stand up for what is right?
26
"Even now, I don’t think most political commentators have grasped how deep the rot goes."
When considering the future of civilization, I'd go much further: Even now, political commentators, politicians, and a significant slice of the general public, have not grasped what is on the other end of the "climate-change-denial-as- federal-policy" fuse Trump has lit.
As the second biggest climate change polluter in the world, we have a responsibility to the rest of the world to help as much as we can to try and arrest the the temperature rise to a level at which civilization can continue to exist. But Trump wants to take the country in the exact opposite direction, ignore completely the direct impact burning fossil fuels has on global warming, and implement policies that actually encourage expanded use of these fuels.
Maybe the Democrats, with the right music and lyrics, can make this a winning issue. It beats a daily preoccupation with Trump's awful behavior and governance.
7
I disagree with an earlier commentator that criticizing Trump means suicide for a politician now. No it doesn't. In the short term, maybe. But the Republican Party is splitting wide open. The moderate conservatives are leaving in droves because the Tea Party and alt-right are simply not tenable places for them, the authoritarianism of Trump is a turn off, and as true Reaganites they are not happy about the bromance with Putin. Extremists are being elected in Republican primaries all over the map. I would hazard a guess that 2020 is going to see a shift of moderate conservatives voting with Democrats, the creation of a significant third party, or a good many stay-at-homes.
7
@EMiller
Nfortunately, Ed, “short-term suicide” tends to have long-term consequences for the individual.
Yes. Well written, Mr. Krugman. Democracy is in great, great peril.
41
One book we'll never see is a Profiles in Courage featuring today's Republican politicians.
13
The Republican Party is aiding an authoritarian takeover of our republic. Let that sink in. The party of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan now supports an authoritarian buffoon who would suspend the first amendment to our constitution in a New York minute. Every day, almost without fail, Trump inches closer to becoming so unhinged about his perceived enemies that he ratchets up the talk about acting to silence his critics. Spineless Republicans sit silent and complicit in the plot to destroy our country. Every last one of them deserves to be voted out of office.
23
I agree--but merely being voted out of office would be too kind a fate for most of them. How many people can be impeached at once?
7
The Republicans are not solely to blame for inaction on climate change. Many Democrats have danced around this issue for much too long. It's part of the reason for divisions between Bernie's supporters, who believe we should treat this as the most important issue we face, and too many in the rest of the party, who think that the issue is "unpopular" and don't want to get into it or give up (and then ask others to give up) their carbon-emitting lifestyles. This is also a type of denial. It's just too inconvenient to act in accordance with their official beliefs. Sheldon Whitehouse and his particular group of Senators are an honorable exception, but the media has not covered their work -- partly doubtless because newspapers are struggling. Doubtless there are exceptions in the House also, and we are obviously much better off with the Democrats than with the Republicans, but we will have to get serious about climate change if the Democrats get back into power. For that matter, the Democrats could do a better job of explaining why Trump is a threat.
9
Soon after being sworn in for the first time, one of the first things Barack Obama did with his mandate was initiate a sit down with all the right-leaning talking heads who had been lambasting him for the past year, in a naïve, misguided attempt to bring us all back together. It was one of the greatest boons for the Republican party, then on its death bed at the outset of 2008. With this one, foolish waste of his newly bestowed power, Barack Obama single-handedly resurrected the GOP. It was nothing short of dereliction of duty for he not to prosecute the criminality (rendition, lying as a basis for waging war, etc.) that ran amuck in Washington for eight years that preceded him; a corruption that is now grotesquely and unapologetically out in the open and on full display, with its feet squared, middle fingers up in the air at anyone to the left of center, and ready to fly into a rage at the first whiff of disagreement with their perverted, dumbed-down world-view. Paul Krugman is correct: The United States, whether any of us wants to believe it or not, is smack dab in the middle of a pitched battle for its very soul. From here it is either democracy or totalitarianism. And if the Unites States reclaims, in part, its soul by putting a majority of Democrats in the House in November, never, never, never forget that the cockroaches we all saw were most definitely real, hungry, virile and just under the baseboards, just out of sight.
29
@ZenPolitico The president is not a prosecutor. What is more, Obama's call to prosecute any Congressman would have been ignored by the Republican-controlled Congress.
5
@Jim Grossmann The United States House of Representatives, that served in the 111th United States Congress from January 3, 2009, until January 3, 2011, was controlled by the Democrats, (257 Democrats and 178 Republicans) not he Republicans. And no the president is not a prosecutor, but many of the people who work for him are... and it is their job to make sure that the Unites States behaves in a manner consistent with its laws, and if broken, prosecute.
Bingo!!!
It was this week with the Manafort trial and Manafort's sponsor Viktor Yanukovych standing next to Putin as he is Russian care charged by the Ukraine with treason. I realized who your GOP leaders are they are apparatchiks.
One hundred and fifty years ago my great grandparents fled the Russian Pale of settlement because they were the Jews.
Even as the Russian aristocracy stole everything that wasn't nailed down to build their palaces and support their lifestyle it was the Jews and other vulnerable groups who were slaughtered and tortured by the Cossacks under the orders of the apparatchiks.
It was no doubt this historical knowledge that enraged my father when Reagan appeared on television. The1964 GOP convention after the lynching and after the Civil Rights Act that saw the takeover of the GOP by Goldwater, Nixon, and Reagan, men who believed in the 1% and men who knew how to blame Jews, Gypsies , racial and religious minorities, liberals, intellectuals, socialists, LGBT and every other vulnerable group for failures that were as often as not really failures but monumental successes in human evolution.
My children and grandchildren are as American as all of the men and women who made America great but after the GOP has finished blaming liberals, journalists and intellectuals, Blacks, Hispanics, member of the LBGT community for all the problems they will go after the more traditional scapegoat just like Russia has for century after century.
8
Kevin Drum nailed this a few days ago:
"Today, the Republican Party exists for one and only one purpose: to pass tax cuts for the rich and regulatory rollbacks for corporations. They accomplish this using one and only method: unapologetically racist and bigoted appeals to win the votes of the heartland riff-raff they otherwise treat as mere money machines for their endless mail-order cons.
Like it or not, this is the modern Republican Party. It no longer serves any legitimate purpose. It needs to be crushed and the earth salted behind it, while a new conservative party rises to take its place..."
More here:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/8/9/1787180/-GOP-Delenda-Est
As for the NY Times editorial today on Trump's support for religious 'freedom', the Times gives him and the GOP too much credit. We were warned what that would lead to back in the 1952.
"“Throw in a Depression for good measure, promise a material heaven here on earth, add a dash of anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Negrosim, and a good large dose of anti-“furriners” in general and anti-intellectuals here at home, and the result might be something quite frightening — particularly when one recalls that our voting system is such that a minority distributed as pluralities in enough states can constitute a working majority in Washington.”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/8/16/1788655/-Paging-Nehemiah-Scud...
15
"democracy really could die just a few months from now"...Y'all gotta give Paul credit for his insistent on making Nostradamic predictions. On the terrible Day After Armageddon, Paul assured us that global markets would collapse and NEVER recover. Later, it was the End of Civilization. Followed by various and assorted catastrophic catastrophes. The Death of Democracy seems anti-climactic considering that the planet is being destroyed by Trump induced climate change. Paul needs to get out of that cramped little apartment on the Upper West Side and get a little fresh air. He might notice that the pretender from the far left that he helped The Times and others vanquish during the Democratic primaries is raising a real threat to his beloved Liberalism. If Paul thinks Republicans are wicked, wait until the new wave socialists purge folks like him from their progressive march to social utopia.
2
Donald is everything his base accused President Obama of being but wasn't: a dictatorial tyrant. Beyond that, how much more of a comparison do we need to see that President Obama is an upstanding family man, a real role model for family values, unlike the philandering groper currently at the helm? Why doesn't the family values crowd acknowledge that fact? Because President Obama is Black?
Meanwhile, the parasitic whims of the obscenely wealthy have driven the very legislation that harms those who support Don, and he is pro-actively seeking to do further harm to his supporters, yet they cheer on, willing to harm the health of their own children if it means being able to poke liberals in the eyes.
How do Republicans get away with it?
24
Like most people, I have often wondered why it is that blue collar Republicans vote for politicians they know will act against them. I honestly believe it is simply because they are just like them. They believe a person’s worth is directly correlated with their amount of wealth. This means that the Republicans/Conservatives who do not have wealth, also have no self-esteem. They truly believe that they have done something wrong because they’re not rich and believe supporting those that are like them but managed to become wealthy, will lead to the same for them.
1
No, Mister Krugman, they are not apparatchiks, they are collaborators.
13
Trump has given the GOP more power than the GOP has enjoyed since the 1920's. The GOP is using the power to deliver for the Koch crowd, the racists, and religious bigots. Why wouldn't they be loyal to Trump?
Will Americans wise up? I wouldn't bet on it.
10
Congressional Republicans, especially Ryan and McConnell, remind me of Hitchhiker's Guide's Hotblack Desiato, humanoid and frontman for the band Disaster Area, who spent a year "dead for tax reasons."
4
Trump voters have made us all patsies
Gopers have made us all victims.
GOP elite are trying to destroy this democratic republic and replace it with plantation economics and rule by the rich.
Trump and his enablers are taking away the power of our vote, our rights and our freedoms.
..the evil is at the gate...
14
I'm thinking of TWO political parties that flourished over the years. Till they STOPPED flourishing. Till they went kaput.
(1) The old FEDERALIST party. Sound familiar? Alexander Hamilton and company. "The people, sir?" Hamilton is supposed to have burst out once. "Your PEOPLE is a many-headed monster."
This attitude permeated the Federalists. Government in their view, was the chosen province of the elite. The rich. The well-educated. I guess they muddled along. . .
. . .till the notorious Hartford Convention. During the War of 1812. In which (I believe) they toyed with the notion of withdrawing from these corrupt United States. Doing their own business with Great Britain (with whom we were at war). I mean--TRADE and COMMERCE and all that. It was suffering. Rich people were all of a sudden NOT so rich.
Isn't that treason? Or CLOSE to treason?
Lots of people thought so. The Federalists folded.
Good riddance.
(2) The Whigs. Not much to say. If the Democrat-Republicans (now just the Democrats) were FOR it. . . .
. . .they were AGAINST it.
Apart from that, just what DID they stand for?
Hard to say. Nothing, I guess.
They too folded. Around 1852. (All my dates are a little murky.)
They metamorphosed into today's GOP.
Today's Republican party.
Are they TOO. . . .
. . gonna fold? 'Cause what do THEY stand for? REALLY stand for?
The Koch brothers?
C'mon, guys. You gotta do better than THAT.
A LOT better!
7
"Thirty days to power: January 1933" is a book anyone concerned with this topic should read. When a republic is not vigilant and does not guard itself, the most nightmarish of scenarios can come to pass in the most improbable of ways. Look away for even 30 days, and it may already be too late. This is not to compare Trump to Hitler--but it is a study in how authoritarians of various degrees of odiousness can undermine a republic.
24
Unadulterated McCarthyism.
2
@Jimmy Onstott
McCarthy was an unadulterated republican.
Trump supporters can never be forgiven.
15
@brew7353
There will be trails.
1
This version of OUR Republican party is completely lacking morality, much less, any loyalty to this Country. It's all about power and money with these soulless bottomless pits of men. If you have to lie and cheat to win. No Problem. Lie. Cheat. Can't imagine a Harry Reid or a Nancy Pelosi laughing over fellow democrats being paid off by Russians, then demanding mafia like, that all present pledge secrecy, as Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy did in the summer before the 2016 election.
28
Another great, scathing article from Krugman, hot, hissing truths! Surely, some comical, shamed republican will comment that, "Shucks, just remember that we were once the Lincoln bunch."
14
@Don "The Lincoln Bunch"? That was then. This is now.
There is another reason Republicans are hiding their heads like prairie gophers running from a rattle snake: they are afraid of Trump. It isn't just his bullying tweets and his willingness to viciously attack anyone who doesn't profess love and admiration for the real estate promoter, they are afraid of his head-over-heels in love supporters.
The Tumpsters, like Trump himself, thrive on opposition; the more some people dislike Trump or compare him to a disease on American life, the more his small core group comes to his defense and increases their love portion #9 for him. Like teenagers in love, if daddy says you shouldn't date such a person, you just might want to marry him.
Perhaps Republicans have not learned the fundamentals about bullies. There are only two primary ways to react to them: either stand up or run away as fast as you can. There is no middle ground. Compromise (Can we just be friends?) leads to more compromise until, at last, the compromiser is totally compromised out of humanity and self respect and becomes incapable of living outside of the bully's small world.
There rest of us should have hope, though. Again, another fundamental rule: what doesn't bend, breaks, sooner or later. When most of the public learns and accepts the full truth about what Trump is, it will likely be over in an instant, with a swiftness seldom seen in American political life.
10
Why don't the Dems run against McConell the way the GOP does with Pelosi? The disgust with McConell is palatable ; he is the personification of the swamp and politic's "Creature from the Black Lagoon". So is Paul Ryan but his cowardice is boundless so he flees DC to escape the stench of his own tenure and returns to Wisconsin where he can personally profit from his political contacts.
26
I think the United States is undergoing a massive churning. After the froth settles basic principles of decency and democracy will shine again in the near future! It is just a matter of time!
6
Boycott corporations that support Trump and Fox News.
For THEY are the true enemies of the people.
15
“I am in blood stepped in so far/that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go’oer.”
The perfidy of Trump and his complicit GOP Benedict Arnolds has been aptly demonstrated in their pandering to Putin while trampling on the Constitution. They have desecrated the blood of every American who has fought for the freedoms that this country has stood for since its founding.
Why would we think that their duplicitous actions will end when Mueller’s report is released, if it’s not stopped by their heinous actions? If they haven’t stood up to the injustices, the breaches of norms of behavior, the indecent assaults on our people, what needs must occur for them to speak out? They are worthless scoundrels, not fit for holding office, and each of them will be held to account for their silence. Their actions are a betrayal of American democracy.
43
We now know exactly what "tyranny of the weak" really means:
Stand up and be counted....too risky.
Stand up for democracy...too financially risky.
Stand up for the truth...the truth is too risky.
Stand up for freedom of the press...and risk the ire of my party!
Stand up for political asylum...multi colors too risky.
Stand up for safe secure elections ...I'm up for re-election..
THATS A RISK I'M NOT TAKING!!!
8
One can parse the condition of the republic and the Republican Party until the cows come home. But the fact is we have a president who won through Russian collusion, who didn't win the popular vote, who has no agenda except self-enrichment and projected hatred, and who is hands-down the worst president we have ever had. He is aided and abetted by the Republican Party, the party of aggrieved white people who will soon be a minority in this nation, and who will drive themselves and their party to their graves fighting for a world that will never again be. iI our nation survives these years, the multi-hues grandchildren of today can rebuild our nation in a better way, while the Republican Party is swept into the ash bin of history.
16
I’m reading Democracy in Chains by Nancy McClean. Explains a lot. Capitalism without democracy.
7
He’s already got both the house and senate. Why if he merely retains the existing majorities are we to believe he suddenly goes full on authoritarian? It’s a ridiculous proposition.
Because Trump and the GOP are still tempered by the possibility of losing the House and more. Once that possibility is gone they would be free for at least the next couple of years to either legislatively buttress his authoritarian whims or just do nothing to restrain him. Are you simply pretending to not know thats what Mr. Krugman is trying to say or are you just being argumentative?
2
@Bill
Why is it ridiculous? He' been ramping up since day #1 in the WH
The time has long passed for the GOP to decide which side of history it wants to be on. It has chosen, and its choice is the wrong one. In fact, EVERY member of Congress's hair should be on fire as he/she watches Trump shred democracy and every democratic institution. Instead, the silence is deafening. I'm looking forward to the mid-terms but am terrified that the integrity of the system has been compromised from the outside, and even worse, from within.
11
Pure McCarthyism.
1
I doubt a spine surgeon will make any money by operating on a spine of a GOP senator or congressman.
4
We’re seeing, in real time, what the GOP is really made of..."
Anyone who ever visited a farm and followed cows will know what the GOP is made of. We have , as a nation, always believed that people are innocent until proven guilty, and that may be our downfall. Perhaps we need to believe in the "badness" of people until they prove themselves otherwise. Millions were suckered by 45 into thinking we could revert to some by-gone era ( you know the one, where we marched native Americas on a death march,--after stealing the lands- imprisoned Japanese Americans in concentration camps, crashed the world's economy --TWICE-- foreclosed on millions of people so a few people could get rich (like our current sec of the Treasury and his Hollywood arm candy wife) with slogans like MAGA .
A sucker born every minute may describe us to a T.
9
“Who will answer for his mainstreaming conflict and its damage to the country’s ideals of tolerance and pluralism?”
“Who will give a worthy response to legitimate claims of those beguiled by him?”
“Who will truly serve the faithful constituency that he has usurped?”
“Why has his party failed to truly address the need and spirit of American working man and women that he has excited?”
In another, humiliating era of American politics, political cartoonist, Herb Block, used these words to encourage action against the lingering threat of a desperate Republican demagogue. That man was Joseph McCarthy.
“Persona au Gratin”, in Here and Now by Herb Block, writing in 1955 of Joseph McCarthy after his downfall.
A copy is available at the Herb Block Foundation, Washington, DC.
Here's a sample:
“He couldn't have achieved his peculiar and success alone. What sustained him was not so much his gullible followers and fellow-traveling demagogues as the tacit support of otherwise “respectable” people who found it advantageous to go along with him or at least to look the other way.”
11
Republican lawmakers are the real disgrace here. While all -- or most of them except lapdogs like Nunes -- agree that Trump is more awful as president than he ever was as a New York real estate grifter and bankrupter of Atlantic City, they do so quietly while abetting him publicly. They have totally surrendered their oversight role as a third and equal branch of government. That is why the midterms are so important. The GOP must suffer such a resounding defeat in November it will never again regain control of Congress.
8
People forget where this all started.
Donald Trump saved his failing financial fortunes by selling real estate to Russian Oligarchs with 'two contract' financial deals, where the US domestic contract had one monetary component, (the reported transaction), and the offshore transaction in Cyprus, Panama or elsewhere, which have remain unreported.
Over the years these transactions grew in size, and became a cause in themselves as the FSB and GRU became more adept at tracking transactions by the Trumps, and they began adding other Americans to the deal stream, like Nunes, Manefort, and Flynn.
I don't think the Russians had any ability to cause Trump's win in 2016, but don't honestly know at this point. The US domestic political environment, however, with Conservative 'Slave State Confederates' and their brethren elsewhere in the rural parts of the US outraged that an African American like Obama could win the presidency.
Obama totally destroyed their Neo-Confederate value system, and forced them to rail against Hillary in the Evangelical pulpits throughout the country.
Republicans are the party of Neo-Confederates fighting Culture War at this point. They have abandoned managing the national debt, free trade, and many other platforms that they stood for in past years.
Until the Republicans drive out the Neo-Cons, they are captives of the Slave States.
7
St. Paul, this is one of your finer Epistles.
The young post 9/11 Americans were sufficiently suspicious of the Republican invasion of Iraq and their deregulations causing the Great Recession of 2007.
The congressional republicans' betrayal of our nation's elections to the NRA, Russian G.R.U. intelligence officers, and the electoral college may never allow America's youth to respect or trust our courts, or oval office, or congress.
Congressmen Mark Meadows, Paul Ryan and Jim Jordin should be separated from their parents, and deported to Moscow for treason.
14
This is the dirty little secret of politicians: MOST of them will never, ever have another " job " nearly as good as the one they've somehow stumbled into. It's that simple. They are, mostly, unqualified, poorly educated, socially clueless and totally without morals or honor. With the "help" of PACS and Donors, they have been elected, and they are just bright enough to realize what a gold mine public office, especially at the congressional level, can be. It's like having a fabulous no -show Job, with unbeatable benefits and TV appearances. And YES, I'm speaking of the GOP weasels. I can count on ONE hand the number that do NOT fit this description.
VOTE them OUT. Make America DECENT Again. Seriously.
16
I agree with you, Paul, except you're leaving out you're, the entire NY Times, & most of the MSM media's responsibility for hiding, then ridiculing, and finally trashing the campaign of Bernie Sanders.
Without your propaganda, Sanders would have become the Democratic nominee and been our current president.
7
Isn’t complicity a word foreign to Ivanka?
The operant variable, as Krugman has dubbed it, is "wing nut welfare". It is a kind of graft/bribe that promised a soft financial landing out of office for "go along to get along" now. That feeds Republican greed above the cushy government retirement benefits including medical insurance none of the rest of us will ever see. They sell their souls now to the church of trump and the donor oligarchs and at the expense of the rest of the nation. Follow the money.
11
“Even now, I don’t think most political commentators have grasped how deep the rot goes.” What political commentators don’t understand and have never understood is that for Republicans out here in flyover country, years and years of isolation and right wing propoganda has them believing in the evil of Hillary (and by association all Democrats), the truth that hoards of immigrants and gays truly are coming to take over our villages and towns, blacks absolutely are getting government help pushing out whites, Christianity is under attack (although most don’t actually know anyone who isn’t at least nominally Christian), and the continuation of legal abortion WILL bring down the wrath of God on the nation. None of this is up for discussion; for many, many people here, these are irrefutable facts.
Not even a GOP loss in Nov will change that. I wish I knew what would but I fear that the only thing will involve a hard, bloody encounter with reality. And even then....
6
Why I love Paul Krugman. Because he says things like republican apparatchiks...who are terrified of losing in their gerrymandered districts...who could move on to wing nut welfare jobs. The old cynic in me loves this gorgeous way of describing the nauseating current state of republican congressional politics.
12
Thank you, Paul. Very well said. Be well....
6
I've always thought our President models himself after Mussolini. Thanks for your continuing efforts, Paul.
12
The people who snarked about Clinton’s emails were never cool. Nothing but hot air. Unbelievably, some of them are still going on about it.
9
Dr Krugman--did it ever occur to you that Donald Trump might not be leaving the White House until January 20, 2025? It just might happen!!
2
ThT’s precisely what his column is warning about.
7
@sharon5101
Aw, come come on they won't even let him have a military parade. Take over the country with whom?
4
Democracy is dead on arrival . Trump and the republicans are just making sure we know it . It’s what the Trump sheeple want ! I’m not a veteran but if I was I’d be devastated .
3
This isn't a presidency. It's a virtual crime spree. Indictments, guilty pleas, mountains of documents, his lawyer's office raided, his campaign manager on trial, a Russian female agent infiltrating GOP groups and NRA.
Candidate Donald J. Trump wanted Clinton's emails, announces it to Russia, and a few hours later, Wikileaks steals Democrats emails. More recently, Russian senators show up in Moscow on our nation's Independence Day. Slippery slope, indeed.
17
NYT has answered its own question concerning Republican complicity with Trump/whatever...
Trump Tax Cuts as delineated by columnist Jim Tankersley have freed up millions of dollars that pour into dark money PACs and others others.
FOLLOW THE MONEY
5
Trump may not be the brightest bulb, but like most bullies, he has a keen sense of human behavioral dynamics. Trump learned 2 lessons very well over the years. First, that people are easily controlled by money, and the threat of loss of income. Second, and most importantly, Trump learned that most men are terrified of confrontation. Bullies have always relied on this dynamic to compensate for the lack any real cleverness. He knows that weaker men will readily sacrifice their dignity if it means that they can avoid the wrath and attention of a more aggressive male. Examples of this dynamic can be seen over and over again in YouTube videos (see “Bully Cuts Line and Gets Away With It” and Rude Ohio Woman Cuts In Line and Sicks...). In each of these videos, a bully shows that by being far more aggressive and threatening than the people around him, he is able to dominate them. Even when he is greatly outnumbered, people will defer to him. Each of these videos demonstrate that men will watch a wrong being committed, but will stand by without challenging the bully for fear of the risk of incurring the wrath of the bully. This is the case even when weaker men greatly outnumbered the bully. Bullies are well-aware of this dynamic. And because male cowardice is shameful in every culture in the world, some men will go so far as to side with the bully to mask his cowardice and fear of the bully (see Senator John Kennedy’s criticism of John Brennan). Con’t.
9
Trump’s problem is really simply – nobody’s ever told him no. I’m not even sure how much of this is conscious on his part; he’s just always had what he wanted and assumes it’s normal. If Trump were a poor black kid with the pathologies he has, he’d have ended up shot by the police before his twentieth birthday. If he were a poor white kid, he’d have spent a lifetime bouncing around between menial jobs he couldn’t keep. If he were a middle class white kid, best case scenario is he’d end up in a used car dealership or something like that, but he’d eventually bankrupt that too.
But he was born rich, white, and male, so the entire world has bent over for him and let him fail upwards his entire life because that’s what it does for people like him. It did it for Dubya, too.
When what the Republican Party has become takes three days, a stiff brush, and soapy water to get out of all the treads of your favorite sneakers, one is not likely to forget. Nor to use those running shoes for anything more than the filthiest yard work.
3
Republicans do not believe in democracy. They never have. They constantly tell the rest of us, "We do not live in a true democracy. We live in a representative republic." In a true democracy, everyone votes. In a republic, only certain people (rich, white males, perhaps) vote. The last thing in the world Republicans want is EVERYONE voting, because that would mean "those people" (take your pick--African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, Muslims, immigrants, gays, or women) get to vote, too. So they gerrymander and suppress Democrat votes to get what they want--permanent power.
During the 2016 election, Donald Trump was described as "the primal scream candidate" of angry white male voters who could not abide becoming minorities in their own country. Trump voters would sooner DIE than see a woman in the Oval Office. And don't forget that Trump didn't just defeat Mrs. Clinton. In the primaries, he defeated a dozen "mainstream" Republicans who, while odious, knew how to work in the political system of this country.
Trump has no idea how the U.S. government works, nor does he care. It's all about HIM and his cult of personality. No matter what treason Trump commits, his followers will support him, right to the bitter end. They would rather burn this country to the ground than see Democrats re-take Congress--which makes it all the more important to elect Democrats this November. Republicans are drunk with power, and they won't give it up willingly.
6
Trump is the GOP endgame of Reagan's union-busting, race-baiting, deregulation opening. Of course, St Ronnie could have never foreseen or stomached the abdication to the evil empire of Russia, but it's all part of the massive sellout of American democracy that began in his limited intellect and continues in the tiny minds of the current Republican party. I am afraid it is too late. Too many brainwashed voters cannot see the truth of their own demise caused by the phony patriotism of conservatives and the false populism of Trump. The horse of kleptocracy has left the barn, and only its droppings remain for us.
7
"Of course, St Ronnie could have never foreseen or stomached the abdication to the evil empire of Russia"
Saint Ronnie sold weapons to the Ayatollah, so that he could finance the restoration of kleptocracy to Central America. He'd absolutely recognize and approve of where his party is now.
So would his VP, the man now acclaimed as "the last moderate Republican president," who issued a blanket pardon for all involved.
1
This is the seed of a coming civil war. Lesser actions (or failures to act) have caused intranational conflagrations throughout history. Even if the Republican Party is cast to its rightful place onto the ash heap of history, we must still deal with the sizeable proportion of the electorate which mindfully supports the racism, xenophobia, belligerent nationalism, misogyny, and outright fascism of the current regime. I'm unsure as to whether they will slink back into the dark, dank corners of American culture where they belong. If they don't, things might get quite ugly.
8
I don't know that I consider civil war likely, but I no longer consider it UNlikely.
If Trump doesn't go down for the count after the mid-terms, we're all hoping for a Millennial Thrilla to knock him out before 2020. Our president is a frightening human being in the mold of dictators. He speaks dog whistles (cf Tweets) through social media to the lowest common denominator of Americans today. Mr. Trump is shouting "McCarthyism!" -- that Twitter is doing him (and the hate-spewing conspiracy-theorist Alex Jones) the nasty, when he has been dealing out the nasty for years before he became our worst president. Trump's Republicans -- from the heights of Congress, to the depths of moral depravity -- are going along for the ride with their authoritarian leader. Hopefully, they'll be riding in the tumbrils long before 2020. "We shall see!", "Time will tell!", as our orange faced and coiffed leader dictates from our White House. We've seen leader-worship before (like 65 years ago over there, across the pond).
3
My simple advice to Americans. vote, vote, vote, vote, vote. That's the cure to this administration.
6
Complicit, collusion, corruption = Criminal.
Republicans.
All.
Democrats.
?
Where are they?
Their voices?
Can we let this continue by not voting this Fall?
This bankruptcy of the U.S.A., Morally & financially?
Apparently, elected official's jobs, their money, cowtowing to insane behavior have become more important to the Republican party or the religious amongst them.
Or is it this?
They know that if they would actually admit that their actions supporting these alternative facts, the world's most stable genius, are not what our Founding Fathers envisioned and take a stand to stop this insanity of their party, the Republican party will cease to ever win an election again?
Or really, you most stable intelligent geniuses of the Republican party.
Why?
2
The problem with this article is that it makes the Republican leadership the problem. It’s of course much worse than that. The party membership has bought into every aspect of the Trump program with such wild enthusiasm that the leaders—servile as they may be—are following suit.
Apparently fascism is working its magic here as it has elsewhere. If we can’t stop it with the midterm elections God knows where we’ll be.
Denial of reality has killed other societies before. It’s a shame that the United States has picked a rather propitious moment to commit suicide.
5
Exhibit A of a spineless, gutless Republican is Ohio Senator Rob Portman. He is only a year and a half in on his six year term, so you’d think his better instincts as a moderate Republican would cause him to speak out and speak up. But instead, nada.
I know Portman personally. I used to admire him. I thought he might make a worthy Presidential candidate. No longer. And his silence is endemic of the way the GOP has fallen into line behind an authoritarian demegogue. The only thing that will halt this demonic movement is for Democrats to capture the House and begin the process of repair and regeneration of the nation we used to be.
12
It's difficult to single out any of the GOP leadership for extraordinary toady-ism in the face of abject pandering but one senator stands out: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R, SC), who for a few bright moments of bipartisanship years ago seemed to be the harbinger of a new generation of Southern Solons.
Graham is Sen. McCain's closest friend. Both were hostile to Trump early on, with McCain becoming Trump's most vociferous critic. As the conflict escalated between McCain and Trump, Graham appeared unwavering in support of his friend. It gave him a patina of integrity and courage to stand with McCain against a rogue POTUS. F
For Senators Corker and Flake, also members of the GOP dump Trump faction, the price of dissent was their Senate seats. But as McCain was stricken by illness, Graham wavered. And as his friend lies dying, Graham drank the kool-aid and emerged as Trump's newest golf partner and White House guest, illustrating in real time the slippery slope of complicity Krugman inveighs against.
As much as McCain stood his ground and capped his career by resisting Trump, Graham caved, which is the political easy button in South Carolina.
The true measure of Trump isn't just his own corruption. It's everyone eager to join him in that outer circle of Dante's Inferno reserved for his most callow enablers, where the commensurate suffering for their sins is to be locked in a Mar-a-Lago reception room with Trump for all eternity.
They'll be served just desserts.
9
Today's Republicans are a reincarnation of the post-Civil War Southern "Redeemers," who joined hands with the Northern capitalists to kill Reconstruction and to institute the reign of terror in the South that effectively re-enslaved the black population there. Today the threat to white supremacy is far more widespread. It is no longer confined to the South, but reaches into almost every community in the nation. Clearly, if white people are going to continue to enjoy their racial privileges, they will have to support a man like Trump and they are doing so through the agency of the Republican Party. On the other side, are some 30 per cent or so of the white population and their colored brethren who are the only thing that stands between the racial revanchists and a continuation of American democracy.
4
So true. Beyond true. And, despicable in all ways known to other people with a sense of outrage! Where are all the Republicans who have not contested, challenged, or questioned Trumps sanity or, even, intellect? His lack of history. His authoritarian mind set. His living and cheating. Why? Because, it’s ALL about their own skins...getting re-elected and money from lobbyists. Corruption to the nth degree. It’s our government now. The whole party, especially, Mitch Mcconnell....they are beyond anything with credibility. Thecoarty is useless in their support of this President
3
I was just thinking this week - "what exactly was it that Nixon did that forced him to resign"? Well, just before he became president he colluded with the enemy to derail the Vietnam peace talks, to make sure JFK would not get the credit for a potential peace, and he had the DNC headquarters burglarized for information and then tried to cover that up. If you now compare that to trump's shenanigans, doesn't that sound almost laughable? Our horror-clown-in-chief's disgusting behavior is at least TEN times worse, and he gets away with it all. Why? Because of the treacherous GOP members in Congress. Remember all that, when you are in the voting booth come November!
3
Of course I meant "LBJ", not "JFK", sorry
Some NYT columnists have mastered the art of the Howling Outrage at anything Trump. Consider a thought experiment. In a Star Trek episode, Kirk had a device to spy on his enemies, or to make them disappear. If you had such a device, has Trump done any wrong that his predecessors haven't done that would warrant pushing the button? Revoking Brennen's clearance? Hardly. Barring reporter Kaitlan Collins from an event? Hardly. The Muslim ban? Compare that with Roosevelt's order 9066. The separation of immigrant children did not start with Trump. Saying "fake news" or "the enemy of the people"? The jailing of Judith Miller? -- now, which administration did that? Nor did the imprisonment of Assange start with Trump. Anti-Muslim statements and racist tweets? A First Amendment right. Furthermore, you can find quotes of Paul Ryan opposing Trump's racism. The most serious wrong he committed is the killing of innocent people in the Middle East. However, R. Nixon, H. Truman and G. W. Bush killed far more innocents. Finally, the Russian campaign activities. Compare that with Reagan and Iran, or Nixon's campaign activities and the Vietnam War. And when Trump tried to fire Mueller, he was blocked by -- drum roll, please -- Republicans. Is that being complicit? I doubt that Krugman or other Howlers would push the button on Trump. The Howling is nothing but partisan politics. If you like being played, enjoy the Howlers, or for more fun, take a deep breath and join in.
4
You do have to thank Trump for shining a big spotlight on Republican cowardice, venality and perfidy. I, for one, could see one man of unparalleled ego, boundless greed and sociopathic tendencies pulling the wool over an, equally, delusional part of the electorate but the amount of soulless, unpatriotic Republican lawmakers came as a complete surprise to me. How can they think will they ever be taken seriously again? What outrage can they ever point to that wont have a corresponding and heightened example in the Trump Presidency? How can they retrieve or defend Conservative values once those values are deemed ephemeral? Which of our allies will ever trust a Republican administration? Who will ever believe their allegiance to law and order, the constitution and America itself when they throw all of it under the bus for fascist strongman? They should all be stripped of their flagpins in a solemn ceremony like Chuck Connors in Branded.
8
Exactly right.
1
"democracy really could die just a few months from now"
What a ridiculous statement.
Catch your breath.
This sort of "over the top" hyperbole does not help.
You are giving Trump way more credence than he deserves and therefore playing into his hand when you make statements like this.
1
Republicans want and have achieved an oligarchy. Trump wants a dictatorship and I don't see any republicans with the spine to stand in his way. If you vote republican, you are voting for a dictatorship.
4
"It’s the absence of any meaningful pushback from Congressional Republicans."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Precisely and remember this, republikans, YOU are entirely responsible for whatever damage this fraud does to OUR country.
ENTIRELY RESPONSIBLE!
6
The GOP is like a B rated sifi movie where a group wants power and money so they make a deal with a monster. For awhile all is well, they support the evil guy and get what the want however things get out of control and the monster destroys the rich town and eats them all.
1
It would be deeply embarrassing to admit ...
Nah. No, it is much worse than that.
Republicans are not holding loyal to Trump because of any sense of shame or embarrassment over violating decorum. The facts are that the Russians were very clever about spreading money around. The NRA. The PACs....the honey traps.
Follow the money.
5
Even as we slip towards fascist government and environmental catastrophe, Krugman has to snark about "the cool kids" and Hillary's emails. When will HE take responsibility for backing a clear loser instead of Sanders? Talk about complicity.
2
We are truly at an "all hands on deck moment" if we want to have a Constitutional republic. It's a national emergency with all the lights flashing Code Blue! We have an authoritarian president who is a mentally disturbed sociopath with an antisocial personality disorder called narcissism. There is apparently no red line Donald Trump can cross from admitted "collusion" with Russian operatives in Trump tower; to unmasking himself in fealty to Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, for all to see in Helsinki; to now conducting a blatant political purge of his enemies in the U.S. intelligence agencies where any Republican will say anything in opposition. If it weren't for the courts where Trump is busily putting in a record number of conservative judges including his hoped for "Get Out of Jail Free" Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, we'd now be in a Trump autocracy. We have only two chances to right the listing ship of our democracy: Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the midterm elections in November. If Republicans maintain control of the House, we know from Trump co-conspirator Rep. Devin Nunes that they plan to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and end the Special Counsel investigation. That is why there's a Code Blue requiring all patriotic Americans who believe in our Constitution to vote for Democrats even if it goes against their normal practice. The vote this November is really a national referendum on the Constitution v. a Trump tyranny.
5
Yours is a photo of irredeemable stooges. What they have wrought with so many twisted knots and vicious characterizations will take a long time to untangle. This acute damage makes me shudder as it is within a realm of possibility that we may never do so.
4
Well said, especially if Climate Change does us in. We may never be able to save (or restore?) Earth as we know and love it.
Americans cannot allow GOP to take both houses again. The racist Trump and capitalistic Republicans have to be taught a serious lesson.
GOP has to be checked and balanced, it cannot be too powerful or else Americans will suffer.
6
I would rephrase the last sentence to say, "We're seeing, in real time, what this system is really made of." I know it's taboo in the MSM to criticize the sacred cow that is capitalism, but isn't it time to admit that this system is going completely out of control? Yes, Trump is a horrible person, a buffoon, a charlatan, take your pick. But, except for his bizarre trade war stuff, the top 1% (or more accurately, top 1/10th of 1%) are doing very well by his policies-- huge tax cuts for corporations, right-wing judicial appointments, and extensive deregulation, to name just a few. So those at the top-- Republicans AND Democrats-- are merrily getting richer, while their buddy Trump serves them well, a helpful distraction from the real dangers that lie behind the curtain.
1
Thank you for this column. I am fed up with Republicans too cowardly to perform their checks and balance role.
4
Live by the sword, die by the sword. It just isn't their turn yet.
1
When basic truths are subverted, ignored, or changed around by faulty narratives, democracy is battered. One simple example: "Russia, if you're listening . . . find the 30 thousand emails." That IS collusion, period (and THAT night, they hacked for them). Republicans who look the other way to something like that are demonstrating their raw terror of the 25% of voters who actually support this maniac. These "legislators" are cowards, and we will pay a heavy price if we don't vote in droves.
4
The second most complicit person in all of this is Mitch McConnell. Obama told him that this was happening and Mr. McConnell did nothing, in fact he refused to do anything. He is a disgrace to his country and to his office.
15
I was (and still am) amazed at cries from "conservatives" who, after the 2016 election, ridiculed progressives as "sore losers." To progressives, this was idiotic name-calling; they wanted to improve society, it wasn't simply about winning and losing, but about making a more equitable nation.
However, therein lies the problem. America has never, perhaps, really been about "right and wrong" or about a communal space called "society" but simply about "winning" - winning at all costs, in any way possible, no rules in war.
Today's predominantly Southern-led GOP lost the "civil" war; now conservatives are fighting an "uncivil" war. What we see today is the same mindset now aimed at liberals, that used to be aimed at native Americans, slaves, and foreign countries.
It is a mindset satisfied only with total domination. Modern Republicans are all too satisfied as long as they can "get mine while the getting's good" - the type of greed and corruption rampant within the Trump administration. Making America "great again" by all this winning.
Republicans seem unable to recognize that, if you crash driving a Rolls Royce, you still are crashing. No amount of money or power saves you, when you are driving off a cliff.
14
@Not Amused - Well said.
There will never be enough digital ink spilled on how much of the nation's problems in the last 150 years stem from the refusal to break the South's social model and replace it with a more democratic one, as we did in post-1945 Germany.
Reading the bulk of these comments, and the opinion piece itself, and viewing the actions of AntiFa, I wonder when the coup will be attempted.
2
Antifa is a myth trotted out by the right wing to deflect and what-about from the alt-right. Most of the counter protestors are not the violent extremists that the few anarchists that show up on occasion.
4
Trump's "national security team"'is the Fox News lie up. Yes. LIE UP. To hear him rant about Bruce and Nellie Ohr, defaming both of them and by doing so covering Fox News's defaming of them, is nothing short of nauseating. To rein in Trump Fox News must be reined in, without regard to the cover it gets from the straight news crumbs delivered by Shep Smith. Fox News's sponsors and every revenue stream to Murdoch enterprises--movies, sports broadcasts, etc., MUST BE BOYCOTTED, until the lying SUBVERSIVES--Hannity, Ingraham, Carlson, Pirro, etc., disappear from the screen and join Bill O'Reilly spreading their drivel in pathetic podcasts.
7
There aren't many out and out villains in American History, Aaron Burr, John C. Calhoun, Alexander H. Stephens, Joe McCarthy to name a few. History will enshrine the name Mitch McConnell into that pantheon of infamy.
The man who blocked the recovery from the 2008 Great Recession and let millions suffer for political gain. The man who single-handedly destroyed bipartisanship and comity in the Senate and harmed our politics so much that an utter buffoon is now leading this country is pure evil.
The Republican party has always favored the rich. Since Nixon I have been convinced that every Republican politician is a bald-faced liar. But McConnell and Trump have turned their party into a cesspool.
5
At the end of the day, that’s the public’s fault. When McConnell refused to do anything to help the economy and swore to obstruct all attempts by Obama to do so, and then spent the next two years doing exactly that, people should have shown up in 2010 and delivered an even worse electoral thrashing to the GOP than they had two years earlier, while demanding more and more liberal candidacies from the Democrats. That’s what happened in 1934, and for some time after that, and even after the shine was off of the New Deal coat a little, people still didn’t restore Republicans to the White House for twenty whole years, until they’d learned to run a moderate like Eisenhower who thought people who wanted to roll back Roosevelt and Truman’s reforms were “stupid.” If people want to fix this country, that’s similarly what it’s going to take.
But if enough of us insist on passing the ball back and forth between the two parties no matter what they do and pretending there’s no difference, then yeah, we’re going to stay in this rut and it’s going to continue getting worse and worse.
''some of them are making a coldblooded calculation that the demise of democracy is worth it if it means lower taxes on the rich and freedom to pollute.'' The truth, absolutely.
Unlike in literature and theater, spineless and sinister almost always go together. Characters like Trump are replete throughout history. But a body of 250 or so, spineless and sinister, elected altogether, is either statistically unique, or saying something horrible about the judgement and intelligence of our voters.
3
Here’s a thought: if elected Republicans are apparently an assemblage of spineless individuals, perhaps, just maybe, if they were to gather up all of their flaccid spines and somehow bind them together, might they dare then, finally, to speak out against this presidential rot and blight that has been so quickly descending on your still-great-but-probably-not-for-much-longer nation?
This senator or that congressperson might rightfully worry about what Trump could do to them electorally as individuals come November but he’s not going to be able to move against ALL or nearly all elected Republicans with nearly as much effectiveness, especially given the ever-mounting evidence that seems to be unmasking Trump and revealing his true identity as a bungling, traitorous criminal-coward whose hands, in all likelihood, are even smaller than previously claimed.
Of course, what I’m suggesting is nothing new. But the truth is the old “together we stand and divided we fall” just might help to shore up the beaches of your quickly-eroding democracy. It certainly wouldn’t hurt.
2
Maybe Trump should be careful what he wishes for. According to the EPA website, https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/why-are-wetlands-important swamps are a good thing.
Is it just possible the swamp we are currently in could end up playing a pivotal role in helping to save our democracy? The more attention Trump National Wetlands Park gets maybe the tide will turn. Republicans might begin to realize the giant sucking sound of the swamp being drained might bring them down further in the muck.
Could a Democratic "Make the swamps great again" slogan work? The Democrats have a problem too, as they are part of the swamp. Can the Democrats make a case for better swamp management, realizing we will always need our swamps. We are losing a whole ecosystem due to over building and pollution; an ecosystem important to the world's ability to mitigate against climate change. It will be a tough sell. Republicans have successfully sold the myth for years that government is too big, passes too many regulations, is incompetent, and is not to be trusted. So far, although for sure more humane and better environ mentalists, the left does not have a great resume in their quest to be the new swamp masters.
What is the answer? it seems it will a long time before we have a viable third party or independent candidate. Even Bloomberg is apparently thinking about throwing his hat into the ring as a Democrat in 2020. One thing we should know for sure by now is that Republicans are not the answer.
2
There is a moment in most lives when a test is faced. It could be running back into a burning building to save your child...or saying you have to wait until the fire department gets there.
The Republicans faced just such a moment in their political lives when Trump rose by "winning" the early presidential primaries with 35% of the votes or less. They flunked this test in spectacular fashion and have been in semi-hiding ever since, needing, for political reasons, to defend Trump or, for the nation, to reel him in.
Part of the tragedy of this situation is that Trump, despite his lack of knowledge, education and experience, might have been a decent president. Disruption can be good, fearlessness of the given order can be highly useful. He needed someone to stand up to him; in actually, a number of people and Republicans in Congress are about the only ones who could. He needed to be forced, early on, to accept limitations on his presidency, to hire experienced people with broad backgrounds and, most of all, to place limits (internal, agreed upon controls) on his war making powers as president. None of this happened.
Years ago, the Republicans ceded leadership of their party to talk radio and Fox Noise. In all likelihood, they will never get it back unless those channels are so discredited themselves that they can't survive. The GOP is so deep in horse manure now it's a wonder they can even breathe. Their ability to twist truth into useful lies is their only chance for survival
3
I liked Krugman a lot until he dissed Bernie big time. Now he’s all for everything Bernie stands for. Where is the mea culpa? How could such a smart guy not see that Clinton was a pathetic candidate?
4
I liked Bernie big time until he dissed everybody who made it possible for me to have health insurance.
Paul is upset that the Republicans don't support Paul's Left wing agenda. Maybe Paul should consider that most Republican support the President's acts versus the left wing agenda of getting more Democratic illegals coming in and more US companies going out to Mexico.
Let's see, Trump will abuse the IRS. Who did that? Oh yes, the sainted Barrack Obama. If he was to use the FBI to justify personnel actions, who would that be like? Oh yes, the (non sainted) Hillary Clinton. Need I remind you both were endorsed by the NY Times? Would Trump use the FBI, or CIA, or NSA to spy on political opponents? Well, it is becoming more obvious every day the Obama administration, with willing accomplices of some in the media, did exactly that. So Paul, other than your prediction of the collapse of the U.S. economy after the Trump election, what are you worried about?
The GOP is complicit because Trump is too much of a useful idiot to them. He'll sign anything they put in front of them so he can show off his Sharpie signature for the TV cameras, and they know it.
None of our social or financial ills in the US will be remedied until we finally give up on Reaganism. Every 4-8 years we allow the wealthiest 1% to rob the US Treasury of most of the money that the middle class has paid into the system, and we keep allowing this to happen because of the plantation mentality so many were taught by Reagan. I really believe that 100 years hence, history books will look back with disbelief upon the American era of supply-side economics. It must end.
3
Loser Krugman not only stoops to an all time low, but his consistant incorrect economic predictions continue unmercifully.
Authoritarianism of the fascist or oligarch type?
And do some forms of plutocracy have an authoritarian dimension?
This has to stop.....govern or resign
1
Everything you accuse the other side of is also true of you.....you really need to open your minds up to the bigger picture to see that it is not democrat versus republican.....not conservative versus liberal.....not left versus right....What is happening is the creation of a kleptocracy the likes of which this world has never seen. a scenario which will rival or outdo any of our dystopian fantasies like 1984 or the hunger games....And the perpetrators already have so much money and power that not even a free press will be able to stop it.....
2
I worry Paul Krugman will self implode before the November elections. All of President Trump policies are working, whether Domestic or International. Personal attacks are all that he has left. The Sky is falling The sky is falling. Glad I don't live life thru the lense of the liberal.
1
Have been reading up on Vichy France. Many parallels.
3
Oh Lord, absolutely.
The entire backstory to Vichy is that in 1936, the left had the poor taste to not only win an election but make a Jew the new Prime Minister… and the conservatives COMPLETELY lost their manure (in a way that should look familiar to anyone who saw the Republicans post 2008). One of the ways this manifested itself was that their traditional anti-German sentiment took a backseat to a much more virulent anti-Bolshevisk sentiment – or at least that’s what they called it; “Bolshevik,” however, basically meant “anyone to the left of Napoleon.” Given the times, this meant that most of their feelings towards Hitler were, at best, indifferent or ambivalent (“sure, he’s not a nice guy, but he’s stomping out the left; what’s so wrong with that?”) and at worst, outright supportive (“he’s going to stomp out the left; he’s a HERO!!!”) By the time Vichy had rolled around, the soil was VERY fertile, not only for fascism but specifically for collaboration; “better Hitler than Blum!” had been a cry among right-wing legislators for years.
There was a photo making the rounds in the Obama years of Obama smoking (I assume) weed in college versus Putin at the same age in his manly KGB uniform that always made me think of “better Hitler than Blum,” even years before Trump started running.
To all of the trump defenders here, I ask how do you support a man that lies to you, shamelessly, blatantly and with relish, every day.
How do you support a man that is making fools of you, by watching and laughing at you because you let him get away with it.
How do you support a man that has promised you the greatest, best and cheaper healthcare for all, has delivered nothing but is determined to take healthcare away from 20 million who have managed to hang on at great expense.
How do you support a man whose tax cut threw chump change to you, boatloads to the extremely, fabulously wealthy, and increased our debt by 1.5 trillion $$.
How do you support a man whose cabinet is working tirelessly to erode education, degrade the environment to dangerous levels and give our beautiful public lands to those who would defile them for profit.
And last, how do you support a man who gleefully spits in the face of the law, justice and love of country - who callously disregards the many lives sacrificed to protect our freedoms.
A man who would stand next to a hostile nation's leader and betray the oath of his office to protect, preserve and defend against all enemies foreign and domestic.
Again, how do you do it? Please, help me understand your support for someone who plainly doesn't care about you, has told you this to your face, but you still believe.
14
Even the good guys have forgotten the Trumpists first claim:
"Nobody in my campaign met with any Russians, period"
Then the BUTS...
“No evidence of collusion”
“collusion is no big deal”
"collusion is awesome — and let’s send John Brennan to jail.”
4
Dr. Krugman, American democracy began its downward trajectory in 2016 when Mitch McConnell took it upon himself to rewrite the Constitution to suit his party and the Republican agenda. Since his hijacking of Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination, the Republican Party has become a full blown authoritarian party.
Republican party affiliation does have its limits. Robert Mueller is a pariah his GOP brethren, yet Mueller’s duty is to the Constitution and the rule of law. Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan want to impeach Rod Rosenstein for doing his job and for refusing to undermine the Russia investigation.
McConnell, Paul Ryan and the rest of the GOP enablers are okay with how the president has conducted himself. They will not listen to whispers of treason, collusion, tax evasion or untoward behavior with women, then paying them for their silence.
Pundits believe that that Congressional Republicans fear the wrath of the president’s base which is a smokescreen. What they fear is losing power and a Congressional majority in November. Nunes admitted as much on tape at a fundraiser for Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
McConnell never could have hindered the nomination of Judge Garland had he been the minority leader two years ago and Nunes, Jordan, Trey Gowdy and the departed Jason Chaffetz could not have abused their oversight authority to hold endless hearings in an attempt to tar and feather Hillary Clinton.
The GOP is a party of fascists and that suits this president just fine.
5
Trump creates chaos in the economy, in diplomatic circles and is busy destroying the environment. Most infuriating is the support he receives from a Republican Congress that is and has been fully aware of Trump's narcissism, ignorance and incompetence. Trump is the direct result of a corrupted election foisted off on the American people by greedy, feckless Republican leaders on behalf of their corporate mega-donors. Complicit by legal definition or not (what did they know and when did they know it?), the Republicans welcomed Russian intrusion in our electoral process - they depended on it in fact.
Trump is and will remain a dangerous clown in the Oval Office beholden to Crime Boss Putin. The Republicans will continue to allow Trump to destroy any remaining credibility the United States has around the globe. The GOP has not one shred of decency or patriotism left. Republicans including Trump and Pence must all be thrown out of office for the security and well-being of our country, now and for generations to come. Voter apathy is the tool of Republican tyranny. Get out the vote in every way possible!
5
Mr. Krugman, the word you're looking for is "cult".
4
if You listen to the trump tv network especially the cross eyed judge who almost every nite shouts “why aren’t these people in jail” she means Hillary Brennan Et al. We need to take this crowd seriously. Their dream is to “lock her up”. But that would trigger riots that would make the 60s street demonstrations look like child’s play. But we are in serious serious trouble if the house doesn’t flip. The constitution holds for now. The fall elections are EVERYTHING
2
The rot may go so deep as to implicate/indict some GOP as complicit in the conspiracy to rig the 2016 election.
2
The GOP is never going to act against Trump. There's no chance of this happening. This is an absurd fantasy. They may make a few angry speeches but not much else. The GOP controls the Presidency, both House of Congress, the Supreme Court, the majority of state legislatures, Governorships, & most important local offices. Why jeopardize their position? To make NYT pundits happy? Get real. If you're wondering, like many others, what it would take for the GOP to break with Trump the answer is nothing short of impeachment. Trump could put on a black cocktail dress today & do the samba. The GOP will still back him. Repubs are playing the long game. Trump will be gone soon. They will still be here. The GOP can wait him out & achieve all of their objectives. They have their eyes on a bigger prize. Their goal is to nominate 2-3 very conservative Supreme Court justices. That's why they are putting up with Trump for now. Trump has gotten two SCOTUS appointments, he may well get more. He’s moved more quickly on lower-court appointments than Obama did. The legal arm of the conservative movement is probably the best organized, most far-reaching & far-seeing sector of the Right. They truly are in it — & have been in it — for the long term goals. Control the Supreme Court, stack the judiciary, & you can stop the progressive movement, no matter how popular it is, no matter how much legislative power it has. That's an inconvenient truth that the Dems need to face while there's still time.
4
I think it's past time to bring the fight directly to these smug old white men, and not just the politicians. They do not deserve to live in comfort in their gilded cages. They should be shouted at and humiliated and disparaged at every turn, They should be called out in public, at restaurants, in the middle of the night - let them hear your frustration. Make their lives and their families lives miserable with your first amendment rights. A couple months ago, this tactic was used on some top Trump people at restaurants, and I think it should be furthered. These evil folks think they can switch it off at 5:00 and the rest of us should accept they're just doing their jobs, but that's morally meaningless. They are out to win at all costs, and we can pick our morality up after they are defeated.
Grab your pitchforks and bring it on!
6
Republicans today are like abused spouses. They know that resistance will earn them a smack on the mouth, a slam against the wall. So they stay quiet and say, well, he got us the tax cut. He got us the judges. And what about that economy!!. They are schooled in the dear Abby maxim of “are you better with him or without him?” And have chosen the path of least resistance.
1
There IS a solution. In less than 100 days, Americans can do the one thing that can strongly counter the disgraceful, disgusting words and actions: they can VOTE. Do it!
2
There's a recent book by Volker Ullrich called Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939 that made a big impression on me. Before reading the book, I was tired of anyone drawing parallels between modern American politicians and fascists. But this book opened my eyes.
There are many striking parallels between what happened in Germany in the 1920's and 1930's and what is happening in the US today. Hitler was more extreme than Trump, but not different in kind. They share an authoritarian mindset, a hostile obsession with a racial minority, and a dislike of Democracy. They also appealed to a similar segment of their country's population. There are many other parallels, but the best way to understand them is simply to read the book.
5
The whims and wants of the free electorate of a democracy is counter-indicated for profits and lower taxes in the short term. Hence the need by Republicans to minimize the interference of the people to the needs and desires of the corporations and immensely wealthy.
Trump is the useful idiot that is being used to dismantle what little we have left of democracy. Of course, long term this policy might have some issues, as Louis XVI found out. L'etat, c'est 1%.
2
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Even though I am not with those liberals on many issues, I simply cannot support GOP. Although I deeply hope that the Democratic party can be more sophisticated about "affirmative action". The issues of God, gun and gay are just too convenient. Of course Republicans are not walking the walk. Of course they have no principles and they definitely don't stand on the moral highground. Are you kidding me? Stop treating me like a fool. In fact, it was the reason why I don't dislike Trump. I didn't vote for him and I will not vote for him. But at least he is unpretentious. He doesn't even try to hide the fact that he is not wearing clothes. For the same reason, I made this comment. Thank God we have Trump. I just hope that he will win his second term and people will finally wake up during his second term. This country needs a strong does of medicine. If minorities still don't participate, then they deserve to be kicked out. Sad!
1
A conservative friend who knows trump is a lying jerk still gives him all the credit for the strong economy and GOP efforts to lower taxes, conveniently forgetting how horrible a deficit used to be. She scoffs at me as an alarmist for concerns about the fate of our republic. These are the people we have to get through to, and anything that smacks of "socialism" will not work.
1
This article fully describes the term "tell it like it is."
2
a slow motion coup freeze frame by freeze frame ...
7
We should all be grateful to Paul Krugman. He has been, and remains, a voice that refuses to praise the Naked Emperor's clothing. The GOP is, and long has been, the party of greed, racism, corruption, environmental destruction, and contempt for ordinary people. It is, and remains, a coalition of cynical corporate shills, unreconstructed racists, and unhinged religious fanatics. They have made the US the laughing-stock of the civilized world. Unfortunately, they are very powerful, and may succeed in steering the country, and perhaps the world, right over the cliff. All thanks to Paul Krugman for calling them out, over and over and over!
6
It wasn’t just Trump who took an oath to “protect and defend the Constitution”. The Republicans in Congress did too. Either they are knowingly providing support for Trump in violation of his and their violate their constitutional duty or they’re too dumb to understand that they are. Either way, they have no business holding their elected positions.
3
Republicans in Congress were anti-American and craven cowards long before Trump came on the scene. The English language is such that evil men and women can obscure their corruption with beguiling narratives. Orwell called it doublespeak.
2
Why is Trump so powerful?
The racist whites finally got what they've wanted: An openly racist president that will suppress votes and do anything he can to keep blacks and hispanics down. Trump descends from a long line that includes George Wallace, Jesse Helms, Pat Buchanan and Jeff Sessions. The racists finally won the big one. They've been waiting for this their entire lives. It's like Jesus won the election to them. And many of the Trump supporters I know are evangelicals. They will forgive anything to get what they want which is to damage the poor and minorities as much as possible.
3
"Small government" and a "bloated bureaucracy" never meant they wanted everyone to have more "freedom." What they always wanted was a strongman to take charge, pack the courts with right wing sycophants, and turn Congress into a sniveling, weak mess. Religious fundamentalists can finally turn this into the "Christian" country they always told us it was without pesky laws and politicians getting in the way. Racists are emboldened as minorities are scapegoated for all the problems our rich overlords are actually causing. As long as the leader keeps feeding his baying MAGA hordes, and there is an endless supply of cash for militarized police, troops, and their expensive toys, the rabble will remain contained.
1
Aha! a writer who understands logic and who can spot broken thought processes. Would that more Americans engaged in logical thinking. Better yet, would that more American lawmakers cleared their brains in that manner and recognized the dangers of toadying to the "King" of illogical thinking!
3
These Republicans worship a false god in Trump, praising him for giving them legislative victories and ignoring all he has done to to undermine democracy and the rule of law. They are a cult, blind to the truth, and even the November election will not restore their sight. Just as the French have their Quislings, our history will have the Trumpists. And future generations will look back in shame at this period.
5
No one should be in the least surprised at the behavior of this unhinged,narcissistic,immoral and divisive President as he's sign posted his behavior for years.Nor should we be surprised at his base support,voters who are so desperate,so deluded and gullible and so myopic as to happily vote for and support such a loathsome serial liar.
No,the real problem in America is the GOP,a party that is presently infested with weak and sorry individuals who happily put self interest before country and cowardly refuse to do or say anything as Trump reduces America to a laughing stock around the world,insults and belittles long standing allies while happily snuggling up to leaders and despots of totalitarian regimes.
Shame on them and once this appalling and embarrassing period in US history has passed ( as it will ) let's hope each and everyone of them is held in some way accountable for their gutless and cowardly lack of action at a time when their country truly needed them.
5
Ya nailed the slippery slope, Dr. Paul! Yeah, if Trump doesn't go down for the count after the mid-terms, we're all hoping for a Millennial Thrilla to knock him out before 2020. Our president is a terrible human being in the mold of dictators because he speaks dog whistles (cf Tweets) through social media to the lowest common denominator of Americans today. Mr. Trump is complainin and splainin about how Twitter is doing him (and the hate-spewing conspiracy-theorist Alex Jones) the nasty, when he has been dealing out the nasty for years before he became our second Grade B TV huckster president. Trump's Republicans -- from the heights of Congress, to the depths of moral depravity -- are going along for the ride with their authoritarian leader. Hopefully, that will be a literal or figurative tumbril-ride long before 2020. "We shall see!", "Time will tell!", as our totally orange faced and coiffed leader dictates from our White House. We seen leader-worship before (like 65 years ago over there, across the pond).
3
It is no longer a question of being a Republican or a Democrat. This, as Eleanor Roosevelt put it, is no ordinary time. Policy differences that were once amenable to reasonable debate and responsible legislation by both parties no longer matter in the Age of Trump. It has all come down to a simple question of character: our own. America is now divided between two kinds of people, and each of us must ask ourselves which kind we are: Am I the kind of person who will vote for and support a corrupt, ignorant racist, or am I the kind of person who will not vote for or support a corrupt, ignorant racist? "All else," as Hillel teaches us, "is commentary."
8
As he so often does, Mr. Krugman illuminates the current decline and degradation of a once-honorable political party with skill and veracity. But there's only one nagging detail he omits: racism. Mr. Trump has made racism socially acceptable within the Republican party once more. And they love him for it. Oh, sure, some Republicans will issue mild reprimands when Trump opens his mouth and yawps racist garbage, but that's as far as it goes. If the GOP leadership really had a dislike for what they are hearing, they would have done something to curb the President. They have done nothing. They can claim political expedience (Gorsuch! tax cuts! all those judges!) until the cows come home, but their moral cowardice in the face of Mr. Trump's outrages reveal them for what they truly are: racists. Vote them out.
12
Thank you! No one else is speaking this truth!
1
A brilliant column, even if I now really want to cry.
We must all vote, and get others to vote democratic. The mentally-ill Trump and his cowardly Republican minders must be stopped.
What is heartening, we see patriots like John Brennan and many others from every corner of our country stepping up, and confronting this Mussolini wannabe.
7
Dr. Krugman misses a crucial reason for the Congressional Republicans' continued support for a "president" who is at best spectacularly unprepared for his office, and at worse, a dictator who knows that he is on the cusp of controlling this entire nation, without opposition.
And what is this reason? Trump voters. Some 45% of this nation's "citizens" continue to support him, and their support shows no signs of waning. Cross Trump, and Republicans lose his voters, which they very much need to remain in office themselves. This is all that matters to Congressional Republicans.
Many commenters have the scenario backward -- believing that Congressional Republicans are kowtowing to Trump. Actually, they are kowtowing to his voters. Trump has shown that as long as he can tell a majority of whites (and he was elected in 2016 by a large majority of whites) that they are the "real Americans" and only their rights matter, they will support him under literally any circumstances.
We have a president who is so mentally unhinged that he may well tweet us into a nuclear holocaust. We have a president who has destroyed relationships with international allies that have gone back more than 70 years. We have a president who does nothing but answer to his master, Vladimir Putin, causing damage to this nation that will take decades to repair. And yet Trump's base ignores all this. After all, he preaches white power. And this is all they want to hear. This is all they've ever wanted to hear.
6
Vichy Republicans is an accurate term for the complicit and spineless Republicans.
It's breathtaking to see how little the GOP cares about our democratic norms and our society. and how quickly we are descending into a dictatorship.
It's actually worse than George Orwell's 1984.
Wake up before it's too late - Vote the bums out.
7
The GOP is making McCarthyism look good cooperating with Trump like this. America Deserves Better. Vote
1
Trump's problem is not that he is a racist demagogue, that is fine with the Deep State. His problem is that he does not understand the necessity for war with Russia. For this they will remove him from office.
Going along and not rocking the boat or making waves. Republicans remind me of the Catholic Church bishops in Pennsylvania that did not want a scandal in the church and just wanted to protect their positions without trying clean up the mess that they did not want to see. Selfish cowardice.
5
Stay after 'em. The media has failed in it's job for decades.
2
OMG, " if Republicans hold both houses of Congress this November, Trump will go full authoritarian, abusing institutions like the I.R.S., trying to jail opponents and journalists "
Is he bringing Lois Lerner et al back to resume the IRS abuse?
Hoping that Mueller, Rosenstein, Yates, McGabe, Comey, and all the other ex-intelligence officials who stood up against Trump will run as Republicans in the 2020 elections. Surely one of them will be able to beat back Trump to the sewer where he belongs...
1
Paul Krugman, like John Brennan and the NYT, is completely delusional, paranoidal and wrong.
They are accusing Trump for their own mistakes and sins they have been committing over the last 17 years.
If Trump did what they have done, the incumbent would have been crucified by now…
During the same period I tried to protect our country many times, but the aforementioned group prevented me from doing it. I tried hundreds of times but the NYT editorial board took away my freedom of speech, trashed the alternative analyses, and repeatedly betrayed the free press concept.
Did Trump have information on the eve of the 9/11 attacks that the Al Qaeda planned to hijack the commercial airplanes and slam them into th buildings? If this information was shared with the public and not kept as top secret for the miniscule group of individuals with the security clearance, the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon would still be intact and America wouldn’t wage the longest wars in our national history against the completely wrong countries and the nations.
Are we really going to blame Donald Trump for those tragic and catastrophic failures? Did we blame anybody for the catastrophic incompetence or pushing America into the Great Reccesion a decade ago?
Was Donald Trump responsible for them?
Dr. Krugman misses a crucial reason for the Congressional Republicans' continued support for a "president" who is at best spectacularly unprepared for his office, and at worse, a dictator who knows that he is on the cusp of controlling this entire nation, without opposition.
And what is this reason? Trump voters. Some 45% of this nation's "citizens" continue to support him, and their support shows no signs of waning. Cross Trump, and Republicans lose his voters, which they very much need to remain in office themselves. This is all that matters to Congressional Republicans.
Many commenters have the scenario backward -- believing that Congressional Republicans are kowtowing to Trump. Actually, they are kowtowing to his voters. Trump has shown that as long as he can tell a majority of whites (and he was elected in 2016 by a large majority of whites) that they are the "real Americans" and only their rights matter, they will support him under literally any circumstances.
We have a president who is so mentally unhinged that he may well tweet us into a nuclear holocaust. We have a president who has destroyed relationships with international allies that have gone back more than 70 years. We have a president who does nothing but answer to his master, Vladimir Putin, causing damage to this nation that will take decades to repair. And yet Trump's base ignores all this. After all, he preaches white power. And this is all they want to hear. This is all they've ever wanted to hear.
2
I just know that I was in a tiny town yesterday, by a lake. The Flag was flying, as it does.
But dead in the middle of town, what I was taught to call Old Glory back when I was a kid was flying with a flag right beneath it, and I mean jammed up against it on the same flagpole, so the Stars and Stripes drooped down on it when the wind fell.
The other flag said: "DONALD TRUMP MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN" and some other drivel.
Now I dunno who cares about flag etiquette anymore, but I looked it up. No specific mention if why this is wrong on the Army website, or any if the many flag and veteran sites. They just said that if you flew the flag of a state or patriotic org on the same staff, the American flag had to be uppermost and not touching the lower flag. Guess it never occurred to anybody that that much arrogance might come rolling down the pike some bright day.
Oh, and the Trump flag? It was bigger, of course.
3
The Congressional Republicans may be even more complicit than politically regarding Trump and his underlings improper conduct with Russia. During Trumps campaign, an early supporter and participant was Attorney General Sessions, who at the time, was the Republican Senator from Alabama who strongly supported Trump's candidacy and ascension to President and was then rewarded with the Attorney General position, possibly even in anticipation of the investigation. I would imagine it was likely then Senator Sessions shared campaign information with his colleagues in Congress. I did notice an immediate effort by Congressional Republicans to capitalize of the new monopoly power with their rapid efforts to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act and the Successful givebacks Tax Cuts that benefited their benefactors. In that respect, I view the Congressional Republicans as complicit in the Trump campaign and succeeding efforts at destroying the Democracy shared with Democrats, who have been soundly marginalized as they cowered under the onslaught of their opponents.
Indeed, the Congressional Republicans seem to be complicit with Trump in this power grab, but does it extend to Russia considering the fact that Senator Sessions famously met with a high level Russian and subsequently recused himself in the Justice department against Trump's wishes. What light can AG Sessions shed on this?
1
Krugman has always had a keen sense of what is happening in the country, and a patriot's love for his country. This piece is a clarion call to those of us who are ready to do battle for the soul of America. We can save this democracy, but we need to be sure that our votes are counted. The Republicans in power are this very minute engineering a solution to stealing votes again in the 2018 elections. That's less than 3 months away. Demand paper ballots and hand counting!
7
Is there nothing positive Dr Krugman has to say about Trump? The economy was certainly started by Obama, no denying it, but Trump achieved 4.1% growth when others thought it was impossible. My point is merely that Trumps base accuses the media of continual attack’s on republicans and Trump, and no balance whatsoever. Dr Krugman is a continual critic, and may want to say the odd positive comment about Trump to balance things out and to maybe get Trumps base listening.
@Peter H the 4.1% is a mirage due to orders placed to get ahead of tariffs.
Will be paid, with interests, in Q3 and Q4.
Trump has done nothing of substance (nothing positive I should say)
The tax cut is a demagogic gift to large corporation that (color me absolutely shocked!) is not trickling to main street.
I have no problem if someone says something like this:
"I have a lot of stocks in my IRA, the tax cut made stocks go up and I love it. I don't give a hoot about anything else"
But let's not pretend there is any excessive criticism by the media.... and especially by the NYT!
Maybe he can try not to be a money launderer, tax evader, draft dodger, misogynistic, racist, ignoramus and I am sure he would get more positive reviews.
2
@Peter H
There is nothing positive to say about Trump and I doubt there ever will be. The economic growth we are experiencing today was built years ago. We’re currently headed for exploding deficits and national debt, accompanied by higher inflation and interest rates thanks to Republicans’ $1.5 trillion redistribution of wealth to the uber-rich from everybody else and Trump’s moronic trade wars.
3
“Trump is a wannabe Mussolini who can’t even make the trains run on time.” A classic Krugman line for sure, true enough! Trump is the 21st Century American Mussolini Clown! History seems to be repeating itself; we now have a reincarnated Andrew Johnson ignoramus incompetent racist as President which has unleashed a divisiveness not seen since 1860’s, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age. Trump is not so much an aberration but the culmination of Republican policies and strategy since Reagan and Nixon. Republicans have devolved into a mixture of the Ku Klux Klan, John Birch Society, The Know Nothing Party with racism as the fundamental motivator. Racism is how the Republicans get working class whites to vote for tax cuts for rich white people.
We are living a real life "1984" and it appears it is only going to get worse as the U.S. becomes increasingly an "Outlier" compare to other advanced nations across the social spectrum of civilized society.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov: (1920 -1992)
7
I am no fan of Trump nor the Republican Party...but if anything is sliding head first down a slippery slope, it’s the organization that used to be the Democratic Party, now aggressively pushing the Leftist-Socialist-so-called Progressive agenda...
... a toxic brew of political correctness run amok, Russia-gate hysteria and sore-loser resistance, race-baiting and identity politics, reckless cheerleading for illegal immigrants and ‘sanctuary cities’, and obsessive hand-wringing over anything and everything ‘Israel’, especially amongst fashionably pro-Palestinian lefty academics and their young devotees.
As moderate liberals, we view the far leftward drift of the Democratic Party with dismay. Guess whom we won’t be voting for in November? Thanks, Dems.
@Shenoa I seem to see a lot of comments like yours accusing the Democratic party of galloping towards socialism whenever a columnist attacks the GOP. Just because the Dems have a left wing that takes extreme positions, on what basis do you infer that the majority of the Party and its leadership shares those views?On the one hand you call yourself a liberal and no fan of Trump and the GOP but then say you will not vote Democrat in November. What I see here is a new GOP strategy for November: play up to voters who are appalled by Trump and the GOP but urge them to stay home in November.
2
@Alan Mass
You at least admit there is a left wing in the Democratic party that takes extreme position
that is attempting to change what the Democrats stand for.
I infer you do not like what they are doing but claims that they do not represent the Democratic party.
What if you are the one who is wrong.
For argument sake let's say the Sanders and the people who supported OWS take over the Democratic party.
The only thing that is relevant is it true or not true.
You ignore his comment and you don't even realize it.
This is why I do not like liberals.
You din't comment on anything he wrote.
All you saw was someone who hated something more than he hated Trump.
Instead of commenting on this persons comment about Democrats you somehow make it about Republicans.
I will not vote for a Democrat who calls Israel a apartheid state nor will I vote for someone who supports that individual and I am sure you know who I mean and I think Shenoa would agree with me.
It's articles like this, a full put down of Red and chest thumping of Blue by a newspaper that will guarantee Trump 2020.
Newspapers are supposed to be neutral. But since 2015 you sold your soul to Blue and that is all you care to talk about.
Keep it up. Maybe Trump 2020 is actually what you are working for.
1
Those republicans who are "good Americans" are in a state of denial about their unconscious complicity in Trump's debasement of our country.
This is not about the "base" or "core" of the neo con socialists who dominate the right wing propaganda outlets or the republican primaries. Those are today's brownshirts in waiting. No, this is about the "good Americans."
Despite the Trump Tower meeting, the Russian controlled back channel meeting, the indictments, the money laundering, the tweeted confessions, the brazen outreach to the accused by the conman in charge, these "good Americans" are loath to admit they made a mistake to support Trump.
They are absorbed in what about Hillaryisms, what about smoking guns, what about anything rather than admit they made a mistake to support Trump.
They will argue about any distraction to the core of readily apparent, pubic information, contributed by the conman himself regarding motive and actual transgressions rather than admit they made a mistake to support Trump.
They are complicit. They enable the republican politicians to rot the party of Lincoln and Eisenhower.
Until those "good Americans" understand that they own the ramifications of what the republican party and Trump's leadership will wreak upon our country, our children and grandchildren, we are a nation at risk.
This message is just as hyperbolic as the warnings about Hitler in the early 1930s. Easy to scoff until the knock on the door is meant for you.
7
Stick to economics.
Eyes rolling.
The banality of evil, American style
2
Well Trump hasn't been connected with Jeffrey Epstein, Jimmy Seville or Roman Polanski. Who has?
Part of the slippery slope is not printing comments like this.
1
Trump/ublicans. The rough beast born these past two years.
2
This is not simple spinelessness. They are greedy and evil; they got themselves in too deep taking money from every corrupt jerk who threw it at them, and now they are not protecting tRUmp, they are protecting THEMSELVES. #RUSSPUBLICANS. Nothing saves us here but voting and that is assuming they have not compromised/infiltrated all the voting machines. It's the Democrats who are spineless. They had power. They let this happen.
I was thinking about those street gangs in LA, the Crips & Bloods. Thinking about the laws they came up with in the 80's to combat those gangs. The gist of what those laws were saying was if you join a gang & you're running with 'em & down the block, unbeknownst to you, one of your fellow Crips or Bloods shoot up a place, stab a guy, well then, even though you didn't know about it & even though you may've just been standing on a streetcorner minding your own business, what these laws said was you're culpable. You're still culpable, by the very act of joining those gangs. Which got me thinking, Father, that whole type of situation is kinda like your Church ain't it? You've got your colors, you've got your clubhouse, you're, for want of a better word, a gang. So you're upstairs smoking a pipe & reading a bible while one of your fellow gang members is downstairs messing with children, then Father, just like those Crips & Bloods, you're culpable. Cus you joined the gang, man. And I don't care if you never did a thing or never saw a thing or never heard a thing, you joined the gang. You're culpable.
Yep the Republicans are the RED gang. They see nothing and know nothing while Trump rapes or nation.
With acknowledgments to the movie 3 Billboards.
3
@tourmakeady los lunas, nm
Trump hasn't raped out nation.
I don't like what he is doing about the environment for example but that is a classical position that conservatives take and Trump has the right to do what he has done.
So instead me trying to guess tell me what has Trump actually done that has got you so angry.
.
And we all know how that wannbe Caesar who claimed to Make Italy Great Again wound up. I'll bet Trump slept through history class and missed that part.
6
Never vote for a Republican for anything, ever.
Your best friend? The most decent person in your church's congregation? It doesn't matter. They'll never denounce the worst of their party. They'll let anything slide as long as an "R" is next to the name.
Voting for what may seem to be the best of them only encourages the worst of them.
Never vote for a Republican for anything, ever.
17
Agreed! I have often wondered why Republicans who were so vocal about Obama's slight infractions, refuse to say one word against Trump's constitutional violations, gaffs, lies, and horrific errors in judgment and behavior. Are they not embarrassed by their hypocrisy and weakness?
8
Please give examples of early collusion with a Russia that you refer to.
It should not go unremarked that the moral midgets in the GOP Congress are mostly the product of State Legislatures lobotomized by term limits legislation the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) wrote for them and imposed. Combined with gerrymandered, and thus, safe districts, this produces candidates/representatives who are cheerleaders at best, enthusiastic shouters to the base. Their primary moral characteristic is, like lemmings, they follow.
7
The irony of so many Republicans bashing government while they work FOR the very entity they despise should not be lost on anyone. Hypocrisy--thy name is Republican!
10
No what "commentators" have failed to do is RESEARCH and READ! The information is out there. REPUBLICANS aren't spineless. They are COMPROMISED by Russian money. Period,
6
It is less likely that Trump will put his opponents in jail then the coming NATO war against Russia, that will commence when the Democrats take their turn at power, will result in severe repressions of any anti-War activists. Already arguments for peace are met, not with counter arguments but, instead, accusations of disloyalty--a sure sign that the war fever has taken over.
Already, only pro-war, anti-Russian columnists are allowed in the "paper of record." You do not publish even a single commentator speaking for peace--yet you pretend to present a "diversity" of opinion.
Comical in its hypocrisy is your massive disinterest in the current infiltration and subversion of the peace movement by the liberals' new hero--the FBI.
Can an American taxpayer ask, of our marvelous free press, exactly how many FBI informants are now on the Federal payroll, infiltrating and informing and acting as agent provocateurs just within the Democratic Socialists of America?
No--you are definitely not interested.
Mr. Krugman's column is a good example of why 70% of Americans of BOTH parties and independents believe an anti-popular Deep State determines government policies.
"Mr. Krugman's column is a good example of why 70% of Americans of BOTH parties and independents believe an anti-popular Deep State determines government policies."
Thank you for reminding me that 79% of statistics on the Internet are made up on the spot.
I want to respond to a commentator here ( Rima Regis) who said " I never thought the insurrection might start in the spooks' corner . . . . led by John Brennan and 60 of his peers". I think this a detail worth pointing out because: in the end every dictatorship MUST have the support and loyalty of it's military, intelligence, and police services in order to enforce their policies.
Right now it seems that the oligarchy has the support of the newly militarized police force. The police now acts with the impunity of a militia as it applies extreme force to the most trivial domestic offenses. Recently the police chief of Chatsworth, Georgia, Josh Etheridge, defended the tazing of an 87 year old woman who was out digging dandelions near her house.! The police are getting away with these egregious acts of violence all over the country. And numerous citizens ( including in this case) are showing themselves all too willing to be informers/ reporters. This is the beginning of a police state.
Gina Haskell, the newly minted director of the CIA, is a Republican pick, appointed by the president. I wonder if we will see a purge of CIA bureaucrats and CIA agents not loyal to the Crown under her rule.
Hats off to the retired CIA directors, James Comey and other FBI officials, and the Generals who are taking a public stand against the current administration . The message they are sending to the oligarchy is that the intelligence and military branches will defy, not support you.
10
@Gwen Vilen
You like Rema Regis are delusional.
How can you take a story not about Trump that does not represent the actions of more than one cop and make a statement about all cops and somehow this is the beginning of a police state.
The GOP has always been the concubines for their plutocrats and concubines by nature are spineless with no self respect. Trump's obvious. Let us hope in November we find out there are more sane people than idiots who worship their fascist fraud Messiah who continue to expose his bigotry, cronyism, nepotism, corruption, fraud, conspiracy , collusion.. GOP leaders from Nixon to Trump are symptoms of this cancer, and one election defeat doesn't cure us of this disease. We need to get rid of this GOP cancer for at least a generation or until they once again can become the party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt
3
Take out the trash, America. Vote.
15
This is really nothing new in history that the big money guys would support a fascist leader and not care about the dismise of democracy and freedom. Just remember how Thyssen Krupp and other big German corporations collaborated with Hitler. In the US of course we have the military industrial complex and all the politicians that take their money.
6
Trump will go to the lowest circle of the Inferno, but Ryan and McConnell will inhabit the next lowest circle of Hell. How cruelly they have betrayed working class Americans while acting as if they are respectable political figures. How lucky we are to be rid of Ryan soon (though he’ll likely still be harming ordinary people with his future jobs) and how I wish we would see the back of McConnell as soon as possible.
9
Amen!
3
In every occupied country, there were people who welcomed the Nazis because they were already Nazis at heart. We think of Vidkun Quisling as an aberration, but he wasn't. Even Petain, the Lion of Verdun, sold himself to Hitler at the cost of France's Jews. It doesn't matter how exceptional we think we are as Americans, we're not exceptional at all. It happened elsewhere, it will happen here, too. And I just don't think any Republican in office has the strength of will necessary to face down their friends, even if history will acquit them in the end. That requires a level of courage none of them have.
I know, intellectually, that America will end. All empires fail. I just expected our ending to be less...pathetic.
16
@Alexandra: The fools in Congress don't even know they're on Trump's list to be denied security clearances too.
Hitler becoming Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and his subsequent actions in seizing absolute authority is frighteningly similar to Trump’s actions since he has assumed office. The capitalists and business elite believed they could control Hitler and use him to their benefit. They were proved wrong by 1934 when Hitler assumed absolute control. Hitler told the “big lie”, so does Trump. Hitler attacked the press, so does Trump. Hitler shut down the opposition and that is what Trump is doing (e.g., Brennan and more to come). Do not be surprised if Trump and associates begin to set the scene for eliminating the 2020 presidential election. The institutions of government which are supposed to protect will fail because they are being run by Trump lackeys and enablers. We are in for a bad time. I hope our Democracy can survive.
9
Years of investigation; dozens of people threatened with criminal prosecution if they didn’t “testify as required”; several prosecuted for completely unrelated “crimes” when they refuse to “testify as required”; and millions and
millions of dollars wasted - and still no proof of collusion.
Having seen the awesome power of federal prosecutors to make life hell for those who don’t play along, the failure to demonstrate collusion is positive proof there was no collusion.
Sorry, that doesn’t make Democrats happy - but sometime losers have to
live with losing.
1
In Australia the quote, “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept” became well known after 2016 Australian of the Year David Morrison, retired Chief of the Army, used it as part of his campaign to champion gender equality in the army.
4
Some NYT columnists have mastered the art of the Howling Outrage at anything Trump. Consider a thought experiment where we raise the stakes. In a Star Trek episode, Kirk had a device to spy on his enemies, or to make them disappear. If you had such a device, has Trump done any wrong that warrants pushing the button that his predecessors haven't done?
Revoking Brennen's clearance? Hardly.
Barring reporter Kaitlan Collins from an event? Hardly.
The Muslim ban? Compare that with Roosevelt's order 9066.
The separation of immigrant children did not start with Trump.
Saying "fake news" or "the enemy of the people"?
The jailing of Judith Miller? -- now, which administration did that? Nor did the imprisonment of Assange start with Trump.
Anti-Muslim bigotry and racist tweets? A First Amendment right. Furthermore, you can find quotes of Paul Ryan opposing Trump's racism.
The most serious wrong he committed is the killing of innocent people in the Middle East. However, R. Nixon, H. Truman and G. W. Bush killed far more innocents.
Finally, the Russian campaign activities. Compare that with Reagan and Iran, or Nixon's campaign activities and the Vietnam War. And when Trump tried to fire Mueller, he was blocked by Republicans. Is that being complicit, Mr. Krugman?
I doubt that Krugman or other Howlers would push the button on Trump. The Howling is nothing but partisan politics. If you like being played, enjoy the Howlers, or for more fun, take a deep breath and join in.
4
@Daniel MJ
A few supporting facts would be nice. Which previous president revoked a former agency director's clearance? Which Democratic president barred a reporter from an event, or the WH press room? Which president ever referred to press as 'enemy of the people'? Given your limited factual reference, it's ironic that you attempt to condemn any pundit for reflexive howling.
2
@Daniel MJ
That wasn't my captain.
That was a Kirk who lived in a alternative Universe.
Just like some of the people who say Trump is not the President.
@Curmudgeon74
How is your point relevant to the point Daniel made.
If you are going to criticize his comment then criticize what he actually wrote.
He didn't say for example that Trump wasn't the only President to bar a reporter.
I think the reporters question were not only inappropriate but they were not being asked to get a answer.
They were being asked to embarrass the President.
Did anyone ask Bill Clinton how many women
did he have sex with for example.
Those question were not asked in the open because the reporter knew it was inappropriate
So I believe the President had the tight to bar her from a news conference even if no President has done it before.
It is irrelevant that Trump was the only President to revoke a former agency director's clearance.
Just because no President has not done it before doesn't mean Trump was wrong.
Is it possible that none of those other former agency directors gave the President reasons to revoke their security clearance.
Would be nice if there were a reasonable republican. Clearly such does not exist.
5
Great thinking and noble heart, Paul, and I applaud your perceptions, but you need a good editor to work with the readability and simplification of your prose style to help drive home your brilliant thoughts into more artful prose.
1
The whole federal judiciary is being loaded with "federalists" who are really state's rights advocates. Good luck draining that swamp.
4
@Steve Bolger
You've seemed to miss the reference in "swamp" to entangled, self-serving bureaucracies. Kafka might be worth a read.
1
History will not absolve them.
6
I despise the Republicans and am certainly as suspicious of them as you, Mr. Krugman. I have often read your columns with full nodding agreement. However, your column, in this case, makes no real argument. There are no facts and it seems more of a rant. I'm disappointed the NYtimes would not require more from one of its tried-and-true columnists.
2
Dr. Krugman, please start concentrating on the real problem: Melania Trump. It is her complicity that empowers all others.
1
Well written. The GOP has proven to be the party of greed. Democracy be darned.
5
I have to agree. And I rarely agree with Mr. Krugman about anything.
2
Paul Krugman compares Donald Trump unfavorably to Benito Mussolini. He not only doesn't make the trains run on time. He's busy tearing up the tracks.
Look at his cabinet starting with departed members, especially Scott Pruitt, a third rate crook whose career centered on damaging the environment and policies and institutions created to protect our climate and the habitability of Earth.
Rick Perry heads the agency he couldn't recall but wanted to abolish. And he is often mentioned as the next Attorney General when Sessions's tenure is done.
The performance of the chief executive himself seems to be only a second or third job for him after his oversight of the Trump Organization and the hiring and firing legal defense teams. Thank God he's easily distracted and a horrible administrator. If he worked full time and efficiently at his official job, things could be much worse.
And as Dr. Krugman points out, if the Republicans retain control of both houses of Congress, things will likely be much worse very soon. The Mueller report will disappear under Devin Nunez's raincoat never to see the light of day. Expecting responsible resistance from McConnell, Graham, Paul, and Speaker McCarthy would be a fool's game.
The American public habitually puts off the most important actions it must demand until just before it's too late. Let's hope this short eternity between now and November will wake us up to the ongoing disaster in time.
12
Whoa.....spot on ,chilling,scary . We the people, do need to fight tooth & nail to save the US democracy. November midterms will be gauge as to how much we care about our democracy.
8
"I don’t think they understand, or at any rate admit to themselves, that democracy really could die just a few months from now."
Mr. Krugman, I belief that the Trump supporter believes that things will just get bad for the "others." In their world all Trump is doing it is sticking it to those liberals. They never consider what the consequence will be for democracy, the economy, and peace. They will just b told what to think and how to think.
10
Sorrowful after reading this today because it absolutely confirms my own negative analysis of our current crisis.
I am concerned that voting this fall may not be enough. I think that is why a delegation of Republican senators went to Moscow before Trump's Helsinki meeting. They seek help with the 2018 election.
The GOP have been the collaborators all along. It may actually be true that Trump himself did not personally conspire, since he believes himself so wonderful he could win in a walk.
The GOP did a deal with the devil and now they seek to repeat it. In plain sight of all. They must get the CIA, and FBI and military Patriots out of the way because their wisdom will make it easy to see their treason.
We need a better plan B than voting. Election results are easily changed. The Mueller team may be too little and certainly will be too late.
Let's get a GoFundMe going to buy Fox News and shut it down. Time to fight them with fire. Also, stop giving him 24 hour coverage. Stop following his tweets. Stop giving him slavish devoted attention. Turn him off. And go silent. Make him wonder what happened.
This resistance must go dark and underground if there is no blue wave. Once the arrests start, it will be too late.
14
Every Republican -- in Congress and voting -- is complicit in the destruction of what's left of whatever was our democracy.
Democracy? Ha. Liberty? Nope. Equality? Not in the least, ever. Pursuit of Happiness? Only for the super-rich, sorry.
Our sad state is really no better now than the worst of the tin-pot dictatorships of South America in the '70's.
The corrupt rich in our country are more than eager to team up with their peers in Russia, China, anywhere, to further tighten the noose on the rest of us (until we return it to where it rightfully belongs, around their necks).
Perhaps ISIS are in fact freedom fighters? Perhaps Russia should be re-establishing its former empire, and reincorporate all the former Soviet Satellites into one country, Ukraine included? Perhaps China should be ruling the South China Sea, and establishing unity across Asia, on its own terms and without interference? Perhaps Iran, and North Korea, are wise to develop strong, nuclear defenses against a country with massive nuclear weapons power as authoritarian and unstable as our own?
Who's to say otherwise, at this point? Certainly not the US. We have lost all credibility in the world, and with our citizens. Our notoriously low historical voter turnout -- evidence of widespread public awareness of our disenfranchisement -- will continue; it's ridiculous to hope otherwise.
5
Fact is most Republicans supported Nixon until an actual smoking gun (the tapes) appeared. Now it is quite possible that even such a gun wouldn't shake the current crowd's support for Trump. So, yeah, they have gotten worse but the example of Nixon shows they've been evil for a long time.
If the November elections go badly enough for the Republicans many may become willing to abandon Trump, i.e., if their district or state will clearly never elect a Trumpist they may decide to take their chances on somehow getting through a primary while retaining some hope for the general.
You are, of course, right that the usual suspects will assure us the Republicans are really okay, that Trump is something that just happened to them. And they'll probably try to claim that the same thing is happening to the Democrats, that, say, Senator Warren is just as bad as Trump. Liars will keep on lying.
The only way forward for our country is over the rotting carcass of the elephant.
Our goal has to be the complete, total and permanent destruction of the evil conspiracy known as the Republican party.
Vote! Urge everyone you know to vote!
10
I have come to believe that Rand Paul, too, is a Russian asset.
Why do Kentuckians keep voting for him? And McConnell???
12
I believe that what propels the GOP forward in the vein that Krugman describes is the cult of individualism that has been a long-running and increasingly flourishing strain in American culture, especially among conservatives and reactionaries. According to the ideology of individualism, one can be a careerist without being a selfish hypocrite, since it is in fact the ethical duty of each individual to serve themselves and not take care of others in society. The delusional beliefs of these individualists, which generally flow from their positions of social privilege and power, lead to their ideological positions of "limiting government" and to ignoring the built-in benefits they derive from society. Individualists, which perhaps include all of us to some extent, comfort ourselves by saying that what benefits the individual benefits at large. It is important for us to be knowledgeable of history; that our Western, and peculiarly American cult of the individual, which runs from the European Romantics, through figures like Ayn Rand, and even the pathological focus of our political and electoral processes on the personality and power of the President, rather than on the other important changes that are happening in our world and our country.
4
The reason Republican representatives have not taken on Trump is because they feel probably correctly that a majority of republican votes are still with Trump.
4
This is an exceptional analysis of the crucial event of our time.
On "careerists" Republicans continuing to do what they've always done, take Sen. Lamar Alexander:
An E. TN Republican (Lincoln) he ran for governor in '76 and lost, then was elected in 1980 saying something like, "it wasn't our year to win in '76 (Nixon), but in '80 the political landscape had changed." He immediately became a popular governor. He was inaugurated early because the out going governor was selling pardons (He would eventually go to jail, where he shared a cell with the ex-governor of S. Carolina), and then he RAISED the sales tax to pay for better K-12 public schools, a very popular move. It also helped that he had a very attractive wife and family and had walked the state as a woodsman in a red flannel shirt--this was the official photo on display at TN's best-in-the-country state parks (built by the WPA). But his careerist Republicanism began to show. He had been a banker's lawyer and had promised not to favor the banks. He reneged, and now TN's once strong banking community is owned almost wholly in other states--the vulture bankers (cc rates 17-30%) moved in and took over under the new law. He then went to work for for profit schools and went along with doing in the Dept. of Education. As a one time Chancellor of the U. of T, nary a word about the monstrous lie of denying the science of climate change--he's even sponsored bills for oil companies. Quiet on Trump--careerist Republican.
10
In 2016, the Democratic Party told the electorate, if you let Donald Trump win, it will be a mandate for racism. Donald Trump won, and racists believed they had won a mandate. In 2018, the Democratic Party told the electorate, if you let the GOP win, it will be a mandate for the subversion of the very institutions that constitute our democracy, and set in motion a slide into authoritarianism.
Of course, changing the platform of the Democratic Party itself? Out of the question. The stakes were always this high, these would always have been the consequences of a weak recovery - when the Democrats had the executive and both chambers in 2008-2010, it was because voters thought they had elected a black FDR. Instead, they had elected a black Reagan.
5
@swingstate: Obama did hope to become a kinder and gentler Ronald Reagan. He made that absolutely clear to me in "The Audacity of Hope", his obligatory campaign literary opus. I didn't think the Republicans would give him a chance to do it, and sure enough they tied him down like the Lilliputians they are.
9
The GOP since at least 1964 has been the minority-fearing, poor-hating party. But it's Fox News that has given the GOP a propaganda-driven fake news advantage in dividing Americans from their true interests. Rupert Murdoch should be investigated for the possibility that he received KGB funds in the 60s or 70s, enabling him to move to the U.S. to begin this process.
11
@Rich Turyn I live in England, I've suffered the Murdoch press for decades. Murdoch has no concern about the world (or America) beyond furthering his own interest. He is a right-wing troglodyte, of course, but he is perfectly capable of hedging his bets but having some of his papers back one side of the election, the others the opposite. Fox News was a business opportunity at a time when America was swerving to the ferocious right, and Murdoch has a great sense for the prevailing wind. If these were the 1960s, and liberalism was the rising force in America, Fox News would be full of modern equivalents of Right-On people. Murdoch is the mirror, not the image.
Professor, many of the people are looking for answers as to “why”, and when a man is down, he will serve just about anyone and anything if “said” offers that man a chance to survive. This is what you are witnessing. They will take help from anyone offering, even Trump. Where are you?
1
Mr Krugman, I was born in a country under a terrible dictatorship (democratically elected), followed by dictatorial military governments. I left in my 20s. When democracy was restored, a succession of awful governments were elected.
I’ve done a lot of soul-searching (I’m 72) on the subject. Yes, the leaders were awful, the structures of power corrupt or ineffectual, the system poisoned by lip-service to the Constitution and the law, but ultimately they were reflecting what one half of society or other wanted. Terrible leaders are made possible by sick societies, in the same way that great leaders reflect societies on the up.
It is unfortunate that America has a flawed electoral system that makes it possible to win the presidency with less votes than the opponent (I haven’t read about any Democrat of any consequence demanding changes to that), but Trump won with a very significant minority of voters behind him. He is overtly racist, xenophobic, pro the very rich, anti-ecological policies, anti-women’s rights, pro-gun lobby, etc, only people who feel comfortable with (let alone enthusiastic about) those beliefs can vote for him.
It’s all very well to go on and on about the flaws in the Republican party, but they have to be elected. Americans made Trump possible, not just Republicans. If things change after the November election, great, but otherwise it’s time to look a bit deeper than just the parties in charge.
13
Mr. Krugman, I thought you were an economist. Apparently, I was wrong. Seems you're just another far left extremist writing for the NY Times.
With 4.1% growth--which you said could never happen...
With manufacturing jobs returning to the U.S., which you said could never happen.
With the lowest unemployment ever--in many historical terms, you can't think of one single thing to like about our president?
Here is what's really going on in Mr. Krugman's world: He predicted on election night that the stock market would crash and never recover--when it became clear the Trump would be the next president. One wonders why he didn't have similar worries--when the nation elected an inexperienced community organizer?
Trump is proving wrong-- everything Krugman has ever said about our economy.
--The private sector IS better at allocating resources than government
--We CAN grow at rates above 2% annually.
--We CAN lower the unemployment rate and get wages to rise.
We CAN return manufacturing jobs to the U.S.
We CAN renegotiate our trade deals to level the playing field.
We CAN pull out of the Paris Climate Accord--without killing the planet.
We CAN install meaningful sanctions on Iran and N. Korea--and bring them to their knees--and eventually to the bargaining table.
We CAN put pressure on China to reform its abusive trading practices.
In a word--Krugman is worried that he will be proved wrong--about everything he's ever said. Thankfully, he's left a trail.
6
@Jesse The Conservative
Like anyone with actual economic training, Krugman knows not to look at just one quarter of any index. Going all the way back to Eisenhower,GOP eras have always left the economy in worse shape than they found it. Democrats the opposite.
19
While Trump's economic policies are pretty much what you'd expect an academically undistinguished trustafarian who almost tanked his inheritance three times, Krugman is referring to his politics which are quite similar to other illiberal Democrats like Erdogan, Duterte and Orban. But enjoy the juicing from unsustainable tax cuts creating deficits larger than our defence budget.
7
@Jesse The Conservative, are you snorting cocaine too? That's what Trump is doing to the economy by charging $1 trillion to the federal debt this year.
4
"the initial evidence of collusion with Russia"
Hmm..."initial"? Does this choice of word mean Prof. Krugman no longer believes there is a case against Trump for Russian collusion?
1
@HurryHarry: Reread the sentence. It is very clear what the meaning of 'initial' is in that sentence. However, I will suggest it means, "the first sign of." I hope that helps.
@ggallo - if you're right, why does the professor limit himself to "initial" evidence? Don't Trumpistas deny ALL evidence of Russian collusion?
There are no brave and suicidal politicians in either party.
Paul, put yourself in the shoes of a Republican politician for just a moment please. If you stand up to your base, meaning Trump, the base will not support you, but neither will the Democrats consider voting for you as well no matter how brave your action. Effectively by being a Republican and standing up to Trump you guarantee that no voter (Republican or Democrat) will cast their vote to you. All politicians are gutless, but very few are suicidal as well.
3
Who in their right mind would take an executive level job of dialing for handouts for half of every working day?
1
The hopelessly naïve Supreme Court actually expected that people would be able to see who donates to these "Citizens United" type lobbies to judge them. What a silly idea that was.
11
Reagan shattered the Soviet Union, by arming Afghan opponents of the Soviet Union's occupation with Stinger Missiles.
2
In some comments, socially responsible democracy is still referred to as socialism, a hot-topic buzzword and completely inappropriate. The chasm is growing wider because of this misnomer, which is all the more tragic since both extremes ideologically could meet somewhere in the middle if it weren’t for the garbled semantics.
5
@Diana Jean: Yea. It turns out that it does matter what you call a "rose." In spite of the fact that there are some good socialist programs, I doubt using the word 'socialism' is gonna get anyone elected. You might get some votes, but not enough.
Republican party verges to tantamount hypocrisy. Their tax legislation which is way from reform benefits the up one percent. If there is a semblance humanity, this one percent could bail out the Lincoln Museum from bankruptcy. Donald has slaughtered Lincoln's Party cold blood.
4
Hey Dr. K -- how's the market been doing since Trump was elected. Wasn't it supposed to crash? Just asking.
4
Up and down, Ralphie. Up and down again.
Hey, I got questions too. You get that job in the new smelter yet? Wall all done? How 'bout the DPRK...they stopped building missiles and processing uranium yet? How's it goin' with the plan to hand the wealthiest that extra $100 bil?
4
@Ralphie, It is the biggest stock buyback binge in history, and it may just leave you with no good stocks to invest in, because managements took their companies private.
P. T. Barnum was absolutely correct about the fecundity of the USA of suckers.
3
I was recently talking to a Trump hater and we discussed the Charlottesville chant; "You shall not replace us". I explained to him I didn't understand his distain for this chant. He responded it implied White Supremacy, antisemitism, and bigotry. In fact it doesn't say anything of the sort and is a feeling supported by many liberals. When the Sioux attacked Custer at the Little Bighorn, they could have been chanting, You Shall Not Replace Us. In fact it represents the entire history of Native Americans. Today, Blacks in Harlem and Bushwick should be chanting, You Shall Not Replace Us. The Democratic Party and to a large extent, the Republican Party, should have as their rallying cry, We Are Going To Replace You. Immigrants work for lower wages, work harder and demand fewer benefits. Immigrants are smarter. Immigrants are better. We Are Going To Replace You. This lack of loyalty to the American people explains the success of Trump. When faced with absolute and complete betrayal, American voted for Trump.
4
@Mike Sounds good, but the truth is that they chanted "Jews will not replace us." I guess they've got you hopping so fast that you don't even believe your own ears. The propaganda is in control of your ears. If you are still sane at all, go and listen to the audio of the video again.
6
When does one begin. Oh, I know: you somehow left out the Nazis, the Klansmen, the explicit racism, the chants against Jews, the torchlt parade, and the violence. Sorry: us Trump Haters is picky about reality and stuff.
4
@Alan Shapiro makes the point that some marchers chanted an anti-Semitic chant by replacing You with Jews. Why didn't he reply to my comment. What is wrong with the Chant, You Shall Not Replace Us? I know there are Jews who support the concept of, You Shall Not Support Us. I also know many Jews who are excited about the idea of replacing Americans they disagree with. It is unfortunate that many innocent Jews are blamed for the actions and beliefs of others. People should be held accountable as individuals not as groups. Oddly, the same people who scream anti-Semitism seem to perform the same behavior against White Christians opposed to mass migration. Everybody at the rally was a White supremacist or a Nazi. So I ask my question again, what is wrong with White Christian Americans not wanting to be replaced with a foreign population?
While Mr. Krugman posits possible reasons for Republican complicity in Trumps's terrible abuses, like "Republican politicians are spineless rather than sinister — or, more accurately, sinister in their spinelessness. They’re not really ideologues so much as careerists, whose instinct is always to go along with the party line", he fails to mention how deeply indebted most if not all Republican members of Congress are to their corporate, institutional and individual donors. We're talking $millions with some Republicans, but many, many receive "just" tens of $thousands.
All that money from strongly conservative donors surely affects how our majority Congress treats the President--whose only achievment in office has been to lower taxes for those very donors to the Republican party.
The majority in Congress needs to shed greed rather than timidity or party loyalty!
6
The NYT Picks among the 1000-plus comments here depict the same factors that enabled the demagogues of the 1930s to establish authoritarian rule--the capitulation of previously principled representatives of the leader's political party to the appeal of his message to a broad swath of the populace, the willingness of a significant portion of the public to go along in the supposed interest of "fairness," the willingness of another significant portion to blame the opposing party for the country's woes, and only a minority with the clearheadedness to foretell the logical consequences.
It is a terrifying picture of America today--one few of us could have imagined a mere nineteen months ago. And it is even more terrifying in light of the ruling party's doubling down on gerrymandering and voter suppression--further institutionalizing the marginalization of opposing votes--and their recent concentration of billions of dollars of additional wealth in their donors' coffers--wealth, as the Times reports today, these donors are using to stifle the resistance even further.
It has never in my lifetime been more important to vote--and to vote Democratic regardless the candidate's particular strain of party ideology. Far and away the most important issue before voters today is the need to counter the ever-accumulating power of a president who is daily chipping away not only at the voice of the resistance but at the rule of law protecting us all.
"A republic, if you can keep it," indeed.
14
My dad was a loyal citizen. He believed it was important to vote and participate in government. As a child he took me inside the voting booth and showed me how to pull down the levers and cast our family vote. Because of him I knocked on doors wih my own children in tow to get signatures for candidates to be on the ballot.
He was a Democrat. In the world he lived in Republicans and Democrats may have had their differences but most of them would have stood together to fight a threat to our democracy. I still hope for the day when the two parties can put away there differences and be true citizens of the United States of America.
7
@Yvonne Spivack, The Republicans thanked Democrats for fighting WW II for them with McCarthyism, and by pulling security clearances from people like J. Robert Oppenheimer, who gave them nuclear bombs.
7
A great many of us are hanging onto the thought that enough voters will have taken Dr. Krugman’s dire warnings about Republicans to heart, and to vote them out in November. I am afraid it is a slim hope at best. One only has to review recent election results to fear some nefarious actors suppressing voting among likely Democratic support or using insider control of the electronic voting machines themselves to flip votes for narrow Republican victory. Not even the Mueller probe is likely to uncover such digital voting machine system corruption easily hidden behind right-wing sympathetic corporate secrecy. If Democrats were to raise the election fairness questions, we’d be lambasted as conspiracy theorists and snowflakes. Democrats depend on free and fair elections. 2018 is not likely to see their return.
8
@Rocky
we don't need Krugman to vote against Trump.
tragically, Hillary was a terribly flawed candidate.
who is not complicit?
@David - I don't disagree that Hillary was a flawed candidate with a question mark over her head, thanks to James Comey's ill-timed press conference. She still got three million more votes than Trump, didn't she?
@David Mrs. Clinton was an excellent candidate. She's intelligent, experienced, cares about the less fortunate, and devoted to defense of the Constitution and our country. She won a majority of the popular vote and was cheated.
I have just visited included Mount Rushmore, a kind of "American Mecca". And there it struck me, the words of those four great presidents, their visages staring down on us from that mountain top. For instance, Jefferson's words in the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Or Washington's warning about our democratic experiment ", if you can keep it." Or Theodore Roosevelt's endless campaigns against corporate monopolies and to preserve public lands (including this very mountain top) for future generations. Lincoln bound the country together in more ways than just ending slavery: he also championed the transcontinental railroad.
I could go on and on. It was quite striking, standing there with those four presidents staring down at me and two million other annual visitors, that they would not be at all pleased with our current state of affairs. And it is Theodore Roosevelt who today commands us: "The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight - that he shall not be a mere passenger."
We've got work to do. And there's four guys whose faces are on a mountain top here, telling us to get to work.
19
@RD, Jefferson really was a fake. His slaves were anything but equal, and his failure to manumit York, who kept the Lewis and Clark expedition healthy while handling all its sign language communication with natives was the most atrocious oversight of heroism in US history.
The Russians did not help Trump win the presidency. This is a fantasy that started as an attempt at a clever political maneuver to hurt Trump politically. The sad truth of the 2016 debacle was that it witnessed a true indicator that democracy is a fearsome zero sum game. The 2014 elections gave McConnell the Senate and the Rs decided to play a callous partisan charade that denied Obama his ability to name Scalia's Supreme Court successor. this made the 2016 a critical election for Ds. But Clinton's damaging incompetence displayed over her handling her State Department e mails, and the 800 Super Delegates lemming like marching off the cliff in 2016, were a sad sight to behold while Trump won the electoral college. John Brennan was central to of CIAs torture program and the highly criticized drone strikes during the Obama Administration. Brennan was involved in the anti Semitic right wing nationalist illegal coup in Ukraine which allowed Crimea walk out of Ukraine. For months the news media made erroneous accusations that Russia was planning to invade Ukraine. The CIAs support of jihadists in Syria has marred Obama's legacy. Brennan and the intelligence folks have a neo con dream that Putin can be overthrown and the Russian Republic shattered into tiny pieces.
3
@c harris If true, Trump is acting as a guilty party. How do you explain that? In Occams Razor, the simplest answer is the correct one. In this case, Putin helped Trump, since he has IOUs from Trump. Every meeting with allies ends in discord. The meeting with Putin ended with a chummy handshake. How do you explain that?
14
@c harris
And there it is: "But...but...but Hillary's emails..."
Like the faint whine of a deflating balloon..
Trump may end by getting locked up. And in my opinion there's a WHOLE lot of Republicans who deserve to be locked up to.
7
@c harris Wow! Quite a storm of delusions! Where to begin?
Well you began with the claim that "The Russians did not help Trump win the presidency." You offer no evidence or argument to support this claim. If, in fact, it was the Russians who supplied Wikileaks with the hacked Emails then they clearly did help defeat Clinton. I imagine you would denigrate the intelligence professionals who have concluded that it was Russia but even if we discount their conclusions you have no basis for saying it wasn't the Russians.
Mrs. Clinton had a majority of the delegates chosen by voters or caucus attendees. She didn't need the super delegates.
During Clinton's tenure at State the official Email was hacked. Her private server never was.
As for the "the anti Semitic right wing nationalist illegal coup in Ukraine", is it really your opinion that Manaford's guy Yanukovich was a good, legitimate leader?
Then comes your biggest howler that said coup (which looked a lot like a popular uprising) "allowed Crimea walk out of Ukraine" (typo or poor command of English? You're missing a "to".) It's true Putin at the time claimed that the armed men who walked Crimea out of Ukraine weren't his soldiers but even he now admits they were.
You're either an actual Ruskie or just a poor deluded leftist with an unshakeable affection for the Motherland of Socialism.
Thanks for playing!
2
Thank you and the New York Times for your staunch support of our nation’s core values! What is needed now is a unified grassroots effort to avoid the catastrophe of which you speak that is quickly gaining ground. I suggest that every town, village and city conduct a peaceful but determined march on the same day and time to demand an immediate end to this presidency! This would avoid difficult travel and traffic problems and encourage all of our concerned community members to participate.
13
Hitting the nail on the head, as Gordon Hilgers suggests in his comment, is apt for the whole of Mr. Krugman's commentary. The photo chosen to accompany the commentary is also apt. Mr. McConnell can't quite bring himself to look into the face of the man who heartily congratulates him (hopefully a small window into the shame McConnell feels). Kudos to Mr. Krugman for telling it exactly as it is.
9
Our hard-fought democracy, long the envy of the world, having survived so many perilous moments over our storied history, proudly entrusted to raise the banner for justice, freedom, equality, & decency to the world, is in trouble.
Dangerous Donald, the Tweety-Bird president, along with his complicitous, power-hungry Congressional enablers, present one of the greatest tests to our living constitution.
Their double-speak, double-down anarchy agenda has already put our fragile environment, the stability of our alliances, not to mention the values we teach our children, particularly girls, at risk, to name a few.
It’s going to come down to, as Thomas Jefferson would claim, the wisdom of the common person in stepping up & being heard at the ballot box this November.
10
Of all the ridiculous bits in this column, Krugman's inference that Trump-Russia collusion actually occurred. And that somehow Trump supporters and Republicans have shifted from there was no collusion to collusion is no big deal.
Pure rubbish. Despite the wishes, hopes and desires of the left an anti-Trumpists everywhere, there is simply no evidence for it. Mueller has no evidence that collusion occurred. If he did, he wouldn't be attempting to squeeze Manafort and others on the issue. If there had been collusion, then John Brennan in his editorial earlier this week would have presented it. After all, he feels no qualms about calling the legally elected President of the US a traitor.
And Comey would have leaked the evidence or presented in his self serving book after he was fired.
And there is no logical case to be made for either Russia or Trump to collude with each other.
And the FBI's story that they initiated their probe into possible collusion is laughable. A drunken conversation between an Aussie diplomat and a low level Trump campaign staffer? One that the Aussie sat on for 2 months.
The real story is that the dems have initiated and continued with the Russian collusion story as both an excuse for HRC losing and as a means of undermining Trump's presidency. Krugman is one of the operatives in this effort to undermine the sitting president -- which is at best anti democratic and perhaps treasonous.
6
@Ralphie: Trump called on the Russians to hack Hillary's missing emails. That is collusion. He threw his own country and American intelligence agencies under the bus while licking Putin's boots in an appearance with him, after he had dissed American allies. That is treasonous. He still needs to show his tax returns which he doesn't do because they will probably show his indebtedness to shady Russian lenders with strong ties to Putin. Hillary won the popular vote with three million and I would not be surprised at all if the voting in the states where Trump won with extremely small margins was helped along with a concerted effort from Putin operatives intent on helping Trump and damaging Hillary Clinton. The more Trump screams "No Collusion!", the more I am convinced there was.
8
@Ralphie
I suggest you wait for Mueller's report before you declare there was no collusion. I strongly suspect Mueller's report will detail the longstanding relations Trump has had with the Russians in laundering money through his real estate properties.
What will you say when it's revealed that Putin is Trump's banker? Fake news?
6
Oh, and that two month delay you natter about? The "Aussie diplomat," passed the info on immediately, but everybody just figured it was some twit bragging in a bar--until, two months later, Hillary Clinton's e-mails started getting thrown around.
They they called the FBI. And by the way, that's where the Federal investigation started. Shame you didn't notice that you've just completely contradicted your loud yells that it all began with Steele.
Nice try on the cheap Deep State paranoiac conspiracy, though. Well, by your standards, anyway.
2
Krugman's points are spot on as usual with one exception: the propaganda state. The modern GOP is not conservative, it is a corrupt organization with only one goal, holding power. In order to do indefinitely it requires a propaganda arm to combat the inevitable "sunshine" that naive members of the press and others believe we still possess by reporting facts. FOX News is NOT conservative media, it is dangerous propaganda and "true fake news"! 50% of the population is receiving news that is false and feeds a single narrative. For democracy to exist, the populace must be informed. When Krugman states that "democracy really could die" he might be missing the point. It may be dead already.
13
Sarah sanders and Kellyanne Conway defend a stinking trump every day. It is now clear why the GOP fell over each other in their mad rush to pass the tax cuts. It was done to reward the billionaire GOP donors who are now donating billions to the Republicans, so that they can take out attack ads on immigration and crime. The tax cuts have made the 1 percent of the wealthiest richer than ever, given a few peanuts to a few, raised taxes on many the blue states(by limiting the SALT deduction and pushing people into higher tax brackets), and inflicted terrible damage on the poor. The tax cuts have fueled inflation, interest rate hikes, oil price increases, and eaten away average wage, leaving people pooer. The long term effects are much worse. Net wage losses, and piles and piles of US debt. Our kids and grandkids will be paying Japan and China interest on the debt all their lives, and the deficit will only grow larger. The Republicans are horrible and spineless sycophants, when they are not as corrupt and soulless as trump. he just called a very corrupt manafort 'a good man'. Trump is destroying the US intelligence services. He is a Putin poodle and with the CIA and FBI unable to defend us, and the GOP licking Trump's boots, we have never been more unsafe since the cold war ended.
18
In Trump and his enablers at every level, the American Dream has become a dystopian nightmare for America and the Rest Of The World.
I hope enough of you wake up before November.
10
yes, paul, it really is that bad. raised in republican families, we no longer associate with anyone still self-identifying as republican. we consider them traitors. or worse. what bother us most are the lawyers--those with knowledge (presumably) of constitutional norms and history who are willing to trash our country. they are failing badly. what will their children and grandchildren say?
6
What boggles the mind of this septuagenarian is the combination of the GOP's spinelessness in the face of this mounting evil; the wimpy complicity of military leaders like Mattis and Kelly; the sad, stupid, and ultimately self-defeating support of Trump's "base"; and the acquiescence of significant numbers of wealthy white Americans who obviously love their wealth more than their country.
On a more hopeful note, I do not sense even a whiff of indifference or passivity among the rest of us, and I predict a blue tsunami come November.
The question then will be: How does a Democratic majority in one house of Congress, or even perhaps (dare we imagine) both, together with more Democrats in state legislatures, begin to repair the damage being done by these reprehensible, treasonous people and their pawns?
It's going to take a combination of wisdom, courage, and integrity on the part of the majority to begin to heal our democracy -- including, most of all, a shared belief in the structures of democracy such as a free press, voting rights, and the government's best efforts to secure liberty and justice for all.
13
@Carter Heyward
I've had it with all predictions; who knew that Trump would win the presidency?
This new school year will be interesting. I predict that within the first month there will be front page news about teacher’s being reprimanded by administrators for allowing classroom discussions about civics/democracy/authoritarianism/freedom of the press/ etc.
10
A portion of the Republican electorate consists of the truly deplorable. Whether this proportion is large or small is unclear to me, but in a country that is roughly evenly divided between the parties, the GOP cannot win elections without continually pandering to its worst elements, feeding it nonsense that no sensible person believes. Apparently Republicans are so accustomed to such posturing that they are unable to detect that Trump is not just another run-of-the-mill hypocrite but a dangerous lunatic.
7
@D. C. Palmer
There are deplorable on both sides.
A wonderful column, thank you, Dr. Krugman, for so eloquently stating what our situation is now. The hypocrisy and deviousness of the GOP is astounding. A prime example is my PA senator, Pat Toomey-- a Wall Street opportunist, architect of the tax bill, Trump lackey par excellence. People like him are nothing but traitors to our republic. May they go down in history as such.
18
The constant refrain that Trump is "a terrible human being," "a menace to the Republic" and likely to go "full authoritarian" is every bit as reckless and divisive as the admittedly disgraceful rhetoric that the President too often indulges in. Anyone who has more than a superficial familiarity with modern history would avoid such alarmist nonsense. The American Republic will survive Donald Trump. The pundits and talking heads need to just calm down. One can promote responsible policies without the hysterical rhetoric.
1
Perhaps you might offer a few useful euphemisms, then. Myself, I like creep, useless jerk, wannabe mussolini, greedhead, incompetent fool, stuff like that.
But I've a question: how come you guys never admonish Trump and Trumpists for their language?
3
@JMM Are you sure? Are sure that if the Dems take back the House, that Trump won’t declare the election results null and void, and that the Republicans won’t go along with it? Or that he won’t decide to postpone the 2020 election?
And these are the same "centrist talking heads" who also argue that there are lots of "moderate" Republicans out there.
What utter nonsense! The facts reveal, as every reasonable person knows, there are but two kinds of Republicans in existence today: very right wing and ultra white wing, nothing more, nothing less
13
People who think Mr. Krugman's column is just so much leftist hysteria should keep this in mind: Abusers don't hit their victims on the first date. They lay the groundwork, they weaken and isolate the victim, they start with small offenses to test the waters of what they can get away with, and only when they have victims where they want them do they go for the full-on abuse. Trump has been violating laws, ethics, standards and norms consistently and more seriously since he took office. At heart -- if he has one -- he's a fascist kind of guy. Ultimately, Trump's Republican enablers will become victims just like the rest of us if they allow him the unfettered power he deep-down wants. Will they know what hit them?
19
Everything Trump does seems to result in the GOP getting more and more unpopular with more and more Americans of every race, class, political or sexual orientation.
Each of his ideas seems to hit someone in the American public and provoke more and more protests, lately not just from ordinary Americans but from 'pillars of society': former presidents, intelligence chiefs, high-ranking retired officers.
This will no doubt give the GOP serious problems at the midterms in November.
It seems like a well thought-out strategy. Trump can't be so stupid that he can't see the effect of his antics. Even his closest present collaborators can't feel safe or comfortable in their positions.
I think the GOP are going along - not because they think it's great, but because they fear the alternative resulting from the impeachment of Trump: Mike Pence.
In my most sanguine moments I imagine that Trump is doing all this to discredit the Republican party and blowing it up from within.
Whether he is doing it to facilitate his own way to a dictatorship, or to hand the midterm elections to the Democrats, is another matter.
If the Democrats come out on top, he may seize the opportunity call an emergency, introduce martial law, and grasp power.
I don't what the constitution has to say about this possibility.
1
The GOP will not survive Trump.
9
However, even bullies are smart enough to know that they have to be careful in picking their victims. That is why Trump likes to personally interview his candidates for the Justice Department. Trump will learn during the interview whether the person before him is someone that will bend to his will, or another alpha male. That is why he did not hire Mueller.
2
Sadly, this is not news to anyone whose eyes are open.
6
We have to hope for two things: (1) that the midterms will be the beginning of the end for Trump; and (2) that Ruth Bader Ginsburg will live . . . for a long time. The Supreme Court is the obvious choke point for individual rights. The country could easily go full Gulag--there are many Gina Haspels and Mike Pences (let the Space Force be with you) in Washington--but only if the Court looks the other way.
24
It was a long long time ago when I watched the 1964 GOP convention. Buckley, Goldwater, Nixon , and Reagan attached there signature to the convention platform. Newspeak, and Confederate Battle flags were everywhere. The Civil Rights Act was just signed into law and we all knew who had lynched the civil rights workers a few weeks earlier. The Republicans saw their way to political power as the KKK marched outside the Cow Palace with their Stars and Bars and their Goldwater signs.
There was only one common ideal shared by the men who led the GOP and that was the people were unfit to rule. The GOP cared little if it was fascism, communism, plutocracy, oligarchy or theocracy as long as it wasn't government of the People, by the People or for the People.
I cannot understand why Russia hasn't been the model for the GOP forever from the aristocracy, through Communism, through the collapse of Communism to Putin's theocratic oligarchy Russia has always served its 1% and blamed all its problems on Jew, liberals, writers, intellectuals, ethnic minorities and nonRussian Values.
9
This needs to be the Democratic message, shouted from the rooftops! No matter what side of the political fence you fall on, if you you believe in Democracy, you must vote blue! DNC- pay attention! Here is your message for the fall.
4
At any other time in my nearly 60 year life, this column would have been absurd. Today, it's the truth.
20
I am probably the most radical liberal any of you will ever meet and these times are so desperate I now believe That robert mueller should be the president, a republican. He is the only one who we can trust, literally.I intend to write him in for president in 2021. He will be the first republican Ive ever voted for. I first voted for Mcgovern in 72 while I was in vietnam. God save the USA
3
America’s tombstone will read-we had a good thing going, but we blew it.
19
To "Ann" from Seattle, who thinks the problem is political parties. I disagree with your comment. No, the same cannot be said about Democrats, but nice try on the "bothsiderism."
Democrats have brought you Social Security, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They believe in science. And in American citizens voting. I think they should be rewarded for trying to bring this country into the 21st century, not disparaged for being just like Republicans.
It is not "Democrats" tearing our country apart. It is Fox News, rightwing media and stars like Breitbart and Rush Limbaugh. It is what they do. Making American torn apart and virtually ungovernable serves the interest of the extremely wealthy, sociopath conservatives, and virtually no one else. Wake up, Ann. "Temporary coalitions over single issues" may deliver short-term, but you need to invest in a coalition that has your longterm interests in mind too. That would be Democrats.
Vote for a blue wave this fall as though your life depended on it. Because your freedoms surely do.
12
My expectation is that we will see these traitorous slimeball's held accountable when the Dems get voted back into the majority. Enough is enough. We the people should be allowed to speak in the halls of Congress with all of our representatives in attendence and listening while we are allowed to share our thoughts and feelings about thier behavior. I am sick with shame and frustration due to thier complicit behavior and egregious abandonment of thier Constitutional duties. We have gone from an extremely competent leader to a con man in such a short time and he is only succesful because they have abandoned is. VOTE.
1
My father, born in 1914, was a proud, lifelong Republican. Well, he did vote for Roosevelt the second time. He raised money for Republican candidates, was a poll-watcher for Nixon in 1960, shook hands with Ronald Regan in the Rose Garden when Regan gave my father an honor. My father instituted a program of Regan’s which gave tax breaks to businesses who hired at-risk youth for summer jobs and my father’s business hired a goodly number. My father went on cruises with my mother where Bill Buckley gave talks. I guess he was what you’d call a “Country Club” Republican. I say prayers of thanks that my father died before Joe Wilson’s “You lie” outburst, and all the hatefulness that followed. My father would be CRUSHED to see how his beloved party has devolved. The ignorance, the ugliness, the election of the buffoon who currently resides in the White House - it would have crushed his spirit and profoundly grieved him. My father was a good, honorable, standup guy. He would be horrified.
30
@Kathryn When did he stop supporting Nixon?
1
@Kathryn, Your father was also spared the sight of that vapid fool Samuel Alito mouthing the words "That's not so!" as Obama spelled out the consequences of the Supreme Court's utterly vapid one dollar, one vote "Citizens United" ruling during a State of the Union speech.
1
@Jack Toner
Hey Jack - well, he was sure that Joe Sr. had the fix in for his son and he poll-watched on Chicago’s South Side. Nixon really stunned him, I can say that. Daddy had his blind spots and I didn’t agree with him a lot of the time, but he was on the right side of history with gay rights, women’s right to choose and helping those in need. He was a Rotarian most of his life and believed in offering a helping hand and using money for good works. I just know he’d be heartbroken now. Great question though! I can see where you’re coming from.
For over a year l kept putting off signing up for the New York Times.
Now l read EVERY article to the fullest. l get the full and complete report on current events and l am so fulfilled.
Thank you so much,
James McWhorter
16
Thank you Mr. Krugman, for summing up the situation and the current GOP so succinctly. This is no swamp it's a cesspool. The GOP cannot cover it up any longer. They're not about patriotism, home & hearth, family or God. They're about big money and kleptocracy, grabbing whatever they can for themselves before they get outta Dodge with their (our) dollars. The fact than anyone still follows them, adheres to the party or Trump is suicide or madness or both!
VOTE!!!
29
Krugman has always said Paul Ryan is not serious. He's a flim flam man. Thus he and other Republicans are never going to push back. Everyone must vote blue
20
When did Obama get any push back from Democrats? Not ever that I remember. No push back from the media or Krugman either.
2
Excellent points, but the continued silence and mealy-mouthed responses of Democratic Party's Congressional leadership is helping anything. Instead of vocally and dynamically both putting forward plans for the future AND calling out Trump and his gang for conspiring with a *hostile* foreign power, we get hedging, timid replies, infighting, and almost NO pushback against the horrendous speculative novel about the "deep state" that Trump, the GOP and Fox News are collectively writing and sharing every day.
If you want to know why people may not vote in November or continue to feel disempowered, it's because it's like we basically still have no affirmative choice. It's either the Trump-GOP Party, which is absolutely abominable, or the Wall Street-worshipping semi-conscious Democratic Party, that seems to be scared of its own shadow and focused on money alone. (Look at Andrew Cuomo's inept stumbling after the GOP hissy-fit about his comments!) Perhaps some of the younger Democrats like Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Antonio Delgado can stir things up, because we need that to happen soon. Or else, as you say, our democracy, republic and country, could be lost, under the misrule, as Hillary Clinton rightly put it, of Putin's "puppet" and, as Steve Bannon noted on the record, someone whose associates (and who, perhaps himself) committed "treasonous" behavior in plain sight.
7
@Sleater: Perhaps it's time to think of everything that the Democrats enacted and protected instead of focusing on their faults. Things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, CHIP, Environmental and Consumer Protection regulations, the ACA, promoting green energy, infrastructure improvements, protecting public lands, access to women's health care and abortion, affordable public education, protection of Unions and workers' rights, sensible gun control, and responsible fiscal governance. All of that will be destroyed under Trump rule with the enthusiastic help of Republicans and their oligarch financiers like the Mercers and the Kochs, and their propaganda channel Fox News.
1
The fact that Trump got into office is still mind boggling. If the GOP is not thrown out into streets this November 6, I can only see the demise of democracy, which in turn will lead to unrest on a grand scale. After that, who knows if this experiment in democracy will survive. It appears Republicans really are that bad.
4
My thoughts exactly, but way better articulated. I thought Brennan was great but perhaps too optimistic about the country. tRump could not do what he has been doing, acting like he's a capo, without the eager help of the GOP.
4
Republicans under Bush attempted to double down on Reagan’s economic policies and refused to raise taxes despite conducting two wars. They struggled to drive up growth with encouraging easy real estate loans with inadequate collateral along with Wall Street. As three giant markets became overvalued they did nothing. The financial, real estate, and credit markets all crashed. This entire series of events disproved all of the policies which Reagan introduced to revive the popularity of the Republican Party after Nixon and Ford brought down the brand.
After eight years of sound and moderate governance despite Republican obstruction the American economy had recovered. It looked good for Clinton’s election, especially after Republican voters selected a candidate who openly appealed to resentments and irrational biases and who acted like a half drunk bully. When Clinton lost, it was for Republicans like missing a bullet.
Now they are afraid of a blue wave if they do not stick with Trump and deny the existence of everything that reveals the lack of reliability of policies which they have asserted were reliable for forty years and which reality does not confirm. The leadership and voters know that Trump is not a reasonable man and he is an indecent human being but they are terrified that condemning him could cause them to become a minority that must watch liberal and moderate policies displacing their conservative one’s.
The loss of mutual trust that has developed is dangerous.
3
The American people have been under assault by Republicans for decades.
If you want to know what happened to the middle class, look to the policies of Ronald Reagan. He shifted the fleecing into high gear, knowing that the trust of the people was his greatest tool.
We now have a government that is in full control of corporate and moneyed interests.
We are at their mercy, and they will show none.
If you want to know how to tell how corrupt our government is, realize that two of the biggest crooks in our government have not been investigated, much less punished for their part in the subversion of our country.
Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are not friends of America.
6
Some would be dictators like Trump survive but most don’t.. But whether they last or not, dictators never seem to learn that fair governance including health care, food on the table, civil rights, religious choice and freedom of the press!are what the populace won’t relinquish.. In these troubled times in the US where we harbor an unscrupulous president and his cabal, the people’s choices listed above have not changed. But the government will and Trump will not be included.
4
If these rotten apparatchiks are to be removed from power and kept from snatching it back even more ruthlessly in the future, then we need:
- Paper ballots in every state, with automatic risk-limiting-audits. Vote-by-mail for everyone would be best, as it eliminates many avenues of voter suppression, intimidation and fraud. We can't keep watching close elections ALWAYS fall to the right wing candidate, flying in the face of exit polls.
- Citizen drawn districts - an end to gerrymandering (not just another decade of Democrats' doing the same thing in reverse).
Despite all the healthcare incrementalism, the wage arguments, the taxes... those policies are moot if we don't move to strengthen and defend the very foundation of democracy -- accurate and fair elections where every vote is counted as cast.
3
dead on Paul. thank you. just like people who claim the end is nigh but hold on to their worldly possessions, they will be dispossessed at their own doing. the hour glass flipped in 16, the sand is running through it, the chamber will be empty. is it 2020, maybe not. but it will happen.
3
Who is complicit?
Are opinion columnist "complicit" in Trump's election who insisted the Democrats nominate Hillary,
despite abundant evidence she would be a risky candidate for the Democrats?
1
“my guess is that most Republican politicians are spineless rather than sinister — or, more accurately, sinister in their spinelessness. They’re not really ideologues so much as careerists,”
More accurately, these weak examples of national responsibility (by oath)do not know how or what to do to stem Trump’s attacking tide against our democracy or Republic. Actually, all they must do is speak out against the wrong of Trump’s actions in a consistent fashion. This means sacrifice for the good of the Nation.
5
This article clarified precisely what is going on with trumpism and the potential risk that the survival of democracy here in the U.S. is now facing. This is a clarion call to all of us who want to preserve the rule of law and a democratic state. Vote them out come November or prepare for an autocratic and corrupt society.
4
The GOP is a zombie party with reactionary ideas, equally ludicrous and dangerous. The Dem's leadership, Pelosi, Schumer, and the remaining Clintonites in the DLC have small ideas long obsolete. The 2 party system is a sham. Mr. Krugman is correct in his trenchant analysis of the treachery of the GOP, but refuses time and again to take on the rot and eventual ruination in the Democratic party leadership if younger and more vital forces are not brought forward soon.
3
Speaking of this absolutely shameless and opportunistic Republican political complicity, I watched a remarkable unintended "split-screen" performance on a Sunday morning news program today by conservative pundit Hugh Hewitt, one of the panelists. While voicing his continuing sycophantic support for Trump and critiquing John Brennan's pointed recent criticism of him, he became very animated when the topic turned to the Catholic Church's sexual predation scandal/crisis, including the ensuing coverup by its leadership, expressing revulsion over both.
I'm certain that the irony of the different positions he took on these two issues totally escaped him, not seeing his own complicity on full public display regarding the existential political threat Trump embodies to our country. With these compromised Republicans, patriotism certainly takes a "back seat" to a righteous indignation over religious matters.
7
If democrat were substituted for Republican and Obama and Harry Reid substituted for Trump the article would read the same.
I just don't understand PK and his inability to say anything..I mean anything positive about the United States
bsb,
Are you serious?
One group takes, hordes, denies and whose actions are 180 degrees against American values, tradition, and character.
The other group expands rights, shares, and embraces protections for the common America.
A child can observe data and facts to see that although being far from perfect, it is the Democrats who fight for working wages and conditions, health care for all, respect and equality of Americans, and a sustainable approach to the environment.
6
Mr. Krugman, Thank for sharing your insightful thoughts and fears. The POTUS and his Republican lackeys are a Terrestrial Horror.
2
Devastatingly true. The Republican Party has become a collection of greedy, morally-bankrupt toadies who are only concerned about keeping their own jobs. They supported a budget-busting tax cut while pretending to be fiscally responsible, allowed Mitch McConnell to steal a Supreme Court seat from a sitting President, supported Roy Moore (an alleged child molester), and stood by while ICE separated (kidnapped) immigrant children from their parents. What are they doing to prevent Russian interference? What are they doing to support our precious our first amendment? What are they doing to prevent Mr. Trump from gutting and politicizing our justice system? Speak up or get out!
2
Trump has no shame. Desperately, he is trying to quash Mueller's investigation. Trump has threatened to revoke security clearances on several former (one current) DOJ/FBI officials. They are all witnesses in the Russian investigation. He is intimidating and punishing potential witnesses in the Russian investigation. That is a crime. Former intelligence officers who served under Republican and Democratic administrations have spoken out. Bravo!
If the midterm elections return one or both houses to the Democrats, the Republicans rats will begin to desert a sinking ship. The House will vote to impeach. The Senate may not have enough votes to remove him from office, but his goose is cooked. He will have done great damage to the Republican Party as well.
4
It all comes back to the people and who votes. As stressed as the middle class is, there is still a big middle class. They have nice big homes and nice big SUVs. They have good health insurance, fat 401ks or a pension. Their kids can go to college with little or no debt. And they think anybody who works as hard as them, marries and stays married, stays away from drugs, and goes to church can do just as well. They don't think the federal government has anything to do with their success, even if they work for the federal government or a government contractor, so they don't want to pay for it. They want tax cuts and that's all. If the Devil himself gave them a tax cut, they'd vote for him. And every one of them votes. Republicans know this.
2
If Trump is found guilty of obstruction of justice so are McCormick, Ryan and all Republicans. Is'nt an accomplice in a crime equally guilty?
3
Krugman and I simply don’t occupy the same world as does my family in South Dakota. To them, Trump and the Republicans are courageously reclaiming the great English Protestant America of the 19th century. Immigration needs to be reversed. Cities need to have their power crushed. Only Real Americans should vote. Our greatest Americans (the wealthiest) need to be set free to soar in power and wealth. The lazy poor need to get what they deserve (sickness and death). In their zero-sum world, liberals are leading us ALL to ruin with socialist redistribution. This was explained to me in the 1950s by my very angry grandmother. This is not a newly adopted attitude.
12
Whether Republican politicians are spineless careerists or share the anti-democracy, pro-authoritarianism of their Dear Leader, the problem goes far beyond GOP office holders.
They can be voted out of the majority. The tens of millions of citizens who enthusiastically support an anti-democracy President will be with us for at least a generation.
Is it Trump's authoritarianism? His racism? Do they find his profound ignorance comforting? The alternative universe he describes with his unending lies? All of the above?
"Nobody who doesn’t support Trump will ever trust their judgment or patriotism again."
That lack of trust applies to millions now, not just politicians. And that may well prove to be the true horror of Trump's legacy.
5
Speak truth to power while you can, Dr. Krugman. "Make no mistake: if Republicans hold both houses of Congress this November, Trump will go full authoritarian..." True and so depressing for those of us who cherish the ideals of this nation.
The slippery slope is already an out of control waterslide (unregulated, of course). The vast majority of elected Republicans (& those who support them) willingly dove headfirst down the slide. Why? Because of unquenchable greed, lust for power and hatred.
In less than 2 years, this slide into authoritarianism appears to be easier than Rickey Henderson sliding into second base. Attacks on the free press? Check. Vilifying & punishing dissenters? Check. Extreme abuses of power? Check. Assailing law enforcement & intelligence agencies? Check. Playing footsie with adversaries? Check. Dismantling alliances? Check. Sanctioned hatred of "others"? Check. Encouraging mob-like anger in defense of dear leader? Check. Lies, lies and more lies? Check, check and closer to checkmate.
What's next? Voiding election results if a "blue tsunami" materializes? Jailing journalists? Gulags have already been erected for asylum seekers & migrants... who will be housed in them next?
4
It's worth rereading The Manchurian Candidate, because it'll make it easier to read and absorb the follow up: Manchurian Candidate II, in which the United States not only has a Mancurian president but also a Manchurian Congress, each of them brainwashed and complicit in a Russian conspiracy to destroy the American Republic. The difference in Manchurian Candidate II, which we're living through now, is that the villains are conducting their evil deeds right out in the open, and American can't stop them... until November 2018. Vote Democratic, and hope that Russian interference (which as yet has gone unchecked) doesn't kill the Blue Wave as it did the 2016 Hillary Clinton run. If Democrats to take back the House, and our Manchurian president continues to go unchecked, we might very well be looking at the end of democracy, as Paul Krugman suggests.
3
My brother, who worked in DC for an Environmental group, tried hard to impress on me how thoroughly corrupt and cynical the far right in Washington is.
I thought he was exaggerating.... He wasn't. They (and the rest of the GOP) are traitors to our (supposed) values. They've made suckers out of every American who has every served in the armed forces, because fighting for America was NOT fighting for this.....
They conned.... and stumpy is just the latest, most lucid, chapter in this tragic farce called The United States.
How does it end? We'll know in November !
9
We’d very much recommend Republicans to read Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny - Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century”.
2
Thank you Paul Krugman! You're a voice in the wilderness, but thank you.
5
Remember when many conservatives were sincere individuals and not complete hypocrites?
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, [or] revenge . . . would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.”—President John Adams
The U.S. Constitution’s inadequacy is now on display.
Prescience?
2
No matter what happens in November, the shame will never go away.
5
President Trump is a dreamer who got what he wanted and God is laughing. Or is it Karma? The real power is Senator Mitch McConnell. He has zero interest in the constitution or the ability of the federal government to function. He represents a cynical group of older men many in finance or investment or development. They are not evil or un American, what they are is self serving and greedy. McConnell says "No" to everything and the GOP and hapless Democrats do nothing. President Trump can get past Mr. McConnell no more than Barack Obama. The president can issue executive orders and McConnell ignores them as he ignored the same from President Obama.
History will sort it out and finally explain how one man stopped the government and damaged the country and finally retired and went home smiling, that man will not be Donald Trump but a Senator who served his backers and ignored everyone and everything else.
We should remember that one of the main reasons that the Clinton campaign lost is that she herself seemed to be the very epitome of "apparatchik" in the eyes of many.
3
Enduring GOP values:
1. Low spending.
2. Deficit reduction.
3. Standing up to our adversaries.
4. Supporting our allies.
5. Government staying out of personal decisions.
6. Supporting working Americans.
7. Cutting government waste.
8. Free trade.
9. Big tent.
10. Responsible leadership.
Oh, never mind.
4
“Trump will go full authoritarian, abusing institutions like the I.R.S., trying to jail opponents and journalists on, er, trumped-up charges, and more — and he’ll do it with full support from his party.”
In other words, exactly what Obama did with the IRS and the wiretapping and prosecution of reporters. Except there was no condemnation from Krugman, or Democrats. Ah, partisanship and hypocrisy. The gifts that keep on giving.
1
I and untold millions of others have no idea what this man is talking about. Trump is a threat to democracy? The economy is booming at record levels, the nation is at peace and people like this author and two cable news networks spout out anti Trump gibberish and lies 24 hours a day making no sense to the average working man If Trump is an undemocratic dictator he must be the worst in human history as he continues to allow himself to be be investigated with no legal basis by biased prosecutors as the media lies about him non stop This insanity is only likely to increase his reelection chances in the states he won in 2016
Harry writes "I and untold millions of others have no idea what this man is talking about. Trump is a threat to democracy?"
Can't disagree with that. Most, if not all, Trump cult members have no idea what anyone besides their exalted leader is taking about. Of course, their only news comes from the American version of Pravda...Fox. Fox has admitted in court that they are not a news organization...they are an entertainment media purveyor.
Oh, and the economy is not setting records...just more Trumpian lies. And American is at war. Just ask the soldiers in Afghanistan. And we are in a cyber war with Russia, but the Trumpkins love Putin as much as Trump, so they don't care what Russia does to disrupt and steal our elections...and anything else.
And yes, Trump would love to stop the free press from saying anything he doesn't like. Trump would love to stop the investigation into his collusion and conspiracy with the Russians, and his obstruction of justice. And all his little Trumpkin supporters want to end the investigation because they don't want to know what he did, and they really don't care if he broke any laws.
Bottom line...Trump and his base both spit on the law, on the constitution, on democracy, and on the United States of America.
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICAN
2
President Trump believes in fundamental Republican principles. You don't. You believe in bigger government, more regulation, and higher taxes. That's your choice. Fair enough.
Still, your hysteria is wearing thin. President Trump is no more of a "dictator", or "threat to democracy" than President Obama was. Both are using, maybe over using, the executive powers of the Government. You don't like Republican ideas; you are a progressive Democrat, ok. But demonizing President Trump just makes you look silly to many centrists, people without your redistributionist passions.
@Stew R
As I recall Trump, never tired of claiming that Obama is not American and a threat to the Republic, among his many slanders. And as for redistribution, he does not hesitiate to steer government money to himself and his friends despite Consitutional prohibitions against such.
3
Although I deeply admire Prof. Krugman and share his disdain for both Trump and the Republican Party, I think this column is off. The problem is the party. 100
As we have seen in this year's round of primaries, the Repbulican primary voters are unforgiving. Any Republican politician who comes out against Trump, or even criticizes him, stands a strong chance of losing his/her job in the next election cycle. Ask Mark Sanford, or other Republican losers who fell short of fully embracing Trump. We have gone beyond purging relative moderates like Dick Lugar. Anyone who is not 100% Trumpian is in trouble.
So this is a problem that goes beyond spinelessness. The Republican party is rotten to the core. Unless something like Trump's current attack on the intelligence community disgusts large numbers of Republican voters, the only remedy is a new party, as reasonable politicians desert the existing party. But again, to do so is likely to lead to defeat and the end of one's career.
5
"Make no mistake: if Republicans hold both houses of Congress this November, Trump will go full authoritarian, abusing institutions like the I.R.S...." Oh, really? I doubt he do anything to antagonize the I.R.S., which is likely the greatest single source of information on the grifter's vast criminal enterprise.
3
@Alan Grossberg
He already did adversely effect the IRS by cutting its budget.
4
History (immediate and future) will show that as the GOP realized that in 2016 as the Office of President was falling into their laps, their ethics and oaths of office fell with it. Such craven political ambition at the expense of their country and democratic values are indefensible today and will be one hundred years from now. McConnell and Ryan along with the inaction and the complicity of ALL congressional oversight responsibilities and ALL checks and balances from ALL persons under oath that it is not only hard to have principle but even harder to live by them.
8
I think, certainly, Republicans in congress are a bunch of opportunists, and their principles a skewed towards anything for tax cuts and damaging the social safety net. Yet still, they are, for the most part, not as bad as the White House staff or Trump himself. And most are far above the rabble that fuel Trump's rallies. Examples are the Republicans in congress almost universally voting to punish Russian and declaring Russian in the wrong for it's actions: annexing Crimea, actions in East Ukraine, assassinations. The Trump administration has refused to implement some sanctions. Still, we know where congress stands. As a body politic, we still oppose an authoritarian regime like Russian's or any other. That is ingrained Americanism, and Trump is not going to erode that.
The 538 polling analysis has it a 75% chance that the House of Representatives will go over to the Democrats in November. This close to the election, that is almost a certainty. But if Professor Krugman's worst case scenario comes to pass and Republican's retain control of congress, that could be even worse than now, since the GOP could very well pick up seats in the Senate.
That would be dire and a crisis among Democrats (maybe among independents too.) At that point, the Country would have to mobilize in a very serious way. Would we then see, as Professor Krugman predicts that that Trump will go "full authoritarian..."? If he did that, I predict serious civil strife.
5
@jstevend
"it's actions:" How about shooting down a large passenger plane and killing all of its people?
Russia did that in 1983. It claimed it thought the plane was a weather ballon, and or the US reported our weather ballon went down in Russia.
1
@jstevend, sure, they do everything short of impeaching Putin's puppet on a chain of financial crimes.
@jstevend blood on the streets. jails full.
"To some extent this is just human weakness in action."
It runs much deeper than that: in advertising, the power of the brand to conceal a bad product until the car explodes but profits are already banked; in financial services, the creation of instruments to bilk the system before it crashes; in entertainment, audiences degraded by superhero power struggles with no moral or even human content; in religion, millennial yearning for the sovereign lawgiver to set the world right by imprisoning political enemies and gays; in the English language, a debasement so puerile as to be unrecognizable as a vehicle of mature reason; in moral education, a populace fed on violence, cruelty, Schadenfreude, and torture; in society, little memory left of the principles on which the nation was founded; in every sector of American life, despite some appearances to the contrary, a creeping nihilism that expresses itself in the will to power for its own sake irrespective of ascertainable goals such as "lower taxes on the rich and freedom to pollute."
16
@Vernon Chadwick Don't give up; journalism is at its peak, the bureucracy is showing profiles in courage, but above all women are fighting ...Trump is uniting many of us. our goals have changed; things like medicare for all werre pipe dreams.
1
63 million voted for him. The electoral college validated his victory. What brave politician will challenge that? We will see in a few short months the degree of regret.
5
@Leonard Wood, The Electoral College is a pro-forma process peopled by the political hacks representing the winning party in each state. No thinking is needed or wanted.
2
I'll quote former representative David Jolly on the subject. I don't agree with his politics but he speaks to this issue quite eloquently:
"What too many lawmakers fail to see is this: If you don’t go on the record, your opinion doesn’t count. Worse, neither will your legacy. Refusing to publicly acknowledge your convictions simply affirms your unwillingness to act on them. And that is an indictment of you, not the president.
History rightfully discards those unwilling to take a stand, those who, in the face of a divided nation, shrink from controversy and seek refuge in the shadows of their indecision. Conversely, history memorializes those who speak with courage, those who, at defining national moments, put country over party."
19
@Andy, History waits for the controversially virtuous to die before getting interested in them.
I've been reading Jacques Ellul's "Propaganda", a 1965 examination of the phenomenon which had emerged in the wake of World War II as a serious threat to the entire concept of a representative government, as well as being an aid to it if wielded properly, and to be honest, I feel like I'm reading an extended Fox News mission statement. I think Mr. Krugman hits the nail on the head when he writes about a monolithic mass movement that abides no dissent. I call this "ideological correctness" and it is quite similar to something familiar to Stalinism: "Accept the precepts of the ideology or face persecution!" It doesn't matter whether those precepts entail dialectical materialism or "market based rationality", what's important is the push for subjects of the propaganda to react.
Congress may not be making a move because if it waits until the Dems capture Congress, they can then blame "the enemy" for taking-down a president. That's odd. The enemy. In a political situation called democracy, one that abides compromise as a guiding principle, there are no enemies.
One cause of revolution, something we should look at as well, is what happens when a population discovers their leaders and authorities aren't interested in listening to them.
In that light, I call my Senator, "Cornyn, R, Hunt Oil", mainly because he's not interested in the constituents that are living beings that do not pay-up.
All this is far worse than Nixon.
33
@Gordon Hilgers, Don't kid yourself, they really do like Russians better than liberal Americans.
It should be pointed out on a daily basis that it is the job of the congress to provide a check and balance to the executive and judicial branches. That one party controls all three branches should have never resulted in what is currently taking place. The framers of the Constitution never foresaw that party would become more important than country, but then they never foresaw that the government would be filled by morally bankrupt opportunists who strive for power over people and the requirements of their job.
It is never remembered that we were a very weak country at the outset and that our rise to global superpower was not in the minds of our forefathers. They were trying to design a government that could survive and potentially thrive under the belief that the people should have the power and that one person who did not have the plurality of the votes should ever make the decisions for the majority. Trump did not have a mandate and his whole tenure should be challenged for that fact alone and ANYONE who says he should have free reign unobstructed does not understand anything about how and why this country was founded and established. The presidency should be elected by majority vote exclusively (the less populous states have plenty of power through the senate and even the house).
18
@Lucas Lynch
The Framers of the Constitution, members of the Continental Congress, had the opportunity and a few did to sit down with the Iroquoi Nation, five tribes, and gather at THEIR CONGRESSIONAL MEETINGS. The Iroquois Confederacy had a constitution, with rules, and they acted as a committee which voted on issues that effected all five tribes. They veered from the popular leader type of collective government.
Yah, know, the framers did not act in a vacuum. England was on the rise as a world dominant super power. They did have a concept of super power. France, which they did visit, had a glorious but challenged monarchy system. France was cultivating philosophic dissent, and socialism.
@Lucas Lynch, The job of Congress is management of fiscal policy, which it is demonstratively incapable of doing with the twits elected to the job.
Wonderfully direct truth telling....
The ultimate game plan is for MAGA to have a world controlled by a relatively small number of autocracies (Trumpism, China, Russia, and smaller fish, such as Turkey, Saudi, etc.) which simplifies the Capitalist playing field for its longing for empire, because (as the secret story goes) MAGA can beat China and beat Russia, and be The World Empire of the dollar. But MAGA needs everything to be transposable into the spheres of a small number of autocracies competing with each other. (And the little people can eat the heat.)
The MAGA people can taste it: True empire at last and again. It will last a thousand years, yada, yada,...
2
After many years of discussions with Republicans, this writer has come to the conclusion that Republicans are deeply religious, and their God is Capitalism, their Devil, Socialism. Like any religious person, in an argument Republicans proceed as if evidence is not anywhere near as important as dogma. Accordingly, real Republicans believe that no matter how inept President Trump demonstrates himself to be, he is better than those devils, the Democrats (aka Socialists). To further support this contention, just recall how they treated President Obama, obstructing him at every turn; after all, his attempts at fairness to all and social justice might lead to the questioning of the basic tenets of capitalism.
8
Do you know what the basic difference between the stupid and the smart people is?
It is psychological in nature. The former group is trying to learn where the others have failed. The latter are attempting to recognize their own mistakes.
Where is this difference stemming from?
The former has assumed that they are perfect and have never made a single wrong step…
That’s why they keep repeating the identical errors for many decades…
They recognize the mistakes in the others. The others recognize the weaknesses of the first group. Then they conclude that if they are in a conflict and the other side is provenly bad, that they must be right!
The obvious possibility that in the prolonged conflict both sides could be wrong has never crossed their minds…
1
Sadly, there are a large number of Congresspersons and Senators who hail from the ideological wing of evangelical Christianity - and who firmly believe it is their god given duty to help push this world to its final Apocalypse. The dominianist beliefs they hold also will support the demise of democracy in favor of putting power into the hands of a willingly complicit strongman ruler, who has no scruples about the scorched earth outcomes of their psychotic belief system. That a sufficient number of these people (read Freedom Caucus, as an example) have been able to gain and maintain their elective offices is a sad commentary on the mentality and capacity of enough voters to be of a similarly deluded mindset. That some have created their own militias (and some supporters own their own - e.g. Blackwater) and vow to protect this way of life should give serious pause to those intellectuals who believe that all they need to do is get to the polls in November and all will be set right.
6
We are not going to forget who Republicans are and what they did not do.
4
This article demonstrates an ignorance of the ferocity of Trump’s base. Feeling deeply wronged by past administrations, his base is willing to walk through fire for Trump . Any attempt to discredit him is met with derision and outrage. Representatives oppose them at their peril. The midterm elections loom large in trying to turn back these missiles of anger aimed at the liberal establishment.
5
@Esther They may be ferocious, but they are deeply ignorant, uneducated, and seemingly incapable of flexibility or resourcefulness in adapting to newer economic reality. They also have no idea that the Trumpublicans aim to remove every single social safety net they have, leaving them scratching their heads yet again blaming someone one else for problems of their own making. So while they may have passion and a certian political power in small enclaves of the country, thankfully, these deplorables are not even close to being a majority in America.
Trump and the Republicans are like a bad marriage. The relationship is sinking into a abyss but one partner (in this case the congress) believes that by going along just one more time the relationship will improve. Rather than that happening, Trump, never seeing or feeling any push-back from his congressional partner simply continues to insist on what ever whim pops into his head. A modern manifestation of the Roman Emperor Caligua. An Emperor who indulged his every whim until his supposed "friends" murdered him.
10
Nobody even knew who Caligula was going to throw under the chariot next.
Not mentioned as a reason for Republican complicity is Schadenfreude. For 8 years Republicans were seething under an African American President. The new era of an unhinged, blabbermouth Trump gives them silent glee at seeing Democrats and progressives squirm with every atrocity unleashed by Trump. It's a gift that keeps on giving. Why stop it, especially when, in addition, a little schmoozing of their Narcissist-in-Charge can produce further gifts like Supreme Court picks and extra cash in their overflowing bank accounts...
It's a win-win for them...
10
@SP, Obama sure didn't know how to stick it to them. He should have let Bush's tax cuts expire on schedule.
1
Paul, it's The Greatest Little Whorehouse in Washington.
And why shouldn't it be? Our nation's Wealthiest, either personally or through corporations, wield power over Congressional decision-making, from the recent weakening of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to Wall Street's successful assault on Dodd-Frank to Education Department rulings in favor of for-profit institutes of dubious education, the GOP has consistently favored the interests of often nefarious Sugar Daddies.
The slope really isn't that slippery. I imagine that members of that party schussing down that slope today have been doing so for so many decades that they feel like they're on level ground. It's all a matter of perspective.
And that's why consistent efforts to shame them into performing their duty as Tribunals of the people end in frustration. I am sure that you have seen some ignoramus trying to speak English to a non-English speaker. When it's clear that the listener cannot comprehend, the speaker raises the volume, precisely articulating each word.
It's increasingly clear to me that we are that ignoramus, and that even Berlitz and a megaphone won't help.
Rather, instead of hoping that our GOP consorts will come to their senses (imagine a scene in which the concubine opts to make a career change mid-kiss), we must become as cold-blooded in rejecting them as they have been rejecting any solutions that favor people but jeopardize wealth.
Vote anti-strumpet 2018. Throw the floozies out.
11
While the Democrats coasted on the achievements of the 1930s through the 1960s, the Republicans began cultivating a generation of young ideologies in the 1980s, using the business departments of the nation’s colleges and universities, the “non-denominational” (that is, no traditional Christian institution vets either their doctrines or clergy) megachurches of suburban America, K-12 schools associated with these churches, and even new colleges that claim to reject the “liberal bias” and “political correctness” of existing colleges, all reinforced by AM talk radio and later Fox News, countless websites, and certain little-known magazines, novels, and movies that mimic mainstream magazines, novels, and movies but are actually pure right-wing propaganda.
A family member once gave piano lessons to two children who were growing up in a total right-wing information environment. This family member was recommended to the parents by a former student of his who made his living writing musical scores for simple-minded “Christian” movies.
At this point, most of the younger Republican members of Congress have grown up in at least part of the right-wing information environment, and the Republican Party has made a deliberate effort to groom them as they move from local to state to federal offices.
Professor Krugman, they ARE ideologues, members of the cult of cruelty and ignorance. Why would they oppose the current president?
12
@Pdxtran, every last one of these creeps has been corruption-tested for abject sycophancy.
1
"It’s the absence of any meaningful pushback from Congressional Republicans. Indeed, not only are they acquiescing in Trump’s corruption, his incitements to violence, and his abuse of power, up to and including using the power of office to punish critics, they’re increasingly vocal in cheering him on."
Well, yes. The congressional republicans have joined the cult. The cult of Trump. They are now trumpublicans. And it is a cult. And in a cult, loyalty comes first. And the way a leader tests loyalty is to make increasingly outrageous statements and have his followers express their glowing support. If you want to be a Trumpublican, you have to drink the kool-aid...no matter what the kool-aid contains.
So, what this country faces is, in fact, a cult composed of tens of millions of people who want to run the country and couldn't care less about democracy. This is a bloodless, so far, revolution. And yes, should they retain control of congress after November, stick a fork in it, because this country as a democratic republic will be done.
If you think I'm being hyperbolic...think again.
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS
YOUR LIBERTY DEPENDS ON IT
10
The republican mantra is surely "hey, you over there - don't take my money."
The only thing that matters to these republicans is money, with the power it begets. More than democracy, more than equality, more than virtue or "family values." More than any other thing. Complicity within this paradigm is simply business as usual.
11
@EASabo, and they completely ignore the money showered on them, as in the $725 billion "defense" bill.
If you watch and read Star Wars a lot, you wonder how anyone could support The Empire. Then you realize: it doesn't take that many supporters. Maybe only 10 or 15% true believers - either true fascists or else just corrupt racketeers - and everybody else just sort of standing around, waiting for someone to do something or for "the system" to come to its senses somehow, or thinking 'there isn't anything I can do about it; there isn't anything ANYBODY can do about it. That's just politics as usual.' Well, of course it's politics as usual - politics is nothing but an extension of your involvement or apathy - your education or ignorance - your principles, good or lousy.
10
@Federico
I recommend the book, "On the Road to Unfreedom", where the author describes two antithetical myths that he calls the "politics of inevitability", meaning that one does not need to be concerned about a crisis because the "system" or "government" will right itself without one's involvement, and the "politics of eternity", which he defines as a sense of futility - there is nothing that can be done to reverse the course, so don't bother trying. Neither need be true, unless we let it be so. You have articulated these dichotomous myths well.
@Federico: What an insufferable bore to see all that technology devoted to feudal swordplay.
Which came first the chicken or the egg? With the long and ongoing usurpation of our democracy I see the Party of Greed to be the chicken whose foul diet of racism , misogyny and nativism has produced an egg that was hatched spoiled and fed to the masses to sicken them further. This usurpation was incubated after Goldwaters loss and brought to fruition with St Ronnie. The ideology that only one party was worthy of running the country eventually attracked the attention of a wanna be demagogue who crashed the party along with millions who had been poisoned by the Party of Greeds dog whistle diet. Of course the POG seess this as a possible plus as long as they can outlast the deagogue, so now they are on hold. I do wonder if the Pog will eventually find it necessary to get rid of the demagogue. Just make sure to recognize that if that happens the mantle of protector will be a fake one because the only thing they want to protect is their power over the people.
1
Your article made me realize how alike the Republican party is to the Catholic church. Instead of covering up the outrageous and illegal deeds of the priests, Congressional Republicans just enable Trump to do outrageous and illegal deeds to the American people.
5
In my nearly 6 decades, I never thought I'd read an op-ed like this about our country. And yet Mr. Krugman is (sadly) spot on in his analysis.
The GOP has morphed into a party that stands for nothing but greed, pettiness and power. They have zero interest in making the lives of their constituents better -- well, with the exception of their ultra-wealthy donor buddies. They sneer and show complete disdain for the rule of law, our constitution and our institutional norms. And display even more disdain for anyone who doesn't agree with their money-grubbing, hate-filled agenda. And they have the gall to call themselves patriots!
Who would have ever believed hundreds of newspapers would have to simultaneously publish op-eds defending the first amendment because the guy in the White House is trying to destroy our freedoms? The rapid devolution of the values our founding fathers established is mind boggling! Never the U.S., we mistakenly believed. And yet, here we are.
We're saddled with a "president" and supporting cast of GOP enablers in congress hellbent on not discovering the extent of election interference. Who voted down fortifying our election systems. Why? As much as it seemed farfetched not long ago, I now strongly suspect they (GOP) are all compromised and if Mueller's investigation runs it's full course, Russian money (& kompromat?) will be the proven drivers of their actions (& inactions).
The enemy of the people is the GOP.
16
Donald Trump is an autocrat apprentice . A real , fully empowered autocrat like Mussolini or the Castro Brothers in Cuba would put you in front of the firing squad if you oppose them . Trump wishes and envies the unlimited powers of real autocrats . He does not have that power yet . His fury and hate are curtailed by a free press and the rule of law . That makes me think of the enablers in the GOP . Some of them are Cubans Americans like me . I am talking about people like Senators Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz . In Cuba if you oppose the regimen you may lose your life . This people are only putting in jeopardy their careers . They know quite well Trump is a disaster but are afraid to oppose him . I came to this Country in 1961 fleeing communism like their fathers . Who are worse the enablers of the Castro brothers or the enablers of Donald Trump ?.
10
@Bernardo Izaguirre MD
Dr. Thank you.
Let's expand your observation to the countries Trump has endeared himself to:
"In Cuba if you oppose the regimen you may lose your life ."
"In North Korea, if you oppose the regimen you will lose your life."
"In Communist Red China, if you oppose the regimen, you will go missing."
"In Russia, if you oppose the regimem you may lose your life, to suicide, to poisoning, to being thrown out a window..., and not necessarily in the jurisdiction of Russia."
Gee in most of Africa, from the Cote de Ivory, to Zimbabwe, if you oppose the regimem you may go missing.
The list goes on.
1
If the Democrats were good there would be no Republicans and otherwise...
@Kenan Porobic, Everything Republicans claim to know about liberals is projection.
No parties = autocracy.
Trump can declare martial law whenever he wants to. And that may well be what he does before or after the November election. And then what? The GOP sold us down the river, starting about 30 years ago (thanks, Lee Atwater, for kicking things off as you did). These people are despicable, and yet there is little we can do, even though many more people will vote this November than in previous midterms elections. I can't believe how quickly things have deteriorated. I also blame the GOP and their corporate overlords.
I keep wondering when we'll be dealing with a real civil war in this country. I think it will be sooner rather than later, which is just awful to contemplate. And that will create a huge opportunity for terrorists of all stripes (and Mr. Putin) to add to the chaos that is going to ensue. I don't know how to prepare for this. Do I need to go buy guns and provisions? Get a fierce dog? Buy a tank? Dig a bunker in my back yard? Terrifying times.
13
Don't worry the war will be very short. Probably more like a coup. The federation will disintegrate afterwards. But the states will still stand, under their respective blue or red flags.
Trump simply cannot be the end of our democracy. He is much too small a man for such an immense legacy. No, he should be a footnote in the (hopefully) long arc of our nation’s history. He should be but an ugly symptom of a 21st century gilded age that is corrected with an awakening of the apathetic cellphone zombie masses who finally choose to show up at the polls and vote!
Your vote matters, my vote matters, EVERY VOTE MATTERS!
VOTE November 06, 2018
26
@Dabney L, Trumps are what happens to nations so delusionally conceited that they believe they are divine creations.
1
The GOP may have set themselves up for a massive failure. They have simply become too obvious at their goal to subvert our democracy. Trump is the latest symptom of the GOP's slide into fascism that began decades ago.
Brian Kemp running for Gov in GA is a good example of the GOP's disregard of, among other things, the constitution. McConnell and Ryan are the worst, but Kemp's efforts to purge voter rolls of blacks has to be the epitome. Example: One county in GA, predominantly black, is closing 7 of 9 polling stations. Neo-Confederacy has truly hit its stride with Trump.
So, "We’re seeing, in real time, what the GOP is really made of." Indeed.
5
Of course this is all true and to be frank, it is even worse! But, we have to be honest if we are to truly save this Republic, because without honesty, we only leave the open open to echo's of the past. First we must realize that the current crop of Democratic leaders with the few notable exceptions, are like an anchor thrown into deep water. The ship cannot move, nor will it as long as that anchor remains in the water! Secondly, the corporate Media,the NYT especially included, cannot continue to allow this President to bully them and still expect to be relevant! The whining and pleading by the media is not just embarrassing but worthless. The Media MUST STOP the daily need to publish and discuss Trump's insidious Tweets! PERIOD! Just stop giving him the hammer!
2
@Bill But Rudy Giuliani has just told us that "Truth isn't truth!" (interview with Chuck Todd).
So how does honesty save us from a world without an ounce of truth in it?
(I do agree all media should simply ignore Trump's tweets; they are products of bile, yes, but they do not help indicate the next move he will be making.)
@Bill It takes just a few minutes watching Trump rabble-rouse to know the man is a planet-killing psychopath.
1
@JFMACC: "Sincerely held belief" is a euphemism for hogwash.
The voters must rescue this country in November. Regardless on how one may feel about abortion, taxes, Obamacare or guns, we must vote the GOP out. Protecting democracy is job one.
19
America was never a democracy...All Trump has done in the past 18 months is pull back the red white and blue curtains and exposed the oligarchy which now allows them to pull the levers of power with impunity and out in the open.. The first step to defeating a problem is to first acknowledge it's existence so I am hopeful that we media induced comatose sheep will finally awaken and begin the long painful process of dismantling this rotten to the core government of special interest sycophants..
History may well judge the King Trump coup as a turning point in the advent of a second American Revolution
4
I shudder to think of the consequences of a failed Blue Wave this November.
6
Krugman has perfectly described the GOP and the frustration Americans feel toward this pathetically ineffectual political party occupying and deeply damaging our country.
Since the party became so weak, it has relied heavily on its ability to circle the wagons and effectively stonewall most legislation that didn't mesh with its increasingly extreme right wing ideology. And it developed that ideology into a juggernaut of dog whistle politics and an agenda of fringe issues catering to a small, moneyed constituency: evangelical Christians, the fossil fuel industry, anti-LGBTQ groups, racists et al. Suddenly, religion became a national issue, and the GOP-deemed right to discriminate against their neighbors on that basis.
Americans were increasingly in favor of lowering the bar of discourse (thanks to the power of reality TV and money from corporate donors), we saw a literal clown car of extremist right wing Republicans vying for the GOP nomination. The one with the biggest star power, loudest mouth and biggest wallet became the candidate, even though he was ridiculous, simple-minded and grossly unqualified. Historians will argue for decades to come over the question of why, but I see a perfect storm.
Instead of Trump embracing the party, the party has embraced Trump, a man of lies and no accountability. We live in a surreal, frozen landscape where criminals are in charge and are aided and abetted by a selfish oligarchy.
10
Republicans are as you say, not interested in the US as a whole. They are users of both the planet and people: both of whom they care nothing for. Time to wake-up American voters.
9
@Cecily Ryan. It is Every Man a King Louis XIV in today's Republican Party. After Trump, the Deluge.
“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” “The true test of a man's character is what he does when no one is watching.”
- John Wooden
The Republicans have had ample time to try and right the ship. They could have done it at any time but chose not to do it. They could have done it behind closed doors and kept it in house but chose not to. They didn't have to make bold proclamations in the public eye, even though that would have shown some courage on their part. Instead they have chosen to do nothing. They have chosen to ride it out and try and capitalize as much as possible while the rest of the country and world watches in amazement at the train wreck that is our president and government. What kind of person allows this to happen? What kind of person believes this is laudable? To varying degrees Republicans, you are those kind of people.
21
@Magan, they never even grew up enough to stop sucking their thumbs.
Read Scott Peck’s “People of the Lie” about the human capacity for evil. His explanation is similar to Professor Krugman’s description of Republican complicity.
4
Remember, the Republican party gave us Watergate AND Iran-Contra, AS WELL AS Trump. See a theme here?
6
Preach, brother. Exclusively to the converted, of course. I still don't think you've beaten Blow in the tizzy-of-outrage competition, but keep repeating for the next few years if thus inclined. Out.
4
Republicans in Congress are the true "me first generation."
8
These times are too uncertain and cloudy to form any but tentative judgments. No one knows how matters will unfold: What will become of the Republican party? Will it split in two.
Yet we can't wait until historians explain what happened, and why it occurred at this time. As some sober Republicans have said, we have to vote Democratic this November. That is our ultimate protection against this country becoming similar to fascist Italy.
8
Finally, full-throated condemnation of the GOP.
I and many other commentators have long been asking that Times columnists redirect the focus of columns away from the Con Artist in Chief to his GOP accomplices picking the pockets of the working people and enriching the rich.
It is quite clear by now that nothing will come between Trump and his demented supporters. If Mueller reports conclusive evidence of Trump working with Putin to defeat Clinton, he will not lose a single supporter. If Trump fires and locks up Mueller et al, the GOP will back him up.
Trump is a despotic con artist, the GOP is a despotic cabal hiding behind the American flag and Christian hypocrisy.
Since Republicans will not place country above their cabal, the only hope America has to survive is for Democrats, Independents, Green Party members and those who have sat out elections in the past, to show up at the polls in November and vote for Democrats. Save our democracy!
Those of us in safe blue states must do more than vote. Volunteer to help Democrats in red states: offer to travel to a neighboring state to help a blue campaign, make calls and make financial contributions.
Over the past two and a half centuries Americans have sacrificed to preserve our democratic republic. Many have given their lives that the rest of us could live in freedom. Can we not do more than simply vote in November?
Wake up America. The GOP is a blight on democracy, shackles on our freedom, betrayer of the working people.
8
Everything Trump now touches or issues a declaration about is illegal.
2
Excellent column! But why are almost all Republicans now Trump supporters? Isn't their support of him akin to a once prudent investor whose investments were once diversified and now consist of shares in firm much like Enron?
5
"They’re not really ideologues so much as careerists, whose instinct is always to go along with the party line.”
Couldn’t the same be said of Democrats? Whether Republican or Democrat, a politician is expected to vote on every issue the way his or her party has decided. Rather than carefully considering the best interests of the country on each issue, politicians have learned they have to support their party’s line. They support their party so that it will maintain or gain power, irrespective of the individual issues.
Our founding fathers did not want us to join long-term political parties which would take a stand on every issue. They hoped members of the public would join temporary groups to support single issues, and then, at some points, join other groups to support other issues.
The 2 political parties have become more powerful than is healthy for our democracy. They are helping to tear our country apart, which is exactly what our founding fathers were afraid might happen.
We should jettison the 2 parties, and join in temporary coalitions over single issues that are of concern to us.
9
What's disheartening are congressmen like McConnell who declared they'd do everything to stop Obama while he was trying to initiate a recovery from a deep recession verging on depression. Now, they have no objection to a deeply divisive person with no moral values, no knowledge of or interest in governance, and who has quickly destroyed our place of respect in the world.
That is why I have no respect for the GOP. They've sold put their promise to govern for the people to hold on to their own positions of power.
5
Political commentators may not realize how deep the rot goes, but minorities, women, and children realize how deep the rot goes.
When nothing is done about school shootings, children knows how deep the rot goes in the Republican Party
When a #Metoo movement is prevalent because of misogyny by both Trump and members of Congress, women know how deep the rot goes in the Republican Party.
When minorities and Democrats are gerrymandered out of a voting district and/or removed from voter roles, they know how deep the rot is in the Republican Party and in Congress.
And it is not just in Washington, it is also in Republican States.
So Political commentators should be highly aware of how deep the rot goes. It is their job to know.
7
In the end, the enablers and the complicit, shall too be devoured by the evil. There will be no good end to this monstrosity as the illusions chased and yearned for by the enablers, that of greater wealth, power, social status, and ego gratification will fade away revealing the horror of the abyss that awaits. It can be seen in its eyes. Wake up America!
1
Interesting juxtaposition between this article on "complicity" and the reports of the Catholic church in Pennsylvania's thirty-year coverup.
2
Obama faced an obstructionist GOP Congress refusing to work with him. It was a difficult 8 years. Now, with the GOP holding all 3 branches of government, it doesn't matter to them the president is wildly inappropriate and perhaps worsening.
Horrible news stories follow day after day. The cabinet Mr. Trump selected is relentlessly self-dealing. He's demanding the Mueller probe be shut down, and threatening intelligence officials both retired and working. One outrage after another!
Republicans excuse Trump's flagrant ethics issues, and the constant chaos as if they were normal. None of this is normal or appropriate. In fact, it's bizarre. He's acting as Imperial Caesar.
The treatment of our transatlantic friends, and problematic trade issues are not healthy for the country. Our international standing is diminished. And much of what transpires in Trump World seems an effort to deflect from his problems + continued difficulties being presidential.
2
So sad but true, and many of the comments apply to the majority of politicians. Seems to me like it has something to do with human nature. I will vote to oppose Trump and socialism!
@Andrew
"For the People" is not socialism! Don't be tricked!
Dr. Krugman is always interesting, and generally on target, as he is here; nevertheless, this column is not much more than a repeat of earlier columns. And for that matter, one sees many similar columns elsewhere; the most recent one I've seen is Michael Gerson's in the Post.
I learn most from Dr. Krugman when he writes on economics. There he has unmatched expertise, and almost no competition.
1
Congressional Republicans are behaving as expected, acting in fealty to their Koch-brothers-led donor master class, enacting tax cuts for corporations and the rich and advocating for deregulation and indirectly the consequent perpetuation of the ongoing assault on climate and the environment.
What continues to astound is the self-defeating refractory ignorance of Trump’s zealously loyal middle and lower class base, supporting policies that will maintain the status quo and the barren bereft economic landscape confronting them and their offspring.
Perverted postmodernism cynically rendered to gullible base distracted by resentment and bigotry, the hallmark of the present day Republican Party.
1
When brash, rash, foolhardy or complicit, taking the slippery slope of any kind or any way to navigate is asking for a big fall. Let us show some spine and rise. Rise America, and march united on Washington for we will never surrender to Trump and his GOP.
It goes against our religion; it goes against our Constitution; it goes against the stars in our flag, but above all, we do not recognize this trumped up version of a nation built on democracy. We are beyond politics now, and the tarnished White House is in need of renovations and a fresh coat of paint.
We will not only resist, but refuse. Uncle Sam is calling on all of us to do our best and put an end to this charade.
2
There were signs of this back with the Reagan reign. It was further ignited by Gingrich, DeLay, Rove and their cronies. Trump is just the culmination of their efforts. Republican politicians and the party see themselves as the anointed, the royalty, the masters. Vote in November while you still can, send them to the dungeon.
9
Just fill in the blanks - party doesn't matter, the whole system is irrevocably compromised:
"...if [insert party] lose[s] Congress and [current president] leaves office on or before [election day], the same people who kept declaring that [current president] just became president will try to go back to pretending that [insert party] politicians are serious, honorable people who care about policy. But they aren’t.
So remember this moment. We’re seeing, in real time, what [insert party] is really made of.
1
It seems that "democracy" does not work for the "rabble", like some of the "founding fathers" referred to, in considering electing a president by the people, the reason of the "Electoral College"... and yes, the poor -the majority- vote against their own interest... in the interest of their masters.
It seems that the "founding fathers" were wrong, the people still would elect someone that works against their interest: lack of vision; they could have warp the Constitution with the cloak of "democracy" in letting people to vote for their next oppressor crook.
That the threat to democracy is not registering with most people is a claim not repeated often enough. I would even argue that this "lack of registering" in the American public is a bigger threat than the threat itself. This piece made me think of those who commit violent crimes, like murderers and rapists. Once they start, if they keep going, it gets easier and easier for them to do. That applies to almost everything in life, I would argue, even positive things, like exercise.
1
I don’t have any brilliant insights to add. I just want to say how much I appreciate your work. Once again, you are completely and absolutely right.
19
"Accountants for the mob", would be the best comparison. If their rich sponsors or the zombies known as "the base" want it, they'll do it, no matter what "it" might be.
This is how democracies die.
10
But we live in the North East. Railing against him is of little use. We need to move to MN, IN, MO, AZ, NV, Central CA to have much impact.
2
How will Trump react if there is truly a Blue Wave result in the midterm elections? Declare the vote fraudulent? That wouldn’t surprise me. We’ll hear about the hundreds of buses of fake voters that George Soros or the Clintons shipped in to various states. Or maybe at that point he’d blame Russian interference.
Create a fake crisis and ask Congress for special powers to combat it, like declaring martial law? The Republican Congress wouldn’t bat an eye. They would continue to be a bunch of bobble-head dolls agreeing to anything His Orangeness decrees. I’m amazed every day when I see any Republican on the news standing there pontificating. How do they remain upright with no spines? It defies all the laws of physics.
6
The only possible factor I see in turning this dire situation around is a huge turnout of voters voting Democrat in the upcoming midterms and in 2020. My own personal observation as an ordinary citizen is that most of my fellow citizens will express their deep concern for how that state of our country is in such imminent peril with an inept, possibly mentally deranged president at the helm, abetted by a spineless, complicit Congress ; most Americans go about their lives day to day with their own problems, the regular drudgery life hands them. Very few are committed to being actively engaged in trying to change for the better the political landscape that permeates everything that affects their lives. If it comes down to the fact that we end up living under a dictatorship, my gut feeling is the majority will accept it as a way of life, outraged though they will be, but helpless to do anything about it. On the other hand, the loyal Trump followers who cast a blind eye to all the corruption and muck now happening, will not blink an eye, until it is way too late. Please, everyone, vote like your life depends on it this November and in 2020.
3
Speaking from “up here”, the vast majority of Canadians hope for a complete repudiation of the last two nighmare years. Do your country and the world a huge service this November. Relations between our two countries could not bear the strain of another two years of Trump (to say nothing of six!)
7
There are two things the Republican party is now really "great" at: defrauding the American people and obstructing justice.
7
The parallels with the emergence of history's most abominable regimes are there for all to see. But, far too many would rather deny the existence of the sun, as they go blind staring at it.
4
A suggestion for Professor Krugman:
I don’t know if you are familiar with Gordon Lafer’s “The One Percent Solution”. Please read it if you are not.
The GOP is extremely methodical in their operations. Those operations which brought us all the evils of the past decade (accentuated of in the past year and a half).
In order to counter the machinations of the GOP, the Democratic Party has to do much more grassroots and big picture work than Hillary Clinton would have ever done with the help of yours truly, Pelosi and Schumer.
Please read Lafer and Lee Fang’s “The Machine.’ Your essays in the Times will be beneficiaries, I am willing to bet.
5
The behavior of the Republicans in congress is akin to the behavior of those who looked the other way at Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan State, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, etc. All of those individuals are complicit; they put their own self-interest and needs (keeping their job, getting re-elected) over principles. How does someone like Paul Ryan look in the mirror and tell himself that he's an American? How does Mike Pence call himself a religious person and continue to support someone violates all principles of decency? They are unfortunately cowards who are in positions of power.
3
Tax revenue was headed to the US Treasury for much needed services, but the Trump gang got to it first.
2
Here I can agree with Mr. Krugman. The rot in the Republican establishment goes deep. Krugman's problem remains, though, that too many in his rabid camp are blind to the stench in the Democrats' evolving positions, such as Governor Cuomo's comment that America never was great.
Cuomo's "inartful" revelation about sums up the problem for the Democrats. They have chosen a hateful path to their own country. Cuomo was just reading the tea leaves.
Trump, though, is not really Republican establishment, and has a set of uniquely personal problems, shall we say. But he is the president, and his policies are largely accepted by the public as, frankly, wise. Trump is hardly a Mussolini, who led his country cavalierly into Hitler's orbit to catastrophic military, geo-political, moral, and sociological results that were predictable and predicted.
Mussolini went against the grain for his personal aggrandizement. Trump goes with the grain, he hopes for his personal benefit, no doubt, but he looks to be with America, not against it, watching out (albeit too bombastically) for its interests on the borders, against Iran, standing up to China and Russia, standing for the little people here at home, and generally supporting our police and military, real-life proxies for law and order.
Krugman, though smart, is oblivious to context, insensitive to the American way, and deaf to historical nuance. De Tocqueville was a keen guy too, but missed President Jackson's appeal.
1
@Dave Oedel. You write, “he is the president, and his policies are largely accepted by the public as, frankly, wise.” But according to the Gallup poll, Trump’s job approval rating currently stands at 39%.
1
@ElleninCA
Trump's job approval and personal disapproval are conflated in typical polls like the one you cite.
Plus, Ellen, you are cherry-picking, pushing wishful thinking about your quadrant of the polling "universe." Here's a broader range of polling, to what extent you want to credit any polling universe. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/
Which I don't. I'd rather see for myself.
If you think Trump is out of step in terms of policy from the perspective of the majority, I think you're likely mistaken. That is not to say that Trump is a personally popular president, or that the Democrats may not win the House in November. But his formal positions are not unreasonable when viewed from the general public's perspective.
I wish I were a NYT columnist these days. All you have to do is rattle of Trump's deficiencies. There's lots of them and new ones every day, so it takes very little time or effort.
But explaining how to restore the American democracy would offend the rich, and the editorial board would never allow that. These days, if you want to be published by the media, you don't mention Citizens United.
3
Very few people in these public forums are talking about the influence the churches and various religions in this nation have had on politics. They use abortion and gays as their magic bullet and ultimate and only real determiner when casting their support for our public servants.
Their other, now true "trump card" in this spiraling catastrophe is race. My historically Democrat family members in the Midwest began to waver with their support for candidates who supported their middle class, working stiff needs, back when Roe V Wade was made into law. What turned them finally and rabidly Republican was when Obama, the black man, was elected. That was the final straw. They are all members of the Tea Party now, and are encouraged from their pulpits because of abortion and gay rights.
So much for that FIRST Amendment. They made it first for a reason.
6
After the Obama years, and the way the GOP married itself to one right-wing conspiracy theory after another in order to turn government into a partisan spectacle, I don't know how anyone can imagine that their complicity with Mr. Trump's fascism represents any sort of lapse.
3
Americans aren’t a special breed of creature different from Italians, Brits, Russians, or Germans; in fact that’s where many Americans actually came from. Like those people, the main concerns of many Americans are stable jobs, a good economy, safe cities, and that the planes run on time; not democracy. If they can have the other things, democracy might have to go. After all most eligible Americans are too busy to vote, don’t keep up on current issues, or get involved in their communities. For at least 30% of Americans, authoritarian Trump will are America safer and run better. He will get rid of those dangerous refugees, make nice with Russia, lock up the lying press and fire or jail anyone who doesn’t like what he says. He was elected by them to run the country after all.
1
I continue to contend that our "President" does Not know enough to Care
or care enough to Know. He is in chronic grip of of his need to Control.
He sits in the Oval Office, a place of dire Responsibility and a place design
by our Forefathers to be a place of Service to the People. Meanwhile, he
knows No service beyond that of Himself. He delights in total Power...
and in the daily occupation of the Center of Attention. (Our CEO is our
COA). He, personally, fills out the list of symptoms of a Sociopathic
Personality Disorder. Our "President", I believe, is Diagnosable and
beyond Treatment. We, the People, are Sick.
5
Ah, c'mon, this isn't anything complicated or new. Trump is just the new chapter. The money, the sinecure, is too good for these hacks to rock the boat. And frankly, the corrupt careerism is bipartisan. Just look at the sclerotic Kremlin-like Politburo at the top of the Democratic Party, its greased nomination process for the money candidate last time and its lack of persuasive substance and credible organizational oomph. We're not here just because of one party, though it definitely is the more craven, corrupt and cynical.
1
It is time to stop thinking of Republicans as a political party in the traditional sense, but as a subversive movement bent on the overthrow of American democracy in favor of an authoritarian crypto-fascism. This is, to say the least, ironic for the ideological heirs of a paranoid style of politics based for decades of spreading fear of subversion from within. This is not the time to fall for squishy both-sidism and anodyne plaints about partisanship. It is time to stop voting for Republicans and third party vanity candidates.
3
Are there enough Americans' with intestinal fortutitude and the intellectual capacity to see the reality of the dangers of Trump and a complicit GOP that supports his authoritarian behavior and stop this? I seriously don't know. I was amazed and proud that America elected Obama after the "W" era of folly. Then after 8 years of stability and progress, America sends a human Molotov cocktail into the WH - a whipping geopolitical tack to the extreme right. My opinion is the GOP will go to any extreme - any lengths, and support any kind of leader as long as they get their way in politics. Hypocrisy, lies, and the slow erosion democratic order in order to achieve this is regardless to them. Like the two guys who wore the "I'd rather be Russian then a Democrat". Seriously, this is where we are today in America? Unlike John Meacham, who truly believes America will learn from Trump and react to it with political energy to counter, I have my doubts. We need an American renassance to save us.
5
Look at McConnell's expression; He is showing his true feelings and character here.
They all shall go down in ignominy.
3
One single example of the deep rot that merits
attention was the trumpican congressional contingent
resistance to allocating additional funding to help
secure election infrastructure. This passive resistance to
respond to an evidently clear and present danger
occurred within the last two months.
The pretext to justify this inaction was as pointless and irrelevant as the usual denialist rationalizations why nothing needs to be done about keeping carbon dioxide from entering the lower atmosphere.
Nothing actually did get done. No additional new funding was approved despite the requests from different states. And no one in that party seemed to be terribly angry about it.
Rot and spiritual decay within a morally bankrupt and decadent institution, one that is clearly uninterested and incapable of defending a core national interest, is a natural
way of thinking about this pathetic event.
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