The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Civility’ and Professor Krugman

Posted on | April 18, 2011 | 13 Comments

Paul Krugman lives in a universe where reality is whatever liberals say it is. And he is now concerned that Democrats are being too civil. Without seeming to grasp the irony, Krugman writes:

Eventually, of course, America must choose between these differing visions. And we have a way of doing that. It’s called democracy.
Now, Republicans claim that last year’s midterms gave them a mandate for the vision embodied in their budget. But last year the G.O.P. ran against what it called the “massive Medicare cuts” contained in the health reform law. How, then, can the election have provided a mandate for a plan that not only would preserve all of those cuts, but would go on, over time, to dismantle Medicare completely?
For what it’s worth, polls suggest that the public’s priorities are nothing like those embodied in the Republican budget. Large majorities support higher, not lower, taxes on the wealthy. Large majorities — including a majority of Republicans — also oppose major changes to Medicare. Of course, the poll that matters is the one on Election Day. But that’s all the more reason to make the 2012 election a clear choice between visions.

In other words, last year’s mid-term elections — in which Republicans scored their biggest net gain of House seats since 1938 — were a “mandate” only insofar as it means what Paul Krugman says it means. (He is recycling an Associated Press story from April 13.) If nothing else, the election was a negative referendum on ObamaCare, but Krugman won’t accept that.

As for Krugman’s assertion that the Ryan budget would “dismantle Medicare completely,” Krugman’s just playing the old “Medi-scare” game as a way to demand a do-over on last year’s election. Instead of 2010 having been “a clear choice,” the professor says, let’s make that choice in 2012.

But if last year’s election was not “a clear choice,” we have only Democrats to blame. In district after district, Democrats ran ads accusing Republicans of advocating “tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas.” And then there was the Democrats’ assertion that the GOP was funded by “secret foreign donors.” So Krugman evidently fears that Democrats who spent millions of dollars promoting dishonest smears in 2010 are now in danger of becoming too “civil.”

Professor Krugman evidently wants Democrats in Washington to mimic the tactics of Wisconsin Democrats, who resort to burglary to prevent a “clear choice” and also attempt to shut down Republicans with incoherent shouting.

Category: New York Times

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