Paul Krugman: Paranoia Strikes Deep

icon gravatar.comwww.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/opinion/09krugman.html
sent by RicKelis since 92 days 9 hours 2 minutes, published about 91 days 22 hours 13 minutes
Last Thursday there was a rally outside the U.S. Capitol to protest pending health care legislation. It was grotesque — and it was also ominous. For what we may be seeing is America starting to be Californiafied. It was sponsored by the House Republican leadership — in fact, it was officially billed as a G.O.P. press conference[with] senior lawmakers were in attendance. What all this shows is that the G.O.P. has been taken over by the people it used to exploit. While the paranoid style isn’t new, its role within the G.O.P. is. Something snapped last year. After the Democratic sweep, the loss of both Congress and the White House left a power vacuum in a party accustomed to top-down management. Real power in the party rests, instead, with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin [and] because these people aren’t interested in actually governing, they feed the base’s frenzy instead of trying to curb or channel it. In California, the G.O.P. has essentially shrunk down to a rump party — big enough to prevent anyone else from dealing with the state’s fiscal crisis. If this happens to America as a whole, as it all too easily could, the country could become effectively ungovernable in the midst of an ongoing economic disaster. The point is that the takeover of the Republican Party by the irrational right is no laughing matter. Something unprecedented is happening here — and it’s very bad for America.
tags: heathcare, paranoia, wingnuts, repugs, ca
13 commentscategory: Progressive Issues karma: 170

comments

  1. #1    Paranoia isn't limited to the right wingnuts -- it extends to the left wingnuts, too. Just look around.
    written by RicKelis since 92 days 9 hours 1 minuteRicKelis
  2. #2    And then there are the virulent corporatist idealogues of the fictional fascist 'center'. Yes, you can take the corporate money and do corporate bidding and call that 'governing'. Sure. Why not. Call your complicity whatever the hell you want.
    written by epppie since 92 days 5 hours 34 minutesepppie
  3. #3    "the G.O.P. has been taken over by the people it used to exploit."
    This ought to be a lesson for the Liberal Dems too. Instead of giving up on the Party, take it back.
    written by CwV since 92 days 5 hours 31 minutesCwV
  4. #4    Yeah, take your party back, Fascists. Take it, please. Progressives need to start their own party. Why is Kucinich still in the Democratic Party?

    Let's see how far you get without progressives, Dems. Let's watch as you join the dustbin of history, with other discarded parties.
    written by epppie since 92 days 5 hours 29 minutesepppie
  5. #5    Krugman has become truly pathetic.
    written by epppie since 92 days 5 hours 28 minutesepppie
  6. #6    "take the corporate money and do corporate bidding" Like Ralph Nadir?
    Took Rove's money and helped him "elect" Bush. Perfect.
    You want to see pathetic eeeeeeppppppeee, look in the mirror.
    written by CwV since 92 days 4 hours 59 minutesCwV
  7. #7    "Something unprecedented is happenning here"....

    IS happenning? Or HAS happenned?

    And who you callin' fascists eppie? What IS your view? What do YOU believe in? All I see is anti-everyONE and everyTHING, calling people names that don't even apply, bitch about this, bitch about that- I used to have respect for you, but if I were to just come on this site I'd think you were a troll. And if it quacks like a troll...
    written by colinjames since 92 days 46 minutescolinjames
  8. #8    Colin - Ep started out as a troll, according to the definition of posting material that runs counter to the spirit of the site (BuzzFlash overall is not anti-Obama, by any means. It got so bad back then that he started whining about not having any buzzes so a few of us took pity on him. But that may have been a mistake for us, since that kind of nattering negativity is catchy -- it started a mini EPPPidemic, infecting few of our regulars but offering newcomer trolls a point of agreement on which to base their regressive opinions. He's a rock that can't be altered from its downward trajectory. There's no point in arguing with a stone that continues to roll down hill into hell -- you're trying to converse with a rock.
    written by RicKelis since 91 days 22 hours 43 minutesRicKelis
  9. #9    I think you're being hard on epppie.
    written by kevin3g since 91 days 21 hours 45 minuteskevin3g
  10. #10    WHOA, Rickelis!! I was on this site WAY BEFORE you or epppie. And some of the regulars here can tell you that they have had to deal with me on a variety of topics that I have posted. And,I am still a contrarian. Just b/c people like epppie do not agree with the majority of people here, does not make them a troll. You guys on this site have gone trollmania happy. Everything is a troll. If epppie sees a lot of this as 'fascism', maybe that is b/c it is, and you guys are the ones who refuse to see the light.

    Nobody here INFECTS anyone. I always quietly had a lot of respect for you too Rick, b/c I felt you could be neutral where some others of us could not be. But maybe I need to rethink some...

    » ver todo el comentario
    written by Sparrows since 91 days 21 hours 21 minutesSparrows
  11. #11    The Upper Class invented Conservatism, now it has become bad for business and the Upper Class refuses to take responsibility for the crap they invented - crap, which represents the ONLY thing rich people are capable of producing. Moderates are 1000 times as guilty as Conservatives, only Liberals have been consistently right - about Iraq - about Bush - about Global Warming. Moderates are the problem, Naderites are like the "Peoples Front of Judea" from the Life of Brian, they feed off each other - both of those camps the moderates and the naderites are in de-facto service of the authoritarians. Rich Americans refuse to take responsibility like adults and actually invent something positive. Rich Americans are the worst scum of all time, they have attacked American citizens with hatred and cruelty. Guillotine the rich. Down with Bi-Partisanship.
    written by TurMault since 91 days 21 hours 3 minutesTurMault
  12. #12    It scares the hell out of me to think of the tea-bag movement taking over government.
    written by RDemocrat since 91 days 15 hours 40 minutesRDemocrat
  13. #13    He's right about California. Republican pols are a micro-minority in the state legislature but they used talk radio to push through ballot measures that gave the micro-minority veto power over passing budgets and raising taxes by requiring a two-thirds vote for both.
    written by yurbud since 91 days 3 hours 59 minutesyurbud
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