Krugman: The Paul Ryan Story: From Flimflam to Fascism

[kpete]

Link to tweet

............

Which brings us to the role of the congressional G.O.P. and Ryan in particular in the Trump era.

Some commentators seem surprised at the way men who talked nonstop about fiscal probity under Barack Obama cheerfully supported tax cuts that will explode the deficit under Trump. They also seem shocked at the apparent indifference of Ryan and his colleagues to Trump’s corruption and contempt for the rule of law. What happened to their principles?

The answer, of course, is that the principles they claimed to have never had anything to do with their actual goals. In particular, Republicans haven’t abandoned their concerns about budget deficits, because they never cared about deficits; they only faked concern as an excuse to cut social programs.

And if you ask why Ryan never took a stand against Trumpian corruption, why he never showed any concern about Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, what ever made you think he would take such a stand? Again, if you look at Ryan’s actions, not the character he played to gullible audiences, he has never shown himself willing to sacrifice anything he wants — not one dime — on behalf of his professed principles. Why on earth would you expect him to stick his neck out to defend the rule of law?

So now Ryan is leaving. Good riddance. But hold the celebrations: If he was no better than the rest of his party, he was also no worse. It’s possible that his successor as speaker will show more backbone than he has — but only if that successor is, well, a Democrat.



the rest:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/opinion/paul-ryan-fascism.html?smid=tw-nytopinion&smtyp=cur

[dalton99a]

1. Ryan is a willing accomplice in the coup

[malthaussen]

2. The "liberal" media want desperately to find a true conservative...

... since that breed is now out of power, and out of sight, they project the image onto those who are unworthy of it. Paul Ryan is an example of this, but examples could be multiplied. "Conservative" just don't mean what it used to.

Mr Krugman, anyway, can see through this bullshit. He may be a rara avis among the Press.

-- Mal

[Botany]

3. " ... they never cared about deficits; they only faked concern as an excuse to cut social programs."

Republicans only care about deficits when a democrat is in the White House.

By 1935 or 36 FDR's programs had pushed back the great depression and things
were getting much better but then the GOP started crying about the deficit and
then FDR and the GOP scaled back many of FDR's work programs and then much
of the hurt came back.