Krugman Tells AlterNet: Progressives Worry Too Much About Being 'Respectable'

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/krugman-tells-alternet-progressives-worry-too-much-about-being-respectable



***SNIP


It was just a day after Krugman’s debate with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough on the Charlie Rose show had media, social and otherwise, abuzz, especially after Krugman blogged that he wasn’t quite as sharp as he’d like to have been, unprepared, he said, for “the blizzard of misleading factoids and diversionary stuff” uttered by the cock-sure, blown-dry, blustery congressman-turned-TV-host.

While the right has legions of mouthpieces reading from the same economic playbook, Krugman has emerged as the go-to guy for mainstream shows when they seek a progressive voice. So I asked him to assess, as a communicator, what progressives need to do to even up the score. Here’s his reply:

I will say, [conservatives] have a remarkable shortage of guys who are actually competent on the economics...

First thing: You do need a network and, obviously, progressives are never going to have the kind of lavishly funded, Koch-fueled media operation that the right has, and we’re never going to have the same kind of message discipline. That said, it’s actually gotten a lot better [on the progressive side]. I look at the extent to which the pushback against nonsense stuff takes place, and the way a coherent message comes out on behalf of good stuff; it’s much better now. I’ve been in my second career now since 2000, and it was hopeless 10 years ago; it’s now much more evenly balanced.

[Snake Plissken]

1. It's a little more than being 'Respectable'

It's a matter of operating in reality versus being able to operate in fantasy land

Right Wingers have a distinct advantage because they focus their message to a target audience with a collective IQ below room temperature, facts are not nearly as important to their audience as is fear and raw emotion, in fact their audience isn't even interested in truth or facts.

[Tigress DEM]

3. Reality includes dealing with fantasy land. We go head down like a bull and plow thru BS to be heard

Take Ed Schultz - used to be one of theirs. He won't be intimidated and he's actually one of the first whose message got "out there" along with Keith Olbermann who certainly wasn't playing by the rules of nice.

Bill Maher - sometimes he even scares me, BUT his ability to evicerate the craptastic is unsurpassed and he didn't get it done being "nice" to the other side.

[Jerry442]

4. Being real doesn't mean you can't gut-punch.

Really, do you have to be subtle to get across that:

The top 1% of people in this country have most of the money, much of which they stole.

The banks in this country are criminal organizations that commit their crimes openly.

An extremist organization is guaranteeing a steady stream of killing machines to deranged people.

An international criminal conspiracy of child rapists is trying to deny healthcare to American women.

The Republican Party of today has no goal other than to cripple our government and economy.

[PrMaine]

2. As Usual, I agree with Krugman

Ten years ago I had to scour the web looking for podcasts with a progressive or at least neutral slant on events. They were there but I could listen to every one of them and still be searching for more.

Today there are more progressive television shows than I have time to watch; The Real News has great programming nearly every day, generally more thoughtful and interesting than what is on television and often the podcasts are better as well. But the point is that there is much more progressive media available today than a decade ago. It's still not mainstream, but it's there for anyone willing to do a little searching - and clearly a whole lot of people are taking the trouble to find it.

[Snake Plissken]

10. Political talk radio is predominantly Right Wing because

Anyone who managed to make it past the 3rd grade is not going to religiously tune in three hours a day five days a week to listen to someone whine about politics. Progressives rather engage in a conversation about ideas rather than having ideas blindly spoon fed to them, that's why message boards such as this or websites which allow feedback are more popular with non Right Wingers than Radio and TV.

[AlbertCat]

16. Anyone who managed to make it past the 3rd grade is not going to religiously tune in three hours ...

My father, a surgeon and quite smart guy who passed the 3rd grade, and many years of medical school as well, did.

Progressives need to stop assuming these other guys are all stupid fools. There are many stupid fools, but not ALL. And there are stupid fool progressives as well.

You can't be that stupid and manipulate 1/2 the country against its own interests.

If I taught a course in "Logic", I would have my class watch 1/2 an hour of Fox News a day and list the logic fallacies. They'll need a bigger notebook!

Emotions are "easier" than intellect so many like to settle on the emotional side even if educated.... they just need some "support" and the RW media machine gives them ample support to move to the "gut reaction" side.

I'd say the biggest "support" these days comes in the form of racism. My state of NC, now run entirely by Teabaggers, wants these pink drivers licenses for immigrants. (I say, why not a nice yellow star of David sewn on their clothes?) Wasting taxpayers time and $$$ on such stupid stuff can only be explained by racism.

[ananda]

5. Progressives worry too much about being called liberal.

LIBERAL -- that's a good thing!

[Puzzledtraveller]

17. I am noticing a real divide between those that call themselves

progressives and those that call themselves liberal, so it's more than semantics. I am beginning to see some divergence in ideaology too.

[xchrom]

20. i would rather not ever think of my self as 'liberal' any more.

it's association with classic market liberalism is just too much.

[RobinA]

6. I've Thought This Often

It always seems to me that liberals and Democrats are embarrassed by what they stand for and therefore feel the need to compromise, weasel, disavow, etc. It's like they believe everything the right says about them and seek to correct their sins. In my lifetime this goes back to Kennedy and Vietnam when it seemed to be confined to being tough on Communism, but it has now spread to every facet of governing. Polls show that most Americans do not have the deficit at the top of their To-Do list, but does anybody, including our lame duck President, step up and say, Screw the deficit, we're going for jobs. Nope.

Of course, that probably isn't the best example, since I consider Obama to be a moderate Republican who may well be a Deficit firster. In recent times I remember first thinking this about Gore, who did have street cred as a somewhat liberal, but when he ran for President seemed to do everything he could to distance himself from being tarred by that horrible progressive brush.

Cutting (sorry, "reforming&quot "entitlements" seems to me to be Obama's (and many other Dems') Vietnam. And I mean this in a "I gotta show them I'm a tough guy and not some wimpy-ass, pinhead liberal" sense.

[toby jo]

7. Dems need to grow fangs.

It's ok to draw blood. It's even ok to suck it.

It's not ok to provoke. There's a difference.

[xtraxritical]

11. Why not provoke? First blood is best.

[MannyGoldstein]

8. This won't end well.

[xchrom]

9. ...

[Jackpine Radical]

21. That poster is stolen & distributed to my list of Usual Suspects. (nt)

[Hotler]

12. It's time to stop being nice and time to get pissed off and.....

take to the streets by the tens of thousands. Learn to throw rocks like the Palestinians do.

[xchrom]

13. !

[GoneOffShore]

14. I'm not sure that actual rock throwing gets one anywhere.

It certainly goes well for the Palestinians.

However, metaphorical rocks are much better.

Here's one I threw into an email thread the other day. The wingers in the thread didn't like it one bit. They attacked the messenger and my use of certain bits of profanity.

Here's what started my rant -

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324338604578326350052940798.htm>>
l
>>
>>
>>
>> Fantastic article today…

Response from wing nut number 2:

>> Excellent article. I agree with it completely. Conservatism should offer a
>> recipe for improving everyone's life, not just fattening the bottom line of
>> corporations strictly because the corporations are "job creators". This
>> argument has become thin gruel for the Republican party and will make us all
>> captives of liberal philosophy for years to come unless Republican leaders
>> come forward and say enough foolishness is enough.

Response from wing nut number 3

> I agree wholeheartedly.

My response:

I disagree wholeheartedly. What a load of libertarian/right wing, fascistic
bullshit!
This is selling the same old snake oil that the right wing has been
promoting for years, just repackaged and repurposed to make sure that
progressive policies look like a bad thing.
Someone please tell me what is wrong with universal education, funded by
taxes in the Nordic model?
Isn't that the rising tide that will lift all boats?
Repressive regulations? Really? What the fuck?
Regulations that protect workers from unscrupulous employment practices,
unsafe work environments and wages that people are unable to live on. I
think it was Henry Ford, that raging conservative, who wanted to make sure
that every one of his employees could purchase one of the cars that were
manufactured by Ford.
Regulations that protect the environment and stop companies from dumping
waste and polluting.
Regulations that should keep monopolies in check - but don't at the moment.
Regulations that protect the consumer from predatory lending practices and
usurious interest rates.
Regulations that attempt to make sure that drug companies are selling drugs
that are actually efficacious and not harmful.
The list goes on.
Please show me why these things are bad. But I doubt that those living in a
Randian fantasy world would find that these things are important.

We really need to get away from the poverty of conservatives - The poverty
of ideas and the promotion of an underclass as a "good thing" and a source
of cheap labor. People are indeed worthy of their hire, but conservatives
don't want to pay a fair wage or salary. Their idea is to keep the
population uneducated, poor and unorganized so that they can walk off with
more than their fair share. I see it every day. And unfortunately people in
the US never think of themselves as being part of that segment of society.
Mencken had it right in that no one in the US is poor, just temporarily
financially embarrassed. Luckily, it looks like lots of people are starting
to wake up and see what the rich and powerful have been doing to us for
years.

I'd rather live in a left leaning liberal democracy than a conservative
world. Conservatism will never be able" to offer a recipe for improving
everyone's life" because they don't believe that everyone is "deserving".
The only thing they really believe is that if you are poor you "deserve" to
be poor because you don't work hard enough.
They are of the "I've got mine, I want to keep it all and screw the rest of
you" school of thought. No matter how they try to sugar coat it with fancy
rhetoric they really, really don't believe in the social contract. The Four
Freedoms? Screw that. But then if conservatives had their way only white
males who had inherited property would have the right to vote.

[Demeter]

15. Economic boycotts work

When the economy is this bad, they work REALLY well. We just have to pick good targets, and let it go viral.

Move Your Money is the latest example...and it should still be getting press.

[libdude]

18. Tell it like it is

I have arrived at a point where it is important to speak against what the Republican party and their media mouth pieces put forward as facts. This is not a struggle against differences of opinions, this is a struggle that has played out many times in history, the wealthy which equals power and everybody else. The nobility and their syncophants and the serfs. Look at history and place whatever names you care to. The haves and the have nots, you get the picture. In the so called debate between Mr. Krugman and Scarborough, the difference being a person of knowledge and accomplishment and a self-
promoting slippery former politician.

[Paladin]

19. "Play By The Rules" Progressives Give Me A Large Pain.

The rules of civil discourse and compromise were thrown out long ago by conservatives. We need to recognize that and act accordingly. It's not as if our making nice with Republicans has gotten us anywhere......