Krugman : "Politics of Spite"

[Stuart G]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/opinion/05krugman.html?_r=1&hp

There was what President Obama likes to call a teachable moment last week, when the International Olympic Committee rejected Chicago’s bid to be host of the 2016 Summer Games.

“Cheers erupted” at the headquarters of the conservative Weekly Standard, according to a blog post by a member of the magazine’s staff, with the headline “Obama loses! Obama loses!” Rush Limbaugh declared himself “gleeful.” “World Rejects Obama,” gloated the Drudge Report. And so on.

So what did we learn from this moment? For one thing, we learned that the modern conservative movement, which dominates the modern Republican Party, has the emotional maturity of a bratty 13-year-old.

But more important, the episode illustrated an essential truth about the state of American politics: at this point, the guiding principle of one of our nation’s two great political parties is spite pure and simple. If Republicans think something might be good for the president, they’re against it — whether or not it’s good for America.

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Exactly what we have been saying here. An excellent take on the current Republican view of the world.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Yes, the silly gloating is sad. nt

[wial]

2. Good follow up to to Grayson's truth telling

Republicans imagine themselves to be dads behind white picket fences keeping families of beautiful unruly daughters in line. It's not a wholly ungenerous self-image, but it is purely patriarchal and deeply delusional. I remember the same thing from a Burmese English teacher in Thailand, the only Burmese I met who defended the regime: the country was one big family with a few naughty children. Family values indeed. So the put-upon dad is only echoing the emotionality of the teenage daughters when he becomes contrarian, and bears no responsibility for this behavior because out of their presence he has more serious matters to which to attend, such as waterboarding foreigners to get them to confess to things they didn't do so that more oil can be grabbed for the daughters' shiny new cars. Also those picket fences cost a lot and you can't afford them without a system porous enough to siphon money out of it via derivatives. It's just the way things are. The blood-dimmed tide must be kept at bay and have its red cells culled in the process. Daughters would never understand, and if they go to the disco and come back flushed and alive, that's no way to treat a dad who has sacrificed so much.

[Doctor_J]

3. I am surprised the Dems haven't run with this on their few TV opportunites

"Republicans are anti-American". Period.

[Shallah Kali]

4. worse some of them are more like a stalking ex. If they can't have America no one can

they would rather tear apart the thing they claim to love most, destroy everything good, than let another be in the place they once lived. And to make it even worse for the racist element America dumped them for black man!

[caseymoz]

5. + 1 I thought that was true when Ronald Reagan cut funding to higher education.

And made it a loan-based system. A little vengeance for students "losing" Vietnam? I might have thought so until I read the words of later-Education Secretary William Bennett who announced we would have to cut back on our stereos and parties now. I don't believe conservative "students" actually cheered this.

I guess they showed us radicals. Almost 30 years later and the grants never came back. People have to go a hundred-thousand dollars in debt for advanced technical degrees, so we now have to bring in immigrants to fill those important positions, while our level of expertise falls behind other nations.

So, I'll agree with you, Conservatives are some of the most spiteful people on earth, and if oppose them politically, they would rather deal with people from countries other countries, especially those who know better than to oppose their "betters" about murderous policies.

[bertman]

6. Mr. Krugman hasn't missed the mark in a longgg time now. Recommend.

[flamingdem]

7. Spite .. that is an accurate assessment nt

[Turborama]

8. K&R Excellent piece.

I hope he gets a lot of interviews to expand on this. The one on AC360 was good but spoiled by having Matalin there to spout the usual deflections from the truth to avoid answering the genuine criticisms.

Thanks for posting.

[hay rick]

9. The Republicans- they just smell bad.

Only thing like it was a fire at the dump the other day...