Paul Krugman: Rove's world

[Catchawave]

http://www.iht.com/protected/articles/2005/07/15/opinion/edkrug.php

Paul Krugman The New York Times

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2005


PRINCETON, New Jersey John Gibson of Fox News says that Karl Rove should be given a medal. I agree: Rove should receive a medal from the American Political Science Association for his pioneering discoveries about modern U.S. politics. The medal can, if necessary, be delivered to his prison cell.

What Rove understood, long before the rest of us, is that we're not living in the America of the past, where even partisans sometimes changed their views when faced with the facts. Instead, we're living in a country in which there is no longer such a thing as nonpolitical truth. In particular, there are now few, if any, limits to what conservative politicians can get away with: The faithful will follow the twists and turns of the party line with a loyalty that would have pleased the Comintern.

I first realized that we were living in Karl Rove's America during the 2000 election campaign, when George W. Bush began saying things about Social Security privatization and tax cuts that were simply false. At first, I thought the Bush campaign was making a big mistake - that these blatant falsehoods would be condemned by prominent Republican politicians and Republican economists, especially those who had spent years building reputations as advocates of fiscal responsibility. In fact, with hardly any exceptions they lined up to praise Bush's proposals.

But the real demonstration that Rove understands American politics better than any pundit came after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Every time I read a lament for the post-9/11 era of national unity, I wonder what people are talking about. On the issues I was watching, the Republicans' exploitation of the atrocity began while ground zero was still smoldering.

Rove has been much criticized for saying that liberals responded to the attack by wanting to offer the terrorists therapy - but what he said about conservatives, that they "saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war," is equally false. What many of them actually saw was a domestic political opportunity - and none more so than Rove.

...oh there's more, much more....:scared:

[Lindacooks]

1. Damn, I love Krugman!!

He should be required reading for every high school civics class.

[muchacho]

2. read it this morning on the train

I love it when they get all incensed! I think sense Miller webt to the slammer and the White Hose seems to be allowing that sacrific to happen in vein hat the press will now wake up and start pushing back.

[snowbear]

3. Kudos to Krugman! This post.....

...deserves to knock the idiotic Bill O'Reilly post off the forum!!

Read this one. Who gives a flying puck what O'Reilly thinks :mad:

Thanks for sharing this Catchawave ~~~~~ :grouphug:

[Catchawave]

5. You're so welcome larissa.....

..and I thank you for that (my) rare DU group hug...it's what we should all be about here in DUerLand :)

This article did blow me away --> sweet, simple and to the freaking point about what this Rove thing is all about.

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[ProudDad]

4. Kick

This article really nails it.

As some repuke functionary said, "We create our own reality. You just try to figure out what it is. Just when you've figure it out, we've moved it again."

They have created a "reality" that is anti-human, anti-humane, an ecological and economic nightmare and we have to live in it. Not them, they live in the rarefied air of the privileged and pampered.

This is how the right-wing, fascist takeover of the United States occurs -- with lies and a complicit press.

[Catchawave]

6. Thanks ProudDad....

You nailed it too :hug:

[katinmn]

7. Krugman gets it. This is another wonderful example.

Thanks for posting.
Nominated.
:)

[Catchawave]

8. I especially liked

the way he drove it home with:

"Ultimately, this isn't just about Rove. It's also about Bush, who has always known that his trusted political adviser - a disciple of the late Lee Atwater, whose smear tactics helped the elder George Bush win the 1988 election - is a thug, and obviously made no attempt to find out if he was the leaker.

Most of all, it's about what has happened to America. How did our political system get to this point?"

[sellitman]

9. Thanks Paul!

Kicked and nominated!

[young_at_heart]

10. Karl Rove epitomizes for me, everything that is wrong with America

There are so many negative adjectives that can be used to describe him, but the one that stands out for me is "stealthy". I believe he prides himself in being a behind-the-scenes power and the more power he gets the more he pushes the envelope.

[ooglymoogly]

11. i love the smell of pigs being roasted in the morning

great article p.

[ailsagirl]

12. Chilling and mind-boggling

"President Bush's adviser understood long before the rest of us that facts are irrelevant..."

"At first, I thought the Bush campaign was making a big mistake - that these blatant falsehoods would be condemned by prominent Republican politicians and Republican economists, especially those who had spent years building reputations as advocates of fiscal responsibility."