Paul Krugman and the fundamental differences between the two parties and why they

[madinmaryland]

will not be bridged anytime soon...

On Wednesday, President Obama called on Americans to “expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together.” Those were beautiful words; they spoke to our desire for reconciliation.

But the truth is that we are a deeply divided nation and are likely to remain one for a long time. By all means, let’s listen to each other more carefully; but what we’ll discover, I fear, is how far apart we are. For the great divide in our politics isn’t really about pragmatic issues, about which policies work best; it’s about differences in those very moral imaginations Mr. Obama urges us to expand, about divergent beliefs over what constitutes justice.

..snip

One side of American politics considers the modern welfare state — a private-enterprise economy, but one in which society’s winners are taxed to pay for a social safety net — morally superior to the capitalism red in tooth and claw we had before the New Deal. It’s only right, this side believes, for the affluent to help the less fortunate.

The other side believes that people have a right to keep what they earn, and that taxing them to support others, no matter how needy, amounts to theft. That’s what lies behind the modern right’s fondness for violent rhetoric: many activists on the right really do see taxes and regulation as tyrannical impositions on their liberty.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/opinion/14krugman.html?hp

[yodermon]

1. "many on the right really do see taxes .. as tyrannical impositions on their liberty"

that's it in a nutshell.
And if it's "tyrannical", then well, what do you do against tyranny?

[fascisthunter]

2. They Have Been Convinced that Taxation is Stealing

well then... nobody pay taxes, and call me in twenty years, that's if you can afford to.

[JNelson6563]

3. Taxes have been around for millenia

And it might help "the other side" to quit whining if someone took the time to explain to them that the largest percent of our budget (and therefore their tax dollars) is military spending, not helping their fellow man.

Julie

[jwirr]

4. I for one do not think it is going to or even possible to get from here

to there. We do not even have the same definitions for words anymore as seen in the controversy regarding suffering that Sarah has ignited with one phrase. Nor does the other side even want to try. That will mean we would have to go to them - move right - in order to do any talking at all. I am in favor of using diplomatic language and following our own values while recognizing that they are truly working to destroy both us and the world as we know it. Krugman is right - there is no middle ground between those two ideas. We will have to vote, lobby, demonstrate, etc to get anything done. We must quit surrendering because we want to be nice. There is a difference between nice and diplomatic.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. Exhibit #1

Liberals get (voice) mail.

Hey I was going to McDermott my name’s Charles uh, Habermann, uh my number is 312-59 uh, 312-59X-XXXX. I was calling Jim McDermott because I saw him on television the other night and I realized what a disgusting, filthy, murderous cock-sucker he was. What a criminal was, the idea that he said that uh, poor people’s uh, money, poor people’s money that the Government gives belongs to him. That, that, that, that reducing taxes on rich people is, is in effect a tax cut in effect, it effected the Government spending program. Jim, Jim McDermott’s uh, theft of tax payer dollars, the less he steals, means that the, that the less the Government spends. Uh, I, I, I’d like to remind you McDermott that if you read the constitution all the money belongs to the people. None of it belongs to Government. Okay! So, if Jim McDermott says they’re spending money on a tax cut, he’s a piece of human dog shit, okay. He’s a piece of human filth. He’s a liar, he’s a communist, he’s a piece of fucking garbage. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, or George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, if any of them had ever met uh, uh Jim McDermott, they would all blow his brains out. They’d shoot him, in the head. They’d kill him, because he’s a piece of, of, of disgusting garbage. He’s a piece of filth. He’s a criminal. He advocates stealing people’s money to give it to losers. That’s a criminal conspiracy to commit fraud, okay., That is what the majority of the democratic party engage in every day of every week of every fucking year because they’re scum bags. They are disgusting filthy fucking scum bags. And you let that fucking scum bag know, that if he ever fucks around with my money, ever the fuck again, I’ll fucking kill him, okay. I’ll round them up, I’ll kill them, I’ll kill his friends, I’ll kill his family, I will kill everybody he fucking knows. Alright! So if you want to fuck with me, you go ahead but you let that fucker know, the next time he fucks around, I’ll kill him, okay! Good night and good bye, you fucker.

I think we need to listen carefully to what this person is saying, expand our imaginations, sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of how our hopes and dreams are bound together.

Or not.

[mdmc]

6. ..