There's a lot going on in Krugman's column. He's right about Bush, but I don't agree in his outcome. First, I really don't think the GOP is going to just totally discredit Obama's agenda as "Big Government". To do nothing or support doing nothing during an economic crisis is worse, a lesson they learned painfully in the 1930s. Not saying we have free rein, but the stimulus package won't be too hard hit.
But also... maybe I missed something, but I don't agree with Krugman's assertion that people consciously tie anti-government rhetoric to racism that he makes in the last sentence there. Subconsciously... perhaps; his logic follows. Finally, I realized something reading it. For many years, the Republicans were viewed as the scrappy insurgents who you turned to if you wanted something different; they hadn't controlled Congress in years and rarely won the presidency. But by the 1990s, all that changed; to you and I, and perhaps even the generation right before us, it's the other way around, and the Democrats are who you want. We could have a pretty decent realignment IF we work hard to be fresh and not too comfortable (when you start letting the SHTF, and let it go like the GOP did, you're done). (Although analysis from 1994 that we lost it all on gun control really peeves me... GC is an issue worth fighting for...).
And yes, the GOP is indeed a party of whiners. Let's see them come up with a minority's agenda in Congress like they always entreated us...
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There's a lot going on in Krugman's column. He's right about Bush, but I don't agree in his outcome. First, I really don't think the GOP is going to just totally discredit Obama's agenda as "Big Government". To do nothing or support doing nothing during an economic crisis is worse, a lesson they learned painfully in the 1930s. Not saying we have free rein, but the stimulus package won't be too hard hit.
But also... maybe I missed something, but I don't agree with Krugman's assertion that people consciously tie anti-government rhetoric to racism that he makes in the last sentence there. Subconsciously... perhaps; his logic follows. Finally, I realized something reading it. For many years, the Republicans were viewed as the scrappy insurgents who you turned to if you wanted something different; they hadn't controlled Congress in years and rarely won the presidency. But by the 1990s, all that changed; to you and I, and perhaps even the generation right before us, it's the other way around, and the Democrats are who you want. We could have a pretty decent realignment IF we work hard to be fresh and not too comfortable (when you start letting the SHTF, and let it go like the GOP did, you're done). (Although analysis from 1994 that we lost it all on gun control really peeves me... GC is an issue worth fighting for...).
And yes, the GOP is indeed a party of whiners. Let's see them come up with a minority's agenda in Congress like they always entreated us...
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