Monday, October 5, 2009

AS he often does, Paul Krugman gets one right:

The key point is that ever since the Reagan years, the Republican Party has been dominated by radicals — ideologues and/or apparatchiks who, at a fundamental level, do not accept anyone else’s right to govern.

Ah, the irony. The very people who think government shouldn't exist believe only they should govern. We did have eight years of something like that. So be very, very afraid because these "ideologues and/or apparatchiks" are at their core totalitarians, convinced, unlike true conservatives, of their infallibility. They are, at best, Hitlerian Stalinists.

THAT said, here's a pointed counter comment from an NYT reader, responding to Krugman:

j. merritt
nv
October 5th, 2009
7:16 am

What are the Democrats doing that is good for America? The Republicans are in the minority, didn't you know? The Democrats have a majority in the House, a 60 vote filbuster-proof majority in the Senate; and The Presidency.

I am one of those center-minded independents who became sick of the Republicans and voted for the Democrats, including President Obama.

What have they done? What has President Obama done? The rich are getting richer. There are more lobbysits than ever. The wars are still raging. What has President Obama or this Congress done?

I will tell you what they have done. They have taken all of the worst habits and attributes of the worst part of the Republican Party and decided to surpass them in corruption and arrogance.

Is Charlie Rangel a Republican? Is Tom Daschle a Republican? Did Goldman Sachs and JP Morgn support Republicans? The answer to all three is "no ".

The Republicans don't matter right now. The corrupt Democrats are what matters. If you are going to write about something other than economics, you need to know what is going on outside of your insular academic world.