Grand Old Party Of Whining
My mancrush on Paul Krugman is well known here, so it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that I thought his column today, Bigger Than Bush, was spot on. You should read it anyway. 😉
But most of the whining [from conservatives] takes the form of claims that the Bush administration’s failure was simply a matter of bad luck — either the bad luck of President Bush himself, who just happened to have disasters happen on his watch, or the bad luck of the G.O.P., which just happened to send the wrong man to the White House.
I wonder if we’ve heard excuses like that here at Delaware Liberal? And, the other excuse, which is often used but just as bankrupt, is that Bush wasn’t conservative enough.
So the reign of George W. Bush, the first true Southern Republican president since Reconstruction, was the culmination of a long process. And despite the claims of some on the right that Mr. Bush betrayed conservatism, the truth is that he faithfully carried out both his party’s divisive tactics — long before Sarah Palin, Mr. Bush declared that he visited his ranch to “stay in touch with real Americans” — and its governing philosophy.
The main gist of Krugman’s column today is that the Republicans have become the Party of Racists as Delaware Dem pointed out in Maybe the “R” really does stand for Racist, “perhaps racism in the GOP is more pervasive than we thought”. Krugman agrees:
Where did this hostility to government come from? In 1981 Lee Atwater, the famed Republican political consultant, explained the evolution of the G.O.P.’s “Southern strategy,” which originally focused on opposition to the Voting Rights Act but eventually took a more coded form: “You’re getting so abstract now you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites.” In other words, government is the problem because it takes your money and gives it to Those People.
Oh, and the racial element isn’t all that abstract, even now: Chip Saltsman, currently a candidate for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, sent committee members a CD including a song titled “Barack the Magic Negro” — and according to some reports, the controversy over his action has actually helped his chances.
I’m sure we will see the closeted racism emerge in the comments to Cassandra’s post, Senator Webb Wants Prison Reform. Krugman then concludes his piece with his continuous plea for Obama to be bold in the direction he takes the country.
Mr. Obama therefore has room to be bold. If Republicans try a 1993-style strategy of attacking him for promoting big government, they’ll learn two things: not only has the financial crisis discredited their economic theories, the racial subtext of anti-government rhetoric doesn’t play the way it used to.
Tags: krugman, Radical Right
“Code words” here meaning “they never said anything even remotely racist, so we are using the equivalent of a “wild card” in a cardgame to make non-racist terms mean anything we want to, including racist terms. Despite the fact that race has nothing to do with it at all”
LOL none. You should be on the radio.
Great demonstration of GOP whining, none!
In six months when Mr Obama’s poll numbers are below 50% none of what Bush did or did not do will matter.
The longer you folks dwell on the past tells me the future under Obama will be worse.
By the way, what is his answer to the Gaza problem? Is it Hope or Change?
And here we go with more whining.
Since George W Bush is still President of the US, don’t you think that you should be asking him for his answer to the Gaza problem? Or have you, like much of the rest of us, just given up on BushCo?
We now have a chance to make things right after 8 years of stumbling. And what are we hearing from the Repuks? No answers to the problem but more whining and a seemly hope of failure.So once again the question must be asked. WHY DO REPUBLICIANS HATE AMERICA?
The Cape Gazette reported today that the Sussex County GOP held a kegger in honor of Bill Lee’s birthday on 12/18. The pictures spoke for themselves – a bunch of old, overweight, white men (save Tom Ross, who is not that old).
I think we know that Bush won’t do anything about the situation in Gaza.
nemski,
I think this is one of the most brilliant columns that Krugman has ever written. He’s absolutely right – Bush is a consequence of conservatism, not an aberration. I love Krugman. I think I have a crush-crush on him. I even read him when he was rooting for Hillary against Obama.
“The longer you folks dwell on the past tells me the future under Obama will be worse.”
Mike P:
Bush isn’t the past. He’s the sitting president (sitting is the operative word).
Also, who are you to criticize people for looking back on these last eight years? You’ve been a cheerleader for a fool. What does that make you?
I am amazed that there are still Republicans who think because they say something that it is a fact. Mike P’s pronouncement about six months from now is a prime example. Nobody knows what will be happening six months from now, but because Mike P prognisticates we should all fall down in fear. Pure Horse Hockey.
This is the sort of propaganda that has sucked our nation dry for the past eight years. I’m not buying it anymore.