Krugman makes a lot of good small points here, but he misses the big one:
"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.
There’s no middle ground between these views"
But he's wrong.
The middle ground are those who support a social safety net not out of charity, but because it serves a societal good.
People who lose their jobs, and with it all their income, do not spend money. They default on mortgages, they stop purchasing. Businesses and communities get hurt. More people lose their jobs.
People who are sick and don't get treated are a public health problem. Beggars and destitute old people are a nuisance.
Sometimes a strong communal instinct is just a matter of enlightened self-interest.
As Michael Kinsley once noted, a barber in America is better off than a barber in the Third World because we are a better place to live. Enlightened self interest helps keep us that way. It used to be at the heart of political moderation.
And it was the middle ground. A Tale of Two Moralities www.nytimes.com
A Democratic member of Congress has incidents of right-wing protesters bringing concealed weapons to her public appearances and getting her windows smashed; she has an opponent who holds a holds fundraisers tagged “Get on Target for Victory in November. Help remove [her] from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with [the Republican]" and she is featured in ads where Democrats are targeted in crosshairs.
She expresses worries on tape about the impact of the latter. Then she is shot by someone with a history of anti-government ranting
It was not illogical to posit some screamingly obvious theories, although they did turn out to be largely overstated.
In THAT case.
But look at the incidents outlined in this article and tell me we have no problem. How Democrats Have Undermined Their Own Argument For Civility | The New Republic www.tnr.com
Really though, the idea that the Tea Party Right is a violent accident waiting to happen is surely just a delusional left wing fantasy. An Unbelievable Video of Political Madness – Jeffrey Goldberg – National – The Atlantic www.theatlantic.com
Conservative iconoclast Frum says the problem is "the construction of paranoid narratives that might justify violence to a violent-minded person."
Anyone notice this is the area of interface between the Tea Party and Tucson? Three truths about Tucson – The Week theweek.com
I'm laughing like Nelson Muntz; interestingly, the ad was taken down first thing Monday. In the world of criminal justice, this is what is referred to as “consciousness of guilt.“ Rush Limbaugh's Tucson Billboard Is Just Perfect gawker.com
At last someone breaks through the lamestream media noise machine and lays the blame where it belongs–on the victim! Tucson tea party founder says Giffords to blame for getting shot | Raw Story www.rawstory.com
Is Andrea Peyser really so stupid as to believe that "fascistic censorship" is when people express their opinion about the possible link between words and deeds (something Palin does herself in her speech)?
This from a woman who call the Landmark’s Commission “Government Goons” It is a little hard to take Peyser decrying the punishment (non-existent though it may be) of the “innocent” when she does cartwheels over a mosque being prevented on the hallowed ground of Staten Island.
While Peyser does pose a couple of examples of liberals actually proposing legal "remedies," she fails to note that those who have done so have been roundly condemned in the "liberal media" (as well as in these quarters). Left takes a wild shot at Palin & Co. www.nypost.com
Will Peyser or Palin become a card-carrying ACLU member? Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union » Thoughts on Speech After the A www.aclu.org
Almost a decade ago Carroll Gardens went to culture War over a proposed Domestic Violence Shelter run by The Asian American Women's Center. At one point, the “Concerned Citizens of Carroll Gardens” ran an ad that stated: “Asian men from Chinatown, Flushing and Sunset Park continue to come to the block to look for their wives.”
Surely, if such things had occurred, one would think they would be matters of grave concern to the “Concerned Citizens.” Apparently not, as Captain Thomas Harris, then commanding officer of the 76th Precinct, told me that the precinct hadn’t received even one report of such an incident leading me to ask whether the “Concerned Citizens” were unconcerned or merely delusional.
Which bring us to this article, in which Sarah Palin apparently does not seem to have notified the Police or FBI about the death threats allegedly made against her, but did manage to notify the press. On Sarah Palin's Death Threat Claims | The Nation www.thenation.com
A few weeks ago, in criticizing Glenn Beck for introducing the ideas of long forgotten anti-Semites back into the public discourse, I specifically stated that Beck was not an anti-Semite.
Not sure I was wrong, but he sure has an unhealthy obsession with people who are Jewish.
Ed Rendell???????????? Why Are There So Many Jews In Beck's Rogues Gallery? | Media Matters for America mediamatters.org
ALBANY PRODUCTION OF “GUYS AND DOLLS” (Part Two)
WHEN YOU MEET A MUG LATELY OUT OF THE JUG/ AND HE’S STILL LIFTING PLATINUM FOLDEROL:
“Just read his Epitaph,
and please try not to laugh,
switch your vote and he’ll give you half,
Big debt,
you bet,
just how much we don’t know yet.
The Post says we have big debt,
Big threat
no sweat.” Senate Democrats’ Extra Campaign Loan Was And Remains Unguaranteed www.cityhallnews.com
ALBANY PRODUCTION OF “GUYS AND DOLLS” (Part Three):
GOTTA HAVE A GAME OR WE’LL DIE FROM SHAME:
“No class,
No class,
Dean Skelos really kicked our ass,
our excuses just barely pass,
no class,
no class.
So write our Epitaph,
even if wrong by half,
The GOP will be getting the last horse laugh.
No class,
No class,
Dean Skelos really kicked our ass,
our excuses just barely pass,
no class,
no class.
So write our Epitaph,
even if wrong by half,
The GOP will be getting the last horse laugh. Senate Dems Mum On Layoffs: Updated! www.nydailynews.com
This item is included here today for its Malcolm Smith reference. CHN outlines Smith's troubles and asks "Time to start a new non-profit?"
But anyone who's followed Malcolm's career in the "real world" knows that, whatever the nature of his charities (many seem to start at home), every business he's ever started has been a "non-profit" Winners & Losers, Jan. 14 Edition www.cityhallnews.com
At last, something worse about Black than her credentials: her attitude, which is most reminiscent of a receiver charged with the liquidation of assets. Parents Not Laughing At Chancellor Cathie Black's Birth Control Quip About School Overcrowding www.nydailynews.com
The best place to get a slice. Say, Whatever Happened To Hiram Monserrate's Queens Campaign Office? www.nydailynews.com