Paul Krugman: GOP response to Paris attacks familiar "in its combination of cruelty and stupidity"

Despite all their tough talk, even the most "serious" Republican candidates have a "propensity for panic"

Published November 20, 2015 12:34PM (EST)

Paul Krugman       (Reuters/Zainal Abd Halim)
Paul Krugman (Reuters/Zainal Abd Halim)

In his column on Friday, the New York Times' Paul Krugman argued that the reason conservatives like Erick Erickson are having hilariously hypocritical panic attacks after the events in Paris is because that's how they've trained themselves to react in the years since President Barack Obama took office.

The problem, Krugman argued, is that current crop of Republican "leaders" has a tendency to believe their own hype. The threat of an Ebola pandemic existed in 2014, certainly, but it was Donald Trump who declared "the plague will start and spread" in the United States unless all flights from infected countries were grounded. The question, Krugman wrote, is

What explains the modern right’s propensity for panic? Part of it, no doubt, is the familiar point that many bullies are also cowards. But I think it’s also linked to the apocalyptic mind-set that has developed among Republicans during the Obama years.

Think about it. From the day Mr. Obama took office, his political foes have warned about imminent catastrophe. Fiscal crisis! Hyperinflation! Economic collapse, brought on by the scourge of health insurance! And nobody on the right dares point out the failure of the promised disasters to materialize, or suggest a more nuanced approach...

Read the rest at the New York Times...


By Scott Eric Kaufman

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Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Elections 2016 Paul Krugman The Gop The Paris Attacks