Friday, October 10, 2008

Paul Krugman Sees The Future And Is Terrified

Here are the two most-recent entries at Paul Krugman’s "Conscience of a Liberal" blog at the New York Times. They are realistic, terrifying and I hope he is wrong.

Failure of leadership, part LXXIV
October 10 2008, 2:27pm
Bloomberg reports:
Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven nations signaled reluctance to adopt a coordinated effort to shore up banks, risking a deeper crisis of confidence after this week’s crash in global stock markets.

Do these people have any idea how much is at risk?
___________________

Not about the financial crisis
October 10, 2008, 1:43 pm
The (financial) crisis isn’t the only scary thing going on. Something very ugly is taking shape on the political scene: as McCain’s chances fade, the crowds at his rallies are, by all accounts, increasingly gripped by insane rage. It’s not just a mob phenomenon — it’s visible in the right-wing media, and to some extent in the speeches of McCain and Palin.

We’ve seen this before. One thing that has been sort of written out of the mainstream history of politics is the sheer insanity of the attacks on the Clintons — they were drug smugglers, they murdered Vince Foster (and lots of other people), they were in league with foreign powers. And this stuff didn’t just show up in fringe publications — it was discussed in Congress, given props by the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, and so on.

What it came down to was that a significant fraction of the American population, backed by a lot of money and political influence, simply does not consider government by liberals (even very moderate liberals) legitimate. Ronald Reagan was supposed to have settled that once and for all.

What happens when Obama is elected? It will be even worse than it was in the Clinton years. For sure there will be crazy accusations, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some violence.

The next few years are going to be very, very tough.

4 comments:

Shawn said...

I roomed with a couple of uber-conservatives who watched Limbaugh nightly during the Clinton years. Man, did I get an earful of vitriol and character assassination! I think it's true that it will be even worse this time around, which is why the work of those supporting Obama now should not end once he's in office. We will need to build a strong base around him, ready to defend and protect, as it were.

I really hate to say this, and I never thought I would before last week, but I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that a revolution could take place soon. If Obama were not to win, despite being far ahead in exit polls I think we would see a mass exodus of some Americans and an uprising by others.

Should he win and something "violent" does occur I could see Americans rising up to take back control of their country.

I pray I'm wrong though and that all goes smoothly under a Presodent Obama administration. That is my wish.

Halle said...

Well, this -- along with the terrifying thought of some right-wing nut actually doing the unthinkable b/c he thinks it's "patriotic" (John McCain and Palin told him so!) is what seriously concerns every last one of us. How can anyone govern after all of this. It will take decades to heal the scar that these two have picked open in just a week. We absolutely need the "Obama for America" campaign to continue long after he is President. We all need to pitch in and help him govern. An engaged electorate is the only hope for our country at this point. That, and if you do so, prayer.

Anonymous said...

If we aren't careful we'll still end up in a Facist state, saluting Palin and screaming Heil. We're going to have to keep the White House for at least two terms and be able to point to the state of the nation and say "see nothing bad happens and we're a lot better off than we were in 2008".

Anonymous said...

Good looking out everyone... I'm really glad to see people thinking ahead!

Lately I've become quite peeved as it seems (Americans) never end up solving our key problems; government waste and abuse of power/public office.

The worthless mainstream media won't ever hept the situation either... it just muddies the water. I'm committed to telling the untold stories.

Charley-keep up the good work CHEERS everyone ;~)

Tony Webster
http://tawebster.spaces.live.com