KRUGMAN: "The establishment’s problem with Trump isn’t the con he brings; it’s the cons he disrupts"

[kpete]

.....the Trump phenomenon threatens the con the G.O.P. establishment has been playing on its own base. I’m talking about the bait and switch in which white voters are induced to hate big government by dog whistles about Those People, but actual policies are all about rewarding the donor class.

What Donald Trump has done is tell the base that it doesn’t have to accept the whole package. He promises to make America white again — surely everyone knows that’s the real slogan, right? — while simultaneously promising to protect Social Security and Medicare, and hinting at (though not actually proposing) higher taxes on the rich. Outraged establishment Republicans splutter that he’s not a real conservative, but neither, it turns out, are many of their own voters.

Just to be clear, I find the prospect of a Trump administration terrifying, and so should you. But you should also be terrified by the prospect of a President Rubio, sitting in the White House with his circle of warmongers, or a President Cruz, whom one suspects would love to bring back the Spanish Inquisition.

As I see it, then, we should actually welcome Mr. Trump’s ascent. Yes, he’s a con man, but he is also effectively acting as a whistle-blower on other people’s cons. That is, believe it or not, a step forward in these weird, troubled times.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/04/opinion/clash-of-republican-con-artists.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1

[BeyondGeography]

1. That's a great line

Not least because it couldn't be more true.

[vi5]

2. This is what everyone should be saying.....

There is zero daylight between Trumps policies and Cruz/Rubio/Kasich except that he is actually saying it rather than dogwhistling. And in some cases Trump's policies are worse but in some they are actually more reasonable than the rest of them.

[pampango]

3. "Yes, he’s a con man, but he is also effectively acting as a whistle-blower on other people’s cons."

Krugman does have a way with words while he destroys conservative economic policies.

[sufrommich]

4. "He promises to make America white again....

surely everyone knows that's his real slogan,right?"


Exactly. Great Krugman crackdown.

[Hydra]

9. The GOP base has to be so relieved that they can come out and say it

The people he's appealing to hate the "political correctness." By that, they mean they are not allowed to be rabid racists out loud in public.

Which happens to be most of them.

[Wounded Bear]

16. Much like their whining about 'free speech'...

which is a strong corollary, what they're really complaining about is society's efforts to stop them from being the assholes and bullies they want to be.

[TalkingDog]

5. Oooohhhhh..... That's gonna leave a mark.

n/t

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

6. Krugman's right on this one.

When Mitt talks about Donald, he's talking about ever single Republican con man out there, himself included. The big lie is that Donald is different in kind, not just in being open and crude about his hatred and anger.

[Myrina]

7. BINGO!

The party proper is pissed that he's saying out loud the things they've been saying to each other & their ultra-rich donors behind closed doors, and tacitly putting into legislation, for the past 30 years.

He's taken the mask off the 'kinder, gentler / compassionate conservative' party.

And I think to some extent he's also harnessed (oddly enough) the class-war potential of 'poorly educated voters'. Although not pointing them entirely away from the GOP, he's given their rage an outlet. Sadly most of them are too enraged & poorly educated to realize that neither Trump nor the GOP is ever going to address the basic inequity of the playing field on which they exist.

[Red Oak]

8. That's mighty rich from Krugman

Calling out the cons in the Republican Party and then shilling for the cons in the Democratic Party.

I guess one set of cons pays his bills and one doesn't.

[sufrommich]

10. Yes,Krugman is evil,evilllllll!!!!!

?

[Kip Humphrey]

11. "Look, look, over there! At the con, over there! Look! No, look over THERE! ...over...there...not

over here, OVER THERE!"

[TIME TO PANIC]

18. +1

[LittleGirl]

13. Thank you. eom

[MattSh]

17. Yep...

It's evil when the RepubliCONs do it, but when the Democrats do the exact same thing, it's okey dokey!

[Arazi]

22. + another 1 eom

[Hekate]

32. I've been reading Krugman since BushCheney squatted in the White House. He has always....

...been spot on.

[Betty Karlson]

12. Cruz and Rubio are bigger threats than Trump? Sounds about fair.

But only just.

[Blue State Bandit]

14. And if you think Drumpf is going to stop w/ the GOP... I got an office building in Brooklyn...

that will be in need of a new tenant.

Apparently the current tenant is under investigation by the FBI.

[HenryWallace]

15. No irony here!

.....the .... phenomenon threatens the con the .... establishment has been playing on its own base. I’m talking about the bait and switch in which ….. voters are induced to (forgo responsive) government by dog whistles about Those (Crazy Dreamers)...., but (ultimately,) policies are all about rewarding the donor class.

[ejbr]

21. The comments section

of this article must be priceless

[Wounded Bear]

19. The Good Doctor strikes again...

[bemildred]

20. Well said, Mr Krugman. nt

[cloudbase]

23. Trump's appeal distilled, from a ltte in today's NY Times:

The Trump voter is not a policy wonk. The Trump voter wants action. The Trump voter hates to hear that there will be “no deal” on a Supreme Court nominee, no deal on the federal budget, no deal on taxes, no deal on trade, no deal on immigration, no deal on economic policy, no deal on health care. The Trump voter wants the best dealmaker to make deals on all these issues.

So until the Republicans stop being “the party of no,” the Trump phenomenon will continue to roll on until he is the leader of the Republican Party. The Republican establishment just doesn’t get it.

[FighttheFuture]

24. You have to give him credit here, great observation! I'm a Bernie supporter, and I know Krugman

supports Hillary, but, this is a good observation from a Nobel winning Economist who has had many in the past. Give him his due!

[FighttheFuture]

25. This is where Trump will rip Hillary apart, he will expose her cons, or percieved cons, and possibly

win! Very scary.

This is why, IMO, Bernie can beat Trump, or any of these assclowns. Bernie is not running any Cons, or triangulating, or whatever they call calculating politics these days.

Hillary may not beat all of these guys. from CNN:

Dems vs Trump:
Clinton 52 - Trump 44
Sanders 55- Trump 43

Dems vs Rubio:
Clinton 47 - Rubio 50
Sanders 53- Rubio 45

Dems vs Cruz:
Clinton 48 - Cruz 49
Sanders 57- Cruz 40


It is still early, though, but worries me.

[jwirr]

27. +1

[GOLGO 13]

26. "Make America WHITE again".

As in the white that fought the North for the soul of this country & got their asses beat black & blue. Histories biggest losers.

[raccoon]

33. Yeah, there is only racism in the South. :sarcasm: nt

[Dems to Win]

28. Not just the cons of the Repub Establishment -- the Democratic Establishment, too

Trump is exposing the lies of Democrats that pretend to support American jobs while selling us out with bad trade deals.

[MisterP]

29. it's not just the dogwhistles: for years Fed money's poured into the Red States

and the Senators scream about "welfare cases" in order to 1. get their voters to ignore that they're living off the teat and 2. make all that money seem like it's coming from the Senator (Cruz and flood money, GOP and Amtrak)

[malaise]

30. Krugman nailed it

[Hekate]

31. Oh my. Krugman's insights are as sharp as a surgeon's knife.

I love Prof. Krugman.