Paul Krugman - "... this is what modern Republicans do; this is who they are."

[Towlie]

Understanding Republican Cruelty

In short, Paul Krugman says "I think there are two big drivers — actually, two big lies — behind Republican cruelty on health care and beyond."

His first reason is that they hate Barack Obama and his second is that they hate the poor, whom they characterize as lazy people who don’t want to work.

But I suspect a third, and perhaps primary, driver is that they serve the rich people who finance their campaigns and who expect and demand profitable returns on those investments. Like Sarah Huckabee Sanders, or (deleted due to an attempt to distract from the topic), they throw honesty and common sense to the wind and offer what they hope are the most effective arguments to serve their employers' interests, because that's what they're paid to do.

Maybe I'm way off base on this, but if not, I wonder why Paul Krugman didn't mention it.

[Voltaire2]

2. Criminal defense lawyers perform a vital civic function.

Your "obviously guilty" is yet another potential victim of the criminal justice system.

[GusBob]

3. He mentionS the rich and the wealthy and there tax cuts

All thru the article

[Bluepinky]

4. I think you're right.

It usually comes down to money. That's why they deny climate change, because they have so much invested in oil and gas, they need to extract every bit of it for profit.

[Stonepounder]

6. I agree, it is about the money. but also remember

that much of that money comes from outside the country. McConnell got millions from foriegn interests.

[GusBob]

5. I think the point of the column

The point of the column is whom the GOP hates and why, not whom they love and why.

He is seeking the reason for the cruelty not the love

[Hekate]

13. Bingo

[Cary]

7. They are fascists and fascists are subversive

You cannot apply logic or reason to crazy and stupid. Our ideology, enlightened self interest, is their enemy which is the ultimate irony since our ideology is the ideology that our nation was founded upon. We want to maximize everyone's ability to realize their own potential. Fascists have a revolving list of enemies they need to undermine.

Why do fascists need to undermine anyone? Why be subversive? It's because they hate themselves. They are self loathing.

[ancianita]

8. You are not way off base. Charles Koch is quoted in Dark Money, saying that he not only pays for

candidates for a party, he pays them and the party say exactly what he wants them to say.

Thus his messaging network.

[Honeycombe8]

9. Because I think he's pointing out the difference THIS TIME. All politicians...

favor their big donors' interests, don't you think?

Both parties have their special interests. This is why we have a LAW prohibiting the government from negotiating pharmaceutical prices, even tho Medicare Part D (the drug part added during the Bush admin.) was a bipartisan co-sponsored bill.

I've always thought Part D being added during a Repub administration was very odd. ADDING to an entitlement program? I wonder what the payoff to the Republicans was for that? Must have been huge. (We know what the Dem. rep who co-sponsored the bill got, because he quit Congress before end of his term and went to work for a Big Pharma company at a salary of $1,000,000 a year, as a lobbyist, using his political contacts. John Breaux, D-LA.)

[DK504]

10. They are so stupid, the voters, think they are "making America great."

"His first reason is that they hate Barack Obama and his second is that they hate the poor, whom they characterize as lazy people who don’t want to work. "

Their hatred for one of the smartest presidents in the past 100 years is simply because he is black and actually tried to help those in dire situations their Congressional members put them in to begin with.

These rethugs, like Huckleberry Sandbags, think the 400 families will actually keep them on board when people are selling apples on the corners. She and her sycophants will be trying to take over those street corners after they are discarded when no longer necessary.

[certainot]

11. krugman is doing what most analysts do - talking about SYMPTOMS

there ail always be racism and many republicans are poor. and there is money driving the whole thing.

much of the hate toward obama and then clinton and towawrd the poor that republicans don't want to help is based on BULLSHIT and talk radio is the difference. it is the only major medium with no counterpart on the left to challenge or correct it while it lies and creates the alternate reality the republican party is now based on. dems need to poll for it so media notices the dominant part it plays. liberals need to boycott and protest it. all local businesses that advertise on any rw station need to be called and thanked for giving us trump, destroying obamacare, public education, and the global warming. our universities and pro teams need to be protested until they stop broadcasting sports on those stations.

rw talk radio domnates 40 states with 80 senators and whether the republican reps use that large malinformed constituency to enable them or intimidate them that is the new republican party - the primary and secondary targets of a corporate think tank coordinated PSYOPS of a few hundred liars and flat earth idiots that get paid to hide behind call screeners and dump buttons and blowhard all day as long as they don't stray too far from what limbaugh and a few other major talk raido gods on their stations said earlier in the day.

when people start talking about money in politics here is some simple math:
at a cheap $1000/hr x 15hrs/day x 5 = $75,000/wk x 1200 stations republican talk radio is worth $18MIL/day or 390MIL$ /month or 4.68 BIL$/ year FREE for coordinated global warming denial, pro republican free market deregulation and wall st think tank propaganda, swiftboating, and the hate and fear used to get people to vote republican.

that's been going for 30 years but the dem party and the progressive groups did what everone else like krugman have done - ignore it because they couldn't read it. so they waste our donations and volunteer time and get their asses kicked and analyze symptoms and blame their reps for being spineless or not appealing to the "white working class" who in this case is a reference to people living in areas where there are no free easy alternatives for politics while working and driving other than rw talk radio - which is the vast majority of the US.

democrats are so dumb about it we let 88 major universities broadcast sports on 257 limbaugh stations so they can use it to attract advertisers and pay the rent while they try to defund public ed and deny global warming and oppose efforts to lower student debt and lie us into wars.

[Hekate]

12. Paul Krugman "didn't mention it" because in a sense it's embedded in the column already...

Krugman, author of Conscience of a Liberal, and an economist, is always a good read. He was a voice of solid sanity for me during the BushCheney era, and he still is.

Thanks for the post and link.

[smirkymonkey]

14. K&R

[Amaryllis]

15. AGree. YOur third reason is primary.

[Alwaysna]

16. GOP long term goals

There could exist another motivating factor to their cruelty. Looking at their recent budget and other activities: cut education (keep people ignorant), cut food stamps, heat relief, medical care, regulations on employers and have a bloated military = a sizeable population of ignorant, hungry, cold , sick and overworked people some of which will still be able to resist and rebel and riot which will be put down by the bloated military turning against the American citizens. Are we moving closer to slavery yet? Just random thoughts.