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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWho Ate Republicans Brains? Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman at the NY Times
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/opinion/republicans-trumpcare-obamacare-lies.html?module=subsection_opinion
"SNIP........
A key moment came in the 1970s, when Irving Kristol, the godfather of neoconservatism, embraced supply-side economics the claim, refuted by all available evidence and experience, that tax cuts pay for themselves by boosting economic growth. Writing years later, he actually boasted about valuing political expediency over intellectual integrity: I was not certain of its economic merits but quickly saw its political possibilities. In another essay, he cheerfully conceded to having had a cavalier attitude toward the budget deficit, because it was all about creating a Republican majority so political effectiveness was the priority, not the accounting deficiencies of government.
The problem is that once you accept the principle that its O.K. to lie if it helps you win elections, it gets ever harder to limit the extent of the lying or even to remember what its like to seek the truth.
The rights intellectual and moral collapse didnt happen all at once. For a while, conservatives still tried to grapple with real problems. In 1989, for example, The Heritage Foundation offered a health care plan strongly resembling Obamacare. That same year, George H. W. Bush proposed acap-and-trade system to control acid rain, a proposal that eventually became law.
But looking back, its easy to see the rot spreading. Compared with Donald Trump, the elder Bush looks like a paragon but his administration lied relentlessly about rising inequality. His sons administration lied consistently about its tax cuts, pretending that they were targeted on the middle class, and in case youve forgotten took us to war on false pretenses.
.........SNIP"
Gothmog
(143,630 posts)malaise
(267,455 posts)Malaise...close to 160,000 posts. I think you have pretty much said that, only in different words and phrases.
Gothmog
(143,630 posts)CrispyQ
(36,112 posts)Alice11111
(5,730 posts)Were as insightful as the article.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)And Hillary's campaign continued that honesty about proposed policies.
Solly Mack
(90,730 posts)Dread Pirate Roberts
(1,896 posts)Or did they taste really bad like they were spoiled?