Paul Krugman- "United States a sort of elected dictatorship"

[Room101]

Where would Krugman get such an idea? :scared:

“If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator.” – George W. Bush - December 18, 2000 http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0012/18/nd.01.html


"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it," – George W. Bush - July 30, 2001 http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/jul2001/nf20010730_347.htm


A Vision of Power
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: April 27, 2004


here's a deep mystery surrounding Dick Cheney's energy task force, but it's not about what happened back in 2001. Clearly, energy industry executives dictated the content of a report that served their interests.

The real mystery is why the Bush administration has engaged in a three-year fight — which reaches the Supreme Court today — to hide the details of a story whose broad outline we already know.


One possibility is that there is some kind of incriminating evidence in the task force's records. Another is that the administration fears that full disclosure will highlight its chummy relationship with the energy industry. But there's a third possibility: that the administration is really taking a stand on principle. And that's what scares me.

<snip>

That same vision is apparent in many other actions. Just to mention one: we learn from Bob Woodward that the administration diverted funds earmarked for Afghanistan to preparations for an invasion of Iraq without asking or even notifying Congress.

What Mr. Cheney is defending, in other words, is a doctrine that makes the United States a sort of elected dictatorship: a system in which the president, once in office, can do whatever he likes, and isn't obliged to consult or inform either Congress or the public.



http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/27/opinion/27KRUG.html

[lcordero]

1. elected? What do you mean elected?

Nobody has been elected since 1996.

[Syrinx]

2. I love Paul Krugman!

If I were gay, I would volunteer to kiss him right on the mouth. RIGHT on the mouth!

[Andy_Stephenson]

3. I'm Gay...

Want me to kiss him for you?

[Syrinx]

5. Cool with me!

I love the guy! I really do. He's like the last hope.

[The Traveler]

6. Yeah ... he's really kickin' ass

And telling it like it really is. Now if only people would start opening their eyes. The sheep always look up just before the axe falls ...

[DeepModem Mom]

4. If others in the press would only tell the public this truth...

in a way that could be understood: the Bush cabal operates outside our democratic system, and endangers it. In the Watergate era, the press did this -- the public understood that Nixon was chipping at the bedrock of the Constitution, and soon he was gone. This administration has taken a sledge hammer to the Constitution, and the public doesn't realize or understand that, or maybe people just don't care.

[pretzel4gore]

7. the irony is the 'righteous' are backing their worst enemy!

it's not as if geebush and his gang o cut-throats are scared of the left...hahaha! the bfee literally 'shakes' with horror at thought of their freepers turning on them....
i love the thought of condi rice limbaugh-humbug, and geeb hisself etc hyperventlating!

[ze_dscherman]

8. Hitler and Mussolini - both voted into office

Even democracy may fail. But that bush*-monkey wasn't elected, and that hints that democracy even failed before Bush.

[no_hypocrisy]

10. Big difference: Hitler voted in by a minority via plurality vote.

10 parties were running for control of the Reichstag on July 31, 1932.
Hitler's party won 230 delegate seats out of a total of 608, with 39% of the vote, a little more than one-third of all votes. Social democrats received 133 delegates, Communists received 89, and Pappen (Weimar government) only received 44.

This makes for an interesting argument against third-party candidates as demonstrated with Ahnuld in California, that any candidate can win with far below 51% of the vote.

[mhr]

9. Great Lecture By Krugman - Well worth your time!

Need Real Media PLayer

rtsp://real.dialnsa.edu/REAL_BEARD/spring2003_events/schwartz.rm

[DeepModem Mom]

11. kick

[MetaTrope]

12. "It's not a dictatorship in Washington, but I tried to make it one"

http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jan/01162004/nation_w/129661.asp