Krugman: Karl Rove's America

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/opinion/15krugman.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

John Gibson of Fox News says that Karl Rove should be given a medal. I agree: Mr. Rove should receive a medal from the American Political Science Association for his pioneering discoveries about modern American politics. The medal can, if necessary, be delivered to his prison cell.

What Mr. Rove understood, long before the rest of us, is that we're not living in the America of the past, where even partisans sometimes changed their views when faced with the facts. Instead, we're living in a country in which there is no longer such a thing as nonpolitical truth. In particular, there are now few, if any, limits to what conservative politicians can get away with: the faithful will follow the twists and turns of the party line with a loyalty that would have pleased the Comintern.

I first realized that we were living in Karl Rove's America during the 2000 presidential campaign, when George W. Bush began saying things about Social Security privatization and tax cuts that were simply false. At first, I thought the Bush campaign was making a big mistake - that these blatant falsehoods would be condemned by prominent Republican politicians and Republican economists, especially those who had spent years building reputations as advocates of fiscal responsibility. In fact, with hardly any exceptions they lined up to praise Mr. Bush's proposals.

But the real demonstration that Mr. Rove understands American politics better than any pundit came after 9/11.

[MichiganVote]

1. But can Karl Rove control it, that is what is at stake today

[Pirate Smile]

2. more

"Every time I read a lament for the post-9/11 era of national unity, I wonder what people are talking about. On the issues I was watching, the Republicans' exploitation of the atrocity began while ground zero was still smoldering.

-snip-
But Mr. Rove understood that the facts were irrelevant. For one thing, he knew he could count on the administration's supporters to obediently accept a changing story line. Read the before-and-after columns by pro-administration pundits about Iraq: before the war they castigated the C.I.A. for understating the threat posed by Saddam's W.M.D.; after the war they castigated the C.I.A. for exaggerating the very same threat.

Mr. Rove also understands, better than anyone else in American politics, the power of smear tactics. Attacks on someone who contradicts the official line don't have to be true, or even plausible, to undermine that person's effectiveness. All they have to do is get a lot of media play, and they'll create the sense that there must be something wrong with the guy.

And now we know just how far he was willing to go with these smear tactics: as part of the effort to discredit Joseph Wilson IV, Mr. Rove leaked the fact that Mr. Wilson's wife worked for the C.I.A. I don't know whether Mr. Rove can be convicted of a crime, but there's no question that he damaged national security for partisan advantage. If a Democrat had done that, Republicans would call it treason. "

[Lex]

3. Karl's a Lee Atwater for this decade. But remember

even Lee Atwater's time was finite.

Lee died.
Karl will trundle off to prison.

Or so I believe.

[dalloway]

4. a great piece! worth reading every word at the link.

[gumby]

5. As much as I adore Krugman,

I can't believe he's playing the dummy here.

His Ivory Tower certainly wasn't so high that he didn't recognize the exact same tactics of the 'Gingrich Revolution' or the past 15+ years of Rush Limbaugh as the Godfather Of Hate Radio?

Starting with Limbaugh and Gingrich, this nation has been primed and pumped full of fascist yearnings and tactics. Now, when "It" has actually happened here, Krugman is going to feign surprise?

Fascism is always illogical. It is no different now. Unfortunately, the nonsensical fusion of fascism with illogic seems to be its biggest seductive draw within the population. Bush's followers are PROUD to be nonsensical and PROUD to be illogical. THAT'S the real meaning of fascism. "Intelligent Design," anyone? Fascism, along with many other things, represents a nation that has gone insane; and that nation will fight for that insanity with everything it has.

And Krugman is surprised?

[Demeter]

6. Paul Krugman Needs To Address Media Complicity, Too

The GOP didn't do it all by themselves--they had LOTS of help.

[Bassic]

7. A depressing article to say the least

And one that sort of casts doubt over our actual chances of getting Karl Rove our of there, because we know all the red necks and other neo-con morons are gonna stick to the party line. How Soviet of them.