"Despite the overwhelming evidence on the efficacy of the stimulus..."

Thanks, Steve, I needed a laugh.

Krugman was a fairly mild mannered, middle of the road economist 12 years ago, before the whole Bush 2000 campaign.

Question - does constantly compromising with the crazies work?

Despite Democratic successes in 2008, the GOP have created a climate of opinion in which, no matter how corrupt and incompetent their representatives are, no matter how discredited their policies are, they still manage to define themselves as the more authentic Americans and hence can count on the votes of about 40% of the country. Since this climate is backed up by the financial resources of corporate America, it's hard to see how it can be changed. So Dionne is right to be frustrated.

"Question - does constantly compromising with the crazies work?"

Hey, he got his $30,000.

Obviously, shrill and not very serious.

Posted by: davidp on July 29, 2010 at 10:58 AM | PERMALINK

Republicans like Kerry and Rangel come to mind.

The crazy seems to me to be coming from small crowds of peevish oldsters, Republican operatives and talking jackoff idiots on TV. I remain hopeful that this group does not at all represent a majority of American voters. That's not to say I'm not real sick of hearing from the crazies -- I just think they're a paper tiger.

Dionne makes several interesting points. As a Geezer who's lived through the end of the Vietnam War, WIN buttons, Watergate, Reagan, Operation Desert Storm, the first Energy Crisis, four decades of environmental disaster predictions, Clinton, crack babies, the fall of the Soviet Union, and on and on and on — I cannot recall a time in our recent history when a political party has exhibited more gleeful ruthlessness, desperate ignorance or callous disregard for the needs of average Americans.

That any Republican can hold on to a legislative seat in the absurd climate they've created must be the result of some sort of pact with the devil.

When are people going to start calling this what it is? CLASS WARFARE. The plutocracy has no problem whatsoever with turning the middle class and lower classes into serfs and indentured servants.

Why the left doesn't call this out for what it is amazes me. What also amazes me is the propensity of a large swath of Americans who continually vote against there self interests. I've given it a lot of thought, and I think that for at least some, they want to identify themselves with the rich, even though they may never be, as opposed to identifying with democrats, which have been successfully vilified over the past 3 decades as the party of homos, lazy brown people, i.e. not 'true' Americans.

The Big Foam Finger says: "USA! USA! We Number One!"

-Life expectancy? No.
-Literacy? No.
-Healthcare? No.
-Exports? No.
-Employment? No.

The list goes on, and on, and on.

Like Carthage and Rome and Britain, we are spiraling the drain.

And nobody seems to notice. Or care. . .

The Senate has been a problem since its creation in the Constitution. It was only through the Founders' amazing lack of imagination and distrust of direct democracy that we ended up with a pale version of the Brits' "upper" and "lower" houses.

Let's face it: as long as we give Senators who represent less than 20% of the total population equal voting power as those who represent the vast majority, the nation cannot correct itself.

Why the left doesn't call this out for what it is amazes me.
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You'd lose your job at the NYT. Wait, plenty did anyway not too long ago.

But I've noticed of late that Dionne, a pretty level-headed, even-tempered pundit, is getting increasingly frustrated, even agitated.

Hmmm...
Wonder if he's retiring, and this is his way of sticking it to the once-great WAPO, Fred Hiatt and the idiot public editor.

He's quite right, of course.
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@ hells littlest angel
The crazy seems to me to be coming from small crowds...

Maayyyee-be.
While the crazy does indeed represent the usual 28%, this is the first election cycle I remember (and I first voted in '68) in which the batsnit right-wing crazy hasn't been tamped down by the national organization. In '68 and '72 the dems couldn't keep the hippie left out of the public eye, and it really, really hurt liberal politics until Nixon's gang screwed the pooch.

Also, crazy or not, Carville was always right about one thing: Its the economy, stupid.

I feel his pain! I have crackpots to the right of me, spewing whatever total horseshit Fox, Rush and Drudge are feeding them. I have confused "centrists", who can stand the President but when I ask why they can't articulate it. When I explain, they agree. These "centrists" I'd call North East Republicans so they have a bias toward anyone with a D and still watch Fox, just a bit more jaundiced. They did HATE Bush though by the end. To my left? Insane former Hillary-ites turned leftist FDL crap feeders.
My Dad always said- crazies to my right, fools to my left (he was very sympathetic to the left but always felt they cut their nose off to spite their face). These are not times for pragmatists.
I am tired of constantly educating myself about things I do not give to shits about. Things I must educate myself about just to refute the assholes.

Don't know why you're surprised, Steve. We've watched you become radicalized by the past decade of lies and hypocrisy too.

"Now the guy's got Paulie as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie. Trouble with the bill? He can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. But now the guy's gotta come up with Paulie's money every week no matter what. Business bad? Fuck you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? Fuck you, pay me. Place got hit by lightning huh? Fuck you, pay me."

Just kept playing in a loop in the back of my mind.

Considering Steve never gets angry... I guess he is living vicariously.

They really should. "Mild-mannered center-left patriots" are just another kind of America-hating commie as far as extremist right-wing morons are concerned, so they really don't have anything to lose.

"I am tired of constantly educating myself about things I do not give to shits about. Things I must educate myself about just to refute the assholes."

Also,
Please use "two" instead of "to" when referring to the number of things.

While the crazy does indeed represent the usual 28%, this is the first election cycle I remember (and I first voted in '68) in which the batsnit right-wing crazy hasn't been tamped down by the national organization.

Judging by the national GOP, I suspect that the usual 28% is now the majority of the GOP and are the ones in charge. Which is why the national organization isn't tamping down on them.

Of course there's also the possibility that the head of the national organization - Michael Steele - has turned himself into a laughingstock that has no authority to do anything at all to stop the crazies. But as far as leadership goes in the GOP, the "best and brightest" really DO appear to be the crazy 28%-ers given all the folks they've pushed out of the party for being insufficiently pure. Who could replace Steele that would tamp down on the crazies? I'm not seeing that person.

Let's put it this way...if you could choose to live in any country in the world, would you still choose the US?

Or as we like to say here in Seattle....the two best things about living here are that we're as far away from DC as you can be and still be in the Lower 48, and that we're only two hours from Canada.

The US hasn't been a superpower since the day the Supreme Court handed the presidency to George Bush.

"Let's put it this way...if you could choose to live in any country in the world, would you still choose the US?"

That you Alec Baldwin? Besides things have gotten better since January 2009!

"Let's put it this way...if you could choose to live in any country in the world, would you still choose the US?"

I don't think the US would even make the top ten. Oh, I guess that makes me a murka-hater, but merely insisting that your country is the greatest country in the world (in itself an obnoxious thing to do)has got zip to do with actually working to make it better.

Obviously Dionne is an hate-filled elitist, like so much of the librul media and all those ivory-tower professors.

Mark this date. EJ Dionne used the word "stupid" to describe America, and it's a good choice of words. It's exactly We're all starting to catch on now. America has lost its mind. We're insand -- or a good portion of us, anyway -- and that we are not engaged in "politics as usual" in any conventional sense, but something entirely different. That "something" needs describing and understanding.

Let me try this again!

Mark this date. EJ Dionne used the word "stupid" to describe America, and it's a good choice of words. We're all starting to catch on now. America has lost its mind. We're insane -- or a good portion of us, anyway -- and are not engaged in "politics as usual," in any conventional sense of that word, but something entirely different.

That "something" needs describing and understanding.

"Mark this date. EJ Dionne used the word "stupid" to describe America, and it's a good choice of words. It's exactly We're all starting to catch on now. America has lost its mind. We're insand -- or a good portion of us, anyway -- and that we are not engaged in "politics as usual" in any conventional sense, but something entirely different. That "something" needs describing and understanding."

I agree. Have you seen the plans for the Clinton wedding?! Bad color choice for the dresses. Soros ought to know better.

efgoldman "This is the first election cycle I remember in which the batsnit right-wing crazy hasn't been tamped down by the national organization."

tamped down? over 25% of the gop house quickly joined bachmann's crazybag caucus.....boner and kant-error didn't hop on board but i don't see them pushing back against it either...

cheers

This is actually an important milestone. The first time a mainstream columnist who is not associated with right or left has called out the nonsense that is what passes for 'political discourse' today.

Jon Stewart was right when he attacked the yelling people at CNN as not really engaging in political discourse, while telling us this was bad for America.

The idea of making stars out of idiots must really appeal to the right and the media. Otherwise what explains the unearned prominence of Palin and Bachmann and King and De Mint on our airwaves?

"Can a nation remain a superpower if its internal politics are incorrigibly stupid?" NO
Who says we are a superpower. The Republican party has destroyed our nation as a superpower. The American Corporate Greed has caused global recession if not depression. The Republican thinking continues this downfall. If more politicians don't stand up to fight the corruption America will continue on it's downward spiral to third world country.The rich will be powerful and the rest of Americans will be immigrating to other countries for jobs. Perhaps even illegally.

"If more politicians don't stand up to fight the corruption America will continue on it's downward spiral to third world country."

Right on!

Oh lordy...where to begin. E.J. is a professional journalist/opinionator that grew up in the era of 'not biting the hand that feeds him'. He did the work, tried to stay as objective as he could, didn't bash the WAPO but let it be known he was LEFT leaning. Broder used to be the same except RIGHT leaning. It is the rise of the internets and FAUX news that is pushing these guys out. No longer can you be objective in the paper and subjective with your friends. It doesn't work. I believe that in their new 'business models' the papers are figuring this out and allowing a little 'voice' to come out. E.J. was a great friend of the LIBRUL columnist Molly Ivins and has always fought the good fight away from his 'employer'. Doncha' all watch Meet The Press?

And YES I would still live in the US over any other country, but I too, am from Seattle where we bless our lucky stars we are so far away...

E.J. was a great friend of the LIBRUL columnist Molly Ivins and has always fought the good fight away from his 'employer'. Doncha' all watch Meet The Press?
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Yeah, I miss her. She used to uh, borrow lots of my work too! But you're right about the power of Fox. They've got the WaPo over a barrel. The NYT too.

Sadly, he's far too late for a spot on Shrillblog, but I nonetheless welcome Mr. Dionne to the ranks of the DFHs, for whom this has been clear for a long time now.

It's being a superpower that's made us dumb and broke. Dionne's just another idiot.

What�s all this talk about �crazies�? Crazy like a Fox I�d say. Terrorists killing innocent people are not crazy. They are using miniscule resources to defeat the costly security efforts of a much greater power. They inspire imitation in the weak minded, anger and despair in the victims, fear and suspicion in all houses. They are not wacked-out, loose canons, but serious people with a cause, a method and a goal. Fox too understands that denial of the victory is as good as a win, and has demonstrably and consistently applied this tactic successfully for years.

Sherrod is a case in point. On the day the White House and Congress were to claim a costly, hard won victory on much needed financial reform, Fox et al threw a bomb in the chamber. It was false, inflammatory, gratuitously racist and just what the doctor ordered. The critical moment to claim credit, was buried in a �news flash� panic that lasted until the conversation turned to �now that the bill is passed, what problems do you anticipate?� This wasn�t a question of journalistic principal, much less truth, there is no price to pay for the shameless. No doubt the White House saw it for what it was and sought to nip it in the bud, poking its own eye in the ensuing confusion. And so credit due was denied and the moment passed. They simply changed to subject from consideration of a critical national endeavor to the neuralgic repercussions of an irrelevant and gratuitous strike on the nation�s most divisive nerve. They are as �crazy� as an IED and just as predictable.

It�s touching that EJ is shocked�SHOCKED, to think of the betrayal of journalistic principal, fairness, and truth�but it�s time to get over it. These aren�t lapses, this is evolved and amoral strategy. The mission was once again accomplished. In every game, the rules are set. Let us at least acknowledge the real rules of the game, and let us keep score. Let�s stop being surprised and puzzled at each new outrage, and realize it is a tactic that will continue until the price is higher than the benefit. Right now: a cheap lie on cheap airtime has knocked millions of dollars and hours of the people�s work right off the pin�again�and we wonder if they mean it.

So Dionne supports American dominance and hegemony, and wants it to continue? Shame on Dionne.