Normally, one doesn’t bother to read Krugman as he’s a economic writer wedded to Keynesianism, and thus doesn’t know the first thing about economics. But apparently Mr. Krugman is really, really upset over the way things are going:
…My sense is that most Americans still don’t understand this reality. They still imagine that when push comes to shove, our politicians will come together to do what’s necessary. But that was another country.
It’s hard to see how this situation is resolved without a major crisis of some kind. Mr. Simpson may or may not get the blood bath he craves this April, but there will be blood sooner or later. And we can only hope that the nation that emerges from that blood bath is still one we recognize.
Krugman is referring to former Senator Simpon’s opinion that there will be a political blood bath in April when it comes time to raise the national debt limit. Because the GOP will be unwilling to do this without some real concessions from Obama and his Democrats on spending, Krugman figures that we Republicans are deliberately attempting to make America ungovernable, and this will eventually lead to real bloodshed.
And once upon a time liberals claimed that we conservatives were the paranoid ones…
In a certain sense, of course, America is ungovernable – because there is too much government. If someone were to tackle Mr. Obama right now and ask him, “what did they do in the Department of Commerce today?”, all you’d get is a blank stare. I’m sure they did something there and eventually we’ll all find out what it is – but it may or may not bear any relation to what that Department is supposed to be doing, nor will the result of the action necessarily be in line with what those who made it desired.
This is how our government works – regardless of what anyone wanted to happen to military veterans who were injured during service, my father-in-law has spent 7 years attempting to get resolution of a claim for benefits. From this bureaucrat to that judge to the other lawyer, his claim has been floating around the system and there still is no answer…not a “yes”, not a “no”; simply, no answer. No one set out to do this – the law doesn’t set up a 7 year process for claims…it just worked out that way because no one is really minding the store because the store is too big for anyone to manage.
If Krugman is worried about an explosion of violence, then the place to look for the fuse is in government, itself. As it has become larger it has become less able to understand the day to day concerns of the American people. The personnel in government have started to have a built-in arrogance of power – and the higher up you go, the worse it gets. The American fury which propelled the election results this year are based, fundamentally, on this – our government is taking on the tone of an occupying, colonial power. It is more and more viewed as alien to the needs and desires of the people…the election was an attempt to set things right.
And if things aren’t set right? Then we shall see what we see. All depends on how successful we are at pushing aside desperate, rear-guard actions by liberals to save Big Government. I’m feeling a bit confident, but nothing is certain.
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