Paul Krugman has been on a roll since leaving the New York Times and starting his substack. While I admittedly lack the expertise to follow his more “wonky” economic analyses, his political/social observations closely mirror my own (and like most people, I engage in more confirmation bias than I probably should).
Take this introduction to a recent newsletter.
The so-called experts ridiculed Donald Trump’s claims during the 2024 campaign that he would bring grocery prices down on Day One and cut energy prices in half.
The so-called experts said that Trump’s tariffs would raise consumer prices while failing to bring back manufacturing jobs.
The so-called experts said that Trump appointee Pete Hegseth’s emphasis on “warrior ethos” rather than competence and his purge of officers he doesn’t consider sufficiently loyal to Trump would degrade the U.S. military and be disastrous in a war.
The so-called experts warned that Trump’s attack on Iran would lead us into a quagmire and cause a global energy crisis.
The so-called experts said that Trump’s contempt for international agreements and his threats to friendly nations would undermine the world’s trust in America, and that we would find ourselves without allies when we needed their help.
The so-called experts were completely right.
Krugman is quick to admit that the “experts” aren’t always right. He cites the “profoundly wrong ” military experts who expected Russia to win the Ukraine war easily, and the economists–of whom he was one– who understated the risks of inflation in 2021. That said, he points out that the rejection of expertise on the political Right is the result of a combination of “wishful thinking, personal obsessions and, last but by no means least, corruption.”
Anyone who follows the news, even sporadically, is aware of Trump’s absolute disregard for expertise, especially but certainly not exclusively scientific expertise. He ignored military experts’ warnings about the likely consequences of his war of whim against Iran; ignored virtually every economist, conservative or liberal, about the harms of tariffs; based his energy policy on rejection of climate change. And as Krugman reminds us, “on all issues what he does is strongly influenced by who is able and willing to offer the biggest bribes.”
But it isn’t just Trump.
Yet the catastrophic stupidity of current U.S. policy shouldn’t be attributed purely to Trump’s personal unfitness to lead. Willful ignorance and rejection of expert advice have characterized the U.S. political right for many years. Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein published “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks,” a warning about the growing extremism of the Republican Party, fourteen years ago.
Which raises the question: why does the Right reject expertise?
Krugman points to what should be obvious: much of the Right’s rejection of expertise in general is a result of the influence of the fossil fuel industry’s attacks on the climate science that threatened industry profits. But the Right’s anti-science bigotry is also rooted in its reflexive distrust of people who actually know what they are talking about. Experts think independently, so they can’t be trusted to hew to the party line. Krugman quotes Hannah Arendt, who wrote in The Origins of Totalitarianism that “Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.”
With Trump, we see the logical end to the GOP’s long-standing disdain for science, knowledge and evidence. In just a year, this administration has massively degraded the competence of the federal government. It has gutted American science and made a mockery of medical expertise. Trump’s ignorance of economics has decimated American farm incomes and brought about a new and distressing bout of inflation. His refusal to listen to military experts has cost the country billions of tax dollars and bogged us down in Iran, in what is likely to be a demoralizing defeat.
America’s political Right exhibits two overarching characteristics: this retreat from expertise, science and evidence (indeed, a rejection of the Enlightenment values on which this country was based) and a virulent racism–a racism that also dismisses science and evidence. The hysterical attacks on DEI, the efforts to rewrite and whitewash American history, and the gleeful racial gerrymandering occuring in the wake of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act are all evidence that today’s Republican Party is a rebirth of the Confederacy.
We are currently being “governed” by Arendt’s crackpots and fools. Unfortunately for all of us, as the writer Philip Dick put it, “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”
More and more, the “right” is wrong. Why? Because the so-called right is being directed by corporate/banking America. Their lust for power and money has over-stepped the line of doing the correct thing for the people the politicians they buy are supposed to do. Now, it’s all about the Benjamins. Full stop. If it doesn’t show a particular level of profit, it doesn’t get done.
This economic/political situation has been going on since the day after Lincoln was shot. Why else would the “right” be so against things that the government can and should do to make the quality of life among its residents better?
In his own economics expertise way, Karl Marx predicted this phenomenon. Take RFK, Jr. … please. Take all the other idiots now in the executive branch and the right wing of Congress. Take SCOTUS’s majority. Howard Lutnick? Really?
This is where Todd comes in to tell us more about the oligarchs and the collusion with the Zionists. What can make it stop?
Well, as poorly as humans predict the future, the vast majority of times, this time Mann and Ornstein, and, now, Krugman, got it right.
The old, imbecilic, “The South shall rise again!” is much too close for comfort, thanks John Roberts , and company. Was that a bold-faced statement, or meant as a prediction?
Jan. 6th, saw a confederate flag in the congressional hall, let’s not forget.
Donald Trump is an extremely dangerous Lame Duck president who has been given full control of government by Congress and provided with full immunity for all actions by the Supreme Court. He is the Acting President/Emperor/Wizard and we are in Oz; he is ruling by enacting his Executive Orders.
Had the Democratic party united behind President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris they would have been reelected and we would not be here. They would still be mopping up Trump’s overflowing, backed up toilet but would also still be making progress by protecting democracy, Rule of Law and supporting the Constitution of the UNITED States of America as they upheld their public Oaths of Office.
We cannot expect aid from our former Allies as Trump has alienated them; what will the China/Russia meeting results be and how will those results affect the U.S. merely two weeks after Trump’s bogus two-DAY visit to China? As has been reported; a Memo could have been used and millions of tax dollars paid for Trump’s family and friends vacation in China, however brief, would have been saved. What can we expect from his attendance at the G7? Scary possibilities, indeed. Politics is a Science; the Science of survival of any nation.
Well, Vern, the billionaire Zionists, ousted Thomas Massie in a small district in Kentucky, just across the state line of Indiana, because he wouldn’t toe the line and was critical of Israel’s influence. He also forced the AG to release the Epstein Files and restricted Trump’s actions against Iran. Why would Zionists care about a single congressman in Kentucky?
I hate to say it comes down to religion, but everyone outside of the news media in this country wants Israel to fulfill biblical prophesies – end of times – Christ arrives.
So, if Israel commits genocide or kills people in other lands, so that they can lay claim to it because it fulfills a bible verse, this is why they reject science coming liberals. “Stupid liberals are heretics and support abortion. Baby-killing Satan worshippers.”
When the oligarchs in this country, and in Israel, can manipulate over 30% of the MAGA right-wing voters, they can do it easily for power and money. They don’t care about murder, and don’t see it as a problem if it’s to satisfy a bible verse.
That is some twisted shit!
The Koch’s had the same strategy with the Tea Partiers, but lost the GOP to Trump and his posse of bandits. When Americans realize we are paying higher prices in a couple of months, will they consider it a sacrifice for a good Israeli cause, or will they be pissed at Trump for bailing on MAGA?
I went on X briefly to see what’s happening, and the MAGA v MIGA crowds are getting louder. Even the right-wing podcasters are split into two groups. The MAGA crowd wants Trump to focus on the US, but Trump is controlled by Israel. Wait till the pain and shortages hit Americans later this summer…
I mentioned to a person about a package that took almost a month to get from NJ to Indy via the USPS. Their comment was “I wonder if we’ll even have a post office in a few years”. I explained that governments run post offices because it’s good for the economy. I didn’t think it would go away any time soon.
Then thinking out loud, I said it’s crazy that sending mail in the US is so cheap. When I travel overseas, I send a post card home, and even 10 years ago it used to cost me a dollar or more. I suspect the reason the USPS a money losing proposition is junk mail lobbyists like it that way. Despite the Republican tendency to ignore evidence (that a functioning postal service is good for the economy) I suspect those same lobbyists will make sure the post office never goes away.
The corrupt over influence of money taints much in today’s politics.
Sorry, killing the post office has been a major want, why have no idea,
When or if it happens, those who depend on the cell phone for All their business will be in a world of trouble.
There is a segment of fundamentalist religious people that reject Evolutionary theory (especially human origins and abiogenesis ideas) and–to a lesser extent–cosmology. (It’s frustrating to me since Evolution is a basis for much of our understanding of biology.) In any case, though, it seems entirely reasonable to me that people who are willing to ignore evidence and expertise in some areas of science are perfectly willing to reject other areas of science as well. It probably feels more consistent to them. As a perfectly natural extension, they start to reject other things: vaccine efficacy, climate science, PFAS risks, green energy possibilities, autism causes, etc. Over the last few decades–with Fox news relentless “help”–this has become a general rejection of science, expertise, and evidence.
In some ways, it’s also morphed into a reflex to reject whatever position the other side (e.g. Leftists or Democrats) takes. For example, I think they choose to hate trans people so much these days because, at least in part, we support them. And the same applies to many other areas where we disagree. You can see this especially when the line grows blurry–like cost of living, Iran war, Epstein files, etc.–where they start to fracture because it isn’t obvious how they can take the stance opposite to the Left. The cognitive dissonance kicks in hard.
First I need to clarify a point. When I have said that, just because something is unconstitutional, it’s not necessarily illegal. What I should have said is that there are no civil nor any criminal penalties for something that is unconstitutional, except for treason. The only penalty might be impeachment and a subsequent finding of guilty and removal from office. So far, in 237 years, there have been four impeachments and we are 0 for 4 in guilty verdicts. After January 6, 2021 when a sitting President clearly attempted to overturn a valid election, at the very least a seditious act, we still couldn’t get a guilty verdict.
Now to the MAGATS and their disbelief in science, it seems that they see themselves as rebels, fighting against “The Man”. They see Orange Jesus as their leader. He leads because he has a very good brain, he knows more than the generals, and everyone is amazed by how he understands what they do. They see him the way he thinks he is, godlike. Who needs science when you have god?
John writes: “For example, I think they choose to hate trans people so much these days because, at least in part, we support them.”
If you’re talking about MAGA, remember these are the people who are protecting the rape of a minor repeatedly. It seems like by protecting Trump from his past life as a pedophile, MAGA GOP is protecting pedophiles and their donors who ran with Epstein. They also support genocide if it means bringing Jesus Christ down from the heavens.
The point is, these MAGA creatures would love to spend time with a transvestite, and many of them probably do. They don’t hate “others”; they hate themselves for having fantasies. 🙂
George Wallace loved to mock pointed-headed intellectuals and liberals. Before that, the monkey trials mocked evolution. From time to time, we go through book bans and book burnings since any books – particularly those which express information contrary to popular opinion or authoritarian views or long-held religious beliefs – are regarded as threats to the absolutists who refuse to consider any new information. The printing press which printed the first Bibles for people to read on their own was viewed as a threat to the church hierarchy who wanted parishioners to depend entirely on the priests for what the Bible had to say and how to interpret it.
When authoritarians invade other countries, one of their very first targets are those with mass communications – TV and radio stations, the internet, newspapers – because any ideas other than the dictator’s are intolerable, no matter how well researched and documented. It’s about control and ‘don’t confuse me with facts’.
Caren; Trump began his determined and continuing efforts to shut down the USPS in his first term. Either his own words or conjecture by others, his reported reason was to force the public to use services of his already wealthy supporters who own delivery services. Many of the conclusions we reach about anything he does or says has to be guesswork because it could change within the next hour.
In the past hour in my own home I have to question the ability of the electronic world forced on us today about just how much is known and controlled by the “Trump Factor” owned by his billionaire friends and owners. I watch reruns of “The Waltons” often; recent episodes have dealt with the days of Hitler preceding WWII from the limited perspective available to America at that time. John Boy was going to publish some quotes from Mein Kampf to inform people of the truths of Hitler’s intentions. My TV suddenly shut itself off, the cable remained on. I turned the TV back on to watch the conclusion. Decided to check my E-mails and Facebook posts; I supported an Ali Velshi Facebook post regarding the massive cleanup and rebuilding we would face once Trump is gone and I shared the post. Suddenly a dark Facebook post covered my screen with the notice that my account had been shut down. I simply manually turned off my hard drive and my monitor, waited a few minutes and signed back on…and here I am but WTF am I to believe about my privacy on the Internet or using my cell phone? I have been hacked and phished on my computer and scammed on my credit card, inundated with ugly sex based SPAM posts and the only option any of us have is to live with this electronic age or in limbo in the dark. More Science based in the hatred by the Right?