The Cult That Is Destroying America - Paul Krugman

[Mass]

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/the-cult-that-is-destroying-america/

No, the cult that I see as reflecting a true moral failure is the cult of balance, of centrism.

Think about what’s happening right now. We have a crisis in which the right is making insane demands, while the president and Democrats in Congress are bending over backward to be accommodating — offering plans that are all spending cuts and no taxes, plans that are far to the right of public opinion.

So what do most news reports say? They portray it as a situation in which both sides are equally partisan, equally intransigent — because news reports always do that. And we have influential pundits calling out for a new centrist party, a new centrist president, to get us away from the evils of partisanship.

The reality, of course, is that we already have a centrist president — actually a moderate conservative president. Once again, health reform — his only major change to government — was modeled on Republican plans, indeed plans coming from the Heritage Foundation. And everything else — including the wrongheaded emphasis on austerity in the face of high unemployment — is according to the conservative playbook.

What all this means is that there is no penalty for extremism; no way for most voters, who get their information on the fly rather than doing careful study of the issues, to understand what’s really going on.

Once again, Krugman nails the media behavior...

[Bluenorthwest]

1. Centrism is in fact nothing more than a dereliction of moral duty

It is a pernicious mindset that feels compelled to balance excellence with error.

[robinlynne]

7. May I use your phrase as a signature? I think it is just perfect.

[Marsala]

2. Krugman's post made me give up on the media *ever* abandoning its "both sides do it" narrative

Krugman says, "This is the clearest, starkest situation one can imagine short of civil war. If this won’t do it, nothing will."

If the Civil War was happening right now, would the media try to get on both sides of the story? Of course they would! That's what they do. The non-partisan media (as opposed to Fox News) see themselves as referees. They simply cannot call out one side absolutely. They will always try to return to a "balanced" narrative.

It's just the way they work. There's nothing we can do except keep calling them on it to hopefully bend things on a micro scale for each issue. I suppose we could create our own left-wing version of Fox, but that would run the risk of getting ideologically captured by it and going totally insane as the Republicans have.

[boppers]

3. The Cult That Is Destroying America: Paul Krugman

FTFY.

:evilgrin:

"What all this means is that there is no penalty for extremism" indeed.

It actually gets people to read their hyperbolic vitriol, watch their media appearances, and buy their books, while serious thought gets to take a backseat to professional bomb throwers.

[Mass]

4. LOL. So I am sure you love the media describing Obama as somebody inflexible.

Because otherwise, Krugman is spot on, as often.

And sadly, John Stewart seems to have joined the pack.

[boppers]

5. I never held media in high regard. They're entertainment.

For Krugman to complain about media contentiousness is just a little bow on top of the present of delicious, yummy, irony.

Not sure what the John Stewart reference is, though. Most recent episode I saw involved jokes about sexual acts with smurfs, and Broadway musicals.

[themaguffin]

9. huh?

[ProSense]

6. Krugman's piece is part of the problem

<...>

No, the cult that I see as reflecting a true moral failure is the cult of balance, of centrism...

The reality, of course, is that we already have a centrist president — actually a moderate conservative president. Once again, health reform — his only major change to government — was modeled on Republican plans, indeed plans coming from the Heritage Foundation. And everything else — including the wrongheaded emphasis on austerity in the face of high unemployment — is according to the conservative playbook.

You have to ask, what would it take for these news organizations and pundits to actually break with the convention that both sides are equally at fault? This is the clearest, starkest situation one can imagine short of civil war. If this won’t do it, nothing will.

And yes, I think this is a moral issue. The “both sides are at fault” people have to know better; if they refuse to say it, it’s out of some combination of fear and ego, of being unwilling to sacrifice their treasured pose of being above the fray.

<...>

He spends most of his articles labeling the President as part of the problem. Here he says centrism is a "moral failure" that's destroying the country. Then he labels the President a centrist, worse a "moderate conservative."

If he intended to make the case that both sides are not at fault, he failed. Instead, he fed it, and he used the President to do it.

Centrism is Bill Clinton's thing, the DLC. It isn't associated with Republicans. Basically, he is saying that both sides are the same. The DLC is Hillary Clinton's thing, and he supported her, something he references often. Would he ever say that she is a part of a cult that is a "moral failure" or even imply it?

On edit, it's patently absurd to claim that the President is a "moderate conservative," even to make a point about the media pushing for a more centrist President.

[blkmusclmachine]

8. DC & Its Media Empire are awash in Lies

n/t

[Supersedeas]

10. And still the Contessa Brewers of the world use the false equivalence argument

to suggest that Democrats efforts at compromise do not go far enough and therefore are not different than the Republicans who refuse to budge at all.

[Amonester]

11. The 'other' Cult That Is Destroying America: Supply-Side Economics.

That Cult Makes No Mention Of Its Important Counterpart: Demand-Side Economics.

You Cannot Have A Working Supply-Side Without An Equivalent Demand-Side Counterpart.