Distract and Disenfranchise: PAUL KRUGMAN - Power Abuses & More
 by PAUL KRUGMAN: THE NEW YORK TIMES  
Monday Apr 2nd, 2007 5:19 AM 
 
 KRUGMAN: I have a theory about the Bush administration abuses of power that 
are coming to light. Ultimately, I believe, they were driven by rising income 
inequality. 

 THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AND MORE 

  --> OP-ED COLUMNIST 
 Distract and Disenfranchise 
 By PAUL KRUGMAN 
 Published: April 2, 2007 

 I have a theory about the Bush administration abuses of power that are coming 
to light. Ultimately, I believe, they were driven by rising income inequality. 

 Let me explain. 

 In 1980, when Ronald Reagan won the White House, conservative ideas appealed 
to many, even most, Americans. At the time, we were truly a middle-class 
nation. To white voters, at least, the vast inequalities and social injustices 
of the past, which were what originally gave liberalism its appeal, seemed like 
ancient history. It was easy, in that nation, to convince many voters that Big 
Government was their enemy, that they were being taxed to provide social 
programs for other people. 

 Since then, however, we have once again become a deeply unequal society. 
Median income has risen only 17 percent since 1980, while the income of the 
richest 0.1 percent of the population has quadrupled. The gap between the rich 
and the middle class is as wide now as it was in the 1920s, when the political 
coalition that would eventually become the New Deal was taking shape. 

 And voters realize that society has changed. They may not pore over income 
distribution tables, but they do know that today’s rich are building themselves 
mansions bigger than those of the robber barons. They may not read labor 
statistics, but they know that wages aren’t going anywhere: according to the 
Pew Research Center, 59 percent of workers believe that it’s harder to earn a 
decent living today than it was 20 or 30 years ago. 

 You know that perceptions of rising inequality have become a political issue 
when even President Bush admits, as he did in January, that “some of our 
citizens worry about the fact that our dynamic economy is leaving working 
people behind.” 

 But today’s Republicans can’t respond in any meaningful way to rising 
inequality, because their activists won’t let them. You could see the dilemma 
just this past Friday and Saturday, when almost all the G.O.P. presidential 
hopefuls traveled to Palm Beach to make obeisance to the Club for Growth, a 
supply-side pressure group dedicated to tax cuts and privatization. 

 The Republican Party’s adherence to an outdated ideology leaves it with big 
problems. It can’t offer domestic policies that respond to the public’s real 
needs. So how can it win elections? 

 *** 

 The good news is that all the G.O.P.’s abuses of power weren’t enough to win 
the 2006 elections. And 2008 may be even harder for the Republicans, because 
the Democrats — who spent most of the Clinton years trying to reassure rich 
people and corporations that they weren’t really populists — seem to be 
realizing that times have changed. 

 --MORE-- 
 http://mparent7777.blogspot.com/2007/04/distract-and-disenfranchise-paul.html 

 Labels: Bush, Bush Administration, Elections, executive power, inequality, New 
York Times, PAUL KRUGMAN, Republicans  

  

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