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 todays rich are building themselves mansions bigger than those of the robber barons. They may not read labor statistics, but they know that wages arent going anywhere: according to the Pew Research Center, 59 percent of workers believe that its 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 todays Republicans cant respond in any meaningful way to rising inequality, because their activists wont 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 Partys adherence to an outdated ideology leaves it with big problems. It cant offer domestic policies that respond to the publics real needs. So how can it win elections? *** The good news is that all the G.O.P.s abuses of power werent 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 werent 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 US forces bombed Iraqi village with cluster-bombs http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/04/us-forces-bombed-iraqi-village-with.html Israeli Military Intel Chief: Iran and Syria Preparing for Summer Attack by US http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/04/israeli-military-intel-chief-iran-and.html And More http://mparent7777.blogspot.com/ http://mparent7777.blogspot.com/ http://mparent7777-3.blogspot.com/ http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/blog/38 --------------------------------- Ask a question on any topic and get answers from real people. Go to Yahoo! Answers.
