Op-Ed Columnist
Know-Nothing Politics



By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: August 7, 2008
So the G.O.P. has found its issue for the 2008 election. For the next three months the party plans to keep chanting: “Drill here! Drill now! Drill here! Drill now! Four legs good, two legs bad!” O.K., I added that last part.

The Conscience of a Liberal And the debate on energy policy has helped me find the words for something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.

Now, I don’t mean that G.O.P. politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. And I certainly don’t mean to question the often frightening smarts of Republican political operatives.

What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”

In the case of oil, this takes the form of pretending that more drilling would produce fast relief at the gas pump. In fact, earlier this week Republicans in Congress actually claimed credit for the recent fall in oil prices: “The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking,” said Representative John Shadegg.

What about the experts at the Department of Energy who say that it would take years before offshore drilling would yield any oil at all, and that even then the effect on prices at the pump would be “insignificant”? Presumably they’re just a bunch of wimps, probably Democrats. And the Democrats, as Representative Michele Bachmann assures us, “want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, take light rail to their government jobs.”

Is this political pitch too dumb to succeed? Don’t count on it.

Remember how the Iraq war was sold. The stuff about aluminum tubes and mushroom clouds was just window dressing. The main political argument was, “They attacked us, and we’re going to strike back” — and anyone who tried to point out that Saddam and Osama weren’t the same person was an effete snob who hated America, and probably looked French...............................

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/opinion/08krugman.html?_r=3&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Excellent journalism. I really enjoyed this article and the point made goes home.

Are we the American people going to continue to be bamboozled by this form of politicing?

they try to legislate morality bvut without concience.....pure arrogance

They need to be legislating some of the REAL issues instead of this moral silliness

pretty hard with no concience<con sense us>

maybe we can breath life into it by blowing smoke up its ass...like they have we the people fer like forphuckingever

how about we just let the politics drive this country inot the ground? if not rise up an defend your rights, a country founded on revolution shouldnt have to be afraid of it again. if you dont like it you could always leave too. most of them are publicly elected, and the majority is fine but the minority whines. let it be let it be.

Uhhhh.....you do know that most people cant afford to travel to other countries right??? Must be nice to be rich like you

lol rich my fanny, i got 200$ for a ticket. thats all i need to start. join their military. then there ya go and youre done and thats all there is. i hate to say it but this country is grinding itself down. politicians are a waste of time and energy. night all.