On Tuesday, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman issued a column decrying the first year of President Trump. According to Krugman, America is now a hellscape of decaying financial power and social unrest. America would, of course, have been utopia had Hillary Clinton won, but Trump guaranteed the apocalypse.
Here’s Krugman:
Many of us came into 2017 expecting the worst. And in many ways, the worst is what we got. Donald Trump has been every bit as horrible as one might have expected; he continues, day after day, to prove himself utterly unfit for office, morally and intellectually. And the Republican Party — including so-called moderates — turns out, if anything, to be even worse than one might have expected. At this point it’s evidently composed entirely of cynical apparatchiks, willing to sell out every principle — and every shred of their own dignity — as long as their donors get big tax cuts.
This is one of the stupider Leftist talking points: that Republicans have not stood up to Trump enough so long as they don’t vote Democratic, that they should forego their policy priorities because Trump’s persona is so toxic. That’s ridiculous, and it’s insulting to Republicans who have consistently opposed Trump’s toxicity while maintaining support for conservative policy. But Krugman’s not done:
Meanwhile, conservative media have given up even the pretense of doing real reporting, and become blatant organs of ruling-party propaganda.
Krugman needs a mirror here — the man suffered from orgasmic overload during the Obama administration. But he’s not done:
Yet I’m ending this year with a feeling of hope, because tens of millions of Americans have risen to the occasion. The U.S. may yet become another Turkey or Hungary — a state that preserves the forms of democracy but has become an authoritarian regime in practice. But it won’t happen as easily or as quickly as many of us had feared….What we’ve seen instead is the emergence of a highly energized resistance. That resistance made itself visible literally the day after Trump took office, with the huge women’s marches that took place on Jan. 21, dwarfing the thin crowds at the inauguration. If American democracy survives this terrible episode, I vote that we make pink pussy hats the symbol of our delivery from evil.
Yes, good luck with that. Nothing unites Americans like the sight of irritating feminists protesting something or other while wearing stupid knit caps. But Krugman is ready to prematurely celebrate Trump’s downfall: he cheers Republican losses in Alabama (where they ran an alleged child molester) and Virginia. But don’t get sanguine, Krugman warns:
Let’s be clear: America as we know it is still in mortal danger. Republicans still control all the levers of federal power, and never in the course of our nation’s history have we been ruled by people less trustworthy.
Never? Ever? Was he here for a guy named Bill Clinton, who was impeached for admitted perjury? How about the Nixon administration?
Nope, says Krugman: Trump’s the worst, “a dictator wannabe, with no respect whatsoever for democratic norms.” But it’s not just Trump:
[I]t also goes for Republicans in Congress, who have demonstrated again and again that they will do nothing to limit his actions. They have backed him up as he uses his office to enrich himself and his cronies, as he foments racial hatred, as he attempts a slow-motion purge of the Justice Department and the F.B.I.
Really? Who backed Trump over Charlottesville among prominent Republicans? And what’s that slow-motion purge at the DOJ and FBI? Literally the only person fired has been James Comey.
Krugman then moves on to claiming that there was certainly Trump-Russia collusion, despite a dramatic lack of evidence of such collusion:
So we can’t count on the consciences of Republicans to protect us. In particular, we need to be realistic about the likely results of Robert Mueller’s investigation. The best bet is that no matter what Mueller finds, no matter how damning and no matter what Trump does — even if it involves blatant obstruction of justice — Republican majorities in Congress will back up their president and continue to sing his praises.
Well, it sort of depends on what Mueller finds. If Mueller suggests that Trump obstructed justice on behalf of a non-crime by firing Comey, which is entirely within his authority, that would be silly. If, however, there’s any real evidence of obstruction, you can bet Republicans will be split.
But Krugman hasn’t lost faith: he’s still got those pussy-hats:
It’s going to be hard, because the game is definitely rigged. Remember, Trump lost the popular vote but ended up in the White House anyway, and the midterm elections will be anything but fair. Gerrymandering and the concentration of Democratic-leaning voters in urban districts have created a situation in which Democrats could win a large majority of votes yet still fail to take the House of Representatives.
It’s fascinating how Republicans were told over and over again that to disrespect the results of a presidential election would amount to treason — but once Trump was elected, such complaints became mainstream among Democrats. And it’s equally fascinating to see Krugman complain that Republicans are “irretrievably corrupt” — even as we find out that President Obama colluded with Russia and Iran to help prop up Hezbollah. But at least in Krugman’s delusional world, he’s happy: “America is not yet lost.”
But Krugman’s mind clearly is.