Krugman has about as much standing to talk about this as anybody on this forum or elsewhere, i.e. the NYT gives him a platform to pontificate about stuff well beyond his expertise.

And his argument ... well, that's the problem. There isn't any. It's a series of assertions with an occasional claim tossed in for spice (yes, I know, they're synonyms ).

And what he DOES say isn't very inspiring.

quote:

I’m more concerned about (a) the electability of someone who says he’s a socialist even though he isn’t and (b) if he does win, whether he’ll squander political capital on unwinnable fights like abolishing private health insurance. But if he’s the nominee, it’s the job of Dems to make him electable if at all possible.

Those fights will be unwinnable because he might not even be able to get a majority of Democrats in Congress to vote for them.

Then there are House seats won by centrist Democrats like Elaine Luria here in VA that will be at great risk with Bernie on the ticket. She will probably NOT endorse him as she tries to keep her coalition together. She has to win military families and motivate centrists to go to the polls. There just aren't enough rabid Bernie Bros around here, and having them go door to door for her would just about guarantee her defeat.

I agree with Paul Krugman. This almost never happens. He's making an important point. Bernie Sanders is not, 'the left's Trump.' He's not analogous to Trump at all, IMO. I think its a false equivalence. I've said this many times.

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
Krugman has about as much standing to talk about this as anybody on this forum or elsewhere, i.e. the NYT gives him a platform to pontificate about stuff well beyond his expertise.

Well, he did say he's not a convert to MMT.

Seen on Twitter:

“Dems have 9 days to ask themselves whether they’re ready to spend the next 8 months defending the “good” parts of Cuba’s communist revolution.”

Mussolini made the trains run on time.

Buttigieg: “As a Democrat, I don't want to be explaining why our nominee is encouraging people to look on the bright side of the Castro regime when we're going into the election of our lives.”

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:
I agree with Paul Krugman. This almost never happens. He's making an important point. Bernie Sanders is not, 'the left's Trump.' He's not analogous to Trump at all, IMO. I think its a false equivalence. I've said this many times.

I don’t know, there are many similarities.

Like Trump he has tried to do a hostile takeover of the party. Like Trump, Bernie is benefiting from a large field of traditional candidates that have spent most of their efforts fighting each other in order to consolidate the anti-Bernie (Trump) support, while he compiles delegates. Both are spurned by party establishment and actively express hostility to it. Both running on economic populism. Both are objectively demagogic. Both attract and excite a fringe of unsavory people. Both told us which of our neighbors were the enemy from the very day they started running. I could go on.

Oh, please do ...

Krugman's little post is a great example of an intellectual going through contortions to make something clearly silly sound superficially persuasive.

Sort of like Hugh Hewitt's writing in the WaPo, but from the left.

Again, I have just about as much standing to bloviate about the election in a major publication as Krugman does. If he wants to talk about economic incentives and empirical results, I'm all ears.

quote:

Originally posted by jon-nyc:

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:
I agree with Paul Krugman. This almost never happens. He's making an important point. Bernie Sanders is not, 'the left's Trump.' He's not analogous to Trump at all, IMO. I think its a false equivalence. I've said this many times.

I don’t know, there are many similarities.

Like Trump he has tried to do a hostile takeover of the party. Like Trump, Bernie is benefiting from a large field of traditional candidates that have spent most of their efforts fighting each other in order to consolidate the anti-Bernie (Trump) support, while he compiles delegates. Both are spurned by party establishment and actively express hostility to it. Both running on economic populism. Both are objectively demagogic. Both attract and excite a fringe of unsavory people. Both told us which of our neighbors were the enemy from the very day they started running. I could go on.

Also, isn't Bernie, like Trump, benefiting from the angry people? There are a lot of them. His "socialist" label is part of his appeal to the disgruntled.

Pro tip: watch the next debate with the sound off, and tell me how Bernie comes off.

As for the debate in this thread, I don't consider Bernie to be Trump-left, but I do think some (not all) of his followers tend to conduct themselves like Trumpists-left.

quote:

Originally posted by jon-nyc:
Buttigieg: “As a Democrat, I don't want to be explaining why our nominee is encouraging people to look on the bright side of the Castro regime when we're going into the election of our lives.”

And one from Twitter (not Buttigieg):

"You know, Al Qaeda was a little rough around the edges, but their encouragement of young men to take up aviation? Well, you've got to say that was good."

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
Pro tip: watch the next debate with the sound off, and tell me how Bernie comes off.

As for the debate in this thread, I don't consider Bernie to be Trump-left, but I do think some (not all) of his followers tend to conduct themselves like Trumpists-left.

Isn't that an analogue of why Richard Nixon lost to Kennedy? Because he looked terrible in a televised debate (they'd been radio before then)?

quote:

Originally posted by QuirtEvans:

Isn't that an analogue of why Richard Nixon lost to Kennedy? Because he looked terrible in a televised debate (they'd been radio before then)?

I always heard Nixon had refused to wear makeup for their public debate resulting in his unappealing appearance. Not many people can look OK on TV without makeup, especially with those spots.

And all the more when counterpoised to an opponent far younger and intrinsically more attractive than they are.