Paul Krugman:Fearing Fear Itself

[cal04]

In America’s darkest hour, Franklin Delano Roosevelt urged the nation not to succumb to “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror.” But that was then.

Today, many of the men who hope to be the next president — including all of the candidates with a significant chance of receiving the Republican nomination — have made unreasoning, unjustified terror the centerpiece of their campaigns.

(snip)
Most Americans have now regained their balance. But the Republican base, which lapped up the administration’s rhetoric about the axis of evil and the war on terror, remains infected by the fear the Bushies stirred up — perhaps because fear of terrorists maps so easily into the base’s older fears, including fear of dark-skinned people in general.

And the base is looking for a candidate who shares this fear.

Just to be clear, Al Qaeda is a real threat, and so is the Iranian nuclear program. But neither of these threats frightens me as much as fear itself — the unreasoning fear that has taken over one of America’s two great political parties.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/opinion/29krugman.html?hp

[TahitiNut]

1. "...fear that has taken over one of America’s two great political parties"???

Just one? As an economist, he should be able to count better. :evilgrin:

[DLnyc]

2. If you know Krugman, you'll pick up that he says 'one', not 'just one'

Between the lines, he's saying '{at least} one'.

IMO

edit for brackets

[Fly by night]

7. Only disagreement: The Rethugs haven't been "great" since Teddy Roosevelt ....

... unless Krugman meant in the "great Satan" sense of the word.

[moondust]

3. How true.

Had dinner with wingnut brother and his wingnut wife Saturday after not seeing them for more than a year. For some reason the discussion came around to travel and how glad my brother was that he got to see parts of Europe in the 50s-60s. I said yeah, it's much more expensive to travel now. That's not what he was talking about. He was glad because he felt that now it is much more dangerous to travel because of terrorism. I told him I was with Mayor Bloomberg on this, that your chances of being struck by lightning are greater than being caught up in a terroist attack. I told them I wouldn't be at all concerned about traveling in Europe now. I later had to repeat it for his wife when she revisited the subject. It seemed to take the wind out of their sails. I actually think they were mildly shocked that I did not show any fear. They may have recognized that I haven't swallowed the past 6 years of wingnut terror propaganda. And if there are many more like me it's bad news for their presidential hopefuls.

[eridani]

4. Don't agree with the idea that the Iranian nuclear program is a threat

Suppose they get the bomb--so what? What would they do with it? Bomb Israel? Not if they don't mind having the whole country turned into a radioactive parking lot courtesy of Israel's 500+ nukes. Give it to terrorists? Terrorists would prefer to shop in Iran instead of Russia and the Central Asian Republics (where nuclear knowledge is widespread, there are lots of nukes, and the command/control systems are totally decrepit) because why?

[Felinity]

5. Oh, no. Be very afraid.

Warning. Do not scroll down if you have a heart condition, or a "yeller streak."









The Education President


Early Adapter

"But the true threats to stability and peace are these nations that are not very transparent, that hide behind the-that don't let people in to take a look and see what they're up to. They're very kind of authoritarian regimes. The true threat is whether or not one of these people decide, peak of anger, try to hold us hostage, ourselves; the Israelis, for example, to whom we'll defend, offer our defenses; the South Koreans." -George W. Bush, in a media roundtable discussion, March 13, 2001


Diplomacy guru.

Sorry, no more time. It's getting harder to find copy-a-ble photos on the internets.

[TheDoorbellRang]

6. Well, if this bunch hadn't made OBL to be the devil incarnate,

instead of merely the criminal that he is, it would have made B*shco look like the bumbling idiots that they really are, in failing to prevent 9/11.

I hear all these neocons poopooing global warming today, and it reminds me strongly of their same rhetoric poopooing terrorism in the Clinton administration. These people are seriously disturbed.

Thank God we still have OpEds like Krugman out there. K&R

[2 Much Tribulation]

8. Fear is also the title of a book about Fear as a political weapon, which it often is

and is certainly has political effects even when it's not intentionally wielded as a weapon.