Hair today, Gone tomorrow

[n2doc]

Paul Krugman
April 13, 2011, 11:58 AM
Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

The Trump surge is a remarkable thing. I don’t really think he’s going to be the nominee; but the fact that he has risen so sharply tells you something about the modern GOP. Actually, two things:

1. Trump rose because he started spouting birther nonsense. This is a much more powerful strain than respectable opinion is willing to admit.

2. The sheer absurdity of his candidacy doesn’t seem to matter. The modern Republican base is deeply unserious, and that’s a fundamental fact of American politics.

Nate Silver has a nice analysis in terms of the Fairfax Five (establishment candidates) versus the Factional Five; I’d put this as a fight between the crazies and the possibly sane people pretending to be crazy. The point, however, is that the outlandish candidates are on the rise.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/hair-today-gone-tomorrow-2/

[gratuitous]

1. The field for the Republican nomination is uninspired, to say the least

I don't think any of these players is ready for prime time. Which means that the Democratic nominee in 2012 shouldn't have too much trouble winning the general election. This sort of comfort zone could cause a candidate to act in a couple of ways. The least productive, most troublesome path is to try to win over the hard-core Republicans who will never vote for a Democrat anyway. A far more productive course is to campaign to energize the base, increase turnout and enthusiasm for the ticket all the way down the ballot, and really blow the opposition out of the water.

That is, if you're trying to accomplish the goals of the Democratic agenda, and make the country work better for more people. It seems the overrich have quite enough of the good stuff as it is. Maybe it's time for the producers of the country's fabulous wealth to share in the riches their labor creates.