Paul Krugman: Trump admin making mistakes bc they don't want non-ideological experts.

[DetlefK]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/opinion/ignorance-is-strength.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0

They appear to believe that expertise, or even basic familiarity with a subject, is for wimps; ignorance is strength.

We see this on legal matters ... We see it on national security matters ... We see it on education ... We see it on diplomacy ... And on economics ...

Or consider the current G.O.P. panic over health care. Many in the party seem shocked to learn that repealing any major part of Obamacare will cause tens of millions to lose insurance. Anyone who studied the issue could have told them years ago how the pieces of health reform fit together, and why. In fact, many of us did, repeatedly. But competent analysis wasn’t wanted.

And that is, of course, the point. Competent lawyers might tell you that your Muslim ban is unconstitutional; competent scientists that climate change is real; competent economists that tax cuts don’t pay for themselves; competent voting experts that there weren’t millions of illegal ballots; competent diplomats that the Iran deal makes sense, and Putin is not your friend. So competence must be excluded.

...

Bigotry wasn’t the only dark force at work in the election; so was anti-intellectualism, hostility toward “elites” who claim that opinions should be based on careful study and thought.

...

In some ways this cluelessness may be a good thing: malevolence may indeed be tempered by incompetence. It’s not just the court defeat over immigration; Republican ignorance has turned what was supposed to be a blitzkrieg against Obamacare into a quagmire, to the great benefit of millions. And Mr. Trump’s imploding job approval might help slow the march to autocracy.

But meanwhile, who’s in charge? Crises happen, and we have an intellectual vacuum at the top. Be afraid, be very afraid.

[BumRushDaShow]

1. "malevolence may indeed be tempered by incompetence."

This statement has essentially been the theme of almost every cartoon (i.e., "animated&quot bad guy that ever hit the screen.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. To zealots, what's right is what's ideologically right.

Whether it works in practice is irrelevant. Failure can be denied; truth need not be acknowledged. The only mistake is to question the ideology. The USSR pulled it off for decades before reality won out. RepubliCons have more wealth to work with, so they can probably get away with it even longer.

The RepubliCons' approach now matches the punchline of an old Brezhneve-era Soviet joke -- "pull down the blinds and pretend we're moving".