Why Paul Krugman’s Wrong About Bernie Sanders

[babylonsister]

http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161860

Why Paul Krugman’s Wrong About Bernie Sanders
by Michael Wolraich

Michael Wolraich is the author of Unreasonable Men: Theodore Roosevelt and the Republican Rebels Who Created Progressive Politics.


Paul Krugman may be a terrific economist, but he should study his history. In a trenchant New York Times column titled “How Change Happens,” Dr. Krugman asserts that legislative change requires “hardheaded realism” and “accepting half loaves.” Dismissing presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’s uncompromising idealism as “happy dreams” and “destructive self-indulgence,” he asks rhetorically, “When has their theory of change ever worked? Even F.D.R., who rode the depths of the Great Depression to a huge majority, had to be politically pragmatic, working not just with special interest groups but also with Southern racists.”

But F.D.R. offers a poor parallel to the political situation today. Democrats dominated Congress during his 12-year tenure with supermajorities that sometimes surpassed 75 percent. Krugman is correct that F.D.R. compromised some elements of his agenda, but he compromised from a position of strength, and most of his landmark New Deal proposals passed with large majorities.

For a far better parallel, Krugman should have considered the other President Roosevelt. Many Americans remember Theodore Roosevelt as a fighter who forced his will on a recalcitrant Congress, but he was an extremely pragmatic president. “When any public man says that he ‘will never compromise under any conditions,’ ” he wrote in 1900, “he is certain to receive the applause of a few emotional people who do not think correctly… but some distance he must go if he expects to accomplish anything.”

And compromise he did. In the early 1900s, two very powerful, very conservative Republicans, Senator Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island and House Speaker Joseph Cannon of Indiana, ruled the Capitol. Even though T.R. hailed from the same party, they used their power to stifle his reform proposals in congressional committees. Unable to pass any legislation without their help, T.R. compromised from a position of weakness, allowing his proposals to be diluted to the point of inadequacy. “I love a brave man,” complained a disappointed Senate ally, “I love a fighter, and the President of the United States is both on occasion, but he can yield with as much alacrity as any man who ever went to battle.”

Because of congressional obstruction, T.R.’s legislative legacy is sparse for such an iconic president. He achieved a few landmark bills, including the Antiquities Act, the Pure Food & Drug Act, and the Panama Canal Act, but compared to his colleagues on Mount Rushmore or his illustrious cousin, T.R.’s pragmatism did not achieve much serious change. He is remembered more for his executive actions, including anti-trust lawsuits and environmental conservation, which he pursued precisely because of his legislative impotence—just like President Obama.

snip//

Krugman is correct that as president, Bernie Sanders would get nowhere with the current Republican congress, but neither would Hillary Clinton. Just ask Barack Obama, who has spent the past five years getting nowhere with Congress despite repeated attempts to compromise. Bernie Sanders and his supporters do not deny this reality, but they do not accept the political status quo as permanent. By championing ambitious, undiluted reforms, they intend to galvanize a new Progressive Movement that will sweep the obstructionists from the Capitol. Then and only then will a progressive president be able to compromise from a position of strength to solve the nation’s pressing problems.

And that, Dr. Krugman, is how change happens.


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[daleanime]

1. K&R.....

[cherokeeprogressive]

2. Kick. Krugman's wrong about a few things (gasp! can anyone say... bus!?).

But that's not surprising when someone spends 99% of their life insulated within the academia bubble, where peer-review has been reduced to pats on the back in a go-along to get-along dog-eat-dog publish-or-perish microcosm of what the real world is and what real world people have to deal with every day.

[Thinkingabout]

3. The writer did not present facts of where Krugman was wrong.