KRUGMAN: "So when do the reasonable conservatives jump ship?"

[kpete]

* Question of the day: Paul Krugman asks a good one: Is there anything that today’s GOP can do to make moderate conservative intellectuals admit that the party of Rush Limbaugh and Rick Santorum no longer offers them a home?



March 10, 2012, 6:36 PM
The Hassett Test

Mark Thoma catches Kevin Hassett playing for Team Republican; really, no surprise. But Mark’s catch has me thinking: what, if anything, would make reasonable, moderate conservative intellectuals accept that the GOP no longer offers them a home?

For such people do exist — or at least there is such a position. You can believe that the welfare state is too big without believing that the unemployed are just lazy; you can believe that more activist monetary and especially fiscal policy would be a mistake without practicing Dark Age macroeconomics. Obviously I disagree, but I can see how a reasonable person could hold such views.

But these are not the views that prevail, or indeed are considered even marginally acceptable, in today’s Republican Party. The modern party is, on social issues, the party of Rush Limbaugh and Rick Santorum; on economic issues it is the party of Ron Paul and Arthur Laffer. Nobody with political ambitions within the GOP dares challenge these views; attempts to defend Mitt Romney depend entirely on the proposition, or maybe hope, that everything he says is a lie (which seems like a good assumption in any case).

And no, there’s nothing comparable on the other side. Sure, Obama plays some word games — but in word and deed he’s a moderately liberal, slightly interventionist politician whom neither liberals nor, if truth be told, moderate conservatives should find especially alarming.

MORE:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/the-hassett-test/

[polichick]

1. "reasonable, moderate conservative intellectuals" lol...

They've pretty much joined the zealots in a kind of crazy Stockholm Syndrome.

[immoderate]

2. "Heaven's Gate" on a larger scale.

Plenty of Kool-Aid to go around.


--imm

[xchrom]

3. So they jump ship - where do they go &

What influence do they bring w/ them where ever it is they go to?

[exboyfil]

4. I think Romney if he was not such a wimp

could capture this portion of the Republican party (not to say that I agree with cut taxes 20% and we will get more revenue Romney), but he has had his chances.

If I had been Romney when they first came to me about Rush Limbaugh, I would have said that I think it is entirely inappropriate to speculate on the sexuality of someone for three days, attribute actions and statements to her that are not in the public record, and that it is particularly vile to use denigrating names and ask for the most personal information in such a perverse manner (sex tapes, who paid for condoms in middle school, etc). I would been explicit in my comments as to what Rush said and my responses. I would also indicate that I have told my financial manager to divest of Clear Channel holdings putting the assets into U.S. Treasury bonds.

I would go on to articulate a reasonable position which is should contraceptives assume a special place in health care to the point that they are mandated by healthcare providers without copay or deductible (no other drug reaches this threshold - this is better coverage than Canada). I would also discuss different matters of conscious in which legislation runs counter to religious beliefs (may want to stay clear of polygomy here).

I would not seek out the endorsement of Ted Nugent, and I would fly from it as fast as I could.

This year reminds me of 1992. I think a moderate fiscal conservative/social libertarian would have a real shot of throwing the election into the House. Someone who is willing to put up flip charts showing the problems and suggested solutions, and asking America to make hard choices. Obama is not doing this. He is also kicking the can down the road.

[n2doc]

5. "Asking America to make hard choices"

The only hard choice Americans want to make is what TV show to watch. No politician has a chance of winning in this country is they ask people to sacrifice in any way whatsoever. We want to believe that we can have our cake and eat it too, forever, and woe to the person who is running the country when it falters. Been this way since at least Reagan.

[Dan]

6. It was nice, but I had to laugh

If you said such

...... I would have said that I think it is entirely inappropriate to speculate on the sexuality of someone for three days, attribute actions and statements to her that are not in the public record, and that it is particularly vile to use denigrating names and ask for the most personal information in such a perverse manner (sex tapes, who paid for condoms in middle school, etc). I would been explicit in my comments as to what Rush said and my responses. I would also indicate that I have told my financial manager to divest of Clear Channel holdings putting the assets into U.S. Treasury bonds......

your base would not understand you..

[Prophet 451]

7. If they haven't jumped yet...

... they never will. The old-fashioned reasonable Republicans are all gone. They might still vote in the occasional race but they're simply not a factor in the GOP's internal politics anymore.

[Flatpicker]

8. when

I don't even know if they exist anymore.

Maybe someday this will help create the multi-party system that the US needs.

Progressive - Democratic - Conservative - Republican (at the very least, we would need 4)