Crossposted from Docudharma
That's right, they're wrong! Two of the most respected voices of the Left, and and they are decidedly not right!
Let's start with Krugman and this ridiculous statement...
So what did we learn from this [Cheering at Chicago's lost Olympic bid] moment? For one thing, we learned that the modern conservative movement, which dominates the modern Republican Party, has the emotional maturity of a bratty 13-year-old.
But more important, the episode illustrated an essential truth about the state of American politics: at this point, the guiding principle of one of our nation’s two great political parties is spite pure and simple. If Republicans think something might be good for the president, they’re against it — whether or not it’s good for America.
As amazing as it might seem for a Nobel Prize winner and an economist...he is off by a factor of ten. Ten years that is! Republicans are NOT bratty 13-year-olds.
They are bratty 3 year-olds!
.
Other than that, Krugman is right about just about everything.
Except that tie, really do you look in the mirror before you go out Paul???
(Especially, he was right about that stimulus thing, you know when he said we needed a BUNCH of more money to create jobs? Yeah, look around, Krugman was right! So WHY didn't we put more money in the Stimulus Bill? Why...bratty three year old Republicans of course!)
Which brings us to Michael Moore, who is also wrong, even though he never wears a tie.
Sure, he was right about the now Socailized GM in Roger and Me...prescient even! Yes, yes, he was dead on about Bush in Fahrenheit 9/11, he was right about the state of American fear and angst and the screwed up national psychology it produces in Bowling for Columbine, Yes he was prescient and hugely influential again with the masterpiece he called Sicko....
Yes, yes I agree, he is without a doubt the greatest and most influential political filmmaker of the modern era by far and not only has his finger firmly planted on the pulse AND the psyche of modern America and expresses it in an emotionally and intellectually stunning way and I think it is easily safe to say has changed for the better America with his work.
But...he is still wrong!
It is not Capitalism that is the problem per se...
It is Republicanism.
Properly regulated and overseen Capitalism that did NOT contain the Corporate Personhood that makes our current system immune to Corporations being held responsible for all the downright EVIL things they do...
...and an OUTRAGEOUSLY out of proportion ability to bribe and corrupt Congress (and own Republican President's and Congress members outright) and thus to be our de facto government...
...Capitalism with politically, socially, and environmentally responsible CEO's, Boards of Directors and perhaps most importantly, powerful and responsible shareholders...
...Capitalism that actually cared about something, anything, besides raw unremitting greed...
MIGHT not be THAT bad!
But of course, Capitalism is not what we actually have...as an economic system in America. America's economic system, if called by it's actual descriptive and unvarnished name is Republicanism.
Which brings us back to Krugman.
Our economy is run by bratty three year-olds...
Because the philosophy of three year-olds IS the philosophy of Republicanism. IF you take away all of the constraints of parenthood and socialization that a normal three year old has to deal with.
That picture sums up the philosophy of Republicans. (the major, if not only, practitioners of Republicanism) Except for the fact that it leaves out the one preambulatory phrase that proceeds every declaration, nay every utterance, of Republicanists....Screw You.
Yes the philosophy of Republicanism can be boiled down to (just as the rest of their incredibly simplistic worldview can be, which is their only real strength) a catchy four word slogan...
Screw You, it's mine.
The economy, Health Care, environmental policy, race relations and immigration, domestic policy, foreign policy...war....TORTURE...
ALL of the 'policies,' actions, and behavior of Republicans and Republicanism can be traced back to those four words.
Four words first uttered by Grayson's knuckle dragging neanderthals (who they don't think existed, because the world is only six thousand years old) that are the antecedents and originators of Republicanism, today's Republican party, and those who are (cough, Max Baucus, cough) so shamefully over-influenced by them.
Four words....Screw You, it's mine that are the enemy of ALL progress in the world. Four words that are without a doubt the root of all evil, since they inherently contain the Love of Money. Four words that are stopping us from relating to every one of the other seven billion people on earth intelligently, that keep some in starving abject poverty (2 million slum children a year die in India) while one percent of Americans (most but not all Republicanists) control enough wealth to feed the entire world.
Four words that are killing the only planet we have.
Four words, the motto of Republicanism, that represent or are THE cause of just about every problem our lonely little planet (the only one we have) faces.
So Mike, you are WRONG! Capitalism is not the problem. Republicanism and it's motto...Screw You, it's mine ...are the problem.
How do we fix this problem?
We replace the four word motto of Republicanism with a different, three word motto....
... Let me help ...
That should do it!
(Update Note: updated to correct the quote, see comments!)
So get busy folks! It is time to take Republicanism DOWN! And replace it with....a new ism! An ism that represents the vast majority of humans who want peace, love, prosperity, justice and equality not just for themselves but for all of their fellow humans as well.
I for one am sick and tired of being ruled by Oligarchs and living in a Plutonomy!
And all we have to do to end the Republicanism that produces that is...
Find a way to regulate each others greed in a way that does not infringe on our individual rights. Maybe we can call the new ism....Humanism. An ism that holds up and respects both the rights...and responsibilities...of being a human living amongst seven billion other humans, each of them just as important and 'valuable' as us, on the only planet we have...in the 21st Century.
Piece O Cake, let's get to work!
First step? To paraphrase Bill Shakespeare: First we nonviolently and with great compassion get rid of the all the Republicanists!