Paul Krugman Illustrates The Damaged Political Psyches Of The Left

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Daniel Payne:

I have to admit, I was surprised to read this particular rant by Paul Krugman, the Nobel-winning economist and columnist for the New York Times (he won the Nobel for his work on economics, not his writing). Having read a New York Magazine piece that theorizes that some state election machines may have been “hacked,” thereby costing Clinton the election, Krugman declared:

[N]ow that it’s out there, I’d say that an independent investigation is called for…Without an investigation, the suspicion of a hacked election will never go away.

Really: “never?” Well. Krugman quickly backed off after Nate Cohn challenged this thesis (so much for “never”), but a number of hours later he shared a Vox piece: “The election probably wasn’t hacked. But Clinton should request recounts just in case.” Just in case!

It might be fair to say that Trump’s election kind of broke the brains of many people both left, right and center: nobody expected it and a great many people really didn’t want it to happen. But the Left seems to be taking it the hardest, and this is perfectly exemplified by Paul Krugman, a genuinely brilliant fellow who has started to sound like a tinfoil-hat-wearing neighborhood crank.

Just so we’re clear, the “suspicion of a hacked election” that Krugman latched onto—the one that “will never go away”—was spelled out this way:

While it’s important to note [the Center for Computer Security and Society] has not found proof of hacking or manipulation, they are arguing to the campaign that the suspicious pattern merits an independent review — especially in light of the fact that the Obama White House has accused the Russian government of hacking the Democratic National Committee.

Yes, it is surely “important to note” that there has been no “proof of hacking or manipulation.” But that doesn’t go far enough by half: there isn’t even any evidence of such, except for some voting patterns that, as Nate Cohn points out, vanish when you control for certain variables. Gabriel Sherman mixes up the cause and effect: proof is demonstrated after an investigation, the latter of which is undertaken only on the basis of strong-enough evidence—which doesn’t exist here (unless you’re an aggrieved liberal pundit, I guess).

But the real story here isn’t the wacky teeth-gnashing of the American Left, though that is quite a story in its own right. No, the most astonishing aspect of the whole thing is that Paul Krugman could be swayed by such a flimsy and unsubstantiated accusation. What it suggests is that the election damaged the political psyche of liberals in ways that it will probably take a while for us to understand.

Consider, by way of example, this excerpt written by a prominent liberal about a decade ago:

Unlike the crazy conspiracy theories of the left — which do exist, but are supported only by a tiny fringe — the crazy conspiracy theories of the right are supported by important people: powerful politicians, television personalities with large audiences. And we can safely predict that these people will never concede that they were wrong.

The writer was none other than Paul Krugman. The column was entitled, “Who’s Crazy Now?” Good question, Dr. Krugman!

Krugman’s flip-flop—from a denigrator of “crazy conspiracy theories” to an eager promoter of them—exposes perhaps just how fragile the political psyche of modern American liberalism is. The current American Left—the most prominent set of politicians, pundits, writers and academics working today—was forged in the fire of the Bush years, for the Left a time of paranoia, nonstop anger, smug self-righteous back-patting and intellectual balkanizing. These tendencies have been present among progressives for decades, of course, but it is hard to overstate just how much George W. Bush exacerbated them. Prominent among these liberals, of course, is Paul Krugman, who was a constant, sneering critic of both Bush and Republicans more generally during those years.

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The riots most likley financed by Gerorges Soros and varupus other show organizations the attempts to usurp the will of the voters by leftists and other reasons we need to get american out of the Useless Nations

Let’s not forget it was Donald Trump who repeatedly insisted that the election process was rigged.

Since republicans have now changed their minds, why wouldn’t they want to confirm that it wasn’t with a recount?

@Greg:

Because when a leftist calls for a “recount”, what they really mean is “I need more time to manufacture enough fraudulent votes to steal the election.” See Christine Gregoire and Al Franken.

@Pete:

Greg has this fascination that because mrs clinton is ahead in the popular vote, that recounting Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, that somehow the votes will tip her way erasing the electoral victory trump earned.

Using Jill Stein as a surrogate to plead her case is nothing more than a fool’s errand. Once the certificate of ascertainment is sent to the archivist, there is no longer a legal path for recount. This would be the same scenario as Bush v Gore. Gore was never going to succeed in a recount effort.

There was much more proof that Hillary abused her security constraints while at STATE and people DIED as a result.
But, then, the Left’s mantra was there were no Prosecutions!
Not suspicions.

If the left had an ounce of consistency they would accept this election with no hassle.
No demonstrations.
No recounts.
No riots.
No Black Friday disruptions.

But they are babies having tantrums.
And babies are not well known for their consistency or logic.

As to Paul K.
He is spouting talking points from his Lefty daily letter from Hanoi. (What we used to call Dem talking points in the 1960’s/70’s)

The national turnout of eligible voters was its lowest point in two decades about 55%.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/11/politics/popular-vote-turnout-2016/

But in CA that was 75 percent.
http://www.breitbart.com/california/2016/11/24/in-blue-california-democrats-on-verge-of-regaining-legislative-super-majorities/

Plenty of FRAUD in CA.
Certainly NOT a model for the pattern we should find in the rest of the country.

The Michigan count is in. Trump wins Michigan by 10,704 votes, forestalling the use of Michigan’s 2,000 close election recount rule. Trump now has 306 electoral college votes..

If Hillary & Stein continue to pursue recounts, then the GOP needs to respond by demanding the FEC investigate vote fraud irregularities committed by illegal aliens and dead people in every state in this nation. That could result in a complete upheaval of Nevada’s election, change the results of a good many other states results, and greatly lessen Hillary’s national popular vote results. By all means, if we are going to look into “irregularities”, let’s investigate ALL the irregularities.

@Greg: And that means what? It is relevant how? Go back to bed Greg.

The left is so devastated that they are grasping at every straw in sight. Look at the brainless followers who find new life in every crazy conspiracy theory.

The delusional and hypocritical mindset of the left is gobsmacking.

I have heard leftists express worry about Trump putting Mexicans and muslims into concemtration camps. Yet they admire FDR, who is the only American president who actually put a race of people into such camps, referring to Japanese-Americans during WWII.

The left calls Trump “racist”, yet they had no problem with KKK kleagle Robert Byrd (of “white nigger” fame), nor did they have a problem with Hillary Clinton calling black youth “super predators”.

The left assails Trump for being rich, yet had no problem with Hillary’s Goldman Sachs payments for speeches, nor her obvious “pay-for-play” graft “donations” to the tune of $153 million to the criminal Clinton Foundation.

Krugman – allegedly an economic genius per his Nobel Prize in economics- claimed the stock market would never recover from the shock of Trump’s victory, yet the Dow hit 19000 for the first rime in history within days of the election results.

Republicans control 31 state legislatures after the 8 nightmare years of Obama, while the dems only have 13. This is a clear sign that most of the country does not agree with leftist ideology. That, and the fact that the GOP controls both houses of Congress.

When Obama won in 2008 and 2012, Republicans were not rioting in the streets, nor pushing for the end of the Electoral College. Nor were they beating up Obama supporters and putting videos of their thuggish acts on YouTube and Facebook.

Leftism certainly seems to be immature, and is justifying violent, childish behavior because they don’t like the fact that reality is telling them they can’t have dessert if they don’t eat all their vegetables.

It is laughable, after Obama’s arrogant statement “I won”, and the dems cramming the Obamacare disaster down the nation’s throat on a purely partisan vote, for jackasses like Schumer to be demanding “bipartisanship” from Trump.