Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, is a voice of reason in the incredible demagogic (sorry, populist) cacophony in the land of Christine O’Donnell, Rand Paul and Sharron Angle. During the eight disastrous years of George Bush, he was the only one who dared to oppose the policies of the 43rd U.S. president, including his strategic choices as well as economic choices (wage two wars and cut taxes for his friends at the same time). He has also been one of the critics of Obama’s economic policy. Now he tells the truth to the followers of the tea party and their followers from the Republican Party.
Krugman notes, as does the Politico website, that all Republican candidates for the White House — declared or potential — are employees of Fox News, owned by Rupert Murdoch, the conservative publisher and defender of traditional values. But he’s also the owner of the News of the World, a model of gutter journalism. As Krugman says, it’s better than Citizen Kane. The modern conservative movement is primarily a movement funded by rich men and not, as some would have us believe, by the “people”.
These billionaires are using the tea party to advance their agenda: no taxes, no environmental regulation and the minimization of social laws. So they fund scientists who say global warming does not exist or that cigarettes don’t give cancer; or economists who show that tax cuts for the rich are actually good for the more modest people; or lawyers who argue that torture does not conflict with U.S. laws (nor international laws); or thinkers who mount systems supporting some wars. And these organizations, which are think tanks of all types, provide refuge for politicians who lost their seats or are in preparation for a presidential campaign. What the Koch brothers, who are funding the tea party, want is not more freedom, as they claim, but the freedom to pollute for their conglomerate, Koch Industries.
And Fox News, whose Orwellian slogan is “fair and balanced”, when it is exactly the reverse, is part of that system. It became the boss of Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum (former senator and candidate for the White House) and Mike Huckabee. This cable news channel allows Murdoch to sign checks for several million dollars that go to organizations that are violently anti-Obama, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce or the Republican Governors Association. But beware of dissidents, as when Republican David Frum said: “Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us, and now we are discovering we work for Fox.” He was fired by Fox in the days that followed. Pravda in the days of Brejnev* would not have done better. For Murdoch, these politicians are an investment. Once in power, they know what they owe you.
*Editor’s Note: Pravda was a leading newspaper in the Soviet Union, and Brejnev was a general secretary of the Communist Party.
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