Ignorant elites still don't get Trump
IT is not my habit to read Paul Krugman’s screeds, much less recommend them, but every dog has its day. And Krugman’s latest piece commands attention because of what he inadvertently reveals about elite ignorance.
Under the headline “The Mystery of White Rural Rage,” the New York Times columnist approvingly cites a book that details the decline of rural America. Spoiler alert, technology gets the blame.
But Krugman, an economist, quickly adds, “I still don’t get the politics” of rural Americans, and later writes “I still find it hard to understand” recent voting patterns.
What he means, of course, is that nearly nine years after Donald Trump came down that escalator to launch his first campaign, Krugman still hasn’t figured out the source of the former president’s enduring political strength among people living in what media masters call “fly-over” America.
Choice to be dumb
Even now, as Trump rolls through primaries on his way to a third presidential nomination, Krugman professes to be in the dark.
Perhaps he is, but, if so, it’s a choice. Willful ignorance is the only way to explain his bizarre claims, which include that New York is a “relatively safe” city compared to the “hellscapes” of rural America.
He also ridicules the idea that illegal immigration, wokeness and the deep state are real problems, blaming nearly every rural ill on technology.
He concludes by declaring that white rural rage is “arguably the single greatest threat facing American democracy.”
There you have it, a naked display of the know-nothing cosseted class. His echo of Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” comment, a slur that will live in infamy, shows how stuck they are in their mental swamps.
In fairness, it’s not just leftists who are confused by Trump’s remarkable comeback. Nikki Haley is roadkill because she believed his GOP support was soft and that the party was looking not only for a new generation but also a new direction.
It is more than a footnote that her campaign has been kept afloat in large part by Democrats, voters and donors.
The first primary challengers to
fall, including Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie and Tim Scott, took a different path by offering personal versions of Trumpism without Trump. They, too, were quickly dispatched.
All the wannabes discovered that Trump’s GOP base had essentially doubled since the start of 2023, from the mid 30s to 75% now. Polls show he is also gaining support among black and Latino voters in the population at large.
Against that backdrop, Krugman’s ignorance strikes me as especially revealing. At this late stage of the Trump era, there is no mystery, only an arrogant refusal to accept truths that don’t fit neatly into a blinkered worldview.
Most of the left still believes America would thrive if only it traded its patriotic and cultural distinctions for the warm embrace of globalist institutions, and that anybody who rejects that vision is stupid.
That’s hardly a new development at the Times or Big Media in general. Recall that after Trump’s stunning 2016 victory over Clinton, the editor and publisher of the Gray Lady wrote a mea culpa letter to subscribers conceding their failure to realize Trump could win.
“Did Donald Trump’s sheer unconventionality lead us and other news outlets to underestimate his support among American voters?” they wrote.
Here we go again
While insisting the Times staff had “reported on both candidates fairly,” they also vowed the paper would “rededicate ourselves to the fundamental mission of Times journalism. That is to report America and the world honestly, without fear or favor.”
Baloney. If they had actually reported the campaign fairly and honestly, even Krugman might have learned something. Instead, here we go again, with virtually every Trump story in the Times
these days an opinion piece arguing he’s not fit to be president again.
It’s a replay of 2016 and 2020, so much so that we can probably expect some kind of Russia, Russia, Russia hoax any day now.
The paper and its ilk have no problem with the unprecedented onslaught of prosecutions against Trump. No former president had even been indicted, but Trump has been hit four times, with a total of 91 felony counts.
The leftist media have been cheerleaders for all four cases and the civil ones, too, including the outrageous show trial concocted by New York state Attorney General Letitia James and a “Gong Show” judge.
Once again, the hatred for all things Trump has blinded them to the impact the cases are having on the electorate. Rather than scare away most of the GOP and independent voters, the cases are drawing supporters to him.
In large part that’s because all have been brought by Democratic prosecutors, effectively confirming the weaponization-of-law-enforcement argument. Each case also features something not quite kosher, such as the scandal involving Fulton County (Ga.) District Attorney Fani Willis, who looks to have hired her lover to be the chief prosecutor and lied about it under oath.
Then there’s the fact that Joe Biden escaped prosecution despite having boxes of classified documents while Trump faces serious charges for a similar offense. And don’t forget that Biden made it clear he wanted Attorney General Merrick Garland to prosecute Trump for Jan. 6, and presto, Garland did.
While it’s too early to say how these factors will play out in the general election, especially if Trump is convicted in any of the cases, it’s already clear he is getting a boost from the incumbent’s glaring failures.
Border disorder
Biden’s physical and mental declines are obvious drawbacks to giving him four more years, as are still-lingering inflation and the dangers posed by aggressive foreign adversaries taking advantage of his unsteady leadership.
But the top concern now among voters is the open border, and the contrast between the two policies tilts sharply in Trump’s favor.
Under Biden, as many as 10 million illegal migrants have poured into the US. The alleged involvement of some in especially heinous crimes, including the murder of the female jogger on the University of Georgia campus, could be the deciding factor in what is expected to be a close election.
The issue will become even more elevated Thursday when both men are scheduled to visit the border. Although they will be far apart, the comparison will favor Trump because his policies, including building a wall and keeping asylum-seekers in Mexico, are now widely supported while Biden’s are widely loathed.
In fact, Biden’s visit reveals his desperation to blunt the issue. His trip could easily backfire if it’s nothing more than a photo op and he refuses to strike a deal with Congress to turn off the human spigot.
He could also reverse the executive orders that he used to cause the problem in the first place.
Even if he does nothing, Biden will get Paul Krugman’s vote. That’s only fair because listening to the Big Media elite is how he screwed up his presidency in the first place.