KRUGMAN IS BACK!

From the New York Times op-ed section, newly reopened for free perusal, courtesy of Eschaton, Paul Krugman on the right wing's strange and vicious sense of humor:

Conservatives Are Such Jokers

Today’s leading conservatives are Reagan’s heirs. If you’re poor, if you don’t have health insurance, if you’re sick — well, they don’t think it’s a serious issue. In fact, they think it’s funny.

On Wednesday, President Bush vetoed legislation that would have expanded S-chip, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, providing health insurance to an estimated 3.8 million children who would otherwise lack coverage.

In anticipation of the veto, William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard, had this to say: “First of all, whenever I hear anything described as a heartless assault on our children, I tend to think it’s a good idea. I’m happy that the president’s willing to do something bad for the kids.” Heh-heh-heh.

Most conservatives are more careful than Mr. Kristol. They try to preserve the appearance that they really do care about those less fortunate than themselves. But the truth is that they aren’t bothered by the fact that almost nine million children in America lack health insurance. They don’t think it’s a problem.

Click here for the rest.

Right. I think I first started understanding the right wing's utter contempt for the downtrodden one day back in the early 90s when I was listening to the criminal conservative hero Oliver North's radio show. It was a "humorous" segment that consisted of a fake liberal calling in to insist that conservatives need to show compassion. Ollie just mocked the guy for some ten minutes straight, totally dismissing compassion as an important human principle. In that moment I started to understand that all the contemporary conservative rhetoric about using "market solutions" for dealing with social problems was a bunch of bullshit. Conservatives simply don't care about anybody but themselves and their immediate circles, which makes complete sense when you consider how utterly selfish their on-your-own, pull-up-your-bootstraps, fuck-everybody principles actually are. There is no room for compassion within a me, me, me philosophy.

And for some reason these assholes think it's funny to trash people who are suffering. I suppose that's a sort of psychological survival mechanism, you know, something that allows them to look in the mirror without crying.

Damn, it's good to have free Krugman again!

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