Paul Krugman Discovers Hate In Democratic Party

A truly bizarre column, even by the standards of Paul Krugman.

In 1956 Adlai Stevenson, running against Dwight Eisenhower, tried to make the political style of his opponent’s vice president, a man by the name of Richard Nixon, an issue. The nation, he warned, was in danger of becoming “a land of slander and scare; the land of sly innuendo, the poison pen, the anonymous phone call and hustling, pushing, shoving; the land of smash and grab and anything to win. This is Nixonland.”

The quote comes from “Nixonland,” a soon-to-be-published political history of the years from 1964 to 1972 written by Rick Perlstein, the author of “Before the Storm.” As Mr. Perlstein shows, Stevenson warned in vain: during those years America did indeed become the land of slander and scare, of the politics of hatred.

And it still is. In fact, these days even the Democratic Party seems to be turning into Nixonland.

Considering the extremity of the deranged hatred that has animated the Democratic Party of the last couple of decades, one has to wonder, where Paul Krugman has been. Oh yeah, I remember now. He was fomenting the hate. Maybe it's hard to see the forest when you are one of the trees.