Political Talking Heads

First of all, what a good thing the New York Times no longer hides the good stuff behind a paywall, so now you can read Paul Krugman in the clear without depending on someone blogging his entire column. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, because information should always be free.

Second of all, it seems Paul is a Talking Heads fan.

Same Old Party – New York Times

People claim to be shocked at the Bush administration’s efforts to disenfranchise minority groups, under the pretense of combating voting fraud. But Reagan opposed the Voting Rights Act, and as late as 1980 he described it as “humiliating to the South.”People claim to be shocked at the Bush administration’s attempts — which, for a time, were all too successful — to intimidate the press. But this administration’s media tactics, and to a large extent the people implementing those tactics, come straight out of the Nixon administration. Dick Cheney wanted to search Seymour Hersh’s apartment, not last week, but in 1975. Roger Ailes, the president of Fox News, was Nixon’s media adviser.

People claim to be shocked at the Bush administration’s attempts to equate dissent with treason. But Goldwater — who, like Reagan, has been reinvented as an icon of conservative purity but was a much less attractive figure in real life — staunchly supported Joseph McCarthy, and was one of only 22 senators who voted against a motion censuring the demagogue.

Above all, people claim to be shocked by the Bush administration’s authoritarianism, its disdain for the rule of law. But a full half-century has passed since The National Review proclaimed that “the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail,” and dismissed as irrelevant objections that might be raised after “consulting a catalogue of the rights of American citizens, born Equal” — presumably a reference to the document known as the Constitution of the United States.

Now, as they survey the wreckage of their cause, conservatives may ask themselves: “Well, how did we get here?” They may tell themselves: “This is not my beautiful Right.” They may ask themselves: “My God, what have we done?”

But their movement is the same as it ever was. And Mr. Bush is movement conservatism’s true, loyal heir.

Ah…. Talking Heads – really blows your receding hairline back, doesn’t it? That’s the soundtrack that plays in your head when you’re my age and you cast yourself back to the early 80’s, when Reagan was first elected and the President became a cheerful, empty figurehead for endless photo-ops while another kind of “op” was conducted far from the light of day by people like “Ollie” North. Krugman’s right, it’s all the same old, same old, in a bright shiny 21st century wrapper. Stick a genial idiot up in front of the cameras and charm the masses, and subvert the ideals of this nation quietly, while screaming “traitor!” whenever anyone raises the alarm.