Divided We Fail By PAUL KRUGMAN

[babsbunny]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/opinion/29krugman.html?_r=1

Barring a huge upset, Republicans will take control of at least one house of Congress next week. How worried should we be by that prospect?

Not very, say some pundits. After all, the last time Republicans controlled Congress while a Democrat lived in the White House was the period from the beginning of 1995 to the end of 2000. And people remember that era as a good time, a time of rapid job creation and responsible budgets. Can we hope for a similar experience now?

No, we can’t. This is going to be terrible. In fact, future historians will probably look back at the 2010 election as a catastrophe for America, one that condemned the nation to years of political chaos and economic weakness.

Start with the politics.

[emulatorloo]

1. McConnell: Republicans erred in 1995 by not focusing enough on destroying Clinton.

That's really stunning to me. They did everything they could to destroy Clinton.

"If you read the full interview, what Mr. McConnell was saying was that, in 1995, Republicans erred by focusing too much on their policy agenda and not enough on destroying the president: “We suffered from some degree of hubris and acted as if the president was irrelevant and we would roll over him. By the summer of 1995, he was already on the way to being re-elected, and we were hanging on for our lives.” So this time around, he implied, they’ll stay focused on bringing down Mr. Obama."

[applegrove]

2. Yup. The GOP will bankrupt the country so they can cut programs.

[leftstreet]

3. How did a dead Republican party get revived in such a short time?

Voters kicked the Republican party to the curb in 2006 and 2008

Since then, the party has put forth no plans, no ideas, no new 'Contract On America,' and they have no charismatic leaders.


:shrug:

[raven42]

4. My last sliver of hope for our current political system

is that more people will finally wake up to what the republican party has become in the next two years. If they do indeed take control of the House it's going to be a non-stop freak show. They'll accomplish nothing, and will spend all of their time trying to bring this President down. If voters aren't disgusted with them enough by 2012 to vote against them in mass numbers, then this country is screwed.