just saying ...

Except on the military or big oil subsidies.

Keynes ideas work, austerity doesn't but teh right is so enamored of trickle-down and austerity that they use "Keynesian" as a snarl word.

They really do live in their own little world.

When the Bush tax cuts were expiring, the Republicans were all about "Don't raise taxes during a recession." That's actually a valid generalization, for reasons explained by Keynesian theory -- the tax increase would tend to reduce aggregate demand and thus exert deflationary pressure.

Of course, it also follows that measures like extending unemployment benefits, which increase aggregate demand, would have a stimulative effect and promote recovery. For the Republicans, however, once their corporate paymasters had most of their tax cuts preserved, it was immediately time to throw Keynes overboard and go back to the failed policies of austerity.

Their capacity for hypocrisy is boundless.

and let infrastructure crumble and go to seed, then you can buy the damaged goods at deep deep deep discounts, privatize, and then monopolize for that sector. Vulture economics. Case in point -- the postal service. GOP is doing their best to run it into the ground.

In some cases, it is what funds many of our party. I guess it all boils down to Fiduciary Responsibility. If the people truly in charge don't want it, it won't happen. Those people are the shareholders who grant that magical ability to corporations to ignore laws if it is in the best interest of themselves. They don't care about safety nets or safe highways, clean water or healthy workers. They care about what is the very best for them, at that moment in time, for the next spreadsheet or the next financial statement. Come hell or high water, or in our case, both.

This hasn't happened quickly. Over decades, with every dollar, true democracy, honesty, reality, has been ignored in small increments until one day the reality comes knocking and we finally realize it has become a tidal shitstorm of epic proportions. I think that is about where we are today.

Astute, and I see evidence of the corporate mindset every day. It affects actions and policy at every level and yet so many accept it with a "well I guess that's just the way it is and that's that" shrug.

and are reaping the 'benefits' (from their perspective) of that strategy. They have created a more receptive audience for their conservative philosophy, though most of us would say that they have achieved this through the use of fear and emotion rather than really selling their political ideas.

One question: Can Democrats turn that around in the short run (obviously much more satisfying and good for the people of the country) or should we expect change in a liberal direction to take just as long? While they are not mutually exclusive, given the state of the country, it is hard to concentrate on long-term strategies.

So many of them eat from the same trough. The few that seem to be aware soon become marginalized and cast off by the serious thinkers after they make the mistake of having those viewpoints known.
So, no. I really don't think the party can turn it around. Unless of course they actually start listening to the people and not the people lobbying them. It seems in poll after poll people of America want what the base of the Democrat party wants. The only reason it becomes unfeasible is because of the weight of all that corporate money pulling our politicians in the opposite direction. Or as you said, using fear and emotion. Corporate cash paying for those views to be hollered from all the media outlets. While the same cash pays for events like the Climate March to be ignored or in the case of Occupy, outright attacked.

I think any change has to begin at the grassroots. Those people who truly want to build a better world need to start backing the people who do. Instead of backing the ones who want it to remain the same. It is great to vote for change, but like slavery, it isn't something that can be changed by voting alone. Not when that much money is involved. It requires good people refusing to profit off the suffering of others. That is what truly ended slavery in my mind. A groundswell of people who had had enough of it and were disgusted by the idea of themselves and others profiting from it. We need those kinds of liberals again. Ones who see grave injustices like climate change levying massive amounts of suffering onto others and refuse to be an idle cog in the face of it. And we need a lot of them, fast. We don't have decades to turn it around.

for Professor Krugman.

The false fear they generated in these past weeks is going to haunt them forever and hopefully haunt the fear mongering GOP in a week.

I think most folks, when they realize it, do not like being put falsely in fear.

What is it, exactly, that Republicans have done to earn anyone's trust?

Have Republicans not made a mess of anything?

Thank you, kpete.

and Republicans are tired of seeing the credit go to the opposition.
They should be more concerned that the problems we are facing are their fault and they have never owned up to them.

Krugman hits the nail on the head when he says not to diffuse the blame by using a term like “political dysfunction.”

This is on the Republicans!

It seems like basic common sense, doesn't it?

Hell, infrastructure spending is even good for corporations. Yet they fight it. It seems like the Republican Party has been taken over by blind self-destructive ideology. Unfortunately, their self-destructive behavior is dragging the rest of us along with them.

Then they sell government contracts to campaign contributors.

ayn rand. god forbid anybody needs to pay taxes.

They could invest but won't because they cant stand the idea of Obama having any success or getting the credit for a job well done.

Plain and simple Republicans are mean people. Selfish mean people.