New York Times columnist Paul Krugman may not be making a speech [1] addressing the lefties at the anti-Wall Street camp-out in Zuccotti Park, but he visited on Thursday and blogged about it at nytimes.com Friday morning, 'Trying to Unwarp the Debate, [2]' concluding with a big wet kiss to the protesters: 'Thank you, OWS." He also unleashed personal insults at the "clownish" and dishonest Rep. Paul Ryan, who dared submit a credible federal budget plan.
I visited Zuccotti Park yesterday. Michael Moore gave a short speech, transmitted by the human microphone. I gather that right-wingers are claiming that OWS is anti-Semitic; someone forgot to tell the excellent Klezmer band.
Krugman doesn't even bother to explain the people at OWS saying things like 'Jews control Wall Street,' as documented by liberal MSNBC host Martin Bashir [3].
Overall, what struck me was how non-threatening the thing is: a modest-sized, good-natured crowd, mostly young (it was a cold and windy evening) but with plenty of middle-aged people there, not all that scruffy. Hardly the sort of thing that one would expect to shake up the whole national debate. Yet it has - which can only mean one thing: the emperor was naked, and all it took was one honest voice to point it out.
Krugman listed the sins of the 'austerity class' pushing fiscal responsibility, including his old friend [4]Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who dared to submit a credible budget and whose Medicare plan 'would kill people, no question," as he told CNN recently.
There was the fiscal responsibility award given to the clownish Paul Ryan - and in general, the embrace of Ryan when it was obvious way back in early 2010 that he was neither serious nor honest.
Krugman references an Ari Berman article in the hard-left Nation magazine before blowing kisses to the Occupiers:
I don't think Berman fully explains the austerity class's dominance, but he does a fine job of documenting it. And here's the thing: that dominance has been so total that alternate views weren't even being heard. So doing something, anything, that broke through the narrative could have a big effect.
Thank you, OWS.