Paul Krugman The Conscience Of A Liberal Analysis
In his book The Conscience of a Liberal, Paul Krugman discusses the “progressive agenda” and its “fierce opposition. From the text, it is clear that Krugman is a strong supporter of progressivism, and is strongly against movement conservatism based on the actions of several conservatives. Based on historical context and his observations of the actions of the Republican and Democratic parties, Krugman effectively argues that the progressive agenda is highly beneficial to the overall social and economic wellbeing of the citizens of the United States and that conservatism is detrimental to progressivism. By showing the iniquities and greed of conservatism, Krugman is able to give emphasis to the importance of protecting and advocating for the
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Movement conservatives who favor inequality and disapprove of the high taxation, such as anti-tax activist Grover Norquist (Krugman, pp. 10-11), say they are concerned for the economy, but by privatizing these institutions and opposing necessary taxation, it seems they are only concerned for themselves. Krugman's views on the Republican Party and movement conservatism are clearly negative, but for logical reasons. Wealthy Republicans are large supporters of movement conservatism. “Money is the glue of movement conservatism, which is largely financed by a handful of extremely wealthy individuals and a number of major corporations, all of whom stand to gain from increased inequality, an end to progressive taxation, and a rollback of the welfare state - in short, from a reversal of the New Deal,” (Krugman, 10). The self-interest of the Republican Party is tremendously harmful to the economic progress of the country because rejecting the ideas of the New Deal is only helpful to those who are wealthy. Reversing the progress on economic policies that limit inequality is what Krugman states movement conservatism is all about. This selfish way of thinking presented by wealthy conservatives is one reason why Krugman is right to urge the readers to stray away from movement conservatism and support the efforts of the progressive
Movement conservatives who favor inequality and disapprove of the high taxation, such as anti-tax activist Grover Norquist (Krugman, pp. 10-11), say they are concerned for the economy, but by privatizing these institutions and opposing necessary taxation, it seems they are only concerned for themselves. Krugman's views on the Republican Party and movement conservatism are clearly negative, but for logical reasons. Wealthy Republicans are large supporters of movement conservatism. “Money is the glue of movement conservatism, which is largely financed by a handful of extremely wealthy individuals and a number of major corporations, all of whom stand to gain from increased inequality, an end to progressive taxation, and a rollback of the welfare state - in short, from a reversal of the New Deal,” (Krugman, 10). The self-interest of the Republican Party is tremendously harmful to the economic progress of the country because rejecting the ideas of the New Deal is only helpful to those who are wealthy. Reversing the progress on economic policies that limit inequality is what Krugman states movement conservatism is all about. This selfish way of thinking presented by wealthy conservatives is one reason why Krugman is right to urge the readers to stray away from movement conservatism and support the efforts of the progressive