AS REGARDS THIS ECONOMIST'S WRITING, SUPPLY EXCEEDS DEMAND:

The Last Refuge (PAUL KRUGMAN, 4/08/03, NY TIMES)

In 1944, millions of Americans were engaged in desperate battles across the world. Nonetheless, a normal presidential election was held, and the opposition didn't pull its punches: Thomas Dewey, the Republican candidate, campaigned on the theme that Franklin Roosevelt was a "tired old man." As far as I've been able to ascertain, the Roosevelt administration didn't accuse Dewey of hurting morale by questioning the president's competence. After all, democracy--including the right to criticize--was what we were fighting for.

It's not a slur on the courage of our troops, or a belittling of the risks they face, to say that our current war is a mere skirmish by comparison. Yet self-styled patriots are trying to impose constraints on political speech never contemplated during World War II, accusing anyone who criticizes the president of undermining the war effort.

Economists we know swear to me that Paul Krugman's forehead was not always pressed against his own prostate, that he was once a respected economist; on this issue I'm agnostic because I know little of academic economics. On the other hand, I'm not unfamiliar with history and politics, so I feel well qualified to say that when it comes to these subjects Mr. Krugman is murmuring through his rectum. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of American history and the sad presidency of FDR would be aware that Mr. Roosevelt cared so little for the civil rights of potential dissenters--the potential existing only in his own fevered imagination and that of Earl Warren--that he had Americans of Japanese descent rounded up and placed in concentration camps.
Posted by Orrin Judd at April 8, 2003 10:48 AM