PAUL KRUGMAN IS RIGHT

Toward One-Party Rule (PAUL KRUGMAN, 6/27/03, NY Times)

A forthcoming article in The Washington Monthly shows that the foundations for one-party rule are being laid right now. [...]

Why isn't the ongoing transformation of U.S. politics--which may well put an end to serious two-party competition ? getting more attention? Most pundits, to the extent they acknowledge that anything is happening, downplay its importance. For example, last year an article in Business Week titled "The GOP's Wacky War on Dem Lobbyists" dismissed the K Street Project as "silly--and downright futile." In fact, the project is well on the way to achieving its goals.

Whatever the reason, there's a strange disconnect between most political commentary and the reality of the 2004 election. As in 2000, pundits focus mainly on images--John Kerry's furrowed brow, Mr. Bush in a flight suit--or on supposed personality traits. But it's the nexus of money and patronage that may well make the election a foregone conclusion.

The only real error in this column is Mr. Krugman's necessary blindness to the fact that politics is playing the largest part in this and that it is a typical situation in our history. America was Democratic until the Republicans won the Civil War, Republican from then until the Depression, Democratic from then until Republicans won the Cold War, and now we're headed into what is likely to be a long period of GOP dominance that will end only when the Democrats jettison minorities and make a naked appeal to white middle-class greed, as Europe's socialist parties do.

The money and patronage is following the politics, not leading it. But the press is pretty much missing the story. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 27, 2003 12:44 PM