Think early 1930s, folks, in Germany, as Hitler and the Nazis rose to power, and maybe, just maybe, you'll see that we are not far away from suffering the same fate at the hands of the fascist good ole boys from Texas....

Re: Paul Krugman Readies for Battle With House Majority Leader

Dear Friends:

Journalist Paul Krugman is ready to do battle with House Majority leader
Tom DeLay. Not only was DeLay involved in the attempted Texas redistricting
dirty tricks fiasco, the Westar Energy case, and the sabotaging of tax
credits for 12 million children, but he and his gang are key players in the
radical right power grab. If they are successful, they will transform our
country into an America few of us would welcome. By playing down the
seriousness of the challenge, says Krugman, we help bring DeLay's vision
closer to reality. 

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The New York Times
June 13, 2003

'Some Crazy Guy'
by Paul Krugman

Last year I tried to illustrate just how far to the right America's ruling
party has moved by quoting some of Representative Tom DeLay's past remarks.
I got some puzzling responses. "Who cares what some crazy guy in Congress
says?" wrote one liberal economist, chiding me for being alarmist.

Some crazy guy? Public images are funny things. Newt Gingrich became a
famous symbol of Republican radicalism. By contrast, most people know
little about Mr. DeLay, the House majority leader. Yet Mr. DeLay is more
radical  and more powerful  than Mr. Gingrich ever was.

Maybe Mr. DeLay's public profile will be raised by his success yesterday in
sabotaging tax credits for 12 million children. Those tax credits would
cost only $3.5 billion. But Mr. DeLay has embedded the credits in an $82
billion tax cut package. That is, he wants to extort $22 in tax cuts (in
the face of record budget deficits) for every dollar given to poor
children.

But the really important stories about Mr. DeLay, a central figure in the
impeachment of Bill Clinton, involve his continuing drive to give his party
a permanent lock on power.

Consider the case of Westar Energy, whose chief executive was indicted for
fraud. The subsequent investigation turned up e-mail in which executives
described being solicited by Republican politicians for donations to groups
linked to Mr. DeLay, in return for a legislative "seat at the table." The
provision Westar wanted was duly inserted into an energy bill. (Republican
leaders deny that there was any quid pro quo.)

There's every reason to believe that the Westar case is unusual only in the
fact that the transaction came to light. Under Mr. DeLay's leadership,
Republicans have established a huge fund-raising advantage, based not just
on promises special interests have always been able to buy favorable
policies, but never so brazenly  but also on threats. Mr. DeLay pioneered
the "K Street strategy," which  in a radical break with tradition  punishes
lobbying firms that try to maintain good relations with both parties.

Then there's the Texas redistricting story.

Normally states redraw Congressional districts once a decade: Texas
redistricted after the 2000 census. But under Mr. DeLay's leadership, Texas
Republicans are trying to increase their advantage in seats with a second
redistricting. This in itself is an unprecedented power grab.

But it gets worse. Texas Democrats responded with a parliamentary maneuver,
walking out to deprive the state Legislature of a quorum. In response,
hundreds of state law enforcement officers were diverted from
crime-fighting to search for the missing Democrats  assisted, yes, by the
Department of Homeland Security.

A telling anecdote: When an employee tried to stop Mr. DeLay from smoking a
cigar on government property, the majority leader shouted, "I am the
federal government." Not quite, not yet, but he's getting there.

So what will Mr. DeLay and his associates do with their lock on power, once
it is firmly established? They will push through a radical right-wing
agenda. For example, expect to see much less environmental protection: Mr.
DeLay has described the Environmental Protection Agency as "the Gestapo."

Above all, expect to see the wall between church and state come tumbling
down. Mr. DeLay has said that he went into politics to promote a "biblical
worldview," and that he pursued President Clinton because he didn't share
that view. Where would this worldview be put into effect? How about the
schools: after the Columbine school shootings, Mr. DeLay called a press
conference in which he attributed the tragedy to the fact that students are
taught the theory of evolution.

There's no point in getting mad at Mr. DeLay and his clique: they are what
they are. I do, however, get angry at moderates, liberals and traditional
conservatives who avert their eyes, pretending that current disputes are
just politics as usual. They aren't  what we're looking at here is a
radical power play, which if it succeeds will transform our country. Yet
it's considered uncool to point that out.

Many of those who minimize the threat the radical right now poses to
America as we know it would hate to live in the country Mr. DeLay wants to
create. Yet by playing down the seriousness of the challenge, they help
bring his vision closer to reality. 

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
_______________________________

In peace,

Otoño
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4:44:53 PM