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As I’ve written before, I’m not really sure what’s worse: New York Times columnist Paul Krugman attempting to differentiate between “brands of anti-Semitism”, his poor track record when it comes to predicting the economy, or him ignorantly griping about the worthiness of Medal of Freedom recipients.
This week I think he’s managed to outdo himself on all of those fronts.
On Wednesday, the paper’s graphic editor Sahil Chinoy penned a column in which he asserted that the Republican party is much more further right than the Democratic party is left:
The Republican Party leans much farther right than most traditional conservative parties in Western Europe and Canada, according to an analysis of their election manifestos. It is more extreme than Britain’s Independence Party and France’s National Rally (formerly the National Front), which some consider far-right populist parties. The Democratic Party, in contrast, is positioned closer to mainstream liberal parties.
These findings are based on data from the Manifesto Project, which reviews and categorizes each line in party manifestos, the documents that lay out a group’s goals and policy ideas. We used the topics that the platforms emphasize, like market regulation and multiculturalism, to put them on a common scale.
A lot of questionable claims and comparisons were made in the piece, especially when you consider being on “the right” in some countries means vastly different things than what it means here. But Krugman nevertheless eagerly jumped on board to praise the article and the accompanying graphic:
Great graphics. US Democrats have gone from being a center-right to a center-left party; the GOP from a right-wing party to an extreme right-wing party, closer to Germany’s neo-Nazis than to the global center. https://t.co/srI5taGFCS
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) June 26, 2019
A few hours later, the Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economist expanded on his thoughts by insinuating the mainstream media – who are unquestionably left-wing – has somehow been unfair to Democrats by allowing Republicans to call them socialists without being questioned on it:
A further thought: it’s considered normal for leading GOP figures to call Democrats – barely left of center by international standards – socialists. But everyone in the news media would have a fainting spell if a major Dem called Rs fascists, which is much closer to being true
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) June 26, 2019
So he can compare Republicans to neo-Nazis without blinking an eye – and without question, but Republicans who correctly point out how the left is embracing socialism should be called out by the mainstream media?
You really cannot make this stuff up.
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—Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter.–
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