Paul Krugman: 'The New Progressive Movement'

Source:Amazon- New York Times left-wing columnist Paul Krugman's 2007 book.

"This wholly original new work by the best-selling author of The Great Unraveling challenges America to reclaim the values that made it great.

With this major new volume, Paul Krugman, today's most widely read economist, studies the past eighty years of American history, from the reforms that tamed the harsh inequality of the Gilded Age to the unraveling of that achievement and the reemergence of immense economic and political inequality since the 1970s. Seeking to understand both what happened to middle-class America and what it will take to achieve a "new New Deal," Krugman has created his finest book to date, a work that weaves together a nuanced account of three generations of history with sharp political, social, and economic analysis. This book, written with Krugman's trademark ability to explain complex issues simply, will transform the debate about American social policy in much the same way as did John Kenneth Galbraith's deeply influential book, The Affluent Society." 

From Amazon  

"Have you read the reviews on Krugman's new book yet? Amazon 

The failure of the conservatives, made it inevitable that the Democrats would win in 1932, but it wasn't inevitable that FDR would be able to seize the moment to turn things around. 

Things are different now. The Democratic majority right now is a paper thin majority. However, the majority in the house is much different than it was in the 1990s. The south is the only region that is now strongly Republican. Pelosi is the first woman to hold her position. Republicans have always relied on race, but now that issue is much diminished. It was much easier to scare people about health care in 1993, but now people are much more alarmed about the situation. The possibilities are very great. 

There is a real progressive movement now in a way that there wasn't 15 years ago. Now it is a much more cohesive and conscious movement. It is nothing like the conservative movement. Everything from political activism to think tanks to talk radio has been greatly improved for the progressives. 

The effect is that new Democrats have been told that they absolutely must have a health care plan in place. The question is what happens next." 

Source:Paul Krugman Blog- New York Times left-wing columnist Paul Krugman talking about the so-called Progressive movement, in 2007 or 08.

From the Paul Krugman Blog

I know I've said this before, but it needs to be said again: political labels mean nothing if the people using and subscribing to any particular political label doesn't use them correctly 

To put it simply: if you are going to call someone a Conservative, then that person actually needs to be a Conservative and not a Libertarian or a Nationalist. If someone is going to call themself a Conservative, then they need to be a Conservative and not a Libertarian or Nationalist. 

If you are going to call someone a Liberal, then that person needs to be a Liberal and not some type of Socialist like a Social Democrat or a Communist. And if someone is going to call themself a Liberal, then that person needs to be a Liberal and not some type of Socialist like a Social Democrat or Communist, because the s-word and c-word scares the hell out of them. 

And if you are going to call someone a Progressive, then that person needs to be a Progressive and again not some type of Socialist (democratic or otherwise) because the s-word and c-word scares the hell out of either you or the leftist who doesn't want to be known as a Socialist. 

In every other developed, democratic country in the world, at least, someone as left-wing and believes in a big national government as much as someone like a Paul Krugman or other American leftists, that person would be known as either Social Democrat or a Socialist. Someone like that in America is called a Democratic Socialist, people like Senator Bernie Sanders who is the only self-described Socialist in the U.S. Congress (but not the only Socialist in Congress) and other leftist Democrats in Congress today, like in the so-called Progressive Caucus. 

Progressive in the political sense is about creating progress through government action. But limited government action, like using government to empower people who are struggling to take care of themselves. 

What's supposed to pass as a so-called Progressive today, is what Europe calls Socialists or Social Democrats. People who believe in a democratic form of collectivism where it's the job of the national government to take care of and meet the needs of the people and even manage their lives for them. Which is what Paul Krugman is talking about here when he's talking about the so-called modern Progressive movement.