Krugman on Fools and Frauds

Only if your arrogance is such that you believe that you can clearly see things that you couldn’t convince others of with an honest argument. perhaps Romney falls into that category. perhaps you do as well.

This position of course only holds if there is no penalty for lying. (it also assumes that things you say to get elected can’t constrain your options in office, but let’s set that aside) This is more or less true now, but Krugman’s post is an attempt to impose such a cost on Romney.

Strategically it makes sense to impose a lie penalty globally if you genuinely believe the truth favors you more often than it hurts you.

You wrote, “should one not do whatever he or she can to stop it?”

The answer, of course, is yes, one should. The best way to do it is to do what Krugman does, namely speak the truth. Doing so would be even more powerful when it comes from a Republican. He might actually turn his party around. And if he doesn’t he should support the Democrat. Perhaps that would turn the party around — or finish it off forever and leave room for a sane party.

There is nothing selfless about lying to further one’s own interests.

It’s not as if we know that Romney would govern more sanely than he campaigns.

In a similar vein, his fraudulent campaign rhetoric carries with it the risk of electing more fools (or in the common vernacular, tea baggers) to Congress.

Under that scenario, even if he tried to govern sanely, his freedom to act could be severely constrained by the Congress that he helped to elect.

So saying anything in order to stop a fool could cause a fraud to govern like a fool.

You’re right that Romney likely believes himself selfless; but we don’t pardon murderers because they think their victims deserved death, and we don’t trust liars because they think we deserve to be lied to.

A powerful man who’s convinced he’s specially altruistic is more dangerous, not less, than one who thinks himself selfish. The “I’m an altruist!” man, the self-fraud, has fewer checks on his behavior; he need never feel guilt or doubt.

Worse, history suggests that powerful men easily convince themselves their continued power is itself a vital interest of everybody else.

So it doesn’t matter whether Romney is lying to everybody for what he thinks is his own benefit or for what he thinks is our benefit: whichever it is, it shows he’s comfortable with a complete embrace of lying as a route to power. This is a slightly unnerving habit to have in a potential future President of the United States.