New York Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman believes the conservative movement's "real goal" is to shift the entire country's social policies back 120 years.
"Their real goal is to push us
back to 1894 — not even to 1924. So these are the stakes. This is really
serious stuff," he declared Thursday night. "Never forget just how big
this thing is."
Well at least 1894 was post emancipation so there is that. I wonder why Krugman pulled that date out of a hat? Maybe he fixated on it because it was the first year that Labor Day became a federal holiday. Also federal marshals ceased protecting black voters in the South so there is that. Maybe he wants to go back to a time when the Democratic Party was virulently racist and did everything they could to keep blacks from voting?
I mean there was an economic malaise from the panic of 1893. However, there were also massive strikes by coal workers and the Pullman Strike happened in that year as well. It was organized by the noted socialist Eugene V. Debs. Democrat Grover Cleveland broke that strike with the army. You would think the Dems wanted to go back to a time when organized labor was that powerful again.
What the Dems do not want is something like the massive GOP landslide election in that year. Maybe Krugman is prescient? That was the largest midterm turn around in US history and doomed the Democrats for years afterward. So in that case I bet the GOP would not mind some 1894 magic.
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