Krugman's Latest

What's hard to figure out about Krugman is his view of his audience. A NYT op-ed is, in part, a pulpit for preaching to the faithful, a place from which to encourage them to keep the faith. He does that all the time. I have the impression that the faithful love him for it; everyone else, not so much.

"Preaching" is also how he seems to see his mission -- explaining the lefty gospel, giving advice on what an authentic, righteous life looks like when transposed into public policy, etc. A piece in today's New Republic argues that a lot of the lefty chatter about the Tucson shooting was purely a fact-free, faith-based narrative. That's Krugman's usual stance too. Krugman's column today adds a Manichean twist, dividing the world into the morally enlightened (his team, of course) and the selfishly dimwitted (you know who you are).

It's strikingly strange that, for someone who comes off as a dedicated anti-religious secularist, Krugman's op-ed persona amounts to a caricature of a 19th century Bible-thumper. When I read Krugman's stuff (admittedly, not that often), I keep hearing the voice of Fredric March playing Rev. Brady in Inherit the Wind. And we know how that ended.