Bruce Bartlett: Revenge of the Reality-Based Community-My life on the Republican right & and how... [View all]

[Faryn Balyncd]

quite a read:

Revenge of the Reality-Based Community
My life on the Republican right—and how I saw it all go wrong.

- Bruce Bartlett

"...As I wrote the book ... my utter disdain for Bush grew, as I recalled forgotten screw-ups and researched topics that hadn't crossed my radar screen. I grew to totally despise the man for his stupidity, cockiness, arrogance, ignorance, and general cluelessness. I also lost any respect for conservatives who continued to glorify Bush as the second coming of Ronald Reagan and as a man they would gladly follow to the gates of hell. This was either gross, willful ignorance or total insanity, I thought.

"The final line for me to cross in complete alienation from the right was my recognition that Obama is not a leftist. In fact, he's barely a liberal --- and only because the political spectrum has moved so far to the right that moderate Republicans from the past are now considered hardcore leftists by right-wing standards today. Viewed in historical context, I see Obama as actually being on the center-right."

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9750

a little more, from the former economic policy analyst in the Reagan & Bush 41 administrations:

"...After careful research along these lines, I came to the annoying conclusion that Keynes had been 100 percent right in the 1930s. Previously, I had thought the opposite. But facts were facts and there was no denying my conclusion," he writes, concluding that George W. Bush's Great Recession made clear that "We needed Keynesian policies again.

"Annoyingly, I found myself joined at the hip to Paul Krugman, whose analysis was identical to my own. I had previously viewed Krugman as an intellectual enemy and attacked him rather colorfully in an old column that he still remembers.

"For the record, no one has been more correct in his analysis and prescriptions for the economy's problems than Paul Krugman. The blind hatred for him on the right simply pushed me further away from my old allies and comrades."


http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9750