A Quick Reminder on Paul Krugman and Climates of Hate

The Arizona shootings have turned into a fierce moral debate between Right and Left, and one of the central exhibits is the op-ed penned by Paul Krugman soon after the news of the killings broke. It’s called “Climate of Hate,” and in it Krugman denounces “rising tide of threats and vandalism aimed at elected officials.” Krugman dates the growth of “political hatred” way back to 1992 and the election of Bill Clinton, which helped produce the Oklahoma City bombings. This horror he ties to the 2008 campaign: “you could see, just by watching the crowds at McCain-Palin rallies, that it was ready to happen again.”

An important distinction has been lost, Krugman says: “Politeness may be a virtue, but there’s a big difference between bad manners and calls, explicit or implicit, for violence; insults aren’t the same as incitement.”

Agreed, of course, but there is a problem with Paul Krguman making it. Here is how Krugman opened his column of Dec 17, 2009:

“A message to progressives: By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy.”