Paul Krugman Is Shrill

The oracle of Princeton has declared the crisis of Wisconsin bogus. He says that it is not about balancing any kind of budget, it is an attempt to "make Wisconsin — and eventually, America — less of a functioning democracy and more of a third-world-style oligarchy."

Oh please. One side is going to turn this nation into a "third-world-style oligarchy" and the other one is going to make us into an "Islamic caliphate with Sharia law." Can we please have a little bit less shrieking hysteria?

Krugman debunks the theory that Governor Walker was actually elected by the people of Wisconsin, any more than any of our elected officials are elected by any of the people whom they purport to represent.

Billionaires can field armies of lobbyists; they can finance think tanks that put the desired spin on policy issues; they can funnel cash to politicians with sympathetic views (as the Koch brothers did in the case of Mr. Walker). On paper, we’re a one-person-one-vote nation; in reality, we’re more than a bit of an oligarchy, in which a handful of wealthy people dominate.

The Koch brothers are the current "source of all evil," and it was they who put Mr. Walker in office, not a majority of the voters in Wisconsin. Last year it was BP, the year before that it was JP Morgan and AIG, before that it was "big oil," next year it will be someone else. Always it is some big money source that is denying voters of this great nation the right to choose who they vote for, forcing them to...

Wait. What are they forcing voters to do? Forcing them to vote without paying attention to what the campaigner is actually saying? Forcing them to vote without checking to see what the incumbent they are voting for has actually done while in office?

So, people, they get what they pay for? Not really. We get who we vote for.