[PEN-L:30609] Personalities and the List

[Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A new participant wrote me off for his criticizing me for trying to put
the lid on the discussion of Hitchens.  Jim's post of Paul Krugman's
article on the California energy crisis made me recall the message
regarding Hitchens.

While Clinton was president, some of Krugman's articles were awful; with
Bush (and his handlers) in charge, Krugman is mostly on target.  During
the Clinton era, Jim even sent many of his articles as part of the
Krugman Watch.

How is it that so much of modern political discourse concerns
personalities?  With Bush as president, we have a non entity formally in
charge, and yet the right wing agenda keeps plugging along -- even
faster than under Reagan.  Yet all Bush can communicate is his anger.
We could have an inflatable president, which could be pumped up and
presented at important occasions, and the system would be virtually
unchanged.

Yet very little discussion here and elsewhere seems to be directed at
the underlying nature of the forces in control.  So, here is my
question: what could be done to try to redirect analysis away from
personality?
--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901