Leftist Economist Krugman Excuses Dems' Anti-Semitism: Only Anti-Semitism From The Right Frightens Me

On Wednesday, leftist economist Paul Krugman, who is Jewish, eager to show his fealty to the political Left over any loyalty he has to the Jewish people, responded to the furor that has erupted over the anti-Semitic comments of Rep. Ilhan Omar by stating that the only anti-Semitism that frightens him is the anti-Semitism from the political Right. Krugman also used the opportunity to take a swipe at President Trump, tweeting, “There are three things in life that are certain: death, taxes (unless you're Donald Trump), and persistence of anti-Semitism. But only one brand of antisemitism scares me – and it's not on the left.”

Paul Krugman

✔@paulkrugman

There are three things in life that are certain: death, taxes (unless you're Donald Trump), and persistence of anti-Semitism. But only one brand of antisemitism scares me – and it's not on the left

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1:41 AM - Mar 7, 2019

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Krugman’s warped sense of what constitutes dangerous anti-Semitism seems to largely be based on the supposition that Nazis hail from the political Right, a canard that the Left has propounded since World War II, and debunked by F.A. Hayek in his classic “The Road to Serfdom,” in which he called Nazism a “genuine socialist movement,” and Jonah Goldberg in his book “Liberal Fascism.”

Additionally, would Krugman consider Russian mass murderer Josef Stalin, an ardent communist who killed thousands of Jews, a man of the political Right? The attempt to say that anti-Semitism from the political Left is not a frightening phenomenon is a spurious one, and despite Krugman’s hard-core allegiance to the Left, his willful denial of reality and blind obedience to his movement is telling.

Krugman taking the opportunity to use anti-Semitism in general to attack President Trump is nothing new; last June he conflated anti-Semitism with the Trump administration’s language on immigration, intimating that the administration’s rhetoric was similar to the infamous and murderous “blood libel” that was used for centuries as an excuse to murder Jews. Krugman wrote of the administration’s language, “And you know what this reminds me of? The history of anti-Semitism, a tale of prejudice fueled by myths and hoaxes that ended in genocide.”

He continued, “The thing about anti-Semitism is that it was never about anything Jews actually did. It was always about lurid myths, often based on deliberate fabrications, that were systematically spread to engender hatred. For example, for centuries people repeated the ‘blood libel’ — the claim that Jews sacrificed Christian babies as part of the Passover ritual.”

Five days before Krugman posted his article, Former CIA Director Michael Hayden offered a similar perspective as he posted a picture of the entrance to the Nazi Birkenau death camp, captioning it, “Other governments have separated mothers and children.”

The day after Krugman’s article appeared, Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt slammed Hayden, writing, “Equating the two is not only historically wrong, it is also strategically wrong. Glib comparisons to the Nazis provide the administration and its supporters with a chance to defend their position, something they do not deserve.”

Unwittingly, in Krugman’s article he attacked what is happening now, as Democrats have apparently resolved not to single out the rabid anti-Semitism of Omar but rather attempt to bury it by not only refusing to mention her in their resolution but by simply condemning all forms of racism. Krugman wrote: “No, the real crisis is an upsurge in hatred — unreasoning hatred that bears no relationship to anything the victims have done. And anyone making excuses for that hatred — who tries, for example, to turn it into a ‘both sides’ story — is, in effect, an apologist for crimes against humanity.”