08/13/2024 --rawstory
Donald Trump and his allies are attempting an act of political desperation that reveals just how "worried" they are about Vice President Kamala Harris, a Nobel Prize-winning economist says.New York Times columnist Paul Krugman subjected Trumpworld to a brutal fact check and a dismissive analysis of the Republican presidential nominee's latest attack line on his election rival."Donald Trump has been using an ugly word to describe Vice President Kamala Harris," writes Krugman. "No, I don’t mean privately calling her the B-word, although he reportedly does. I mean 'communist.'"Trump and his allies have begun hurling this word at Harris and her running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) as their upstart political campaign gains breathtaking traction, Krugman reports. ALSO READ: Harris has figured out Trump’s greatest liabilityIt's a rehash of former President Ronald Reagan's "redbaiting" efforts to convince Americans that Medicare would destroy their freedoms and, according to Krugman, it comes with serious problems. For one, "Harris obviously isn't a communist," the economist writes.Harris' policies are that of a social democrat who believes government should soften the blows a market economy can deliver to the individual by providing programs such as Medicare and Social Security which Krugman describes as enjoying "overwhelming support," the economist wrote.The vice president's support of such programs makes her like "almost all Democrats, most Americans and, whether they realize it or not, many Republicans," writes Krugman. "So where does this Kamala-the-communist stuff come from?" Krugman asks. "It could be that Republicans believe they can convince voters that a moderately center-left Democrat who is a former prosecutor is a communist because she’s a Black woman — a twist, perhaps, on the 'welfare queen' trope of another era," he writes. "But it may be less calculating than that."Krugman then shares his personal view that Trump's Commie-la attacks show just how much President Joe Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election has rattled him. The economist points to rising optimism about the economy, recent polling that shows Harris surging ahead in key battleground states, and a slew of insults from Trump that include questioning her race and accusing her of hiding from the media — even as she barnstorms. "Trump and MAGA seem to be responding by throwing lots of stuff at the wall and hoping some of it sticks," writes Krugman. "So since nothing else seems to be working, hey, why not call her a communist?"
