Economist Paul Krugman busts Ron DeSantis' newest 'intellectually bankrupt' battle

07 May 2024

On May 1, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that he had signed into law a bill that prohibits the production or sale of lab-grown meat in the state. DeSantis noted that Florida was the first state to enact such a ban, declaring, "Our administration will continue to focus on investing in our local farmers and ranchers, and we will save our beef."

Liberal economist Paul Krugman is vehemently critical of DeSantis' move in his May 7 column for the New York Times. The ban, Krugman argues, is not only against freedom of choice — it also underscores the modern Republican Party's ability to turn anything and everything into a "culture-war" battle.

"It's possible to grow meat in a lab — to cultivate animal cells without an animal and turn them into something people can eat," Krugman explains. "However, that process is difficult and expensive. And at the moment, lab-grown meat isn't commercially available and probably won't be for a long time, if ever."

But DeSantis, Krugman adds, is "cracking down" on an "industry that doesn't even exist yet."

"The new Florida law is a perfect illustration of how crony capitalism, culture war, conspiracy theorizing and rejection of science have been merged — ground together, you might say — in a way that largely defines American conservatism today," Krugman observes. "First, it puts the lie to any claim that the right is the side standing firm for limited government; government doesn't get much more intrusive than having politicians tell you what you can and can't eat."

The fact that "meat consumption, like almost everything else, has been caught up in the culture wars," Krugman laments, shows how intellectually bankrupt and devoid of substance the modern GOP has become in the age of Donald Trump.

"Look, I'm not an admirer of Ronald Reagan, who I believe did a lot of harm as president," Krugman argues. "But at least Reaganism was about real policy issues like tax rates and regulation. The people who cast themselves as Reagan's successors, however, seem uninterested in serious policymaking."

The Times columnist continues, "For a lot of them, politics is a form of live-action role play. It's not even about 'owning' those they term the elites; it's about perpetually jousting with a fantasy version of what elites supposedly want."

Paul Krugman's full New York Times column is available at this link (subscription required).

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