Economist Paul Krugman: GOP’s 'dystopian visions' are meant to 'frighten voters'

A key part of GOP messaging in the 2024 election is: Be afraid, be very afraid. From the economy to crime, everyone from former President Donald Trump to the Republican National Committee (RNC) is making a concerted effort to terrify voters.

But in his January 29 opinion column for the New York Times, liberal economist Paul Krugman argues that Republican fear-mongering "isn't driven by reality" in 2024.

"It is, instead, driven by dystopian visions unrelated to real experience," Krugman emphasizes. "That is, at this point, Republican political strategy depends largely on frightening voters who are personally doing relatively well — not just according to official statistics, but also, by their own accounts, by telling them that terrible things are happening to other people."

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Krugman adds, "This is most obvious when it comes to the U.S. economy, which had a very good — indeed, almost miraculously good — 2023."

The economist notes that former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley recently described the U.S. economy as being "in shambles" even though economic growth "hugely exceeded expectations" in 2023.

U.S. unemployment remains low. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), unemployment "held at 3.7 percent" in the United States in December 2023.

Other examples of GOP fear-mongering, Krugman notes, range from crime rates to distortions about Europe. Crime, Krugman writes, "declined significantly in 2023" in the U.S., according to FBI data.

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South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, the Times columnist observes, recently claimed that President Joe Biden is trying to "remake" the U.S. by turning it into Europe.

"My first thought was: So he's going to raise our life expectancy by five or six years?" Krugman argues. "In context, however, it was clear that Noem believes, or expects her audience to believe, that Europe is a scene of havoc wrought by hordes of immigrants."

Krugman continues, "As it happens, I spent a fair bit of time walking around various European cities last year, and none of them was a hellscape. Yes, broadly speaking, Europe has been having problems dealing with migrants, and immigration has become a hot political issue. And yes, Europe’s economic recovery has lagged that of the United States. But visions of a continent devastated by immigration are a fantasy. Yet such fantasies are now the common currency of politics on the American right."

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