Paul Krugman: Fraternity of Failure

Mistakes were made:

Fraternity of Failure, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times: Jeb Bush wants to stop talking about past controversies. And you can see why. ... The big “Let’s move on” story of the past few days involved Mr. Bush’s response when asked ... whether, knowing what he knows now, he would have supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He answered that yes, he would. ...

Then he tried to walk it back. He “interpreted the question wrong,” and isn’t interested in engaging “hypotheticals.” Anyway, “going back in time” is a “disservice” to those who served in the war.

Take a moment to savor the cowardice and vileness of that last remark. ... Mr. Bush is trying to hide behind the troops, pretending that any criticism ... is an attack on the courage and patriotism of those who paid the price for their superiors’ mistakes. That’s sinking very low, and it tells us a lot ... about the candidate’s character...

Wait, there’s more: Incredibly, Mr. Bush resorted to the old passive-voice dodge, admitting only that “mistakes were made.” Indeed. By whom? Well, earlier this year Mr. Bush released a list of his chief advisers on foreign policy, and it was a who’s-who of mistake-makers ... in the Iraq disaster and other debacles. ...

In Bushworld, in other words, playing a central role in catastrophic policy failure doesn’t disqualify you from future influence. ...

Take my usual focus, economic policy. ... Having been completely wrong about the economy, like having been completely wrong about Iraq, seems to be a required credential.

What’s going on here? My best explanation is that we’re witnessing the effects of extreme tribalism. On the modern right, everything is a political litmus test. Anyone who tried to think through the pros and cons of the Iraq war was, by definition, an enemy of President George W. Bush and probably hated America; anyone who questioned whether the Federal Reserve was really debasing the currency was surely an enemy of capitalism and freedom.

It doesn’t matter that the skeptics have been proved right. Simply raising questions about the orthodoxies of the moment leads to excommunication, from which there is no coming back. So the only “experts” left standing are those who made all the approved mistakes. It’s kind of a fraternity of failure: men and women united by a shared history of getting everything wrong, and refusing to admit it. Will they get the chance to add more chapters to their reign of error?