Donald Trump, the History of Modern Conservatism and Con men

I chose to look at an article that was published by the New York Times today, written by Dr. Paul Krugman, called A Party Agrift. Dr. Krugman is an Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times. He is a professor in the Graduate Center Economics Ph.D. program at the University of New York as well as professor emeritus at Princeton University. He’s a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Science and has a B.A. from Yale and a Ph.D. from M.I.T. I think Dr. Krugman has the credibility and authority to criticize Donald Trump in his article. I think the audience, on wide terms, is the readership of the New York Times and specifically the people who are interested in reading the Op-Ed section. However I would expect people that read the Op-Ed section of the New York Times will probably not be looking to expand their horizons but are reading stories that already align with their beliefs.

Dr. Krugman is asking a question to his readers, how could someone who resembles a cheap con man bowl over all other candidates in the republican primary race and be the presumptive G.O.P. nominee. He goes on to claim that there is a structural problem with the modern Republican Party that makes it unable to combat people like him. Next, he introduces the historic pairing of modern conservatism and the greasy salesman type. Then he moves to Marco Rubio, and points out that even he tried to point out Trump University but he had done it too late, after he had already discredited himself while he was trying to argue that the current president is trying to weaken America. The argument Rubio was making when he repeated the same sentence 5 times is a typical tactic used by the right to feed to the public, much like criticisms of programs for the poor etc.

I’m pretty sure that the argument Dr. Krugman is making is that while Republicans will try and claim that Mr. Trump doesn’t reflect their party’s values, but the truth is that he does and that they couldn’t stop his meteoric rise.  

I think he accomplishes this end quite well by first making his claim then presenting varied evidence of that claim and then re-statement of that claim.

Dr. Paul Krugman, A Party Agrift, New York Times Opinon, June 13 2016
(http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/13/opinion/a-party-agrift.html?ref=opinion&_r=0)