Demokrasi in Turkey, though a word less seldom encountered in New Albany.

Words tend to be taken so lightly in New Albanian political circles that they might as well not even exist.

Rather, we might communicate by grunting and moaning sounds simply denoting lesser or greater monetization ecstasy, accompanied only periodically by Orwellian linguistic adaptations, such as the word "fundamentally," which in New Albany implies surface sheen and not basic substance.

On to the post; first Turkey, then Krugman.

At least Turkey has some variety of awakening underway.

From Atatürk to demokrasi: a glossary of changing Turkey, by Elif Shafak (The Guardian)

As every writer, journalist or poet knows only too well, words are not to be taken lightly. Especially so in Turkey. Words can get you sued and put on trial, demonised by the government and their henchmen in the media, sent to prison or into exile. Critical-minded individuals can be branded as “traitors” overnight – just because of an article or a poem or even a tweet.

The surprise outcome of last Sunday’s Turkish elections, in which President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) lost its majority, leading to the resignation of prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, has sent shockwaves around Europe and the Middle East. But to understand the political situation in a land as complicated as Turkey requires one to look not only at what is being said, but also at the deliberate silences. Here’s a glossary of key words ...

In New Albany, these deliberate silences usually occur when someone like me asks someone like Democratic Party chairman (and redevelopment lackey) Adam Dickey how it's possible that Dan Coffey is a Democrat.

The columnist Krugman sees a leftward shift for the Democratic Party in national terms, and in part, explains this by suggesting the party sees the futility of centrist positioning.

The problem locally is that many Democrats start from an ideological perspective so far right that merely moving to the center would require a seismic upheaval.

Democrats Being Democrats, by Paul Krugman (New York Times)

You see, ever since Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980, Democrats have been on the ideological defensive. Even when they won elections they seemed afraid to endorse clearly progressive positions, eager to demonstrate their centrism by supporting policies like cuts to Social Security that their base hated. But that era appears to be over. Why?

Krugman on "The Obamacare Shock."

Clear and absent sensationalism. That simply won't do. Perhaps Al Mohler can explain it better.

The Obamacare Shock, by Paul Krugman (NYT)

 ... So yes, it does look as if there’s an Obamacare shock coming: the shock of learning that a public program designed to help a lot of people can, strange to say, end up helping a lot of people — especially when government officials actually try to make it work.

Krugman: "The modern Republican Party’s grand, radical agenda lies in ruins."

Other examples of Republican distemper include Mitch McConnell's already famous self-filibuster, the party heroically banding together to reject a UN treaty on the rights of the disabled, and its local arm retaining Dave Matthews as party chairman in Floyd County.

But here's the kicker: Here in Floyd County, the Democratic existential crisis is even worse. There is no platform, no direction, and no desire to articulate something -- anything -- that might differentiate the local donkey from the local pachyderm. As our GOP sprints pell-mell for the 1950s, our Democrats conclude their best alternative is to get there first.

Why is that?

At some point, the external pressure from the blue states in the north will outweigh the sucking sound emitted from the south via McConnell's fiefdom, leading to progressive reform in Hoosierstan. Until then, we've no choice but to drink liberally.

The G.O.P.’s Existential Crisis, by Paul Krugman (New York Times)

We are not having a debt crisis.

It’s important to make this point, because I keep seeing articles about the “fiscal cliff” that do, in fact, describe it — often in the headline — as a debt crisis. But it isn’t. The U.S. government is having no trouble borrowing to cover its deficit. In fact, its borrowing costs are near historic lows. And even the confrontation over the debt ceiling that looms a few months from now if we do somehow manage to avoid going over the fiscal cliff isn’t really about debt.

No, what we’re having is a political crisis, born of the fact that one of our two great political parties has reached the end of a 30-year road. The modern Republican Party’s grand, radical agenda lies in ruins — but the party doesn’t know how to deal with that failure, and it retains enough power to do immense damage as it strikes out in frustration.

Before I talk about that reality, a word about the current state of budget “negotiations” ...

Krugman: An economy "slowly healing," and a right-wing movement that "lives in an intellectual bubble."

Jack Welch being a prominent bubble inhabitant.

Truth About Jobs, by Paul Krugman (New York Times)

Is the U.S. employment picture getting better? Yes, it is ...

... None of this should be taken to imply that the situation is good, or to deny that we should be doing better — a shortfall largely due to the scorched-earth tactics of Republicans, who have blocked any and all efforts to accelerate the pace of recovery. (If the American Jobs Act, proposed by the Obama administration last year, had been passed, the unemployment rate would probably be below 7 percent.) The U.S. economy is still far short of where it should be, and the job market has a long way to go before it makes up the ground lost in the Great Recession. But the employment data do suggest an economy that is slowly healing, an economy in which declining consumer debt burdens and a housing revival have finally put us on the road back to full employment.

And that’s the truth that the right can’t handle.

Affordable health care and the GOP's rampant moral failures, Part One: Paul Krugman.

"Kinder and more decent" doesn't exactly fit with the Right's eternal goal of preserving wealth by blaming victims.

The Real Winners, by Paul Krugman (New York Times)

... In short, unless you belong to that tiny class of wealthy Americans who are insulated and isolated from the realities of most people’s lives, the winners from that Supreme Court decision are your friends, your relatives, the people you work with — and, very likely, you. For almost all of us stand to benefit from making America a kinder and more decent society.

Krugman: "Europe’s economic success should be obvious even without statistics."

I'm in the process of developing a new, recurring character for my Thursday Tribune column. His name is Oakengruber. He's a doctor, reads a publication called the Wall Beck Journal, opposes the ungodly curse of Obamunism, patronizes certain downtown antique stores, and ... well, just stay tuned to see what happens when the Publican has his gout toe examined.

In the interim, as American fights for the right to be dim, here's a welcomed corrective to the teabagging blather. As for me, I'm going for a bicycle ride.

Learning From Europe, by Paul Krugman (New York Times).

As health care reform nears the finish line, there is much wailing and rending of garments among conservatives. And I’m not just talking about the tea partiers. Even calmer conservatives have been issuing dire warnings that Obamacare will turn America into a European-style social democracy. And everyone knows that Europe has lost all its economic dynamism.

Strange to say, however, what everyone knows isn’t true.