US economist and Nobel-prize of Economy winner Paul Krugman speaks to journalists after his meeting with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday, March 22, 2016. (Franck Robichon/Pool Photo via AP)

Even knowing the deeply partisan left-wing biases of most national news outlets, their daily sliming and trashing of conservatives desperate to get back to work so they can provide for their families has been striking to watch.

Not because it’s shocking, of course. But rather because, unlike most other instances where they try to hide their contempt for conservatives behind a veneer of “concern” for their fellow citizens, it’s being done so brazenly – as if they don’t give a rip what it says about the kind of contemptuous, agenda-driven media figures they really are.

The latest example of this type of ivory tower behavior comes by way of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, which should be a surprise to absolutely no one. The Nobel Prize-winning economist, who has done almost nothing but mock and belittle concerned conservatives to an extraordinary degree during the Wuhan coronavirus crisis, took to the Twitter machine today to claim it had been confirmed that the ‘stay at home’ marches were nothing more than Potemkin village schemes “staged by right-wing billionaires”:

So it took a few days, but the media seem to be realizing that the anti-quarantine protests aren't a real grassroots uprising; they're Potemkin populism staged by right-wing billionaires 1/ https://t.co/qdDxuIFsdz

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) April 22, 2020

And in case that didn’t inflame his devoted liberal following enough, he threw in the “Tea Party is raaacist” card, too, for good measure:

But there was also a genuine if nasty form of populism involved in the Tea Party, which consisted largely of older white men who believed that Obama was going to take their money and give it to Those People 4/ https://t.co/dDQTiAQSyY

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) April 22, 2020

The raaaacism swipe about the Tea Party is a tiresome, lazy talking point that is so absurdly false that it’s not worth addressing.

But his “Potemkin village” smear is, for a few reasons.

For starters, not even the Washington Post article he referenced – which itself was another attempt by the MSM to delegitimize the various “Reopen” movements around the country – claimed the movement wasn’t “a real grassroots uprising”, as Krugman alleged. Here are a couple of key excerpts (bolded emphasis added):

A network of right-leaning individuals and groups, aided by nimble online outfits, has helped incubate the fervor erupting in state capitals across the country. The activism is often organic and the frustration deeply felt, but it is also being amplified, and in some cases coordinated, by longtime conservative activists, whose robust operations were initially set up with help from Republican megadonors.

[…]

The protests are reminiscent in some ways of the tea party movement and the demonstrations against the Affordable Care Act that erupted in 2010, which also involved a mix of homegrown activism and shrewd behind-the-scenes funding.

In other words, the ‘stay at home’ protest movement has been aided in funding much in the same way Occupy Wall Street and other high-profile national liberal movements were funded by liberal megadonors. Inevitably that is the way of most movements. They start organic, and then someone with money says let me help fund/organize it, and before you know it becomes a well-oiled machine.

But regardless of that, it does not take away from the message of such movements. While I strongly disagreed with Occupy Wall Street and the Moral Monday protesters, the latter of who practically took over the state legislature here in North Carolina for years with their mix of people from around the state and professional protesters bused in from other states, what was being expressed at those rallies most of the time was what people felt.

The same holds true for the ‘stay at home’ protests that are taking place here and elsewhere. Just because people are now helping fund the movement doesn’t mean it’s not legitimate. But because it’s being done by conservative donors and not liberal donors, expect the media and and liberal commentators/columnists like Krugman to continue to bang the “Astroturf” drum because they want to pretend it’s not real, pretend that people out there aren’t thirsty to get back to work.

What does this tell us about Krugman? Nothing we don’t already know, really. He’s still the same smug liberal elitist who believes it’s America’s patriotic duty to question Trump’s every word while at the same time dutifully obeying draconian Democratic governors in states like Michigan and California without question because they know better than you what’s best for you and your family.

It’s not a good look at all, but it is who he is. He’s just been a little more open about it lately.