Paul Krugman articulates on his blog today what conservatives have always known:

The usually perceptive Ezra Klein titles today’s Wonkbook “We know what to do. We just can’t seem to do it.” Um, who is this “we” of whom he speaks? … What Ezra is doing here is a minor version of the all too common sin of presenting what is, in political terms, a moderately left of center position and treating it as the obviously correct policy.

Krugman admits that not “every economist” agrees with the broad consensus of Keynesian stimulus and long-term discipline, and therefore it can hardly be called self-evident and centrist policy. Perhaps the serial sinner here is Tom Friedman, who recently co-authored, with another liberal, That Used To Be Us, a book which argues that everyone would gather around leftist policies, if only they understood them correctly — everyone would want to pay for high-speed rail if they’d just been to China, or something.

Krugman deserves credit for his unabashed progressivism, which contrasts with the false centrism of the Obamas, Friedmans, and Kleins of the world. Of course, he does still think that his far left positions are “objectively … obviously correct policy.” Credit should go to a quasi-socialist for admitting that human beings are not, in fact, objective.