Did I miss something?

I can't help but think that some pusillanimous editor coerced Paul Krugman into penning today's two final sentences:

[T]he odds are that one of these years the world’s greatest nation will find itself ruled by a party that is aggressively anti-science, indeed anti-knowledge. And, in a time of severe challenges — environmental, economic, and more — that’s a terrifying prospect.

I have now reread those lines three, four, maybe five times, looking for the loophole: the one through which Krugman subtly acknowledges that that's no prospect -- just very recent history. But I can't find it.

The temptation is the unspecified "world's greatest nation." I suppose Krugman could always claim he didn't mean us. Yet that's way, way too much of a stretch. He'd never get away with it, since in the preceding line he references "we" and "next year’s presidential election."

We must be us, right? And that election -- ours?

Hence my suspicion: editorial pusillanimity.

Comments

[Marc McKenzie]

"[T]he odds are that one of these years the world’s greatest nation will find itself ruled by a party that is aggressively anti-science, indeed anti-knowledge. And, in a time of severe challenges — environmental, economic, and more — that’s a terrifying prospect."

Hmmmm....that's very curious, because I clearly recall that such an event had already happened, from 2001 through January 20, 2009.