Students, faculty and community members flocked to the Sanford Institute of Public Policy to hear former Reagan administration economic adviser Paul Krugman speak Tuesday night.
Krugman, a New York Times columnist and professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, spoke to a full crowd in the Fleishman Commons and an additional overflow room about his new book, "The Conscience of a Liberal."
He began by discussing his reasons for writing the book, noting the importance of studying the past in order to predict the future U.S. political scene post-George W. Bush administration.
The difference in voting behavior between the South and the rest of the country is an important factor that makes the United States different from other countries, Krugman said.
"One of the huge things that happened in America was that the South went from being overwhelmingly Democratic to overwhelming Republican, he said. "Southern whites started voting Republican."
He explained that the Southern switch to Republican ideology made a large impact on United State's conservative appearance, although the Democratic voting population has remained consistent over the last 50 years.
"In 1952, 40 percent of non-Southern white men voted Democratic," he said. "In 2004, 39 percent of non-Southern white men voted Democratic."
Krugman also spoke at length about the influence of racial politics. He noted that the United States almost adopted a universal health care system proposed by Harry Truman in 1947, but despite strong public support, the opposition from Southern white politicians, who feared that the system would bring about integrated hospitals with blacks and whites, ultimately dismissed the idea.
"Every time you start looking at why we don't have a full social safety net in this country, you find that it comes down again and again one way or another to racial politics," Krugman said.
He added, however, that the conservative movement, which dominated life in the United States for over 30 years, is nearing its end.
"The American public has become substantially more liberal-on everything from support for universal health insurance to belief that the government should be providing a social safety net to belief that it's worth paying more taxes to have more services," Krugman said.
His views for the future of the country left many feeling optimistic.
"It's encouraging. He's a really good communicator, and I think that he puts things in a realistic perspective and communicates it well," said Brian Reck, a member of the community and an avid reader of Krugman's column. "It kind of gives you hope, really, listening to people like him."
Freshman Pat Rutter said he found the speech informative regarding economics and public policy.
"I thought he had really good points about liberals and progressives-the liberals being the ideologues and the progressives being the people to act on the ideals," Rutter said "I thought that was a really interesting point."
Although local resident Karen Sindelar said she enjoyed Krugman's speech, she added that she found his discussion lacking on the topic of immigration.
"I think of [immigration] as being a scary push-button issue, and I don't know how he addresses that in his book," she said. "I would've liked it for him to address that in his speech."
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