# Quote — Paul R. Krugman, The Conscience of a Liberal

> To be a progressive, then, means being a partisan—at least for now. The only way a progressive agenda can be enacted is if Democrats have both the presidency and a large enough majority in Congress to overcome Republican opposition. And achieving that kind of political preponderance will require leadership that makes opponents of the progressive agenda pay a political price for their obstructionism—leadership that, like FDR, welcomes the hatred of the interest groups trying to prevent us from making our society better.

- Author: [Paul R. Krugman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-r-krugman.md)
- Book: [The Conscience of a Liberal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-r-krugman/the-conscience-of-a-liberal.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Krugman#The_Conscience_of_a_Liberal_(2007)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-r-krugman/the-conscience-of-a-liberal/to-be-a-progressive

## More from this book

> Sometimes economists in official positions give bad advice; sometimes they give very, very bad advice; and sometimes they work at the OECD.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-r-krugman/the-conscience-of-a-liberal/sometimes-economists-in-official.md)

> The best you can say about economic policy in this slump is that we have for the most part avoided a full repeat of the Great Depression. I say “for the most part” because we actually are seeing a Depression-level slump in Greece, and very bad slumps elsewhere in the European periphery. Still, the overall downturn hasn’t been a full 1930s replay. But all of that, I think, can be attributed to the financial rescue of 2008-2009 and automatic stabilizers. Deliberate policy to offset the crash in private spending has been largely absent.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-r-krugman/the-conscience-of-a-liberal/the-best-you.md)

> As Branko says, there was a time when Serbs and Croats seemed to get along fairly well, indeed intermarrying at a high rate. But could anyone now put Yugoslavia back together? At this rate, we’ll soon be asking the same question about America.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-r-krugman/the-conscience-of-a-liberal/as-branko-says.md)