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OPINION PAUL KRUGMAN
Where Have All the Grown-ups Gone? Dec. 7, 2021
Bob Dole in West Palm Beach, Fla., in 1996. Bob Dole in West Palm Beach, Fla., in 1996.Credit...Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
495 Paul Krugman By Paul Krugman
Opinion Columnist
Bob Dole, the former Senate majority leader and presidential candidate, died on Sunday at age 98. The media was filled with encomiums, which was understandable even for those who opposed much of what he stood for.
It’s not just that he was a war hero, or that he reminds us of an era in which the two parties were willing to work together in the national interest. His life story also reminds us of a time when public figures were supposed to show some sense of responsibility — to possess basic decency, to admit to mistakes when they made them, even to put their lives on the line in time of war. Human nature being what it is, many people who pretended to have these virtues were hypocrites. But at least that was the ideal, and being an obvious crook, liar or coward was politically disqualifying.