Learning from Paul Krugman

I have been reading Paul Krugman's column in the New York times for over a year now.  I like his style of backing up his conclusions with evidence!  Lately, too much of the public discourse in regards to fixing the economy has been centered on conservative vs. liberal ideology.  While Krugman is a self-professed liberal, he uses history and economic principles to guide his opinion. Perhaps even better than his columns are his blogs where he shows charts and graphs to better illustrate his points.  I find it refreshing that he doesn't distort the facts to suit his own personal value system.  For example, in one of his blogs,  he responds to the erroneous belief by many people that a strong middle-class is required for the economic growth of a country.  Upon reflection, I think we can all cite examples of economically-successful countries controlled by aristocracies or dictators, where the middle-class is all but nonexistent.  For many of us, we value a large middle-class where people are free to pursue their dreams, but economically speaking, it is not required for economic growth.  

We should all be able to agree that both conservatives (not to be confused with the right-wing, hate-spewing wackos that we have been hearing from on television lately) and we liberals value a strong American middle-class,  but we just disagree on the practical aspects of how to achieve it and to maintain it.  This would be a good starting place for a national conversation on the matter.