When it comes to Friedmans, I’ll take Milton every time. Especially when the other one – the one who writes for the New York Slimes – extols the virtues of autocracy,
Watching both the health care and climate/energy debates in Congress, it is hard not to draw the following conclusion: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today.
One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century. It is not an accident that China is committed to overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power. China’s leaders understand that in a world of exploding populations and rising emerging-market middle classes, demand for clean power and energy efficiency is going to soar. Beijing wants to make sure that it owns that industry and is ordering the policies to do that, including boosting gasoline prices, from the top down.
I want to park here for a moment and ask a fair enough question: When did Friedman resume his crack-smoking habit? Seriously. He makes it sound as if China is this up-and-coming world leader in environmentally-friendly “green” technologies. Has he seen China? The China where the rivers are so polluted you grow a third eye just by eating a fish pulled from one of them? The China where you get your daily nutritional allowance of cadmium merely by breathing? The China that makes the old Soviet Union look like an environmentalist paradise? THAT China?
And I find it appalling – A.P.P.A.L.L.I.N.G. – that he thinks that a political oligarchy that uses slave labour, executes petty criminals so that their organs can be harvested, bullies its neighbours (Taiwan, India) with overt threats of military aggression, and denies its citizens even basic civil liberties is “a reasonably enlightened group of people.” What a sick puppy.
But I digress.
Our one-party democracy is worse. The fact is, on both the energy/climate legislation and health care legislation, only the Democrats are really playing. With a few notable exceptions, the Republican Party is standing, arms folded and saying “no.” Many of them just want President Obama to fail. Such a waste. Mr. Obama is not a socialist; he’s a centrist. But if he’s forced to depend entirely on his own party to pass legislation, he will be whipsawed by its different factions.
Look at the climate/energy bill that came out of the House. Its sponsors had to work twice as hard to produce this breakthrough cap-and-trade legislation. Why? Because with basically no G.O.P. representatives willing to vote for any price on carbon that would stimulate investments in clean energy and energy efficiency, the sponsors had to rely entirely on Democrats — and that meant paying off coal-state and agriculture Democrats with pork. Thank goodness, it is still a bill worth passing. But it could have been much better — and can be in the Senate. Just give me 8 to 10 Republicans ready to impose some price on carbon, and they can be leveraged against Democrats who want to water down the bill.
Ayep, here we go. Here’s why Tommy (un)Friedman has suddenly become so enamoured with autocracy – it would let people like him more easily impose their idiotic economic, social, and environmental agendas onto us, without those annoying relics of democracy like “political opposition” and “debate.” Since the Republicans just aren’t playing ball, maybe its time to scrap that whole democracy thing, and find ourselves a charismatic, lovable autocrat around whom we can all rally.
And I’m sure he already has one in mind.
Shoot, it’s not like the Democrats haven’t already been headed that way. When you have Democrat Congressmen who basically tell their constituents point blank that it doesn’t matter what the people want, they’re gonna get the Democrat agenda shovelled down their throats regardless – that’s a sign that you have a problem. I’d like to say that it’s nothing a good election couldn’t solve, but hey, since we’re already on the whole autocracy kick anywise, who needs elections? I wish I could say that I’m just kidding, but with the direction the Democrats have been taking anywise, I can’t.
Once again, it’s stuff like this that shows why you simply cannot trust people on the Left – period. They do not support American values. They do not support consensual debate. They do not support representative democracy. They do not support the people voicing their will. They do not support leaving the people alone to live their own lives. They do not believe in freedom. They are un-American, in the deepest and most fundamental ways possible.
