New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman again showed a disturbing affection for China's dictatorship in his Wednesday column attacking Republican stubbornness on health care and climate change legislation ("Our One-Party Democracy"). Friedman pleaded for "enlightened" autocrats, able to get things accomplished against the will of the people, for their own good.
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.
Story Continues Below Ad ↓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.
As a bonus delusion, Friedman calls the big-spending, "czar"-crazy Barack Obama a centrist.
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.
Friedman has praised Communist China's power to get things done before. In an August 27, 2008 column during the Summer Olympics, hosted by Beijing, he praised the "concentrated state power" of China.
China did not build the magnificent $43 billion infrastructure for these games, or put on the unparalleled opening and closing ceremonies, simply by the dumb luck of discovering oil. No, it was the culmination of seven years of national investment, planning, concentrated state power, national mobilization and hard work.
That "national mobilization" included displacing over a million of its citizens to make way for Olympic pageantry, something Friedman didn't bother mentioning -- making his paeans to China's "concentrated state power" rather sinister.
My MRC colleague Tim Graham also caught Friedman wishing that America could be "China for a day" on The Colbert Report on Comedy Central in November 2008, as a way of pushing his green agenda through.
Jonah Goldberg at National Review Online, author of "Liberal Fascism," sees Friedman's column today as a perfectly horrible example of such a worldview:
So there you have it. If only America could drop its inefficient and antiquated system, designed in the age before globalization and modernity and, most damning of all, before the lantern of Thomas Friedman's intellect illuminated the land. If only enlightened experts could do the hard and necessary things that the new age requires, if only we could rely on these planners to set the ship of state right. Now, of course, there are "drawbacks" to such a system: crushing of dissidents with tanks, state control of reproduction, government control of the press and the internet. Omelets and broken eggs, as they say. More to the point, Friedman insists, these "drawbacks" pale in comparison to the system we have today here in America.
I cannot begin to tell you how this is exactly the argument that was made by American fans of Mussolini in the 1920s. It is exactly the argument that was made in defense of Stalin and Lenin before him (it's the argument that idiotic, dictator-envying leftists make in defense of Castro and Chavez today).
—Clay Waters is the director of Times Watch, an MRC project tracking the New York Times.
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Comments Policy
I have grown weary over
September 9, 2009 - 14:26 ET by Chris NormanI have grown weary over Mr. Friedman being paraded around the talk show circuit as the "smartest man in journalism" when all I have is their say-so on that matter.
The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.
Liberal intellectuals...
September 10, 2009 - 05:58 ET by adamsmithEverything these liberal "intellectuals" come up with seems to come right from either Lenin,Marx,Stalin or Mao. How about I just keep reading from Thomas Jefferson, who I consider one of America's best intellectuals of all times? For freedom and against domestic tyranny....We'll be getting back to that shortly, and I hope the Liberals have time to move to a worker's paradise before this happens...Cuba is kind of small, maybe they should take part of Africa over to start the New Worker's Revolution....Man, communism makes me sick......
Drawback...
September 9, 2009 - 14:26 ET by inquiringmindHmmm... What was that drawback again? Let's see, Oh yeah, it was crushing people under a tank because they were protesting. That's all.
But remember, they are enlightened!
If that tank held
September 9, 2009 - 14:28 ET by Chris NormanIf that tank held ObamaCare, they'd be fine with it crushing the protesters here.
The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.
I love how they blame
September 9, 2009 - 14:27 ET by mattmI love how they blame Republicans when the Democrats have the majority in both houses and they have the presidency.
When the GOP had that situation (from 2003-2006) and nothing on the GOP platform was getting done, we blamed Republicans, NOT the minority party.... How pathetic are these leftist twits!
BTW- Hitler got things done, too.
Still Waiting
September 9, 2009 - 14:32 ET by BayshoremanI'm still waiting for Thomas Friedman to actually do things in his personal and professioanl life that he advocates for everybody else. He could start by calling for a nation-wide ban on printed newspapers (begining with the NYT) to save energy and save the environment. How about insisting that the TV studios he visits must turn off their air conditioners in advance of his appearance so he doesn't have to bundle up in his traditional turtleneck sweaters and sports coats?
China
September 9, 2009 - 14:40 ET by BigMike252Mr. Friedman, why don't you move to China and shut the Hell up!
Oh wow... Yet more praise
September 9, 2009 - 14:40 ET by Six String SpiffOh wow...
Yet more praise for dictators.
Can we question their Patriotism yet?
The MSM needs to experience a sudden and gratuitous existence problem.
Friedman the "all knowing"
September 9, 2009 - 14:42 ET by east tennessee johnI smell the utterances of an elitist swine and its verbal!!! Like many of the dying NYT, he honestly believes his fawning press(see MODO).
Mr. Friedman
September 9, 2009 - 14:44 ET by jdlybrandPlease take the money you've made as a BS artist, and move your sorry butt to China, Venezuela, Cuba, or anywhere else in the world where people are not allowed their freedom. We'll be just fine without you, sir.
"What a revoltin' development this is!"
Chester Riley
Oh and bring toilet paper,
September 9, 2009 - 14:58 ET by Six String SpiffOh and bring toilet paper, I hear those countries RUN OUT. Yeah, that's right. Those countries in their infinite awesomeness somehow can't manage those trivial things.
Nahhh, that's a good thing
September 9, 2009 - 17:55 ET by ckc1227Nahhh, that's a good thing to the Friedmans of the world. Toilet paper is bad, dontcha know. Get rid of it first, and then hopefully indoor plumbing can go next.
Friedman: "One-party
September 9, 2009 - 14:58 ET by deerjerkydaveFriedman: "One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks"
Yeah, like tyranny.
That's why I love partisanship. Bipartisanship might as well be a one party system.
Dave, That's a very good
September 9, 2009 - 16:43 ET by Chris NormanDave,
That's a very good observation. Succinct, too.
The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.
Do I ever Second that
September 9, 2009 - 16:55 ET by bigtimerDo I ever Second that djd.
'Go Green...Recycle Congress'
Yeah, cool, Tom, just what we need
September 9, 2009 - 15:04 ET by StarAZI assume by "enlightened," you mean "agree with you." Sure, send over more autocrats! At least the ones we have are sort of ineffectual, which is our only hope.
I'd just like to know one
September 9, 2009 - 15:07 ET by RowaneI'd just like to know one thing. If he and others like him love communism so much, why do they not renounce their citizenship and immigrate to a communist country?
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"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)
Go Away
September 9, 2009 - 15:14 ET by justbob223Why don't people like Friedman just get the heck out of America and go to those authoritarian paradises that they admire so much and leave those of us who love liberty alone?
Friedman wins this week's Lillian Hellman Award . . .
September 9, 2009 - 15:35 ET by GalvanicFRIEDMAN: 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.
We don't have one-party democracy. If the Republicans merely rubber-stamped everything the Democrats crafted and passed, THAT would be one-party democracy.
Instead, a genuine grass roots movement is giving at least some incentive to the GOP to resist one-party democracy. The Dems tried to shove health care reform down our throats, and the GOP is checking it by not going along with it.
FRIEDMAN: 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.
For a guy just wrote a book about anthropogenic global warming, he sure seems to be giving the "reasonably enlightened" PRC -- owners of one of the worst ecological records on the planet -- are free ride.
FRIEDMAN: That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.
But they're NOT imposing it. The health care reform bill the Democrats wanted to impose has been checked.
FRIEDMAN: 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.
They're also opening a new coal-fired power plant about once per week, harvesting human organs from convicts for sale on the black market, and placing more and more restrictions on Internet access.
FRIEDMAN: 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.
Oh, really? Why aren't they buying it for themselves?
FRIEDMAN: 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.
Oh yeah? Is that why China signed a special deal with CITGO (Chavez -Venezuela) to guarantee cheap oil to fuel its economy? They ain't going to allow high fuel prices to slow down their economy.
Is Friedman published on his home planet?
Like china?
September 9, 2009 - 15:28 ET by sevenChina has death panel for shoplifters. Attention wlamart shoppers. You shoplift and we persecute.
Vivek Kundra's Crime: Shoplifted Some Shirts From J.C. Penney
Obama's info czar. China is open on it's human rights policies.
Poor, jilted India.
September 9, 2009 - 15:34 ET by Old SaltGuess the secrets of the Orient have offically ended Friedman's love affair with India.
What is the matter with these people? Ya know, I wish I could start hanging out at Friedman's 11K sqft. house, and keep carping about how much better my 2400 sqft house is until he sees the light and chops his place up into 4 seperate houses and a condo. Sheesh!
Holiday in Cambodia
September 9, 2009 - 15:46 ET by UnsaneChina "gets things done", huh?
Why is it I feel like hearing "Holiday In Cambodia" all of a sudden?
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
As a certain British prime minister once said...
September 9, 2009 - 16:04 ET by Prester John...."Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried."
"Obama is a centrist"
September 9, 2009 - 17:54 ET by American.PatriotI thought my eyes were fooling me, but this is the second article today in which I read that same quote from this idiot.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
What's that thing on
September 9, 2009 - 18:52 ET by celatorWhat's that thing on Friedman's head in the pic? Perhaps a parabolic antenna to receive instructions from the WH?
Yep. That's what it is. No perhaps about it.
No citizen's right to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, or property is safe as long as Obama is President of the United States.
Ummm... Tommy? Those
September 9, 2009 - 21:17 ET by MikeBUmmm... Tommy? Those same Chinese autocrats you are so enamored of actually told Ear Leader that socialism was not the way for America to go. Do you remember that? For that matter, the former head of the KGB of the former Soviet Union, and either Isvestia or Pravda, also told Obamandius that socialism would be bad for the U.S. Tommy? Current Communists and former Communists are trying to tell you that socialism would be bad for the U.S.
Another "journalist" with acute and chronic rectal-cranial inversion.
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan
Wake up Freidman
September 9, 2009 - 21:57 ET by ChattychitoChinese communism is not the Socialistic type that Russia had.
It is a modified form of their ancient Empirical system. Instead of a Ruling Emperor and family of successors they replaced it with a government body. everything elso about it is still the same. The empirical state elite controls all instead of a family elite.
It is not communism of that of Venezuela, or any idea resembling that of American Socialism that the Democratic party seems motivated to establish.
"A man who doesn't borrow from the brains of others proves he has no brains of his own." CH Spurgeon
Red Chinese
September 9, 2009 - 22:01 ET by Sergeant ROCKIn a nutshell, unlike the Soviets, the Chinese saw the advantage of using American capitalism not only to remain in power, but to grow that power. Thanks in large part to our reckless trade agreements with them.
"I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
George Mason
Very True
September 11, 2009 - 01:30 ET by Chattychitowho would have known that Nixon's opening the door with China would have ever gotten us into two 20years trade agreements promoted and signed by Bill Clinton during his term in office.
"A man who doesn't borrow from the brains of others proves he has no brains of his own." CH Spurgeon
It's hard to believe how
September 9, 2009 - 22:06 ET by Radical1979It's hard to believe how stupid this guy is. China is destroying it's environment, but it's o.k. because they have high gas prices? I'd bet industry has low gas prices.
It's people can't even decide how many children to have, so families have given away or aborted female babies to have sons. this has created a lack of women now, which will be a crisis as the generation matures and men can't find women...
Oh yeah, great system.
Yes,
September 9, 2009 - 23:04 ET by FormerMarineOfficerIt worked splendidly for those voicing dissent during the so-called Great Cultural Revolution who were slaugtered by the tens of millions.
Moreover, Commuinism worked equally well for the Russians and Ukarainians, who at the hands of the Bolsheviks, were slaughtered and starved by the tens of millions.
How completely predictable that someone as enlightened as Thomas Friedman would manage to find a silver lining in unregenerate evil.
Thomas Friedman is nothing
September 9, 2009 - 23:58 ET by Johnnye BThomas Friedman is nothing more than a arrogant, pompous ass, drama queen.
What does he mean by:
September 10, 2009 - 09:58 ET by stage9"reasonably enlightened group of people"???
This is what the "enlightened" in the Chinese government do to you and your rights:
http://www.prisonera...
http://www.prisonera...
http://www.prisonera...
If you're godless, you're "enlightened". The more I read about the atrocities of communist regimes, the more enlightened I become!
North Korea is far worse.
http://www.prisonera...
"If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will
be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for
pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner."
— Malcolm Muggeridge