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The Privileged Call for Limited Dictatorships
The Anchoress ^ | 24 May 2010 | elizabeth Scalia

Posted on 05/24/2010 11:08:56 PM PDT by Rummyfan

When I read last week that Woody Allen likes the idea of letting President Obama be a dictator for a “few years” I was repelled; but then I’ve found Allen to be a repellent individual for decades–since Manhattan, at least–so I just shrugged it off as the foghorn bleat of an over-privileged mediocrity looking for some attention.

But then the equally mediocre Tom born-wealthy-high-carbon-footprint-lover-of-Chinese-Communist-Capitalism-I’ve-got-mine-you-should-not-have-yours Friedman let fly with this on Meet the Press:

I have fantasized–don’t get me wrong–but that what if we could just be China for a day? I mean, just, just, just one day. You know, I mean, where we could actually, you know, authorize the right solutions, and I do think there is a sense of that, on, on everything from the economy to environment. I don’t want to be China for a second, OK, I want my democracy to work with the same authority, focus and stick-to-itiveness. But right now we have a system that can only produce suboptimal solutions.

To which Andrea even-more-privileged-than-you-Tom Mitchell chimed in:

“And, in fact, Tom, you’re absolutely right . . .”

The leftist party that these people support is currently in control of both houses of congress and the White House (and they are well-represented within the federal judiciary) and yet, it is not enough. The power is not pure enough, it is not invincible enough; their power is diluted because, dammit, those little people crowing about the constitution all over the internets are mucking things up!

Although, to be fair to Friedman, his China Fantasy is not new; he talked about “being China for a day” with Tom Brokaw in 2008. He’s been hoping for a dictatorship ala China, for a while, now as Jonah Goldberg notes.

Friedman and Mitchell, and even that self-absorbed twerp Woody Allen are all wringing their hands over something they cannot (yet) control; alternative media and how it has contributed to the difficulties of getting things done in Washington.

When the press had a monopoly on information, it was much easier for them to influence opinion; that in turn made the legislator’s jobs easier, too. Now, yes, things are more difficult for the politicians, but that’s mostly because they insist upon working as they always have (the incestuous commingling of pols and media freaks on the left, and pols and business freaks on the right, with back-room-deals-aplenty, back-scratching galore and pork, pork, pork for everyone) while the electorate has decided it wants something different.

So, Allen and Friedman–and others who have kept their faces before us for 40 years by coasting on the work of their youth, because they’ve done nothing memorable, lately–are feeling the shifting sand beneath their feet, and they’re wondering why America can’t simply submit to a fantasy of Limited Dictatorship. It’s so inconvenient for these elites to have to deal with the noise of the bourgeoisie – commoners who presume to opine on anything and who dare to object to the incessant lecturing from their betters.

So, let’s be China “for a little while…” (just long enough to get everything we want accomplished).

Because what they want must, of course, darling, be the very thing that needs doing.

Let’s allow Obama to be dictator “for a couple of years,” because that preening narcissist will certainly give up his dictatorship once the nowhere-utopia of which the left dreams is achieved. Right? Of course.

Ann Althouse writes:

A love of autocracy often lurks beneath the liberal veneer. There’s this idea that the right answers are known and the people are just too deluded and distorted to see what they are and to vote for them.

They propose dictatorship because they are no longer able to get away with their former arguments, which boiled down to: “shut up. You’re stupid. We’re cool.”

They propose dictatorship because they know their lives would be completely unaffected by such a thing. They will still have access to their Park Avenue doctors; they will be exempt from the rationing of medical treatment that the Obama administration now admits will take place. They will continue to be the privileged useful-idiot voices of the politburo. They will still have their limos and their lunches, where they will sit together and bloviate about what must be done for the commoners who cannot be trusted with their own lives.

“And in fact, you are absolutely right…” they will say to each other, and in their insulated little Pauline-Kaelesque worlds, they will not be able to imagine that anyone with any sense would possibly disagree.

Every murderous totalitarian government of the 20th century began with some insulated group of faux-intellectuals congratulating each other on how smart they are, and fantasizing about how, if they could just install a dictatorship-for-a-day, they could right all the wrongs in the world.

It is the ultimate fantasy of the narcissist. And we’ve got whole generations of them, in control of our media and our government, all intent on “remaking America.”


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1 posted on 05/24/2010 11:08:56 PM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: Rummyfan

Small guys always like to be in power, and that includes small of soul.


2 posted on 05/24/2010 11:23:39 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: Rummyfan

“I have fantasized–don’t get me wrong–but that what if we could just be China for a day? I mean, just, just, just one day. You know, I mean, where we could actually, you know, authorize the right solutions, and I do think there is a sense of that, on, on everything from the economy to environment.”

Why wish for one day when you can be China 24/7. Move. What’s stopping you, besides you? Put your money where your mouth is.


3 posted on 05/24/2010 11:24:48 PM PDT by This Just In
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To: Rummyfan

Will they bill my family for the bullet to my head?


4 posted on 05/24/2010 11:26:34 PM PDT by MaxMax (Conservatism isn't a party)
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To: Rummyfan

I admit that I never recognized the narcissism of the left until George Bush took office. OF course, it was right there in my face all those years but I ‘tried’ to listen to them when they claimed they just wanted equality blah blah blah. Rock stars flying private jets to favorite lunch places making PSA to the ‘little people’ to ‘go green’ - yeah it was all there...all along...but somehow I WANTED to believe that a movement (leftism) that causes so much havoc in the word actually had, at heart, some actual substance. Anything of worth would have been fine - I could then tell myself “sure, they take us two steps back for every step forward we make - but they genuinely feel they are agitating for the best for our society.”
Now, of course, there’s no way I can possibly believe that anymore. I am well read on personality disorders and find myself comparing ‘progressives’ and their agenda sever forms of narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and ...yes...conscience free sociopathic personality disorder.


5 posted on 05/24/2010 11:26:40 PM PDT by ransomnote
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To: Rummyfan

Legislation to Remove Term Limits for President

“WASHINGTON – You thought only regimes like Venezuela would hold a referendum to remove limits on re-electing presidents, but what about in the United States?

This is exactly what Congressman Jose Serrano (D) of New York (16th district) is proposing for President Obama.

Serrano has introduced a bill to abolish the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution, which limits the maximum number of presidential terms to two consecutive terms or ten years in office.”.....

http://www.christianlawjournal.com/featured-articles/legislation-to-remove-term-limits-for-president/


6 posted on 05/24/2010 11:27:11 PM PDT by Kimberly GG ("Path to Citizenship" Amnesty candidates will NOT get my vote!)
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To: Rummyfan

There must be some facet of self-loathing in the analysis.


7 posted on 05/24/2010 11:27:17 PM PDT by ptgustan (Marxist thought stinks on ice.)
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To: MaxMax

The Public Option is the ‘pre-payment’ plan for that sort of thing.


8 posted on 05/24/2010 11:27:45 PM PDT by ransomnote
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To: Rummyfan
Trial balloons? Remember, almost nothing in the media is there by accident.
9 posted on 05/24/2010 11:28:24 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Don't care if he was born in a manger on July 4th! A "Natural Born" citizen requires two US parents!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Good point. Maybe the MSM wants to see if they can herd us into a ‘trial marriage’ with Dictatorship. Of course, there’s no history of any limitation on any dictatorship but they have already destroyed our education system so that inconvenient fact is little known...


10 posted on 05/24/2010 11:30:20 PM PDT by ransomnote
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To: Rummyfan
So, someone could get-rich-quick selling bumper stickers:

Visualize Dictatorship!

11 posted on 05/24/2010 11:32:48 PM PDT by donna (The Feminist ideal comes to fruition in the Republican Party. Betty Friedan laughs.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Dictatorships don’t work well with an armed citizenry. They have to take our weapons first, and that is turning out to be a tough task. Also, if it is going to happen it better happen quickly because, barring massive election fraud, the lefty fascists are going to lose a LOT of power in November.


12 posted on 05/24/2010 11:41:17 PM PDT by HerrBlucher (END THE WAR ON LIBERTY!)
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To: Rummyfan

Fanatical totalitarian socialists drooling at the thought of a total socialist police state. Too bad Suckers...So close but yet so far away.


13 posted on 05/24/2010 11:49:38 PM PDT by screaminsunshine
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What Good Can a Handgun Do Against an Army.....?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/backroom/2312894/posts


14 posted on 05/25/2010 12:03:11 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Don't care if he was born in a manger on July 4th! A "Natural Born" citizen requires two US parents!)
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To: Rummyfan

Friedman got his wisdom and money the old fashioned way.


15 posted on 05/25/2010 12:12:48 AM PDT by Thebaddog (Shakey Jake said, " The hippies will never survive!")
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To: Rummyfan

These people are not anywhere near priviledged. They are lunatics.


16 posted on 05/25/2010 1:29:10 AM PDT by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: Rummyfan
He's done such a good job with the BP oil spill just imagine what he could do for the country./sarc
17 posted on 05/25/2010 2:19:05 AM PDT by Bellflower (If you are left DO NOT take the mark of the beast and be damned forever.)
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To: Rummyfan

One of the troubles of “limited dictatorships” (there are many troubles) is that they always become unlimited dictatorships. Hitler, Chavez and Mussolini are just a few examples of men who stared off with limited constitutional power but systematically expanded power (by hook and crook) to become absolute masters of their countries.


18 posted on 05/25/2010 3:28:51 AM PDT by bobjam
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To: Rummyfan

A man named Tolkien wrote a really awesome trilogy about this, which was made into three really good movies. The left wants to use the One Ring for “good.”


19 posted on 05/25/2010 3:34:39 AM PDT by cdcdawg
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To: ptgustan
There must be some facet of self-loathing in the analysis.

Many of the elites have no problem with the restriction of freedom, they expect their status as elites to protect them from the application of the restrictions. This protection will make their status as elites even more valuable. They will discover their error too late.
20 posted on 05/25/2010 3:56:00 AM PDT by Cheburashka (Stephen Decatur: you want barrels of gunpowder as tribute, you must expect cannonballs with it.)
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