Thomas L. Friedman Wants Us "to be China for a day," to "authorize the right solutions"

Reason Magazine
Matt Welch | May 24, 2010

If we know anything about America's worst successful columnist, it's that he won't rest until he's flogged a terrible idea again and again and again. The latest, care of Jonah Goldberg, was Friedman's authoritarian envy on Meet the Press over the weekend:

Well, David, it's been decimated. It's been decimated by everything from the gerrymandering of political districts to cable television to an Internet where I can create a digital lynch mob against you from the left or right if I don't like where you're going, to the fact that money and politics is so out of control—really our Congress is a forum for legalized bribery. You know, that's really what, what it's come down to. So I don't—I, I—I'm worried about this, it's why 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.

If we're going to be China, I wonder which politically restive province Friedman would support removing Internet access privileges for 10 months?...

Read the rest of the article at  Reason Magazine.

My take- Friedman thinks that the best way to compete with China is to be like China. Friedman is lost and confused. He has yet to understand what is really going on in the world, or if he does understand, he is choosing to ignore the reality of our situation, or possibly, he is working for the other side.

The same can be said of Barry.

Who is Friedman's "we"?  What are their "solutions"?

What Friedman (and the like) does not understand is that he and his people don't have all the right answers.  The people have the answers for each of their own individual situations.  What the people need is proper representation in the federal government.  We need limits on the federal government as outlined in our constitution.  We need these limits to keep Friedman's "we" from authorizing the wrong solutions- like TARP, like Government Directed Health Care and wasted "Stimulus".