Yes, the NY Times is worried the GOP won't rescue Obama from his own party !
Naturally, the Chinese dictatorship offers more enlightened thinking. If only we would learn to embrace higher Energy prices ! And of course nobody at the Times spent any time over the last 8 years fretting that "the [Democratic] Party is standing, arms folded and saying 'no.' Many of them just want President [Bush] to fail. Such a waste."
Our One-Party Democracy
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: September 8, 2009
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.
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.
“China is going to eat our lunch and take our jobs on clean energy — an industry that we largely invented — and they are going to do it with a managed economy we don’t have and don’t want,” said Joe Romm, who writes the blog, climateprogress.org.
The only way for us to match them is by legislating a rising carbon price along with efficiency and renewable standards that will stimulate massive private investment in clean-tech. Hard to do with a one-party democracy.
The entire, ummm, recommendation :
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/opinion/09friedman.html
Naturally, the Chinese dictatorship offers more enlightened thinking. If only we would learn to embrace higher Energy prices ! And of course nobody at the Times spent any time over the last 8 years fretting that "the [Democratic] Party is standing, arms folded and saying 'no.' Many of them just want President [Bush] to fail. Such a waste."
Our One-Party Democracy
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: September 8, 2009
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.
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.
“China is going to eat our lunch and take our jobs on clean energy — an industry that we largely invented — and they are going to do it with a managed economy we don’t have and don’t want,” said Joe Romm, who writes the blog, climateprogress.org.
The only way for us to match them is by legislating a rising carbon price along with efficiency and renewable standards that will stimulate massive private investment in clean-tech. Hard to do with a one-party democracy.
The entire, ummm, recommendation :
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/opinion/09friedman.html