The New Authoritarianism

http://www.city-journal.org/2012/eon0106fsjk.html

The totalitarian impulse has from the beginning been part and parcel of Left thinking, embodied from the start in those 19th-century utopian experiments that tried to create viable socialist communities and in the Marxist dream of establishing a "Dictatorship of the Proletariat."  The former all failed, and the latter failed catastrophically.  The Left thinks all of that must have been due to bad luck.

The U.S. Constitution, in contrast, was based on a far deeper understanding of human nature, and with the dangers of demands about "getting things done," clearly and specifically in mind.  Thus the system of separated and countervailing powers.  The currently popular idea that the problem with Government is that it can't "get things done" and therefore doesn't DO enough is laughable on its face and extremely dangerous.

I'll take all the gridlock I can get and be thankful for it.  Despite the best efforts of the Left, we are still a competent and energetic citizenry; what truly needs to get done will get done.  

Byron