On Sunday, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that America’s democracy was coming up short when compared with countries like China and Singapore. He wrote:
Over the years, I’ve seen an America that was respected, hated, feared and loved. But traveling around China and Singapore last week, I was confronted repeatedly with an attitude toward America that I’ve never heard before: “What’s up with you guys?”
It gets worse for the United States: according to Friedman, Americans should be ashamed of discussing democracy before citizens of Communist China:
Worse, whenever you’d visit China or Singapore, it was always the people there who used to be on the defensive when discussing democracy. Now, as an American, you’re the one who wants to steer away from that subject.
What, exactly, is so flawed about American democracy? According to Friedman, the big problem is that our process doesn’t reach his desired outcomes: a bigger state with more spending, as well as restrictive gun control:
It’s not just that we can no longer pull together to put a man on the moon. It’s that we can’t even implement proven common-sense solutions that others have long mastered — some form of national health care, gun control, road pricing, a gasoline tax to escape our budget and carbon bind.
No wonder Friedman doesn’t like American democracy. He’s not fond of the American people.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013). He is also Editor-in-Chief of TruthRevolt.org. Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.
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