King For a Day

Tom Friedman wants the U.S. to be "like China", but just for a day. If only we were like China, he thinks, we could dispense with that messy democracy stuff and just make it so. For some reason, Jonah Goldberg doesn't like this idea. I don't know why. Friedman's idea has much merit. For example, if we'd used it during the Reagan administration, "China Day" could have been used to eliminate the Department of Education (among other things); during the (second) Bush administration, it could have been used to (partially) privatize Social Security, or maybe to overturn Roe v. Wade.

I'm sure Friedman would be completely on board and supportive of that sort of thing, since his only concern is that our messy political system produces "suboptimal" solutions, and the whim of the philosopher-king, ahem, I mean President, would be far better.