Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Jon Chait: Dumb or Boorish?

We know that we don't take liberals to task as often as conservatives, so we offer the following sop: Jon Chait's is-he-stupid-or-just-not-funny essay on the 22d Amendment in The New Republic (quoting from Matt Yglesias because of TNR's firewall):
If we had a straight dictatorship, Bush would long ago have been dragged out of the White House either by an angry mob or by disgruntled generals. (Note to oversensitive conservatives: I'm strongly against both dictatorships and assassinating Bush or any other president.) If we could vote for whoever we want, regardless of prior service, Bush would probably be dumped unceremoniously in 2008. Only our kooky current system lets him retire undefeated.
Is Jon Chait illiterate or just failing at being funny?

Can he think of ANY 20th Century dictators who were ousted after a mere 7 years? Pol Pot, maybe, if you only count his tenure as Prime Minister - but he really got the ball rolling in 1969. So that's ten years. Ceausescu lasted for over twenty, Pinochet for about twenty-five and Stalin for more than thirty. And these were dictators who killed their own citizens. As terrible a President as Bush has been, he's not a democidist.

Is his hatred of Bush so irrational that he can't be satisfied with the man's departing from office after 8 years, and would abolish the 22d Amendment - thus ending the American Republic - just to give him a punch on the nose?

Is this what passes for thought at The New Republic?

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