Earth to Thomas Sowell: Francisco Franco Is Still Dead

Thomas Sowell, fascist, writes in National Review:

Thomas Sowell on National Review Online: When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can’t help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup.

That is the entire thought. There is no further explanation.

Comments

[John Emerson]

He forgot to mention the American people, but he's gotta hate them too.

[Kate G.]

"General Franco is still dead."

You know, you can go back to the classics again and again and they are always relevant, always fresh, always timely.

Kate G.

[Anderson]

I mean, it's like he looked up "fascist" in the dictionary so he could write something to fit that description.

The military *isn't* degenerate ... why? Not enough gays? short haircuts? what?

[Tapen Sinha]

The penultimate paragraph is telling:

"In his book Income and Wealth, economist Alan Reynolds says that people often form 'strong opinions' based on 'weak statistics.'"

And Sowell says that without ANY sense of irony.

Tapen

[NJ Lawyer]

Talk about identification with the aggressor.

[jeff hoffman]

From a middle paragraph:"The home run records that made Babe Ruth famous have been broken but one of his records will probably never be broken — pitching the longest shutout in World Series history, 14 innings. Few pitchers go even nine innings these days." That is one sad commentary. I miss the Babe.

[Anderson]

Will no one at The Corner call him out, like they did D'Souza?

[Buzz Anderson]

Since it's safe to assume he's contemplating the benefits of a RIGHT wing military coup, has it ever occurred to him that the long-term effects of such an action would be the thorough discrediting of his side of the political spectrum among a solid chunk of Americans for an entire generation or more?

Does Sowell really think that even a significant minority of Americans would cotton to waking up one morning to seeing some guy in uniform on all the TeeVee channels, telling them that -- yeah, nobody voted for him, sure; but since he has all the guns, we gotta do what he says anyway ... ?

[RKKA]

Oh please, this is just the Right getting back to their roots. You know, the Right who thought Hitler was sincere and look how he's sorted out those German Socialists and after all someone needs to be our "...bulwark against Bolshevism".

Nothing to be suprised at, at all.

[dcbob]

I can't believe I used to take that guy seriously, even if I was in college at the time. If our politicians, media, educators, and intelligentsia are all degenerates, what makes him think the time-servers who run the Pentagon would be any better? What a moron.

[Ralph]

The really damaging thing about this thought of Thomas Sowell, an associate of the late Milton Friedman at the Hoover Institution, is that given his own extreme right wing views, he must have been elated when George W Bush became president at the turn of the millenia. I would not be surprised if he shared almost all of the views of the neo-conservative clique at the time and felt that a new era was dawning for the right in this country.

[MattF]

I agree that the F-word is appropriate here, somewhat to my own surprise... And I think it should be used more often, where appropriate.

[Bruce Webb]

Godwin's Law is outdated. The facts are pretty clear, there really is no paranoid rant about the Bush Administration from the early fevered days on dKos that wouldn't pass today for thoughtful evaluation of the roots of Bushism.

"If this were a dictatorship it would be a whole lot easier, as long as I am the dictator."

Bush wasn't joking in 2002. Because you cannot slice a razor between Unitary Executive and Dictatorship. We were just this close to a coup against democracy led by the top elected official in this country. That this happens to parallel events in Germany in the 1930's may be distressing to think about but doesn't change the underlying reality. And some people were on the case early.

http://www.takebackthemedia.com/bushnonazi.html

[janet]

I'm surprised he doesn't think the military is too liberal to conduct a coup that he'd approve of.

[Walt]

G.S.: Liberals were anti-communist. This was a major source of the left/liberal divide. I know that knowing actual facts about people is beyond your job description, but I thought you might like to know, so that you sound not so very stupid the next time you troll a blog and call people idiots.

[anne]

Let us all think together....

http://www.opinionjournal.com/forms/printThis.html?id=110010014

May 2, 2007

The Case for the Strong Executive: Under some circumstances, the rule of law must yield to the need for energy.
BY HARVEY C. MANSFIELD

Complaints against the "imperial presidency" are back in vogue. With a view to President Bush, the late Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. expanded and reissued the book of the same name he wrote against Richard Nixon, and Bush critics have taken up the phrase in a chorus. In response John Yoo and Richard Posner (and others) have defended the war powers of the president.
This is not the first time that a strong executive has been attacked and defended, and it will not be the last. Our Constitution, as long as it continues, will suffer this debate--I would say, give rise to it, preside over and encourage it. Though I want to defend the strong executive, I mainly intend to step back from that defense to show why the debate between the strong executive and its adversary, the rule of law, is necessary, good and--under the Constitution--never-ending....

[Jon Fernquest]

The whole thing was so disconnected it was almost embarassing to read.

And not liking argument. He teaches at Stanford?

College is when you have time to argue and debate. Isn't it?

And all the stuff he is ranting about has been going on for "generations", when he was still young, i.e. before he entered retirement. Yikes.

If he wants a coup he can come to Bangkok, I got a spare room, but the economy is not doing so well.

[Ereshkigal]

That is not a thought, entire or partial.

That is a gastric disturbance,the consequence of years of improper ingestion, rumination, and disgorgement.

[Ralph]

I might remind Sowell, that Churchill, who he undoubtedly admires as do most conservatives of an earlier generation, said the following: democracy is the worst form of government except for all the rest. Churchill also said: Americans will do the right thing after they have exhausted the alternatives.

[Ponzi Q. Globalization]

"I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected."

-- Winston S. Churchill: departmental minute (Churchill papers: 16/16) 12 May 1919 War Office

Good old Winston. Democracy for the civilized and poison gas for the rest who don't submit to imperial rule.

[Rob]

How long until Sowell is just a guy who works at some place called Standford Junior college and should just be ignored?

[ogmb]

It's almost unfair that Brad takes the quote out of context, for the context reveals the drunken rantings of a regular at the Blue Moon Saloon, undoubtedly delivered with multiple fist poundings on the bar counter.

[Giant Step]

As someone who leans much more heavily to the right than do the vast majority of the commentators here, I thought I'd give ol' Tom a go for old times' sake.

What I found was precisely what "ogmb" described. This column is profoundly incoherent and makes me seriously consider the damaging effects of aging on the human brain.