And Mussolini made the trains run on time . . .
On today's Morning Joe, Adrian Wooldridge, a columnist at The Economist, said that unlike the United States, China passes the "good government" test. Wooldridge made his comment in the context of discussing the way various countries have dealt with the coronavirus pandemic, but offered no qualifier as to his "good government" praise of China.
To the contrary, Wooldridge said that the advantage of good government is moving from the West "to the East. We have to wake up to this fact that government matters, and that we’re falling behind in the race for good government."
Here's the quote:
ADRIAN WOOLDRIDGE: The fundamental distinction is good government. What we’ve learned from this crisis is that government really matters. It’s not enough to dismiss government as something that’s irrelevant, and say is that all that matters is the strength of the productive private economy. Government is the difference between living and dying for many people.
America has failed the good government test. Britain has failed the good government test. Some western countries have succeeded. New Zealand, obviously, Germany has done really quite well.
Responding, Joe Scarborough blandly noted that some of the countries [China and Vietnam] Wooldridge praised for "good government" are "totalitarian or autocratic." But Scarborough offered no criticism of Wooldridge's "good government" label for those communist dictatorships, where human rights are essentially non-existent.
Wooldridge's praise of China is reminiscent of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's China-envy, and his power lust fantasy of being "China for a day" in order to impose his policy whims.
The liberal media love to accuse President Trump of admiring dictators, but here we see that it is fact the liberals who praise and envy countries like China for their dictatorial powers.
Note: Along with co-author John Micklethwait, Wooldridge appeared on Morning Joe to promote their new book, "The Wake Up Call: Why the Pandemic Has Exposed the Weakness of the West."
Economist columnist Wooldridge's praise of communist dictatorships like China and Vietnam on Morning Joe was sponsored in part by Liberty Mutual, Discover, and Chevrolet.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read more.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
9/15/20
7:57 am EDWILLIE GEIST: So Adrian, where does it begin for you, as you look at the differences in the countries that have fared better than, say, the United States during this. What’s the distinction for you?
ADRIAN WOOLDRIDGE: The fundamental distinction is good government. What we’ve learned from this crisis is that government really matters. It’s not enough to dismiss government as something that’s irrelevant, and say is that all that matters is the strength of the productive private economy. Government is the difference between living and dying for many people.
America has failed the good government test. Britain has failed the good government test. Some western countries have succeeded. New Zealand, obviously, Germany has done really quite well.
But the countries that have passed the good government test overwhelmingly are in the East. China is one of them, Singapore another of them. Korea, South Korea, Vietnam, to some extent, and also Taiwan. And what this tells us is that the West — for the last 400 years the West has been ahead of the East when it comes to government. That’s been our success. That’s been our competitive advantage, that we’ve had good government that can secure order, that can sponsor innovation and things like that. Now that advantage is — has gone, is going, is disappearing, it’s moving to the East.
We have to wake up to this fact that government matters, and that we’re falling behind in the race for good government.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: And Adrian, what’s fascinating is, you talk about those Asian countries. Some of those countries were totalitarian, or autocratic, others were free. But across all forms they’re doing better than us.
