Ms Parker appearing yet again in the Spokesman-Review opinion page. Was she amazed? Gushing? Was she appalled? Fearful? It was an editorial about the Olympic celebrations held in Beijing. The 2,008 drummers who beat in perfect timing... Yeah, when you are a communist dictatorship, you can make that kind of demand. Just as you can make a demand that a pretty little stand-in mime to a song sang by someone who is outright ugly. We want to impress our guests with our discipline and power. Quite frankly, it might be "awe inspiring" but I sure wouldn't act like I can't particularly find the appropriate words to express about the limits of communism in China today. IE, their lack of honesty. IE, their unwillingness to recognize that everyone is an individual. And yes, given the Olympic ceremonies, what little I saw indirectly, I am more inclined to regard the Chinese with their precision drummers as rather akin to goose stepping Nazis. On the other hand...I have to wonder if after 8 years of GW, if Parker was primed to gush at those 2,008 drummers and consider the limits of a "messy democracy." You know, we can't possibly have 2,008 disciplined drummers because of dissent and etc. Why not? You give anyone an incentive in a democracy to show up a dictatorship that they don't like, and they'll do it in spades. I'd consider what China has done to guarantee a lack of dissent before making the argument what a lack of dissent and discipline has created in those 2,008 drummers beating their drums in perfect time. If you don't, do you go to jail for failure? She could have written her editorial that way. Instead, I heard every essence of liberalism on display with a country that we may have a "capitalistic" truce with, but is in no way, our friend.
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I think I understand Kathleen Parker pretty well - she's a misogynist who thinks that pushing the status quo makes her a rebel. Conservatives, with their cute terms like "reverse racism" have convinced themselves that the status quo is actually endangered, despite most of the wealth and power in the world being controlled by old white dudes.
What I don't understand about Ms. Parker is very simple. Communism as a global threat had been "extinct" for about 20 years. And what has survived has generally evolved and become decidedly different from where it had been at its peak. None the less, for Kathleen Parker to be "impressed" with Communist style discipline and actually argue that democracies couldn't begin to compete with anything China can produce, that would seem to be an argument in itself that Ms. Parker doesn't much support democracy. Of course, she then does a complete turnaround, when it came to Pastor Warren hosting that "Faith and Values" forum. At that time, and only at that time does she suddenly appreciate what the U.S. Constitution stands for.
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