QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED: Shot: Trump? How Could We?

—Thomas Friedman, the New York Times, Tuesday.

Chaser:

One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century. It is not an accident that China is committed to overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power. China’s leaders understand that in a world of exploding populations and rising emerging-market middle classes, demand for clean power and energy efficiency is going to soar. Beijing wants to make sure that it owns that industry and is ordering the policies to do that, including boosting gasoline prices, from the top down.

—Thomas Friedman, “Our One-Party Democracy,” the New York Times, Tuesday September 8th, 2009.

Exit question, from Charles C.W. Cooke of National Review from back in March: “Herewith, an under-asked question for our friends on the progressive left: ‘Has Donald Trump’s remarkable rise done anything to change your mind as to the ideal strength of the State?’”