I wouldn’t call Buchanan an asshat. He has done America’s political and intellectual debate a tremendous service in the last 10 years by keeping an open mind about history and – for a former Cold War conservative – being free of blinders.
He noted in an earlier column that America and most of Europe have about 20% of the population that think their system is working well, and leaders are taking things in the right direction. In Russia, the tremendously popular Putin is credited with Russia’s turnaround from corrupt crony capitalism and achieving order in Russia. His approval numbers and Medveded’s are in the 70% range, with 54% saying Russia is moving in the right direction. Brazil is slightly higher as it’s GNP rapidly grows, and China leads with 86% of it’s people stating they are quite satisfied with the leadership and direction of China.
Buchanan notes that while authoritarian capitalism has seeds of destruction, it works like nothing else can in getting an economic miracle. We saw the Meiji Restoration, the periods of American boom when all decisions on the economy were basically in the hands of 500 bankers and later railroad, coal, steel, and oil barons. China has had the greatest rise of all – averaging 11.9% industrial growth, 13% GNP growth PER YEAR for the last 16 years.
But Buchanan notes that Nazi Germany was no slouch:
In his 1937 “Great Contemporaries,” Winston Churchill wrote, “Whatever else may be thought about (Hitler’s) exploits, they are among the most remarkable in the whole history of the world.”
Churchill was referring not only to Hitler’s political triumphs — the return of the Saar and reoccupation of the Rhineland — but his economic achievements. By his fourth year in power, Hitler had pulled Germany out of the Depression, cut unemployment from 6 million to 1 million, grown the GNP 37 percent and increased auto production from 45,000 vehicles a year to 250,000. City and provincial deficits had vanished.
In material terms, Nazi Germany was a startling success.
And Hitler was given 85-90% approval in his democratic plebiscites, in what outside observors said were fair elections.
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Now with Russia, Buchanan says we did everything possible to antagonize Russia after starting off far more intelligently with the Bush I and Clinton grace period, where America took pains to avoid humiliating Russia, rubbing their noses in it. From 1989 to 1994, to avoid taking advantage of their weakness to push our ideologies, taking resources from them, and aggrandize our power at their expense. That changed when the Congress changed hands and the bear-baiting started.
This is the exact opposite of what we did with defeated Germany and Japan after WWII – where we wanted their strength and dignity restored and avoided a pattern of post-war humiliations – and more like the ruinous Reconstruction after the Civil War and the punitive Versailles Agreement that ensured militant grievances and revanchism – and also ensured WWII would happen.
Blowback from Bear-Baiting – Link:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=28053
Which has these central points: (1)But is not Russian anger understandable? For years the West has rubbed Russia’s nose in her Cold War defeat and treated her like Weimar Germany. (2) Rampant Western hypocrisy on self-determination (3) Americans have many fine qualities. A capacity to see ourselves as others see us is not high among them.
