To Add...

...to the post below: Coincidentally, via Glenn Greenwald, comes the "respectable" Harvey Mansfield writing in the "respectable" Wall Street Journal just today:

Now the rule of law has two defects, each of which suggests the need for one-man rule. The first is that law is always imperfect by being universal, thus an average solution even in the best case, that is inferior to the living intelligence of a wise man on the spot, who can judge particular circumstances. This defect is discussed by Aristotle in the well-known passage in his "Politics" where he considers "whether it is more advantageous to be ruled by the best man or the best laws."

[...]

The case for a strong executive begins from urgent necessity and extends to necessity in the sense of efficacy and even greatness. It is necessary not merely to respond to circumstances but also in a comprehensive way to seek to anticipate and form them. "Necessary to" the survival of a society expands to become "necessary for" the good life there, and indeed we look for signs in the way a government acts in emergencies for what it thinks to be good after the emergency has passed. A free government should show its respect for freedom even when it has to take it away. Yet despite the expansion inherent in necessity, the distinction between urgent crises and quiet times remains. Machiavelli called the latter tempi pacifici, and he thought that governments could not take them for granted. What works for quiet times is not appropriate in stormy times. John Locke and the American Founders showed a similar understanding to Machiavelli's when they argued for and fashioned a strong executive. [Emphasis added.]

There it is. An outright call for dictatorship from "Mr. Mansfield is William R. Kenan Professor of Government at Harvard."

Glenn makes an important point:

...but the extraordinary fact that our nation's dominant political movement is openly advocating that most radical theories of tyranny -- that "liberties are dangerous and law does not apply" -- is barely noticed by our most prestigious and self-loving national journalists. Merely to state those facts is to demonstrate how profoundly dysfunctional our political press is.

While the results from last November's elections provide some hope I can't help but think this is going to turn out badly. A not insignificant number of "respectable" people and institutions are now implicitly touting Mussolini and Hitler as examples to be followed.

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