In my previous post, China Would Be Crazy To Accede To U.S. Demands, I conjectured that perhaps China won’t do what we tell them to do because they remember what happened to the rest of Asia when those countries followed U.S. advice in 1997.

It seems like the American voters are swinging wildly from right wing to left wing and back again on a two year schedule.  With such short memories about what happened just a few years ago, there is no way this country could stick to a long term plan.

I can just imagine what the people in the Chinese government are thinking when we tell them that they should run their country more democratically and give their dissenters more freedom.  Beside thinking, “Are you nuts?” they must think that if our form of government is an example of what happens with democracy, there is no wonder they want no part of it.  They might even think that the U.S. is a fine one to be lecturing, when the U.S. are the ones that ought to be listening to a lecture.

I do not want to be an apologist for tyrannical forms of government nor for forms that do not recognize the rights of the governed.  I wish our country could be an example of a democracy where good decisions are made and where the voters could stick to the thinking behind a long term plan long enough to see if it is working.

It is one thing to make adjustments as we go along.  I think that is a wonderful idea.  It is quite another thing to go from one extreme to its polar opposite every two years.

Can any of my readers suggest some examples of current democracies that have not lost their way?  Do any of those examples have a radical free-market economy?  What is it about those countries that enables them to have a long term plan?