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Politics

The Extremism of the Center

The New Republic unleashes its authoritarian id.

Jesse Walker | 10.1.2013 4:58 PM

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The New Republic is reacting calmly to the shutdown, I see:

What is a president in a presidential constitutional republic to do when faced with an intransigent, bull-headed faction among his people's representatives?

Well, Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first democratically elected president, was once faced with a similar situation exactly 20 years ago, in October 1993….Yeltsin held a national referendum, a sort of national vote of confidence, which he won, and used it as a justification for what he did next.

Almost exactly 20 years ago, he dissolved parliament.

Here's how TNR promoted its piece on Twitter:

Oh, how coy.
Twitter

I suppose this is the next step after Thomas Friedman's if-only-we-were-China fantasies.

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NEXT: Mars Rover to Keep Operating During Government Shutdown, Run by Contractor

Books Editor Jesse Walker is the author of Rebels on the Air and The United States of Paranoia.

PoliticsCivil LibertiesWorldGovernment ShutdownRussiaAuthoritarianism
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