During her Friday visit to Moscow and after meeting with Vladimir Putin, a critical Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated, “In any country, if you don’t have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development.” Rice went on to criticize Putin for usurping so much power from Russia’s judiciary, legislature and media.
Her concern is well placed but many of us wish that she would shout the same warning in the White House. Now that our Rasputin has vacated the premises, our president could be instructed on the parallels between his amassed power and the activities of his “soul mate” in Moscow.
Or perhaps she doesn’t recognize the irony of her statement.
Maybe Republicans’ failure to grasp irony goes to that research showing that flexibility is an unknown attribute in the brain of a conservative. I used to assess early kindergarten admissions by a test of the child’s ability to engage in reciprocal reasoning. If a boy had a brother, he would be asked, “Does your brother have a brother?” To the chagrin of many doting parents who knew that they had a genius on their hands, most would say “no.” Usually the parents would interrupt the child to correct the answer. Jean Piaget’s research on brain development indicated that this quality of “reciprocity” didn’t develop until about age 6. Maybe it never develops for some.
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