Earlier this week, U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren (D-Hardhat) released this TV commercial, which is getting heavy rotation of the local Olympics broadcast:
At the time, the spot received glancing mention in the Boston Globe, while Garrett Quinn gave it a whack on boston.com:
In Elizabeth Warren’s new ad she trots out Tom Friedman’s favorite thing in the whole wide world: Chinese spending on infrastructure. Warren claims that we just don’t spend enough on infrastructure anymore and somehow that makes us inferior to them. The gushing over China by the likes of Warren and America’s just-do-something authoritarian of record, Friedman, is upsetting because it generally ignores the means of how they do things. People who love China tend to complain about the sausage making in our democratic system but they rarely criticize the bulldozing in the Chinese system.
Now along comes the Boston Herald editorial page, a little late to the party, but in high dudgeon to make up for it:
Warren’s China envy
Memo to Elizabeth Warren: How did China — one of the world’s most repressive regimes — get to be your role model? Explain.
The Democratic Senate candidate is airing a new TV ad in which she says, “We’ve got bridges and roads in need of repair and thousands of people in need of work. Why aren’t we rebuilding America? Our competitors are putting people to work, building a future. China invests 9 percent of its GDP in infrastructure. America? We’re at just 2.4 percent. We can do better.”
Well, of course, we could, but see here there’s this little thing called the rule of law, and the Constitution and all that other messy stuff that makes this nation the kind of place most of us would rather live in than China — potholes and all.
The editorial ends this way: “Warren’s ad also coincides with a new report that shows the federal deficit is higher today than at any time since the end of World War II and that for every second of 2011 the federal government spent $41,210 it didn’t have. Warren’s China envy notwithstanding, isn’t that enough?”
Rule of thumb: Never say we should emulate China, unless you’re talking about men’s gymnastics.
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[…] The Boston Herald finally notices that Elizabeth Warren’s new TV spot says we should be more like China. Details at IGTLTDT. […]
Warren asks why we don’t spend as much on infrastructure as China does. Back in the “missile race” era, I didn’t hear politicians who wanted a military buildup in response described as “wanting us to be more like the Soviet Union”. So closing a missile gap is Good, but closing an infrastructure gap is Bad?
I’m beginning to think Krugman has a point – we need a fake alien invasion.
Yep, and China is increasing it’s defense spending–time to do the opposite.