Democracy Still Matters

In his explanation of why democracy has lost its luster (in his mind and the minds of those who take him seriously) Roger Cohen, perhaps the most clueless columnist ever to write for the NY Times, writes: "Democracies seemed blocked, as in Belgium, or corrupted, as in Israel, or parodies, as in Italy, or paralyzed, as in the Netherlands."

Even though the generally clueless Cohen has been complimentary in regard to Ahmadinejad's Iiran, I was surprised at his unjustified swipe at Israel until he went on to advise us to "read the remarkable Tony Judt" whom he describes as: "a British intellectual transposed to New York whose rigorous spirit of inquiry epitomized Anglo-American liberal civilization".

When a person holds that opinion of Tony Judt - the reformed Marxist who repented his youthful Zionism and undesired Judaism by advocating the destruction of the state of Israel - it is understandable why he might take every opportunity to take gratuitous and irrelevant swipes at Israel. What isn't clear is why the Times publishes him. Is the readership of the Times truly made up of America's intellectually challenged?