Expanding on a Jonah Goldberg column in which he ponders New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman’s fawning admiration of Communist China:

According to New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman in his mega-selling book “Hot, Flat, and Crowded,” China banned plastic bags a few years ago. “Bam! Just like that — 1.3 billion people, theoretically, will stop using thin plastic bags,” he gushed. “Millions of barrels of petroleum will be saved, and mountains of garbage avoided.”

China’s got us beat, suggests Friedman, because its leaders aren’t hung up on democracy or checks and balances or any of the other dusty old impediments found in the American system. Friedman has proclaimed his envy for China ’s authoritarian system countless times. It’s why he titled one of the chapters in his book ” China for a Day.” The idea — he calls it his fantasy — is that if we could just be China for a day, the experts could impose by diktat what they cannot win through democratic debate.

Other examples can easily be found of liberals defending totalitarianism and wishing for dictatorship.

Stephen Holden, a New York Times movie critic, describes Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez as a “good-hearted man of the people.” Actor Sean Penn even suggested prison time for journalists who dare call Hugo Chavez a dictator.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell said Fidel Castro was “a source of inspiration to the world.” Actor and Comedian Chevy Chase said he believes “socialism works” and explained that “Cuba might prove that.” Kevin Costner described his trip to Cuba as “an experience of a lifetime to sit only a few feet away from him [Castro].” ABC’s Diane Sawyer hails the “dashing” Fidel Castro as having “stood for something.” Jack Nichols said after meeting with Castro, “He is a genius. We spoke about everything.” Castro “has brought a greater equality in terms of wealth distribution than I guess any country in the world today.” Film director Steven Spielberg met with Castro and said it “was the eight most important hours of my life.”

Time’s columnist Joel Stein ‘joked’ for an American dictatorship. He began “Dictator of My Dreams” by praising New York mayor Michael Bloomberg for banning smoking in bars. He then wondered if it was time for an Obama dictatorship.

Regarding the Gulf oil spill, MSNBC’s Ed Shultz asked, “When does the President become a dictator on this?”

Actor and director Woody Allen assures us, “It would be good…if (Obama) could be dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly.”

From major media outlets giving predominantly positive coverage to dictatorial regimes, to Oliver Stone, to the founder of CNN, to Michael Moore, Danny Glover, FCC ‘diversity’ czar Mark Lloyd, Anita Dunn, and many others in the Obama administration all seem to suffer from the same affliction.

But there is common thread that runs through all these people - they’re rich and very liberal. What is it about wealth or the combination of wealth and liberalism that makes one prone to admiring dictatorships? Is it the power they see for themselves, since their wealth obviously affords them a certain degree of influence not possessed by ordinary people? Or does the fantasy of unlimited powers stem from some kind of dark ambition that resides in the morally weak? The psychology of those who praise totalitarian regimes would make an interesting study.

Such arguments [that "experts" can get "things done"] are as old as they are dangerous. And they are arrogant beyond description. People like Friedman automatically assume that their preferred policies are so obviously right, so objectively enlightened, that there’s no need to debate them or vote on them.

And this same mindset is not only found in progressives but also in history’s most murderous tyrants.