In the Times this morning, Roger Cohen eulogizes Lee Kuan Yew, the "Father of Singapore" and a man who has benefited greatly, alongside monarchs throughout the Middle East, from the absurd notion of the "benevolent dictator."

Singapore developed into a Western-friendly hub for financiers looking to access Asia without risk of losing their property or heads to the Chinese government and folks seemingly forgot the harsher aspects of its governance, which first really came to light in America when a 19-year-old citizen of the United States was brutally caned for petty theft.  Hedge funder Jim Rogers even moved his family there, declaring his intention to join rising Asia rather than remain in the declining West.

Cohen, writing with a straight face, from the safety of a constitutional democracy:

Western democracy was not for him. It was too volatile for a nation that had to be forged and then fast-forwarded to prosperity. He was authoritarian, harsh when necessary. Free speech and political opposition were generally suppressed; the only liberalism was of the economic variety. Lee tapped into an Asian and Confucian inclination to place the communal good above individual rights; he also cowed Singaporeans into fear. Overall, it worked. Singapore became a booming commercial and banking center.

Well, then.  Forget the blood in the streets if Singapore's economy had a boom.  This strain of thought exists in American politics as well.  It's the "pragmatic" or "technocratic" impulse that does not value democracy first.  It's what makes a Michael Bloomberg change the New York City laws so he can run for a third term as mayor and then change them back during that third term because three terms is apparently one too many for anyone but him.  This is the impulse behind suggestions that Congress be bypassed on contentious issues like Social Security or the environment, in favor of blue ribbon panels of experts, beholden to no one.

That we celebrate the lives of dictators in American newspapers is deeply troubling.