Hot for Strict Father morality?

Yesterday, the New York Times opinion page ran a bizarre op-ed in which Amy Chozick, a former NYT reporter, made a stunningly forthright argument for authoritarian leadership. Her essay used tortured logic to promote strongman leadership as an answer to natural disasters.

Chozick, a Los Angeles resident whose house remains standing, wrote that the city's unprecedented fire disaster makes her pine for the authority of a man with a "dollop of despotism." She said the tragedy lacks a clear "protagonist," which she defines as a strong male hero who can swoop in and magically save the day.

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Since Chozick covered politics for the New York Times, I assume she wrote exactly what she meant to say. When you isolate the basic arguments, it's hard not to see her piece as an endorsement of authoritarian rule, since the entire world is currently beset by crises. In her piece, she takes the role of a helpless child hoping to be rescued by a strict father with all the answers and little regard for niceties.

"I am not calling for a bully, but successful leaders through epic disasters have a dollop of despot," she writes.

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