Picture a first-class leftist self-promoter: riding an incoherent wave of anti-establishment fever to the highest seat in the land through sheer chutzpah and “newness”; easily exposed as a Marxist-influenced, neo-Maoist rabble-rouser, but somehow able to persuade the general populace that he is a pragmatic uniter; sweeping the media and the academics off their feet with his wordy arrogance, his smug, savior-like pronouncements, and the charismatic attraction of the seeming “man of destiny.” I know what you’re picturing.  Now imagine this man actually being almost as smart as his enthralled supporters think he is.  No puppet of the ruling elite, or spiritually disfigured product of a series of exploitive “mentors,” he actually knows who and what he is, frames his own agenda, and thrusts himself upon his nation and the world with the flair and insouciance of a debonair hero.  He was a progressive authoritarian’s dream...(Read Full Article)