The Left is the party of the status quo -- no matter how bad

Deacon, at Power Line, has a nice post regarding a WaPo Op-Ed in which William Rasberry (is that name for real?) writes that Saddam Hussein, whatever his failings may have been, at least ran a "functioning country" (that's Rasberry's encomium for Hussein). Deacon asks how the Left would feel if someone argued that the Reconstruction South, circa 1868, was a good thing, since there was something approximately a functioning government at that time. I don't think one has to go back to the 19th Century to show how ridiculous the views espoused by Rasberry and his ilk are. Any student of 20th Century history will remember that Mussolini was well-regarded by many for bringing a layer of organization to previously chaotic Italy (after all, he made the trains run on time). Even more telling, Hitler was supported by many because he seemed to be the antidote to Germany's rot following WWI. With Hitler organizing people around genocidal anti-Semitism, powering up a war machine, and setting Germany's sights on a thousand year Third Reich, he did a damn good job of setting up a "functioning country. Sometimes, the only way to measure a leader is, not by the infrastructure, but by the mass graves.