Nayib Bukele has become something of a darling for American right-wingers, and not without good reason. The youthful, eloquent 42-year-old president of El Salvador has made a name for himself in his stunningly successful war against his nation’s murderous cartels — and in so doing, has turned El Salvador from a country with the highest murder rate in the world to one with a homicide rate that is lower than America’s. Bukele’s success in this regard is, without a doubt, one of the greatest public policy miracles in modern history. His transformation of his nation — achieved through “force, rooted in justice, and backed by moral courage,” as Pat Buchanan famously put it — shows that perhaps, even amid the low ceilings and suffocating demystification of the modern world, great things are still possible.
As Bukele has moved from victory to victory, the Left’s suspicion towards him has grown in equal measure to the Right’s admiration. When Bukele — fresh off a reelection victory that garnered a stunning 84.7 percent of the national vote — delivered a press conference about going after price gougers to lower the cost of food on Friday, the popular liberal writer Paul Graham descended into hysterics: “This looks like a shot from a dystopian movie,” Graham wrote. “The symmetry, the shininess, the flags that look like cones, the guards with capes. Everything says dictator.” (READ MORE: The Curtains Are Drawn on Biden and Europe’s Rulers)
This looks like a shot from a dystopian movie. The symmetry, the shininess, the flags that look like cones, the guards with capes. Everything says dictator. pic.twitter.com/xAzYeulEat
— Paul Graham (@paulg) July 7, 2024
Bukele has, in fairness to Graham, gleefully cultivated a monarchical aesthetic, jokingly referring to himself, for a time, as “the world’s coolest dictator” on X. (His bio on the website now reads simply: “Philosopher King”). Part of this is undoubtedly intended to provoke the Western liberal media, and part of it is likely to court the support of Western conservatives (but I repeat myself). More fundamentally, however, it is very much in keeping with Bukele’s vision of national renewal — not a vision in which he is crowned dictator-for-life in a military junta, or where he imprisons and executes his political opposition, but where his country reaches for something beyond the soulless, empty proceduralism of liberal democracy alone. The ancient idea that a ruler is both a reflection and an embodiment of the spirit of his people is viewed with antipathy by today’s liberals, but one need not be a jackbooted fascist to believe that a nation that seeks to do great things must see greatness emanating from its leaders.
Bukele has sought to do just that. In tandem with his war on the cartels, he has created a Social Fabric Revitalization Unit and has built schools, sports centers, and various other civic initiatives. He has sought, too, to beautify and enrich El Salvador’s public spaces, perhaps most notably with the construction of a gigantic new national library in the historic section of San Salvador. “Volunteers are there to work with children and there are special sections for those with special needs and disabilities,” the pseudonymous author Benjamin Braddock wrote in IM-1776 after visiting. “The books themselves are well-curated. The great books of the western tradition are all there. It is a palace of learning and culture, open and accessible to all. Catty-corner from the library there is a new public plaza under construction which will feature a carousel and street cafes. On the plywood walls encasing the construction site is the motto of the Ministry of Public Works, ‘There is enough money when no one steals,’ which references the new target of President Bukele’s war on crime: corruption.” On the broader atmosphere in El Salvador, Braddock reported:
From the United States and over the internet, it seemed as if the atmosphere in El Salvador was authoritarian and tense. I had to experience it for myself. I flew down for a week in March 2023, but instead of the neofascist police state I had been told by the media to expect, there was instead an air of peace and freedom. I could wander around the poor neighborhoods of San Salvador on foot and drive along remote rural roads at night with no threat of danger. It was not just how I was received (I am fully aware that gringoes in Latin America are often treated differently than the locals) — I observed and talked to many of the locals. They were able to go out in the plazas and to the soccer fields and enjoy themselves for the first time in decades. For some, it was the first time in their life that they had experienced such peace. There was a noticeable police presence in the poorer areas of San Salvador, but they were not rough with the locals as I had witnessed previously in Colombia and Brazil. They were well professionalized. I returned home impressed…. I traveled to El Salvador again in August, and then again in November. Though mere months had passed between trips, there were clear improvements upon each visit. New public works and parks. New shops and restaurants. And a renewed sense of pride and joyfulness among the people.
The shrill, feverish response to all this from the Left is telling. Graham’s remark that the “symmetry” of Bukele’s press conference, in particular, lets on more than the author intended. The liberal conception of freedom is married to degradation and squalor. Order, beauty, cleanliness, symmetry — these things, in the fever dream of liberalism, are harbingers of fascism. A leader who wants all this and more — who seeks to write his nation’s name in the annals of history — is committing an unforgivable offense, in the liberal political imagination. This is why liberalism has no business near the levers of power in any nation that seeks to be great.
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