A few weeks ago, Georgia's Republican nominee for U.S. Senate David Perdue appeared before his state's Chamber of Commerce to tout what he described as his views on the fundamental "precepts of economic development." As Amanda Terkel writes, it was nearly identical to a message Perdue delivered in 2007 to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—except in 2007 he credited Lee Kuan Yew, the former prime minister of Singapore, with the ideas.
Back then, Perdue sung Yew's praises but now he makes no mention of Singapore or Yew. Why the switch? Well, perhaps it's because back then, Perdue was doing businesses with Singapore ... and because now he'd have to defend Yew's authoritarian control over Singapore's economy and society. As Terkel says:
In 2000, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof said "many in the West" found his "authoritarian policies ... harder to stomach." National Geographic has called Lee's model "a unique mix of economic empowerment and tightly controlled personal liberties."Lee aggressively cracked down on Communist sympathizers, stifled dissent and became famous for harsh policies such as a "ban on chewing gum and the caning of people for spray-painting cars." In 1997, the late conservative columnist William Safire wrote in The New York Times that Lee had overseen an "ultra-orderly economy and anti-democratic politics."
So you can see why Perdue might not want to tout the fact that his Yew is the inspiration for his economic ideas. But based on the substance of his Chamber of Commerce speeches, that appears to be exactly what happened.
my first question is can we prosecute republicans for plagiarizing themselves and trying to sell it as a new idea? we all know there are no new ideas everything there it would seem adheres to the Biblical verse that "there is nothing new under the sun"probably the only verse they practice but don't know it. if they ever do come up with something new no really new their heads will all implode simultaneously, swoosh!
