The American left’s misguided crush on Lee Jae-myung
Like watching porn in tracksuit pants, America’s left-leaning commentators can’t hide their fondness for Lee Jae-myung.
It was inevitable. Like watching porn in tracksuit pants, America’s left-leaning commentators can’t hide their fondness for Lee Jae-myung. A plucky human rights lawyer who survived child labor in a factory; a human rights lawyer; and someone who stared down authoritarianism at the barricades. It’s classic Western leftist fetishism—a script-ready narrative for a Michael Moore documentary. Unfortunately, this sentimental packaging misunderstands both Lee and Korea.
Wait. Remember just a few years ago? America’s right-leaning commentators couldn’t hide their fondness for Yoon Suk-yeol. To them, he was a brave, hawkish prosecutor who would strengthen rule-of-law, strengthen the alliance, and stand up for democracy (hehehehe). And so enamored were they that it took considerable time for them to mention, let alone condemn, Yoon’s attempt to seize power in South Korea’s authoritarian two-step December debacle! The sentimental packaging led Americans to misunderstand both Yoon and Korea (read …