Always Be Closing

When you're selling one product or idea, everything becomes a means to selling that one idea.

You need to always be closing.

For example, now that David Brooks is off doing who-the-fuck knows for a living (getting his Acela Corridor Youth Minister certification?) there is space in the pundit noosphere for the next market-leader in Both Siderism.

A space which the boys and girls at The Bulwark have rushed to fill.  

And very much like peak David Brooks when he was the undisputed Pope of the High and Holy Church of Both Sides Do It,  to maintain that kind of market leadership The Bulwark has to find a place in virtually everything they do -- every podcast, every article, every appearance in the media -- to plant what we Brooksologists came to call the "razor in the apple".  The moment when, regardless of what the putative topic was supposed to be, the podcast/column/teevee appearance veers abruptly off into blaming The Extremes on Both Sides for whatever-the-fuck.

And that's how you could always tell what Brooks' real shuck was, because decade after decade, the razor was always there.  So utterly predictable that reading any given column got to be beside almost the point.  Because the content of any given column was as irrelevant to the purpose it served as the shape and color of a pack of cigarettes.  All cigarettes, whatever their packaging looks like, are a delivery system for nicotine.  And David Brooks columns, regardless of the topic, were just a delivery system for another iteration of the same comforting lie.

And now that The Bulwark has gone all-in n Both Siderism as their best shot at long term success and political influence, you can find that "razor" in almost everything they do.

For example, yesterday John Avlon showed up as a guest on The Bulwark to promote his book.  And the subject matter was genuinely interesting.  Here's the blurb:

In the last six years of his life, Abraham Lincoln sketched out a vision to win the peace after winning the war, principles that inspired future generations. CNN’s John Avlon joins Charlie Sykes to share the story of Lincoln, the peacemaker.

Cool.  

And were going along and going along and Avlon is talking about the lessons Woodrow Wilson failed to learn from Lincoln about how to win the peace, but that Harry Truman did learn, and it's all fine.

And then, at around the 40 minute mark:

Avlon: ...and the presence of the Second Founding generation led by Lincoln but also Frederick Douglass and Grant and so many others I think provides a really powerful touchstone for us.  Um... uh... y'know the... the... the interplay between the Far Left and the Far Right only drives us more further apart deeper into mutual distrust...

And now I'm done.

Always be closing.

Always be closing.

Always be closing.

Burn The Lifeboats