American culture changes with astonishing speed. Nearly every decade, there are shifts in values, fashions and norms...
Trump emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. It was the tail end of the culture of narcissism, or what Tom Wolfe called...
In the ’80s, especially in Manhattan, there was an unabashed fascination with wealth, self-display, ego...
Trump was the cartoon epitome of all that decade’s extravagances...
Then came the 1990s, the end-of-history decade...
Then came the 2000s and the war on terror...
But then came the 2010s, the age of indignation...
Trump was perfect for this moment. Disdained and scorned by the Manhattan elite, he’d built up a lifetime of anti-establishment resentments that dovetailed with the working class’s pervasive contempt. He began a hostile takeover of the Republican Party and then the federal government.
Hey dummy, when they throw you the keys to the car and beg you to drive, that's not a "hostile takeover". When Trump effortlessly whipped 183 "establishment" Republicans and took your party's nomination at a walk, that's not a hostile takeover. When virtually the entire party took direction from the leader of the party because he was the overwhelming choice of the overwhelming majority of the Republican base, that's not a hostile takeover.
On the other hand, this is perfectly on-brand for David Brooks, who runs a very successful cottage industry telling his wealthy readership that there is some other Republican party out there somewhere and that Donald Trump used some kind of trickery to steal the brand but not the actual party. Which is why, no matter how obvious it is to anyone with open eyes and a functional memory, Brooks has spent decades swearing by God and Emile Durkheim that a Bright Conservative Future was Just Around The Corner...
The Post-Trump Era
As awful as Donald Trump is, it will be exciting to witness the coming re-creation of the Republican Party.
Ordinary humans with only the standard five senses may not be able to
see it, but Brooks can see beyond , as he explained
in a very special, expanded New York Times op-ed.
Where Do Republicans Go From Here?
The party looks brain-dead at every spot Trump touches. But off in the corners, there’s a lot of intellectual ferment.
Of course, sometimes the situation grows so dire that Brooks has to make people up out of whole cloth and shove his words into their imaginary mouths (all from the safety of the Acela Corridor quiet car) to explain why things do not appear to be remotely as he has told her readers they were. Which is why I was completely unsurprised to see this is the headline staring back at me from America's Newspaper of Record today back in 2019:
Why Trump Voters Stick With Him
An imagined conversation with Flyover Man.
By David Brooks
Opinion Columnist
Which was, floor-to-ceiling, nothing but lazy Beltway Dry Heave fiction like this:
Urban Guy: I hope you read the rough transcript of that Trump phone call with the Ukrainian president. Trump clearly used public power to ask a foreign leader to dig up dirt on his political opponent. This is impeachable. I don’t see how you can deny the facts in front of your face.
Flyover Man: I haven’t really had time to look into it. There’s always some fight between Trump and the East Coast media. I guess I just try to stay focused on the big picture.
This was the sober judgement of veteran political journalist, brother Charlie
Pierce:
I’m not linking to it but David Brooks has written the worst piece ever published in the NYT.— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) October 4, 2019
It was a day when Donald Trump had boldly committed treason on live
teevee twice, and yet Brooks' Hot Take on The Trump Voter was so godawful that
it was the top trending item on Twitter. Because when it comes to American politics, Mr. David Brooks of The New York Times does not have the slightest fucking idea what he's talking about and
never has.
That was five years ago. A cherry on top of the mountain of
shitty takes that Brooks had already extruded for the House of
Sulzberger. And yet five years later, Mr. Brooks is still the senior
Conservative columnist for that tattered old rag.
Anyway, that was the first razor in this week's apple.
Can you guess what the second razor might be? Can there be any doubt? That's right! It's a fresh, steaming side-dish of the laziest, most discredited pundit lie of them all --
The key word in that sentence is “hostile.” Hostility was in vogue, on the left and the right...
3 comments:
Can my husband haz a New York Times column NOW? The day will come when that’s the only thing that will save that rag, and DG will say no. That newspaper will not be allowed in decent homes as it will Befoul the Air…..
In all seriousness, when someone as in this case David Brooks holds a position that presents his thoughts his words, his opinions to massive amounts of people regularly and for a length of time..
When they use that voice to shade, to glorify, to naturalize or neutralize the harmful results of those words of opinion attemptto persuade from the factual reality that has lead to bad result after poor outcomes time and again.
It is a cancer on society just as Rush Limbaugh accomplished his bought and paid for propaganda of hate and demeaning of fellow Americans.
Al for the wealthy funders of this wretched brain washing to steal the souls of so many who hadn't the chance to reach that self awareness and critical thinking adults require to function.
It paus well. It provides life in a elite society of comfort for himself as he produces misleading information and disillusionment to others. Then there is the NYTs who owns a large access to Americans and many that look to the paper to report to them information what our founding fathers saw the press as an important source to educate the people to be able to have the best and most information to make the best decisions on our country of the People and by the people and for the people. Not about for the tax cuts for the wealthy who seem to have plenty of excess money to purchase Supreme court justices, to purchase and elect their pet executives to congress to do their bidding. More than enough cash to lobby (bribe) to fund NAZI , KKK and other anti American groups to undermine the American ideal because they have such massive amounts of money and power that it will never be enough.
To simply put it, the board game Monopoly. When you play it, there is one winner with everything and everyone else with nothing.
To get this through to someone like Brooks would be to play the game of scrabble with him. With a special rule that doesn't allow Brooks to draw any letter tile other than the letter "E". How does he engage the game, compete. It would limit his ability to make words with only the letter "E" to construct words with.
I consider how much good can be spread with a platform that reaches so many and not utilize that platform to lift up, to cause reasonable thought, to justify and confirm those who strive to improve not only their own lives but others as well.
It is the difference between two NYTS columnists Brooks and Krugman.
I will read Krugman for he will offer something valuable whereas Brooks clearly does not.
my mother has passed...a liberal woman from a liberal family. she said she like david brooks as he always seemed so 'nice' and uh new york reasonable.
and this is his role, the cooler...to make the horror of having a nation that has plenty, really plenty of plenty, not share.
as galbraith said and we need sadly repeat ad infinitum (or until they are subject to a serious pendulum swing) 'The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.
John Kenneth Galbraith '
it is like e=mc2 or darwin's evolution..a simplification that explains what we know...gop is the grand old party..and that means nothing..but greedy old people works.
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