Brooking Reality and History
David Brooks, David Brooks, David Brooks. Which David Brooks, which Republican Party?
I can appreciate that David Brooks is speaking up now against the outrageous fear-mongering, lying and intimidation of the current leadership. I hope he continues to do so. I hope he persuades reasonable conservatives to have moral courage and not fail the Milgram Meter. The experiment has begun and the outcomes are TBD. How unsettling for all of us.
What I cannot accept are his recent articles on identity politics and a whimsical remembrance of the good ole Republican party. I am not opposed to fiscal conservatism if that is what he remembers of the party. Or pride of country. I have traveled widely and very much appreciate the American experiment and its aspiration, yet fully unrealized. But what he perhaps chooses to forget is the long intentional efforts of Republicans, specifically, to discredit government by calling it the problem, by bankrupting it, ceding it to a Democratic administrations to then let them to fix it, criticize them for doing it, then bankrupting it again. Perhaps what he chooses to forget is the long, intentional history to find a Willie Horton in every conversation, a welfare queen walking by in a mink coat, crime in every corner.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana.
Where Trump is, where the Republican Party has found itself with Trump, and its willingness to sell its soul in a Faustian fashion — is absolutely on a trajectory for the worst parts of our history. And the inconsistency of thinking, of principle and lack of honesty of its history is mind-boggling. It is almost like an alternative reality. Oh, I guess we have recently been told that alternative facts are acceptable, and asked to live in an egomaniac’s 7 year old childhood reality. David Brooks, you can be better than that.
States’ rights? No Executive Orders? Fiscal conservatism trashed by unfunded tax cuts. A lack of civility, commitment to data? It looks like the whole darn party from Paul Ryan to Mitch McConnell to Pence are cowards. Maybe John McCain and Lindsay Graham, and I never thought I would say this, can be your best leadership out of a dark cave of ignorance.
Brooks recently wrote a piece entitled The Politics of Cowardice? David Brooks, have the courage to own your political party history and force a deconstruction of how you got us all to this troubling moment in our history. It needs to be remembered, so we are not condemned to repeat it.
