Sadly, Trump is the end-result of the vulgarity, hate and outright lies promulgated by the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity, O’reilly, and many more...we didn’t get here overnight.
Nobody should be surprised that the Republican Party or the so called “Evangelicals” won’t stand up to him...he’s who most of them are as well...as they have demonstrated countless times on their ever rightward march to crazy.
70
Trump has successfully created a cult. He leads a superpower and a cult. It is undoubtedly a very dangerous cult which believes that the "magical fantasy" is real and long-lasting. History is painfully aware of what such cults have done to humanity and how they have met their end.
34
Trump admitted to Leslie Stahl that he spews for the his pronouncements about "fake news" because he knows the media will be distracted by this. To quote Tump: "You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you".
Trump is often seen as a joke, but this man is dangerous, as this quote demonstrates. He has figured out a large percentage of the population lacks the ability to think critically, and will swallow whatever he tells them. However, the most distressing fact to me is that the Republican Party has allowed Trump to get away with lying daily, refusing to call him out, refusing to disassociate themselves with him. GOP Party leaders, and many of the rank and file, have made a conscious decision to tolerate Mr. Trump's lies and fascist tendencies because behind the scenes they are greedily benefiting from the distraction that is Trump. That, Mr. Brooks, is what I find most shameful.
81
I'm so glad to have Brooks, a conservative columnist, say straight out Trump is detached from reality. And I love that quote, "You can't refuse an image with a fact."
However, I vehemently dislike that Brooks' advise to avoid getting enmeshed in Trumps craziness.
Does Brooks not realize "detached from reality" is a euphemism for delusional and that delusion is a sign of mental illness. Trump isn't your crazy harmless uncle you can ignore. We have a president who can't tell reality from fantasy, who has such ego needs and greed for gold that he's easily manipulated and bought by world leaders who see and think clearly. And he's a president that exhibits the lack of empathy common to narcissistic personality disorder. It's not just me; prominent psychiatrists and other mental health professionals have written and spoken out: Trump is mentally unfit for his high office.
I don't understand how he still sits in that Oval Office. His comment today is I hope to God I don't have to use our nuclear arsenal that is bigger than yours. And we still tolerate him.
28
The article itself was a eye opener but the readers responses to it have inspired hope that Trump will ultimately fail , bigly.
12
Please remember, American fantasy or not, Trump was only elected by a minority of American voters, his approval rating is dismal and, in all likelihood, he will not win election to a second term, if he gets through the first unimpeached.
18
For those NYT readers who live in NYC (which is most of you) it is hard to realize that we, in the great unwashed Southwest and Midwest, actually love this POTUS. When you readers are surrounded by libs and Hillary voters, you can't conceive that mature, highly educated Americans can support this man. If you as a group would only get your heads out of the sand, you would see that this man is working hard for this country, not for the good opinion of the liberal media.
9
I for one skip over most of the Op-ed opinion articles. If an article, opinion piece address a current event such as the nuclear talks with North Korea, I read them. Articles about coulda, shoulda, woulda and now "I'm gonna" I give a pass. Frankly I am becoming weary of the long theatrical performance. Only wondering what is going to happen to the protagonist at the end of this four year play.
4
Mr. Brooks, nothing is more infuriating than seeing someone criticize Donald Trump who went Hillary bashing during the election or someone who was thrilled with the current state of his beloved Republican Party because it will cause such transformation. In case you haven't been paying attention, Republicans all across America are using Trump as a positive reason to vote for them. I'm afraid it's you who are living in a fantasy. There is no transformation of the GOP nor is it going to revert to the Party of your youth.
15
The imaginations of people are very much the foundation of all the works of man. Trump is able to arouse people's imagination and to manipulate them. All great orators do this. But when one compares him others who use oratory to get what they want, he just doesn't measure up because his purposes are selfish and often only intended to distract attention away from what is really important. Many people have given him their trust but have come to regret having done so. He regrets nothing and repeats the pattern of gaining and betraying trust.
7
I agree that you and your colleagues seem like Trump puppets. The best thing that could happen would be for the mainstream press to stop covering his tweets, his lies, his perversions and just report on reality when it happens (i.e., a deal is made; a law is passed; an investigation comes to its conclusion and the findings are issued). The endless opinion pieces, op-eds and speculations going on and on about exactly what Trump wants you to focus on are the oxygen that keeps this corrupt presidency alive. Without it, he'd be forced to just do the (apparently boring) work of running the country and interest from anyone not already in his thrall would disappear. So why do journalists like yourself spend so much time wringing your hands about your mistakes while never letting up for a moment on your Trump obsession? It's pathological. The once powerful fourth estate has blood on its hands as we continue to suffer through this social and political disaster.
23
Donald Trump is a traitor. Period.
31
This was the a great op-ed. Outside the Trump box. It is so true. Because the very fabric of our country feels threatened, our consciousness attends to the threat, which feeds the destruction.
I just turned Trump news off last week for good. Except for the talk show hosts' comedy. My heart and soul need it.
8
Whether or not the Trump campaign "was a bunch of relatives and hangers-on having random meetings with some vague hope of personal and professional enrichment," it was still a campaign, and it won the presidency of the United States of America.
If its personnel are found to have worked actively with Russian figures in or connected to the Russian government, then they colluded. It defies belief to suppose that Trump himself did not know about and even endorse such behavior. It suits his lifelong pattern as a grifter.
22
The issue with Trump is that he feel empowered and entitled. He always has.
He has no foundation.
He has no moral compass.
He is pretty simple minded.
He cheats, he lies, he man-handles, he steals, he covets his neighbors wife, etc. He is a walking embodiment of how NOT to adhere to the 10 commandments.
He is working on the first 10 amendments to the constitution.
He is driving us down, and apart and nuts.
Hopefully he will reap what he sows; in this life, because there is no other.
I am an American. My family came here in 1632. I can joing the Sons of the American Revolution through both sides of my family.
I am a combat veteran; I have stood up and walked into automatic weapons fire to protect the concept of free speech.
I am ashamed of my country, and feel shame that 40 percent of my fellow citizens think that where we are going is okay.
I will resist; I will not surrender. I will speak against this monstrous person with all my will. I will advocate for anyone who will fight him.
He is a very bad joke; and no one is going to like the punch line.
I hope people wake up in time.
66
Wrong. This Trump-type of conspiracy-mongering has little to do with 60s authors and much more to do with traditional John Birch Society thinking, or the Joe McCarthy era. Enemies set on destruction are secretly everywhere, the "Deep State," no matter if they have long been, say, registered Republicans. The late William F. Buckley said something like it was his life's work to drive the crazies from the Republican Party. Through talk radio, through the web, the crazies have won, going ever rightward and crazier. Alex Jones, anyone?
10
It is the classic rock and a hard place of the intellectually impotent. Pay attention to Trump’s transgressions and we lose; ignore them and we lose. Thanks for the creative problem solving, sir.
3
More than anything I wish we didn't have to hear about Trump's tweets, or Trump's lies or his latest attack on whomever... All eyes and ears are constantly on Trump because that is what he wants and there is too much cooperation in the media. During the campaign there was such constant attention on Trump , no candidates were able to talk about policy, or their attempt at policy were drowned in the media's coverage of Trump. The sad part of it was how many people really didn't care. That is why we are suffering through this administration.
You stated, "My instinct is that the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians because there never was an actual Trump campaign — at least not in any organized sense of that word. Mueller's investigation is about obstruction of justice. Collusion may be collateral damage. The campaign may have only been saved from collusion because of Junior's ineptitude. More likely the Trump crowd, (Cohen and beyond) has been selling access and influence and lining their own pockets in any way possible. I suspect Trump, Kushner, Cohen all received
something from every interaction. At the very least it would be unethical and likely barely legal. Trump is too self-serving to not get something out of these connections.
9
When did being a "public servant" become a negative? Why are honestly and integrity not valued anymore? When did government and taxes become so evil? Or is it that many of those that vote, think these things. With so many Americans not participating in our democracy, we can only hope that their absence in the TRUMP era will mark the low point of voter participation. Many older Americans can remember the "Greatest Generation" and probably wish we could go back to the "we are in this together" social and economic norm. The baby boomer's "you are on your own/me generation" hasn't worked. It is my hope the millennials can make our situation better. They have to start by paying back the $21T debt the me generation created. SAD
6
Let me offer some hope in the real world of lived experience. We Irish may have just wrested away the death grip of the church in favour of compassion and humane treatment of women. For too long the abuse of women and children in this country has been the destruction of the potential for a mature, grown up Republic. No amount of money from abroad, to interfere in our choices could prevent the deep human need of the Irish women and I am very glad to say men, for just treatment of women. There was no room for fantasy here because everyone has been touched, in some shape or form and it could not be denied. We have discarded the fantasy in favour of reality. There really is hope, for all.
9
Not a word about the reality underpinning the fantasy. The GOP has created lie machines (FOX, think tanks, radio) selling snake oil (racism, supply side economics) that the establishment has been slow and inept in challenging.
You'll never hear this from Brooks because he'll ever confront the basic problem: the GOP is a bought and paid for corrupt organization.
15
In June 2018 the Moschanko Investment Group of Los Angeles received permission from the Russian government to move ahead on a $4 billion theme park.
The North Hollywood design firm Goddard Group will design The Magical World of Russia as a major destination resort and theme park that will reflect Russian and other international cultures.
Putin's very own state-run propaganda exihibits will soon open and are likely to attract millions of visitors faithful to the Kremlin. Trump's Fantasy Land has already opened its gates to millions of his loyal amusement park goers in this country. How many more will put on their blinders and unwittingly ride the Trump rollercoaster to authoritarianism before it can be stopped?
7
Who are this 'us' you mention when you write: "The dangerous thing about Trump’s fantasy world is not when it dissolves into nothing; it’s when he seduces the rest of us to move into it."?
I have not been willing to give the man the benefit of a doubt since some time before the first Mrs. Trump. If you have, please tell us about your leap of faith.
7
I regard Trump as so utterly repugnant that on find myself seeking out stories about the Mueller investigation and editorials critical of Trump as catharsis. I wish he were a fantasy, but he is a nightmare monster incarnate. Thank goodness for sports, contrived though they are, at least they are fantasy that is willingly and knowingly indulged. Sometimes I wish a baseball game would go 50 innings just to distract me a little longer from the soul crushing reality that has overtaken America.
8
"That’s what he’s done with the Mueller investigation. My instinct is that the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians because there never was an actual Trump campaign — at least not in any organized sense of that word. It was a bunch of relatives and hangers-on having random meetings with some vague hope of personal and professional enrichment."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you are selling off United States secrets, or committing treason in the interests "of personal and professional enrichment" that is not "collusion", Mr. Brooks, it is criminal conspiracy, and it constitutes crimes against The United States of America. But I do appreciate your "instincts." Mine are quite different.
11
Sadly there are too many fellow Americans who have succumbed to fantasy rather than cope with reality. It parallels the language of Blanche DuBois in "A Streetcar Named Desire," "I don't want reality, I want magic."
What they got was sewage, plain and simple, but they choose to believe it's a chocolate malted.
And, yes, GOP apologists like David help persuade the more erudite readers of this falsehood.
5
Play along , flatter him , compliment him , help him build an alternative reality outdoing him in superlatives and complexity . You are in for the ride , you may as well enjoy it .
"It is not enough to criticize our times, we must try to give them shape and a future." (Albert Camus)
Every time conservatives cite proof of Trump’s shameful politics without including Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and other top Republican leadership as co-conspirators, one continues to perpetuate the myth that the Republican Party itself is somehow just as victimized by Trump as are the rest of us. Of course that’s precisely Brook’s motive: distance The Grand Old Party elite from the lunatic they helped create.
It’s not “Trumpian unreality” it’s Republican unreality. Trump is like a screwball used car salesman - an embarrassing, low-rent celebrity con-artist with a slick patter - but the shiny junk he’s selling is pure GOP.
12
While I agree with many of the sentiments I do believe we will survive this man and go on. Some of the commentary here is doomsday and a bit over the top.
Our institutions are under attack but they will also survive. We are a resilient people let's not forget that.
And one more point......on policy changes whether with domestic or foreign....you have to live with those because they are in large part representative of the election and different approaches to problems even if you don't agree. That's why we have elections.
4
Face it: This is a time when arrogance and selfishness are ascending and mindfulness and generosity are in retreat. How should this retreat be conducted? With dignity and reserve. We should not be drawn into obsession with the adversary or with hatred. We should make an orderly retreat, with singular acts of resistance to slow pursuit.
While in this wilderness away from the seat of power, we should pay attention to the good people we see there, so we can learn what will guide us when our time comes.
Legal prosecution is not a great tactic, but rather another overinvolved focus. We should move on to something good.
6
Trumpism is only an episode on humanity’s very long march from the worse to the better, from the darkness to the light. It is a reaction to huge positive changes that are sweeping through every area of our lives. Change always begets reaction and huge changes beget huge reactions.
One of the favored posters on this thread listed many of the good things that were happening in our country and laments that Trumpism has brought them to a halt. But it hasn’t. Trumpism is a desperate rear guard action and Trumpists will lose, as reactionaries always lose. Then look for America to take big steps to catch up to the constant everyday change that has been boiling just below the media’s awareness.
Then, after that work is accomplished, get ready for the next reaction. We may wish it were otherwise, but that is the way the world works.
12
I'm trapped by my fascination, fear, and repulsion with Trump. It feels like being in an abusive personal relationship. This will help.
Beautiful essay, Mr. Brooks. Thanks so much.
3
It would not be surprising to hear PT reply, were he presented with proof of his having knowingly lied resulting in unthinkable disaster, a la Flip Wilson's character, Geraldine, "the devil made me do it."
What's devastating to this observer is, according to widely-conducted polling for some time now, at least 60 million Americans would either believe him or, as he himself said of shooting someone on New York's Fifth Avenue, not care.
8
I would add Paddy Chayefsky to your list of authors who, presaged this moment I’m thinking particularly of the movie ”Network.”
Who can forget the amazing monologue by Ned Beatty to Howard Beele, spelling out that the world was not comprised of nations but rather of corporations!!
8
Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy gives us an image of Trump in “The Mule” who similarly entrances reality. Sadly, for us, the Mule is only undone by an Artificial Intelligence Robot.
Trump will not fall under a superior intelligence but by a Con man. Bolton may fit the bill. But reducing the planet to ashes is not good. So it may be Roger Stone who unwinds Trump, or Stormy.
Brooks is wrong about Russia. 147 million weaponized FB profiles did the job. And Trump’s family approved.
10
Brooks makes some very salient observations here. Inasmuch as they cover points I've made in multiple comments, it seems appropriate to simply let Brooks say it more succinctly. I do hope that, for a change, if others want to disagree with Brooks, they argue the points here, not merely call him names or dismiss what he writes because of political positions he may or may not have taken years ago.
"My instinct is that the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians because there never was an actual Trump campaign — at least not in any organized sense of that word. It was a bunch of relatives and hangers-on having random meetings with some vague hope of personal and professional enrichment."
"The first problem is you can’t beat Trump at his own fantasy game. As Daniel Boorstin understood back in 1962, you can’t refute an image with a fact. Every pseudo-event 'becomes all the more interesting with our every effort to debunk it.' Trump gets to monopolize attention ever more comprehensively and deepen his credibility as anti-establishment hero."
"The second problem is that when you agree to operate within his fantasy, even if you are motivated by the attraction of repulsion, you’ve given the man your brain. Sometimes my Trump-bashing friends and I seem like puppets on his string."
"The more time we spend on the Trumpian soap opera, the less likely we are to know where we are or what we should do."
1
Unfortunately, this paper itself plays into and encourages Trump's "magical thinking" by covering every tweet or utterance of the Entertainer-In-Chief as if it were substantial news, usually with Home Page prominence.
In addition, it has promoted Trumpish sanitized, deceptive euphemisms, such as "post truth" instead of "lie", leaving itself open to charges of "fake news" in the process. (Along with "Right-to-life" instead of the accurate "anti-abortion", "enhanced interrogation" rather than the universally understood "torture", and "detainee" instead of "prisoner.")
6
In advising that we stop paying attention to Trump, David Brooks seems to be trying to justify the recent focus in his columns on abstract social and moral issues--subjects that, from the looks of reader comments, seem to be wearing thin. David appears to be in denial about Trump and what Trumpism has to say about the Republican Party and conservative political philosophy. Sure, David makes it a point to tell us that he believes Trump is awful, but continues to refuse to believe Trump colluded with Russians. While David makes sweeping comments about various social and moral issues, for some reason he has been unable to write about the connection between Trump and the conservative thought that David has espoused for his entire adult life. As Orwell said, “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”
13
I find myself in almost total agreement with David Brook's column, a first. Two comments: You may be right that there is no organized collusion in the chaos campaign, but that does not mean that no crimes were committed. And we have no choice but to spend time in this soap opera. What this horrid man is doing to people's lives is no fantasy.
14
Yes, I believe the Russians helped Trump get elected and that Trump is involved with russian money laundering. Pretending he is just an incompetent who bumbles his way through is pure fantasy on your part. Trump is a CON and a manipulator who bragged to Lesley Stahl that he intentionally lied about the news media in order to manipulate the public so they wouldn’t believe any negative reporting about him. No one should give Trump, a pathological liar, a pass, he is destroying our democracy and empowering racists.
28
David,
He did not sucker us. He suckered you (Republicans and pundits).
19
get with it, Mr. Brooks - he's been trying to work his subterfuge all along, the North Korea issue is nothing new. only the people in his base are falling for it. the rest of us have to pay attention because he is the current occupant of the Oval Office and it's important to know what he's doing. he's the "leader of the free world" but that doesn't mean we are duped by his fantasies. some of us paid attention when the man behind the curtain was revealed, others choose to ignore it.
7
David Brooks omits the biggest and most comprehensive American fantasy of all, the fantasy of American exceptionalism, of which Donald Trump is merely the extreme expression. American exceptionalism grew exponentially after World War II, fueled by the Marshall Plan and other American efforts to help friend and foe alike to recover and rebuild from a horrific war. Since then, America knows what is best for the rest of the world and President Donald Trump knows even better. None of this thinking is tempered by practical and direct experience with the socio-political systems of other countries. It is safe to say that at least 99% percent of Americans have never lived in another country, on the economy as our military likes to say, rather than in or near an American military base on foreign soil. Suffice it to say that very few members of Congress or the Trump administration have ever lived for an extended time in another country, not just as a tourist.
This is a much abbreviated commentary, the rest sent as a letter to the editor of the NYT.
6
Thanks for abbreviating it Ben.
3
Every person in the Establishment, in power, and in the 1% lies. That is stage one of the descent.
They surround themselves with fantasy - that they're special, that they've been chosen, that their money means they're better than the 99%.
Once they've arrived, they enjoy saying, "Let them eat cake!"
Fantasy is a prerogative of position, supported by the echo chamber of clubs, lawyers, accountants, bankers, and senior staff.
The 1% exteriorize their subconscious and rationalize themselves into immorality. The disassociation process accelerates as they get closer to the 0.01%.
Power does not merely corrupt, it celebrates psychopathy.
8
We cannot thank you enough of what your glorious leader has done for Australia. Our trade with Asian nations is wonderful now that your leader is still trying to make deals. He has absolutely no idea of the global economy in his fantasy world. Our public servants spend years dealing with foreign nations, Trump just fires them, drain the swamp. How long will it take for America to recover from this mess?
10
"it’s when he replaces them by building an alternate virtual reality and suckering us into co-creating it."
Speak for yourself, Brooks.
7
There was no "...vague hope of personal and professional enrichment." this was and continues to be the entire point of this so called presidency and the hangers on that surround him. Once this is accepted the rest is easy to interpret and understand. I would like to see someone with the resources to investigate if Trump and Co and friends have options in the market segments that swing wildly when Donny and crew make their pronouncements about trade, diplomacy, amazon, etc. It would not surprise me.
3
Come on David, how come so many people connected to the Trump campaign including family members lied about contacts with Russians. This is really a follow the money tale and do you really think Donald Trump who has had connections with the Russians for years wasn't aware of their involvement and didn't consciously take their money and assistance. Why won't he release his taxes. How come he won't go along with sanctions against Russia? You just want to believe Republicans are good guys and then they looked the other way when they got a lying, cheating, possibly treasonous leader.
11
They believe God elected Trump, and so does Trump himself now.
5
What a concise and accurate depiction of the world we are living in. During campaign season I listened to a few of his speeches and at first was confused by his power. Then I realized his magic; he spews forth a stream of consciousness word salad and the listeners compose the speech they want to hear. He speaks to his followers by speaking incoherently. It is a fascinating example of confirmation bias.
Everything about him is like the snake in the cartoon version of "Jungle Book". You know you shouldn't look, but you cannot help it. Before long, as Brooks describes, you have lost control of your cerebral cortex and the limbic system is in control.
10
To my knowledge, a tragedy or a comedy has yet been written by anyone that I know which captures the pathos of a nation whose electoral college majority (don’t ask what that really means since it is part of the pathos) is ran by a deluded lying fool. Shakespeare we need you more than ever, or perhaps we also need the great Swiss dramatist Durrenmatt!
7
"It is one of fascism’s goals to monopolize our attention."
If the Trump administration was literally just a very offensive soap opera, I could understand Hanes's/Brooks's lament. But it's not.
The sheer amount of real (not just "rhetorical") power Trump controls and the complicity of the GOP in his abusive exercise of such power is not a game. Trump is holding the lives of a great many people hostage and waving his weapons around as his paranoia takes hold. It's just common sense that hostages focus an inordinate amount of attention to the hostage taker.
"This too shall pass," is a dog that won't hunt. Not in this situation. What does Brooks imagine is on the minds of DACA recipients? How about transgender military personnel wondering if their careers are effectively over? What should women who care about their ability to choose contraception or terminate their pregnancy talk about instead? As Trump destroys the Iranian Nuclear Deal and trades provocations with North Korea, shall we discuss youtube cat videos or something?
Also, even if attention is sometimes his goal, note how Trump has lately tried to DIVERT attention away from himself and on to investigators. When critics assail his abuses of power, he attempts to place the attention elsewhere, like on the stock market or Obama or Clinton or Kaepernick. But we cannot get distracted. Trump, far right evangelicals, the alt-right and the GOP wanted attention and attention they shall have.
7
What we should do? Here's a start. Look in the mirror and ask ourselves who we are? What do we value? What do we stand for? Decency, honesty, respect for others or anger, delusion and political tribalism?
Donald Trump is America's Rorschach test. We see in him what we like. But the rest of the world can see him for what he is and we fail to do so at our own peril.
5
You left off another problem: fantasy sells newspapers. Trump sells newspapers. He is good copy. What percentage of Times front page headlines contain the name Trump? What percentage is about Trump's lies, amplifying them while trying to debunk them? Just keep it up guys and we are headed for an eight year Trump presidency and God knows what to follow.
4
Trump would have no hesitancy in stating something to the effect that: "The middle class got a giant tax cut and the rich did not, don't believe anyone who is telling you otherwise, especially the fake mainstream media, your accountant or H&R Block."
The unpleasant truth is that today's white non-college educated working class person is not your grandfather's white non-college educated working class person. The political debate may now shift from how many middleclass taxpayers actually will pay more or less under the Republican tax bill to the undeniable fact that there will be a massive shift in the tax burden from the rich and onto the middle class.
Eighty years ago, there were many very intelligent people who did not attend college because of financial circumstances or because of discrimination against their race, religion or gender. Henry George, arguably the most brilliant American economist of the 19th century, left school at age 14. President Harry Truman was not a college graduate.
Today, with many exceptions, someone under the age of forty who was never interested in college probably is not very smart. That also makes them vulnerable to the lies that got Trump elected. Even some with college educations are not able to understand that NAFTA and trade agreements in general increase employment and standards of living and that immigrants are not responsible for slow economic growth. ..."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4133734
4
Look more closely and you will see that it transfers the tax burden off of corporations and onto people they don't employ.
3
None of the people I know, an admitted small number, gave any credence to DT’s so-called overtures to North Korea. We know a sham when we see/hear it and those who thought just maybe this was real are now seen to be more of his dupes.
5
Seductive, on not conceding one's mind, but morally problematical in not exercising it for the common protection.
The entire situation is about money from foreign sources with probably Russian elites among the most involved in "investing" in the Trump Organization properties around the world.
It will be interesting when someone in the Trump Organization figures out that the Federal government has all sorts of major buildings in prime downtown locations. And from their point of view, the highest and best use might be hotels, condos, or maybe something like a gambling casino in the old Custom House in lower Manhattan. And the historic Federal courthouse up past the New York City Hall, just waiting for a prime repurposing as a hotel and/or condos. All of this would lead to more opportunities for overseas sources of money to come to the Trump Organization.
2
We need talk about the transformations engulfing us, particularly climate change, overpopulation, and automation. Instead, Mr.Brooks gives us pablum on virtue and other uplifting topics, probably to avoid Republican excommunication.
3
What to do? Vote!
3
Brooks is trying to be clever even deceitful. How? Why?
The how of it is is that Brooks concocts this wordy column to conflate fantasy with lying. The why is simple: He wants to inculpate Trump and his marginally-moral band of followers from guilt or blame for today's state of affairs. Brooks voted for Trump, I'll bet, and now needs to find various gimmicks such as this conflation as a "cover story." Nice try? No, not at all.
4
People are saying that one third of the american population is mentally ill. People are saying maybe that explains it.
1
Public mental health has seldom been of any concern to US politicians and policymakers.
Thank you for this article, a much-needed breath of fresh air.
Sadly, I think David's hit it right on the nose; there probably is no 'collusion' per se, because they didn't have enough sense (so to speak) or organization to even commit such an offense. So the result is that Mueller is just wading around in the most astounding sea of inane incompetence that our federal government has ever seen, and that's saying something.
2
Collusion isn't a crime, but the Congress is completely asleep at the switch not to grasp that Trump and Putin agree that the US should break itself up, as the USSR did, and maybe that isn't in their interest, or ours.
2
I find David's column, today, one of his best. His writing has always been superb, the mark of education and attention to detail and precision. But his conservative philosophy often becomes tedious as he attempts to justify the current practitioners of said philosophy. But his imagery today struck me as vividly defining. He writes:
"Trump’s fantasies regularly collide with reality, and so far reality has a perfect winning percentage. That’s what happened with North Korea on Thursday. I sympathized with Trump’s efforts to give North Korea an opportunity to change, but his bluster, flattery and commemorative coins amounted to nothing more than pseudo-policy — a verbal meringue buttressed by no analytic substance, no institutional leverage, no real power force."
"A verbal meringue!" Have prepared numerous merengues for desserts, that metaphor struck me as quietly powerful. Meringue is the result of egg-whites beaten with fervor--filled and expanded with air--into a lovely topping, sometimes lightly sweetened. Can one bite into it? Yes, but nothing's there. Is it sustenance? No. Just froth. His North Korea policy, like all his policies, is motivated and focused only on his own self-aggrandizement. Hence, no need for diplomatic strategies especially when reading the histories of those failed strategies might enlighten current ones.
But can you imagine the likes of Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Scalise, McCarthy, and Cornyn comprehending this article?
2
The issue has been from day one, of that exhausting campaign we have to endure, is simply, Donald Trump said a lot of things that were considered not at all politically correct, but many were facts, facts we have avoided until we now have a crisis . People are not as stupid as the media outlines. People didn't think everything Trump said he was going to do, or he could possibly accomplish with how our government is structured. But people voted for him as the lessor of two evils, as in lets give it a try. The problem with the elitist and media is they won't ever face, why did this come about.
1
They'll find out what they had to lose.
2
Two disturbing facts related to Fantasyland:
According to PRRI/Brookings polls, in 2011, 30 percent of white evangelicals said that "an elected official who commits an immoral act in their personal life can still behave ethically and fulfill their duties in their public and professional life.” That’s a logical % considering the views of evangelicals and that private conduct influences your overall judgement. In 2016, that rose to 72 percent!...a far bigger swing than other religious groups the poll studied. Despite Trump’s well known “immoral” behavior, some being egregiously vulgar, even conservative evangelicals traded their principles and convictions for the prospect of a right wing fantasyland of power, especially in judicial appointments. They sold their souls for 30 pieces of political silver. Combine that with the August 2017 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey question, “Name the three branches of government.” Do not know any (33%), know one (27%), know two (13%), know all three (26%). This astonishing level of ignorance is an advantage for an inept lying fantasy huckster who wants to appeal to emotion, not intellect. We are in deep doo doo and the path ahead is fraught with danger.
5
There has been a tragedy written yet by any writer that I know who captures the pathos of a nation whose electoral college majority (don’t ask what that really means since it is part of the pathos) ran by a deluded lying fool. Shakespeare we need you more than ever. Or perhaps the great Swiss dramatist Durrenmatt.
1
All politicians are liars. What sets Trump apart is that he is brazen about it (hence the conjecture that he is fantasizing, because, after all, who would be so brazen in public when they could easily be proven wrong); this brazenness added to his crassness is seen as being honest, a virtue, by his supporters and most republicans. He also is a chameleon, who takes positions based on the crowd's response to his outrageous pronouncements. The crowd sees in him someone who 'reflects their values', not caring whether those values mean anything to him.
58
I disagree. All politicians are not liars. I wouldn't for example call President Obama a liar. Moreover, that sort of statement is precisely what empowers Mr. Trump as he decimates our democracy.
Nagarajan writes:
"All politicians are liars ..."
29
"All politicians are liars." Respectfully, I think that's too simplistic. All politicians are confronted by competing claims for attention and resources and constant scrutiny by (often irrational) people representing every possible policy preference. Some manage the job with maturity, diplomacy and thoughtfulness, with an overriding vision of fairness and opportunity. What sets Trump apart is that he does not comprehend the complexity of the job, sees only as far as the tip of his own nose and rejects as an existential enemy anyone who tries, vainly, to broaden his horizons. That his profound limitations are held up as strengths by some people, as you note, is, I think, a complex phenomenon that reflects our own limitations as human beings as much as it does the chameleon himself.
18
Lousy politicians prevail where people expect government to be dishonest and incompetent.
16
"The dangerous thing about Trump’s fantasy world is not when it dissolves into nothing; it’s when he seduces the rest of us to move into it."
An ignorant and uniformed electorate, one that can more easily name the characters on Real Housewives of Wherever than a single supreme court justice, can hardly be expected to differentiate between facts and alternative facts, especially when they get most (all?) their news from propaganda outlets like Fox and Breitbart.
Trump and his enablers have shifted the decline of the great American democracy into high gear and the people are simply too dumb or distracted to resist.
Perhaps any democracy has a finite lifespan and H.L. Mencken was correct when he said:
“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. "
134
Excellent essay, Mr. Brooks. We've all been snookered into DT's fantastic orbit one way or another and it's ruling our day to day lives to our determinant. We've got a proverbial "tiger by the tail" and don't know how to let it go. I propose that for sanity's sake, let's ALL get out to vote in November and try to take back this nation.
1
"Recently we’ve let the fantasy dog out for a romp."
WE? Who are you referring to Mr Brooks? Who let lose the bigoted, racist, ignorant dogs of American fantasy worship in the form of Trump? That would be you Mr. Brooks. You and everyone else in The Establishment, who said nothing when we let a "fantasy dog" called Reagan, a washed up B-list actor with fantasies of aliens invading Earth and bringing the worlds warring powers to peace, become President. Then you remained silent and supportive of the next fantasy dog who assumed the Presidency - George W Bush, another man clearly not capable of being President. Another man who lived in a fantasy world of his own ignorant making, and that of the evil Dick Cheney. You Mr. Brooks sat back and defended, or at least failed to criticize and call out the likes of Newt Gingrich, Mitch McConnell, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Saun Hannity, and Karl Rove (to name just five) because they were part of your republican party.
The American people did not let lose the fantasy dog that is Donald Trump. You did.
6
Is there a news source where one can get actual, true, unadulterated, unbiased, fact-checked news?
Peter,
We're all biased, but you could try the BBC for something closer to what you want.
1
"...I miss people thinking about the world outside the gravity field of Trumpian unreality, and about the world after Trump..."
That's escapism. Like anger, you can't succumb to it, nor ignore it. Negative emotions, like Trump, do not exist in vacuum. There is a build up to it and an existing energy sustaining it. What we want to understand is the build up and to eliminate its sustaining energy.
In my view, it is a futile farce to talk about Trump without talking about years of Republican politics that intentionally fostered division and delusion in the American people, particularly among the Republican base. This kind of politics laid the foundation that made Trump possible, and is still going on to sustain it.
Otherwise, our forefather did leave us with a constitution of check of balances of power. But the Republican Congress and electorate have abdicated their responsibility to do so. The constitutional crisis of Trump lambasting our agencies of law and order and security is possible because those non-Trumps let him and take part in it.
What has Republican like Brooks who are supposedly sane and wise done to acknowledge the culpability of Republican politicians and voters in creating this Frankenstein?
That is why the only remedy left is to boot out as many Republican office holders as possible. They failed their jobs, they let the country burns for short term personal interests, and mostly, by enabling Trump, they share guilt in his wrong doing.
3
Dear Mr. Brooks: You have made the claim that there is no collusion in many of you writing and TV appearance. But today you extend this argument by spinning another fantasy but not so fantastic argument: that there is no collusion because there is no Trump Presidential Campaign! ! ( presumably, then the campaign could not have colluded and committed illegal acts because it did not exist in reality!!!)
Is this your way of providing an out for members of the Republican Party who have and continued to act as enablers of President Trump's pronouncements and actions, the RNC which provided much of the logistical support for the Trump Presidential campaign, and a way to shield members of the Trump Campaign and their close associates who have committed various potentially illegal acts from being prosecuted for Campaign Law violations?
5
"We’re in the middle of some vast historical transition, and it’s very hard to know what to believe in"... yeah, maybe for you Dave. i believe tRumps a danger to us. the rule of law, what we stand for, and respect for our institutions.(FBI, CIA, post office,our politicians) especially our congress which we've not heard a peep from for far too long.
1
Mr. Brooks cannot seem to ever write a column critical of the right without using examples of what he believes are similar excesses of the left. Does he seriously believe that the effects of Donald Trump's "fantasy world" are equivalent to Ken Kesey, Hugh Hefner, the Pump House Gang and the radical chic? I lived through the 1960s (something I'm not sure Mr. Brooks did) and I don't recall ever thinking that the Electric Koolaid Acid test folks were a significant danger to our democratic ideals. I don't remember anyone believing that the Hugh Hefner's Playboy Philosophy would lead to the kind of political and cultural tribalism that has been brought to us by Fox News, Alex Jones, the Freedom Caucus, etc . However, I do remember the lasting effects of Joe McCarthy and his "commie hiding under every bed" fantasy, as well as George Wallace and Strom Thurmond and their yearning for a return to pre-Civil War conditions for black people.
9
The 60’s were better chronicled by H S Thompson...we could really use him now.Sometimes I think he committed suicide because he saw this coming
We can escape fantasy land if we look not to fiction so much as history. I recommend Jon Meacham's tour of our struggles wins and loses in his book " The Soul of America." It can keep a grip on what counts in our republic. We have been through trials before and we are still here.
If the American public cannot distinguish Trump's fantasy world from reality, isn't that Congress' responsibility? The current situation speaks volumes about both the American public and their elected officials. Sadly, it also speaks volumes about our educational instituions.
7
The present Congress strives to make fantasy our reality by enacting faith-based legislation.
4
For reactionary conservative advocates, people who want a system where people’s personal wealth and influence and willfulness should determine who has power and who has not, Trump is their path to paradise. He is unraveling the efficacy of law and democratic policy making which allow equal protection and equality before the law which make liberal democratic government possible. That a person without many resources can receive the same justice as a person with great resources goes against nature for these reactionaries. Trump’s acts and judicial appointments will turn this country into a state where personal wealth and power will determine liberty as well as political power.
4
Rather than endless chat about Trump's outrageousness, the media and pundits should evaluate the actions and policies of Trump's administration? A few of those actions and policies benefit the U.S.; a few aren't too bad; many will have bad short and long term effects. Americans need to understand what Trump is doing more than they need to know about Trump's outrageousness.
Trump is so in our faces that it takes grown up people only few minutes to read what a phony he is.
2
There are good fantasies and nasty fantasies. Some people sugar coat stark realities while others super-impose their own fantasies over others'.
We don't mind people like the late Steve Jobs and other tech pioneers to imagine a better world with far-fetched fantasies. Alas some invoke these people to exploit the masses. Many are in the headlines right now. Facebook, Uber, AirBnB. But many are just robbing peters to pay pauls while keeping 90% of the takes.
Trump is doing the worst kind. He allows the evangelicals to run wild with their fantasies so he has a base to do what he pleases. Not only his behavior benefits on himself but also it causes severe damages to others.
Sure, the Republicans might have goosed the economy but when the bills come due, you and I will be paying for them.
The populists, provincialists and religious zealots may want to enjoy their fantasies now for the world will suffer eventually when the high comes down and there is nothing more to exploit
1
Dear Mr. Brooks, you fell short of recommending Secretary Albright's book, Fascism, A Warning. Everybody should give it serious consideration.
8
Nothing to see here. Move on folks. Maybe Fascism is good for the country.
Spoken like a good Republican, which you are.
3
David Brooks mistakes a couple of things in his otherwise interesting peek at the role of fantasy in American life. First, Jay Gatsby is not "a classic American hero." Gatsby drowns in his own fantasy but not heroically. He is too clueless to be heroic, unaware of the possible consequences of his actions. He is a sad and pitiable figure but not heroic.
Ken Kesey did not invent an "acid-dripping New Age." That epoch was well on its way by the time Tom Wolfe, not Kesey, wrote the vivid account of Kesey and his Merry Pranksters. "The Acid Test," that became a huge best-seller. Without Wolfe, Kesey's exploits would have remained mostly for his own enjoyment. Kesey's own writing, some of the best of its time, did not treat of the "acid-dripping new age."
3
Ken Kesey re-wrote "On the Road" while tripping.
1
Seen from it's negative application, without the attraction that holds the molecules of our reality together, all falls down. Weak forces that deny this reality are no match for the strong forces of formative reality.
Seen positively, love is the force that holds the universe together.
Fantasies that fail to reflect this reality are aberrations of unfulfilled spiritual development, signs pointing further down the path ahead. For those with eyes to see, Trump's fantasies are proof that love is the way.
1
Humans are evolved social animals who spontaneously come to the aid of strangers when war doesn't trump everything else.
1
Trump will win with NK. He'll get what he wants. If not now, soon. If not all in the first round, enough at that time, and then more come round two.
Trump may win, but will we?
In the end, it will either matter very much, or hardly at all. Worst case scenario: Trump's fantasy of besting "Rocket Man" Kim's nuclear button with his "much bigger" button meets the reality and thousands, if not millions die in nuclear conflagration. Better option: Things will be pretty much as they were before Trump. The rich will be getting richer, everyone else hanging on. We will all be older, but will we come out the other side any wiser? Only time will tell.
2
OK, we are stuck on a Ship of Fools, I get it. Brooks' thesis appears sound. What I don't get is his conclusion, the last sentence:
"The more time we spend on the Trumpian soap opera, the less likely we are to know where we are or what we should do."
I'm no Nostradamus, but from the moment I saw Donald J. Trump standing in the middle of Republican candidates arrayed on debate stages, crassly mocking everything about his competitors with pejorative nicknames, from Jeb's "low energy" to Carly's face, I knew this guy is a buffoon. Everything I have observed since then has reinforced that early impression.
For me, the shock of election day 2016 was not so much that this buffoon won, but that so many Americans were willing to vote for him, and that so many non-voters did not feel an urgency to keep that from happening.
So why haven't I been sucked out the framework of my sensibilities into the vortex of uncertainty and indecision Brooks talks about? I know exactly where we are and what we should do. What's wrong with me? Am I some kind of misfit, not truly American?
4
So you think Trump has bamboozled "us" and "we" have been sucked into his fantasy world? Well, he hasn't fooled me or a majority of Americans. Speak for yourself and your fellow conservatives - you're the ones who have gotten snookered.
8
Trump is a problem that was inevitable. He is simply the incarnation of a deeply flawed system of government. Leaving the choice of the leader of a country with 300,000,00+ million people to the vote of an electoral college (an anachronism is ever there was one) that is anything but democratic, and is based on the views of eighteenth century slaveholders. It created the Orwellian world where some people are more equal than others. Add to this a deeply flawed educational system that perpetuates a more and more ensconced elite that can act as puppet masters .I fear that only a severe shock to the system, such as Western Europe experienced in the 20th century, can bring us to our senses, that is, if we have any left by then
116
I wish Democrats would stop wasting energy blaming the electoral college and start asking why they are so unpopular in so many rural states - then start working to change that perception. And this isn't about abandoning Democratic principles but understanding what might make those principles more palatable to more Americans - who in reality would likely derive greater benefits from Democratic policies than Republican con-artistry.
Solving this problem would make the electoral college a largely irrelevant concern - and make this nation a better place for everyone.
15
I concur with morphd. The Electoral College is not to blame. In fact, it contains a safe-guard (that admittedly did not work in 2016) geared to prevent someone like Trump from becoming President. One has to distinguish the electors from the way the system was designed as a winner takes all on a state by state basis as opposed to a true proportional system. The latter system is also not perfect, one only has to look to Europe, where often many parties divide up the representatives in Parliament resulting in weak governments without clear majorities. Where that proportional system works well is if there are only 3 parties in Parliament/Congress. Then having a third party practically guarantees that legislation proceeds through comprise. It would also give the voters more of a real choice based on rational reasoning, not one based on tribal jockeying and political polarization.
1
Quite right, the Constitution is schizophrenic in nature, but we must remember that it came out of a process akin to herding cats. Those who speak reverently about "founding fathers" gloss over the reality that interests so wildly at odds as to be downright incompatible had to be persuaded to agree to move beyond the Articles of Confederation.
That's how we were saddled with a framework of governance that gives Wyoming the same clout in the Senate as California and New York - a manifest absurdity - and the Electoral College. This was done to appease backward, rural southern states worried about being reduced to irrelevance by the urban industrial north.
This rural/urban divide still exists today, though its geographic aspect has changed, now it is more center vs coastal. Even our state, Oregon, is overwhelmingly red south and east of a small enclave of blue in the northwest corner. This is why an effort to abolish the Electoral College cannot possibly succeed. It's not a matter of coming to our senses, it's that the rural states will never surrender their advantage. One look at a national map tells us such a constitutional amendment cannot possibly meet the requirements of ratification.
You are also right that our educational system is largely dysfunctional, but I don't think we can blame schools and teachers for that. The blame, I think, lies with America's culturally and politically driven generational ignorance at home that does not value knowledge, or even truth.
23
Mr. Brooks writes, "The more time we spend on the Trumpian soap opera, the less likely we are to know where we are or what we should do." It feels as if every headline I see is in response to a Trump dog whistle. I know the guy is dishonest, I know he has no character, I know he has the least amount of class anyone in that office has ever had. The more the media belabors these flaws the more ammunition he has for his tweets, which provide the next day's headlines. In a contravention of all known laws of physics he has invented a perpetual motion machine. But not by himself.
1
Here we are again. Another NYT op-ed writer says that there is too much focus on Trump. In this case David Brooks says:
"The more time we spend on the Trumpian soap opera, the less likely we are to know where we are or what we should do"
But, nonetheless, continues to swamp us with more.
4
The wringing of hands that Brooks seems to imply would not stop so long as McConnell, Ryan and their band of brigands abandon their roles as checks on the President. #45 would continue to push the envelope since he is allowed to get away with it, the latest being the unbelievable claim that Obama, of all people, “spied” on his campaign. The word outrageous hardly begins to describe this awful allegation and yet the so-called republican leaders have gone along sullying the good name of the intelligence community without any protest.
3
If “Trump has flipped the Mueller investigation into the central “me versus the swamp” soap opera of his presidency,” how on earth is it possible to say that “so far reality has a perfect winning percentage” when 40% of the electorate believe him? And it is simply egregiously wrong to say that “it’s very hard to know what to believe in.” I know what I believe in - Donald Trump and the Republican Party are actively working to destroy the American republic. You, Mr. Brooks, need to figure out precisely what you believe in and say it at the top of your voice.
2
I teach undergrad and masters courses in management. I have worked for diverse organizations from large for-profit to national non-profits to mom and pop businesses. Every day I read student's papers analyzing their workplace. What I learned is that Trump is simply another example of the real world at work. Gallup says that 81% of the time organizations hire the wrong manager. Leaders don't listen, they lie, they blame front-line staff for their mistakes, they embezzle, they deny facts and data, and they make terrible business decisions. This includes you the reader, your family, and your neighbors. So why would we expect anything different from our politicians? The world operates on half-truths, silly beliefs, and selfishness at every level of society. It's who humans are. I wish more people acted rationally, but I don't think it's in our DNA to do so.
1
In graf #3: acid-tripping rather than "acid-dripping," no?
I thought acid dropping was what meant to be said. Kesey's only real cultural came before his prankster days as author of One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Maybe Tom Wolfe helped spread a fantasy about drinking the Kool Aid.
“Donald Trump’s Magical Fantasy World” – and this from the King of Fantasy, David Brooks.
That Trump runs on delusional lies is hardly a secret. But it’s starkly hypocritical to accuse someone of fantasy when that is how you make your living i.e. rewriting history to fit your conservative agenda. Brooks’ ongoing mantra-fantasy is that America was formerly united under a common narrative, religion and values. Self-serving hogwash. Actual history reveals that America is the product of conflict rather than commonality: owners vs workers, religion vs religion, masters vs slaves, males vs females, whites vs anyone who wasn’t white.
And now Brooks is saying that Trump is a gross aberration when in fact he is the logical conclusion of America’s addiction to fantasy – a pure product of America. The country was founded on the self-serving, oligarchical delusion of exceptionalism and equality.
Brooks has claimed: “democracy is built on a faith in…individual citizens… the idea that … [their] individual choices can be woven into a common fabric.” But this is the pernicious conservative myth that becomes a catalyst for exploitation by keeping the collective subservient to the individual and the oligarchs in power.
The now-exposed grotesque pay ratio disparities that drive income inequality reveal the lie of the “common fabric.” Corporate CEOs revel in capitalism’s – and Brooks’ - fantasy of meritocracy and individual achievement. That’s a fantasy Brooks won’t write about.
2
Your view that there wasn’t Russian collusion because there never was a Trump campaign smacks of magical fantasy. You’re making light of and sidestepping the calumny and corruption of Trump shows clearly that he’s gotten inside your head like a bad trip, man. Take his many transgressions into our democracy seriously because they jeopardize us all.
4
"As Daniel Boorstin understood back in 1962, you can’t refute an image with a fact."
Yes, but you can refute an image with 1,000 facts, it just takes time. To beat Trump at his game (Trumper-Bumpers), step off the field and go into the stands. Don't participate, but watch, observe, note and build a wall around the playing field, brick by brick (fact by fact) until Trump and the people he has snookered are on the inside looking out. Like some petri dish bacteria, having been quarantined, they no longer have the sustenance they need to survive - unwitting, decent people, who likely don't truly understand what is happening. Others, having being fed a diet of right wing nonsense for decades, don't have an immune system strong enough to combat the Trumper-Bumpers; they are easily rattled, and their limbic systems taken over.
Simultaneously, you need to take by the hand your friends, family and neighbors who have been rattled, and lead them off the field and into the stands, to first, shed the emotional wattage they've been infected with by playing "Trumper-Bumpers", and second, once they've regained their senses (ie, are no longer being rattled into submission by the incessant Tweets, over-the-top Fox and Friends call ins, lie-infused daily press briefings, et al) invite them to take a seat and watch the building of the wall. After a while, they will begin to pick up bricks and help you.
At the end of it all, we'll have a basket full of deplorables, behind a wall.
"Trump’s fantasies regularly collide with reality, and so far reality has a perfect winning percentage." Maybe, in theory. But what constitutes "winning"? Certainly in the long term a fantasy will collapse. But where Trumpian fantasy drives politics and policy in real time, those fantasy-based policies are real enough to inflict enormous suffering on people on the margins of power These people on the margins need the policy-makers charged with representing them to be grounded in reality, in real time.
Enough with the metaphysics of what's real and unreal, Mr. Brooks. Toying with reality as Trump and Republicans are happy to do is a political tactic and a powerful way to divert attention away from our personal and collective moral obligations as citizens and humans. Please help your readers burst the fantasy bubble and analyze real facts to assess how acquiesence to theses fantasies destructively confuses and misdirects the public and leads the misled to participate in blind cruelty toward the weak. Everyone needs and deserves reality-based policies -- some because these are essential to physical survival; all of us because responsible "consent of the governed" requires diligent attention to reality as well as empathy toward all persons in our midst, as well as our common home, the earth.
The problem is that of the gate keepers to this fantasy world. Left to his own random tweets DT would have been alone in his tower emerging occasionally as a reality TV star or a birther. But the republicans and FOX give him a veneer of truth and with that fatal makeover we enter this nightmare and debate as if DT knows what he does or even cares about what he does. One can see his transformation in the past year in office, he has a megaphone like never before and will ruthlessly bludgeon out any logic or reality from our brains.
I would love not to think about our corrupt president every day. One of the worse things he's done is coopt our consciousness with the both the banality and never ending lies of his administration. But we also have a responsibility to oppose the very real damage being done, which requires paying attention. I'm sure Scott Pruitt and the rest of the gang prefer us not to.
In "Through the Looking-Glass," Alice holds a lengthy conversation with Humpty Dumpty in which the illustrious Egg says in rather a scornful tone: "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."
Alice replies, "The question is whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," says Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's all."
May I suggest that in Trump we have the Humpty Dumpty President?!
We used to watch Fantasy Island in TV in 1970's and 1980's and now we watch in our real life. It is not funny. We should be scared . But about 40% of Americans are having good time in new fantasy island with dreams and illusion. They will wake up with nightmare which we are having already.
Mr. Brooks,
When exactly did lying become magical fantasy? Fantasy implies an alternative to reality. The inability to distinguish between the two is called Schizophrenia. I am pretty sure that Mr. Trump knows the difference, and chooses to fabricate the truth for his own ends. If we have reached the point where simply fabricating the truth is no longer important to a significant portion of the population, then your point, focusing on where we are, and what we should do is moot. This is perhaps the greatest damage that DJT has already done to our country.
To pick your pocket, a good pickpocket must distract your attention. Sometimes this is done alone; sometimes accomplices are required...and Trump has his.
Our duty is to ignore the distractions and focus on how our constitutional and democratic pockets are being picked.
Unfortunately, at least part of the time, it seems all to easy to distract even the NYT.
It’s the reason Fox News is so addictive to its watchers. Their fictions are so much more novel and creative than the repetitive truths the other channels limit themselves to.
1
The idea that Trump's campaign and administration members colluded with foreign entities as free agents is ludicrous. He must take responsibility for acts performed in his name, and if he doesn't exercise oversight, it is identical to acting on his own behalf.
One person who is not being swept up and into the Donald Trump Reality Show is Special Prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III. I trust him to find the truth and, when his case is ready, tell us what the truth is. He's like the old-time TV detective, Sgt. Joe Friday, Jack Webb's character, in the Dragnet series. One of his favorite lines was: "Just the facts, ma'am."
Mueller's office is amazingly tight-lipped. All we know about the investigation is tidbits from outsiders and information on a few indictments and convictions. There is a trove of facts and details to come. Let's be patient.
1
"There is a powerful general phenomenon determining our culture at this moment, and here is a particularly alarming or damaging instance of this phenomenon." Such is the template for pretty much all of David Brook's columns that address Trump and/or right-wing politics in this country. And the effect is always to give cover to the misdeeds of Trump and the right: "Yes, what they're doing is regrettable, but actually everyone is doing a version of it." Thus, Brooks warns of the bad consequences that follow when Trump “seduces the rest of us to move into his fantasy.”
Who is this general “we,” Mr. Brooks? I, for one, feel not the slightest tremor of seduction. Polls indicate that a large majority of the country view Mr. Trump as a liar and a bully, unfit to be President, not as a particularly powerful instance of some general seduction to dive into fantasy.
Everyone is not doing some general version of what Donald Trump is doing to the country and the world right now, Mr. Brooks. You’re not warning “us” all about some general danger to which we are all susceptible. In constantly pretending to do so, you continue to give cover to a particular and particularly acute danger, and fail accurately to take the measure of that danger to boot.
2
David conveniently omits the supreme fantasist, Ronald Reagan, who created the template for Trump's use of collective fantasy as political strategy: an imaginary past, an impossible future, and a present that is whatever you can get the audience to suspend disbelief for. Ronnie was the one who made democracy into mere theater, and leadership into mere celebrity. Trump is less skillful at it, but no more dishonest.
3
Good thought.
I do have to notice, however, how disturbing the 60s continues to be for conservatives. I was an evangelical hippy then, before evangelicals vacated the values that distinguished them from fundamentalists. We had to break out of the fantasy of post-WW II "rightness," but it's still hard to leave even the "wrongest' fantasies behind.
1
I agree with much of what Brooks writes in this column, but ignoring Trump is maybe even more dangerous. How do we find the appropriate middle ground? The media must cover the president. I don't blame them for discussing his tweets and calling out his lies. That's their job. But Brooks is correct that we can't allow our consciousness to be consumed by Trump's fantasies, or else we're really just aiding and abetting fantasy, at the cost of real political engagement. We need to resist this fantasy world by VOTNG, getting out in the streets and taking part in protest, and discussing real solutions to real problems. That will require active imagination, not passive distraction.
1
So according to Brooks Trump never had a real campaign; just random meetings.
So he defeated 16 Republicans in primaries, Clinton & Obama political machines, and a vicious press and won the Presidency by a wide margin.
All that with no campaign.
So Trump really is a genius.
2
"you can’t refute an image with a fact. Every pseudo-event “becomes all the more interesting with our every effort to debunk it.” "
This is why Mueller finding Trump guilty of something would feed right into his narrative, even adding fuel to the right's alt-reality. And since the Republicans have both houses -- and refuse to move -- the reality is Trump will stay as long as they do, no matter what Mueller finds.
Bottom line: Trump must go. I am beginning to think we all need to focus on getting rid of him the only way I think we ever will: at the ballot box.
2
One example of how Trump denies reality is when he fails to address the Opioid crisis, but cranks up the rhetoric on MS-13. The Opioid crisis cries out for presidential leadership and attention. But alas, Trump plays his fiddle on immigration while his citizens die.
1
Media need clicks and eyes so their beat goes on. Media, as usual, haven't yet caught on, their eyes are hard set on the bottom line!
I live in the real world; I know and understand history and can connect the dots that tell me where we are headed. I am not confused as to where all this will end: I trust my fellow Americans..this fever has broken.
Trump and his cohorts will end up on the dustbin heap of history..you can bet the ranch on that!
1
You know who had the biggest fantasy ride off all? The German people starting in 1933, and ending in 1945. And that fantasy is the one that most closely resembles our current trajectory. Not Hefner's. Not Kesey's. Ours. And it's been brought to life due to the fact that Trump, Fox News, the GOP, and their supporters, have, en masse, made a God of moral degeneracy.
If WWIII comes, all I can say is, "This is exactly what the right-wing ordered".
4
I suggest as an antidote to the whole Trump fiasco , the excellent film by Wim Wenders of Pope Francis. It is the most uplifting movie I have seen in a very long time. Here is a very down-to-earth man who seems sane and not puffed up with his own power - take it from a non-Catholic Grandma.
1
We watch because we are waiting for the moment when he has gone too far and the system kicks into action and there are consequences for what he says and does. Our whole lives we have been told to have faith that the system works in this way and yet daily it is proven otherwise. And the party that you have supported and championed, that preaches law and order and rules, stands idly by. Why is that? Either they agree what he is doing or they don't wish to jeopardize their hold on power.
We watch because we cannot accept that we have been duped, believing that both parties were looking to achieve similar goals but through different means. Now it seems clear the conservative movement always had more dubious plans only making a show when "liberties" were infringed upon. We have been lied to and continue to be lied to and now you advise us to ignore what is happening and know that it will change in time.
This is no fantasy, this is no game, there is no ignoring the truth. If, David, you are to be trusted you have to offer up more than "this is just a product of our time." You should take the time and effort to help figure out and call for some action beyond "this too will pass."
I hope you know you are partially responsible for this and to that fact you should atone.
3
We are living with the results of our illusions. A nation gets the government it deserves and the United States we knew is gone.
1
A lot of people really think that Trump is a man who will do for them what all previous Presidents since Eisenhower have somehow failed. For that they will allow him to behave disgracefully. A lot of people see him as the craziest of all the Presidents and everything he says concerns them. Trump just is not being seen as the President as all previous ones have been by the mass media and most of the people who might vote. But if one considers all the facts, what has been tried and what has been the results of this President, his administration, this Congress, and how the government is functioning under his leadership, then a very different view of things emerges.
Trump is concerned about his image and the appearances of things in the mass media, as must all successful politicians, but he cares not about appearing Presidential as it has been defined by all previous Presidents. All previous Presidents have tried to balance their efforts to achieve their immediate goals while keeping the office to be one that serves a democratic republic. None of them wanted to make it into a one man rule form of governance, after all was said and done. Trump cannot seem to respect that and wants to just have everything done as he wants, no constraints. The only constraint upon him is his limited concerns for how history will consider his legacy, the man just does not care about the consequences of his behaviors. It means that nobody can predict how Trump will affect the future.
1
Even if we could manage to tune out Trump and his fantasy factory, he and his accomplices would still be active in the shadows, dismantling our country. It’s true that, day to day, we can only read and rant (and thus stoke the engine of distortion, as Mr. Brooks observes) and there isn’t much we can do in a practical sense to clear the smoke and mirrors. But a major, in fact essential, opportunity is coming up. Having a Democrat-controlled Congress will enable us to restore the reality basis for engaging in national life. The date of the one-time opportunity is November 6, 2018. The question is, are enough Americans willing to replace the hypnotic entertainment of this fantasy show with the drudgery of seeing things as they really are?
6
How ironic to have David Brooks write on fantasy. Isn’t he the one who believes we live in a meritocracy?
7
This is the man who revealed that the previous President, a black man, was not a citizen. His election to the Presidency of the New Confederate States of America was inevitable. What is fiction?
3
Let's get real here. Again it's David Brooks living in his fantasy world. The one in which he just can't bring himself to admit that Trump is the real world. A world Brooks worked so hard to enable. A real world where environmental and health concerns are trampled over. A real world where the education of the public through both media and schools are loosing credibility. And where a nation of people is loosing its sources of income leaving it crippled and unable to serve as its constitution requires.
You can spew your pap, Mr. Brooks, and some may buy it, but most of us know that this is the REAL WORLD and not a FANTASY.
4
Very well put. Thank you.
What should you do? Find a way to get rid of him...procedurally, electorally, legally.
3
We need to believe that a majority of reasonable voters will start a return to reality and normal governmental pursuits in November 2018. When our always lying, lacking-in-any-integrity president and his fox-in-the-henhouse cabinet, and his now repugnant party supporters leave office, they will all be remembered in infamy.
3
Well said, David. The fantasy has long enveloped the likes of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and others, not that they didn't have a little world of their own to begin with. But real governing has not existed in this country for a long time now. Remember McConnell's pronouncement on Inauguration Day, 2009, that the # 1 goal of his party was to make Obama a one term president, not to improve the well-being of all of our citizens. How'd that work out?
We are not a self-reflective nation lately, if we ever have been since the Revolution. The soap opera can be turned off, but its stars have to be VOTED OUT. It isn't enough to say "this too shall pass." It is imperative to see to it that it does. We have acquiesced to a virtual moron, and we are becoming numb. Time to wake up and act.
4
Oh it's easy for me to believe in truth and the reality that Republicans are working hard to erode any semblance of progress. Fascist Trump and the Republicans need a good writer. Madeleine Albright's book is really good but dry.
Republicans are overplaying their hands. I hope that they reap what they have sown.
You are so right Mr. Brooks. Yet here you are, writing about forty five. Not your fault, every media outlet spends an inordinate amount of time focusing on him. I have searched and searched for a television news program that doesn't obsessively focus on him. Sadly, I've failed. Even PBS, except for its weekend edition, spends ten to fifteen minutes nightly on the "president." And pollsters can't leave it alone. Every single day, there are five to ten polls telling us how popular/unpopular he is. But, it's the ratings, and the eyeballs. Who wants someone boring like Obama, when you can have entertainment 24/7? Me, that's who.
2
Your best work so far this year, Mr. Brooks. Now add Charles Blow’s comments on Trump’s overuse of obfuscatory language and you have his picture completed.
Trumps fantasy is the same lie, told over and over again, repeated every day because he can't tell the truth or even accept it. The truth is also that Republicans would rather indulge his fantasy because they profit from it. There is no honor, no integrity or concern for the truth, only a thirst for more money and power is the goal. This is nothing new in terms of history. Many men, especially those of inherited wealth have delusions of grandeur and are willing to destroy anything to live them out even if that hurts their own country and closest relatives and friends. The saddest part of this whole exercise is that 42% of the American public manipulated by this man and by right wing media care not a wit of the damage they do. I think many are just so profoundly ignorant they do not even recognize the damage. Many are deplorable and many more just refuse to accept it was Republicans who have betrayed them all along by their on failed policies.The remaining majority of us must accept this and move on by voting and exercising resistance. We must realize that the right will never admit guilt or even being wrong. Except for Steve Schmidt and John McCain, no credible republicans have stood for justice and integrity. McConnell and Ryan could have limited this damage but chose to endorse this betrayal of American values for profit. History should not be kind to this group for their betrayal of country but remember only the winners write history, the losers never get the opportunity.
It's amazing that you can write so clearly about the problem when the continually blaring headliners perpetuate the problem. Put news of this administration's doing on at least the third page. And while I'm at it, how does every rapist, serial killer and psychopath warrant the title "Mr."?
I think the nightmare fantasy has its roots with Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney ...
2
"Americans have always had a tremendous capacity for fantasy. Jay Gatsby ... John Wayne ... Hugh Hefner ... Ken Kesey ..."
There was something aspirational or forward looking about those folks or characters, however misguided they might also have been.
Trump is different. His big lies are right out of the National Socialist playbook. His brown fog is the standard fascist trap for skeptical thoughtful citizens. His fantasies serve white supremacy and his own pathologies.
"My instinct is that the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians because there never was an actual Trump campaign ..."
The sentences in the Constitution about treason do not have exceptions for venality or for not having an "actual campaign."
The Constitution reads:
"Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason ..."
6
Mr. Brooks fails to note that the overwhelming majority of these gullible fools call themselves Republicans. This descent into fantasy is not a bipartisan problem. Somehow he never mentions that conservative media has been most responsible for leading us down this horrific path. It's time to take responsibility Mr. Brooks and address this issue in full detail.
10
Are we great yet? When do we get tired of winning? Has Detroit finally won their desired tariffs against Datsun? How is that NAFTA renegotiation going? Are we waiting for East German engineers to teach us how to build a wall or for cheap labor to lay bricks in the Arizona summer? Gary Indiana, how are your steel plants doing? Does the new EPA travel agency give tours of our most famous renewed wetlands? Has the NRA made your child safe at school? Yo, NJ Republicans, how is that new tunnel to NYC 's FIRE industry coming along? How many bridges in the United Flyover States of America are being built or repaired? How well does your daughter shoot a bow?
2
I remember most of all election night, 2016. Tom Brokaw slumped in his chair. With a confused, far away look of despair, he mumbled that the electorate had just chosen to roll a grenade across America. Since that night I've focused tightly upon Mr. Trump and his administration, the way I would focus upon a gun pointed at my head. Some things command our attention completely because they are dangerous and potentially annihilating. I believe that the focus of the majority of Americans is an attempt to truly grasp the terrible immediacy of the unwinding of our country before it is too late.
4
Interesting that Brooks won't use the word "fascist" when describing Trump, but he quotes someone who does. Perhaps, finally, the NYT editorial page is inching gradually closer to the reality of our situation, and may almost be ready to call it what it is: Encroaching Fascism.
2
David,
Did you not write a column a mere 2 weeks ago about Trump's "Lizard Wisdom" enabling him to choose a more viable path where others have failed?
You said and i quote : "There is growing reason to believe that Donald Trump understands the thug mind a whole lot better than the people who attended our prestigious Foreign Service academies"
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/10/opinion/donald-trumps-lizard-wisdom.html
Might i suggest that changing opinions faster than weather fluctuations in a hurricane zone causes reverberations within your readership?
7
Two weeks is a long long time in Brooks evolution. He writes one thing in the column says another on PBS.
3
Trump is the coughing fit.
The Republican party base of reactionary zombies - unable to parse fact from fantasy - is the disease.
And you helped to build it that way, Mr. Brooks.
Go back and look at your own writings and maybe you will understand.
2
The fantasy world can begin to end with the 2018 elections.
2
Yes, that is the ? What are we to do, when so many have such a harsh reality. Anything is better: as in “the trump soap opera”.
The Donald certainly has given voice to many who would otherwise be on the sidelines taking up precious brain capacity with American Idol type nonsense.
The Donald is an abomination, a pox upon us in all but this way - he is forcing many people who had dropped out and turned off to re-boot- to re-engage.
I have heard it said that The Donald looks at we the people as not his constituents but as his audience.
If our reality made for TV POTUS does nothing to destroy our planet, he may well be the chemo-therapy that brings us back to life if we can just survive another 2+ years of his poison.
1
I’ve noticed a new trend by right leaning columnists which is to posit that Trump and his team were too stupid to have knowingly conspired with the Russian government.
When you take a group of people entirely concerned with self promotion and self enrichment and offer them things that will promote or enrich them they do not wonder if those things are legal or not. They would knowingly conspire with anyone if they thought it served their interests, but the legality or morality of it would not concern them.
Trump doesn’t CARE about the rules. That means he breaks them constantly because he never thinks about them, not because he’s a dupe.
5
Dear Reader,
This type of editorial is becoming commonplace. It is filled with distracted impressions about our society, Trump's place within it, our dazed attention to the doll's dance...
Save yourself some time. Just read the title.
There is no such a thing as a fantasy world.
It is only a fantasy world in the mind of the writer.
View the latest throbbing release by McConell's Supremes.
This is hard reality, not fantasy.
3
Trump isn't about fantasy, he's about lies. He's about spinning fascistic disinformation. He's about subverting truth and destroying the foundations of democracy. There comes a point Brooks where you not only lose all credibility, but should also forfeit your prime real estate in the media. You persist in continually trying to convince us that we really shouldn't worry because Trump is just a "fantasy dog out for a romp," when he's unstable, psychopathic, and autocratic. Republicans either viciously defend him, or like you, try to argue he's not much a problem. It means you're a serial apologist for a despot. You've been doing this for so long the only conclusion is that you're also deliberately subverting American democracy with disinformation. Brooks, someone needs to give you a primer on constitutional and criminal law if you think that the Trump campaign could only have "really colluded with the Russians" if there was a highly organized campaign, as opposed to a bunch of relatives an associates, which had what you term "random meetings with some vague hope of personal and professional enrichment." Look up Accessorial Liability and Parties to Crime. You'll see that none of your criteria apply. When a person engages in conduct constituting criminal offenses, any other (here meaning Trump) is equally criminally liable for those same offenses if he in any way solicited, or requested, or commanded, or importuned, or intentionally aided such person to engage in such conduct.
2
Trump is a completely disgusting waste of time. But, those who voted for him have placed a grossly unfit morally bankrupt monstrosity in the presidency. Not paying attention could prolong this anguish.
2
“Every day he produces great geysers of fantasy- some of which rip the cultural fabric (Mexican rapists), some of which merely tug it (“Obama had my wires tapped ‘“).
“Mexican rapists” was a despicable racial slur used to vilify Hispanics in general and could, in David’s words, be said “to rip the cultural fabric,” but to say that Trump’s accusation of Obama tapping his phone communications was merely “tugging” at the cultural fabric is crazy. This was a newly elected president accusing a sitting president of criminal activity of the gravest order based on zero evidence- and he got away with it!
Trump is not just “ripping” or “tugging” at our social fabric. Under Trump and the GOP Congress this country is rapidly unraveling.
3
Trump's lies, arrogant boasts, and demeaning attacks do not portray a fantasy world to most of us, but instead a nightmare of hatred, authoritarian intentions, and delusional, unfounded conspiracy theories.
Yet I believe he has done us an enormous favor by revealing our true selves. Some of us, like those seen cheering Trump at his rallies, delight in his bombastic lies, share his prejudices, and deeply need to believe he will protect them from whatever it is that they fear.
The majority of us have learned an invaluable lesson about our responsibilities as citizens and been reminded to speak up for the American values we have been neglecting. So for that and only that, thank you, Donald Trump.
1
Our country has now been suffering from the choice voters made in the last election, much like the characters in the movie “The Matrix”. There was a choice between the blue or red pill, the choice between ignorant bliss or a harsher reality - but the colors are reversed from the labeling of the electoral college map. Maybe Trump fans will tire of his stream of fictional reasoning, sophomoric labeling, and dangerous behavior. They tore off their noses to spite their faces. They chose a placebo at best or a poison at worst. Now as Trump writes his own biography, Pratfalls in Courage, a thousand comedians and authors get more grist for the mill.
So many responders here are suckered into donnies fantasy and stupid reality show.
“The dangerous thing about Trump’s fantasy world is not when it dissolves into nothing; it’s when he seduces the rest of us to move into it. It’s not when he ignores the facts; it’s when he replaces them by building an alternate virtual reality and suckering us into co-creating it.”
If we are suckered into debating the size of his hands, his supposed racist and misogynistic jokes we are losing. That is the point here. If we debate throwing NFL players out of the country donnie wins, if we move on to “ how do we improve communication, fairness, recognize the issues of profiling, use of bail as punishment of the poor ( poor not just blacks) WE win.
2
You're dead on, David: "The second problem is that when you agree to operate within his fantasy, even if you are motivated by the attraction of repulsion, you’ve given the man your brain. Sometimes my Trump-bashing friends and I seem like puppets on his string."
I'd come to believe that Trump was pure evil, but I think you've nailed it: he's just a fabulist. We usually welcome these people for their ability to amuse, even enlighten us or open up our imagination. But this behavior has no place on the highest platform of the world stage, where whims are dangerous
Witness the tremendous offense felt by our primary negotiating partner with No. Korea, So. Korea, when Trump summarily cancelled the June summit with Kim Jong Un. Only to reopen the prospect of it actually happening, the next day! People despise this kind of narcissism, where You is all that matters, World leaders, particularly, will not forget this.
Here's what I would recommend. The left leaning cable stations, MSNBC for instance, can still report on Trump's daily transgressions against wisdom and sanity, and retain their ratings, but stop showing his face, and stop broadcasting his voice -- the voice that's either a taunt, or a frozen version of human thought. When this kind of footage appears, I mute my audio and fast forward past T's face.
Our next President has his/her work cut out, repairing the damage Trump has caused, and re-establishing the esteem in which our country was formerly held.
2
End the fantasy on November 6, 2018. Vote.
5
The children are getting out the vote. Their lives depend on it.
2
David: You may not know what to believe in, but make no mistake, Clinton voters, including the nearly 3 million plurality of voters who chose Clinton rather than Tramp, knew, and still know, that our so-called president is a liar, conman and Putin wannabee. Republicans like you who sat on their hands when Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court was denied hearings and a vote, and subsequently approved Gorsuch's illegal nomination and confirmation, are complicit in Trump's and the GOP's criminality. The Constitution means nothing to Trump, the GOP and GOP voters. It is the only thing protecting Americans from the greed and rancid corruption of Trump and the GOP. If we don't oust the GOP majorities in the House and Senate this November, it could well be the last free election of our lifetimes. Then your fantasy will indeed be reality, and you can sit back and ponder from your ivory tower what your complicit behavior has wrought.
4
Trump's supporters conflate candor with honesty. Trump speaks, and tweets, his mind; he shoots from the lip, slanders opponents and threatens those who get in his way.
Most politicians are guarded, wary of sharing their inner-thoughts and saying things that will be fact-checked by the press. The successful ones train themselves to think carefully before speaking publicly because they realize that speaking carelessly off the top of their hot head will come back to haunt them.
Trump's base, angry and disillusioned with conventional politicians, finds his angry candor refreshing. They mistake it for honesty. But the man they admire invents his own reality and regularly speaks and tweets untruths.
I say 'untruths' rather than lies because I find it difficult to discern whether he actually believes the garbage he spews (the creator of his own alternative reality) or is he deliberately lying to sell his brand and fuel his base.
I don't think the media can ignore his tweets, but they ought to cool the outrage, the speculative psychologizing, and present more of an overview -- dissect the patterns of his policy initiatives and the nature of their appeal. There are dangerous consistencies to his presidency that his daily flip-flops tend to obscure.
2
When a portion of American society fervently thinks that the reason their lives are miserable and personal finances held back is because of: Immigrants, China, Mexico, Minorities, Poor People, "Welfare Queens" etc, and when Trump/The GOP can successfully deflect their rage onto these scapegoats and away from the actual Donor/DC Lobbyist cabal running our Government, fantasy isn't the right word. Try brainwashed and/or nightmare.
1
The only interest I have in Trump is seeing him gone. I don’t read his tweets, don’t watch his speeches or clips of him babbling on in front of the cameras. I’m just rooting for Meuller to deliver Trump’s ignominious defeat.
2
Unfortunately, the Times itself plays into Trump's hand by covering every tweet or utterance of the Entertainer-In-Chief as if it were substantial news, usually with Home Page prominence.
In addition, it has promoted Trumpish sanitized euphemisms, such as "post truth" instead of "lie", thus effectively leaving itself open to charges of "fake news." (As with using the inaccurate "right-to-life" instead of the accurate "anti-abortion", "enhanced interrogation" instead of the commonly understood "torture", and "detainee" instead of "prisoner.")
1
Thank you David Brooks. When I've been to Disneyland, I've always stayed away from Fantasyland, and now I have to see it evolving day to day. I won't be suckered into it.
Brooks is wrong in his descriptions of the influences of Hefner and Kesey, especially of the realities of Hefner.
But Brooks is totally correct in pointing out that Trump and his ilk are disgusting Fascists, bent on destroying democracy and the Republican Party with outrageous lies and bigotry.
1
All fantasies come to an end, sooner or later. Just ask Harvey Weinstein.
Mari B
3
Great column, and I agree with every word. You cannot reason your way out of fascist fantasy thinking once it takes hold.
So the question I want to ask is what to do now?
Hey Brooks, do not try to say you are above the fray. You are the classic sleeper agent trying to come off as an objective observer of the situation taking the centrist view when you are complicit in in what has happened and what we foresee in the future.
Hope you feel satisfied.
4
Mr. Brooks is certainly sharp enough to understand the irony of his writing of a longing for people, "thinking about the world outside the gravity of Trump." Is he not?
And quoting Erik Hane, '"These columnists [Oops, I mean "authors"] ...the moment is writing them."'
It couldn't possibly be that he would be the subject of, "If you want...page views, you have to cover it, play your role and pump the hype, could it?
In describing the media's - and his own - relation to news of the President in this last sentence, he makes only one slight error. The sentence should read: If you want...page views,...pimp the hype. As captured so eloquently by Michelle Wolf, that's been the media's role since Trump's first speech, announcing his candidacy while demeaning Mexicans.
We can begin by excising the current crop of Republicans. They have, with few exceptions, sold their souls to the devil in the red hat. Next we need to make sure that the Democrats focus on the project of rebuilding and re-enforcing the scaffolding of our Democracy. Any politician that panders and contorts for our vote needs to go! Trump is every much as big a threat to the free world as Hitler was, perhaps even more so, and we need to join collectively in eradicating this threat. The usual political game must go - the great American experiment is at stake.
We have work to do - we have to face up to and address our racism, our misogyny, our nativism, our greed, and our fantasy of our exceptional "goodness". Never forget that what we call "our" land was taken from its truly native inhabitants through near genocide, violence, deceit, and promises that we break to this day.
None the less we have much to offer and the experiment has produced some wonderful things even while turning a willfully blind our to our shadow. Let's get this done and continue the journey.
1
Here's my fantasy from last midnight: there is no Twitter. There is only Oink!, and its short messages are called squeals. Trump squeals constantly in Pig Latin, and nobody pays them any attention.
1
Hence we have Trump's "bluster diplomacy". He has attempted to bluster N Korea, China, Europe & anyone else who gets in "our" way of global dominance. I would rather you kept my old neighbor Ken Kesey out of this argument but, I greatly prefer his vision of the world
So you’re finally questioning your beliefs after seeing the damage they can lead to??? It’s not at all hard to know what to believe if you don’t have the time or wealth to avoid the daily realities of pain and keeping afloat. Science teaches what is real. Values teach us how to act. Now if we paid more attention to how to banish liars from manipulating us we’ll make progress. The problem now is the overwhelming corruption of Republican leaders selling their values for power and greed daily in plain sight. That and the religious zealots who have forgotten how to recognize their Devil: the Prince of Lies. He gives them what they think they want, but at the cost of their souls.
I don't know if everyone sees this, but twice in the middle of this story I see ads for the American Ballet Theater.
Seems like the Times is selling fantasy, too, between the paragraphs of David Brooks' column about Trump's selling of fantasy -- like a literary Escher print.
1
The daily dose of the "Trump Follies" is like an auto accident on the side of the road. You know you should keep your eyes on the road ahead but you just can't help but look!
It's imperative the law wins out over the lying traitorous Trump. “The world we should be building” will have to wait, until we rid ourselves of this fascist-fantasist — to ignore the problem is to enable it. I am more exhausted by those doing nothing, i.e. creating their own cocooned fantasies, than by those resisting and speaking out.
The media should focus more on what’s going on behind the scenes and less on his outrageous behavior. Rob him of oxygen. Cover what’s really happening to our country. While he’s diverting us, the republicans are stacking the courts, undoing vital regulations, destroying the environment, killing wildlife, undermining the ACA, and the list goes on and on. The media still hasn’t been able to get its footing with this President.
1
Admit it, America made a mistake in 2016. While the ideal would be some white-out, an eraser starting this fall will have to do. It will leave marks however, but will also serve as a helpful reminder for the future.
1
Unfortunately, this paper itself plays into and encourages Trump's "magical thinking" by covering every tweet or utterance of the Entertainer-In-Chief as if it were substantial news, usually with Home Page prominence. In addition, it has promoted Trumpish sanitized, deceptive euphemisms, such as "post truth" instead of "lie", leaving itself open to charges of "fake news" in the process. (Along with "Right-to-life" instead of the accurate "anti-abortion", "enhanced interrogation" rather than the universally understood "torture", and "detainee" instead of "prisoner.")
1
Narcissists are out there in our society. Have met a few in my lifetime. They attract servile types to their circle. Kind of like fleas to a dog. The few I encountered during my business career were politely, but firmly, asked to do business elsewhere. Huffing and puffing they did just that. When they pulled out, we had a party. I sense a big party coming for all concerned citizens. When he leaves, or is emasculated, first priority is to mend fences with our long time allies overseas. Then get pragmatic with our adversaries. Meanwhile, Congress must follow the expressed wishes of the majority of our electorate -- namely, re-instate DACA and provide a path to citizenship. Plenty to be done to clean up the chaos and uncertainty left by our national tragedy.
It is not Trump but those who dislike Trump that live in a fantasy world. The Mueller investigation is a fantasy investigation where there exists no crime. The certainty that Hillary would win was a fantasy. The belief that Trump can somehow separate himself from his businesses is fantasy and unrealistic. And so the list goes one forever because Trump haters can't help themselves but fantasize the men is somehow gone.
Americans turned on fact-based reasoning when Reagan was elected, and from then on have running debt-fueled economy with fake prosperity. As unsustainable as it is dangerous, as we already have a taste of what happens when the cash isn't rolling in: petty fascism a la Trump. Imagine what Americans would do if the dollar lost its reserve status, and all that debt came due, with few or no lenders. Incredulous Americans would blame the world for their very own mess, desperately swaggering and threatening their way to world war. This is the fate every enemy of the country is hoping for, and allies fear, but one that GOP policy has been promoting for decades.
The alternative to Trumpland would be Hillaryland, where we'd read NY Times articles "Oiigarch gives Millions to Foundation, gets to buy Uranium Mine." Instead of Trump's fake news, that would be reality news.
1
Mueller might have unearthed that in the process of his investigating Russia’s role?
1
Ken Kesey did no such thing. He wrote two amazing novels that did not even mention LSD. Yes, those of us in the know are aware that his use of psychedelics influenced the content, but that is irrelevant. Perhaps Mr. Brooks is confusing Kesey with the recently deceased Thom Wolfe who penned the wonderfully entertaining The Electric Koolaid Acid Test, the finest account of the Kesey and Merry Prankster life-style and expression of what really came down in the sixties.
Hold a mirror to America and what you see is Donald Trump. Just like Trump, most of us don't have the energy or interest to learn anything about this country or the world. America, like our President, is spoiled and prone to temper tantrums. Now that so many countries are now capable of competing with us, as a nation we just want to seal the border, pick up all our toys, and go home and sulk.
One of the most succinct and insightful analyses of the cumulative effect of Trumpism. The way and means of our daily communication; social media info all its forms, are the perfect vehicles for Trump and his acolytes to feed the masses thier daily menu of misinformation, lies and hatred. Those references to fascism were really scary.
In the end, the best way for all those disgusted and worried by the behavior and mindset of this miscreant is to devote ones time and energies in whatever state you live in to use the November election for change. It's in our collective power despite the imperfections in the electoral process and the message or non message being conveyed by the leaders of the Democratic Party. Mobilize and vote.
In addition to the millenmial generation and the generation following them who will be needed to bring us out of the president's fantasy world, three groups will also be needed to pull the nation back from the abyss. They are women, veterans and African Americans.
These three groups will, with the two generations mentioned, awaken the nation that fantasy living is a dead end. That only by insisting on truth and reality in our government can we ever get close to returning the U.S. to the great nation it was destined to be.
So as the song says:
The Magical Mystery Tour
Is dying to take you away
Dying to take you away
Take you today
Sorry I am not getting on board
2
If you hadn't devoted your career to propping up intellectually bankrupt GOP politicians (that's all of them who came to power, please don't tell me about Jack Kemp) then the GOP wouldn't have been able to wage continual war on facts and science. Guess what's the result of intellectually dishonest greedheads bringing snowballs into the Senate well to prove there is no global warming? We're living it now.
2
I love getting lectured by Mr. Brooks. Isn't he the same guy that noticed the sharp ironed crease in Obama's slacks at an intimate pre-election dinner party and knew for certain right then he would be a great leader? Well we now know in retrospect, all he had, was a top tier steam iron.
1
Donald Trump and his followers are destroying the American Democracy through the cultivation of lies, greed and hatred. The American People have been "played" by a group of the world's wealthiest oligarchs. Many of them have made their fortunes in oil. Trump is their Puppet. He has no interest in serving the American People. He serves is own interests and his insatiable ego. When and "if" the American public wakes up and realizes they were conned into voting against their own best interests and the well-being of coming generations, it isn't going to get really ugly. Putin realizes this. It is only a matter of time.
Yes, David, fantasies.
Trump fantasized that he was being spied on.
Oh, no. That’s ridiculous! claimed the compliant media and the Democrats.
Now, the Democrats have started an investigation into who leaked the fact that the FBI was spying on Trump.
Of course, the spies can not be called spies. The NYT has to be creative in naming these creatures without using the word spy. Russian informant seems to be their go to, probably because it implies incorrectly that their spies had something to do with Russia. Clever, yet fooling nobody.
You say; "Magical Fantasy World" creator - I say;
CON MAN !
The probable clinical psychosis of Trump is the fabric of his life long fantasy. A fantasy where he is the great one and can take whatever he wants, by whatever means is available to him.
On the bright side:
JFK had a fantasy about going to the moon - His fantasy became a reality.
MLK had a fantasy about African Americans achieving equality - he paid with his life and we are making progress.
Jim Jones had a fantasy about an ideal community - they all died -
Trump's fantasy is a cancer spreading across America . . .
"We can surgically remove this fantasy" !
2
The Genie is out of the bottle and there are 50 million plus Americans who have no clue to it. David shares some to the blame as do we all. But the argument can be made that the chain of events that really brought us here began in full throat with a cigar and dalliance between Hillary's husband and a White House intern. Which led to a defeat of Gore, creation of the Tea Party and ultimately to the radicalization of the GOP from semi-responsible political party to a tribalist society that care nothing for law or the constitution other than the second amendment. A tribe now in a symbiotic relationship with a narcissistic buffoon. This is us and you can't make this stuff up. Unfortunately, we don't have to.
Hi NYT :) I read your clear description of the situation some of us face. I read first the description of another situation that is far, far away, in Oz. Yes, Dorothy, there is an Emerald City - on the Southern New Gold Coast called Sydney. Shrimp and Trimp Towers present the Mexican Taco Grandiose, a well decorated and located, located, located piece of work where the rented swell patrons can drink $100.00 Millionaire Martinis with a 24K gold leaf on top. All tasteful, no flavor, Por Favor. Enjoy the long weekend, if you can.
Trump is the screaming Id of the Republican Party with the mask torn away. Your Republican Party, Mr. Brooks. Take responsibility.
2
Ok, you brought up Ken Kesey, and while Ken certainly promoted drugs as a way to expand your mind, he also wrote about family and the tremendous strains that can occur, along with the ties that inevitably bind family together.
Those of us that believe in resistance can find our way in the great novel Sometimes a Great Notion. The Stamper family, like our American family, is populated by torn people. People who fight against themselves, and against their community, to hold themselves together.
"Never Give an Inch" is the family motto. It is the reflection that the ties that bind must be deep to overcome our own imperfections. That's what America needs in these days of the "enfant terrible" that rules from the Oval Office. We must never give an inch to him.
P.S.: The setting of the book was the fictional Wakonda, Oregon. Hmmm.....
1
100% right.
If you're going to talk about Trump and fantasy worlds Mr. Brooks, you should also mention all the people who choose to live there - including the Republican Party. You should also mention FOX News and conservative talk radio as peddlers of fantasy 24/7.
Everyone needs some element of fantasy in their life - without dreams to provide goals and enrich visions of what might be possible, this would be a much poorer world. But not all fantasies are benign - some are malignant.
Take SpyGate for example - the fantasy that Obama and Crooked Hillary collaborated with the Deep State to infiltrate the Trump campaign to... well whatever paranoid fantasy you want to claim.
Or let's take Paul Ryan's favorite fantasy: "Atlas Shrugged". It's a world where a handful of oppressed (and very very rich and very smart) job creators withdraw from the world, and the world collapses without them. Talk about a narcissist's dream!
The "happy ending" is the collapse of the US government, the breakdown of infrastructure, and the deaths of millions from civil disorder and starvation. Throw in some occasional rape fantasies involving the female lead character whose hashtag would be an enthusiastic # MeToo!!! and you have a world that Donald Trump can only dream about. So far...
Until then, fantasies like a Big Beautiful Wall or Clean Coal will have to do it for him and his base.
More Reality, please!
I am with LT from Chicago.
We have to challenge lies and deceptions.
I am weary of hearing that we should not get caught up in the current state of affairs, that we should not get in to arguments or debates or conversations with those who peddle disturbing beliefs in outright falsehoods, conspiracy theory and straight up lies.
I recognize that many of the '40% crowd' are not going to change, but those that have the capacity, and can be persuaded by reason deserve our time and effort – no matter how maddeningly frustrating the process. And the others at least deserve a jolt.
This is how things will change, people talking to people. We have to fight for our country. Sitting back and imaging a post-trump world is a waste of time if his tenure destroys all hope of truth, facts, and reason in our highest political and ethical discourse.
If one more Trumpian tells me that Trump is playing 5 dimensional Chess I think I will puke, but I will keep on fighting against normalizing Trump and his idiocy.
2
Sorry, David, but my actual lived experience is that the Russians stole the 2016 presidential election for their buffoon/stooge Donald J. Trump who is doing the bidding of Putin abroad and anyone richer than him at home. It made my physically ill in November 2016 and I haven't completely recovered, and may never recover.
Great article. For nearly three years it’s been nothing but this idiot Trump. Millions of Americans would like nothing more than to never see or hear of him (or his stupid coterie) ever again...but...it’s the dolts that voted for him and the corrupt GOP that ensure this boondoggle will continue for at least another couple of years. It’s like being trapped in a submarine with Roseanne Barr.
I will say that this current moment in America definitely puts to bed the notion of the “forgotten men and women” in “flyover country”. We’ve had to wrestle with their decision to elect this rube day-in, day-out. And guess what guys? Here’s your champion. After this president fails it will soon be time to deal with reality. Some of us will be vociferous harbingers.
"My instinct is that the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians because there never was an actual Trump campaign — at least not in any organized sense of that word."
Talk about a fantasy world. This remark indicates that you know them well.
4
Humanity ordinarily is mesmerized by the bizarre, whether natural phenomena or human freaks. Sensational murders and murderers always captivate people - think Manson. Then there are freak politicians who captivate the masses - Hitler, Huey Long, Mussolini, Joe McCarthy, Juan Peron. The relatively quiet, competent politicians go about their jobs, which is to improve the quality of life of their constituency. But, the shouters, the blamers, the rabble rousers, have little interest in the people other than for self aggrandizement. The shouters and blamers mesmerize the masses, either because they are freaks or because many people don't recognize they are freaks and support them as they lead the fools to catastrophe. I'm counting on what I believe is fact that there are more sensible people in the US then fools. There are stronger government institutions and more dedicated public employees than there are know nothings who want to tear the whole thing down. Gullibility is an ordinary human behavior typically based on ignorance. Brooks routinely and importantly urges education, often through the classic thinkers of human experience. Critical thinking is the key, but we don't see that from Trump the self promoter, megalomaniac, shouter, blamer. But, as in the general population, I suspect that there are more sensible people than fools in the White House, too, supported by Mattis and Pompeo. We'll get through it, but not without paying a price.
1
What we should do is impeach. Full stop.
1
We can’t start fantasyzing impeachment it will eventually manifest.
Wait two days...
Brooks will find a reason to write something affirming T’s smart-like-a-fox strategies.
Never fails. Not once. Like a pendulum.
Looking to past notable despots who also created realities (Hitler, Stalin), we reacted with a better definition of ourselves. Even when Nixon's dirty tricks were unveiled, we were asked, 'Is this what we stand for?', and we rejected it. When this Trump nightmare is over, we will come together to reject the fantasy world in favor of an aspirational vision 'with liberty and justice for all.'
1
Mr Brooks,
Trump's fallacies may be an immediate concern, but of far greater concern are the American fallacies that gave rise to the Trumps we endure.
These weren't scripted by Hefner or Kesey. They were seeds sewn by Locke and later Rand and all the myth-makers of U.S. self-determination, exceptionalism, and hegemony.
And what has that brought us? Not just Trump - but far more dangerous - Bolton. It has also brought us other myths - the myth of the great meritocracy. The myth that markets are good for democracy.
This country is at a breaking point not because of the doings of a mean-spirited little troll-in-chief, but because of both the myths that produced him and the fear and fantasies that engender his acceptance.
+
“The world cannot go on without usury, without avarice, without pride, without whoring, without adultery, without murder, without stealing, without blaspheming of God and all manner of sins; otherwise the world would cease to be the world, and the world would be without the world and the Devil without the Devil. Usury must be, but woe to the usurers.”
Luther
2
"My instinct is that the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians because there never was an actual campaign." They never really conspired? They only conspired a little, then? Or as Trump would say: "A teeny, teeny little bit"?
Brooks' own words support the premise of his argument, but the scary thing is, he doesn't seem to get this.
Throughout the article Brooks admits he's easily suckered by Trump, but he dosn't explain why, (head-space analysis aside,) probably because he doesn't really know.
It's a sad day when even a savvy writer for the NYT naively believes that Trump can save the day with North Korea, and that he didn't really do anything wrong with Russia - while his own newspaper has been demonstrating the contrary for a year and a half.
2
It is too bad the Modern French Philosopher Jean Baudrillard isn't around any longer to provide us with some helpful commentary. Trump seems like the living embodiment of Baudrillard's hyperreality, where "...what is real and what is fiction are seamlessly blended together so that there is no clear distinction between where one ends and the other begins."
Trump is our first 100% hyperreal President, and hopefully our last 100% hyperreal President.
94
Mr. Brooks, you didn't only sympathize with Trump's efforts to give North Korea an opportunity to change (as you put it), you wrote that his idiotic, incurious posturing might somehow be a perfect strategy for progress. You are too eager to be the right's apologist, and the left's scold. And now when things fall apart, you advise everyone to simply look the other way.
1
Yes, great article. Two points from London.
Both your article and the people who comment seem to see fantasy games as an American thing: I don't think the UK is much different. I have also lived in Latin America, and there's plenty of unreality there. It's even got a name: magical realism. A different kind of fantasy, but still fantasy. It's human, more than American (but true).
For me, the most important line in your great piece is near the end: "We're in the middle of some vast historical transition". Yes. it's the decline and fall of Anglo-Saxon hegemony. It'll take a while, but we are losing ground. China is putting $60 billion into Africa; India is growing at 7-8% a year; Brazil is recovering; South Africa is on the move. It'll take a while to decline, but we've had our shot at being top dog, and I think that is the 'vast historical transition'. Time to make way for the next guys. I hope they are kinder to us than we were to them.
Thanks for an enlightening piece.
3
The Trump era will quickly blow over. He will be remembered as an historical anomaly...The type of con artist who comes along every few hundred years with the right amount of gall and psychopathy to reach the pinnacle of political power. Fortunately for the U.S., our founding fathers figured that exact type of person into the equation when they wrote the Constitution. If anything, the Trump Debacle will show us the seams in our Republic, so we can further strengthen it. Historians will remember Donald Trump as the idiot who, because of an extraordinary set of circumstances, managed to ascend to pinnacle of political power in our system. If our republic last another 200 years it will surely happen again, but I believe our system will be in an even better position to resist. Don't fret Donald the anomaly!
1
I'm not sure if I would call "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" fantasy. Also, Tom Wolfe documented Ken Kesey's later exploits in "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test." There's an interesting, almost anthropological, cross-reference in Hunter S. Thompson's "Hells Angels." They were all hanging out together at one point. That's not fantasy. The experience is more like multiple artists drawing the same still-life. The apple is still an apple. However, different people will project their interpretation of an apple in different ways.
To wit, fantasy is a genre. All genres have certain conventions. Most fantasies follow the hero's journey. The better ones know how to distort the archetype in creative ways. The truly great ones impart an understanding to reality that extends beyond the fantasy. I personally admire Ursula K. LeGuinn in this regard. If you want to talk about deceivingly simplistic fantasy that is monumentally complex, she is your author. Philip Pullman is another good example.
The point though is to always read critically. This is a learned skill. Once you learn how to do it though, you'll have a hard time enjoying fiction ever again. You really have to work to let your appreciation for the craft go and wade into the author's un-reality. With Trump, you shouldn't ever let this happen. Think of Trump as an author. You should be constantly examining the author's intent. What is his fantasy attempting to accomplish? That's how you make reality objective again.
Thinking the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians is your own fantasy. Members of the "campaign" no matter how idiotic, repulsive, criminal, they are.....had meetings with Russians. Draw a straight line and be done with it.
Your piece frames this caustic fantasy well. The fantasy is a bore. Predictable. The class clown distracts the serious students from forging ahead. Shameful.
David, the man is a liar. L. I. A. R. Say it. Liar. It is easy.
5
He is a toon.
Was Hitler's "world" a "magical fantasy?" Was Joseph Goebbels' "Big Lie" a fantasy world? Was Joe McCarthy's "McCarthyism" a fantasy world? I doubt not, on all accounts. Because it is chaotic, we miss the purpose behind the behavior. They are filled with intentions, none good.
Mr. Brooks seems to be cautioning us about the danger of falling in to it, and I quite agree with him on this point. Just as it would be wrong to agree with Hitler that the Jews were the cause of all their problems, we need to remain strong and reject what is a constant assault on our senses, basic beliefs, decency, and common sense. What we are witnessing, however, is not a fantasy. It does not get more real than this.
The world does not know what to do with Mr. Trump. You can't ignore him (he needs to be watched) and you can't agree with him (though many of our people do and are prone to the constant conditioning that Trump heaps on people everyday in an effort to break them down and turn them in to believers). Frankly, there is no conversing with him and his cohorts.
Mr. Mueller needs to be allowed to continue to do his work, and lets see where that goes. To conclude in advance, as Mr. Brooks seems willing to do, that Trump did not collude with the Russians seems oblivious to the way crooks operate in general. Regardless, it should be obvious to all by now that the Russians did in fact manipulate the outcome and the results are not legitimate. There is much to do to avoid a repetition.
194
This is a masterpiece. Thank you.
13
Trump is us.
"... and it’s very hard to know what to believe in."
A statement like this, is why it is extremely difficult to take anything David Brooks writes- seriously. Is it really hard to know what to believe in David? Was that just a sentence you added because you didn't know to end (another) lackluster effort in political apologetics? If you do not know "what" to believe at this stage of life; please stop writing stuff you want the rest of us to take seriously.
2
The world according to Brooks is as absurd as the one according to Trump. Brooks quotes from some well known but mostly irrelevant texts or from some new book or essay that is tangentially relevant to the larger topic to make his point. But what is his point? Trump is a certified liar not a fantasist. He has nothing to do with fictional characters of Roth or Fitzgerald or Wolfe. Those characters are three dimensional creations, Trump is a one dimensional liar and quoting many of his cabinet and staff members, an idiot.
3
Mr. Brooks, the correct term is "acid-dropping," not "acid-dripping."
1
Please, please, please just shut up about Trump, all of you. My God!
3
Oh dear Jesus! Trump in the same orbit with Tom Wolfe and Philip Roth?
Wolfe and Roth used wit and intelligence to project surreal versions of real social phenomena onto our cultural screen.
Trump is a liar. Crude and stupid. He isn't imaginative or sensitive enough to either create or convey a cogent fantasy.
Brooks characterizing Trump in this way is a contemporary version of "Being There," but with a much meaner and dumber version of Chance the gardener. At least Chance could garden. Trump couldn't grow a dandelion.
174
Your point is well taken. However, what Roth and Wolfe did in their lifetimes was chronicle those fantasies of the culture around them as they saw it. The light they shined on our society was introspective and brilliant. They were the best of the messengers of our era.
7
And to add to that, as you are on the topic of literary giants, Trump can barely read. Public speaking and his colloquialisms are so banal and lack creativity, making him hard to listen to...and don't even ask him to write! His twitter posts say it all about his literacy.
How this guy went to a highly respected university is beyond me. Another classic example of elite parents pulling strings to give junior everything, even if he didn't earn it and doesn't deserve it.
That the "base" falls for the self made man mantra is laughable. He doesn't have the basics down and just was born lucky. Self made people usually know how to study, work hard, and grow something from nothing and not lose it.
18
Mr Brooks,
I agreed in 90% of your observations... and thank you for recognizing that you also had been caught in some of Trump's fantasy statements (like the North Korea's affair). But I disagree in your statement about the Russia's collusion affair.
Trump's campaign probably was a sum of disorganized efforts of a bunch of relatives and hangers-on... But all of them (including Trump) believe that "win" is all what it matters.
If something Trump's Biography shows is that Trump is willing to use any resources in his hands (ethical and un-ethical) to win. So, if someone reached them with a possible "tool" that they could you used against their competitor... I am sure that they met them.
Unfortunately for them, in business, this kind of meetings don't have the risk of visibility that they have in politics. They are very accustomed to get anything no matter how un-ethical it could be without being caught... Facts don't matter, only matters the story that they can "sell" later. Logic doesn't matter... the current "story" could contradict the previous one, if the new story is able generate doubts in the public opinion or awake some collective fears... that is enough... The only important is to win...
Unfortunately (for us) someone sold the idea that these kind of guys are winners. That they are smarter than the common folks who work every day and pay their taxes... and it is more sad to see that some of those common folks believe it.
2
WE see now, among us, the people who value not decency, kindness and most importantly, logic. The man that poses as president is a sad excuse for a human being. Grotesque outbursts, childess tantrums and poor eating habits are all indicative of the self indulgent and he has drawn from the crowd those who resemble himself. But many of us are aware of his Plan. It is a simple fascist schedule of chaos. He takes great pride in exploiting the ugly things in life, his rampant racism at the forefront, as he leads his mobs at rallies that satisfy his ego, albeit briefly. It is those that stand around him that should frighten us. Those with the power to stop him but instead fill their pockets. They are reality. My fanatsy is that they all be punished to the full extent of the law.
236
This is the most insightful and cogent critique of Trump and Trumpism I've read to date.
16
It is indeed a magical thinking world created by the president where his chaos, racism, lack of decency, many lies and false narratives, and assault on the rule of law, money is king attitudes may lead to a real life situation (not fantasy) where he and some who have surrounded him are led to punished to the full extent of the law.
9
So well said, lulu roche!
5
Brooks makes some very salient observations here, most importantly that playing his game is a losing proposition. Inasmuch as they cover points I've made in multiple comments, it seems appropriate to simply let Brooks say it more succinctly. I do hope that, for a change, if others want to disagree with Brooks, they argue the points he makes, not merely call him names or dismiss what he writes because of political positions he may or may not have taken years ago.
"My instinct is that the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians because there never was an actual Trump campaign — at least not in any organized sense of that word. It was a bunch of relatives and hangers-on having random meetings with some vague hope of personal and professional enrichment."
"The first problem is you can’t beat Trump at his own fantasy game. As Daniel Boorstin understood back in 1962, you can’t refute an image with a fact. Every pseudo-event 'becomes all the more interesting with our every effort to debunk it.' Trump gets to monopolize attention ever more comprehensively and deepen his credibility as anti-establishment hero."
"The second problem is that when you agree to operate within his fantasy, even if you are motivated by the attraction of repulsion, you’ve given the man your brain. Sometimes my Trump-bashing friends and I seem like puppets on his string."
"The more time we spend on the Trumpian soap opera, the less likely we are to know where we are or what we should do."
2
Excellent article. Let’s assume everything you say is correct. Now what?
The simple answer is the Mueller report; whether he finds collusion or not. That report will bring the fantasy back to reality. Both non-fanatical Trump supporters and opposition will have to take this seriously. No matter how tacitly supportive of Trump the Republicans in Congress have been, they will now be forced to deal with this new reality.
3
Ok so Mueller issues a report that finds strong evidence of Trump collusion with the Russians. Exactly how does a congress controlled by the Republicans have to do anything, given that trumps supporters won’t waver.
Definitive proof, which a large percent will not be able to ignore.
Behind the trump magical fantasies, which are for public consumption only, he is behind the scenes carrying out a very real destruction of governmental institutions that, over decades, were put in place to make America a somewhat, though still imperfect, civilized society.
That's all going out the window as the predators are being freed to take advantage of the rest of us.
8
It's probably no coincidence that the states (or counties
within a state) that have a serious opioid problem are
also "Trump County". Fantasy world is better than real
world.
5
But the "achievements" of this administration, e.g. repealing environmental and financial regulations, tax cuts for the wealthy that add to the deficit, are not fantasy. They will come back to severely bite us.
8
The fantasyland that enabled our current President to insult his way into American consciousness (and history) is a function of something I have observed in my High School and Middle School New York City classrooms. Many students (especially the boys) are reaching for a lifestyle that is some weird combination between "whatever you're big enough to get away with" and "I can do anything I want and there's nothing you can do about it." The two idealized, fantastical professions that stand out: Movie star and Professional Athlete. For teenagers deciding on their own futures, each choice has it's merits - and it's pitfalls. To become a pro athlete, there's a lot of genetics at work - not something we can "create" through practice. But still, this idealized profession remains (and should remain) a goal for schoolyard players trying their best to do good in something they love. As long as they realize its a long shot they're encouraged to dream big - and that's good. For movie stars, the acting profession is based on one person's skill at pretending to be someone else. For teenagers trying to figure out their lives, this, too is an admirable goal, but one that flies against a central developmental goal for teenagers everywhere - to try and figure out who they are, and follow that reality to its logical, happy end. Actors learn to pretend to be someone they're not - which is sort-of the flip side of finding yourself. Ironic? Yes. Problematic? That too. American? Absolutely.
3
Most intelligent Americans don't buy into the Trumpian fantasy. Republicans do mainly for power reasons and their fantasy of tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation, and limited government but with government
run for the cultural biases of the religious right,
4
Don't forget the years of brainwashing, the steady diet of lies, that Republicans and right-wing media have fed to their followers. Not only are there the outright lies about Obama and Clinton, but endlessly repeated distortions that stoked the fear, isolation, and paranoia of people who now think:
- elites spend their days hating on them
- science is an elite crock so no one need worry about climate change or epidemics
- there have been no indictments by Mueller and his investigation, and
- there is an immigrant horde storming our southern border.
Americans are spoiled into thinking non reality and seeing non reality. Unbridled capitalism has pushed non reality beyond imaginable limits. Commercials on TV are ignorant. Mostly written by frat boys straight out of college, who strive for what sells, not what's right & correct. Greed has replaced goodness. Ignorance has replaced intelligence. Tribalism has replaced the common good. Superstition has replaced scientific fact. Just as when the common brown rat lives in an overpopulated condition, the community falls apart - the group goes for each others throats. They eat each others babies. (That reminds me of the great republican tax cut as of late. They are eating the wherewithall of future generations.) It doesn't have to be this way. But because of ignorance, greed, superstition, and tribalism, we have President Chump.
2
Jimmy Carter was a fantasist, too. It's not about the malaise.
Herbert Hoover was a fantasist. It's not about fiscal discipline.
George H. W. Bush was a fantasist. It's not about making the world a better place.
Because they were all fantasists (accepting Mr. Brook's broad use of the term), the body politic rejected them at the first opportunity.
Same will happen here.
Time goes by, people react, things change. This article suggests that Americans are idiots, easily distracted by shiny objects and incapable of discerning the facts (the prevailing view in New York and Washington, but not realistic). In truth, Americans have shown over many decades of challenge and travail that they are pretty practical people who are perfectly clear in regard the difference between fantasy and reality and ready to act in their own best interests, along those lines.
2
I wish I could write like that!
Yes, they're not lounging in smoking jackets or dropping acid where I live. Most opioid abuse is based on real, physical pain - it's not recreational. Look at the size of wheelchairs these days!
The great myth of these comments is that the whirlwind of drama and unhinged reality involves, or even includes, Trump supporters. Life goes on here (fly-over country) with remarkably little concern for the hysteria that has engulfed the left. (There is a singular cable news outlet on the right that's in the fray, all other stations seem to have a collective, reactionary viewpoint.) I often work in the the most blighted, urban area of the country. It's not clear to me that Trump's impact there is significant (yet), much less negative. Trump does seem to be managing this political swirl that Brooks is embedded in. Not bad for a complete idiot... the left needs to re-evaluate their take on the facts.
2
John Marion was a pretty boy. John Ford invented John Wayne.
2
It is equally important to know how we got here, Mr. Brooks. Would you care to expound? I suggest you start with the year 1980.
8
David concludes by saying: “The more time we spend on the Trumpian soap opera, the less likely we are to know where we are or what we should do.”
Guess it’s a case of “Do as I say, not as I do”?
3
Ideology kills freedom.
Trump and his unstructured , unnamed , ideology is killing America's freedom.
Maduro's socialism killed everything In Venezuela
it goes on and on..
But the core is: Ideology kills freedom .
3
What is Trump’s ideology?
Mr. Brooks....a few weeks ago you said that Trump was maybe the perfect person to deal with North Korea since he had thuggish tendencies (I may be paraphrasing a bit).
Why do you keep trying to explain this man, who really only cares about himself and no one or nothing else?
He knows nothing and is not interested in knowing about anything, if it does not directly affect him.
10
Another column about the insanity of Trump telling us to ignore the insanity of Trump. Repeat next week.
6
Fantasy, magical thinking in American life trumps reality?
Probably one of the biggest brakes on human progress is human cowardice, the inability to see one's self realistically, to accept one's limitations. On one hand we speak of the need for human progress, that human life in the future, that the caliber of humanity itself in health, mental and physical capacity, will be better than today, but on the other hand in any number of deceptive ways each person tries to make him or herself last, to go down in time, be remembered by the future.
More often than not it seems by our behavior and actions we do not want the future, not to mention the people of the future, to be superior to ourselves. If the future really is better not to mention the people in it, then we are deservedly forgotten or remembered merely as the "old model", or spoken of at worst as we now speak of the Neanderthals.
Even worse, we often cannot stand accomplishments greater than ourselves which have already occurred, which is to say all the towering genius of the past and in history books. In a sense all that is harbinger of the human future, and here we are stuck in the middle, resentful of past greatness, trying to be remembered yet ironically speaking of the future and the people in it being better than what we have today.
Really, does any mass of humanity at any given time really have the courage to bring a future better than itself into existence and if so, is it largely despite itself?
Once a “shrink” establishes their client has a delusion they ignore the delusion lest it gives it credence.Any time you respond to a delusion you energize it and it grows more powerful. No guarantee even that will work but it sometimes does. Short of that there are drugs which seem to help assuming the person takes them. Since the media is not likely to ignore Trump and he is not likely to take drugs, we are stuck. The republicans know he is not all there but they know a good thing when they see it. He’s banana’s and their immoral. And lastly, as a matter of opinion the democrates, as an opposition, are useless. What to do? Take to the streets, folks. Good luck.
1
David,
There is absolutely nothing new here, except in degree. When "Tail Gunner' MCarthy started his Red Hunt in the 50's, much of the population grasped onto the straw that there were boogeymen everywhere trying to destroy our democracy. Our country, with the Allies, had just destroyed such a creature in Europe, yet a good deal of the American people grabbed onto that fantasy and destroyed many lives. Fortunately, he was stopped. Then, along came Nixon. Not so much a person living in fantasy land but someone who embraced conspiracy theories as real. He deluded himself. Again, the law prevailed and our democracy held.
This time, it is quite different. The magical thinking that Trump and cronies spreads with their lies has been absorbed by the Republican Party. What happened this week is one of the greatest threats to our way of life that this 65 year-old man has ever seen. If the shoe were on the other foot, these Republicans would be calling the POTUS a "traitor", and they'd be right. We are treading precariously on a road to fascism at worst and at best a new reality of the power of the President and the loss of the vital separation of powers envisioned by our Founding Fathers.
We celebrate Memorial Day this weekend for those who fell defending our freedom. The Trump Republicans dishonor their sacrifice by not stopping this con man in his tracks.
4
This trip into Fantasyland has been going on for quite some time, perhaps beginning with the Me Generation and accelerating with the advent of 'reality' TV, of which Trump is its most successful progeny. There is a line toward the end of the movie 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' that goes 'when the legend becomes fact, print the legend', which refers to the press discovering the truth behind who really shot Liberty Valance. Today, this line could be 'when life meets fact, live the fantasy'. Too bad life is real.
1
I loved the SNL season-ending skit last week that likened the Sopranos series finale to a possible Trumpian end. Black-out. Nothing left. Nevermore. Over. If only it were true. If only all the lies were gone into oblivion, never to be resurrected. Never to be lived out in reality. Never to be believed. Ahhh, fantasy.
1
If you haven't noticed, Trump's favorite adjective is "incredible".
Ignoring trump also has its pitfalls, primarily his disregard for our laws and his looting of the treasury. So this obligation rest primarily with the media to investigate what is going on behind the trump flimflam and less on the show itself. Just this week we have been treated by the media to endless analysis of the Senate Intelligence committee dog and pony show and the trumpian distraction of trump's chief of staff and attorney inappropriately attending the hearing. We got an earful about the trumpian North korea drama and exchange bullying. And yet Politico reported a significant story on trump's loose use of his cell phone and circumventing security protocols after having criticized Hillary ad nauseum about her loose use of emails. Does this not pose a threat to our national security. Nothing has appeared in the NYT about this. Why have we not as yet seen trump's tax returns. Why have we had no reporting on his continued operations of his and his families business interests. So David, yes let us have less soap opera.
3
Brook's list: F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Wayne, Tom Wolfe, Ken Kesey, Phillip Roth, and Donald Trump.
Here's one of the logic questions you might expect to see on the SATs: Which one of those names does NOT belong in this list?
Only one of them has ever had access to the nuclear football. Only one can start a trade war, expel millions of people from the country, and dismantle safeguards that protect our air and drinking water.
Only one of them ever told others to "Rough 'em up," which then resulted in physical assaults against minorities and political opponents.
Only one of these men has an impact that goes beyond the pages of a book or the scenes of a movie.
The fantasies of this one outlier affects our daily lives. Unlike the others in this list, he can't be shut off by simply closing a book or turning off the TV. An obsession with this man's daily pronouncements and actions is no more an addiction than an obsession with other non-fantasies like one's own cancer.
So, Mr. Brooks, there may be some truth in your observation that Trump has created a fantasy world that we all must inhabit. But you minimized the part where Trump's fantasies affects our lives in a very real way.
3
A second point, please...
I think Brook's thesis here is incorrect. The reality-bending worlds surrounding Hefner, Kesey, etc., who Roth and Wolfe wrote about, involves affluent America, America's elite. The working class and under-employed in middle America did not participate much in these fantasy worlds, much less drive them (as they have done in Trump's popularity). And Trump supporters have not culturally embodied their leader, who is very unlike them. Surely there was a rich, imaginative alternative reality in Marie Antoinette's unhinged world (whereby she purportedly proclaimed, "let them eat cake".)
3
I alternate between rage, frustration, deep sadness and despair these days. Rage at the man and the voters. Despair that so many people voted for this vile man. Despair over the fact that his approval ratings have actually risen. Sadness that so many people agree with this racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, lying man. But I'm trying to focus that sickening bunch of emotions into something positive. Some days I do better than others. I've marched, met, emailed, tweeted, facebooked. But I've realized I need to focus my energies on the most important, basic stuff: searching for the most promising house and senate candidates and supporting them. Thinking carefully about the best candidate to challenge Trump and the best platform and the best messaging. Doing what I can to get a unified Dem party.
But if we Dems can't get our act together and defeat this guy, then I'll know what real despair is.
4
Not bad, David, but “a bunch of relatives and hangers-on having random meetings with some vague hope of personal and professional enrichment” may have constituted CRIME in the most ordinary sense of the word; if so, such would require PUNISHMENT as we commonly understand that.
4
David Brooks has always had a tremendous capacity for fantasy. Ronald Reagan is his hero because he constructed a fantasy version of himself and then attempted to live it. The Whigs are a long-dead political party from 150 years ago, of which he still believes he is a member.
For many years Brooks' fantasist and realist impulses existed in rough balance. But now fantasy seems to be sweeping the field.
I’d say the crucial pivot was when Donald Trump was elected by Brooks' down to earth common-sense Republican people, aided and abetted by almost every single Republican office holder. Since then, Brooks has let the fantasy dog out for a romp. Well aware that Trump represents evil, he has created a fantasyland in which the Republican Party is somehow separate from Donald Trump
Brook’s fantasies regularly collide with reality, and so far reality has a perfect winning percentage.
The dangerous thing about Brooks’s fantasy world is the same as for every other Republican who has been seduced by this combination of historical time and situation. Like a poor kid being offered an easy life by the local gang leader, it's actually not that surprising that Republicans have fallen into their current life of dishonesty and moral dissolution.
Brooks is near the end of his increasingly sad run, and it's very easy to know what to believe in. The more time we spend on Brooks and people like him, the more trouble American democracy will be in
7
For Republicans to contemplate the error of their voting ways, they need to be shown the same sort of compassion extended to victims/survivors of domestic violence.
If they begin to consider themselves to blame, but only receive a message from others that they are nothing but stupid because their choice of partnering with a violent person, and therefor worthless, they frequently remain incapable of finding safe solutions , and frozen into their plight.
They need compassion, and positive strokes: "No, you are not a worthless person. You CAN overcome a mistake. A mistake does not have to haunt and damage you forever. You CAN move on! You CAN walk away from the person who is abusing you." Vote with your feet, Republican.
When I referred to the poor (Republican) kid being offered an easy life by the local gang leader, I was referring to the congressmen and senators. I agree victims need compassion, but those people have achieved such material rewards and are so far along in life that I am not incredibly concerned for their well being. Typical Republican voters, yes, the need compassion.
I think the media should just stop reporting on what Trump says and just report what is happening....... "after a very odd exchange via Twitter the North Korea summit is off". Don't give us Donald's tweet fabrications. Most of us probably don't follow him and so would not have a clue what he is saying and it is meaningless. Look at the grins of the crowd in the photo with this story. These are people being told a fantasy by a reality "tv star" not people listening to the President of the United States about his policies.
1
What lameness, what insecurity, what poverty of thought drives conservatives like Brooks to blame liberals for the sins and stupidity of the right?
Trump's narcissism, ignorance, and sociopathy are somehow of a piece with, the fault of, Roth and Wolfe?
Give me a break!
5
Trump has had more attention and been the subject of more of the national dialogue than any thing or anyone else since he began his campaign. Not even the real important actions by him and his administration have received enough coverage for many to be aware of them and next to no analysis nor background on them seems to get much attention. He has the nation mesmerized and behaving like fools.
1
Mr. Brooks, you have spelled out our Trumpian Catch 22 which says we must not talk about Trump, but need to talk about him to begin ignoring him. Its like going to a party to meet friends then finding the biggest bore and loud mouth following you every where. The only way to avoid him is to leave the party, but if more than half of us leave the party the bore just crows louder claiming a victory. So here we are suffering and listening to the bore's rants and trying to be civilized hoping he will just go away. We can't let him get our goat, but the whole thing is excruciating especially when so many are condoning his behavior.
But is also true that this guy could be really dangerous as he begins to upset the furniture and promotes fist fights. Someone needs to be there to call the COPS.
3
Let's bullet point it for the critical thinking cognitively impaired:
Legal term for "creating fantasy" - fraud or to defraud.
Legal term for organized crime family -- Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization often guilty of conspiracy to defraud.
Sins of media---normalization of abhorrent criminal behavior
False equivalency.
2
Whether Trump's "magical world" is built of fantasy or outright lies is not unimportant but may be besides the point.
This dangerous mess we've found ourselves in could easily have been avoided if Republicans in Congress had taken their oath to country seriously and decided that they would not treat this mans transgressions differently than any other president.
We've now gone so far down that road that correcting it gets exponentially more difficult every day. Despite that, it needs to start as soon as possible and it's on the majority party, the Republicans to wake up and do their jobs. Unfortunately the party is comprised of ideologues and greedy corporate shills so expecting them to save us may be the real fantasy.
1
Thank you for helping me realize there’s something wrong with me too because of all the attention I pay to Trump . How could I have hung onto every word from such a person ?
I decided to stop reading so much about Trump a month ago. He is a needy ego-maniac who always needs the spotlight on him, him, him just like the evil stepmother in "Snow White". "Mirror mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all". What would really get to him is if we ignored him as much as possible. No reporting on tweets unless he tweets he is going to blow up North Korea today. His tweets are senseless idiocy and we should ignore them. What would he do if he didn't have the evil, lying mainstream media to kick around. That does not mean the NYT and other honest newspapers can stop covering him, but keep it simple and boring. Pretend lackluster Pence is president. In the run up to the election how we loved reading about his insanity and all the press, negative or positive, helped elect him because we never saw it coming just like the quarterback we doesn't see the guy coming at him from the alt-right side. We need to look at him with a cold deadly eye and keep him out of the spotlight he loves so much, as much as is possible.
Page 17 from now on.
I had a second epiphany after reading some comments and listening to my wife who pointed out that media are forced to publish this to keep ratings up. So I wondered why Fox eg wants to keep this Reality TV show going? Because there is commerce to be had. Not just Fox but CNN, MSNBC, NYT, WaPo etc. This suggests that there is an endless loop. We will never get truth only more Reality Show. When we lose Trump it will be someone else. Sure, we will all know and we won't care until, like the ship in "Finest Hours", it all breaks in half.
Embrace the fake.
In many areas fantasy trumps reality. We have celebrities who are famous for nothing. We have politicians who claim to be fiscally responsible who run up massive debt. We have high school graduates who we pretend have 12th grade level skills when actual tests show 19% of high school graduates read at below the 5th grade level. We send more and more of these folks to college to hang out, learn next to nothing, then give them a bachelors degree. And of course we have a fake president. It all makes perfect sense if you embrace the fake.
Sure, Trump is fooling many people. Until few days ago, he was fooling Brooks himself who said Trump was making progress in trade in China and peace with NK. In fact, Trump was been outplayed by both. Now, Brooks suggests that the Trump campaign did not exist beyond a handful of relatives and thus could not have colluded with Russia. It is exactly the opposite. Trump “campaign” colluded with Russia and other countries because they were a bunch of amateurs. Formal campaign members would know better and would not collude with foreign countries to win the election. Logic is something you do not learn by reading many literature books.
1
I think, or perhaps only hope, that the North Korea blunder may finally be the turning point. That this blaring, glaring foreign policy failure may at last show enough fence-sitting Americans (never his "base") that the man behind the curtain is even less than the debunked Oz, a vainglorious balloon of a nothing puffed up with tons of nitrous oxide. I can't even believe he ran a company, and I guess the bankruptcies and bill-stiffing prove he largely didn't. America, wake up.
If it is possible, let us all ignore Trump but focus on his attack on our institutions. This asks us to become more involved in the political process by writing to our Representatives and Senators to display our anger and by all means vote against them in November.
We are stuck with Trump at the moment. He doesn't deserve attention. Please, NYT, do your part to help us by not sensationalizing his every move.
2
This is a graceful essay, but it misses the big point. Donald Trump may be up to his eyebrows in fantasy, but he is also almost certainly a criminal, and possibly a traitor. Our problem is not his toxic narcissism, but the paralysis of the Congress under the leadership of men, and sometimes the odd woman, who refuse to apply the law to him. The rule of law is at stake; neither John Wayne nor Jay Gatsby ever came close to threatening the law or the Constitution. Mr. Brooks, you are lost in literary analysis when you should be focusing on the law, and it worries me.
1
Magical fantasy world.
We only lost because the Russians were colluding with Trump to plot Hillary’s downfall.
There is an added twist to the Russian story.
It turns out the reason the Russians didn’t want Hillary was because the oligarch’s were already starting to complain about how high she was going to jack her bribery rates.
1
“The dangerous thing about Trump’s fantasy world is not when it dissolves into nothing; it’s when he seduces the rest of us to move into it. It’s not when he ignores the facts; it’s when he replaces them by building an alternate virtual reality and suckering us into co-creating it.”
Apparently David doesn’t read the Times or perhaps doubts that it appeals to many.
1
Trump is vaudeville and we can’t get enough. Democracy is messy, confusing and boring. We have the attention span of guppies. So who wins? Even if journalists report on the current dismantling of the constitution and the daily dissolution of our democracy, no one will notice until we are all in gulags wondering what happened to our civil rights and why is it taking so long for our lawyer to arrive.
Your general observations about our society seem right on the mark. But your conclusions about the effects of Trump seem wildly off, as though you're advancing political rhetoric. What's a good example of the "current dismantling of our constitution"? The "daily dissolution of our democracy"? Really?
Fantasy derives from the Latin, "phantasia", meaning an idea or notion. The older Greek word, "phantasia" meant the appearance of a thing. The oldest word ancestor of fantasy is from the Indo-European word "bha", meaning to gleam, shine; the root of the Old English word, "bonian", to ornament. The gleam of a diamond facet, while real, is not the diamond. 45 focuses on the appearance and not on the substance. David, you wrote, "The more time we spend on 45's soap opera, the less likely we are to know where we are or what we should do." Mark Twain's short story, "A Fable" comes to mind. It begins with an artist painting a beautiful picture and hanging it on a wall directly opposite of a mirror. The artist liked what he had done, claiming the affect doubled the size of the room and made the room twice as lovely. His cat thought the same way and told all the animals about the beauty of the experience. The donkey spoiled the animals' enthusiasm and curiosity by saying, "when it took a whole basket full of sesquipedalian adjectives to whoop up a thing of beauty, it was time for suspicion." And that is where we are, in the time of suspicion. From the fantasy worlds of literature and cinema, we need a real Truman and Katniss Everdeen to pierce and shatter the dome of projected fantasies that have all the reality of a glimmer.
1
Magical, fantastic thinking in American life?
I'm personally involved, mentally, emotionally, physically, to high degree with this problem by trying to solve the Forrest Fenn Thrill of Chase poem which supposedly leads to a treasure in the Rockies somewhere north of Santa Fe New Mexico.
I seem to be the bad guy, the spoiler of the party on the internet, like I am everywhere else by asking hard questions about the whole Thrill of Chase. Fenn had apparently an existential crisis (he got cancer but recovered) then wrote a poem and hid a treasure, and the philosophical problem appears to be how difficult, how fair, how clear or vague the book and poem are, because on one hand it seems in Fenn's interest to have the Chase go on as long as possible, but in everybody else's interest that the book and poem are fairly precise, that a person can reasonably solve the poem and retrieve the treasure.
And of course gold is involved, the treasure is gold, jewels, artifacts...So we have thousands of people in largely non-reading America interested in of all things poetry, and no one can tell how vague or how clear, how fair this entire Chase is, people spending time, money, boots on the ground searching, no one knowing whether the poem has the answer suddenly around the corner so to speak or if it's hopelessly vague and one is just wasting one's time...
I'm concentrated at the moment trying to determine first if the book and poem can reasonably be solved. So far, no luck on my part.
"The more time we spend on the Trumpian soap opera, the less likely we are to know where we are or what we should do."
WE already know where WE are and WE know what WE should do. The only reason WE need to watch the rest of the soap opera is to know where ALL of the damage is that needs to be fixed, post-Trump.
3
I have to agree with Dr. Brooks that we live in fantasy land, but not just the USA, the whole world seems to be shifting towards authoritarianism, and the blind adoration of "Leaders". The examples are multitude in every continent; some type of doom feelings are guiding us all towards multiple types of fascism, where once again, people are converted into blind followers, and made believe all kind of outrageous things. I guess many people get offended by the comparison, but Germany in 1933 is the classic example of the falling of the most cultivated people in the world into the most demoniac behaviour the whole world had ever known. If it was possible in 1933, it's possible now.
There's some mystery in history. Where do those leaders come from? and what's in our minds that we follow them?. It seems that long spells of peace and prosperity feel boring and unrewarding, and we need something "new", like a war or an abrupt change that, needless to say, wont lead us anywhere.
The point is what to do; and I sense that nobody knows, and that nobody had ever known how to change that path to disaster.
1
I see the truth in your point that one of fascism's goals is to dominate the national conversation.
The charade of trumps canceling the summit is just another successful effort to dominate the 24 hour news cycle. It is also an effort to spin the eventual outcome into a purported success in the eyes of his base. Lastly I believe it is an effort to distract from the real damage that is being done to our democracy.
To cover or not to cover is a Faustian Catch 22.
3
Thank goodness Mr. Brooks is back. For a while he had me worried he'd jumped the Trump and become exceptance of The Donlad. However, I see my assumption was wrong. Like Mr. Brooks I view Trump as a Marco Sociological Imagiantion that gone bad.
Great columun David. Some days our nation turns its lonley eyes to you wu, wu, wu.
2
I'm re-reading the novels of one of the great, relatively under-appreciated 20th century writers - Eric Ambler. Ambler's elegant international thrillers usually feature an intelligent but naive protagonist who stumbles into a complex, morally ambiguous conflict between larger forces. The conflicts are based on historical reality. What lands the well-meaning protagonists into the deadly middle of them is a weakness for fantasy. Written four to seven decades ago, Ambler's stories are uncannily about our current eagerness to be led by illusion and the unforeseen real-life damage it brings.
1
He is good, writes like a dream. I got to him by wondering about a list of the great detective/mystery/thriller writers. I heard about Chandler and Hammett of course, then wondered about more of roughly the same. I haven't read any Agatha Christie yet. Will get to that eventually. So many books to read!
Just to put it in perspective, here's an illustration of the fantasy (a better term is delusion): Leading up the the Trump/GOP tax cut, particularly for corporations. Over 80% of Republicans believed Corporations were over taxed and in desperate need of a tax cut and that our economy would flounder without it. Here are the facts: Corporate before tax (before federal tax) profits equaled a total ~7.4 trillion in 2017 (quadrupled since 2003), and Corporations paid 400 billion in taxes (an aggregate tax rate of less 10%). The corporate tax cut is expected to relieve their tax burden by say 100 - 120 billion per year, increasing their after tax profits from 7.0 - 7.1 all things being equal. So in sum, Republicans believed with a straight face that 7.0 trillion in corporate after tax profits = a floundering economy, but a 7.1 trillion dollar in after tax profits = Corporations are finally going to get tired of all their sick profits and finally invest it in American workers and capital investments.
At the same time, shame on Democrats for failing to communicate these facts broadly to the American public and put it in perspective.
4
This trip into Fantasyland has been going on for quite some time, perhaps beginning with the Me Generation and accelerating with the advent of 'reality' TV, of which Trump is its most successful progeny. There is a line toward the end of the movie 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' that goes 'when the legend becomes fact, print the legend', which refers to the press discovering the truth behind who really shot Liberty Valance. Today, this line could be 'when life meets fact, live the fantasy'.
1
The nation is going through a transition where white male power wielders have to share it with others not like themselves. The time when they could negotiate among themselves and decide outcomes is rapidly fading. Trump, Ryan and McConnell are trying to rescue what they can for themselves while they can. They focus only on themselves and their supporters, promising to return to a time long past. In promising to restore what was, they cannot manage what is on the horizon - a world where the US will have to share power with others. Their moniker is exclusiveness. Me not we. In that conception of the world, there is no room for others. Those unlike them, have no place despite the fact we share the same spaces and are part of a larger world that is growing as their numbers decline.
While Trump and company are hard to ignore we cannot be guided by them. They are certainly the past dressed in today's fashion. But they have no vision for the future that can include the larger part of humanity. For the real task of the future is how we come together productively and responsibly to share the planet. In Trump's world of division and hate, this is not possible. He is on a collision course with the future, his presidency will not end well. For the rest of us, we must look to the future and work toward a time when our concern is the whole of humanity, not just a narrow slice.
5
People write about Trump with the idea that we should all be very concerned with what he says and does. I suspect that, because we elected him President of the United States, we think we should be. The facts of the matter suggest otherwise.
Anybody who said and did all the things Trump is doing should be laughed off the stage. Respect for the office is one thing. Respect for the present occupant is another.
4
David Brooks writes: "My instinct is that the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians because there never was an actual Trump campaign — at least not in any organized sense of that word. It was a bunch of relatives and hangers-on having random meetings with some vague hope of personal and professional enrichment." Oh, come on, David. Leaving aside the fact that the interactions seem to have been anything but "random" on the Russian side, all you need for collusion is people willing to collude, and there seem to have been quite a few of them working for Trump prior to the 2016 election -- and working with some knowledge of one another, whether fully "organized" or not.
One could say that Trump's administration isn't an "actual administration in any organized sense of the word," but that doesn't mean that they can't do damage by their disregard for both procedural norms and the rule of law. So let's have less of your "instinct," David, and some clearer thinking on such matters. I doubt very much that the hopes of this "bunch" were "vague" -- they intended to elect Trump and they sought to do so in ways that call for judgement. The ethical and legal grounds on which they can be judged are perfectly clear.
8
Great post, Stanley. A view of trump as campaign-lite followed by presidency-lite-- is not seeing the forest behind the admittedly confusing trees. The moneyed interests behind both are being enriched beyond their wildest dreams, exactly as directed by them and promised by their man trump. The Mercers, Koch brothers, Ichan, Adelson-- and many more who should be named but are not thanks to Citizens United-- are winning, biggly. This is no accident-- it was calculated. Just to focus on one "tree": Rex Tillerson, EXXON executive-- is secretary of state just long enough to destroy the department. And behind the scenes, US oil companies are allowed to export, Keystone pipeline is going through, emissions standards of the near future are being rolled back, and the consumer can barely keep up with the pump price jumps. Coincidence--- no way. "trumpian soap-opera?"-- no, all that is just distraction from what is really happening, deep in the forest.
1
David, you end your column with this sentence: "The more time we spend on the Trumpian soap opera, the less likely we are to know where we are or what we should do." Trump's fantasy-land or Hades if you prefer, is beautifully described in another Times' offering today, "Donald Trump’s Guide to Presidential Etiquette?"
The column proves your assertion that we are lost and have little recourse or protection.
More and more the Commenters focus on the November elections as the most viable solution and I wholeheartedly concur!
2
I’m confused Mr. Brooks. Looks like the Donald has a better grip on reality than you do. You don’t believe there was collusion, but at that same time support the Mueller investigation that appears open ended in a search for a crime that it can’t define and populated by partisans that use coercion to put the “squeeze” on the president. The FBI had an informant in the Trump Campaign, that is a spy in ever sense of the word. The FBI misused the Steele Dossier for FISA warrants to investigate Carter Page, Flynn and others and, in fact, listen to phone conversations within and between the Trump campaign staff. Sounds like wire-tapping to me. Comey and Mueller allowed hyper-partisan FBI agents to be principal investigators in the Clinton email “matter” and in the Trump campaign surveillance. And, of course, McCabe, who was in the thick of it all, his wife gets $700K from Clinton, via Terry McAuliffe. No Deep State here, just move along and let the non-partisan FBI do its business. Who better to lead this investigation than Comey’s bestie, Mueller.
2
You have just proven the point of this column. You have built a home in Trump's fantasyland where truth strengthens your residential resolve and fallacy doesn't matter.
justthefacts... where are your facts? A bit of counter-evidence, instead of rhetoric, would be welcome. Mark V offered grounded arguments.
Please speak to someone else, Mr. Brooks. I didn't vote for this man, didn't consider it for a nanosecond. Really don't want to be in the same space with someone who did. And while few will say it aloud even fewer will disagree with me. The daily disgust is palpable.
11
People who need to read Mr Brooks’ opinion don’t.
Yes, and part of this fantasyland is that there's no environmental deterioration we need worry about, and even if there might be (according to GOP orthodoxy, it seems) it is a presage for a second coming, which is probably a good thing. Americans don't wish to understand the incredible environmental destruction their lifestyles generate, so the more fantasyland they can be in about it not happening, the better. In other words, be selfish, sell the family jewels so you don't have to work hard in the moment, and hope the future doesn't involve you or that people put 2 and 2 together to realize you impoverished them. Our children and the unborn weep at our incredible lack of wisdom, and giving them an impoverished world when it didn't have to be so.
3
"My instinct is that the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians." So when did this instinct arise, Mr. Brooks? Most of your writing over the past two years does not support the "instinct" you now claim to possess.
I believe we're now starting to witness face-saving measures by the mainstream media in order to keep their positions of authority, despite missing a reality now emerging. This is similar to their grossly mistaken views about Trump's and Bernie's popularity throughout the country, Brexit in the UK, etc..
8
I think you're right on the money here, Carl.
1
Hearing DJT's voice is nauseating. Looking at his face is as well.
I feel enormous fear for my country and great pity for those who can even remotely entertain that he or anything connected with him is real, useful and good.
I believe he believes the things he says are all true. I do not think he can tell the difference between truth and lies nor would he care if he could. I think he is stupid and belligerent and that no one can influence him.
The people that support him and allow him to do whatever he wants are the real problem and that is not going to go away without strong leadership and push back. Obama is a fine human being and a good man but he was not ever a fighter. He wasted the first two years of his administration when the Dems were strong "reaching across the aisle" to people who hated him and wanted nothing more than to get rid of him. Without strong leadership and a whole lot of money (billions) on the Dem side to push back on the enormous propaganda machine developed by FOX and the purchase of the government with the help of the Supreme Court, and billionaires, the "religious" right and the NRA, those of us who are repulsed by all that is going on are lost.
No, we are not living in Trump's fantasy world. Far from it. We are living in the real world that gets weaker every day. Find us some leadership, Mr. Brooks. Help those of us who can see clearly now, as the rain has not yet gone.
3
There is an elephant standing right in the middle of David Brooks latest creation. It's the right wing propaganda campaign: the donor funded think tanks, the abuse of the 1st Amendment by Rupert Murdoch on FOX and various tabloids, right wing talk radio, Sinclair etc, etc, and the Mercer backed culture wars. Stop using the passive voice. We are under attack.
6
The real tragedy here is not just 'fantasies'. but half-truths, full lies, and a pusillanimous Republican Congress cow-towing to the a "president' who is 'unhinged' ( in the full sense of the word!).
2
Your best article in the last 50 years!
Interesting comment since he started writing for NY times in 2003
Lest we let the GOP off the hook, fantasy about global warming, fantasy about sex education, fantasy about trickle down economics, and the list goes on....
4
David -- You didn't sympathize with Trump's Korean folly -- you bought into it. Re read your Lizard theory for no more than two weeks ago. To paraphrase -- Trump has an insight into thugs because of his real estate dealings.
3
Exactly the point I was going to make. That Trump was almost a hero because he had this hard-knuckle way about him that could face down Kim because no one knew whether he'd really use a nuke. Now, Mr Brooks, that was the ultimate in fantasy thinking... And it didn't take too long to come undone...
1
Consider the possibility that Trump is an actor. You have to be a
good actor to seem so dumb. Consider further that his lines might
be written by a secret fraternity of writers not unlike...
David Brooks -- or Philip Roth. And not just for Trump. The whole
administration might be a giant fraternity stunt, with scripts
produced by the likes of Brooks or Roth.
Did you notice that when Trump went before the cameras to announce
the cancellation of the meeting with North Korea, his tie, rather than the customary
red or blue that he and all the suits usually standing around him
wear, was instead black and white striped? And that Pence had a
striped tie, except that its stripes sloped in the opposite
direction? Kind of weird.
If you enter "fake" into the Google Ngram Viewer, you'll see that
for the last century its frequency of usage has increased at an
exponential rate. Taken to the mathematically logical conclusion,
it means that saturation will be attained: everything will be
declared to be fake.
The 1961 essay by Roth that Mr. Brooks cites ends on this note:
just hunker down and wait. And I would add: don't be scared.
Be entertained.
Bravo Brooks! You are so right about the fantasy we are living. And thanks to you, I'm changing from Libertarian to Whig.
1
Excellent article by Mr. Brooks. Reading a few comments, it appears that some don't get it. So, let me try to explain it for you.
Trump doesn't actually lie. Seriously. To be a liar, you have to know what the truth is and decide to speak or write falsely. Trump often doesn't know what the truth is...and he never cares what the truth is. If 2+2=3 benefits him today...then that is what he will claim. If 2=2=5 benefits him tomorrow, that is what he will claim. Is Trump concerned about being caught in an inconsistency in his statements? No. Inconsistency is a concern, like taxes, for little people. Trump doesn't worry about minor things like truth or consistency, he has people to do that for him.
As David writes, Trump lives in a fantasy world. And give Trump some credit, he knows the bounds of this world and he knows as long as he stays within those bounds, enough people have bought into that fantasy world to keep it alive. Whenever Trump strays outside of the fantasy world, that his Trumpkin followers reside in, by speaking or writing something that doesn't comport, the blow back signals Trump and he gets back in line.
That fantasy world, the alt-right world, is not all Trump's creation by any means. In fact, it's not his creation at all...he just lives there and recognizes and responds to the boundaries better than most right wing politicians. The advantage for Trump is obvious. He can speak and write any nonsense on a whim as long as the boundaries are not violated.
2
Please remember: The trash is still picked up weekly, mothers take their children to school, our morning highways are crowded daily with people going to work. Our system is still working. Please distinguish between the national political swirl and a nation still bent on making things work.
I agree that we have become consumed by Trump's Fantasy World. We really should name an amusement park as such.
But the appearance of collusion will likely lead to a bigger reality regarding Trump World. The man's finances and behavior raise a stink so awful it is impossible to ignore. Based upon what we know already it would seem more likely than not that we will see a reality consisting of extortion, money laundering, tax evasion and related charges.
3
"Trump is celebrity subsuming governance." Says it all, scary indeed, we are truly in uncharted waters with Trumpism with consequences unknown but they will not be supportive of American democracy and common decency.
1
"Sometimes my Trump-bashing friends and I seem like puppets on his string." Exactly. We knee-jerk liberals, who rightfully fear, mock, and take offense to so much of what he says and does, only play into the hands of his anti-elitism, which, in turn, fuels his base, justifying and exonerating them. The challenge of living in the fantasyland era of Trump is to be vigilant and informed, while managing one's sanity and emotional well-being. To respond to him and to not go quiet into the dark night of his petulant, ego-driven "celebrity governance" seems the responsible thing to do. Yet, the bashing as well as more reasoned response to his so-called leadership only feeds his playground bully mentality and way of thinking about and dealing with the world. This is a dilemma so many of us -- dare I say the majority of voters who did not elect him -- are confronted with every day that his fantasyland becomes evermore entrenched and devours reality. How do we maintain our own ethics, intelligence and integrity without being manipulated by this fantasy-inflaming con artist who only likes seeing us hop and jump in response to his every pronouncement, his every lie, his every action?
1
Brooks concludes his essay with "The more time we spend on the Trumpian soap opera, the less likely we are to know where we are or what we should do." It seems Brooks has identified the power of Trump.
When egg beaters are swirling and the eggs are churning, the only thing that seems stable are the beaters themselves. There are so many overwhelming and contradictory facts on every subject, from which foods to eat to who has the right to marry to which style sink to install in the new bathroom to which politician is trustworthy, that every aspect of life is a decision. "Give me a simple answer," says anyone just trying to get on with his life. Add to the cascade of facts an entire new world of false stories, and the average guy says, "I can't figure it out. You're my leader. I believe in you. You tell me what to do."
David,
Once again, you let your party off the hook. It is painfully obvious that the fantasmatization of modern American politics took off, with what have may be irreversible momentum, with GOP Godhead Ronald Reagan.
1
A book could come from this essay. A couple of additions to the cannon you're constructing: Willy Loman, who in Death of a Salesman lives and dies imprisoned in two false narratives. First is the dream of the American wilderness and open road to contentedness that he gives up, causing debilitating melancholy; second is the Horacio Alger myth of upward mobility that fails simply because myths are not materially real.
And who could leave out the nihilistic masterpiece Network, in which one dreamer after another becomes so manipulated by the collective myth of television (an earlier social network) that every sacred value lies in rubbish under the smoking dystopic heel of the corporate giant?
I will never truly understand how so many people can't see through the bravado, insensitivity and "puffing" exhibited by this President. You don't have to be the sharpest knife in the drawer to recognize an insecure person when you see one.
As I have stated many times, these traits have, apparently, served a New York real estate tycoon well - they are not, however, traits one should seek in a President.
To address the fantasy of Trump's spin, there is a very simple prescription that works most every single time.
Raise up a mirror of hyperbole yourself, and when people read it, they then also question why they believed Trump to begin with. Here's an example:
Trump claims "Dems want the North Korea talks to fail" to a crescendo of nativist MAGA types.
and my retort...
"Yeah, those gun toting machismo Dems. They are always screaming for blood and shouting 'Nuke 'em!' - I sure wish they could just calm down and support peace negotiations."
It works every time.
2
Interesting. I prefer another framework. It is all about products and packaging. Trump's product is that he is the Greatest President ever for the United States. Sometimes, Lincoln gets some recognition as being pretty good too. Anything that does not support this narrative is fake.
This president reminds me of the little boy who cried wolf. When the wolf really comes no one believes him.
He may try to create a fantasy land but anyone with any common sense and a bit of logic can see right through his lies. Most of the word is laughing at the US and shaking their heads and will be pretty cautious about doing a “deal”, with this “I have the best deals,” president. He’ll get played.
An attention junkie, and a liar, I’m amazed his base still supports him. Whose kids do they think will be boots on the ground when he starts a war? It won’t be any of his relatives nor any of his congressional cohorts.
This reminds me of the old saw: It's better to be insulted than ignored. Ignoring the con man would drive him crazier and contribute to his downfall.
Despite the recent hit piece in the NYT on him, we may find ourselves depending more upon Jordan Peterson than we could have ever imagined.
Peterson doesn't live in Fantasy-land. He resides squarely in the land of data, facts, and reasoning.
He is a breath of fresh air. One of a dying breed of liberals who is actually listened to.
I'm actually heartened by this. He is the opposite of Trump, in every way, and yet fills auditoriums. There is a need in our country, an unmet one, for people who are articulate, "orderly," fact-driven, and willing to be confronted on their ideas.
The one person he reminds me of the most is Obama. David Brooks also. Calm, reasoned, articulate, well-read, and smart.
Our Democratic (so-called) leaders have let me down. They spend their time ranting about Trump or trying to out-do him with nutty ideas (e.g., guaranteed job) or trying to fix the world one injustice at a time.
I suggest listening to some of Jordan Peterson's lectures. You don't have to agree with everything he says, but if you had the opportunity he would sit down with you and listen to your thoughts. Don't read some peoples' "gotcha" takes on him (like the NYT article). See for yourself.
There is a deep unmet need in this country for reason, logic, and reality. He is proving that.
As children are being ripped out of parental arms, and apparently getting lost by ICE, I am not sure why we give any attention to incoherent tweets, and why we are not protesting on the streets about this complete inhumanity. These are helpless children being tossed by a completely uncaring government.
2
Still Brooks himself feeds the fantasy with his fantastical belief, "instinct", that the Trump campaign did not conspire with the Russians, in spite of all the actual facts in evidence to the contrary. Fantasists indeed! I really need to get off this merry-go-round and back to my peaceful retirement. This is what happens when a maniacal control freak gets power. We need laws and amendments to prevent this in future.
I find it all quite depressing and very hard to take, so much so that I self impose news black-outs. It seems like we're a country in decline, rudderless and divided. We have a bloviating dishonest egomaniac con-man at the helm. For the sake of my own sanity, I feel the need to put my head in the sand and simply focus on my little corner of the world where I can love and fight for the people I care about.
After the fall of Romanian communism in the 1980s, I asked a colleague whose parents still lived there, who they were going to vote for.
‘The Communists,’ she replied.
I am as stupefied by Americans who vote for their overseers as I was by citizens of a former communist regime voting again for their Slavic (in both senses of the word) masters.
Why do 40% think this is acceptable?
An interesting read written by Brooks. Of course people love fantasy; we live for our dreams. So its not that we have submitted to living in a fantasy world, its that Trump's fantasy world is destructive and toxic. JFK's fantasy asked us to stretch ourselves, be better than we are. Trump's fantasy digs down to our heart of darkness, to unleash the worst of human nature.
Fantasyland is pretty much the foundation of modern capitalism... isn't it?
1
A couple of weeks ago you were praising Trump's "lizard wisdom," and claiming that he had some special sauce from his real estate career that made him more effective than diplomats and foreign policy specialists in dealing with Kim Jong Un and other autocrats. Who is engaged in creating fantasies?
1
If you replace "Trump's Magical Fantasy World" with "G.O.P.'s Magical Fantasy World" this piece becomes a whole lot more accurate. But of course that would mean Mr. Brooks would have to take some responsibility for supporting the fantasies of the G.O.P., i.e., trickle down economics. Time to look inward Mr. Brooks. You've been peddling fantasies for years.
1
It's not Trump's fantasy world that's infected us...it's the culmination of the conservative ideolgy fully realized. Trump merely amplifies it and makes it malleable for consumption. The conservative mind set insist in the 'god' narrative, a fantastical nuclear family, the unequivical fairness of the marketplace, fear of the other, patriochal domination and symbols over substance. This is simply being magnified by relentless repetition of narratives that are distortive at the core, and divisive in its intent. And a portion of the population are now addicted without any remedy in sight.
4
I agree that the broad movement into a fantasy world started in the 60s. However, I feel like it has more to do with the introduction of national and now global mass media, advertising and consumer products companies. Truth telling doesnt sell cookies. I feel it is a struggle to make one's life just satisfactory (for everyone). That may sound depressing in this climate. However, I think if there were the a broader pursuit for a deeper understanding of our lives, we would all support and accept eachother more. But I'm not sure that sells cookies.
Collusion is not brain surgery. A foreign government offers to help with your election (e.g. stealing and releasing damaging information about your opponent), you accept and promise something in return (e.g. easing sanctions). Don Jr. showed a willingness to accept this kind of foreign interference not once, but possibly twice -- fact not fantasy.
9
And there was enough evidence of improper contact with Russian officials that the FBI opened an investigation in secret in 2016.
As for knowing who we are and what to do: we are Americans and we must defend our Constitution. We must use every legal tool we have to purge our governments of immoral, greedy hucksters who are trying to put themselves above the law for personal gain. Protest, vote, hold representatives accountable. Help good people get elected. That is not rocket science either.
Mr Brooks, You are .. the man who stole Trump's fairy dust.
But did you inhale some, while making kool-aid for later?
Why float "there never was an actual Trump campaign" on that ether of bumpkins? How does that matter?
What matters is that they're all up to their elbows in Russian oligarch associations. But, for some reason, we've freed the ground line to waft on soft breeze - oblivious to a Russian mob operating below.
Tell book agent Erik Hane "It'll get better". Every Hillary voter, and then some, are ready to build "the world we should be building". Trump lies; Blue Wave grows.
5
"Where we are"? About six months from November. "What should we do"? Vote. Just vote!
8
The folly of Donald Trump in his "fantasy" world come true is nowhere reflected better than in the commemorative coin celebrating the historic meeting between Don & Kim - counting your chickens before they hatch is not good strategy unless you live in a fantasy world where premature ejaculation is never a problem.
8
It is a fantasy that this kindergarten is "under God". If one can believe that, one can believe anything.
5
We are not going to get rid of religion, it is the foundation of too many people's lives. But we can point them to the core teachings of the main religions, particularly the gospels in christianity.
Unfortunately, the prevalence of religion allows too many people to believe the voices in their heads and their community's belief in groupthink can create alternative realities. Reality is real and cannot be changed by "belief".
If they want to know "god" they should open their hearts and minds, as spiritual leaders have done throughout history. There might be something there, but it's about love, not hate, generosity, not greed. Try silence instead of assertion, you who would be spiritual.
1
David Brooks, you as much as anyone helped grease the skids for the so-called president's fantasies by supporting all the various Republican party fantasies of the past three decades.
Show us your columns blasting the veiled racism of Nixon, Reagan and the Bush clan. Show us your columns blasting the falsity of tRump's "birther" campaign. Show us your columns arguing against the lie that tax cuts pay for themselves.
You won't because you can't. You either went along with all these canards or your simply ignored them while reviewing weighty sociological tomes critical of liberal society.
YOU, Mr. Brooks, greatly helped to make the bed that we all now must suffer to lie in. Yet you act shocked - shocked! - by the non-stop lying from the very white White House.
It's too late to say "he's not my monkey" when you've spent decades supporting the circus that produced him.
13
So, the “veiled racism” of those who are identified on the right are unacceptable viewpoints yet the blatant hatred of capitalism by Democrats of every stripe is more than acceptable, it’s the basis for policy going from FDR through LBJ up to BO, and fostered by the Dems very own Bernie Sanders.
Yes, trump is the star. Just see the NYTs opinion section today, there are six pieces about him. There is at least one or two every day. It is getting very hard to separate fact from fiction. I used to think people had to be nuts not to see through his world however it has really gotten to be a blur. I often think it will be impossible for America to recover unless some crises like the 2008 finical crises or the Iraq invasion crises forces us to hit the reset button.
3
It's a bit more than celebrity and fantasy, David. The man is carelessly tearing the nation apart for the preservation of his own ego and neuvo riche fortune. What he is desperately trying to hide is his laundering of Russian criminal money through his real estate and using it all as tax deduction. That... ummm... is very illegal and will put him in jail. As for Trump Country USA, who got suckered into his fake presidency? They deserve what they get.
5
“...seduces us...”
“...suckers us...”
Please. Ratchet up the precision a notch.
Not all of us have been seduced or suckered.
Some of us have a compact, inviolate core and will always see and hear very clearly what is right in front of us.
By using language like this you blunt your blade, David.
Still, I have faith. You will find the right words. They will reverberate and this will end quicker, faster than anyone imagines, it will be great. Wait. You’ll see.
chi
2
The best thing to do, David, is turn Trump and the media off. Turn them all off, go outside and live your life. Because in the grand scheme of things the Kabuki Theater that is all things Trump doesn't mean a thing. Nothing at all. Turn them all....(click)...
2
Roth , a master at creating fictional alternate personalities, called Trump a real-life fraud, and if the Trump-Kushner cartel came to power in the 60s , Wolf would have likened him to a bad acid trip with his goal of enriching himself and his family while pretending to be president. Bilateral trade deals with countries his family is doing business with, outsourcing our Middle East policy to the Israeli Likud party, who are freinds of his son-in-law, that will keep us entangled in endless wars ; healthcare costs rising, ridiculous security walls and military parade sideshows , stupid tweets ...
5
I agree with you and have only this to add: Trump’s usurpation of our reality would be in no small way exposed as a fascistic cult if his despicable Republican abettors in Congress decided to become patriotic Americans. This will of course never happen—smug, zealous and ideologically pure, they will remain “good Germans” until the end; and a more civilized future will judge them with abhorrence and scorn.
6
"We’re in the middle of some vast historical transition..." I believe that is true, but I'm old, and just as the first zit tells a kid there's a reality beyond the nest, so growing twinges tell the elders that the world has gone to hell. But yes, world population is growing beyond rates that can be accommodated with normal adaptation. Arctic ice is at record lows, the Rio Grande is the Rio Sand, and the accumulation of wealth in few hands has returned to medieval levels. Human selfishness reasserts itself, and arrogance allows those who inherited massive wealth to think that they have superior genes. As for fantasy, humans have always needed it. A recent wedding in the UK illustrates the use of fantasy in nation building--and every nation needs rebuilding over and over. American politicians lost sight of that, and assumed that the America of a century ago, with a population of much less than half its present level, still exists. Business and political leaders lost the plot when they ignored real education, particularly that of newcomers.
1
There's a pop psychology word I often assign to Trump, and that's "crazy-maker." A crazy-maker is the friend who shows up on your doorstep at 3 a.m., tells you they are escaping someone who is trying to kill them, then eats all your food and sleeps with your significant other and blames you by saying you need to learn to stand up for yourself. And they usually do it right when you have started a new job and a healthy relationship.
The goal of the crazy-maker is to create drama, to make everything and everyone else's lives about themselves. They only feel good when they are at the center of a hurricane of their own making, fed by everyone else's sanity.
Trump is doing this to all of us. And the thing is, I'd love to look away, but he's hurting people -- pulling undocumented parents away from their children and throwing the kids in foster care -- harassing people of other races -- creating a well-armed, paranoid right-wing fringe. I agree that he's creating a storm where he's always at the center, but we still have to fight for the people who can't fight for themselves -- including, at this point, anyone who still believes in the constitution.
What we can't do is get sucked into the drama of it all.
(P.S. -- Brooks's amusing assessment of the Russian collusion issue sounds about right. But while Trump may not have colluded, he is financially corrupt to the core. And that's probably what they'll get him on.)
3
“It is one of fascism’s goals to monopolize our attention. It would like to shrink our imagination. … Fascism welcomes our attempts to play logical ‘gotcha’ with its inconsistencies because it knows we will lose — not because we won’t find a fallacy but because the fallacy won’t matter.”
'nuff said (and written).
If only we had our druthers.
Alas! Aren't we all addicted?
If you want to know what to do, read the red type (Jesus quoted) in the bible. Jesus makes it pretty clear. His message hasn't changed in 2000 years and will be true for eternity. Notice I didn't say interpretations of the bible as many have corrupted it for their own use. Just read and apply the gospels and His message as your rock, your base for life-giving (not life-sucking) values. Everything else will fall away as untruths in time on earth and beyond.
In other words, build your fortress, your insulation from the seductions and manipulations of the antithesis of truth which is what we're seeing today. Do so and you will stay true to your soul and rise above the fray of the actual swamp we've been thrust into today.
1
I recall one of your recent columns in which you praised the president's style of interacting with the likes of Kim and minimized the crudeness we have been subjected to over the past year. I hope you are ready to acknowledge that a president who won't even read daily briefings, who pursues erratic courses of action, and who exhibits no moral compass whatsoever is incapable of leading this country. You write about morality. I hope you are ready to put your own morality at the service of repudiating this administration in no uncertain terms.
2
One fantasy is that a nuclearized North America is somehow legitimate.
2
Trump's fantasy is far better than Obama's nightmare.
A case of the pot calling the kettle black. To continue on well known tropes invoking reality: Doctor, heal thy self.
1
Trump is the fruit of the right wing’s labor.
3
And here we have Brooks explaining things we already know. Media plays a key role expanding Trumpian fantasy
3
amen. You got it absolutely right. The media puts the thoughts into our heads. They determine what information we should know what we shouldn't. By repeating Trump's fantasy, the obsessed media plays right into Trump's agenda, he knows them only too well and he plays them really well. Brooks is not immune, just like his fellow political pundits and journalists.
1
We are talking about a sociopath in charge. Their job is making everyone orbit them with lies, con jobs, threats and pathetic attempts at “moral” shaming with hypocritical rules for others, not themselves; ie no consequences or self-critique but lots of high horse finger-pointing. Being ignored is unacceptable. Our job is to make sure someone that toxic is confronted with Reality 100% of the time no matter how much they squawk about “unfair” and Poor Me, and relegating them to the dump ASAP.
1
What to do?
0) If you watch Fox News, stop. Now. In fact lose the telelvision altogether. It only helps build fantasyland.
1) Read the founding documents of the United States.
2) Study a few major Supreme Court cases
3) Require that your elected representatives are at least as familiar with items 1 and 2 as you are.
Trump is a puppet of his TV-watching habit.
It's puppets all the way down.
4
This administration from the days of the Trump campaign to the embarrassing Notre Korea fiasco begs for a Mel Brooks musical. The master of our popular culture understands our ambivalence with evil, how we squirm when faced with reality and how outrageous genuine free speech becomes when woven into satire. Imagine an anticipated blockbuster debut on Broadway with the primary song and dance number, "Don't Call it Collusion (when it's treason)." The White House gang becomes a supporting cast that is a playwright/composer's dream team.
Nero fiddled while Rome went up in flames. The occupant of the Oval Office eats burgers, watches TV and eschews reading material.
Mueller is the president's foil. Reporters are losing patience with all the waiting for something dramatic. Mueller is just too methodical for the news cycle. Another song: "What to do about Lying Robert?"
A wise fictional poet, Sergey Pander, wrote this axiom: the greater the distance between fantasy and reality, the harder the fall.
1
The problem is the news reports his fantasy. The huge crowd, massive illegal voting, greatest electoral victory, Obama is not an American, Obama wire tapped me, Obama AG illegally outed FISA warrants, Carter Paige illegally survailed, FBI is crooked, FBI illegally put an informant in my campaign, Muller is run by democrats, the deep state, which was not powerful enough to keep him from being elected, is against him, on and on and on. It is embarrassing. I know it is hard to ignore, but maybe when he comes out with his newest lie, we simply put in a simultaneously projected list of lies, and say " there he goes again" Then talk about what he is really doing legislation wise.
1
Relax man. It is just an imbecile that became president of an electorate that was not in a brilliant moment and with the support of and hyper hypocritical republican party. It will be resolved with an election, a civil war or a liddle nuclear war. Relax.
Meanwhile, some of us keep working in the real world of no tweets. It is really fun. Other than that, nice column. You seem to be wising up.
5
It just reminds me so much of the musical “Music Man”. Americans love a show and Trump is a huckster pretending to be a politician. Haven’t we learned anything in 200 years? Too little, too late. I know the writer has been a voice of reason for some time on the right, but it’s time to put up or shut up. Mitch McConnell and other Republicans need to throw the bum out, or watch our great nation sleepwalk itself into a war with Iran, N. Korea, or both! Plus, tanking the economy with the ill-advised tax law, the smoke and mirrors of tariffs and tough talk, and the alienation of our allies and pretty much everyone else. Mueller may be the white knight they need.
1
We are asked "What we should do?"
Take back our country by voting all the enablers of the mentally and morally unfit characters orchestrating the larger soap-opera.
Trump is not pro-life -- he is solely, narcissistically, only,
"Pro-Trump," nothing else.
He does not care about America, not one hump.
3
To ignore Trump’s fantasies is like ignoring the tiny crack in your house’s foundation. You know it’s there. It’s small. You don’t want to believe that it is happening. Yet everyday you walk by it, and you wonder if it is getting bigger.
To ignore that crack is to suddenly find your house has shifted on its foundations and is sliding rapidly down hill.
We cannot ignore Trump. Yes, we do play into his hands somewhat as he loves the attention whereas a crack could not care less. But NOT doing something about this crack in our nation’s foundation is non-negotiable.
I want to be on the right side of history when this unimaginably corrupt administration goes down. I will march, write, and phone my legislatit’s. In the words of Churchill, I “will never give up.”
3
You are right, David, Trump the bald faced liar, who has a knack for entertaining a base segment of the population by means of name calling and making fun of disadvantaged, disabled, and minority populations, is disorienting. Normally we would just ignore him, but the disorientation arises from the fact that he has risen to become president. Is this disorientation the reason that last week you were extolling his 'lizard wisdom'?
To think that Trump really didn’t have a campaign is naïve. People like Manafort, Bannon and the rest of the gang who couldn’t shoot straight knew exactly what they were doing. Bannon has even taken his spiel on the road.
Novelists create fantasy. Commentators alluding reality to novels create their own fantasy as in "Russian/Trump collusion". There is no evidence of it, yet it has to be true..a reality based on novels...and these same folks mock the Bible as myth?
Mr. Brooks,
You can never go wrong believing in the almost infinite stupidity and rapacity of the human race.
When examples to the contrary arise, it's a rare but good day.
Trump's entire campaign and presidency are founded on the myth of making American great again - of returning us to a mythical past that never existed. A myth is defined as a widely held but false belief of idea and Trump is the penultimate myth-maker who uses the power of myth to subvert reality, truth, facts. Myths are powerful and facts are defenseless against them, so Trump bombards us with myths of fake news, the Deep State, rigged elections and voter fraud, immigrants as rapists and criminals, a world of alternative facts and assaults on our democratic institutions. In fact, the good old days were never that good - days when civil rights of many Americans were being trampled and disregarded. Sartre, in 1947, wrote of the myth of American equality as he witnessed a sign that said, "Jews and dogs not allowed." Days of separate but equal. Days when homosexuality was considered a crime. Days when women had no control over their reproductive decisions.
What does Make America Great Again even mean? It is a myth and we seem powerless to destroy the effectiveness of Trump's distortion of reality.
While Trump plays ringmaster the owners of this circus is the GOP. They have their own very well developed fantasy world and have imposed it with a vengeance.
In that world, as money is sucked out of the working class it magically turns to mist which descends as an investment bounty like a spring shower.
In that world money doesn't just trickle down, it comes in torrents. Wages increase, housing prices plummet as a result of a building boom, well- paying jobs abound. The only limits to success are government programs that keep the sick, lame and young from working harder to earn a day's bread.
Slashing worker safety rules, wage protections, workplace equality rules, environmental regulations are all necessary to unleash America's productivity!
The marketplace is the best arbiter of who gets what, when, where and how. The 90% of wage earners that seem to struggle just haven't mastered its rules.
Cutting every thread of the already thin safety net will simply make everyone stronger, more resilient, more appreciative.
And who better to divert the public's attention from this disaster fantasy than The Donald?
1
Every morning, after reading the major news stories that have come in overnight, I smack my head and ask, "How did we get here?"
"My instinct is that the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians because there never was an actual Trump campaign..."
Cop-out, David. You can do better.
2
Reality doesn't cease because it is ignored, but it is altered, just like a drunk who finally sobers up and discovers his family and job are long gone and aren't coming back. The Republican party are akin to a bunch of non repentant drunks who will come down from their Trumpian bender this November, and their 'family' will be so scattered it will be impossible to ever corral them again, and their jobs gone. The party of Trump will never be the grand old party of Lincoln again, that egg is cracked and fried.
1
I'd say the "pivot" came about 15 years ago when people like David Brooks helped to maintain the fantasy that the Cheney administration was composed of noble statesmen working tirelessly for the good of America.
3
"My instinct is that the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians because there never was an actual Trump campaign..."
Are you kidding me?! That's most dissembling, woo-woo fantasy sentence I've read so far today (it's early, so...). Mr. Brooks has again yielded fact to intellectual abstraction in his distinctive manner to minimize -- nay, ignore -- the evil effects of TrumpoRepublicanism and render them mere bagatelles, removed to Brooks' own fantasy world where Trump's sophistries and lies and real damages are benign and can be easily dismissed without the inconvenience attendant to actual consideration of those effects on real people and our critical civic institutions.
Disservice is too weak a word, too neutral. "...it’s very hard to know what to believe in" is admission of vacancy, a surrender to Trumpist lies and, yes, fantasies that crowd out truth unless it is your touchstone. And if you don't "...know where we are or what we should do", quit writing until you do. This is serious, not to be trivialized with intellectualized hokum.
1
Let us not mince words. Magical fantasy- not really.
Trump's behavior is that of an extreme narcissist. He actually believes he knows everything that he needs to know because of his superior intelligence, and he is vicious towards anyone who challenges him (e.g.: the press).
Extreme narcissists like Trump are excessively preoccupied with personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity, mentally unable to see the destructive damage they are causing/
A check list below for Trump's extreme narcissism:
-Has unreasonable expectations of automatic compliance with his or her expectations. -Check
-Has a grandiose sense of self-importance; expects to always be recognized as superior -Check
-Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance -Check
-Requires excessive admiration _Check.
-Takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends- Check.
-Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize the feelings and needs of others -Check
-Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her -Check
-Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes =Check
That is Trump ...period!!
This behavior profile coupled with Trump's training under Roy Cohn to attack back fiercely when attacked for any reason goes a long way to understand and to predict Trumps actions.
The Republican leadership have known all along and what Trump is and yet they chose to help place him in the Oval Office. Try and explain their behavior. It is not pretty.
3
Mr. Brooks writes, “I sympathized with Trump’s efforts to give North Korea an opportunity to change...” Really? THIS is why Trump gets away with what he does NOW and while he was running for president: the NYT sympathized with him, it enabled him, it didn’t call him out for this horror show of a “presidency”.
2
What a downer! Take heart the Resistance is still here, and we are fighting a good fight, even if the media can't resist the gravitational pull of the Trump con.
3
The fantasy began long ago and Brooks, a longtime GOP acolyte, knows it.
Back in Nixon's days, the GOP got in bed with the white southern racists and the anti-abortionists just to win elections. And, they aligned themselves with the defense industry and sold it as a patriotic gesture. They didn't care what Eisenhower had warned.
There was no political ideology or personal beliefs system in play, just a do whatever it costs to win an election strategy and make money. Big money. The GOP gave credibility to racism and contempt for a woman having reproductive choice, all the while waving the American flag and guns around at anyone who dared question their motives.
Trump represents the best of the party. And, Brooks knows it.
2
"The dangerous thing about Trump's fantasy world..." is our failing system of checks and balances needed to neutralize it.
So we now face a potential Dr. Strangelove scenario brewing over North Korea as two madmen preen about in testosterone-driven states of dementia.
A Trump wartime presidency would also come in handy right now in helping mitigate the Mueller threat.
You guys can't say you weren't warned, Mr. Brooks.
John Ford constructed the fantasy West (and not from scratch). John Wayne was a prop.
1
John Wayne's fantasy was his role in fighting the second world war.
Let's stop being polite - Mr. Trump's "fantasies" are lies.
4
I miss president Obama. Though you may not have agreed with everything he did, you knew he was well educated and had a deep moral core that motivated everything he did. You could tell that he deeply loved and respected his wife and described having children similar to having your heart outside your body. Obama cried during Sandy hook and we all cried with him.
Obama was a person you could trust with babysitting the country so you didn’t have to follow the daily machinations of the present “drama queen” that is our present president.
I am tired of being angry all the time and worrying about the weakest members of our society. I am going on marches and voting in every election.
My spouse and I could not have children so all of society will have to be our legacy. I worry about people who will vote Trump in again because the economy is good and reality has not reared it’s head again.
I want a president who has empathy. We deserve better.
Noelle
4
There's only one way to defeat Trump's fantasy world - vote Democratic. Since Brooks refusing to say Vote Democratic, why read him?
5
With Trump and Hannity in a mutually supportive relationship that spins like a top uncontrollably, to say that Fox News rules the world is not out of the question, not a fantasy. Fox News is a fascism enabler in that it’s morning and evening audience yearns for the very fantasies that they and their President concoct. Radical authoritarian nationalism is an easy sell if you can get a platform (Fox, etc.) and a gullible, uninformed, unread audience. HoHum, we have all of that, sigh.
2
Mr. Brooks, aren't you the same guy that a week or two ago was lauding Trump for being able force recalcitrant foes like North Korea (and to a lesser extent China) into making deals with the USA when a lesser 'diplomat' would have failed?
YES, yes you are! So, instead of just jumping on the anti-Trump band wagon yet again, just admit that you too are part of the problem and maybe, write a few fewer columns with a bit more (and deeper) thought.
4
All well and good, Mr. Brooks, but until you end every column on Trump with 'and once again, I apologize for helping bring him to power' it is difficult to take your seriously.
2
Required reading: The Search For the Real Self, Unmasking the Personality Disorders Of Our Age, James F. Masterson, M.D. Until we understand this, we are just spinning our wheels.
Fantasy is seductive, because as a 1960s bumper sticker said, "Reality is for those who lack imagination." And right now the country is on a wild LSD trip.
Of course, in the end reality intrudes. When someone believes that they can fly, they learn that gravity is not just an idea but real.
Nations learn that too. Unfortunately, that lesson often comes late with a very steep price, as with the raising of the Hammer and Sickle over the Reichstag or two mushroom clouds rising over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
1
Great: the two alternatives are-- Trump is either incompetent OR corrupt. So, we either have The Great Impostor or Boss Tweed?
What if Mueller comes up with -- BOTH?
1
If I hear another American say the United States is the greatest nation on earth, I won't be responsible.
Just look at the miserable crew running the place at the moment. They wouldn't be tolerated in any other civilized country.
3
Every author, significant cultural figure, novelist, and politician mentioned in this column just happens to be male.
Talk about fantasy ...
No, David Brooks, Hugh Hefner and Ken Kesey were not alike, and they, as a pair, didn’t shape the early 1960s or subsequent decades. Kesey wrote “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” as a critique of authoritarian institutions that demand obedience and conformity of the sort expected in the 1950s (the decade you would love to resurrect). The novel was based, in part, on Kesey’s own experience working in a state psychiatric hospital. It wasn’t all about Getting High and Going Gonzo.
What did make the Sixties? Civil protests against legal homophobia, sexism, racism, and the Vietnam War.
Yes, Trump is a generator of fantasies, close kin to Hugh Hefner in his sleazy treatment of women. But Hef was already looking pretty silly in the 1960s ... to any female with a brain. As was John Wayne.
There’s a whole other world out there, Mr. Brooks. It’s inhabited by women. Authors. Cultural critics. Even politicians. Put on your space suit, lock down your helmet, and come visit someday.
1
It is almost hilarious (wink) the ending of this opinion:
“We’re in the middle of some vast historical transition, and it’s very hard to know what to believe in.”
No, Mr. Brooks. We are not in the middle of a historical transition. The historical transition happened in 2008 when the first African American president was elected. What is happening today is an assault on that very moment.
And no, it is not very hard to know what to believe in:
There is one fact, The United States of America elected a sexual predator. That should had been enough for you. It was for me.
1
Mr. Brooks seems always to be “ edulcorating “ anything trump .
I don’t get it .
Mr. trump doesn’t live in fantasyland ( for me reserved for artistically minded people of various avenues and statures ) , but this hypocritical president made deceit, arrogance,dishonesty,lying etc etc his instruments to run this Great Country to the ground with the GOP as a conspirator and accomplice.
1
For pure fantasy, it's hard to top President Obama and the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to him - along with the fawning praise that was bestowed on him by the media. President Trump isn't even close to that level of "magical fantasy world" of the regime of President Obama. Not even close.
1
I have only so much bandwidth to absorb news... and I've determined that the "Russia-titled-the-election" thread is not worth following. The "Russia-titled-the-election" thread strikes me as ex post facto gossip that the GOP is using to distract news readers and voters from the legislation they are passing to reward their donors at the expense of the voters who put them into office.
So it is not a fantasy, after all, to think that if you just don't talk about something it will go away? Hmm, surely is a fantasy with respect to race, for example. To rephrase important points made elsewhere and often: not speaking truth to power is one thing, power refusing to speak the truth [that's you, boot-licking Republicans and your drooling financial co-dependents] is another. Yes, figuring out just what to say and when and where to say it is difficult. But silence is complicity [Ivanka to the contrary notwithstanding].
2
Very good. I agree. Somehow, we need to avoid feeding the blob so it will stop growing.
Mr. Brooks, I think one way to address this issue, that would be apppreciated by those of us who recoil from everything the Potus stands for, is to refrain from publishing photos of him anywhere. He will then disappear from view !
David, I long for the day when it was difficult to sort out the truths and lies spouted by the common politician.
1
You can grade President Trump just like any other chief executive.
In most well run organizations the President has direct reports to run the place. Tillerson had 88,000 employees at Exxon. They have specific skills and are carefully chosen to do their jobs. The chief would normally request goals and plans for each branch of his empire and expect the reports to do their job and in turn have qualified people.
The chief's job is to ask questions and provide direction and then help to make important decisions and make new forays in often competitive complex situations such as where to drill the next oil well. In the latest situation our President should direct the team to put together a draft plan to incent Kim to join the world in collaboration with China, Japan and South Korea. That is what has to be done. It has to be done in collaboration and it has to recognize the Asian culture in which Kim Jong Un, Moon Jae, Xi Jin Ping, and Shinz Abe live. It's a major card game with loads on the table. It's detail and ideas and both China and South Korea are making development offers to woo Kim. These have to sink in. Kim has to figure a way to retire all of the ancient men you see with huge hats at his military shows the ones who lifetimes have been involved with maintaining all of the howitzers at the DMZ.
Pompeo should be the lead and spokesperson with a smiling Trump looking on. Isn't this what a Secretary of State job is?
So there is the huge flaw.
David, This is all frustrating as you obviously see this clearly and I see this clearly and many other people see this clearly so why does this seem to be a done deal from what you have written? It is easy and cynical to say people are distracted, stupid, overwhelmed, or just unable to think critically. Is it really just water under the bridge now? That concept is hard for me to get my head around. Why am I much different than others ? Was it only because I was born with a critical thinking mind?
Best article by David Brooks I've ever read. What an accurate description of this trumpian nightmare we're experiencing. Evil fantasy becomes real somehow.
Well said.
Donald Trump is the ultra self-absorbed narcissist who
believes himself to be the end-all of man’s search for other worlds and dreams.
1
I feel like I'm living in a fantasy world every time I see the words President and Trump next to one another...
1
The mainstream media as a whole has allowed its attention to be overtaken by the fantasies of this person who became president. How about op-ed authors agreeing to write about him or his fantasies only once a month (unless major and real reason presents)? How about editors agreeing not to publish so much hyped 'news' about his every tweet? Have any former presidents Ever received this much coverage daily? We need news, not constant hype.
Trump is not competing against Democracy for control. He is competing against an equal or greater opponent- Corporate fascism. The Supreme Court made Corporations “people”. It’s their money, their influence, their desires, that stand against Trump. We the People are just along for the ride.
Please start writing something about else. I realize the Press has to keep up the drumbeat vs. Trump, he is in fact, a danger to our country on many levels but
Precisely!
A breathtakingly powerful analysis of "our" world of Trump.
Appropriately, it is also utterly terrifying.
rjf
Hits the nail on the head.
Ah, David Brooks you have nailed it. So, the solution is to ignore Trump, take him off the front pages, ignore his tweets. It will lose some business to social medial, but this is what NYT and WaPo should do. Put essays about real foreign policy and real economic policy on the front page, make real live adult journalism that used to be interesting. And put Trump on the Society page, pretend we have no president! (we really don't).
Awe Mr. Brooks, still not convinced that Trump isn’t a low-life Crime Boss? Clapper said it best in his new book, Trump only operates as a means to make himself and his crime family rich. Collude with Russians? Of course.
With Trump it's not so much fantasy as gas lighting.
The basic problem with this piece is that the word "fantasy" occurs 14 times and word "lie" doesn't occur at all.
When you don't call it what it is, you abet it.
Here's my suggestion for the proper language:
"He's suckering people in with constant lying, and it benefits him because it keeps the discussion away from his absolute lack of competence to do his job".
2
As demonstrated in the Wizard of Oz, eventually all hucksters and fakesters have the curtain drawn back on them. Will probably only take another six months to fully expose the smoke and mirrors of the tRump criminal charade.
1
Ok, that all sounds reasonable. But what exactly, in practical terms, are you suggesting we do? Stop watching CNN, MSNBC, ABC, etc., etc, for the latest Trump\Mueller revelation? Wait until Mueller actually indicts/accuses Trump of a crime to pop our head in? Don't actively seek to throw out Repub Trump stooges from Congress? Yes, the Trump soap opera is fascinating and magnetic. But this is our president. (Jeez, that's tough to say.) We, collectively, elected him. We have a duty to follow what's going on and then act accordingly in the voting booth. We can't do that if we shut our eyes and murmur "la de da" all day long.
Spot on! However, though it seems fantastical, we must live with the reality that he is POTUS and has powers at his disposal that must be addressed. It takes great discernment and wisdom to not get caught up in his silly game born out of his huge and fragile ego, and instead stay focused on what really matters and paying close attention to preserving our core values and our institutions. The media needs to be especially careful to not get caught up in the fantasy as we need it to stay informed. I recently spoke to a millennial from Germany who educates others about the holocaust and has concerns of the rise of the far right in Europe. He has hope for America because of the checks and balances inherent within our system. Yes, they can at times get us bogged down, but IMHO, the alternative would be worse.
In 2004 Republican Karl Rove was reported to have said, "People like you are still living in what we call the reality-based community. You believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality. That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you are studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors, and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
Trump and his Cabinet cronies, who bring their fantasy based ideologies to every issue, do change reality for the rest of us.
Climate change is "a hoax" or is not a man-made problem, tax cuts for the rich will increase growth and not worsen the national debt, "guns don't kill people," regulations to protect air, water, food, drugs, and people are unnecessary, access to medical care is not a human right, pensions and Social Security are "entitlements" not "benefits," people of color are "gaming the system," we are a "Christian country."
Their fantasies are spread and amplified by right wing "think tanks," Fox Propaganda, Sinclair "News," "AM hate radio," Cambridge Analytica, "fake news" sponsored by domestic and foreign powers.
As every beginning writer learns, the difference between Fiction and Non-Fiction is that "Fiction has to be believable."
For Truth and Reality? Ask scientists.
2
It's phrases like this that remind me that Mr. Brooks is, when all is said and done, an apologist for the Republican Party and it's leader, Donald Trump.
"My instinct is that the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians because there never was an actual Trump campaign — at least not in any organized sense of that word."
Parse that, please. Will the Trump "campaign" be tried for breaking the law or will individuals be tried? (Yes, avoid being tricked into using the "C" word).
My instinct is that they are all a bunch of crooks, liars and con men.
Now is the time for all good men (and women) to come to the aid of their party.
Anyone who cares about humanity cannot support this president, his enablers, his patsys and punters, the kleptocracy, and the warmongers who are making the US a pariah in the world.
Full stop. Halfway measures are not enough. If you want to live, leave these monsters!
9
Well said. Thank you.
1
This too shall pass.
1
Clearly Brooks is bewitched,bothered and bewildered by Trump
In several of his recent comments he appropriates a mix of concepts and neologisms taken from literary sources
He is mea culpa for having predicted under no circumstances will Trump be the Republics nominee nor would it be possible for him to achieve the Presidency
2
I'll say this for him (45) he is a unifier. He is uniting the world against America as a global leader.
And sadly, as a global joke.
5
Perhaps we should just spend less time on the Trump soap opera. Every day, the vast majority of space on the Times online page is dedicated to stories about the President. There must be many other newsworthy stories that could take the place of that space. He craves the spotlight, so let's deny him that spotlight. You can cover White House daily events in a single bullet point list. For example:
Today, President Trump:
1) Canceled the summit with North Korea;
2) Tweeted that he was considering raising tariffs on imported cars;
3) Called someone a bad name;
4) Etc., etc., etc.
The list should be at the bottom of the page.
8
Donald Trump reminds me of that annoying middle-schooler who is a bully and constant showman for attention. Classroom management 101 strategy in dealing with such a student: don't feed the fire by giving it more oxygen. Ignore. Isolate. Imagine a day in which the media boycotted Trump. Just for a day. Wouldn't that be bliss?
5
You might be on to something. Trump is showing us how we humans fantasize and manifest our fantasies by repeatedly uttering falsehood until everyone starts to believe it. It is essentially how everything is manifested. People take spoken word, written word as though it were real. After you speak where did the words disappear! Your ears briefly register those spoken words but your mind churns it over and over, he said that how dare he. You feel hurt or inflated depending on words of bland or praise. Humans are in the habit of overthinking and the media simply regurgitates again and again till those words penetrate our thoughts and dictate our opinions.
Truth be told, these words are not “real” just as our thoughts come and go, we are not diminished as one thought leaves and another arrives. The real “I” is not our thoughts, it is awareness which is totally unscarred unaffected indestructible, has not beginning nor end, it is perennial and streaming uninterrupted.
4
Dreaming about what ought to be is a good thing provided it doesn't turn into fantasy which can easily become a nightmare, and fantasy always loses to reality. Trump the Great Disrupter has spun a fantasy around himself that he cannot sustain no matter how hard he tries; the only question that is left is how long will it go on and will the public care?
2
There are two kinds of people in Trump World. Those who really believe what he says and those who believe he will let them take what they always wanted, an extension of their privilege.
The believers are helpless. They will never reject their hero even if he is convicted of a serious felony and sent to prison for a very long time. They will make pilgrimages to his grave one day and contribute their hard earned money for a monument to his greatness. They are beyond redemption.
The takers will hang on, smiling for cameras and patting Trump on his back, saying good job Donald. They will desert him in a nano-second once they believe he is no longer of no use to them.
It will be up to the people of conscience to make Trump useless to the takers and it will start with a resounding rejection of Republicans in November. We got work to do, but the day of reckoning is coming.
4
You continue to write about the wrong things. It is not Trump's fantasy world that should concern us. It's the fantasy world occupied by his supporters in Congress and in the electorate that is going to destroy our democracy. If you fail to write about the fantasy world that they occupy and how it will affect us, you are missing an opportunity.
2
David,
Not all of us Americans were 'suckered in' by Trump or your Republican Party. You have been over the decades and now seem to be realizing the mess your people have caused. Sadly, it may be too late for our country to rebound.
4
So this is the same David Brooks who appeared on the News Hour a few weeks ago arguing that we should all forget the outrageous behavior of this horrid administration because the economy was better (for whom??)?
3
While I agree with most of what you say, I see real collusion between the Trump Campaign and the Russians. That Trump is inept at everything except manipulating reality is true. But, fantasy or not, the truth is not that hard to see. It is clear that he greatly fears the Mueller investigation. If he isn't guilty, why is he acting like he is? He asked the Russians for help with Clinton's emails right out in public.
That in fact is less of a worry for him than the fact that Russian interference and misinformation was just effective enough for him to appear to win in key swing states. But he didn't. He is not legally President of the United States, and he knows that. The whole thing is a fantasy.
4
David, I prefer to call the trump fantasy world the world of trump lies. The world of lies is now the way the US operates on the world stage. We cannot be trusted as trump bullies his way over friends and foes. He has brought his sleazy world of real estate deals to the political arena. We are now on par with North Korea and Russia. These ruling con artists are all about the power they have to control the world.
3
Mr Brooks writes, “My instinct is that the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians because there never was an actual Trump campaign — at least not in any organized sense of that word.“
The only response to that is if Trump and his group did not engage in a conspiracy with Russia - and he is innocent of any conspiracy - why in the world did he fire Comey, spend the last year trashing him, Mueller, the FBI, the Justice Department, Sessions, Rosenstein, McCabe and others? Just say you are innocent and let the facts show it. Sorry, Mr. Brooks, innocent people do not act in this manner.
2
His fantasy coins will be taken by his supporters as a sincere effort to court peace which, thanks to his realistic assessment of North Korea's actual intention, he had to reject.
His military parade will now resonate with these same supporters who will descend on Washington to hail our glorious leader.
Lipstick on an unattractive pig.
1
Trump is not a soap opera. And this is not about fctansy. It is about the debasing of American democracy and one man's egocentric madness. It is about the lack of fantasy of those who support Trump, their fake hero and messiah. Their resentment politics and lack of vision to boldly see a future that could become reality makes them left behind narcissistic dreamers who will wake up in a nightmare of Trump's apocalypse. Brooks talks tie mild disgust but he misses the true fraudulent man in the WH. His is not fantasy, but deceptive, false demagoguery. Trumps obsession with his own greatness is the country's impending doom.
2
"We’re in the middle of some vast historical transition, and it’s very hard to know what to believe in."
I certainly know what I believe in: I believe in the importance of democracy. I believe this president and his "base" (the perfect word by the way for his followers) are assaulting democracy. I believe facts, I believe that facts and reality eventually overpower fantasy.
However, I note that history tells us that reality has a way of returning at a slow pace, often only after years and years of rounding people up, of killing people, of invading neighbors, of threatening the entire world, of ruining entire nations.
Neither belief nor facts but hope creates my anticipation for the November election. If the election does not serve up a balance of power and/or is rigged, I will lose hope. Then it will be time for some personal decisions.
3
The logical conclusion might be for the media and non-Trumpian elected officials to ignore Trump, by highlighting everything else going on in the US BUT Trump.
Ways to get under Trump's skin include: mentioning decisions by his Cabinet officials without using the words "Trump" or "White House", promoting South Korea and China's roles in anything positive that happens about North Korea and blaming Trump for anything negative; highlighting heart-warming stories about immigrants, especially those that come from countries that Trump has maligned, again without mentioning Trump; refusing to book Trump surrogates on any talk shows, and instead populating them with sensible people (politicians or not) representing different sides to an issue.
Starve him of attention.
(Of course, that would mean that I would have to stop reading and commenting on NYT op-eds!)
Agree with Brooks on this one.
The more attention we pay to Trump's blathering lies, the more the man has your brain. Do you want to hurt to hurt Trump in the worst possible way?
Ignore him.
"The first problem is you can’t beat Trump at his own fantasy game. As Daniel Boorstin understood back in 1962, you can’t refute an image with a fact. Every pseudo-event “becomes all the more interesting with our every effort to debunk it.” "
You can't blame tRump for the travesty you belatedly bleat about; he is the poster boy of the R party, 100% supported and enabled by an R dominated legislative branch. A branch that, for treasonous self interest, has steadfastly refused to be the balance of power that is was designed to be. They take their checks from industry, obediently betray their constituents, then move through the revolving door to "consulting"/ lobbying/ employment by the industries that have been funding them all along. They will not make waves by countering executive madness en route to personal wealth.
tRump is the story teller, but he didn't create the fantasy. He just parrots the GOP narrative. They've all got to go.
2
"The more time we spend on the Trumpian soap opera, the less likely we are to know where we are or what we should do."
At our house we have taken a first and most empowering step: we never mention the man's name. Ever.
I also find that in those endless conversations with our friends about the weirdo, by slowly sucking his name out of the conversation, I can help them gently rise up out of the bog of his making.
Sometimes we do actually get to "what we should do next". At the very least, it's good therapy.
Give it a try.
2
Two points. First, regardless of social class or educational level, Americans cannot 'delete' Donald Trump from their daily lives.
Second, American expatriates have a way out. They can 'delete' news from Trump and go on with their lives. After all, the world outside the US of Trump is getting better not worse.
2
The best "historical transition" would be to flush Trump down the toilet, and dismantle the Republican Party for delivering such a travesty as a candidate in the first place. In many ways, Trump is the embodiment of a party that lost its way, and has been decaying for a long time.
2
"My instinct is that the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians" What fantasy definition of collusion is being applied here? Maybe Trump didn't write the Russians a check, but what if he promised the Russians he would return the favor by doing something, or not do something? What if Trump knew the Russians were helping him, but said nothing?
2
Sent you a copy of my new book which is about the world we should be building - educating our kids to think critically and statistically - but you were too distracted by Trump to notice.
1
Your lazer like focus on Donald Trump as the only antagonist in our "story" proves the point you are making. That being said, we would have been better served by focusing on, and including, those in power in government and certain media outlets, who are responsible for supporting, covering for, and promoting his acts. I cannot but continue to think that your missive is a bit of cover for those in the conservative camp who are being included as just another victim of his branding. These factions are fellow creators of this fiction we are living. Your piece only told half the story.
Sir, your fantasy of Trump's campaign is flimsier than the President's resume. Someone Russian stole the emails. Someone Russian shared the emails. Someone Russian bought the Facebooks ads. Someone Russian met with Junior, Jared, Manafort and company. Someone Russian met with Eric Prince. And on and on and on. Calling it collusion is meaningless. Calling it conspiracy is serious stuff, and someone Russian knows it.
2
So, if he lies and no one is listening, the problem is solved? And yet, even the cerebral David Brooks cannot but help give Trump more air time. As Michelle Wolfe so honestly stated, "the press made this guy". And they continue to make him what he is by repeatedly repeating every single inane tweet. What would happen if indeed the only channel he had to the American public was Fox and Alex Jones?
1
The only person not in Trump fantasy land is Robert Mueller and so far he has accused Trump of absolutely nothing. Trump is the loudest voice accusing himself of wrong doing which causes his supporters, the Republican party and much of the press to come to his rescue. He is the poor damsel in distress tied to the tracks of Mueller's run away train of corruption, and yet, Mueller has said absolutely nothing. While Trump has all of you consumed in his mellow drama, he is picking your pockets, rigging the legal system, changing the trade laws to enrich himself and his friends and playing you all for the fools that you are.
1
"Fascism welcomes our attempts to play logical ‘gotcha’ with its inconsistencies because it knows we will lose — not because we won’t find a fallacy but because the fallacy won’t matter.”
I'm feelin' it on this one. I've significantly dialed back my news consumption because I am simply exhausted by Trump's fabulism and his non-stop effort to insert himself into the public consciousness. And I no longer have any sense of where this is all going, but I'm pretty sure it won't be good.
2
If he knew where Burundi was, which he doesn't, Trump would envy that country's president, who recently adopted the title of "Supreme Eternal Guide." Fortunately for us, Trump's grandiose vision of himself as a know-it-all leader who should never be questioned because he can do no wrong is a fantasy only shared by 40% of our population, most of them Republicans. The other 60% is growing more and more weary of Trump's vulgarity, his corruption of the White House, his ethical lapses, his daily violations of the emoluments clause and total ill-preparedness in the conduct of foreign policy. Like all fantasies, his bubble will eventually burst and this reality show president will be exposed for what he is, a grifter whose lies took him to the Oval Office but won't let him stay there.
3
I am exhausted and sickened by everything Trump. But I'm afraid to turn my back and ignore him because he and his ilk are dangerous to our democracy. I will do all I can to voice my objection and revulsion at his behavior at every opportunity. Economically, my family is facing rising property taxes, rising homeowners insurance, rising longterm care insurance, rising health insurance, rising car insurance and rising flood insurance, so I will use this forum to thank Republicans for the tax cut.
1
I now spend a lot of time not attending to the trump show. I ignore the 'breaking news' and the televised tease, the endless living in the future, coming attractions of trump America. I felt like the breathless anticipation was playing me. I now get my political news from weekly magazines and newspapers. We need to find space away from the endless freak show at the White House.
2
The answer to this is simple. Stop covering what Trump does other than real policy or national security issues. He feeds on attention and the media obliges over and over again. TV, turn your cameras off. Stop covering his rallies. Don't broadcast the "sprays" until he submits to a real press conference. OP ED writers, stop analyzing what any of his nonsense means. By doing so you legitimize what he thinks, says, and does. Investigative journalists, keep digging but don't get distracted by the circus. Sunday news shows, stop the gratuitous stuff and don't put his lying spokespeople on the air. Bottom line, stop feeding the beast. Take away the attention and he will wither and die. Let's talk about something of value.
2
I used to read Brookes regularly. That was before his false equivalencies helped elect agent orange.
Now and then I come back to check out what the David is saying and every time I have, I see what seems like a glimmer of contrition for his collusion with the orange campaign. But, that is rare. DB's tepid condemnation of Chrump and the mess he is making seems to me not only born of idealism and fealty to the Republican party but to the maintenance of DB's reputation as well.
Sort of a sad statement about a good thinker.
2
First I am paying money for this. What I learned, Brooks is as confused as the rest of us.....but wait....keep our eye on the ball, amidst all the fantasy are real humans raising children, working, living Real Lives with Real Hopes for these Real Lives. That is all I have to say but it is enough to provide focus.
1
Brooks essentially is saying Trump and his minions were simply too stupid to collude with the Russians. I agree. However, their stupidity left them wide open for manipulation. Theirs is the worst kind of collusion. They were and are simply puppets in the hands of a few masters--Putin, Xi, Kim.
People like Pence, Ryan, McConnell, Spicer, Sanders are the puppets of puppets which requires a special kind of stupid.
The modern Republican Party is a mixture of stupidity, greed, and crassness.
1
I hope you develop this point in a more focused future piece: "Trump’s fantasies regularly collide with reality, and so far reality has a perfect winning percentage."
I would argue that the director John Ford was greatly more influential than John Wayne in creating the myth of the American west than John Wayne.
Few people can quote the dialogue Wayne spoke, but anyone of a certain age can imagine Wayne's posture, his gait, the wide-angle pans of the locations, the action sequences on horseback. That was all John Ford.
2
Mr. Brooks doesn't mention one of the more pervasive fantasies that has seduced America: the fantasy that technology will deliver us to utopia, making our lives effortless and our freedom complete. My book on those delusions, "Not So Fast: Thinking Twice About Technology," includes a chapter entitled "Dreamworld."
4
Excellent essay - periodically, Brooks comes out this type of staff and that is his charm. " ... Image can not be changed by facts.." Is a gem of cultural meme and all modern readers understand this reality. How "image" is build? Image building is not a rational process - it is the complex nature of human consciousness working on both at awareness and under the radar as subtle unconsciousness state. Most of the image formation happens at unconsciousness level by assembling the bricks of animal instincts on to a scaffolding that can be decorated by the facts as furnishing. Once the image is build, facts are only ornaments, a temporary decoration that can be replaced by new facts to make image looks better. The underlying structure is strongly build on reptilian brains concepts, metaphors and logics. Trump is one of the great craftsman of this art and American media is his workshop. The fantasy world we are encountering now will collapse one day as Mother Nature follows the rule of facts and will play the final hand. What will emerge may be a New America that may not look familiar to us - a Syrian style country or a Norway like country - definitely not like America of our founding fathers.
Trump is just the side show, an effective distraction.
The only way to see what is really going on is to stop focussing on the distraction.
1
Mueller's investigation results will point us to reality in short order.
That is if the Republicans don't sabotage it.
Perhaps if the media featured on their front pages what is going on behind closed doors in D.C., regarding policies that affect our every day lives, instead of the latest Trump tragedy, we could start imagining what we can change in D.C. policy makers brains.
Perhaps if the media kept Flint Michigan on the front page their water would actually get taken care of.
Perhaps if the media continued to keep us informed about every member of the Congress who is not in favor of assault weapons, bump stocks, who favor universal back ground check, who think it is a bad idea to let States that have bad gun laws pushing other States into having their laws interfered with, we could have a reality check regarding sensible gun reform.
Perhaps if the media would illustrate how important Single Payer health care would be a better than private insurers, we could all afford good health care.
Perhaps if media stopped featuring sensationalism on the front page we could use our intellect, not our emotions, to lead us to realize that if we do not take interest in others and actually think about how we, as country, could come together on the things that really matter, we would all be better off, including the media.
Or maybe better, we as a nation, can vote out anyone in November who does not put country first, over their Party. Now that would be a reality we could live with
9
Recall the Iranian hostage crisis. We were reminded every day that they were still being held by the number of days headlined on tv. Let’s try that with Flint water.
2
There is a legitimate and valuable place for "fantasy-land" and imagination in the daily human survival struggle. Fantasy is useful in the creative artistic process. It also enables the individual to be inspired by imagining new possibilities. The human consciousness/mind is made with the ability to imagine. From the caveman paintings to Shakespeare to Thomas Edison and beyond, there has been huge human value in the ability to fantasize.
Like any "good" thing, the good thing can be twisted into extreme misuse and then it becomes a "bad" and dangerous thing. Fire is useful until it is in the hands of an arsonist. A gun can be a good thing until put in the hands of dictators and the mentally deranged.
Outright lying, greedy and deceitful manipulation of an ill-informed electorate that plays into the basest of human instincts, and psychotic illness in governmental leadership are situations where fantasy becomes a weapon of evil.
America has been moving toward the crossroad where it must decide if it will sink back into pre-democracy oppression, exploitation, and imposition of human suffering, or return to healthy fantasizing and believing in idealism for the betterment of all humankind.
The fantasy of a better world has served America well, despite it struggles, with its own injustices and hypocrisies.
The nation needs to get its fantasies in order, to get its house in order, and choose the right path at this critical crossroad in its evolving its fantasy history.
4
An another example of a complicit media overvaluing the irrelevant while devaluing the relevant. Trump claiming he'd been wiretapped was one of the most damaging moments in American electoral history; and not a word here about administration efforts to get their hands on Mueller's case.
2
Unfortunately, the this paper itself plays into Trump's hand by covering every tweet or utterance of the Entertainer-In-Chief as if it were substantial news, usually with Home Page prominence. In addition, it has promoted Trumpish sanitized euphemisms, such as "post truth" instead of "lie", thus effectively leaving itself open to charges of "fake news." (Along with "Right-to-life" instead of the accurate "anti-abortion", "enhanced interrogation" meaning "torture", and "detainee" instead of "prisoner.")
4
How do you get 7 billion people to start over?
Or take a small portion of that, say, 325 million in the U.S. and expect them to live in the real world. If we lived in the real world the current prsesident wouldn't have reached the second week of the nominating process. The country fell for the "con" cited by Michael Bloomberg.
We can not live in a true reality world. It is too painful. So we ditch it and follow the "con."
Instead of listening to the president, look into the faces in the crowd whether it is at a rally or in the white house where he puts on his act with his slobbering devotees, and you will see in the faces of the people a yearning for the fantasy world. It's like playing fantasy football.
We think it's the only game in town.
We need more than a few individuals to pull us back from the brink. We will need an entire generation - yes we will need all of the millennial generation and the one following them to purge this absurd "State of Affairs."
378
Thank you. That is exactly right. That's why infighting is such a lousy idea. We are all at risk from climate change/global warming and other forms of pollution, extreme income inequality, violence, hatred and victim blaming, warmongering, and on and on.
Everyone - well over 60% - needs to pitch in.
35
Tom, you are so right, that despite the colorful language, the NYT backs it up as their pick. What about those fantasy-phone addicts in the Millennial and subsequent generation? My fear is that these youths have been nursed on fantasy since day 1, absorbed into the virtual reality of their screens. These screens are the "veil" that hangs in front of their faces obscuring if not obstructing their perception of reality -- I see it every day. These folks don't know dirt, literally.
WELL SAID!
12
The notion that paying less attention to Trump will help the country move on is ludicrous. Trump has weaponized fantasy, but his fluke election gives him real power. Like all despots, the longer he is in office, the more he will erode constraints on his misuse of it. Trump’s presidency most resembles a hostage crisis, with law enforcement and media gathered 24/7 at the scene until it is resolved.
4
The US policy of globalism is fantasy based.
1. 'Americans want it' - only in corporate-manipulated polls. In 2014 blue state Oregon voted 2-1 against driver's licenses for undocs, overturning a signed law, outspent 10-1.
2. 'If we make China rich by giving them our tech & jobs they will democratize...
"It’s not when he ignores the facts; it’s when he replaces them by building an alternate virtual reality and suckering us into co-creating it."
This brought to mind my reaction to something Mr. Brooks said in a recent television appearance. Commenting on the planned Trump/Kim summit, Brooks shrugged and optimistically suggested (here I paraphrase) 'Maybe it takes a thug (Trump) to handle a thug (Kim).' As if being too nice has been America's problem all along. As if this summit thing was ever more than an exercise in political theater. Twice suckered, David.
3
"We’re in the middle of some vast historical transition, and it’s very hard to know what to believe in. The more time we spend on the Trumpian soap opera, the less likely we are to know where we are or what we should do."
Nah -It's obvious!
keep holding him and his acolytes up to fact based ridicule whether they believe it or not - In due course his followers will regress into a red staate dystopia of their own making:
Addiction - serial inequality - futureless offspring - desperate dependency and unhealthy final years in poverty.
3
Trumps Lies trump his Fantasies: That's a fact to bear in mind as we oppose him and his Republican shills.
2
Don't overthink it. Trump is a liar. His insecurity demands that he be admired, and he needs to lie to accomplish that, so he lies. The sycophantic, tribal nature of DC allows him to be taken seriously by the fools on either side that argue vociferously about "his policies". Ya know what many of us learned long ago? He lies.
3
He's such a bore. He's always been a bore. For the life of me I can't understand how anyone can stand to listen to his speeches. Maybe he's not convincing because he lacks the necessary skin in the game to be so.
At this point is there anything worth saying about him? My opinion of course is based on what he projects on the boob tube. I don't know him personally. Besides, I already have one bore to speak to once a year in my youngest sibling. Interestingly enough he behaves in a similar manor. He's always talking about himself. I suppose that's why he voted for him too.
Please recommend my comment. I promise it will make you feel great again!
2
No one with a brain now trusts Trump on anything, including North Korea, Iran, China, and Russia. He is a serial lier with a primary motivation to increase his personal wealth, and his family's wealth by doing anything legal or illegal with substantial conflicts of interest, and by committing many Federal felonies.
He got elected by telling people what they wanted to hear. He told them that he was returning the Federal government to the people, and helping the middle class. That was all a very big lie. Trump's mentor was a lawyer for the mob, and Trump is still using that mob mentoring. He is still telling his base what they want to hear, and still lying to them too.
The good news is that Trump will go down just like Nixon did with delineation as an "unindicted co-conspirator" on all of the existing and future indictments from the Justice Department. Trump cannot change this because the Supreme Court precedent in the Nixon case provides support and protection for the Justice Department.
It is over for Trump the serial lier.
Fantasy perhaps. But I opt for a seriously damaged man furiously engaged in psychological projection. What he assigns to others will be (already has been) revealed in him: crooked, small, low (intellectual) energy, doesn’t belong ... etc., etc. The man is frighteningly mismatched to the office.
3
Fantasy gets stronger when combined with nationalism and is not an American monopoly, rather mundane; e.g., Japan lived in a fantasy world before it imploded in 1945. I can see now this fantasy world is inhabited by many; some even claim Trump's obvious failure as a success, like the aborted date with Mr. Kim, which is not of good omen.
2
Every voting country gets the president it deserves.
Well, in this case there is also a lot of voting crookerie involved. Certainly. Gerrymandering, the silli Electoral body and external muddling.
1
I suspect these parallels are too sophisticated and insightful for Trump world fantasies and the fawning worship and groupminds of Trump's base.
Looking at the photo of the Trump rally, his audience is largely made up of men with enormous grins on their faces. Any minute now as in the early 1990s, they're going to take off for the woods in male bonding exercises, beating drums, listening to the poetry of Trump's tweets, and provide nurturing energy to each other for their masculinity.
2
This is an excellent commentary from a Republican who believed in Republicanism as idolized by Lincoln and practiced by the likes of Rockefeller, Percy, Dirksen and even Goldberg.
America has become a fantasyland indeed. I got so disenchanted with what I see around me! Hane is quite correct when he laments the focus on the current events in Washington orchestrated by Trump. He also made a chilling conclusion that fascism wants total absorption in its agenda.
Sometimes I get so bored with this all consuming news about Trump, that I take refuge in shows like American Pickers or Pawn Stars that have nothing to do current events. But sadly we can’t escape reality, we have to live in it!
122
Mr C,
Of course, you are correct. We do have to live in reality even as Trump spins one fantasy after another. But like the boy who cried wolf once too often, there is hope that the people of this country will stop listening to the babble that comes out of Trump. Yes...Trump is still president. Yes he has power. But NO, you can't take anything he says at face value. Even his threats.
Eventually, the people will learn that the only thing worth paying attention to is what stuff actually happens. Trump's rhetoric is nothing more than garbage. Trump is a paper mache president filled with hot air. The media still has to cover his absurd pronouncements, but the public doesn't have to pay attention. What we need from the news media is not more coverage of Trumps inane remarks, but coverage of the results of his poor governance.
19
"The media still has to cover his absurd pronouncements, but the public doesn't have to pay attention."
Why does the media HAVE to cover him? What would happen if it didn't? Revenue can't be that dependent on his pseudo doings. It may be wishful thinking on my part, but I've noticed less above-the-fold photo evidence of the Orange One, at least at the Times. Keep it up; relegate him to the innards or bottoms of coverage. The public's not paying attention is nigh impossible to control. If it's in front of our eyes, we're going to look. Better to get it our of our sight.
"Fantasyland: How America went haywire", by Kurt Anderson, is a great book. I'm glad you read it. You may also want to read "Lies my teacher told me" by James Loewen.
Unfortunately the very people that should be reading these books do not read, some probably can not.
We also have a president that does not read because he is too busy making up his own world. Your article is right on the mark about his brainwashed followers.
3
Trump's motley circus of 2015-16 wasn't actually a campaign because they didn't think they would win? And therefore there was no collusion?
That's very odd logic. The success of his campaign and the supposed criminality of Hillary Clinton still completely dominate Trump's brain. There is objective evidence that Trump and people close to him (Don Jr: "I love it!") were eager to have outsiders harm Clinton's campaign via illegally obtained information.
Brooks should be wary of answering "Trumpian unreality" with fantasies of his own. We can't wish away the mounting pile of evidence of deliberate collusion, betrayal, and obstruction of justice simply by saying that Trumpworld was greedy and inept.
4
First things first: "My instinct is that the Trump campaign never really colluded with the Russians..."
That doesn't in any way mean that the Russians weren't pulling strings to win the election for a malleable and willing puppet.
Second: It's clear you have Trump's number but, while it's refreshing to hear you repudiate Trump, a more valued and worthy column would address those in Congress who have been using the racist, misogynistic, xenophobic rantings of a very damaged man to further THEIR agenda of dismantling the social progress and the safety net for America's poor - and more recently, it's working class - all the while ensuring the plutocrats and corporations who give them BIG MONEY are being served with a big spoon.
3
First time seeing Disneyland in California, I thought how interesting that someone could imitate or “recreate” nature. The jungle, the lakes, etc. it did transported me into fantasyland. After that, I have always saw the USA as a combination of The Fantasy of Disneyland and the “magic” of Hollywood. When the wars happened Desert Storm, Afghanistan, Iraq again... I always thought the USA soldiers want to emulate Rambo, and going into killing spree. In the USA huge majority love celebrities, the idiocies of the Kardashians. So many “reality” shows that particularly the working class and the poor love to imitate. Young working women spending thousands buying brand names products. Young men paying exorbitant prices for basketball shoes. This is the fantasy that is The USA’s main export.
146
To quote myself in a reply to a comment above that is also a "Times Pick" yet pertinent to RBR's concern:
"My fear is that youths have been nursed on fantasy since day 1, absorbed into the virtual reality of their screens. These screens are the "veil" that hangs in front of their faces obscuring if not obstructing their perception of reality -- I see it every day. These folks don't know dirt, literally."
6
As a retired Army officer, I have to disagree with your categorization of "USA soldiers." I guarantee you the vast majority of our Soldiers do not wish to "emulate Rambo, and going into killing spree." The members of our military are highly trained professionals who go where the civilian leadership of this country send them and conduct missions that 99% of our Nation cannot or will not do. War could not be further from fantasy.
9
I have read Fantasyland and recommend it to everyone. You Mr. Brooks have watered down the points made in the book, which are very serious, to the point of triviality. It is not about the novels which show the explosion of fantastical thinking and it is not about Trump's fantasy. It is about the fantasy of Americans who cannot think clearly, from the days of the Salem witch trials, through the fantastical cures in bottles and evangelical preachers and belief in Davy Crockett and John Wayne myths and conspiracy theorists up to the present time when Fantasy tv like Fox News and an unable-to-reason public elects through the electoral college system a charlatan who has been able to channel the "thought" process of these type of fantasists. We have big problems in our country and they are not only about Trump but about the fantasists who elected him and to whom facts do not exist; their only reality is their fantasy and it is reinforced constantly by the President, most of the GOP, and Fox News. These are the same people who believe in creationism to the exclusion of evolution, the same people who do not believe in scientific facts, the type of people who believe stories like Pizzagate, people who are "religiously" fervid about guns and abortion to the exclusion of common sense. There is a lot of stupidity, ignorance and mental imbalance to overcome; it has always been a part of the American psyche but it is now in control of our government and society.
2
Where was David Brooks when Trump was self aggrandizing his anticipated meeting with Kim Jong Un by proclaiming North Korean "denuclearization" (in the sense of a elimination of all North Korean nukes) as a meeting goal beyond compromize? Helping protect Trump exposure to media is debunking of his self-defeating, globally destabilizing fantasy? (Sure, DPRK nuclearization is the prime cause of the problem, but viable US means to reverse that were nearly eliminated as soon as the DPRK achieved the ability to quickly and reliably devastate South Korea in response to military action against them, fully eliminated as a sane strategy as the DPRK developed the capacity to nuke us.)
1
I see absolutely no path to co-existing with the 30-35% of voters in this country. The sooner everyone realizes this, the better. And make plans for a peaceful separation before it turns bloody.
2
Until David Brooks faces his own role in making Trump possible, he will continue to struggle to connect with reality.
1
"Fantasy" is one thing, insanity is another. It's the problem Freud confronted when he discovered rampant sexual abuse as a medical fellow when examining the deaths of young girls in the Paris morgue. It led to his theory of sexuality based on the reality of children murdered after being sexually violated. But, the Victorian public wasn't buying it, especially from a Jew. So instead, it became a theory of sexual fantasy. At the bottom it was all about mental illness. And that's THE problem we're unwilling to confront with Donald Trump. In the paranoid conspiracy theories from "birtherism" to now "spygate" from a man who suffers from extreme narcissism that leads to such fake conspiracies and the multitude of lies to protect his need for grandiosity and adulation, we have to step back and realize that Donald Trump is a macabre fantasy created from an underlying mental illness (or instability, if you prefer). Underneath is an angry, insecure child who demands subservience (aka "loyalty"), and responds with viciousness when he doesn't get it. To enter into Donald Trump's world is not to believe in fantasy, but to descend into madness. So, let's not over-intellectualize Mr. Trump. We must remove the gloss of any semblance of normality and see the darkness that is casting a shadow over America.
1
And here we have David arguing that the ostrich has the correct approach. I'll admit it's tempting.
This was a very important column, David. Thank you. Very clear, great citations.
We are all complicit, media and populace alike, and most importantly, you make clear how facism gets a stranglehold--not just on the brainwashed but on the resistance too.
Numerous Americans have drunk the kool-ade of Trumpism, that is bad within itself, but the worse fact is that our "checks and balances" are drunk with their perception of total power. We have obtained the pinnacle where there are more individuals in positions of power, including the President, that have no idea what they are doing and no knowledge of how to proceed. Indeed, what could possibly go wrong?
Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a really rough landing, that will prove to be no Fantasyland.
1
Two corrections:
1. The "dangerous thing" about Trump's fantasy of an effortless nuclear disarmament of N Korea is that his impulsiveness and flattery and dreams of Nobel prizes can quickly and impulsively turn into a horrific military strike on N Korea.
2. Your "instinct," Mr. Brooks, about Trump campaign collusion with the Russians, I believe, is wrong.
Trump's campaign -- just like the administration itself -- is made up of "hangers on" and relatives. It is how Trump operates. And that is why Mueller investigates and indicts those around Trump -- and why the Mueller team will expose the facts about Trump's own involvement.
1
I am exasperated, not addicted. I miss intelligent discourse. I miss humanitarians. The list is long. Who do I blame for this glut of junk food trash that they are trying to stuff down our throats? Let's encourage the noncommittal to vote, to let them know we all have the power to end this degradation. America is unraveling.
307
The purpose of the show is to disempower people. To keep half the people voting against "government," i.e. against their own power & interests. To keep the other half so disgusted they stay home, or vote for people whose positions they don't really support because they're so terrified of the Republican clown act. The more you try to turn off the show & live in reality, the louder & more extreme the show will become--ask Obama. There's no exit from this feedback loop without radical, structural reform--reform of media, of campaign financing, of lobbying.
26
Reform of the Electoral College would be a good idea, too, but due to the requirements of the Constitution for amending itself, it ain't gonna happen. Too many states would have to agree to give up their disproportionate power in electing the President.
The Electoral College has shown itself to be corrupt; it must be dissolved.
Again, this boils down to two elements; the American voter and the Republican led congress. Trump beat out a slate of 17 candidates running for the Republican nomination of which less then a handful were serious. Trump won from this circus of candidates with no solid ideas but did do with bluster and bravado. He was a lying cheat when he ran and remains the same. The gutless Republican led congress (Ryan and McConnell) do not have the fortitude to reign him in and are derelict in their duties as a check in our system of government. Next time the electorate has to wise up and not vote for a candidate so unqualified as Trump and pay much closer attention to their congressional candidates as well.
2
No, sir, it is not "fantasyland". It is the ascendancy of evil in a political system that has been deliberately twisted to reward it.
Now the real "fantasyland" is the Constitution itself, which was designed to, and previously thought to, protect us from that evil.
1
Trump vs the swamp. I think not. Trump is the swamp. He has been mired in it for most, if not all, of his life. I worked in NYC through the 80’s, 90’s and the 00’s. Trump is now and was then the same fantasy making lout he is today. The only difference is that a major political party has adopted his unAmerican fantastical stance, which is in favor of totalitarianism. Shame on them.
2
Dems should ignore Trump’s antics and focus on what it will take for USA to lead, prosper and stay safe in 21rst century. It will be a winning message.
1
I think David misses a key point in his view that we are all pulled into the a Trumpian world. I'm not mesmerized by it or addicted to it any longer. His world is like a novel that is far too long where the lead character and his actions have become predictable. There was never really any steak... just constant sizzle.
Instead, I find myself fascinated by the opposite side of Pennsylvania Avenue. I find a Republican congress making a joke of themselves. The same group who couldn't create enough special investigations of Hillary Clinton ended just one. Done in a half-baked matter, its conclusions unconvincing is supposed to be the final word on the matter of Russian involvement in our elections. Nonetheless, they now find it necessary to call for an investigation of the investigators. Who knew that was coming?
Nothing shocks me about Trump any longer. The real show is the worst acting troupe in the nation's capitol. Its obvious 90% of the cast is exhausted and the other 10% will say/do anything to get the leading role for next season's revival of the same play. Apparently they never got the message that the starring role in the new play will be Robert Mueller III.
1
We need a Trump coverage anti-dote: The FCC needs to step-in to limit the 24 hr "News" networks coverage of this charlatan. How you ask, can the FCC do that? For example, In certain states and counties in our country, Bars, which do not serve a certain percentage of food to alcoholic beverages will lose their license to serve those alcohol beverages. SO, if a so-called news network does not report news stories other than those related to Trump, on at least a 50-50 basis, then they lose their license to broadcast.
Trump is relevant only because of his seemingly abrupt success as a political figure, and that literary groundwork was laid by the Republican party.
He is worth comparing to literary figures, sure, because he has broken new ground as a fabulist. He has brilliantly mined the rich ore of racial resentment and economic uncertainty in our country, by grafting political speech to the language of reality TV where there is a high tolerance for hyperbole and confabulation.
What's missing here is motivation. Political rhetoric is motivated speech. There is a long history of fantasy and lies told by politicians to achieve political goals. After 40 years of dog whistle politics the Republican party has largely distilled it's fan base down to a core of readers eager for the next edition of "Sticking it to the Elites."
Trump comes from TV and knows instinctively that he need only provide raw content—often it seems anything at all will do—to generate a news cycle's worth of controversy. The only refinement in communications strategy is that truth and falsity have been designated now as just another form of controversy.
2
"The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" is a fantasy. It is harmless. The legend of Trump, real estate magnate of money-losing casinos, is also a fantasy, but so is his evident belief that missiles raining from the skies over North Korea (or wherever) also a fantasy. that is far from harmless. And that, Brooks, is the difference between Trump and actual fantasy.
104
I personally could not agree more: Far too much attention is given to Trump and his silliness. And in the process becoming lost as his servants. But as far as hardly knowing what to believe in? For me anyway, I’d say love, the “golden rule.” And this not as a strategy for getting something, but rather in being a whole person, living the beauty of that even in the darkest of moments.
1
Trump doesn't sit in the WH because he alone got himself there. The GOP that allowed him to "represent" them as a candidate is responsible for the mess we are in. The party could have stood up and said, No, this man is a liar and a manipulator with no American values of honesty, humility, and fairness. We will not let him be our candidate. But no, the GOP was selfish and nominated him to run because they thought he could be contained and they would get what they wanted. So over 80K people in three states, saw through the farce, but it didn't matter. Thanks GOP for this mess. And the best way we can redeem ourselves as a nation is to ignore this "president" until we vote him powerless, in 2018 and out of office in 2020.
1
David, this time you've got it wrong. Trump doesn't create fantasies, he creates lies. There is a difference. Kesey and Wolfe dug into people and ideas and through literature illuminated society and truths. Trump simply (and brilliantly) lies, damages, degrades over and over again until all the little lies collude to become one big lie. Fantasy has value, makes us think, Trump's lies are designed to keep his followers from thinking.
448
Excellent point!
17
Yes, Trump lies, but he believes his own lies. He imagines a fantasy world in which America is some kind of super country. His followers like that because is takes no effort on their part.
Unfortunately, they all live in this fantasyland together-and the real world rolls on without them.
9
Thank you, Ann.
Well said.
10
The problem is when those who rule in fantasy land have to meet reality. As we have seen in the current administration, the results are not pretty.
1
Trump, besides being a thief, is a gambler at heart. And he knows the House always wins [if you're a competent businessman] in the long run and it wins by offering the fantasy of everyday Joe winning big-time. It's all lies and illusions. At most, the great majority only win a few bucks, but the suspense is the thrill if the loses are not substantial.
This is not the way to run a country.
2
But what Brooks and most people don't understand or possibly acknowledge is that it may be fantasy that Trump spins, but it is really a serious personality disorder like Narcissism and perhaps other similar disorders. His actions and speech all point to a person who is obsessed with his own ego needs and the need to be acclaimed no matter whether it is positive or negative. Narcissists are hard to deal with because they never accept an idea that isn't theirs or a negative assessment of what they do or say. He will never apologize, always blame others for any failure, always push boundaries and rules, say whatever his audience wants to hear and lie whenever it is convenient.
Mr. Brooks, you let him off the hook too easily. He is dangerous and destructive.
Maybe my head is in the sand, but I don't follow Trump in any way. I also don't believe a word he says, so his grandiose plans and failures come as no surprise. He does have the power of the bully pulpit (emphasis on bully), and yes, he seems to keep "winning," but it sure is a hollow victory. Moving from Trump himself to really examining what's happening on his watch is a lot more compelling and scary. I do follow that.
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Mr. Brooks, is this your mea culpa for suggesting that Donald Trump's "Lizard Wisdom" has some value? That "[t]here is growing reason to believe that Donald Trump understands the thug mind a whole lot better than the people who attended our prestigious Foreign Service academies," in essence, endorsing Trump's Republican nomination acceptance speech that only he could fix it? Despite your hedge at that end of that column that you were not endorsing his foreign policy, it does seem that, at least for a short time, you too were drawn into Trump's magical fantasy world.
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While I find myself agreeing with Mr. Brooks about the fascistic underpinnings of the reign of Donald the Mad, once again I need to point out that this fantasyland is really nothing new. It may be ideologically inconvenient for Mr. Brooks to admit it, but in fact the GOP has been peddling fantasies for many decades now. They've been telling the public that they can have tax cuts and increased Federal spending, without incurring any nasty deficits. They've been promising a return to the "good old days" of "law and order" and "respect for the family," even as their pro-corporate policies decimate whole communities and engage in a whole range of illegal enterprises (anyone remember Iran-Contra?) to support dubious policies. More recently, they've abandoned even the pretense of caring about the lives of ordinary people and have made direct appeals to racism and xenophobia instead of basic economic self interest. Donald Trump is only the latest chapter in a very long graphic novel that has been written by scores of Republicans since at least the Nixon Administration.
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Would that the Trump presidency were nothing more than a soap opera, which by definition is a melodramatic work of fiction. But this man’s presidency has, and will continue to have, real and lasting effects on our lives, not for the better. I guess I’m not surprised that the manuscripts in Erik Hane’s slush pile “are often about Trump.” Hane might consider the possibility that many of them are about “someone’s lived experience,” particularly if the authors is a recent immigrant; or a woman facing a difficult choice about a pregnancy; or a black, urban Medicaid recipient facing work requirements while his white rural counterparts are exempted.
It’s possible that Hane focuses exclusively on fiction as a book agent. Unfortunately, all of the above are all-too-real.
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Don’t confuse Trump’s antics with the real world consequences of his eroding of American institutions. Attacks on the press, U.S. intelligence agencies, immigrants, even the rights of mostly African American NFL players are troublesome signs that our country is moving in the direction of authoritarian governments.
Yes, he does provide a circus to entertain and goes for the ratings. But calling it a Magical Fantasy World akin to Gatsby ignores the fact that Trump is also incompetent, corrupt and dangerous as a leader of our country.
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I see Trump as more diabolical and, as much as he is sentient, which I estimate is about half of the time, cunning, albeit in an entirely negative way.
Unlike Nixon, he has no experience or warring, positive influences to even moderately temper his predatory instincts. He has Nixon's paranoia, but coupled with his pedestrian obsessions, he has not only imposed his twisted, fantasy world on the country, but it's a shallow, venal fantasy that appeals to the masses worst instincts.
Yes, he's gotten into our heads, not like Cindarella or Peter Pan, but like the ringing of ears that drives someone to distraction, which I would identify is his intent, all meant to keep us off the scent of the truth, which is his monumental incompetency and impulse to wreck the very landscape he claims to improve.
If NYC is a model, there are two ways the ringing will be silenced or at least reduced to a faint hum. One, like a spoiled toddler enabled to tantrum, he will finally over test the patience of his loved ones, and/or, he will pitch such a prolonged and destructive fit, that he will simply collapse all on his very own.
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