"Do they think that having anesthetized their moral sense in this case they will simply turn it on again down the road? Having turned off their soul at work, do they think they will be able to turn it on again when they go home to the spouse and kids?"
Or, as Mick Jagger once sang:
"Oh the gangster looks so frightening
With his luger in his hand
When he gets home to his children
He's a family man"
- Jigsaw Puzzle.
22
David - ThankYOU for this great configuration of psychology and morality , and done without the meaness I see ,and experience every week I sent it to every man left and right who I have experienced as moral and generous men in my 77 years I heard you speak at CSUF when you lamented as a republican that Trump might carry one county in “Mississippi”(?) Ken Hallstone MFT
11
I agree, but let me that add what David Brooks said:
"Trump, personifying the worst elements in our culture, is like a providentially sent gong meant to wake us up and direct us toward a better path.
This reminds me of Leonard Cohen's song, "Democracy":
He sang: "Democracy is coming to the USA".
--------------------------------------------------------
That was in 1992, 27 years ago. It was prophetic for Leonard Cohen to suggest what another (Michael) Cohen is now concerned about. In fact, Leonard Cohen died, one day after Trump was elected, in 2016. How ironic!
Here is a Trump version of "Democracy":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ythb4PSWBIA&t=236s
I wonder if David Brooks could comment on "Democracy".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
7
Cohen's immorality is a fact. He is a liar, con, bigot just like the man for whom he would have taken a bullet. But even liars say the truth - especially when totally trapped. So's the case with Cohen. Like the Republicans are arguing that Cohen's words are lies and therefore not credible. Perhaps. But the signed checks and recordings cannot be lies. Forget Cohen but pay great attention to the evidence he's presented.
37
David Brooks, what a fantastic piece you wrote. It really hits home and the meaning of humanity. I truly hope Trump is the last of his kind to hold that great office that he has tarnished to the level of trash.
28
“I often wonder who didn’t love Donald Trump. I often wonder who left an affection void that he has tried to fill by winning attention, which is not the same thing.”
Mr. Brooks, past reporting for decades has explored Fred Trump’s lack of affection for Donald, his cold dictatorial style (without needing public attention), and his greed supplanting any morality in his business dealings. Also reported is Donald’s mother’s detachment, partially from a long illness when he was young, combined with the submissive role she was required to play to protect herself from Fred’s cruelness. Donald learned his father’s behavior well, emulating it publicly to try to win his father’s favor, a father who reportedly thought Donald was an idiot (and preferred Fred Jr.). When Donald branched out on his own, he replaced his father with Roy Cohn, who cemented for Donald the greed/win-at-all-costs learned by Fred, but whose technical knowledge Donald seems to have ignored for the decade they partnered. Demonstrating that Donald learned to be compassionless, he dumped Roy Cohn when Roy came out as gay & with AIDS.
I am not excusing DJT. I personally abhor him and tried exhaustively to steer people away before the election. We may feel some sympathy for the dearth of love in his childhood. But even with his sufficient resources, he has not attempted to rise above it anywhere near enough to be POTUS, or to be leading any organization anywhere IMHO.
35
March 1, 2019
"The abominable effort to take one's sins with one to paradise."
https://quotlr.com/author/andre-gide
jja Manhattan, N.Y.
5
Cohen = ex flying monkey of Trumpism.
Lindsey Graham and his ilk are simply his replacements.
Meet the new flying monkey.
Same as the old flying monkey.
19
I generally enjoy your essays, Mr. Brooks, and always look forward to your thoughtful commentary on The News Hour, but the very first line of this essay proves that you do not understand what you're talking about.
Narcissistic sociopathy is NOT the result of a lack of parental affection and love. The one who raised me was a first born son, the golden child of his family who sucked up every bit of praise they offered him and went hunting for more. Narcissism is a mental illness, sir, not the result of poor parenting. Narcissists don't just want to be lauded, they NEED it like you and I need air to breathe. Unless you've lived with one, you can't even begin to understand the lengths to which they will go to acquire and maintain the praise and admiration of others. Laugh at them and they will destroy you.
By labeling Donald Trump 'unloved,' you run the risk not only of generating sympathy for him that he does not deserve, but you hold out the false hope that with enough love he can be cured. I spent most of my life watching everyone in my family trying to do that. Believe me, it doesn't work.
45
Nobody supported Trump by saying, "There is no way Trump would pay hush money to hide an affair, because he would never cheat on his wife." No GOPer stood up and claimed, "Trump would never hide his dealings with the Russians, because he is an above-board, moral businessman." No one denied Cohen's testimony on the grounds that it was simply too incredible that Trump would stoop so low as to threaten institutions for releasing his grades. Brooks is right; when Trump's supporters speak out on his behalf, they drain the tanks of whatever moral credibility they have themselves.
35
I disagree with you, David, about whether or not Cohen is a "changed man". This is something we cannot know, unless we are Cohen himself or one of his intimates. I believe there is one difference between Cohen and the totally sociopathic Trump that most of us can agree on: Cohen most likely loves his family, whereas Trump loves no one.
32
David justly uses the term 'gang warfare' referring to Jim Jordan's performance. On a larger scale, this also applies to the majority of what CNN's John King called the 'Ostrich Party'. Lead by Mirch McConnell and Lindsay Graham, we can probably refer to these folks as thugs individually, or gangsters collectively.
McConnell recently called initiatives to expand voting opportunities for working Americans 'a power grab by Democrats'.
This makes perfect sense for a gang associating with the likes of Vlad Putin. The party has by association now adopted hard-line communism while at the same time decrying something they call 'socialism'.
25
In 1972, when I was 12, I had an argument with my best friend's Dad. He was a Nixon fan, and I was for McGovern. He said to me at one point "Even if he is a liar or a criminal, I'd rather have a strong liar than good weak man as my President". I always remember those words when I try to understand why some are attracted to Trump. While we might argue that Trump is actually a weak bully who project false strength, many people around the world are more attracted and responsive to power than goodness. Perhaps the GOP particularly attracts those with a preference for subservience to those in power. It would also explain why the GOP is better at following their leadership even against their own better judgment or the needs of their constituents.
26
I don't think that we care much if a mafia henchman, a consigliore who testifies against his crime boss is really converted in his heart or not. He knows what went on because he was a mafia henchman, after all. And we look into the crimes he details , not because he is a moral man. It's because he knows where the bodies are buried. The republican obsession with Cohen's purity of soul is so much smoke and fog, trying to cover up his testimony about the man they are determined to defend, the man whose name they try never to utter at all: Donald J. Trump.
33
The best & most sobering comment to which Mr Cohen had made to rep Jordan was:
"keep blindly supporting & defending Trump as I did, and you will end up exactly where I am now - lost everything."
36
I’m a gay liberal and this is a great column. Thoughtful, insightful, accessible. I am still reeling from the Cohen testimony. Cohen is a rogue but I believe every word he uttered.
21
"The moral drama is the central drama. Did you, at your crucial moment, side with generosity or greed?"
Generosity? Greed?
Would that greed be the worst of it!
The question should be: Did you, at your crucial moment, side with Good or Evil?
14
Very well written column. Too bad more voters didn't carefully read Tony Schwartz's article in July 2016 in the New Yorker titled "Trump's Boswell." Schwartz was the ghostwriter for "Art of the Deal", the book which put Trump on the map, so to speak, and spent a full year with Trump, listening in on his phone calls etc.
When asked, before the 2016 election, what he would title the book, he replied "The Sociopath."
I agree with others here that Trump is a very dangerous man. I am dreading both of the 2020 election's possible outcomes: one, if he wins, and two, if he loses.
29
Never mind tax rates and such for a moment. Can we all wrap our heads around the idea that Republicans in Congress... are absolutely prohibited from acting out of conscience. Yes, there are political cynics some might flippantly say "have no conscience," but that's a joke. Trump's reprehensible nature is quite clearly offensive to them as, for all their huffing and puffing, few of them are willing to actually vouch for the fundamental decency of the man they have empowered.
Why, for instance, would the phrase, "vote your conscience" upset a Trump supporter in 2016? Clearly, they saw voting their conscience as somehow at odds with voting for Trump. I'm not saying I presume to "know their hearts" (the defense du jour). I am SAYING that they did not feel that an appeal to conscience was consistent with support for Trump's candidacy/presidency.
And as another author in this paper noted there is no "Return to Normal" once Trump is gone. All the worst, but previously unproven in my lifetime, suspicions my generation has had of the GOP and its "moral majority" are staring the world in the face. In fact, my own imagination had the subservience of people who deem themselves "patriots" and "values voters" to the likes of Trump as outside of parameters. Whether I believed in their God or not, I thought THEIR subjective belief would simply not allow it.
Now I know.
11
By this time, If you haven't concluded in your heart-of-hearts that the almost all Republican politicians are totally morally bankrupt and care only about tax cuts for the wealthy then you are either not paying attention or you are blind to the obvious; and in either case, your attitude is antithetical to citizenship in a democracy.
29
As a foreigner , who has lived in America many decades , I have been extremely saddened by all the immoral events that have become integral part of this Great Country since donald trump has taken over the White House.
The allure of easy money , success and power have been causing a deep decay in certain part of the society , where political collusion or myopia especially by the GOP have given a sense of normalcy to a phenomenon that is highly degrading and setting a negative foot print to future generations.
This is why the rule of law must immediately condemn and bring to justice all the characters of this immoral slice of the American society , starting from the top , before this cancerous growth will metastasize and invade the real soul of the Country.
Thank you mr. Brook for your moral analysis of these ignominious facts.
16
Excellent column, but Brooks left out the voters. Tens of millions of Americans who voted for the sociopath in the Oval Office must now ask themselves whether they themselves are sociopaths, at least when it comes to politics and our society. Trump supporters who call themselves Christians are at best hypocrites. Their hero is against everything Jesus stood for.
The only way to get our politics and society back to a resemblance of normality and decency is to vote Trump and his GOP lackeys out of office. Millions of Republicans have at least temporarily left the party since Trump became president. That's a good start.
24
What a fabulous and spot on column, Mr. Brooks, thank you. One of your best. Have been recommending it to friends and family all day.
Rarely has the essence of a man been so comprehensively and accurately described than the deconstruction of trump and the trump crime family in this article. And the congressional GOP (most of it) are now part of that orbit as defenders, enablers, and pit bull "fixers". This column alone is worth a year's subscription to the NYT. .
10
Mr. Brooks, I always enjoy your humane, intelligent and rational commentary, but today I am finding myself grateful for a bit of comic relief in your observation: “Trump, personifying the worst elements in our culture, is like a providentially sent gong meant to wake us up and direct us toward a better path.“. Hoping that we as a nation hear the gong in the nearest possible future and wake up!
7
so, Cohen fell for Trump out of a compelling need for glitz and dough. that was the payoff he was after, and he was willing to be a louse and commit crimes and cover up crimes to get the goodies he so desperately sought. Congressional Republicans, too, have fallen for Trump. what, pray tell, is the payoff they so eagerly seek? continuing incumbency? financial contributions? direct financial gain? tax "cuts" that are not cuts? an end to regulations or abortion? a free lunch at the Trump DC hotel?
3
What a dilemma for "normal" people, who choose to validate this president, be they elected officials or voters.
1
"I often wonder who didn’t love Donald Trump."
The 1938 film "Boys Town" opens with Father Flanagan counseling a prisoner on death row. The warden enters and makes a comment to the prisoner about "paying your debt to the state." The prisoner retorts, "Where was the state when a lonely starving kid cried himself to sleep in a flophouse?...One friend, ONE FRIEND when I'm twelve years old and I don't stand here like this!"
When I first saw this film decades ago, this scene was a "providentially sent gong" that certainly work me up and directed me toward a path of being generous to children who needed help, if only through donations to charities like Toys for Tots or the Detroit Goodfellows, or by making and giving away wooden toys to local organizations.
In no way am I equating the current president with a death row inmate, nor do I claim that my donations stopped a child from turning into a criminal. I only say that I want to put a little love in someone's life who needs it. Maybe a little love will help keep a child's moral sense intact. Generosity can go a long, long way, and that's the direction I want to go.
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/1247912/Boys-Town-Movie-Clip-Eternity-Begins-In-45-Minutes.html
4
Politics is pretty much one third pro, one third anti, and one third apathetic, wherever and whenever it pops up.
1
It was surreal to listen to the House Republicans excoriate Cohen as a liar, all the while completely ignoring the fact their Party's Leader lies daily and with obliviousness as to whether he is on tape saying something else or that there is credible evidence that he is lying. I keep asking myself - What is Wrong with these People??? As pointed out David - the moral corrosion that has co-opted the Republican Party will not be excised any time soon. The GOP has normalized Donald Trump. They have completely accepted the trope that supporting "a liar, a cheat and a conman" to quote Mr. Cohen, is somehow excusable because the Party must be kept in power at all costs. What is especially troubling is that if there was an even more dire moral question than the routine lying and cheating we see from Trump, something even more dire - I have absolutely no faith that McConnell, McCarthy and their minions would put the Nation first. They have completely abandoned their pledge to defend the Constitution. They are some of the most shameful people I have seen in politics, and this includes Nixon and all his cronies.
13
it us not what Michael Cohen did or what said about the president that trouble me. It is the 40 % of DJT's supporters that make me cringe. Who are these people?
8
As a resident of Ohio, the same state represented by the ranking member of the committee hearing Mr. Cohen's testimony, I was struck by the Republicans lack of preparation for the hearing. Representative Jim Jordan's, and the other Republicans, constant harping of Cohen's admission of being a liar was not lost on many Buckeye residents, who perceive Mr. Jordan to be the archetype liar in his claim that he did not know that student athletes at Ohio State were subjected to molestation, including members of his teams, while he was an assistant wrestling coach. Mr. Cohen owned up to his lack of truthfulness. Mr. Jordan, it's your turn.
17
Trump and Venezuela's Maduro have a lot in common. Both are sociopaths who care nothing for their countries or the suffering they are causing. I fear that Cohen is correct when he says that if Trump loses the 2020 election, he won't go quietly.
3
When Michael Cohen gets out of prison we will see if he is truly a changed man or just changed teams as Mr. Brooks has said. Until then we can only speculate, often based on our own demons and view of the world.
2
Steinbeck and Brooks were right about most people. When they come to death, they will ask "was I good, or not good?". But not people like Donald Trump. There will be no last minute wrestle with morality, because Donald has fooled himself completely. On his death bed, Donald will marvel at his own greatness. I have to hope there really is a God, who will show Trump all the immoral actions of his life. But alas, I am an atheist. Donald will die a happy man, content in his self-created greatness. And no one will ever prove it otherwise to him.
3
We know Cohen lied in the service of Donald Trump, who is a proved repetitive lier. But what I don't know is Cohen a repetitive or habitual lier or what other lies he is accused of.
For now, I believe Cohen much much more than I do Trump and the Republican congressmen.
4
A bright line can be connected dot to dot from the formation of FOX News to the growing tumor of ignorant derisive hatred, culminating in the election of its human embodiment. You can neither reason with the tumor nor negotiate with it. Its cells act and sneer as one entity. Its ultimate defeat can only come at the hands of the voters. Too much attention has been paid to the president himself. We should have seen it coming in 1999, let alone in 2015.
7
"His desperate attempts to be loved have made him unable to receive love."
tht's shown by his disdain for dogs.
5
Doing penance by public confession is not reform of character, only an early step toward finding virtue that re-establishes character.
When Tiger Woods banished himself from golf a decade ago for acts that showed both an absence and a lapse of character, some thought that he should have done what truly repentant people focused on reforming themselves do--find a peaceful place to read, study, get healthy in mind, body and spirit, and not return until others see the seeds of reform beginning to blossom. Sadly, Woods disappointed in that regard, when his sponsors, among them Nike, sent in their own psychiatrists and counselors who declared, after a brief interlude not much more than an extended summer vacation, found him fit in mind, body, and spirit. The waterfall of financial losses that plagued the Woods brand would be staunched but Tiger played like a sad child still lost and trying to find his way.
The threat of being lodged in prison is so real and powerful that I do think Cohen may be repentant. And, I anxiously await the day when Roger Stone publicly seeks forgiveness hoping to minimize expectations of what awaits. But reform different, as much spiritual and philosophic. It commences when one's repentance is found sincere.
I still remember Watergate and those around Nixon were the Stones and Cohens of their time. The ones who reformed disappeared while they did penance and sought to reform. Those who stuck around in public either died or lived ignominious live.
7
The decline of the GOP started long before Trump came on the scene. He has merely accelerated their decay. There is something fundamentally wrong with the GOP and all who support them.
19
@arusso, Yes. The bizarre destruction of lives, economies here and abroad, reputation and honor under Bush II should have finished it. But someone called our land "the United States of Amnesia", and it seems to apply. Yes, there is something pathological in adherence to the republican party past and present, and in the maniacal way, in every sense of the term, that its adherents cleave to it.
10
Frankly, it really comes down to doing the right thing even if it is not the right thing for yourself. Being good is being good when no-one is looking.
Our elected officials should simply follow these tenets and apply them to their decision making dilemmas. I saw Michael Cohen in his testimony demonstrate glimmers of these simple guiding principles. Therefore, I believe his redemption, though very young in its evolution, emerging as he moves forward in his life.
14
Our current moral challenges we have thus far also unsuccessfully tackled: guns versus our kids; health of people versus wealth for corporations; poor education of our young versus tax cuts for the rich; ecological degradation versus corporate loopholes; science, facts on climate change versus fear, chaos and ignorance; equality and access in voting rights versus partisan power grabs; women's rights over their bodies versus rights of the to-be-born; indigenous rights versus invader's power.... and while we quibble on these moral issues and values, the glaciers are melting, species loss continues, and the world turns.
21
Remember when Gore lost Tennessee by a couple of points? The Rs were of course all over him - he can't even carry his own state, so what does that tell you about the man? It's telling that the state who knew Trump the best and had done for 30 or 40 years, rejected him by almost a 2:1 margin. They knew that he was an amoral rogue without charm.
30
Michael Cohen was deeply involved in Trump's world for a long time, and he is coming clean and holding himself accountable in a way that many others have not -- we are not, for example, hearing similar things from Paul Manafort, Donald Trump Jr., or, heaven help us, Trump himself. Michael Cohen has a redeemable character. He seems to be struggling to find an earlier version of himself, before he became involved in Trump's squalid world. That he was involved for so long does not speak well for him. But to characterize his tranformation as merely "switching sides" seems presumptuous and demeaning, and not in keeping with your longing for a higher morality.
31
The great Roman Orator Cicero , refers to Acts that are moral and acts that are advantageous leaving for discussion, the question of whether an Act can be both truly moral and advantageous for the actor . Trump seems to act solely for self advantage without consideration of the ethics of the mater yet his support on the right is unwavering. Is it that support for a certain End justifies any and all means available no matter how base.
7
David Brooks assumes that the Republican defenders of Trump had some moral high ground that they relinquished. Brooks is wrong. The GOP, scions of Mitch McConnell and Newt Gingrich, don't have the moral currency to trade. They are Trump's party. It is who they are and it cannot be dressed up in David Brooks' jeremiad.
28
You must have a car to support your family. There are two cars on the used car lot. The car you will buy is a car that is less problematic. Low odometer trumps dislike of color, leather does not trump trunk space, and so on. Some readers of this paper may go for how small and green the car is even if it means they cannot take their kids to sport activities, but vast majority of people won’t.
Above is your 2020 election.
5
David Brooks shares his thinking in a way that highlights good and evil, then couches it in morality terms.
It's so much easier to simply look at the economic causes of things, including human behavior and intent.
Trump, like so many others DOES IT FOR THE MONEY.
Love? At his current evolution, LOVE *is* MONEY.
9
I am waiting for the same transformation of spirit from David and his conservative friends who were way too late in recognizing the moral bankruptcy of the Republican party. People like Bruce Bartlett, Norm Orenstein and even David Frum were quicker to recognize the conscious uncoupling of moral sentiment from Republican policy positions well before David Brooks started bemoaning their embrace of Trump and Trumpism.
I remember an article by Brooks in which he cited businessmen who said Americans lacked the same hunger in the belly to work hard as they saw in places like China.
As it turns out, Republicans take that phrase quite literally, and would like to shred the safety net so that more Americans are motivated to work harder for less.
17
Long before the advent of Donald Trump and Trumpism, and even before reaching adulthood, I wondered what I’d have done if I had faced the moral challenges of the 1930s, not already knowing the lessons that are now history.
I ached to believe that I’d have seen through Hitler at a glance and stood for humanity and justice from the start. But I realized that the ache and even the “I” were to some unknowable extent products of history’s lessons. I might have been among the good people who were confused. I might have been among the bad who were imbued with the most shameful attitudes of the time. My parents, after all, could not have been quite the same people themselves.
With no way to stop worrying about the past, I turned to worrying about the present and the future. I knew I was consciously anti-racist and anti-anti-Semitic. I had been given a clear enough path to those moral destinations, even as a white Southerner. But might I not be taken unawares by some evil that evaded my critical faculties and got into my head the way gases gurgle up through drainpipes? That was just how it must have been for many of history’s losers before me. I wondered when and in what form the test would come.
When it came in the form of Donald Trump, with horns blaring, lights flashing, and gases fairly belching, I was left still wondering how I’d have met a real moral challenge. They don’t make ‘em like they used to.
180
The secret is to convince oneself that others are despicable, beneath consideration, like animals.
In fact, if one tortures animals as a child, I’d predict a racist, cruel, manipulating adulthood.
26
@Longestaffe
This is something I struggled with from an early age.
How could the Germans - and worse for me pride-wise my Italians - if not embrace at least allow, tolerate, and normalize what in hindsight was blatantly evil madness?
Then I became acutely aware that hindsight is more effective and true than foresight.
I also became more learned in biology and psychology and began to appreciate the imperatives our innate makeup forces on us.
And armed with greater knowledge I began to understand some life experiences through the lens of science and maturity.
Otherwise good brilliant people can be unscientific, mean, and hurtful; lots of things re: politics and religion involve pathways set by our genes AND covert programming. Evolution over a million years formed various types - all in proportion to survival in much harsher environments.
I am pretty sure 42% are programmed to not just allow a fascist but exult/support such.
NOT they they are all evil - MOST are beautiful people otherwise - just the siren call of authoritarianism is too overwhelming - too appealing - why? it just is,
What you are asking is that the 58% that are not innately enchanted by authoritarianism be MORAL and BRAVE enough to vote existentially.
That the 58% will see past the glitter of a good stock market and a low unemployment percent - to vote not for better autobahns but for a truly better National soul!
I can only hope we - the 58% stand existentially united in their voting.
34
@Longestaffe, life has a lot in it. If you haven't yet had to stand under fire, wait. You may have that chance yet.
4
So now we are all to be judges of morality? Of good and evil? Of right and wrong? Of generosity and greed?
So we should judge the morality of Hillary Clinton's email server. Of Amy Klobuchar's treatment of her staff. Of Kamala Harris's affair with Willie Brown and the political favors she got from him. Of Elizabeth Warren claiming to be an American Indian.
That's facile. As Alexander Solzenitsen said:
"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
"During the life of any heart this line keeps changing place; sometimes it is squeezed one way by exuberant evil and sometimes it shifts to allow enough space for good to flourish. One and the same human being is, at various ages, under various circumstances, a totally different human being. At times he is close to being a devil, at times to sainthood. But his name doesn't change, and to that name we ascribe the whole lot, good and evil.
"Socrates taught us: 'Know thyself.'
"Confronted by the pit into which we are about to toss those who have done us harm, we halt, stricken dumb: it is after all only because of the way things worked out that they were the executioners and we weren't.
"From good to evil is one quaver, says the proverb.
"And correspondingly, from evil to good."
10
What has happened to Republicans that a venal shell of a man like Donald Trump is defended at any cost? Where are the Bob Doles, John McCains and Dwight Eisenhower’s now?
As a Democrat I didn’t support George Wallace just because he was once a democrat. Pariahs of any party need to be driven to the fringes until they disappear.
22
Why so much speculation about whether or not Cohen is reformed? We can't possibly know that. What we do know is that he engaged in reprehensible activity for years, all the while in the employ of Trump. Birds of a feather. That is the relevant fact.
5
Most likely Michael Cohen gave up Donald Trump to reduce the time he will spend in jail and away from the family he presumably loves. If Trump had pardoned him he probably would have kept quiet. That being said, at this point if he lies to Congress, it very well might increase the time he spends in jail. Therefore, I expect he will tell the truth. Congress should of course carefully investigate all the information he provides. Let's cut out all the psychological nonsense and stick to the facts.
6
There was a comment here about "inalienable rights " that exist apparently in a republic but not in a democracy (...) The term used by Jefferson is not about the representatives but about citizens in general and it is their creator who would have given them those rights .Not politics or any possibilities "inherent " ( inherent was next to inalienable in the draft ) to the constitution.
Funny also that Jefferson used a French word. Inalienable is French . Not english. The English verison is unalienable and it is derived from "inalienable ".
"Inalienable " in French means that the title of propriety of something cannot be transfered to another ( altus - or alien etranger ) carrier.Michael Cohen was 'alienated " by Trump. The title of propriety of his freedom has been transfered to Trump.
What was jefferson refering to was that the Constitution must respect this (deique ) right to freedom, happiness, etc...whatever that is "inherent " to the Nature of mankind. But the "inalienable rights " are not in the Constitution. The Constitution is the conscience that those rights are "alienable " .
2
@JPH the problem with Jefferson is in the words "All men are created equal" They are not and nothing could be further from the truth. That is the wrong starting point in liberal ideology. Adams wanted to say "all men are born with equal rights." that is closer to reality.
8
@Bryan there was much more in the 18th century than English Philosophy. French and German philosophy were much richer.There was no constitutional law for the good reason that there is no constitution in England. Public law was very little developed. Phenomenology was completely inexistant compared to France (Descartes ) and Germany. Montesquieu was a much important inspiration to Jefferson and the writing of the constitution than english law.
2
I'm puzzled, Mr. Brooks. Whether or not anyone sees Cohen as morally redeemed, his redemption, or lack thereof, has nothing to do with the corruption in the oval office. There is no "decision" to be made "to defend or condemn Trump" as what is painfully obvious stares at all of us equally. The corruption flowing from Trump taints us all. Trump is the irredeemable factor in this American mess. All else are his careening satellites, riding paths of least resistance, devoid of moral compasses, all choosing the orbit of their own dark legacies.
11
..."but I don't believed he is a changed man." I don't believe David Brooks is a changed man. Just as a leopard doesn't change its spots, I don't believe someone who supported every Republican President and Presidential candidate in this century except you know who is a changed man. To offer an opinion on the mindset of Michael Cohen, a gratuitous opinion that is without foundation and is contemptuous of most religious belief is, to use a word that Trump is fond of, sad.
3
At one point Cohen was asked, in essence, when he realized that Trump was compromising his integrity and he should have said "no mas."
Had he replied that he should have refused to accommodate Trump the first time Trump asked him to do something illegal or unethical some ten years ago, I could possibly believe he's a transformed person.
But, indeed, he is someone who committed crimes for money, was caught, and has reconciled that he'll spend time behind bars -- but has a plan thereafter for how to bring in the bucks and get back in the game to the degree he can, having been prohibited from continuing to practice his profession. That is not a transformed human being looking to make amends with the rest of his life. That's the go-with-the-flow attorney whom Trump quickly sized up and compromised.
No one knows a gutter snipe better than a gutter snipe.
An enjoyable read, Mr. Brooks.
2
The thing about Trump and I think many of these Trump supporting white guys is that they don't actually like very many people, including their own families. Look how many of them leave their families back in whatever state they are from and rarely go home, hanging out with the "boys" at the top restaurants and bars in DC and the golf courses or tennis courts. They have no problem putting women in boxes they can control by failure to pay equivalently and trashing them all too often, to say nothing of limiting access to health care. HRC came from humble beginnings, was highly educated and successful in her work for children's interests, but Republicans trashed her constantly, making up the nastiest things they could think of. And I won't even begin to mention the vile and ugly things constantly said about Michelle Obama. And all those women working in the White House wear tight dresses and four to five inch heels to work! No allowance for health and comfort. They are comfortable calling names and claiming that women are mean to their staff members as they have with Amy Klobuchar. Elizabeth Warren's belief (told her by her older brothers ) that she had native American ancestry isn't called an error. Ir is called a lie. But when the Trump family members don't tell the truth it becomes "alternative facts!" Give me a break!
11
The answer to the question Steinbeck poses is usually " Both".
Not many people fall into the category of 100% one, or 100% the other. Like the question of success and failure, achievement in one sphere often results in a lack of achievement in the other.
The question becomes one of degree, of intention and of a genuine attempt to be better and do better.
There is no question for me that Michael Cohen has undergone a real catharsis. When he stated that his duty to his country and his family came first, he had clearly reconsidered his value system and found it wanting.
Can we not praise Michael Cohen, and his family , for the difficult journey he has undertaken? Do we not wish that others had the backbone, or the common humanity, to do the same?
4
Wow, Mr. Brooks. I don't usually hear you being so direct in your opinions. I commend you for your forthrightness.
188
MSNBC reports the truth.
Fox news sometimes does, but its opinion wing rarely concerns itself with facts. I make an exception for Chris Wallace.
5
The events that unfolded in Cohen's testimony do not rise to the level of classic literature. There is nothing glorious in its mediocrity. Indeed, the last 3 years have not enlightened or informed the human spirit.
Trump is a common crooked business man. The politicians who enable him revealed themselves to be of small character with average intelligence at best. Cohen falls into that category as well. People like that lack imagination and are attracted to the simple dialect of people like the president. It is why so many are of Evangelical backgrounds; charismatic preachers make complex ideas easy to digest. Trump performs in the same style.
There is hope that the Democrats and voters, after sleeping through the last 6 years of Obama's grand experiment of leadership, will rise to the occasion to be bigger than themselves and perhaps reach the heights of classical themes.
(Really, the opposite of Fox, the Murdoch channel is MSNBC? Brings into doubt any comparisons Brooks makes.)
7
@MKKW: Obama's supporters in 2008 let him down in the census year election of 2010, which led to the following six years of futility, because it enabled the Republicans to gerrymander themselves into place.
4
Without thinking too much, we get where we are through a thousand seemingly inconsequential decisions we don't think too much about. If we're vigilant, as we owe ourselves to be, we can detect the shimmer of the slippery slope on most paths. At that moment, you can ignore the shimmer or squarely face a looming decision:
What kind of person am I going to be?
4
Interesting column. These empty, vacuous politicians and their yes-men are not unique. CEOs of companies do this as well. And when they fall down the rabbit’s hole they cry boo-hoo and spin it to try to create sympathy for themselves. I don’t buy it. I am so tired of all of this, it should not be a national dialogue. I guess the next presidential candidates will need their parental upbringing vetted so we can see how needy they will be because it always goes back to mom and dad. Good grief.
4
Brooks nails it with this one, eschewing righteous indignation for a true and heartfelt concern for our nation's loss of whatever moral character it had bubbling up through a foundation built on slavery, institutional racism and sexism, greed, and a capitalist caste system. He pinpoints the all-too-widespread public sentiment at the heart of our current crisis: That government is not worthy of inclusion in our litany of "professional" pursuits. Too many Americans have opted to elect amateurs and ciphers to the highest seats of power, rather than trained, caring and at least somewhat morally moored public servants. And here we are.
8
If Donald Trump is innocent of the things that Cohen has now accused him of (and provided some proof of his new testimony), why would he need to have lied in the first place?
If what he testified to originally was the truth, why would he have plead guilty to lying? If he did lie, why would he plead guilty unless there was other evidence out there?
All the Republicans can do is smear Cohen for his original lies and hope the Fox-viewing and Breitbart-reading constituents won't think of these questions.
5
@JB: Trump pleads poverty to tax collectors while inflating his net worth to rise higher on the Forbes billionaire list. He has his cake and eats it too.
6
Three years in jail can kindle a lot of remorse and perhaps even scrub off some of that "moral corrosion."
There is an old adage that says, "No man is completely worthless. He can always serve as a bad example."
There's a lot to heed from the examples of the day. I hope we are up to it.
4
Well said--brilliant writing!!
2
How is Mr. Brooks so sure that ...
"There is none of the purgation of self and transformation of spirit that happens among people who have truly been altered. He’s just switched teams and concluded that the Democrats can now give him what he wants, so he says what appeals to them. That may be progress, but it is not moral renewal."
I’m willing to bet that if we could get trustworthy polling done in countries run by dictators or under totalitarian rule, where the venality and cruelty visited upon the populace was a clear abomination to common sense morality, we would find support at a level to Trump’s poll numbers. About 1/3 of the population of the USA seems to think he’s just great. Just about all of them identify as Republicans. I’d bet a similar number of Venezuelians would say they think Maduro is a great leader. Maybe a similar number of Russians would say they think Putin the greatest ever. Perhaps something similar in Iran or N Korea. As you seem to say, it comes to how deeply the corrosion of morality and moral authority has corrupted those enabling those in power. On a continuum from seeking safe havens under the rampaging tyrant to desiring the hedonic life of venal thrills and permission to act out anger and revenge for imagined slights, we see the Trumpists playing out their roles. None are in the league of the better angels of the human spirit. That is what is so depressing about watching their parade of foolishness and greed.
6
I constantly wonder about the genesis of all this. I'm not an historian of American politics and culture, but I tend to suspect it was the Citizens United SCOTUS decision that changed the game of politics. And with that neon green light on political work for financial gain, we opened the door to a new breed of political animal. Add to that the tribalism that has erupted and I fear that the great moral dilemma that David Brooks outlines here is now moot. Republicans and Trump supporters don't care to be lectured to about morals. They believe what they want to believe, and will make a case for how the other side is bad or worse in a myriad of ways. Because it's not about morals for them; it's about money. With this moral void so firmly embedded in our culture, and a populace that can't tell fact from fiction (thanks in large part to a weak education system), we might be too far gone to come back from this crisis.
7
"Were Republican House members enthusiastic or morose as they decided to turn off their own moral circuits, when they decided to be monumentally unconcerned by the fact that their leader may be a moral cretin?"
As usual, David, I ask you - what are you talking about?
Republicans deciding to turn off their own "moral circuits?" How can one "turn off" that which one does not have?
Yes, republicans are, in fact, (and demonstrate it on a daily basis), "monumentally unconcerned" that Trump is a "moral cretin". Because Trump is exactly like them, and they are exactly like Trump.
Why on Earth would you wonder why immoral/amoral cretins are unconcerned with one of their own being immoral/amoral cretins?
David - there is no "crisis of American conscience" in a country where almost everyone in power has no moral conscience. And you are certainly looking at a subpart of America that has no morality, no ethics, and no conscience. The republicans.
10
I find Mr. Brooks indignation to be too little too late. Since Reagan, the Republicans have been sliding down the rathole of Racism, Corporatism, Gender Intolerance and War Mongering. Now that this Tree of Evil has borne its inevitable fruit in the form of Trump he objects. Tsk, Tsk, Mr. Brooks.
15
Great picture. The name plate may say Mr. Amash but in the photo,it reads “Mr. Awash”. Yes, Mr. Jordan awash in the mire.
2
Mr. Brooks,
I have often criticized your columns as demonstrating False Equivalence and stopping short of a cogent exploration, so it behooves me to express admiration for your courage and forthrightness with this piece. Please, please, maintain your momentum.
7
"Professionals know that effectiveness in any realm, especially politics, depends on having some guiding and consistent integrity that people can trust, loyalty to something higher than your next appearance on Fox or MSNBC."
Our vapid vacuous gilded grifter could no more read these words off a telecaster then embody their meaning or understand their impact.
we must be must be the Mueller we are waiting for..
3
David,
That was a masterpiece!
2
How did we get here, how do we get out of here, and how do we never come back here again?
3
What ever you take into your mind has reality for you.its your acceptance of it.that makes it real.(a quote from a Course in
Miracles) but true. Trump will never question his beliefs or realize
He always hAs a choice between good and evil.,because he mentally incapable of that simple act.The damage he is doing and the appeal to people like meadows and Jordan is off the charts.Trump will never pay attention to himself.He is in truth
A walking horror.
3
I love the Steinbeck quote, but I am afraid its intellect is lost on a voting public, the majority of which don't read and don't understand the basic civics of our democracy. They have become craven idiots to fear, alternative realities, and the machinations of a party gone awry. Previously lost and alone, they have become a party of one. A truly frightening spectacle to watch.
7
Editing Robert Kalich's THE HANDICAPPER,
https://artscritic.blogspot.com/.../the-handicapper-or...
a very rich story of such a one in the world of New York gambling for the higher ups in the various "families" [the whole range] I came to know the spectrum and could not really tell the difference between legitimate and not businessmen, it was a matter of degrees, polish, old money forgets how it acquired its wealth of which it is righteously proud! Let us not forget that Texas and its presidents has a cast of criminality that matches that of New York. It is all very much the way Balzac and Marx and others describe it, the capitalist hustle repeats itself ad infinitum.
2
Who overwhelmingly supported Trump, even as they have been supporting the GOP for the last forty years of tax cuts for the wealthy?
White Christians. That's who. Mormons, Catholics, and Evangelicals. They love Republicans.
Christians love Republican militarization. They love Republican jail-stuffing. They are happy to vote for Republican destruction of the environment. They are glad to bash the poor as they genuflect to the filthy rich.
It's just what Christians do. What does it have to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ? NOTHING. It's about flag-waving nationalism and defense of culture and tradition.
They are the "poor of spirit" who have nothing to support them in the fearful age of accelerating change. Their "Rock of Ages" is dissolving. They are left with Bible Idolatry, having forsaken the loving Lord.
19
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Maya Angelou
Siding with a known liar, cheater, misogynist, racist, and con man - the Republican Party line from the very beginning of the disastrous era of Trump.
What does this say about Republican supporters?
12
Brooks is channeling Cohen when Cohen told the republicans on that committee that they were doing what he did for 10 years, defending and enabling a con man, a cheat and a racist. He pointed out that they will end up where he is.
Normal people also have realized that republicans chose greed over generosity a long time ago.
10
Excellent piece, but it simply restates the obvious. Trump is immoral; he resides in the Dark Triad. No matter what standard of morality one chooses, Trump is immoral. Many Trump supporters say that is OK, and that they support an immoral president. No more complicated than that. A terrible state of affairs IMO.
9
What a sorry spectical - this guy lived a horrible life, I wonder how one could do that? Are there lots of people out there like that? When one is raised to treat people at face value and then you find out that they are very bad people it’s very eye opening. For what ever reason NYC and WDC seem to attract an inordinant number of closet liars and cheaters. The NYT and the other press must know this but the average American with a real life is just flabbergasted. It seems since President Truman each iteration of our national politicians for the a President, house and senate, come with more and more poor personal morals, with the press more than willing to print out all, even before all is revealed or proven. A pox on this latest manifestation. Very depressing.
1
Right on. Bravo.
2
Watching Jim Jordan embarrass himself was made even worst by the fact he doesn't know he is doing it. As a leader of the so-called Freedom Caucus, Jordan continues to show up at hearings and debates as the white-shirtsleeve boombox without the volume control. He is on or off. Silent or loud. His arrival without a jacket is his visual brand. His swagger and endless tirades are more signs of his brand management. But his lack of coherance and focus is his favorite tool for derailing what he does not want to discuss. In the case of Wednesday's hearing, Jordan simply came across as right-wing gasbag who would prefer a microphone at Fox than in the Congress.
There is a different public sphere on the floor of the House or Senate where a more diverse audience observes a politician spending his time at the mic in self-flagellation mode. For Jordan, his safest venue will be at Fox where the audience takes pride in a fact-free opinion.
Thus, if Jordan or any other Republicans think they can accept a Congressional paycheck while auditioning for Murdoch's mockery of media, they better prepare for a career change in 2020.
9
I think Trump has a genetic personality disorder like Narcisstic Personality Disorder more so than just blaming his deficiencies on his choice.
7
The GOP will turn its "moral circuits" back on the minute there's a Democrat in the White House. Total cynics and hypocrites.
9
Yes trump is an evil and dangerous man. However, the repubs over the years with help of FOX, Rush, Thew Born again TV preachers, the very rich have managed to convince a large number of Americans to be Afraid, very Afraid of all those "others" and these others are supported by the dangerous liberals. Yes, some of our guys are bad guys but remember how dangerous it would be if the socialists, church hating , welfare promoting, immigrant loving , liberals. So, no matter what our guys do we are protecting you.
7
Regarding the morality and integrity that Trump supporters traded for this Faustian bargain, the most baffling support comes from evangelicals. There is no better example of this hypocrisy than Ted Cruz. Look at these statements made, starting on the presidential campaign trail, past to present:
Donald Trump’s assessment of Ted Cruz:
‘Lyin’ Ted
You’re the single biggest liar
Worse than Hillary
I will spill the beans on your wife
Cruz’s father was somehow involved in JFK’s assassination
He holds up the Bible and he lies
He’s beautiful Ted
He’s a very smart guy
Ted Cruz’s assessment of Donald Trump:
A sniveling coward
A pathological liar
Utterly amoral
Real men don’t attack women
Consistently disgraceful
Nominating Donald Trump would be a train wreck
He’s a big government liberal
I am honored that President Trump is here endorsing and supporting my campaign and I look forward to campaigning alongside him in 2020.
God Bless Texas and God Bless President Donald Trump!
For morality in politics and faith, have we entered kind of an “Alice in Wonderland” world?
12
Michael Cohen - Shamed
Donald J Trump - Shameless, Valueless, Non-Empathetic, & Corrupter of Men
You miss the point Mr. Brooks, Mr. Cohen was but a man too easily corrupted, while Trump has been a master of corruption for years.
4
You know what this boils down to? "I'm a Republican, the law doesn't apply to me." Turn that into a hat.
9
David Brooks. You are no one to judge the sincerity of another man’s repentance. This Yom Kippur, why don’t you ask forgiveness, from G*d and your readers, for all of the hypocrisy you display weekly / weakly on what morality is, what Republicans stand for, what is love and generosity, what is good for society and the nation. If you ever manage to land one foot on the “right” side of those questions as opposed to the Republican side, it is purely by accident. Go, and sin no more.
3
Yes, the ~40% who support Trump despite (because?) of his horrid behavior seem even more frightening than the single sociopath residing in the White House. Do we deceive our selves that we, the 60%, are immune from such behavior?
4
Skip the psychobabble. What is important to understand is that Republicans (every last one of them) are immoral racists, and everything they say is a lie. You cannot claim not be a racist and be a Republican at the same time. Racism is the core principle of the Republican party. Nothing else is important, not even treason, as long as you tow the line on their racist principles.
4
Correct writer and correct novel. Wrong take.
What distinguishes "East of Eden" is the discussion of the Hebrew word timshel taken from the discussion God has with Cain concerning sin. (Yes, Steinbeck got "timshel" wrong: "thou mayest", which implies "thou mayest not”, but that is the subject for another conversation...)
To quote Genesis 4:7, “Surely, if you do right there is uplift. But, if you do not do right, sin crouches at the door, its urge is towards you, yet you can be its master."
To quote Steinbeck, "But ‘Thou mayest'! That makes a man great and that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win."
Morally, if not linguistically, Steinbeck is correct.
1
I was with you until your moral equivalence kicked in, when you put Fox news and MSNBC in the same sentence. One is a news source of record- the other is a government mouth piece and propaganda organization akin to Pravda. The point is, the Trumpist Republicans your rightly decry are to be found on Fox News. They aren't making their points on MSNBC or to the Times, the Post, for the Journal. You'll find a few decent journalists on Fox News- Wallace, Baier, Hume, and some others. Then you have Hannity, Pirro, Dobbs, and the other flacks.
5
"...Republican House members...decided to be monumentally unconcerned by the fact that their leader may be a moral cretin?"
I feel David Brooks nailed the issue here.
5
Not surprised to see David Brooks title his column as "Morality and Michael Cohen". I don't remember a column from him - "Morality and Donald Trump". As much as he tries to come across as holier-than-thou, he can't get himself to squarely condemn The Donald. For Mr. Brooks it is always a backhanded slap on the wrist, if that, for the tainted Trump.
He always has an 'out' for the republican President. As in -"Trump, personifying the worst elements in our culture, is like a providentially sent gong meant to wake us up and direct us toward a better path."
As in -"Normal people are repulsed when the president of their own nation lies, cheats, practices bigotry, allegedly pays off porn star mistresses."
Why do you still use the qualifier "allegedly", Mr. Brooks? Did you not see the cheques written by Trump to Cohen?
6
funny, this almost seems like the American civil war division ...really the base of it besides just being ignorant is the FOSSIL FUEL dilemma, it was about money in slaves and now same self centered ones that are invested in fossil fuels...M.O.N.E.Y...the root of all evil
1
Politicians represent the will of their voters. Republican voters overwhelmingly adore Donald Trump. Half of America IS Donald Trump. Lies, cheats, steals, racism, avoids tax, mistresses, fixers, scams, divorces: Our American Exceptionalism.
4
One thing that always annoys me is the sanctimonious columnist. I found the Cohen testimony and the interactions with the GOP and the Dems fascinating. I wouldn't presume to know what Donald J Trump's childhood was like, nor am I in a great hurry to pass judgement on whether Michael Cohen has learned anything or has changed his character. But obviously I am not the same kind of superior being that David Brooks wants us all to think he is. He is above it all. He knows all about it. End of story.
So much for the so-called Christians and their moral values which the Republicans hold near and dear. At this point, it is nothing more than primitive tribal warfare. Both sides are corrupted. The republicans are more egregious than the democrats.
1
I agree with you 100% but come now...."may be a moral cretin?" There is ample proof and zero doubt of this when it comes to Trump and those in his orbit.
4
Trump voters know that he is a criminal. They don’t care. 44% of the US don’t care that the leader they elected doesn’t pay his taxes, hires undocumented workers and stiffs his trades. They don’t care because he entertains them by sticking it to the libs.
9
If you want to know what the mythical animal, the gerrymander, looked like, take a look at the shape of Jim Jordan's district.
5
David needs to reread Plato's Republic - maybe we all do!
We are introduced to Thrasymachus [a sophist] early in the dialogue. The sophist makes four claims: two of them still resonate today:
“Justice is the advantage of the stronger” [338c]
“Justice is nothing but the advantage of another” [343c]
Plato was horrified and spent the rest of the Republic trying to overcome these claims - his solution?
We really need a tyranny of philosopher-kings [OAC anyone].
Under the Trumpmesiter, we are living Plato's Republic.
An example of Michael Cohen's residual emotional connection to his ex-boss occurred after excoriating him, not only for an evil that is equivalent now to blasphemy in the dark ages or pedophilia now, namely "being a racist. After his sharing Trump's exact words, of race hatred, that he obviously affirmed to him at the time, later on was an amazing disclosure of his residual pride of his Trump alliance.
He described evidence of his personally creating websites that would take this now despicable individual to the position of President of the United States of America. When challenged, he gave details of his initiative of transforming one of many corporate "sharks" into an individual who could not simply cheat hundreds of people out of their savings and governments out of tax revenue, but literally destroy a civilization.
Yet, his tears where never for what he had suborned, but that he and his family would suffer, ignoring the greater suffering of the world that he was one of the few who could have deflected.
It is Michael Cohen who represents the everyman who has made Donald Trump, son and acolyte of Fred Trump, apprentice to Roy Cohn, into the individual who has changed the history of our country, andwho still could be the very worst person to navigate an era of change beyond which the world has ever experienced.
2
Thank you, David Brooks, for putting MSNBC on the same bracket as FOX. You never disappoint.
3
Trump wants to be a dictator like the brutal murderous ones he admires and praises almost daily. The republican enablers happy to be close to power of Trump will look the other way no matter what Trump does including shooting folks on 5th ave. Hitler and other dictators rose to power using the dictators playbook as Trump is trying lying and abusing the power of his office to stay in power. Dictators bring their family into the government to loot and enrich the family ,such as giving Jared his son in law top secret security clearance although he was not qualified to have it just a rich kid who married the presidents daughter. Trump and Kushner families can borrow all the money they will ever need they control the most powerful military and intel forces in the world ,countries run by strong men will give them all the money they want to get favors. A corrupt crime family occupies the white house the price America will pay down the road remains unknown as Trump will not give up power easily.
4
I object to one of Brook's conclusions: "There is none of the purgation of self and transformation of spirit that happens among people who have truly been altered." None of us can judge others in the matter of purgation of self and spirit transformation because they are both processes, generally slow and incremental, and they can be known only to the person him/herself and perhaps those very close to him. That said, my sense was that even if he only switched teams, he's learned that winning doesn't look the same as it used to.
2
Moral is not moral in today's world, just like the truth is not the truth. A good percentage of the world thinks the truth is whatever an individual says it is.
This state of metaphysics is a function of digital devices and social media. Now people are not only consumers of information, but also active producers and distributors.
In his recent book, "Nervous States," William Davies writes "In civil society, the facts provided by economists, statisticians, reporters and academic scientists have a peace-building quality to the extent that they provide a common reality that can be agreed upon. The ideal of independent expertise, which cannot be swayed by money or power, has been crucial in allowing political opponents to nevertheless agree on certain basic features of reality. Facts remove questions of truth from the domain of politics."
Social media, with its ethos of everybody getting into the act, has undermined authority and expertise. Hence, true facts and morals are constantly in flux and up for grabs.
Faith in reason and expertise developed in the 17th century were essential elements of the Enlightenment. Now mob rule holds sway through social media.
We are in a "Gray Age" reminiscent of the Dark Ages, but politicians, academicians, and Brooks have not caught on to that fact yet. It will probably take a catastrophe for people to wake up and make changes at the very foundation of our collective mindset.
3
Morality and Michael Cohen...American conscience in crisis...Money is everywhere as the rule . The president himself represents money . Where is the crisis ? Where is morality ? What is the morality of the story ? That money is not moral ? What level of philosophy is that ? We are talking here about the legitimacy of a government and may be the legitimacy of the USA in the world . Not about the morality of a little attorney who is as the French word of origin "atourne " of "attorney " someone who is " turned towards " the interest of his client .
1
two things strike me, David is likely correct about Mr. Cohen - for the time being - but let's see after a year in jail and a chance to spend a lot of time with himself. Secondly, It is hard to see how Jim Jordan and much or the R team recovers from the moral crash that happened on Wednesday.
3
"This is how moral corrosion happens. Supporting Trump requires daily acts of moral distancing, a process that means that after a few months you are tolerant of any corruption. "
And the moral corrosion in the Churches of the Republican Way? How does that happen, Mr. Brooks?
Doesn't it have to do with the easy, clean hands living that priests, who have no longing for a woman, can have? Do these shepherds lead their flocks astray? Or give them no authentic guidance?
But, it certainly has to do with the appeal of an ancient text that tells us we have a purpose, together with a desire for a supernatural force that can save us from mortality.
Service to a living loving Lord is replaced with allegiance to flag, culture, and tribe in difference to anything that is not of them. Separation is separation.
1
As I watched Cohen, I kept thinking about the hundreds of people he admitted threatening. There's a recording of him threatening a journalist which documents his style. Awful.
But, throughout the hearings, I could hear the ring of truth. He's a criminal who got caught and turned state's evidence to reduce his sentence. Cases are often made that way. There isn't anything unusual about it.
Trump's Republican supporters in Congress have all put their own reelections ahead of the interests of the country.
Trump's Republican base, which disparaged Obama for taking off his suit coat in his own office, now turns a blind eye to continual, well-documented lying, and felony convictions of his close associates, among other anti-democratic and personal outrages.
Why so many people who seem amoral? In my judgement it is largely a reaction against redistribution of wealth from the middle down. They don't seem botherdc by movement of wealth from the middle to the top.
Or in other words, "don't give those people my money". They are tired of suffering their own problems while hearing Democrats talk about helping people who are here illegally, or people who they think, wrongly in my judgement, aren't trying to pull their own weight.
This issue is powerful enough, for them, to trump ordinary morality. And, the flames are fanned constantly by dishonest right wing media, principally, Fox News and commentary.
4
Wow, for a man who has lately been preaching to us about how we must seek to change ourselves and spiritually renew ourselves, Brooks disbelieves that’s possible for Cohen. In essence, Brooks says Cohen’s testimony was all a fake performance, albeit mostly truthful re substance. This despite the repeated statements by Cohen of contrition, remorse, and acknowledgment of all the hurt he’s caused. Walk a mile in his shoes, David, then consider those statements are sincere.
1
Surprising to me, Cohen came off as a sympathetic witness, a man seeking redemption, which is a type Americans love. The Republicans failed miserably to besmirch his character. They looked like nothing more than bullies picking on a decent man who only wanted to say he is sorry.
Oh the irony and hypocrisy! I'm sure it will be said a thousand times. Trying to tar Cohen as a liar while defending the greatest liar ever to occupy a place in American politics.
422
@Jagadeesan
I wouldn't exactly say decent. If Cohen hadn't been caught, and was still Trump's lawyer, I think it would be business-as-usual for him. That said, he made a good foil for the tremendous hypocrisy coming from the sycophantic Republican members of Congress. Their junkyard dogfight on behalf of Trump was pretty sickening, wasn't it?
16
Ah, David has returned to his senses and favors us with a brilliant column. The conclusion to his essay, the elegant and germane quote from Steinbeck, shows the power and the value of shared cultural values. I am confident Trump never read Steinbeck nor saw the movies made from his novels. And he was likely jealous of James Dean. Our nations was presented a smorgasbord of crime and corruption on Wednesday.
1
This seems to sum it up nicely:
"the biggest informercial ever"
Trump Inc. and his corrupt buddies and enablers seem to like this. Shame on them!
2
@Susan Anderson: It is the biggest disinfomercial ever.
1
I believe/hope Cohen has regained his ethical balance. I admire his effort now to be truthful. He's Lord Jim trying to regain his self respect and pass something good on to his kids and society that can help our country regain some of it's moral sense of right and wrong, truth and falsehood. It's not going to be easy. Murdoch's propaganda machine and the Sinclair and Briebart tools of Doublespeak were not in operation during the Nixon years. Voter suppression was not effectively employed back then to allow a minority to essentially steal election after election. These stories don't always end well (see W. Bush having a conservative SC throwing the election to him). A lot of Americans are hurting and fall easy prey to simple minded answers fed to them thanks to Murdoch, Mercer, Koch bro. and their ilk. We can only use our wits and continue to resist and minimize the damage.
5
After these last 3 horrendous nightmarish years, the nauseating disgust I feel makes me ask just this: how is it possible that we continue destroying our culture writing, filming, commenting such immoral and unethical events?
Some call it circus, but a circus is not absurd.
2
@Dontbelieveit: Impeachment and conviction of Pence first, and then Trump, by the Congress and Senate, is the sole lawful way to put an prompt end to this travesty.
I believe that you have just put into words what I have been trying to say since 2016. How can we justify this to ourselves?
2
Hello David, today's Republicans and Trump supporters have totally embraced a viewpoint of 'moral relativism' . Remember that term? It was the battle cry of republicans, neoconservatives, and their ilk in the not too distant past when they wished to trash liberals, progressives, the left, etc. How ironic!
3
Needs repetition,
"In “East of Eden,” John Steinbeck writes: “Humans are caught — in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too — in a net of good and evil. I think this is the only story we have and that it occurs on all levels of feeling and intelligence. Virtue and vice were warp and woof of our first consciousness, and they will be the fabric of our last. … A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard clean questions: was it good or was it evil? Have I done well — or ill.”
1
@NotJammer: We all do good and evil. The question is which we do more of.
1
My guess is that Cohen is indeed a changed man. He is done worshipping the empty idol that is Trump. The sorriest of idols. At least the Golden Calf was made of gold.
5
What exactly does "purgation of self and transformation of spirit" look like to you, Mr. Brooks? Sack cloth and ashes? Don't presume to know the condition of another man's soul.
5
Is your life a happy one, Mr. Brooks? Your sense of morality seems to be comparative: I’m better than that guy, those people. Is that your refuge?
1
Moral people don't enter politics, David.
1
Representative Jim Jordan is exhibit #1 of the moral rot that symbolizes the Trump era.
5
I think the time has finally come to, as they say, throw the baby out along with all the bath water. Time for a reset, time for a do over.
I am curious, David. In your view, how could Cohen have demonstrated "moral renewal" to you at this hearing, or otherwise?
4
Even if you could channel Steinbeck into the President's head, he wouldn't make it past the first sentence before switching to FOX.
4
These opinion columns are part of an illusion of freedom in the intellectual and political American landscape. There is no analysis. They just surf on subjective surface common ideas. They look for consensus. Where there is no analysis there is mystification. The contrary of freedom.
1
@JPH: If your posting is supposed to be analysis of this place, I think it needs more work.
1
Elected office is attracting the wrong people and needs to be reformed. We need leaders who will lead us to our better selves. I am hopeful that the election of more women will find a way forward, the government of old white men is morally bankrupt.
226
@Duncan
yes of course, but who would want to run, knowing their every indiscretion would be investigated and published?
It's almost like the drake equation applied to this question. A subset of a subset of a subset, etc etc., until you're left with a lot of sameness. I don't think changing genders will be the answer for more than one generation.
8
@Duncan It's not that it's old, white men. It's that the old, white men in office are often an undesirable kind of old, white men: bigoted, self-aggrandizing, corrupt, religiously co-opted, and many obviously not too bright. Looking at some of the ones on the House Oversight Committee - and some of them not so old - made me cringe: Jordan, Meadows, Gosar, Gibbs, Green, Armstrong, Steube... Yikes! Where are these people coming from?! No wonder education has been dumbed down deliberately in this culture, it's a very effective political repression tool.
35
@Duncan: Failure to enforce "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" goes a long way towards explaining why Congress has become an attractive nuisance to charlatans.
14
The hearing was a show on all sides, was entirely predictable and produced nothing new. Everyone but diehard Trump supporters already knew the blatantly obvious things Cohen started with - Trump is a liar, a con man and a cheat.
Its been clear for a long time that Republicans in Congress will back Trump no matter what revelations see daylight and that regardless of who provides the revelations Republicans will do their best to discredit the source - including Mueller.
The only thing possibility of changing our situation for the better is to vote Republicans out of office at every level of city, county, state, federal government. Mr. Brooks, what does it take for YOU to y simplgo on record to urge your readers to rid the country of the scourge of Republican control of our governments?
1
Is Michael Cohen a liar, yes. Should we believe him, no, but can we confirm and corroborate his allegations? If yes, then his allegations and assertions are no longer lies but indictments, which must be investigated.
5
@Jim Ferguson: It is up to the panel to call other witnesses who Cohen has suggested.
1
Trump...is like a providentially sent gong meant to wake us up and direct us toward a better path.”
David, in an otherwise keen and insightful essay, please tell us that this wasn’t a cheap, approving shout out to the Christian right who see Trump as a fulfillment of Isaiah 45’s prophecy? That you don’t see Trump as a modern-day King Cyrus who will “restore the crumbling walls that separate us from cultural collapse”? In other words, that you don’t see Trump as a non-believer appointed by God as a vessel for the purposes of the faithful?
Even if you don’t dismiss it as fabulistic folly, David, please tell us you reject it as exegetical nonsense. Please.
1
@Professor62: Sooner or later some virulent people would exploit the flaws in the US Constitution that accommodated slavery to try to re-establish it.
Finally David writes something I have no qualms about. He tells the story of Micheal Cohen, but it's not about Micheal. It is about his fellow Republicans and their painful slavish dance they did to defend Donald Trump. If ever they had a Tar Baby The Donald is theirs. The only good reason I see for wishing the Republicans any quarter is a need to keep Me and other Democratic party members from over reaching. We all know that Trump is a racist,a con man and a cheat, his base has know it all along too. Yet we will still have to live with each other. What is left to us now is not so much to punish his base, but to prove to them that is not a good way to live and in the end we can all do much better. This job will not be easy and we must all know we will not get our pound of flesh. I'm ready to settle for three quarters of a pound. It is time to go to the task at hand and rebuild out Nation and make our way to a happier future.
2
Wonderful quote from Steinbeck.
2
The corruption of most Republican politicians is almost legendary. Consider their power-hunger, their lack of interest in the public and its serious concerns, their often ideologically straitjacketed decisions, and their willingness to serve a wealthy elite and its many anti-democratic organizations.
Adept at enemy-identification, falsehood-flinging, and fear-mongering, they have made it possible for someone just a little bit worse to become president.
GOP? Got Other Priorities.
1
To me it was rather rich to hear Republicans charge Cohen as an unreliable witness because he might profit from his testimony. Of course no one would ever accuse members of congress of avarice, when they convert their public service to profit themselves as lobbyists.
2
The last sentence: "Did you, at your crucial moment, side with generosity or greed?", should have been:
"Did you, at your crucial moment, side with good or evil?"
It is that simple!
@paul: "good" and "evil" are value judgments, not specific descriptions of modalities.
Here Brooks equates telling the truth with changing teams and choosing to bat for the Dems. I guess Colbert was right, reality does have a liberal bias when viewed through the hopelessly partisan lens of people like Brooks.
1
@raph101: Understanding reality is liberating.
1
I don't think Brooks is sincere in what he says. If he was he would have left the Republican Party by now.
The Republicans, as a whole, have left their moral and Constitutional selfs behind. They have allowed Trump to corrupt them for the sake of power and elections. As with everything and everybody, Trump corrupts all who fall into his orbit.
So if Brooks really believes what he wrote today, he would be required to leave the Republican Party as it is no longer able to claim any morality.
1
I think the Republicans lost their moral compass a long time ago, considering Devin Nunes refused to investigate Trump and protect him. Jim Jordan hasn't ended up anywhere, he was always a slave to Trump. I worry about the slow erosion of norms and what it will do to this country in the future.
I don't put all the blame on Trump, many adult Americans using their free will chose to support him. If you're going to support a lying bullying racist because you want a good economy, that's on you. I hear others say "This isn't who we are", well it's pretty clear it's who some of us are. Trump supporters want to constantly play the victim, as if they are the only people hurting in this country.
2
What were we as a country lacking that we thought electing Trump would fill?
1
@Larry Dickman: The mindless Electoral College chose Trump over the person who had won almost three million more votes.
1
Spot on, David! Inadvertently, however, I think you may have ignored that many people, as influenced and encouraged by Trump - almost as a role model for immorality, have discarded their morality and sense of basic decency, and in the conversion process become rather soul-less. You are appealing to the deep core of morality that resides (even if suppressed) in "man", the evolved human species. I wonder if your appeal is resonating only with those who are NOT in the Trump camp, whose morality has been markedly suppressed. The calculated and seemingly well thought out attack on Cohen by Republicans was almost difficult to watch. Jordan, in particular seemed almost possessed. None of these actions could possibly be construed as "bringing us together or reaching across the isle". Who will vote for people who exhibit this behavior so blatently? Apparently, quite a few. And you gotta ask, why?
2
Republicans may be wrong. But, they are passionately wrong. It’s time that Democrats learn from them and start being more passionate about being right.
5
I’m not sure if this is a good argument. Many Republicans are simply lying to themselves and others about Trump. It has nothing to do with passion, but everything to do with honesty and integrity. Use that as your lightning rod. What the GOP has for Trump is a blind allegiance: Yes, my king, I can clearly see your new clothes! Others must believe!
But only the truth matters, not repeating the many falsehoods of a president who has made a mockery out of that exalted position.
Trump fans, we have a homework assignment for you: Read “1984.”
1
@Robert Chapman: It is liberal to be more tentative about knowing what is right. Liberals acknowledge the possibility of error, we do not double down on errors.
3
Brooks is trying to grab the word "normal" and use it to beat up Trumpsters as abnormal. The word is sometimes used descriptively and sometimes as a value, and cleverly conflating these two usages has been the basis for much sophism, as this article demonstrates.
Many people are repulsed by Trump, and many others are attracted -- enough that either reaction is normal. What is abnormal in the descriptive sense is to be Republican and openly anti-Trump, and in this sense Brooks is abnormal. For him to be abnormal in the normative sense, his perceptions and thinking would have to be skewed so that they were inadequate to deal with reality. There would have to be something wrong with him for being the way he is. Many commenters in this forum have that view.
The Trumpster view is that everyone is like Trump underneath, and that most people pretend they are different because they are afraid and losers. Trumpsters celebrate that they have found or joined a movement that states clearly the reality that they have found in their own lives -- the reality that there are a few winners and many losers and that the winners win by weaving a web of fog and misinformation and fake values that they themselves do not believe in. Trumpsters see that their man vanquished the usual winners in a victory no one expected, and so he gives them hope that he can and will do great things for them and continue to humiliate their enemies.
1
@sdavidc9: Cambridge analytics by Robert Mercer barely eked out a fake victory for Trump almost three million votes short of the victor of the plurality of the popular vote.
Trump's presumption has teed off everyone whose vote was discarded to install him.
1
It was interesting, to say the least, to watch Michael Cohen watch House Republicans try (and fail) to do the job he did well for so many years. While many of them can claim to have met Trump, they likely do not know him nearly as well as Michael Cohen, and any implication that they do, just sounds ridiculous.
Many have called Cohen a "rat", and I can understand those words coming from Trump mouth, but I don't think I've ever seen such behavior from members of congress. It felt like half of our government had turned into a criminal organization, abandoning the constitution for omertà. Most successful criminal organizations actually have a fairly well designed system to avoid this--sure, there's the threat of violence against anyone who testifies, but there's also the promise that those who do not (and their families) will be taken care of and rewarded for their loyalty. Michael Cohen was given the former, but not the latter, because Trump demands loyalty from his people while offering no such loyalty in return. House Republicans have now been warned, so I don't want to hear their complaints when he turns on them too.
3
It is very interesting that Trump had Cohen threaten educational institutions to not release his grades and scores. I have never known anyone to hide good grades.
I have also long wondered, given Trump's very obvious lack of formal education, how he ever graduated. Who took his exams? Who wrote his papers? Or did daddy just expedite the situation by paying off the professors for passing grades?
4
@Biji Basi: What did Trump study? Real estate management?
I am profoundly sad for America that the business of the President turns out to be what is broadly referred to as racketeering.
I'm sad that an entire political party feels it must stay aboard this train until its (or our) eventual destruction.
Somehow, though, I feel saddest about young Barron and the future he must face.
6
Mr. Brooks is often wrong in his big picture view that our nation's ills are first and foremost failures of moral conscience, rather than equally from deep-rooted, systemic issues that date back generations (and need to be addressed systemically). But in this editorial, his radar for right and wrong is spot on. Cohen told the President's defenders that he was them - and they have now chosen to become him. Good editorial on this David! Now about your analyses of poverty, family structure, education....
2
A long time ago George V. Higgins wrote an interesting analysis of the Watergate investigation called "The Friends of Richard Nixon". One of his main theses is that it was really death by a thousand paper cuts. In pre-computerized everything, hundreds and hundreds of file cards with more and more information about the nefarious dealings of Mr. Nixon and his associates. Whether that is the primary cause of Nixon's downfall or not is arguable but I would expect much the same accumulation of thousands of bits of evidence as the House investigates deeper and deeper into the extremely questionable practices of the Trump organization. Wait until they get Weisselberg in there. "Mr. Weiselberg can you explain to us exactly the valuation processes of the Trump organization and their effect on tax liability or applying for loans?" That should be fun. "Mr. Weiselberg, was there ever a time when Mr. Trump's direction resulted in fraud?" Really all they have to do is ask for verification of each and every statement in the reportage from The Times and the Post. No independent thought required.
8
I doubt that people give up all their integrity at one time. I suspect it is more of an erosion process where layers are peeled back over time. If that is true, it's truly frightening to see how far along in the process so many Republicans in our government are these days.
4
Bravo, David Brooks. A conservative with a moral conscience. I hope your voice is heard.
3
@W Greene
I agree, but let me that add what David Brooks said:
"Trump, personifying the worst elements in our culture, is like a providentially sent gong meant to wake us up and direct us toward a better path.
This reminds me of Leonard Cohen's song, "Democracy":
He sang: "Democracy is coming to the USA".
--------------------------------------------------------
That was in 1992, 27 years ago. It was prophetic for Leonard Cohen to suggest what another (Michael) Cohen is now concerned about. In fact, Leonard Cohen died, one day after Trump was elected, in 2016. How ironic!
Here is a Trump version of "Democracy":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ythb4PSWBIA&t=236s
I wonder if David Brooks could comment on "Democracy".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1
Karma.
2
Why do I feel that this is just one dirt bag turning on another dirt bag?
2
Amen
bravo
Seems to me also that we need not to analyze whether we were good or evil, but which standard we measure ourselves by. In the last two years, ethical and moral standards have plummeted. Current standards for behavior, as far as I can see, are completely irrelevant. How to return to previous (and often very flawed), or currently almost irrelevant and unrealistic, standards?
1
Republicans got all huffy because Cohen is an established liar?
Why didn’t they ask Cohen about their Liar-in-Chief, the president whose lies now number in the thousands?
Because they were afraid of the answers.
5
Cohen may be a self-serving rat, but I do believe he will confess to anything to reduce his prison sentence.
No part of his testimony to Congress would result in a reduction of his sentence.
This article is a to little sappy and heavy.
Trump is a womanizing developer and he hires cheap sleazy lawyers
The end.
2
@Tommy Walker: Trump exploited and now strives to exacerbate a judiciary that doesn't want to decide anything.
One can reserve judgement as to whether Mr. Cohen is truly repentant, or what he might do in the future to atone ... beyond serving his sentence.
That may ... or may not ... become clear in time.
What we need to deal with now is the gross immorality, criminality and truculent ignorance of Mr. Trump and those who support him.
Mr. Trump is the unindicted co-conspirator with Cohen and Pecker, in felonies with sentences in the range of 2 to 5 years.
Trump, Cohen and Pecker conspired to violate the FECA act with a concealed contribution. The "Edwards precedent" does not shield Mr. Trump, indeed it argues the reverse. Edwards escaped because it could not be proved that he even knew of the payoff of his mistress, let alone authorized it. In this case the testimony of Pecker and Cohen, and recordings Cohen has turned over, prove Trump was a true co-conspirator.
Trump directed Cohen to make an illegal contribution of the pay-off to Cliffords. (illegal both because excessive and undisclosed).
It would have been legal for Trump to make the pay-off directly with his own money IF HE DISCLOSED IT, but that's not what he did.
Instead he engaged in fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, and "structuring" to conceal the repayment to Cohen. The fraud arises because most of the payments were made from the Trump Trust (and presumably treated as business expense) rather than Trump's personal account. Donald Jr. signed the payments from the Trump Trust, making him co-conspirator.
3
@Lee Harrison: All of this seems to be considered normal political shenanigans by Trump's sycophants.
I don't think Michael Cohen is capable of being a changed man. He and Trump are of the same archetype -- shapeshifter (as depicted by Joseph Campbell.) They changed as they see fit. Had he not been caught, Cohen would still be willing to take a bullet for the man while sending out more threatening letters. So let's not mistaken him as a reluctant hero.
The question is what would be the most effective way to strike down shapeshifters like them. Ancient stories tell of a long stake to pierce through their hearts into the ground. Yet the righteousness of the cross is so badly tainted and corroded. Such a cross crumbles to the touch.
While I'm holding onto the notion of morality and collective human decency, knowing the fervor of the 40% makes me question even that. Nonetheless I am holding onto this as a security blanket.
"Professionals know that effectiveness in any realm, especially politics, depends on having some guiding and consistent integrity that people can trust, loyalty to something higher than your next appearance on Fox or MSNBC."
Uh huh.
And people outside of politics have learned that politics is the last place to search for "consistent integrity" and a commitment to a higher purpose.
And I wish that most people, normal or not, demanded rigorous ethical standards, and not the pretense of piety, or the rigid exclusionary, punitive "Christianity" of others.
@cheryl: Politics is the only lawful process we have to negotiate the master social contract that provides the framework for negotiation and enforcement of all the other contracts we enter into privately.
"Normal people are repulsed when the president of their own nation lies, cheats, practices bigotry, allegedly pays off porn star mistresses. " Allegedly? Really.
3
It's no mystery that the Republicans in DC have moral compasses with leaden needles. They wouldn't be able to find North (morality) if the arrows pointing to it were painted on the floors, wall. streets and sidewalks. Can David name a single Republican whose primary purpose for being in Washington is NOT his or her own self-aggrandizement? Jordan? Meadows? McConnell? Cruz? Graham? King? Louie Gohmert??? To quote Yul Brynner in "The King and I": Et-Cetera, Et-cetera, Et-cetera.
The pertinent question, of course, is "Why?" Was their first sentient thought growing up that, "When I grow up, I'll be an important big shot in Washington and, if I can't be President, I'll willingly kiss his backside (as long as he's in my party."?
Is it physiological? Genetic? I came across an article recently that asks that very question, and concludes there is a strong indication that there are physical differences between those liberal and those (by today's definition) conservative. If this is really the case, the answer to where America, the World, are headed is: Which is the dominant trait?
4
@Glen
"As the twig is bent, so grows the tree." Is in general a description of how a person develops. But as in the sitcom Family Ties character Michael J Keaton, kids can be completely different from their parents.
We are usually taught right from wrong and exposed to playing games and following rules to learn the importance of fairness and following the rules.
In the end we make choices based on the things as random as the immediate circumstances and feelings at the time of decision and that time when you were 3 and someone picked up your dropped binky and did not give it back to you instantly being so unfair.
Character is as much nature as it is nurture. We all have good and bad days character wise but some of us start low and get better and others start high and get worse. and there will be counter arguments to that as well.
There is no permanent state of being on character. Even El Trumpo can change for the better. Him being exactly like my father my vote is that he will not choose change for the better because he cannot ever let himself be seen as having been wrong except in the most generalized conceptual and virtual (not real) way.
‘No man is so exquisitely honest or upright in living but that ten times in his life he might not lawfully be hanged’... Voltaire
Truly that ‘child-man’ puttering away in his White House looks as if he’s auditioning for a role in the remake of the noir film, ‘Out of the Past’. That boy with each passing day is simply like Robby Mitchum ‘building his gallows high baby’.
You needn’t be curious as to how Republicans arrived at their decision to defend the indefensible. Simply ask yourself “how did I, David Brooks, come to defend Reagan and IranContra.....Bush and Abu Graib”??
7
I find it amazing that Mr. Brooks feels he can judge anyone.
2
The Republicans who “asked” questions were to me, largely unknowns. The Big Wigs stood mute behind them, out of sight and with lack of conscience. Disgusting.
Please don't equate Trump and his base as having anything to do with America's conscience or culture. We, most of us, have no crisis. We are not in doubt as to what should be done. The senate, lead by republicans are the people failing and having a crisis. They are stooges for a fascist president, who by the way, is also a fool beyond description. So, please don't include the majority of us in your lament regarding morality. We know who is immoral.
6
Good old Boys Mark and Jim don’t give a fig about what the Democrats and Liberals think about their attacks on Cohen. They are attack dogs who know their business; and when the whistle sounds, they are like hounds after hares. In Washington if your running with the hares, your going to have hounds after your tail.
2
Please spare us the maudlin psychobabble. These guys are crooks, hucksters, scammers, snake oil salese men. It ain't complicated. What's disturbing is the Republican party not only elected the head crook of the family, they are adamantly sticking with him even though they clearly know he is a crook. I don't think this red staters are stupid - they know what Trump. They don't care; he represents power for them, their power over the rest of us. And thus they love him.
That's where the moral vacuum is: in Red State America.
2
My moral lesson from the Trumpist phenomenon is different
* Freud (and Kohlberg) already taught us (even if we consistently reject it): in the unconscious emotional core of each one of us hide a small Trump (or Hitler), and our morality only depends of our willingness to acknowledge it - and take full responsibility for this.
* Liberals, including moderate liberals like Brooks, tend to learn from the Trump thing the wrong lesson: the problem is not Trump, but the 60 million deplorables who voted (and will vote) for him - as a protest against the moral blindness of the liberal elites - who speak humanism - while selfishly cultivating the american anti-humanistic capitalism
1
"The roar of his own hungers." Come on Mr. Brooks, your political analysis can be so astute, your voice of reason is desperately needed in times like these. This kind of pop-psychological babble serves no purpose but to waste valuable column-inches.
I wonder how Mr. Brooks judged whether Cohen showed any signs of "purgation of self and tranformation." I guess he thinks that someone like Chuck Colson who said he'd run over his grandmother to get Nixon re-elected and then supposedly found Christ after he went to prison for his involvement in Wtergate is an example of this. I wonder if Mr. Brooks ever has shown any degree of purgation or transformation from supporting a Republican Party that from the presidency of Nixonon continuously slid into appeals to bigotry and racism.
And for hypocrisy and phoniness you can't beat Congressman Meadow, that great lover of black people, about whom tapes have turned up where he called for sending Barak Obama back to his home in Kenya.
2
A very interesting piece! But I wonder if Michael Cohen has not in fact changed. Yes, he is clearly still seeking acceptance and validation. In his own words, he would like to be viewed differently, both now and through a historical lens.
There were several key times where he strongly denied allegations that had the potential to be extremely damaging to President Trump (the pee tape, physical abuse of Melania). In doing so, he demonstrated a desire to adhere to higher principles - honesty, morality.
Many moral acts are (at least partially) motivated by self-interest, such as a desire for admiration and praise. But the motivation does not simply negate the good act. In my opinion, Mr. Cohen's testimony did demonstrate a material change in comparison to his past conduct
3
Jeeze Louise ! Morality? Look, never in the NYT is the relationship of all of the Republicans and 80 % of the Democrats to their dark donors ever researched and put into an opinion piece as far as I can tell. Yes thanks be, commenters often bring up the bribes.
Watching Michael Cohen was like watching a bright and chastened 12 year old who has been grounded. He never grew up. And now he has to. The sad thing is that if he was appealing to whom he may consider the grownups, well though not as blatant and much better on social issues the corporate Dems are just as morally, financially corrupt as their brethren across the aisle. Except, except for the new ones in the house, bless them, bless them! Justice Democrats, Justice democrats! And didn't they shine and act like real representatives of We the People. So proud of their morality, boy does it shine.
3
Yes David, your long time love, that which gave you purpose, a career, a guiding light.....
the Republican Party.....
is finally revealed for what it always was.
A bunch of con men as Presidents; willing to lie, cheat, and con to get and keep power and...most importantly...
give big tax breaks and contracts to corporations or the Russians ..or whomever is funding that Republican that day.
I am sure you are proud of following the light now that it has yellowed in your own eyes and Cohen has reflected back your own image.
There are a lot of Michael Cohen look a-likes out there, are there not?
4
Thank you, Mr. Brooks.
Great article, Mr. Brooks.
1
@David Brooks, how to do explain or justify morality to your former fellow travelers if they do not understand the meaning of the word? Clearly they do not subscribe to it. You seem to be howling at the wind and I feel badly for you. Please let them go before you become tainted or mad.
1
"Did you, at your crucial moment, side with generosity or greed?"
Everyone who voted for Trump sided with greed. Everyone. And everyone who still supports Trump is siding with greed. Which makes them accomplices standing side by side with Michael Cohen.
But as for Cohen, Brooks claim that "He’s just switched teams and concluded that the Democrats can now give him what he wants, so he says what appeals to them. That may be progress, but it is not moral renewal." is a complete load of garbage. Sorry David. Cohen is not trying to join the Democrats...that is a blatant bothsiderism. Shame on YOU.
Of course Cohen has changed...you can't go through what he is going through without some amount of change. Is it a complete and total transformation? Very doubtful. Those are rare, but this isn't black or white...there are plenty of shades of transformation as long as you aren't a conservative moralizing ikon wannabe like Brooks.
2
David writes : "Normal people have moral sentiments. Normal people are repulsed when the president of their own nation lies, cheats, practices bigotry, allegedly pays off porn star mistresses."
Yes, he's confirmed what we already knew: Republicans are no longer normal people.
4
Bravo, David.
1
Call me a softie, but I thought Michael Cohen appeared genuinely contrite.
5
I think this is the. OST powerful piece brooks has ever written.
1
"Normal people have moral sentiments. Normal people are repulsed when the president of their own nation lies, cheats, practices bigotry, allegedly pays off porn star mistresses."
The Republican Party has strayed very far from normal. The Democrats are capable of it too, but not yet there. We will see if ideology wins out over doing what's best for most and right.
That's right ... narcissism and envy found the chimeric core of human badness.
...and the question for Republicans is:
Why is Cohen supposedly a snake for lying (no, I won't bring up Ollie North!), and yet Trump is A-OK even after he has been documented as having lied over 8,000+ times since he got "Electoraled"?
Inquiring minds want to know.....
2
The USA has to look in the mirror with the lights on full. The system that has from its inception boasted of individual attainment also has run side by side with its evil twin. Great strides were usually followed by unspeakable acts of cruelty. Great wealth was often attained with squalor in its wake.
The era of slavery and native American Holocaust was followed by Jim Crow and robber barons. The Truman Commission industrialists who gladly saw American boys die because of their frauds. Tbe tobacco companies who gladly sold cancer and emphysema. The car companies who knowingly allowed thousands of people to burn to death in their cars. The NFL with their concussion and steroid conspiracy. These modern Republicans are nothing more than chips off the old block. Money is everything.
2
All true. But Trump also beckons us to look at our own thoughts and hypocrisy. How just and good are we as a nation? Are we a peace-making nation or war mongers? How fair are our elections? How do we treat the less fortunate? How do we defend the rights of children, minorities, woman, etc. What are the levels of embedded racism in society, that Trump so clearly crystallizes.
The same questions confronted the Germans of the 1940s. We like to say Hitler was a bad man who misled his country. But history is not so glib. The German people and others bore direct responsibility for Hitler's concentration camps. Similarly, the American people are responsible for the atrocious ways immigrants are now being treated.
Hope is not found in racism, but Resistance. Without it our nation is lost. The shining city on the hill- if it ever shone- will shine no more.
2
A wonderful essay. Thank you, Mr. Brooks. In some way I found you telling of this solid tale uplifting.
1
Thanks, Mr. Brooks, for this article.
And you're right: while Cohen was basically forthcoming and truthful in Wednesday's testimony, I don't for one minute believe he has finally found his moral center. As you stated, he's just switching teams.
2
You cannot say that Cohen has not fundamentally changed and only traded Trump for a new leader. If his new leader is, as he says, the rule of law rather than a different caudillo, then he has fundamentally changed. If he is just saying that, then he fundamentally remains in the house of Trump. Only the future and his future decisions will show which; the final answer comes with his death.
1
"Here is the commandment that experience teaches us: Immorality usually bites you in the ass."
- or makes you a president or Pol Pot?
2
You write.
"I’ve heard the rationalizations. This is gang warfare. We have to do everything we can to defend our team. The other team leaves us no choice. Those are the sorts of things people say to give themselves permission to yield to their venal ambitions. Those are the sorts of things rookies and amateurs say.
Professionals know that effectiveness in any realm, especially politics, depends on having some guiding and consistent integrity that people can trust, loyalty to something higher than your next appearance on Fox or MSNBC."
The problem with that assessment is that the rookies, AOC for example, asked pointed questions in the hearing while the Professional and mature Republican politicians have sold their souls to the devil in siding with and defending Trump. The Republicans have shown themselves to be devoid of morals or any guiding ethics or principles. The democrats who speechified and bloviated during the hearing also don't help. They are just protecting their turf or team, serving themselves.
I fully believe the solution is to bring more new blood, rookies and amateurs into the game people not yet corrupted by the system, willing to change. The entire Republican Party needs to be swept away and replaced.
6
I think many fail to recognize it's the moral failings of Trump that his supporters like. It isn't like with Nixon, where people were really shocked when they heard his voice saying those terrible things and their view of him suddenly came crashing down. Everybody knows Trump is a creation. Defense or opposition to him is essentially a Rorschach test.
2
Trump is the most overt present symptom of a dying civilization.
What did we expect when we created and fostered a society based on materialism? Trump's father was never satisfied with the money or son he had. They were materially incomplete for him. The damage spread - we get Trump the man. We pay even though many are still oblivious to it's damage.
The reason were initially noble for such materialism. Ending hunger, hoping people. Providing a better standard of living. But those in charge of achieving our materialism were most interested in achieving ultimate materialism for themselves. It is no wonder that the biggest Wall Street gurus are not spiritual gurus. And we spread our cheap philosophy far and wide across the globe over the decades so that now even two communist countries are it's biggest supporters.
Downfall is inevitable. Eventually we will crawl toward the light. It will be the only path left.
4
Brooks: Okay, maybe Cohen just changed jerseys and joined the prosecutors but it's a start. It's a path to redemption. Hopefully, the Republican party will do some soul searching: I doubt it, but one can hope --- it's almost spring.
3
I have two comments. First, I appreciate the way Mr Brooks frames the world in moral terms. But, if he uses Cohen as a lesson in real world consequences of moral slovenliness, he must add an evaluation of his enabler in ill, Donald Trump, who seems to suffer not at all.
Second, Mr Brooks should introduce modern science to his analysis. Any consideration of Donald Trump's behavior is incomplete without a psychiatric view. There is no real explanation for his consistent inconsistency, his deviance, apart from the psychiatric. We do not need to make a firm diagnosis to appreciate that our president is a narcissist, incapable of reality testing.
This should give us all pause.
4
@Mitchell Kase I would like to add to your comment, and suggest that Donald Trump also exhibits, what I imagine to be, high levels of sociopathy.
Perhaps David Brooks misconstrues (generously, I think) Mr. Trump's efforts to "be loved," when these might simply be efforts to gain a personal advantage with little regard for the needs or emotions of others. His lifetime behavior seems to support that possibility.
3
Very nicely written in precise moral contours.
2
"You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but not all of the people all of the time." But are cable TV and social media making it possible to fool a significant majority of the people all of the time? I fear that clever use of polling data, social media analytics and identity politics are making the answer to this question, yes. This seems to be particularly true of the passionately motivated voters that turn out for primary elections. Trump and his congressional enablers have been very effective at convincing these voters to cast ballots that betray what should be their core interests. Kill Obamacare, lower taxes for corporations, shrink government, purge the voter rolls, privatize social security and so on. Is this about morality or is it just a throwback to the political divide between haves and have-nots that has been reality since feudal times or perhaps all times. Historically, in their quest to preserve private riches, Republicans were against the the forty hour work week, Social Security, Workmans Compensation, the Interstate Highway System, Medicare, and just about every other public good introduced in the last century. The current battle over the Consumer Protection Bureau is just one more in which the haves have convinced a big block of the have nots act against their interests. This is not about love, unless you consider the love of money to be the basis of a moral belief system.
4
Brooke wonders who didn't love trump. But that ignores the reality of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. People with NPD can be given huge quantities of love (and often are) but it will never make them better, happier people.
People with NPD are a gaping maw of need and cannot feel any human love or empathy. They are like ghosts attracted to fire yet unable to feel the warmth.
1
The answer is pretty simple, political expediency trumps morality (no pun intended). For the republicans, they are afraid of the 35-40% who support Trump in this country, because like 90% of them are registered republicans (in polls, registered republicans show a 90% approval rating of Trump, the good people have become 'other' it looks like), so they need them to not face being wiped out in the primaries (their own fault, with gerrymandered districts the GOP put in place, majority of voters are Trump nation).
For Trump Nation, I agree they know what he is, exactly what he is, and not only don't they not care, they actually like he is like this. It is part of the "I want a president just like me", and despite claiming to be religious, moral, you name it, most of them lead lives full of what we see with Trump. Examinations of his ardent supporters show they are just as fouled up, just as hypocritical, and they love having a president "that is just like them". Most people, based on his approval ratings, want a president leading them who is better than them, more intelligent, setting a better example, but his base is "yeah, we got one of our own running the country"
As far as the cause of Trump, a blind man could see why, his father was a nasty customer, and his mother was one of these society women who held herself up there as the queen, but was as cold a woman as anyone could imagine.
2
"Indeed given my experience working for Mr. Trump I fear that if he loses the election in 2020 that there will never be a peaceful transition of power, and this is why I agreed to appear before you today." Michael Cohen
We can have this conversation, it's a good one though it skips the idea that these are just bad men who see power and want to be in its orbit; so opportunists first and foremost.
But we are missing Cohen's important statement about Trump leaving office peacefully. Cohen should know and I think he's right. A extreme narcissist like Trump (and sociopath) will sacrifice everything around him with the same guilt ratio as eating an unhealthy cheeseburger.
I think it is going to come to a head before the next election. Trump will throw the nation under the bus and we have seen some of his enablers at work during Cohen's testimony. God Save the USA.
3
You've got the wrong Steinbeck novel, Mr. Brooks. "Winter of Our Discontent" is exactly about whether one can put one's conscience on the shelf for a brief period and then reclaim it after the goal is achieved. Than answer, as anyone familiar with the novel or Steinbeck for that matter, is "no". The protagonist finally comes to terms with his choice after his own son exhibits the same behavior, though not in emulation. The Trump family legacy is that conscience is for suckers. I'd like to think the Republican party is struggling with conscience but I see no evidence that there's any struggle involved. As it was said in Doonesbury long ago, "Mr Schweiker, how long does it take to betray everything you ever stood for?" "At least 12 hours. The paperwork is incredible.".
2
Michael Cohen from being a perfect man. That's why Trumpsky kept him around for a decade to do much of his dirty work. However, that doesn't mean that Cohen can't provide useful and truthful information about the conman he formerly adored. The saddest part of the hearing was Mr Cohen's insistence on calling Trumpsky, "Mister Trump". The good news is that Cohen is no longer willing to "take a bullet for Mister Trump".
2
The Republicans have lost their moral souls in their worship
of King Trump. The American people have not. They will
show it in the 2020 election.
2
Having dealt with two sociopaths up close, and reading extensively after I maneuvered myself off their chessboards, it was easy to notice the similarities in DJT.
My sociopathic colleague was finally fired after wreaking havoc for fifteen years. Sociopaths rely on the assumption of goodness by others, peoples’ sense of fair play, and the utter ignorance of the evil of which they are secretly capable.
In both situations, their downfall came when they could no longer prevent victims from comparing stories, finally exposing the complex lies they wove. DJT was able to compartmentalize all his victims in New York, but he is no longer in control as president. Thank you, American press.
3
On the PBS News Hour on 9/16/2016, in discussing Hilary Clinton's "Basket of deplorables" comment. Mr. Brooks found it to be a form of "snobbery" and "bad sociology".
Moreover, what he found perhaps the most offensive about Clinton's comment was that it withheld the possibility of redemption for those it judged.
So there you have it. You can call the moral decisions of Trump supporters evil, so long as you leave them the possibility of redemption on the spiritual day of reckoning - whenever and wherever that is.
Some may agree with Brooks' conditional equation here.
To me it sounds like bad sociology.
Mr. Cohen mentioned in his opening statement that his parents were survivors of the Holocaust and that 'Charlottesville' (and presumably the President's subsequent defense of the torch-bearing marchers) was one reason he began to question his allegiance to Trump.
'The Jews will not replace us'--for whom was that chant intended?
I don't know if Mr. Cohen has had a change of heart but one hopes he has some inkling that the torches carried at Charlottesville signify not a desire to illuminate but rather an intention to burn the house down.
1
The same case can be made against FBI and Justice Department Democratic operatives Andy McCabe and James Comey. It's been shown that Clinton paid for the Steele dossier on which the FBI investigation into Trump appears to have been based. It's a tangled mess but all accounts point to Clinton as the prime mover.
That being said the Democrats, what they stand for and how they operate is nothing short of a page out of the Republican playbook. They openly condemn racists and bigots yet freely elect and support them in Virginia. They tell us they're for economic growth yet turn down billions and billions of revenue in NYC that could have been used for the betterment of the peoples lives who live there.
Politics is the choice between the lesser of the two evils.
1
@Kurt
Not to tangent off but have you read up on the Amazon issue? Out of 25,000 jobs only 30 were going to local residents. In addition Amazon wasn’t going to allow the workers to form a union and they were going to get a tax break of 1.3 million dollars, money that could be used to serve the needs of the community.
In conclusion it’s a false equivalency to try and equate Clinton’s shortcomings with Trump’s dastardly doings, as Mr. Brooks so eloquently points out.
2
Two internally inconsistent statements Mr. Brooks has made about Cohen:
"I believe that Cohen basically told the truth in his testimony on Wednesday,"
...Democrats can now give him what he wants, so he says what appeals to them."
However, and most importantly, Mr. Brooks does make clear the role of the Republicans in promoting and protecting the Trump Crime syndicate for the GOP's own corrupt purposes
"Cohen has left the Thugs for Trump club and passed that baton to certain House Republicans."
Lets give David Brooks credit where credit is due.
1
"Were Republican House members enthusiastic or morose as they decided to turn off their own moral circuits, when they decided to be monumentally unconcerned by the fact that their leader may be a moral cretin?"
They were clearly enthusiastic. First they weren't Republican House members, they were and are Individual-1 lemmings. We heard the VOLUNTARY testimony of an ex-lemming, who warned the GOP lemmings the hazard of their continued support of Individual-1. Not one of them took that to heart. With one exception, all GOP members were trying to discredit the witness, yet the witness has already plead guilty and is headed to prison. What did Mr Cohen have to gain? Nothing. What did he have to lose? everything if he lied. So I believe him. I also took note when Chairman Cummings made his closing statements and they evoked emotion from Mr Cohen. I may be naive, but I thought I saw a repentant man, who is quite aware his life has been turned upside down.
2
A truly well-written piece that leaves me wondering: What is it about our government that attracts these broken and morally bankrupt people to run for office, and what do they think their job is once seated?
Brooks has done a marvelous job here laying bare in moral terms the damage an addict - for that is what Trump is - does to all they touch through one shameful act after another. Eliot Cohen has written with similar braveness in The Atlantic. Brooks had also identified our family dysfunction, where the addict is enabled year after year after year.
1
Mr Brooks misses Steinbeck’s meaning. Steinbeck simply describes how “human consciousness” creates “virtue and vice” and this is the nature of being human. Then he states that what matters is, in the end, did we make things better or worse. After Trump is gone, we will know the answer to this question. Now that the Bush administration is gone, we know clearly that our unprovoked invasion of Iraq made things worse for the world. I ask Mr. Brooks, how did you use your soap box in making this happen? Mr. Brooks oozes with self righteousness. I suspect that it is the self righteous who have created the most harm in the last hundred or so years in this world
2
"[Trump's] kind of life has an allure for other lonely people who also live under the illusion that you can win love and respect with bling and buzz. Michael Cohen was one of these people."
Careful, David, you're characterizing an entire national culture here.
Moral distancing. I like that term. Consider the Founders of this country - they were majority slavers - what a perfect example. No wonder we still have it in spades to this very day.
The marked difference between Cohen and Trump is that Cohen clearly loves his family. This is what made him "turn" and take the plea; it is this damage he wears so heavily on his face. Does he have his faults? Clearly. But I think (and I speak as a therapist) it is too soon to say whether or not he has "truly repented." Cohen may be attracted to dirt bags and have acted as one himself, but he is not in the same truly loveless narcissistic camp as Dear Leader a la USA.
1
You end up where Representative Jim Jordan blandly ended up Wednesday, in referring to the hush-money scheme: “I think it’s news we knew about.”
This is not where he ended up on Wednesday he’s occupied this territory for a long time. He has denied having any knowledge of the sexual abuse perpetrated it to you Ohio State University. To say that he has no moral compass now, when it is apparent that in fact he has been devoid of it for a long time.
More concerning to me is that they’re playing pretty politics. Let’s be absolutely clear if this was a Democratic president the Howells the calls for the president to be impeached would be deafening. They have abdicated any responsibility except that to their party this is what is most reprehensible about the GOP.
1
I am not sure I enjoy Mr. Brooks new self-concept and role as the deep thinker on virtue and personal morality. Tiresome. I feel this way because he writes solipsistically of personal revelations, though new to him, that are long recorded in literature. I am not sure he sees when he is recycling. For example, Jefferson famously wrote, "...all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." We have been putting up with liar, cheats, greedy grifters, and sex abusers in public office since we created public office. And even then, we inherited them, the offices didn't create them. But we put up with it until it becomes intolerable, usually in a misunderstanding of tolerable. Liars in the White House? Not new. Government service cashed in for huge profits? How much are the Clinton's worth? Comey? Mueller? We put up with it, until we choose not to, which comes at a crisis point. Maybe if we didn't wait until the scammers become so unctuous that we cannot stand it, we would be better off. We let pass for reasons of partisanship and convenience way more than we should, assuming it will never become insufferable, but it does. Then we have to act in crisis mode. That our choices in 2016 were HRC and Trump-enablers of so much corruption both, should tell us just how lacking our vigilance and standards have been. Brooks is late in seeing, too.
Unfortunately we are wasting our energy in the hopes republicans will care about such things. There are so many everyday people who continue to nearly violently protect Trump. You can feel their anger and push just like the republicans going after Cohen. Even mentioning Ocasio Cortez in mixed company brings about massive pushback no matter the discussion of topics.
Before Trump was elected my 94 year old grandmother said this reminded her of Italy and the rise of Benito Mussolini. This is how very dangerous extremists begin coups. They have normalized rounding people up in their homes and work places at gun point with ICE. Sounds like a fascist organization in and if itself.
This country is very nearly done. And I think a lot of republicans are actually hoping to use their stock pile of weapons on liberals and anyone they see as not belonging in this country.
2
Trump immorality will not only haunt his family but the GOP for decades.
Since when has politics been a hotbed of morality?
i'm glad you put a picture of jordan at the top of the article.
everybody knows michael cohen is a liar and a cheat - and i'm not one to think his decision to testify makes him a hero or shows that he is redeeming himself, although it was believable (documents provided) and a steo in the right direction.
AOC asked some good questions. the republicans seemed to assail cohen in a coordinated basis but they didn't defend trump nor did they punch holes in cohen's story backed up by those documents. are they concerned with anything more than unbridled support of another liar? do they think it is going to help them get re-elected?
i guess people just want to be like trump and would also cheat on taxes, lie to get financing, commit adultery, bully and bribe their way to power.
i know i couldn't look at myself in a mirror if i acted in that manner.
but there's the core of mr. brook's opinion - those people look in the mirror every day and like what they see.
i'm almost 70. i'm not eager to reach the end of my life, but if this grows to be how the majority behaves, i won't miss it.
3
Let's bear in mind that Fox and other rightwing media have been pitching tribalism, bigotry and distortion for 30 years. That's gone a long way toward undermining those "moral circuits." At this point, it's desperate white reactionaries trying to hang on at any cost. That will take a terrible toll, as we're seeing now.
4
I suspect that at "the strategy session when the House Republicans decided to be incurious about Trump’s sins and crimes but to rip the skin off Cohen" there were clear orders to toe the official line coming from the White House: to impugn Cohen's credibility as he was a liar...[proven so for having claimed the same "truths" as Trump].
1
Not being a Brooks fan, I did decide to read his missive today, and got to the part where he declares "I don't believe Cohen is a changed man", "he's just switched teams...may be progress but not moral renewal." Pretty much only skimmed the article after that judgement.
How does one have the moral superiority to declare such certainty to the world that he knows another person's mind and motive?
Brooks says he believes Cohen "basically told the truth in his testimony", but can't attribute his truth telling to anything but a faulty motive.
2
Who was watching for the transformation of Michael Cohen? None of us knew the man, albeit that which we learned through his sporadic appearances in media. I take him at his word. He is a "fool" who worked hard to develop his well-earned reputation as a sleazy, bullying, manipulative right-hand-man to the Don.
Whether or not he is authentically capable of "moral sentiments" of "normal people", we can not know. I don't think his contrition was really the point of the hearing. Rather, Mr. Cohen acquainted us, first-hand, with the grotesque inner workings of Mr. Trump and his decidedly crooked empire. For that, Mr. Cohen provided our country a service.
3
Mr Brooks; sixteen years ago this month, the government of Mr Bush and Mr Cheney forced the United States into an unnecessary invasion of Iraq based on falsified intelligence. You were a full-throated supporter of that action, if not an ardent supporter the goals of Project for a New American Century.
In Iraq alone, between March 2003 invasion and November 2011, the Iraq Body Count project estimates the number of civilian deaths at 116,000; civilians wounded are at least twice that number -- just in Iraq.
I would submit that your actions earned a level of complicity in and responsibility for what happened to those people. As such, I think your judgement about the morality of others needs to be viewed in light of what you've displayed of your own.
3
At last Brooks manages to come clean with an honest assessment of his president. But note, why did he have to slip in the caveat about his disbelief that Choen is not a changed man? What does that bit of negativity add to his statement on Trump?
1
The rending of garments and gnashing of teeth by Democrats over Republicans is a bit much. Politics has always been transactional and Trump makes no bones about it. America IS transactional. It defines rampant commercialism and few are immune from its tug. He simply declines to be false about his greed and amorality, but many American only like a humble capitalist! That is why his followers adore him: the unvarnished vulgarity and lack of pretense that this is about anything but C.A.S.H.
Politics attracts transactional amoral types, both D and R. Democrats need to stop flattering themselves in all of this: the Clintons are prime examples of clever liars who have gamed the system to enrich themselves through foundations. Booker is in bed with Big Pharma. The list is endless. Stop looking to politics and patriotism as panaceas in life.
Mr. Brooks has trafficked with R's for decades and was fine with it all, the sly racism, the authoritarianism, the greed is good litany, until Trump ripped the patina of respect from it. You own Trump, Mr. Brooks. He is the natural evolution of all you have admired.
2
"That is the passage that confronts us as we decide to defend or condemn Trump. The moral drama is the central drama. Did you, at your crucial moment, side with generosity or greed?"
THAT's what confronts us? This is ridiculous. Every human being at some point succumbs to greed. Every investor does so, and some even learn their lesson.
The question before us has nothing whatsoever to do with ordinary human frailties. It is about siding - actively - with a monster against the most basic needs of ordinary people - such as not having their kids ripped from their bosoms.
This column trivialized what is at stake.
Poor Mr. Brooks. He would have us believe that Trump is teachable, that Trump's immorality might come back to bite him.
Mr. Brooks says "If you behave in a way that betrays relationship and obliterates the truth and erases your own integrity, you will sooner or later wind up where Michael Cohen has wound up—having ruined your life." What about Trump?
Trump has betrayed everybody, wife, family, cabinet, whole governmental departments, gold star families, CIA, FBI and Justice, the GOP and his entire base who fell for his hogwash and got him elected and now the American people.
But Trump is different in fundamental ways: he hasn't the human conscience to feel guilt for his lies and crimes. He has no shame. He can't be embarrassed by himself because he is completely oblivious to his own ignorance and vulgarity and the norms and values of others.
Trump seems psychotic in his lack of feeling or empathy for others and how his narcissism obliterates everyone around him.
Nothing is ever going to come back to bite Trump sufficiently to fit his crimes; he couldn't perceive his ruined life even if he were driven from office or imprisoned.
2
Don't care at all and deconstructing this monster.
He has all the resources in the world and could afford the best therapists to unpack all this emotional baggage but he has not and will not.
Anyone who grew up or lived around New York City since the 70's has known him as grotesque clown. That the rest of America found something relevant here is really upsetting.
The faster we can move him out of the White House and let the Nation get on with it's life the better. Let the historians worry about this guy and let him move on to whatever ignominious fate awaits him after his term is over - hopefully jail and irrelevance rather than a spiteful right wing media goblin...but we should not be wasting time and effort in an attempt to understand him.
1
The Republicans used their time in the hearing mostly to repeat ad nauseam that Cohen was a liar. But a fair part of this sanctimonious finger-pointing was itself a lie.
Several questioners claimed Cohen had lied to the committee by stating on a form that he had no contracts with foreign entities. Cohen disagreed, saying the form had asked only about foreign *governments*. Eventually the text of the question was read aloud, and it was clear Cohen was telling the truth and the Republicans were lying. This told me what I needed to know about the participants.
2
I think this question of who didn't love Donald Trump is very key. what happened in his development that caused him to be so driven by getting outer approval and so unable to have empathy or any kind of humilty and honesty about his own failings?
I have read that his mother was hospitalized when he was about two- a critical age for forming health attachment. And his father was clearly a very authoritation and unloving man. What happened to the child Donald that so damaged him?
1
The most compelling statement by Michael Cohen, an insider to the mechanics of Donald Trumps mind, has largely been ignored. Mr. Trumps motivation to run was not to win the presidency but that the event would be a large "informercial" for the Trump brand! To me, he is consciously and unconsciously forever seeking his fathers approval. His behavior is reminiscent of Vince Lombardi's line.."winning isn't everything, it is the Only thing." As such, Donald Trump has developed a sociopathic and narcissistic character disorder. Unfortunately for us, our Republican colleagues have sold themselves to this inconvenient moral dilemma as Senator Lindsey Graham who stated "If your not running for re-election, you are in the wrong business." Power, not morality, is what most of our politicians worship.
3
The "hungry ghosts" of Buddhist philosophy have small mouths, skinny necks and bloated bellies. They have an insatiable hunger for money, power and attention. They are never satisfied. I believe that the "hungry ghosts" are who Mr. Brooks is speaking of. Unfortunately, I think that some "hungry ghosts" are positions of great power in our country.
1
“I believe that Cohen basically told the truth in his testimony on Wednesday, but I don’t believe that he is a changed man. There is none of the purgation of self and transformation of spirit that happens among people who have truly been altered.”
What arrogance! Who are you to judge whether he is a changed man? What special insight do you have to pass judgement? I realize that lately you seem to be on your own journey to define morality and such. I know this because you keep telling us about it over and over again. But that doesn’t mean you’re any better at defining authentic change than any of the rest of us.
To me, Cohen seemed like someone who has accepted his flawed nature and is trying very hard to tell the truth. If he weren’t, he wouldn’t have bothered to shoot down some of the allegations that were made about various tapes and other purported evil Trump actions. He drew quite clear lines between what he actually knew himself and what was only gossip, including relating to Russian collusion. To me, those were the words of someone trying to be meticulously honest, not someone just saying what he thought the Democrats wanted to hear. But then, who am I to judge? Certainly I don’t have the insight of David Brooks.
3
Did Cohen serve wealth or greed? Understanding, and acting upon, the distinction is a key societal imperative in saving the American Experiment, the species (and many others) and even healthy capitalism.
Cohen's exposure, and more critically Trump's, serve as a morality tale that American "culture" has increasingly enabled avarice rather than honest and healthy gain in wealth. Once again we see the tawdry underbelly of vulture capitalism and complicit and co-opted (if not outright owned) government, but the Trump saga is just a more vulgar and peculiarly neurotic and even psychotic epitome of BUSINESS AS USUAL in a very corrupt and rotten society (and world) dominated by crooked oligarchs, over-idolized businesspeople, and their servants.
We ARE the bonfire of the vanities, we ARE the echo of the robber baron aristocracy of the Gilded Age, so effectively reinstated by the Reagan Restoration flim-flam that has governed our nation's politics and economic and financial swindle since 1980. And it's not even arguable that Clintonism (Obama and Biden included) is Rockefeller Republicanism in drag - no "Democratic" administration since 1992 bears any close scrutiny at all to expose its actual substantive work as solidly Republican. Even the ACA isn't any more democratic than Nixon's or Romney's universal healthcare proposals, and it was premised right from the start on sops to the special interest corporate cartel silos.
It's the greed, stupid. And it's a knife fight in the mud.
1
I saw this on a Tshirt once "It's only kinky the first time."
My theory on El Trumpo is that he saw his older brother assert himself only to be abused by his father for it. Fearing that same abuse and rejection he became a daddy pleaser and never developed a self. Here is the Times take https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/us/politics/for-donald-trump-lessons-from-a-brothers-suffering.html
The thing that has brought us here is the reagan administration. It strikes me as apropos that many of the currently indicted players of today got their free pass to the corruption which led us here under the reagan administration.
You might not see that reagan was as dark as El Trumpo but reagan played by the rules he had to. He very consciously set the ball rolling to where we are today long before he ever ran for president. Each day he and his got away with yet another slight lowering of the standard, that lowering became the new normal as the sentence on that Tshirt alludes to. It should be the GOP motto.
El Trumpo as low as he is in comparison is the only possible result of allowing all that corruption and intentional destruction of good solid government designed to counter this sort of corruption under reagan.
It was as clear in 1980 as it is today, the GOP is the party of the morally bankrupt and avarice driven with delusions of being better than the rest of us because of those choices.
4
Poor Republicans! Their moral decline, if such it is, began on or before when they realized that Never-Trumpism wasn't going to cut it. I bet they wished then and now that they'd had a raft of superdelegates to push Trump over the falls.
1
Most of the GOP and religious right are right there with him. The bulk of the conservatives don’t care about corruption, lying, ethics, sexism, racism, terrible trade and budget policies or anything else as long as they get their social political agenda. So much for their moral majority, they have fully sold their soles. Congrats to them for Kavenaugh.
1
David: that first sentence in your piece is what I have been reminding myself about Trump for the past 600 some odd days whenever a group starts in on a “ why is he such an .......” (fill in expletives of your choice) rant.
The only way I prevent saturating my psyche with hatred of this man is to realize how truly unloved he must feel.
Do we need to judge Mr Cohen's morality? Chances are that he did not lie during his testimony Wednesday. As we repeatedly hear: he would not risk adding to his sentence. Also: he is represented by some of the most experienced and skilled lawyers available. They undoubtedly thoroughly inform and coach him. If one is inclined to draw conclusions about Mr. Cohen's personality, one can safely conclude that he is a resourceful student.
Does he deserve our sympathy? A better question is: does our culture deserve sympathy. Our culture created the circumstances that reward Donald Trump and his associates. I hope that these hearings lead to collective learning and not more hyper focus on individuals' actions and finger-pointing.
2
Good column, Mr. Brooks! It's amazing to me that Americans elected the Donald, and still more amazing that anyone still supports him. But it seems there's a good side to this - by showing the country the venal side of people, Trump has inadvertently highlighted what's good about us. And by using Trump's venality as a contrast marker, Mr. Brooks has skillfully pointed out the essential truth of life: our highest purpose as human beings is to help each other.
2
@John Boylan Trump is as American as apple pie. He's no aberration, really, just a more vulgar version of American vulgarity.
The Faust legend/story comes to mind. Faust sold his soul to the devil in exchange for access to knowledge and power. This was finite, however, and the devil came to collect. It may be a stretch but I see Michael Cohen in a similar doomed trade-off. Integrity has its costs but so does a Faustian bargain.
1
An article that leads to genuine reflection, I think. Good and evil. Right and wrong. Aren't humans the only living things that have formed these concepts? And among all humans, aren't there many who fall towards either end of the spectrum while many others fall somewhere in the middle? Can someone be doomed to be an evil person by the circumstances surrounding the formation of their personality? Can an evil person strive to become a good person? I think a case can be made for Trump's being a bad person, however he may have become one. Incredibly, he became our President. But that's just one person. I am more worried about the legions of his supporters, especially his powerful enablers of Republican Senators and Congressmen. Are they all bad people, incapable of change for the better? Or is the very nature of power that the desire to wield it attracts people who won't do it for reasons that are good?
1
May Cohen have his book deal and his movie. And may he portray honestly what he was and what he went through. And may he repay Mr. Lanny Davis who has stood by him (and who was behind him in the hearings) and who is not asking for money, Davis believed and encouraged Cohen's desire to reform, to tell the truth. Ultimately this serves to help this country get to the bottom of this tragedy this country is living through and to learn lessons from it. If this be theater, it's of the most profound kind. And it's not about one man Cohen, or even Trump. It's about how we as a country fell.
4
The big reason I am not optimistic about our country's future is the 40% of the electorate willing to look the other way about Trump's outsize defects because they want...what? Recognition? To get even? To "show" people something? Our system isn't perfect but it works if you work it. A lot of the "victimized" and "left-behind" white people I hear lauding Trump are there because of choices they made. They did not choose to get re-retrained or to move to where jobs were. Now, because they have a spokesman who can front for their sad situation, they are willing to abandon concepts of right and wrong. Seems like truly terminal selfishness.
5
With your reference to "East of Eden" I was reminded of the fatalism in the novels of Thomas Hardy and also the line from "Love is Just a Four Letter Word" where Bob Dylan writes, "Yes, I know now, traps are only set by me."
In Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, Brooks' most critical point is stated another way. The scene is Cardinal Wolsey's chambers, and he has just asked Sir Thomas More to go along with his efforts to secure a divorce for Henry VIII, which runs contrary to More's conscience. More responds, "When statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos." Chaos. Is there a better way to describe where Washington has led us?
4
It’s the Supreme Court that equated money to free speech. There by making people, corporations and groups with more money having more power than one persons vote. Our government is by the plutocrats for the plutocrats.
1
@JRoebuck: Money decided who would get onto the Supreme Court to decide the issue.
Corporations are amplifiers of the will and intentions of their managements, not people themselves.
2
A very good analysis of this matter. America is at and will continue to be at risk as long as Donald Trump remains as President. The Republicans who are afraid to stand up to the President are as responsible as the President for the damage and destruction that is being leveled on America by the “Trump Brand.” It sickens me to see these individuals wearing the American flag on their lapels because they are enemies of America. History will remember what they did to America.
5
It is frightening to watch men loyal to a political party,
use every means available,
to prevent America from following the advice of our Founding Fathers,
And keep a vigilant watch on the American Government.
6
This is very simple: In a world where the only goal is the accumulation of wealth, whatever it is that you want to have or do, all that matters is the price tag. Ethics doesn’t enter into it, at all.
5
In 200 years Mr Brooks’ analysis will be considered the premier description of Trump and the GOP at the beginning on the 21st century. While much has been written, this is the most succinct summary of our current state.
1
@Lesa DixonGray
Only if you ignore the entirety of his career promoting the GOP's propaganda as if it were a set of ideals and not the con game it has been for 50 years or more. .
5
And in 200 years everyone will have forgotten that David Brooks voted for Trump, but wasn't mensch enough to admit it. Morality? That's just column fodder!
It's odd that Republicans immediately got lockstep to push for a one-term Obama Presidency, but cannot see the imminent decline Trump presents.
8
David Brooks' piece on how taking the high-road in life pays off gets to the real heart of what we need more of today in the West. It is precisely at the junction of the Republican protectionist and sycophantic behavior and the sick feeling they must have gotten by not speaking out that offers the opportunity for meaningful change. The problem with Trump is that he does not feel angst at the junction of the truth and his lies and thus he has no chance for growth. I'm not holding my breath but I have faith in humanity and Republican are human.
3
Today, I'll let others observe that Republican Congressmen crossed their Rubicon a long time ago -- or, more precisely, their River Styx to Hades.
Rather, I want to note your observation: "He’s turned his life into a marketing strategy." In this respect, Trump is just the apotheosis of an era in which millions of us have been told to focus first and foremost on "personal branding."
Trump is where that can lead.
4
Wow. I have always loved reading Brooks's writing, but this is especially thoughtful, wise, and beautiful. It's a simple observation in some ways, but it hits hard, right between your eyes. Whether you're a politician in the upper tiers or a regular person like me, it's probably all too easy to become anesthetized, numb, detached. I hope the current political climate in the U.S. -- Trump AND many Republicans -- doesn't take our North American humanity down that path. Maybe this rampant immorality will ultimately turn into a wakeup call for all of us in both the U.S. and Canada. Thank you again to David Brooks for another superb column.
2
My belief that when you vote for someone, you are handing them your power. I did not vote for either 2016 front running candiates because I thought either one was not worthy of the Presidency. Some say failing to vote Democrat helped to get where we are today, but as someone who's a registered Republican, I can sleep at night knowing I did not assist the sheep that follow DJT, nor put another "better than thou" politician in our most important office. I don't make friends or good business partners by calling them names and threatening them - perhaps our search for easy meaning of life is found by many on TV and in the movies.
2
@Malcolm Lenson: Like her or not, nobody else ever studied harder for the presidency than Hillary Clinton. She did not consider the job a trivial exercise of bluster.
I think David Brooks needs to look a bit closer to home and ask himself how he continued to support a party that turned off their moral circuits well before Donald Trump. This was nowhere more obvious than in the healthcare debate. Did David not see that Republican promises of having "better" plans were empty? Did he not notice that their proposals - such as allowing insurers to avoid regulations imposed by a state simply by operating from another state - which would have the effect of allowing insurers to expand the practice of cherry picking and offering policies to attract healthy people as opposed to sick ones - were amoral? Did he not understand that their whole idea of making healthcare affordable was to allow healthy people to get out of insuring sick ones? Did he not realize that their ideas for having "high risk" pools did not explain how the healthcare costs of those in them would be covered? Did he not question the morality of those who encouraged young people to opt out of buying health insurance?
Donald Trump embraced the Republican party precisely because he understood that they were making empty promises and were really all about allowing the wealthy to keep more of their own money, and this dovetailed nicely with his own goals. Republicans support Trump because he is able to sell their agenda like no one else.
9
This is an aside, and possibly not that illuminating, about Cohen and Trump, but I do think that many people have done extremely bad things for money. The mind can play tricks on itself and people will believe what they are doing is the norm, or for their family; it can happen in various ways in different fields.
It is complicated, being a human, and Trump, and to a lesser extent Cohen, are grotesque caricatures of human greed and dishonesty. What we are seeing is a moral tale of good and evil and it a reminder that we are all imperfect and a mix of traits. This is true of our politicians on both sides of that aisle. Partisanship in our politics ought to break down now, as people wrestle with their own demons.
2
“He’s turned his life into a marketing strategy.”
What better man to lead a party that has turned governing into nothing but a marketing strategy.
8
"This is gang warfare. We have to do everything we can to defend our team. The other team leaves us no choice. "
The problem here is precisely that it is perceived as gang warfare and no longer the struggle to make the country a better place. Dems may be as guilty as Reps, but we have to keep reminding ourselves that we are supposed to be on the SAME team.
DJT is a different case altogether, as Mr. Brooks pointed out. He is for his own team and cares not a whit for DEMs REPs or Americans - only Trumps.
5
@Grumpy-Old-Man: The US public is so simpleminded that it divides over whether it wants government or not.
Regarding Cohen's change of heart, we are not altruistic beings. Change usually occurs when situations are intolerable and unavoidable, when our backs are against the wall. Michael Cohen has lost everything. It is impossible for him to not see his mistakes and soberly contemplate them. Change takes time. And redemption will take a lifetime. It is impossible to predict what the verdict will be for Cohen but redemption is always possible.
4
@Jeffrey Rogers: People are complicated. Some will smother grenades with their own bodies to save their compatriots. Cohen would have taken a bullet for Trump before he felt himself betrayed.
The party of "law and order" and "personal responsibility" produced a presidential candidate who demonstrates neither. Every "principle" the GOP has stood for (except for heritage Foundation judges and unpaid for tax cuts for the rich) has been tossed aside to cover for this president.
Surely, you cannot attribute this phenomenon to two men (Trump and Cohen) not receiving enough love. Has 80% of the Republican Party NOT received enough love to inoculate them from the sway this president holds over them? Are 80% of Republicans, " lonely people who also live under the illusion that you can win love and respect with bling and buzz?" Did the entire Republican caucus not receive enough love, either?
This trend on the right began in the 1980's; the decade of "Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous", Trumps' ascension in the tabloid press, and Reagans' scaremongering about "welfare queens" taking "your" (read white America) money. Republicans have have used race baiting and the fantasy of "becoming rich like us" for decades as they dismantled social safety nets and shunted money up to the wealthiest of America.
Trump and Cohen did not spring forth fully formed out of the mind of Zeus, The GOP has carefully prepared fertile soil to cultivate these men. You reap what you sow.
23
David Brooks, I don’t think you read these comments, but if you do, here is a plea: many Americans have been seduced by the glitz, glamour, and apparent easy life of “stardom.” For proof, I offer the existence of People magazine and others like it, the endless “homes of the stars” features found everywhere (including in the NYT), etc, etc., and so on. You know what I mean. Trump is taking advantage of that impulse to ally with fame and wealth to seduce Americans, the 60% of us who are not, as you say, repulsed by his behavior.
He seduced the Republican Party, and broke it, with his willingness to sign off on their most appalling legislation--against women’s right to security and privacy, against alliances, against environmental common sense. But make no mistake--the members of the dregs of a formerly great party seen in action on Wednesday, individually, do want to sit on that golden throne.
Hang in there, David Brooks. We will need your words of warning when, as is sure to happen, Trump is dethroned and the other party is in power long enough to become as corrupt as the Republicans have become. There is always, always, a need for middle ground, for putting the country (and planet) first, and luxury for self second.
6
I’m surprised anyone feels obliged, or qualified, to comment on whether Cohen has changed. He’s not asking for leniency, or for sympathy. This is an investigation, not a trial. The only question before us is this: Should we, as part of the investigation, question him? In other words, can we learn things from him that might help us get to the bottom of what Trump knew and when? I think there’s no question. Sure, take what he says with a grain of salt, but question him. Brooks in this piece is off in some weird cosmic trip.
4
Weighing in on pathology, motivations & morality of the entire Congressional committee & Cohen makes for an endlessly entertaining parlor game, let us not fail to note the unmistakable meaning presented by the mis en scene of this show:
Blue trunks have taken over majority control; Red trunks know it and are on the ropes. R's are not adapting well to this new role. Cut and bleeding, the desperate moves exhibited in this hearing reveal the frighteningly childish nature of a mob in retreat, looking back and throwing whatever is at hand at the invading forces.
The R's need a stage manager. Anticipating the weight of Cohen's testimony, they rolled out a ludicrous, amateurish attempt to discredit him. Billboards with schoolyard chants, Ms. Patton's silent cameo appearance, Jordan and Meadows' histrionics - it was a spectacle unworthy of a Congressional hearing, more appropriate for a second rate circus. Next to them, most of the D's looked thoughtful, focused and well-prepared. Tlaib voiced what any rational person would observe - Meadows put a paid character witness for Trump on the auction block, clearly humiliating to her as well as an insult to the intelligence of the national audience. Who could possibly be buying this cheap act?
Morality aside, true colors will out. In defeat, R's cannot be gracious, nor appear to be balanced. They would do well to observe Michael Cohen's drawn out "come to Jesus" moment. His contrition, real or not, is a role they might aspire to.
4
@Quite Contrary: Jews believe that Jesus was human, not divine. Contrition may have motivated him too.
There are two camps here - one lives by the motto "the ends justifies the means" ; the other asks "at what cost?" The Republicans seem to be overwhelmingly in the first camp with some struggling their way to the second. As I am firmly planted in the second camp, I am horrified by how many are willing to sacrifice decency, morality, civility, etc. to achieve their goals (lower taxes for the 1%, overturning Roe v. Wade, dismantling the ACA, or just plain holding on to power). At what cost indeed.
9
I can no longer reconcile the actions of our country's leaders with the virtues we pretend our nation represents.
I can't help but feel as if the moral justification for the United States is corrupt beyond repair. As a child in school, I was sold a story about my country: the place where all peoples are welcome to make a better life for themselves, built upon individual rights, and held together by a trust that right makes might.
What story are children learning now, as they look to those in power? Not mere self-interested greed, but complicity in moral decrepitude and disrespect for the rule of law so fundamentally opposed to our country's story of itself.
12
Brooks is so awesome that he can read another person's soul based on a televised congressional hearing. How else to explain this observation?
"There is none of the purgation of self and transformation of spirit that happens among people who have truly been altered. He’s just switched teams and concluded that the Democrats can now give him what he wants, so he says what appeals to them. That may be progress, but it is not moral renewal."
He may be right. But how can he possibly know? At least qualify your assertions by indicating that you're speculating.
3
@RichPFromDC Brooks is part of the kvetching, chattering class of the media that is as much a part of the American Disaster as our corrupt government, financier and institutional classes. Don't you know they're near-clairvoyant in their purist judgmentalist commentator ricebowls? Commentary sells to a gullible and comatose audience addicted to sensationalizing and stimulus in general.
@RichPFromDC: If Cohen had the choice, he'd probably prefer going to a monastery than to a jail.
It seems at reading the comments here, and the article, that there is no knowledge of how corruption works . Where is the symbolic sense of the principles of corruption passed the opiniated invocation of morality ? What are these ideas of Truth and Lies ?
They are mystical concepts .They come from the puritan protestant ideology of faith .They are presented as irremovable blocks and at the same time , the justice system will reduce penalty according to the quantity of truth ( or rather lies ) that will eventually be revealed .The merchandising of truth or lies .
@JPH: Religion promises justice at the Pearly Gates if people are patient enough to wait for it until then.
David says strongly in this column that Michael Cohen has not changed - he does not show the 'purgation of self and transformation of spirit' that would evidence real change.
That is not true. To me, Michael Cohen showed with every breath the pain he has gone through, the abhorrence he feels for his own behavior, the revulsion he feels about his own actions.
I had not read any of David's columns since summer, because he seemed always to be mild and in the middle, not picking up threads and putting forth strong truth.
Now he puts forth a strong statement that is totally the opposite of we all saw as we watched the hearing. Michael Cohen is not through the crucible as yet, but the transformation of spirit is clearly well under way.
3
@Patricia
I suppose we all project our own personas and issues onto any dramatic performance. For me, watching Cohen under the 3rd degree was reminiscent of watching Kavanaugh under questioning. My conclusion is I'd much rather have a beer with Cohen.
While you could see the wheels of calculated self-interest turning mightily in both cases, Cohen seemed to be admitting inconvenient truths in every instance where he could (no, I won't commit to not writing a book; yes, sometimes Trump acted correctly), whereas Kavanaugh's mental process was primarily involved with clawing his way up onto a pedestal from which disturbing and disqualifying conclusions could not topple him. I was fairly convinced that Cohen was testfying truthfully, whereas Kavanaugh's demeanor, body language, tears and unconvincing words did not pass my subjective human smell test. Cohen did not attempt to disguise his reactions to the more idiotic lines of questioning, but he remained calm. Kavanaugh just displayed arrogance at legitimate concerns and disrespected questioners. But, hey, that's just me.
Neither one of them is worthy of a Nobel prize, nor even an Oscar. But if justice were operant, their stations in life, at least for the next few years, might be a lot closer together. And I can think of a worthy cell mate for either one. (Just my fantasy; like Mr. Brooks & his dreamy worldview, I like to imagine a better universe than the one in which we currently snort and paw the ground.)
3
@Patricia: Things could be much worse than doing the time in a club fed for white collar convicts where one is unlikely to die from having one's head pulped by a sock with a padlock in it.
David Brooks has absolutely zero credibility pontificating about anything moral related to his own party. Even as he's distanced himself from the Republican Party as it is now, he has the stain of his complicity with it for decades. Does he really think we will forget that his party was a party of racial division, of "war on drugs" and "states' rights" as anything less than a somewhat more oblique strategy than the one Trump has used all along? Does he really think we will not recognize that David Brooks' chosen party is the one that gave Trump the playbook, the platform, and the voters, like himself, that championed conservatism and the dumbing down of the American electorate to provide succor to the rich? The party of David Brooks, the Republican Party as it has been for maybe a century, but certainly since Barry Goldwater, has been the part of fear, the party of what there is to be AGAINST, rather than what there is to stand FOR. Republicans mostly don't for a candidate, they vote against a democrat, whom they view as supporting what they see as other than themselves (gay, brown, poor, well-educated, or tolerant in other ways). Mr. Brooks, I ask you, show your transformation, before expecting one from Michael Cohen. Show your feelings of guilt and remorse for supporting the party whose strategies landed us exactly where we (you) are. Then, maybe I will listen. I believe in second chances. Earn yours.
19
@Michaeljk: David Brooks, the son of an English teacher, has participated in the bowdlerization of the word s"conservative" and "liberal". Conservatives conserve, liberals liberate, and the two are not necessarily at odds.
1
@Michaeljk Amen. David Brooks preaches from a glass house.
There's what's in Michael Cohen's soul and there is what was revealed in those signed checks.
Like he said, I don't need to focus on his motives, his history, his credibility or what's in his heart; he delivered up some documents, and I can see what they say.
If truth is what would make justice-seeking folk pleased ?, so be it.
It's still the truth.
3
"Did you, at your crucial moment, side with generosity or greed?"
The Republicans have had thousands of those crucial moments have have consistently come down on the side of greed. It is their emblem, their creed, their brand.
6
If one loves liars and their lying scheming this is the perfect administration. If one likes traitors, whiners, and bloviators they're all present in this Congress and Administration. Forget about ethics, morality, integrity or interest in serving the people. We, the people do not exist for the likes of the GOP or the Trump administration. As far as people like the Koch Brothers, the Adelsons, the Mercers, and the rest we are worms to be stepped on. We have the worst sort of royalty running things. They have no sense of noblesse oblige or humanity.
Forget about Michael Cohen. He's not a Trump, a Pence, a McConnell, or a turncoat. He's a mortal who was blinded by his good luck in working for a glitzy con artist. We need to worry about what's going to happen to us, the citizens who are not at the top of the economic pyramid. The more we fight with each other the less we can concentrate on bringing Trump and his band of selfish babies to heel.
16
"That is the passage that confronts us as we decide to defend or condemn Trump"
There can be no defense of Trump. His behaviors and words have spoken more loudly for his venality and evil than any commentary one can add at this point.
The real question, as you say here, is how others respond. It is notable that no single Republican bothered to defend Trump. His actions have rendered him indefensible. There can be no justification for him.
However, neither can there be any justification for the Republicans' continued sojourn in his orbit. They could never have seen in him a worthy leader. The fact that they didn't even bother to address any of the substantive issues raised by Cohen tells us all that they understand that they can't defend him. It also tells us that they understand that they can't defend their holding on to him.
They chose to make a deal with the Devil. They rode that for 2 years and got (essentially) nowhere (save, maybe, a tax cut for the wealthy).
Now, they have to pay for their bargain. And the Devil doesn't take IOUs.
5
Trump has brought Warren Buffett's investment maxim to politics: when the moral tide goes out, we can see who isn't wearing a bathing suit.
The Steinbeck is great, but pols like Jim Jordan are just too small for such powerful prose. They are pissants, nothing more.
8
9 out of 10 Republicans approve of Trump. The party that has branded itself with “law and order” and the home for religious folks had embraced this. We can worry about the moral failings of Trump, Cohen, et al. But the much, much, much bigger problem is the moral failings of the vast majority of Republicans who should know better.
17
I believe that Cohen basically told the truth in his testimony on Wednesday, but I don’t believe that he is a changed man. ---Says Mr. Brooks. How can he be so sure? Those are his thoughts. He denies a person the ability to repent and redeem--a basic tenet of all religions. IT IS POSSIBLE. We must give Mr. Cohen the benefit of the doubt and not try to "outguess" his feelings. He is already paying for what he did and cynicism about what is inside of him is an answer to please Brook's own intellect--but NOT necessarily a certitude about Cohen', whose inner feelings are his own right and prerogative to keep and express. What is real is that he spoke and his testimony will change the course of this political moment. And he is going to jail!
6
All of the people in this drama (and many "successful" people in society) have differing amounts of narcissism and sociopathy, Trump extreme in both. Anyway, why talk about "moralism" in people who don't have a conscience, (unless they can help us all or be otherwise be rehabilitated).
4
How does Brooks explain popular support for a political party that blindly follows the immorality of its nominal leader? The crisis of conscience has as much to do with venality in the service of one's own self-interest as it does with the morality of lying and illegality. It's the marriage of venality and politics - the appeal to narrow self-interest instead of the polity, or to race and gender biases, or to the subversion of democracy in the interest of maintaining hegemonic control - that is the real crisis of conscience.
7
We should remember "East of Eden" was a well written failure. Steinbeck basically flopped the arch-plot in the most dramatic fashion. The topic is not open to debate. However, the book is instructive in what not to do even when you do everything well.
Trump is something of a contradiction to this lesson. The Trump family is an example of what not to do especially because they do it poorly. We don't need to examine the morality of the question. If Brooks can convince a few readers to question their own morality, good for him. However the Trump family is not worth considering when considering moral redemption. They are a failure stacked upon failures despite their success.
2
"Supporting Trump requires daily acts of moral distancing, a process that means that after a few months you are tolerant of any corruption. "
That pretty much sums up the Republican Party and there is no going back.
5
Trump differs from other contemporary Republican politicians, not in kind but, only in degree. Mr Brooks, having more-or-less condoned the hardball power tactics of this Republican party, now bemoans the extremes to which they have gone to see their legislative agenda enacted. Well, more thoughtful people could see where the Party was headed long ago: "in for a dime, in for a dollar".
5
"This is how moral corrosion happens. Supporting Trump requires daily acts of moral distancing, a process that means that after a few months you are tolerant of any corruption."
I'm worried that high-information voters are in danger of succumbing to the same slow-drip process, a systematic desensitization that leads not to freedom from phobia but to a complete cessation of moral repugnance brought on by over-exposure to all things Trump.
4
The scary thing is that Trump represents the age. We have followed the dictates of trickle downs economics, Milton Friedman economic morality, Ayn Rand objectivism and shareholder interests for 40 years or so with only minor deviations. And Trump is the end result.
He is us. We are less happy and still turn our backs on each other in pursuit of material gain.
We deserve Donald Trump. And we will deserve what results from his reign.
3
This is the path charted by Newt Gingrich and the Congressional Republicans in the 1990s. Moderate Republicans, voices of reason, were run out of office. Loyalty to the party became the litmus test for survival. So is it any wonder now that all the Republicans on the Cohen committee lined up behind Trump and attacked Cohen. They know to do otherwise is likely the end of their political careers as Republicans.
6
“That is the passage that confronts us as we decide to defend or condemn Trump. The moral drama is the central drama. Did you, at your crucial moment, side with generosity or greed?”
How can a man afford to be generous unless his greed caused him to peruse and earn plenty? Without plenty, with what can a man be generous?
The author ought to consider logic before writing circumspect, obfuscated hit pieces against a President who is doing a fine job.
1
Power. Kindness. Integrity. Time. Words. Perspectives. Help. A listening ear.
1
I rarely agree with Brooks, but I am glad for this elequent column, and agree with almost everything he says. I would not venture to say that Cohen is or is not a changed man - change of this type is rare (but not impossible - look at John Dean),his subsequent actions will tell.
More to the point, Brooks is right that those like Trump, who have a hole where their soul should be and who try to fill it with ego and money, attract "other lonely people who also live under the illusion that you can win love and respect [or power] with bling and buzz." This description may describe many of his most voracious supporters, as well as those in Congress who continue to compromise their long-asserted beliefs and to be willfully blind to the threat to our democracy that Trump represents.
11
I think Brooks might turn his morality microscope on himself. Quick to condemn Cohen for service to bad if not evil men and policy, what might he say about his own “service” to men like Bush II, whom he praised for his “moral clarity” in lying about going to war in Iraq? Or his decades-long devotion to the GOP, which was not all that different from the Trump party? Yes, Trump is even more reprehensible than former Republican leaders, but are his policies, if Trump can be said to have goals and policies other than self-promotion, much different? I have no idea if Cohen is a changed person. I believe, however, whether changed or not, he has stopped lying for Trump. That’s a step toward redemption.
16
You said (more eloquently than I could) exactly what I was thinking. Mr Brooks is clearly an impressive intellect, but one that has used his god-given talents to, at times, justify the immorality that the GOP has come to represent. The "race to the bottom" that has intensified of late, is sadly no more than a reflection of the electorate. An electorate than, in fairness, has been bamboozled for decades, nurtured on a steady diet of disingenuously propogated conspiracy theories and anti-intellectualism dressed up as "faith based education".
6
David you stated this about Donald Trump: "Do (the Republicans) think that having anesthetized their moral sense in this case they will simply turn it on again down the road?" The Republicans "anesthetized their moral sense" when they began embracing racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, and greed as a campaign strategy. It started with Nixon and the Southern Strategy, worsened considerably during President Obama's tenure in office, and when they decided to support Trump to claw back power, no matter that the man had no moral compass whatsoever, any semblance of morality was totally obliterated.
I agree with you about Cohen. Until it was made clear to him that he was going to be sacrificed on the alter of Donald Trump, he remained a loyal consigliere. Once he understood that Trump's loyalty was only to himself, he turned state's evidence. Is he contrite? There is a difference between contrition and being sorry you were caught in a web of your own making and are going to pay a very dear price for your crimes. He has lost everything for making the decision to attach himself to a morally bankrupt man in order to be a part of the orbit of the rich and famous. As a lawyer, he knew there was a chance he would be caught and what the consequences would be for the illegal things he did.
The Republicans have demonstrated in the House hearing that their political souls are in bondage to power and whatever or whoever it takes to keep it. They have no allegiance to this country.
18
@Diana
Yes. Only time will tell if Cohen is a changed man, and I’m not sure it really matters to anyone but him.
As to the rest of the lot of sycophants .... #VichyRepublicans
1
I just watched Michael Smerconish on CNN say that it's not fair to castigate Trump for making hush money payments to a porn star on the eve of the election because he didn't think he was going to win. Trump was trying to keep the sordid matter private to protect his "brand," his marriage and potential reality TV career--not to "dissuade voters in the 11th hour of the campaign."
Even if Smerconish is right--how did we get here? This isn't normal. How can so many self-proclaimed patriots defend--or at least fail to be troubled by--actions that may have prevented a free and fair election? The gaslight is blinding...
11
Trump supporters are only angry that Cohen stopped lying.
Morality doesn’t matter to them.
Everything Trump was easily ascertainable in 2016 before the election. There was a 40 year public history of amoral bad thug cheat’em behavior. With such a public record we don’t need a fixer like Cohen to lie one way or the other. Those white men, especially those evangelicals and those in Congress and the Senate, who didn’t want to acknowledge that Trump is an amoral racist lying thieving conman still don’t AND are NOT going to. These are the people who don’t want Trump’s tax returns to see the light of day as that would force them to more publicly acknowledge their own moral depravity. They are all veneer.
Branding is all about appearances and the Trump strong arm incompetent brand is well known. Trump’s comrades, the GOP, are being well served because they want an all white America with a lot of slaves, including white slaves, preferably not formally bound into slavery, but slaves by any other name. Trust fund baby Ivanka says Americans like to work...like she has a clue what a 50 year grind means...By increasing income inequality the GOP is well on the road to accomplishing their goal.
14
A grifter is “somebody who can influence anybody, anywhere, at anytime into doing whatever they choose with the sole intent of personal gains. This is Donald Trump, he can size you up in 5 minutes, knows how he is going to play or use you this is his MO. Cohen was a mark, a patsy someone who enjoyed all the perks of being around Trump as his fixer and got some kind of father thing back they both left the room smiling. Republicans got Trump and Trump well he’s got the Republican Party, Hannity, (don’t you see a little Cohen in Hannity) and Fox News they are all leaving the room smiling. Now onto the world stage where Trump has identified other grifters and pure evil thugs and like Cohen is in awe and a little frighten of them and everyone leaves with a smile on there faces. I have never been more frighten in my life than I am now over this con game
9
Trump believes that palling around with “strong” dictators will make him “strong”.
Trump thinks In obviously superlative terms; he wants to be most famous, richest, most powerful. He is trying to gild himself with reflected glory.
Cohen wants the world now to think that his downfall happened because of being intoxicated with being a fixer in Donald Trump's glitzy world. I say he was a drunk hooked on the elixir of a showy life going way way back-perhaps even earlier than jr. high school.
1
Both sides do it !!
That's the subliminal message in Brooks's comment: "...consistent integrity that people can trust, loyalty to something higher than your next appearance on Fox or MSNBC."
No examples of Democrats doing anything like what we have seen for 2+ years from Republicans.
10
How pitiful Mr Trump, loveless orphan, is. Now you might bring us to tears with tales of Cohen's sad beginnings. No? Then perhaps the tale of desperate parents having their babes torn from their arms and put in cages, guarded by US soldiers--? No? Trump has had 70 years to stop being monstrous. Our job now is to stop him.
9
What is really sad is that the Republicans are such cowards, afraid to do the right thing because they might lose their seats in a primary challenge fueled by Trump's base. Being in Congress must be too lucrative/cushy these days -- or these guys (and 99% are men) are losers who don't think they can get a real job on the outside.
9
So will you state to vote Democratic to remove him?
7
Read the book "Hitler's Willing Executioners" about everyday Germans condoning his heinous anti-Semitism and you'll realize the analogy with Trump supporters is remarkably similar. When people gain anonymity as part of a mob, it makes it easier for an autocrat to appeal to their worse instincts and rule without force.
10
We have allowed them to "normalize" the daily info drop of crude, rude, insulting and untruthful......When every day brings a new outrage, at some point, it ceases to touch your numb soul. It doesn't amuse or inform, or inspire, with it's somewhat desperate demands for attention.
That is a true disease we are living right now. Our souls are simply being emptied out by constant drubbing of the 24/7 tweet and "performance art" of this marginal old man.
Mr. Cohen is still young enough to refresh his soul.Mr. Trump bargained whatever soul he had away decades ago.
Those of us who simply cannot bear one more tweet or manufactured drama are already waking up to the depth of filth that we have allowed to become okay.
I suspect that the GOP has truly sold their souls away to a diminished old devil and will pay a long term price for their loss of honor and dignity. Descending to the moral equivalent of a bargain basement where you paw thru excuses and shove other shoppers around doesn't create the kind of bargains that one hopes for.
6
You know you are in the presence of a true narcissist if you feel like you aren't in the room as they speak to you.
I imagine that's how people feel when they are in Trump's presence.
6
I am sorry that David Brooks trivializes Michael Cohen's suffering as a selfish seeking of support from Democrat politicians. I believe Cohen's realizations allow him to seek peace for his own being - to deal with the sorrow that he has left his family to struggle with. He is not doing this for the Democrats or for a book deal. I imagine the opportunity he saw when he was naïve and his remorse is genuine.
6
Mr. Brooks - After all that’s happened since 1980, why are you a Republican?
10
The best description of this sad pathetic excuse for a human being I read in the Atlantic two years ago. Trump is unique in having achieved an existence unmolested by the rumblings of a soul.
6
The perversion of morality by the GOP was never as clear as it was on Weds. Jordan is an abomination of a person. So lacking in character that he actually comes off as a character of a character worthy of SNL. Regardless of his pathetic show, the GOP clearly showed the nation how little they care about fact or truth or honor. Despicable people, the lot of them.
12
Brooks, of course, is not unique in his moralizing. Here is a sampling of his apologia for Netanyahu (now indicted) even when there was totally credible reporting that crimes against humanity were perpetrated on the impoverished, displaced population of Gaza:" If I were a political novelist, I’d try to write a novel about Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel…Netanyahu is surpassingly brilliant..Netanyahu sees himself in world historical terms, and admires Theodor Herzl and Winston Churchill…Like Churchill, he is wisest when things are going wrong…". "The story would be part Shakespearean".."The story would be part “Citizen Kane.” {The Age of Bibi, NYT Jan 1, 2016].
His psychologizing on Cohen I feel were better directed at self-reflection.
4
I gave up trying to psychoanalyze Trump long ago.
It’s a blind alley to a dead end.
3
I think the question for you David Brooks is how you for years have morally justified your patrician "benevolent" conservatism and support for the republican party. For years this your republican party has acted in the sole interests of the wealthy, using consultant groups to manipulate the racist mob, creating phony wars in order to enrich the already rich at the deadly expense of people worldwide and the US soldiers - kids of the poor, winking at institutionalised sexism and racism, permitting the insurance class to bankrupt the masses through exploitation of the health care system, enabling destruction of public education and permitting crazy fundamentalist religions to operate and brainwash entire population sectors in exchange for their tacit support. You Mr. Brooks are awaiting your own mea culpa moment. You are not excused from guilt. It is people like you who have enabled the great robbery of the US by the republicans.
17
I wonder how Brooks knows that Cohen has just switched teams and has not undergone any real transformation given that Cohen has lost just about everything he has ever worked to attain. Tell us Mr. Brooks-what have we all missed?
3
The Dems bring in a convicted liar as their first and best witness to their dog-n-pony show, and Brooks acts like this the end of the Trump presidency.
I can’t wait until Trump wins by a much larger margin in ‘20 against the Democrat Socialist they nominate. The. I’ll laugh anew at the Never Trump “conservatives” like Brooks.
1
@Cjmesq0 At some point you're going to have to come to terms with the fact that the Trump you want(ed) is not the Trump you have...
1
It's interesting that Mr. Brooks thinks it is now time for all of us to resort to moral self-flagellation, and that we should feel bad for ourselves that the US voter elected Donald Trump. I thought that the past two years of daily diatribes by the New York Times and CNN was about how Donald Trump colluded with Russia and stole the election. Mr. Cohen showed that all of your greatest accusations were untrue and unfounded and proved that you wasted massive amounts of the American citizen's time and money. Now the NY Times is blasting stories about Mr. Kushner's security clearance. Stop obfuscating and recognize you were totally wrong.
How, after Brooks's descent coupled to the GOP's gradual moral atrophy under GWB and its insane reactionary obstruction to Obama, does anyone, and I mean anyone, take David Brooks seriously?
5
@Jordan: In some circles, holding mutually contradictory beliefs simultaneously is still the highest form of intellectual sophistication.
1
Donald Trump was an unattractive, spoiled, mean, dull rich boy who had to buy affection and loyalty and that's what he did. What he evolved into is a fraud, and he knows it.
4
And it infuriates him that, no matter how much fame and money he wins, he realizes he will never have the class of Barack Obama.
Here is what is going to ‘catch up’ to Rep. Jim Jordan from Ohio. The parents of Otto Warmbier are from Ohio. Every voter in Ohio will remember how Trump “flipped” on them when voting for Jordan’s re-election.
6
What this story proves is that in spite of the horrendous Holocaust, people have not learnned the lessons and many are still anti-semitic.
This should also be a lesson to those so called Progressives and neo socialists, jews included, who call for the BDS of Israel ( the only Jewish country in the world ) because it must defend itself against those who would annihilate it. - yet those so called Progressives “turn a blind eye” to countries like Iran, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen who perpetrate the worst atrocities in the World.
... And to those that say that if Israel would only withdraw from the West Bank and allow for a Palestinian State, it would finally usher in Peace ... they have not learned any lesson of the past - when Israel withdrew from Lebanon and Gaza - and now confronts Ten of Thousands of missiles poised to destroy it and the Jewish people.
But one thing is certain, Israel can now defend itself and will, if necessary - no matter what people think.
"Wednesday's testimony and the crisis of Conservative conscience." Fixed it for you, David.
3
Mr. Brooks please pull over because you are driving all over the place. You appear to be intoxicated by your past writings and support of Trump.
In writing about Cohen: "He’s just switched teams and concluded that the Democrats can now give him what he wants, so he says what appeals to them." you are assuming that Cohen is just paying lip service and not telling the truth as he knows it. Violation number 1.
In throwing Trump Jr. into the opinion, you are trying to assert your psychiatric credentials of which you have none. Violation number 2.
But your greatest violation was trying to wrap all this up in a tidy John Steinbeck quote. Violation number 3.
Sir, I am going to have to ask you for your license. Please step out of the vehicle.
6
Brooks writes "Normal people are repulsed when the president of their own nation lies, cheats, practices bigotry, allegedly pays off porn star mistresses."
But Trump's level of support is probably around 40%, and virtually every one of his supporters knows that the president lies, cheats, is a bigot and pays off mistresses. They say they *like* that about him.
So, I don't think that "normal" means what David Brooks thinks it means.
453
@PghMike4 Agreed that "normal" is not a useful term unless you're a statistician... ["normal: NOUN - the average or mean: e.g. Production may fall below normal."] Can mean too many things to too many people!
6
@PghMike4. As John Devlin says we have a common morality and to assume it is made up on decency, compassion, integrity, and higher goals for democracy and justice, is foolhardy. As witnessed in the 40% approval rating and the backing of most House Republicans.
22
@PghMike4
Our sense of what is normal has to do with what we have been educated to feel is normal, right, and good. If you grew up where corruption is normal, then that could be what you find normal. What we learned in school about the meaning of our country's values has not always corresponded with what we see around us, and we have adapted, individually, in whatever ways we can, by accepting some new standards of what is normal, based on our own experiences. For some people in our very diverse population, that means accepting hatred and corruption as normal. For most of the people I know, though, it means a great deal to be part of a country of good and just laws and guaranteed freedoms. No matter how hard it is to continually update the system, and refresh what it means to have that system, and make sure it works, we find it normal to take this responsibility. It's hard to accept that a different standard of normalcy exists for others. Normal is such a relative term. But basically, normal, for most of us, is what corresponds to decency, morality, ethics, health, right livelihood, in short, good relationship to ourselves, our inner quiet voices, and others. It's what we feel is good for our families. As a country, we have tried to establish good norms and values that we hold in common. These are often things we have to try to live up to, not what comes easiest or brings the most personal gain. Our president represents his own normal. Not our country's.
25
The Trump World is the antithesis of empathy.
Genuine people could feel sorry - in an empathic way - for the bullies and the bullied; but the bullied turned bullies are more about narcissism
Interesting (if a bit revolting) that even the outrages of Trump outlined by Cohen haven't changed Brooks' "both siderism"
5
@w wittman
He is still not ready to admit that over the last 20 years American Conservatism has rotten in front of our eyes, with no parallels on liberal side. Not even close. MSNBC is not Fox, period.
But with Brooks and many “centrists” it has become almost authomatic reaction.
2
in the realm of politics and good people vs. bad people, boring, take nap.
"You are what you pretend" Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
1
Vonnegut was wrong.
Trump believes himself to be wise, powerful, irresistible to women, and svelte.
It may be comforting to think that one cannot be moral in one sphere of life if one is immoral in another. That those men and women who debase themselves and completely abandon moral principles to defend the president, cannot possibly be moral people at home, with their friends, or with their children. Sadly, this is not the case. Human beings are very adept at compartmentalizing. There were many stories of Nazis who ordered or carried out mass killings in death camps who were perfectly decent husbands and fathers. This is what Hannah Arendt call the banality of evil in observing the trial of Adolph Eichmann. True sociopaths are, thankfully, uncommon. Those who follow them offthe moral cliff unfortunately are not.
4
trump, his rabid evangelical cult and it appears now more than ever is GOP enablers care not a whit about the moral judgments of brainy pundits or anyone else who walks the earth. In their demented worldview trump is the embodiment of a perverse prophecy lifted from the pages of their holy storybook. Sent by their god to do his work, which is primarily eliminating abortion, trump gets a pass on all other moral transgressions. And because he was sent by their god, they are also off the hook for supporting trump with all of his warts. Twisted, to say the least.
3
All this moralizing and philosophizing from Mr. Brooks, but still no admission that the Republican brand has become synonymous with moral bankruptcy and racist fanatics. At this point, the only words that will ever matter from him would be: I am now a Democrat.
1
Michael Cohen did what many of us hope people would do when they see the consequences of their actions. He was candid, frank, offered no excuses for his choices, and accepts the fate which awaits him and which imperils his life and the life of his family.
He did not defend himself or rebut the vile accusations and insults of the Republican members of the Committee, the Jordans, the Gomers, the Meadowses, et al.
He was just wise enough to point out that they were doing for trumpy what he had done for ten years. Those words should have made them sit up and take notice rather than continue to badger him.
Cohen is going to get his just desserts. I hope that the Jordans, Gomers, Meadowses, and their ilk get theirs as well for continuing to prop up the trumpy milieu.
2
I am reminded of the old story of the Cherokee grandfather, teaching his son:
https://urbanbalance.com/the-story-of-two-wolves/
2
David Brooks must be pretty upset if he’s quoting John Steinbeck, not someone conservatives have typically embraced.
What does that say about the times in which we find ourselves?
1
Trump called Michael Cohen a 'rat'-- which Elijah Cummings emphasized means marking him a 'snitch'-- a dangerous label. Why? In the world of tough guys--such as inmates-- Cohen has dishonored the underworld's ethics. Will Trump be held accountable if Cohen is murdered or mysteriously dies while in prison? Will Trump ever be held accountable for anything?
This is absolutely one of the best columns that Mr. Brooks has written in a while.
1
the most fun thing about trump as potus is that if a republican gets all high and mighty about gop family values, I can call him a hypocrite and laugh in his or her face
1
"If you behave in a way that betrays relationship and obliterates the truth and erases your own integrity, you will sooner or later wind up where Michael Cohen has wound up — having ruined your life."
Really, Mr Brooks? Where is Trump now? Has he ruined his life? Apparently, if you have enough Republicans (people from your own tribe) to back you up, you can be a moral cretin and all the other epithets you throw at him, and can still count on 50+ Republican senators to cover for you.
Trump is not the exception, he is the true manifestation of the Republican party ethos.
3
There was no more powerful moral message from Michael Cohen than his warning to those who persist in supporting Mr. Trump's fraud schemes, cons, bad behavior and transgressions.
Cohen warned - continue along that path and you too will end up in ruins like me.
On a different note, it says a lot when you believe (and are proven right to believe) the porn star and the mob fixer over the President of the USA.
3
So I'm supposed to believe Jim Jordan when he questions the credibility of Michael Cohen and, at the same time, accept as credible when Jim Jordan states he didn't know that the Ohio State wrestling team doctor was committing sexual abuse while Jordan was the assistant coach.
Jim Jordan is a liar. Mark Meadows, a member of Trump's birther team, lied when he said he doesn't have a racist bone in his body.
Both members of the Freedom Caucus. A group that believes conservative white people should be free. The rest of the population are on their own.
4
Yeah, right. None of what you wrote applies to the kind of irrationality that allows a person to think that it is actually moral to enable and even defend evil.
1
Meanwhile Trump's popularity is rising, rising sharply.
And who will judge our crucial moment?
Perhaps not David Brooks.
1
Yet another title with the word “morality” in it from dear Mr. Brooks. I wish he could step back a few paces and reckon where he has stood. I’d like to read that column.
1
I am thankful for David Brooks.
It's not hard to imagine that Trump was emotionally abused (and perhaps physically) by his father.
It was likely pretty bad as his brother basically drank himself to death. But for Trump, it turned him into a malignant narcissist and sadist. Trump loves tweaking the noses of his "betters." He doesn't hurt people out of callousness, but because it gives him deep, subconscious pleasure.
It is not a coincidence he attracts the Michael Cohen's and Roger Stone's and Paul Manafort's of the world to his orbit. Like him, they are hollow, loveless men who try to fill their emptiness with power, adulation and money but find the black hole where their heart should be is unfillable.
2
"Normal people have moral sentiments. Normal people are repulsed when the president of their own nation lies, cheats, practices bigotry, allegedly pays off porn star mistresses."
There is no "normal" anymore in this country. There is only what most people are doing and what they find acceptable. More and more people view the world through the warped lens of immorality, through the eyes of their admired leader.
1
Suddenly, Mr. Brooks, you have conveniently forgotten about you written record prior to 2016. We, however, have not.
1
I love your line that Republicans are unconcerned that their leader may be a “ moral cretin”.They would say that he may be a moral cretin but he is our moral cretin and we will support him at all costs.They seem not to realize that they are tainting their own moral standards -that they can never again expose virtuous goals and be believed.They have been corrupted just as surely as Michael Cohen has.
3
In recent years I have observed David Brooks as he assiduously tends his Garden of Sanctimony. He seems willing to occasionally trim his hedges, but is unlikely to remove them.
4
Many of us have been calling Mr. Trump a cretin for over 2 years now. It is heartening that David Brooks has finally nudged over and joined us.
1
The debris field left of everyone and everything trump touches is growing. Republicans still don't get it.....believe and follow trump at your own risk. He only leaves stooges in his wake.
2
Thank you, well put Mr. Brooks.
How is this a "crisis in American conscience"? A crisis for lying Republicans now faced with demand for honesty, maybe. Don't drag me and my reps into this. We're not behaving like sociopaths.
2
A three year prison sentence, along with a felony conviction (or several) does not “ruin one’s life”. I’m getting tired of hearing about the ‘tragedy’ of Mr. Cohen going to jail, when so many other citizens get much longer sentences for what I and many others consider offenses better treated with rehab and counseling. I can only conclude that the fact that Mr. Cohen is white, famous, and wealthy makes this such a ‘tragedy’.
Well, Brooks ought to know. He's no stranger to "gang warfare," or to ignoring elephants in rooms, or to shading the truth. Is he not the one who praised Paul Ryan for "the most comprehensive and most courageous budget reform proposal any of us have seen in our lifetimes" which "will set the standard of seriousness for anybody who wants to play in this discussion"? He is. Anybody waiting for him to take any personal responsibility for the ethics and honesty of the current Republican Party will wait in vain. How long did the moral corrosion take with HIM? How long till it take to develop his own hig corruption tolerance?
6
A known liar was interrogated by liars about a known liar.
Therein lies the problem.
297
@Frued
Oh please. There is no "one problem" to solve. It amazes me how many times I hear someone say or read something that starts with "The problem is....." as if that is the rosetta stone for unlocking it all. As if! This is a complex world full of complex people. Brooks has done a marvelous job here laying bare in moral terms the damage an addict - for that is what Trump is - does to all they touch through one shameful act after another. Eliot Cohen has written with similar braveness in The Atlantic.
24
@Frued
Your inability to understand that investigating organized crime involves testimony by flawed witnesses, although it was clearly explained by a Democratic congressman during the hearings, is the real problem. We convict mob bosses all the time on testimony from their subordinates who have committed horrendous crimes. Where do you think the witnesses will come from in a mob family which is precisely what the Trump organization is?
59
@Frued
I find it insulting to hear the warnings about lying to Congress when they lie with impunity. Rep Jordan finished the day lying about the commitee wasting it’s first hearing of the year on Michael Cohen. Cummings went on to correct the record noting that this was the 3rd or 4th hearing.
35
Morality, when it isn’t a complete irrelevance or impediment to ambition, as in the case of Trump’s lackeys, is in the eye of the beholder. Evangelicals see a higher moral path in preventing abortion. For politicians, morality is just another commodity that might need to be traded for something more important, like votes. For businessmen, morality is a cost their competitors avoid or a weakness to be exploited.
Racists and bigots are on their own moral high ground, if they consider morality at all. It’s the variability of right, wrong, autocracy, democracy, good, bad and the balance of personal vs. collective gain that leads to human conflict. Right now we are having our own German 1935 moment. Is this mostly good with a little bad or mostly bad with a little good. Personally I’m voting for all bad all the time.
2
I know that a lot of people are pointing to Marl Meadows of North Carolina as the example of someone who made an extraordinary fool of himself during the Cohen hearing, but my money is on Jim Jordan of Ohio as the guy who jumped the shark on embarrassing himself.
As I watched Jordan one thought kept rolling through my mind: now there's a guy who really, really could benefit from a rabies shot.
7
Mr. Brooks -
Thank you for this piece. Especially this sentence - "Trump, personifying the worst elements in our culture, is like a providentially sent gong meant to wake us up and direct us toward a better path."
This sentence addresses our American culture, and reminds us all to have the courage to be moral citizens. But, I feel that the Trump gong is also tolling for our constitutional system of government and its potential defects as it relates to dealing with an immoral and/or simply unprepared President, and a co-conspirating, cowered political party. It is a wake-up call that the potential fault lines exposed by the madness of the last few years can be a learning opportunity and that that those fault lines need to be addressed for the betterment of the U.S. and by extension, democracy around the world.
Who hears that gong and will they have the courage to pursue needed remedies? TBD.
2
This is the Republican congressmen and senators Thelma and Louise moment. Do they face the consequences of having supported a moral cretin by turning on their moral circuits or do they drive off the cliff. Paul Ryan decided not to face his personal bad choices and left town and Mitch McConnell has gone into hiding in his senatorial office. What will the rest of he Republicans do.
5
Are we speaking of the Republican Party in general? Or just the Freedom Caucus?
@Nancy Rathke
All Republicans, they have voted in lock step.
1
I've abandoned hope that the GOP legislators will do the right thing and impeach and remove Trump. Their vitriolic display against Cohen bared their total absence of conscience. I'm nearly as pessimistic about the prospects of an indictment, now that Trump has packed SCOTUS with Republican dominance. But I'd still take that route and hope that CJ Roberts votes with Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan, and Ginsberg to end this nightmare. We are a moral nation led by an immoral man. We can overcome.
3
The crowd you are in is you. Trump supporters don't even question ethical behavior, his or theirs. This can only equate to their own behavior being like Trump's. Obviously everyone's standards are different. And this like has been said, the bar has been lowered.
Luckily, I don't understand how someone can live a lie. Must be a miserable lifestyle, constricted and caged. Or your mind has some major kinks- illogical, the rationalization or just plain meanness.
Luckily I can't understand how someone like Trump and the outbursts from several Republicans can throw out such hate. The anger and rage within must make for a miserable life.
Overlooking Trump's behavior is a major ethical flaw for our country. I for the life of me cannot understand why Republicans or voters can stand by Trump. Brainwashed by Fox?
Cohen's desperate attempt to come clean is too little too late which means he lived his life because he could identify with it, an inability to question right or wrong and live with those decisions. Sad.
There is a quote that I like and was taught: "Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you."
Cohen must have finally understood this quote when referencing the Republicans that attacked him.
1
Yes, I get it... the moral outrage over the endless, obvious lies, cheating and transparent self-dealing. Yes, the behavior is despicable, even more so because he is the President of our country. Yet, it seems to me, that our current outrage is both convenient, because many partisans already so vehemently disagree with his policies so that these moral abuses serve to validate their vehement opposition (and in so doing allow them to feel virtuous) but also hypocritical since Trump's abuses are not original to the office even if they are two steps closer to criminal behavior. Democrats conveniently forget and even excuse the ethical lapses of the Clinton White House, perhaps the most recent administration to have its moral standing called into question. And many of those in Congress now standing in judgement have had their careers soiled by allegations of (almost) criminal self-dealing, bribes, banking scandals, lies and cheating (Senator Robert Menendez and Representative Maxine Waters). Yet, they have neither been impeached or removed from office. Indeed, their voters have returned them to Congress. And so, I disagree with Mr. Brooks. It seems that most voters do not have an ethical core. Rather most voters are transactional.
1
David,
The Republicans' lack of a moral compass is quite true, but it is a pity that you don't recognize that they long ago abandoned any conscience--and that goes for almost every Republican politician since the party trotted out Ronald Reagan. Your current article is also a pity: you couch the opening in "lofty talk" so that you can bury your point later. It would be good for your own moral transformation if you could write a thorough, honest mea culpa, because you spent years and years and years propping up the sanctimonious hypocrisy of Republic power-obsession. You, indeed, are culpable in the degradation that is Trump.
3
The phrase "His desperate attempts to be loved have made him unable to receive love." is a concise description of what Buddhists call denizens of the Hungry Ghost realm. The behavior of the Hungry Ghosts is predictable, self-destructive and sad. They are insatiable and thus never content. They try futilely to satisfy desires that cannot be fulfilled and thus are greedy, envious, jealous, and compulsive.
Mr. Brooks, you see the immorality of Donald Trump. You see the immorality of all but a handful of Republicans in Congress. You see that 90% of Republican voters still approve of Trump. So the question is, why are you still a Republican?
2
Our political pundits continue to focus on the ill-informed people who voted for Trump without noting the main source of their ignorance, partisan lies broadcast before the election by Fox News.
3
"Were [Americans] enthusiastic or morose as they decided to turn off their own moral circuits, when they decided to be monumentally unconcerned by the fact that their leader [was carpet bombing Cambodia / slaughtering Natives / interning Japanese citizens / redlining Detroit / enslaving Africans / et cetera ad infinitum]?"
Mr. Brooks' has decided to ignore the regularity of American callousness.
Greed, indeed, is the root of all evil. Be generous people, in all manners of life, and let’s see if we The People can remove the stain of Cohen and Trump from our national fabric!
From the unrelenting assault of Trump to the bad faith and punitive aim of seemingly every decision (a coal lobbyist being installed as EPA Chief, et al.) the GOP has drained the morality from their party. They exist only to cast anyone outside of their base as an existential enemy not just to be defeated, but eradicated. They have lost their minds and given their souls to hucksters and propagandists.
3
Is it an expression of internal morality - or even conscience - when the mob mechanic aims his silenced pistol and reassures his victim that it's "Nothing personal; just bidness"?
David,
Send this to every Congress person. They're the ones that need to hear it.
Most American citizen's already know this and are directly feeling the results of the moral decay of America.
Republicans and their donors are drunk on greed, wealth and power. They are driving the bus and we are the passengers
1
I will agree with Mr. Brooks: there is a day of reckoning. Personally. Nationally.
There are no excuses for inhuman behaviour and not learning to be human. We do that through ‘society’, civilization, truth and reconciliation. Not a trillion dollar military.
Margaret Thatcher and her band of ‘wet’ boys, Reagan, Mulroney et al went along with, “there is no society, there are only individuals”, letting loose the finance boys and ever thus!
There will be an accounting, ask Mother Nature right now,
Shameless!
"If you behave in a way that betrays relationship and obliterates the truth and erases your own integrity..."
Like we've done with our allies around the world.
1
Anyone who's ever argued with an adolescent knows the frustration that has confronted our country since January 20, 2017. An adolescent doesn't care about the logic or correctness or morality of what you're saying, they just want to antagonize and annoy to the point where you'll either give up or resort to other, less lofty, means of engagement.
Those who have decided Don the Con is the 'best president ever' have, I believe, no interest in anything legitimate in your argument. As long as they believe you're upset....that's a win.
Mr. Brooks appeal to the intellect of the nation is, I fear, not only falling on deaf ears but is being mocked by those who choose to follow a destructive, unlovable, narcissist.
1
"..the crisis of American conscience."?? There's no crisis of American conscience, David. There's clearly a crisis of conscience, but it's not American, it's Republican.
5
Republicans on the committee did not seem to understand that by attacking Cohen as a greedy, law-breaking liar they were also attacking Trump. What kind of "businessman" would keep a creature like Cohen as his personal lawyer for ten years?
2
I think "moral circuits" are like TV antennae. They can only tune into so much at once.
Republican "moral circuits" are tuned to ending legal abortion, which they consider the greatest mass murder in human history. Everything else is secondary. This is war an millions of lives are at stake.
Republican "moral circuits" are also tuned to protecting what Sara Palin has called, "real Americans." In other words, rich folk and white rural hunting Republicans. The rest of us are not "real Americans." We are all alien invaders, including any American Indians who don't vote Republican.
Republican "moral circuits" are also tuned to protecting what they see as the proper order of society. Money and white males rule, without regard to integrity, intelligence, preparedness, or other factors. Evil conspirators, including unions, independent women, and intelligent and well-prepared non-whites are to be repressed and kept in their place.
Republican "moral circuits" protect embedded interest groups. Christians should not have to deal with evolution or any type of science that may contradict their favorite translation of religious texts (the underlying ancient language is far more ambiguous and subject to interpretation and can easily be reconciled with modern science.) Wealthy folks should not have to stop destroying the planet. No climate change!
With all this to protect, The Republican Party must come before truth, country, humanity, planet, and God. Just ask 'em!
2
"..he has turned into a human shell..." David, there is no human in it at all! It is pure ego with no humanness in it! No body, no soul, just pure, unadulterated ego! He's peddling his brand of ego called the word TRUMP as the snake oil salesman that he (it) is!
1
You nailed it! It rally comes down to a most basic human choice.
To those GOP politicians who continue to be sycophantic followers of the current president: if you cannot learn from the excellent warning provided in the fall of Michael Cohen, heaven help you—but I suspect you’ve, as Mr. Brooks suggests, you have long since abandoned your morality.
3
I like your quote from "East of Eden", when I saw these members of congress desperately trying to make a name for themselves and wanting to be remembered for having done a great thing in defending Donald J Trump, I was reminded of a Shelley poem which I think is rather apt:
"I met a traveller from an antique land,
who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Cohen warned the respective congressmen as much.
I think the GOP proverbial “grilling” of Cohen, attacking him for his self interested life of deceit, was a perfect rehearsal for the imminent impeachment trial.
1
Mr. Brooks accurately points out that Mr. Cohen has not shown redemptive qualities because if he had, it wouldn't have taken him getting arrested to disclose the felonious acts of The President. The most telling comment by Mr. Cohen is that if you are a supplicant of the President, you will share my fate....
1
I think Congressman Cummings said it best of our president when he said,"... I know it’s got to be painful being called a rat [by the president]... And when you call somebody a rat, that’s one of the worst things you can call them because when they go to prison, that means a snitch..."
A rat is something you hear from a mob boss, not a president of the United States, and for the Republican members not to vilify the president's statement, in my opinion, suggests that these guys are acting more like soldiers for the don.
1
You're such a nice Trumpublican, David. But even tho you can condescendingly disapprove of Trump, you heartily endorse his policies. Chaotic foreign policy, stacking the courts with extreme right wing idealogues, tax cuts for billionaires that explode the deficit, and higher taxes for working people. Remember when republicans used to say they hate deficits? I do. Apparently only when there is a democratic president. Deregulation that really means let the corporations pollute as much as they want because profits are more important than people's health. Yours is the party of the white supremacists, hateful, evil people, and hypocritical evangelicals who vote for an immoral man to get what they want. And let's not forget the deplorable, an apt term for those who want trump to hurt the right people. And on and on, you and the other trumpublicans pretend to be upset by Trump, but you're all fully on board with the trumpublican program. Thank god for new Rep. Ocassio-Cortez, and the way she and others are exciting our youth vote...if she continues to motivate and helps the Dems turn out our most undependable voters , then trumpublicans wont win too many elections in the future. This isn't about Cohens credibility, and it's not anyone's place to judge his karma, or conscience. It's about the corruption and hatred and anger in the power seeking and control at all costs exhibited by McConnell, Jordan, and all the other destructive, hateful, ignorant people in your Trumpublican Party.
3
As I understand the story, Fred Trump had accumulated a lot of money by the time little Donald J. came along. From the start, little Donald J. was showered with more money than he could spend. It seems clear that both of them worshipped the golden calf. But poor little Donald J. was never told "No!" in clear and effective ways by those around him. Can you even imagine what that kind of money does to a little kid? He quickly learns that he can buy whatever he wants. And no one can say "No!" to him about anything that matters. So he's a spoiled brat.... with wrong values in every direction, and none of the usual protections reality provides most of us. Money gets him everything he wants..... and so he wants more of the one thing that works for him.
It's a very sad story. Fred destroyed his kid in the process of giving him everything the poor kid thought he wanted. And now he can't be satisfied.
It's an (im)morality tale.
1
Donald Trump could never break all of the norms if it wasn’t for republican complicity and capitulation. Are they trying to save their jobs, or their reputations? It is clear they don’t care about the country or the damage this administration is inflicting...so why do so many enable Trump?
My guess is that the republican machine has been funded by foreign nationals for years. They are all traitors who have traded our country for money and status. Michael Cohen is a criminal but elected republicans are traitors.
2
House Republicans are a corrupt, immoral lot, and they showed it to the nation in the open Cohen hearing. Like many on the extreme right, they have little sense of humor or self-awareness, and apparently can't see the IRONY in their excoriating Cohen for lying for Trump while they do, in effect, the same thing!
Jim Jordan is nutso, and am embarrassment to Ohio.
4
There is a world of difference between modern Republicans and those on the Watergate Committee in the early 1970s. Then, you could not tell which were Republicans and which were Democrats. Faced with evidence that Nixon's men had broken the law Republicans Senator Baker (R) said, "We will inquire into any fact, and follow every lead, unrestrained by any fear, no matter where that lead might ultimately take us." Today's Republican party lacks courage and integrity and respect for the role of the Congress when a mob boss is in the White House. Even if the Mueller report is damning these modern Republicans will condemn Mueller and the FBI, not Trump. What kind of lawmakers protect lawbreakers? Likely it is Fox News at the heart of it which spins everything against anything Democrats do, and has trained Republicans to care only about party, not country, and most certainly not truth. At least Cohen had a change of heart and came back from the dark side. Clearly, these Republicans won't.
4
Reps. Meadows and Jordan made it clear on Thursday at CPAC that Greed and Venality are at the top of their moral virtues as they solicited money with the tag line of protecting Trump from democrats intent on impeachmeent. My disgust knows no bounds.
3
As gay man, I have heard nothing but condemnation of me and my kind from the Christian Family Values Party for decades. Nothing but unrelenting hostility and bigotry.
To watch these same people defend over and over again a thrice married serial philanderer who wants to date his own daughter turns my stomach. Even worse is to watch Evangelicals say Trump was sent by God himself.
The real problem in this country is that we have placed religion on a pedestal and operate under the assumption that all religious people are morally superior.
Thanks to Republicans and their Evangelical allies, Christianity in America is morally bankrupt. There is no morality in American Christianity, just bigotry, greed, racism and hypocrisy.
9
I wouldn't waste too much time pondering the morality of Cohen, Trump, or his Republican defenders. These people put morality aside long ago when they chose to pursue power and wealth as a career. Look at Mitch McConnell - does anyone seriously think that morality has ever influenced his actions? But it's unrealistic to expect too much in the way of morality from politicians in general. We pay them to be pragmatists, and hope that they occasionally they will take actions that benefit society. Steinbeck had it right. Consider LBJ - he helped many through his courageous support for civil rights, and hurt many by exploding the war in Viet Nam.
6
One wonders about "morality." A very few of my friends support Trump. The WSJ mostly still supports Trump. Republican Congressmen speak up only for Trump. Some of them must be "moral" at some level. When will they have the guts to show it?
Cohen either lied before or still now. One must be true.
1
I disagree with you, Mr. Brooks. Your caustic observation that Mr. Cohen has changed sides for his own benefit is not what I saw. I saw a man dealing with his assessment of his own actions and from an ethical standpoint wants to change his life.
11
That is exactly what I saw. It is disturbing that Brooks cannot see this. What does he think the beginning of redemption looks like?
4
Oh how lofty, how full of truth, we are to judge.
I feel sorry for President Trump, for Mr. Cohen, and for all other human beings who are imperfect.
I do not have the ability to look into Mr. Trump's heart, or Mr. Cohen's heart, or your heart, and see what is there and what has changed. We can make up stories all day, and at the end of the day they will all still be stories.
That does NOT mean I accept Mr. Trump's (in particular) actions. I despise what he has done and what he continues to do, and I am glad that we finally have a partial check on his loathsome actions. Investigations and transparency are what we so desperately need -- and fair elections in 2020 -- so we can not only stop the loathsome actions but also assert to our nation and our world that (as Representative Cummings said) we are better than this.
4
Trump should have been rejected as a candidate by the GOP after he said John McCain was not a war hero because he was a POW. The Republicans have been saying they were the party of national defense, and the men and women who serve, as long as I can remember. According to the GOP branding memes it was the Democrats were to busy making peace signs to care about men and women in uniform. Now we know that was just a branding exercise to drive a wedge between the military and civilians. The current GOP supports a draft dodger for President and they were willing to look the other way after he said the US military in Iraq was the gang that couldn't shoot straight. I still wonder why military veterans voted for Trump. Are there vets on this comment board who can tell me?
7
I disagree with you Mr. Brooks. You imply that Michael Cohen has changed sides for his own benefit. I believe he IS a changed man and it has nothing to do with joining the Democrats. He is dealing with his own assessment of what he has done and wants to do in the future from an ethical standpoint.
6
@joyce....In some vernacular telling the truth is changing sides.
This story could easily have been written in the Summer of 2015, or 2005, or 1995, ...etc. The real moral story is how the GOP can continue to defend Trump on mere "process" rationalizations. There is nothing stopping anyone on the right from demanding that Trump resign and resign now. They have a perfectly good conservative waiting to take over and carry out their policies in Pence. So why don't Republican leaders grow a moral backbone? That's the question we should all be answering. We can't depend on the Dems to impeach Trump. The GOP needs to gain a moral compass or our country is doomed.
5
Sometimes you get it just right and this is one of those.
3
It annoys me that you would criticize Cohen for not being a changed man or a transformative spirit. Why? Because transformation takes time. It was what -- six months ago? -- he was arrested? What, you think he should have completely changed by now? Please. You have minimized the efforts he has made to become a better person, to no good end. If he emerges from prison three years from now the same, fine. But I think that prison will either break or transform him, and you, sir, need to have a little patience, and a little respect for people who make efforts to turn their lives around.
12
How dare these Republican politicians attack Cohen regarding the truth when they know for certain that President Trump never tells the truth? This should have been loudly shouted out by everyone! The answer is because they are lawyers (please see my earlier post). Let’s ammend the constitution baring lawyers from running for office. We The People need elected officials who will only defend the truth even when the truth is not in line with the wants, needs, or desires of: themselves, whoever gave them money, their party, the state or district they come from, or even We The People.
1
I am afraid that Trump is a symptom and not the cause. The sickness in our country gave the chance for Trump to rise and will last after his fall.
8
The challenge with republican voters today is that they like the fight and the drama and they are unconcerned about the grift, self dealing and crony handouts. As the Trump voter who has to pay higher taxes said, “He is hurting the wrong people”.
Trump voters elected Trump to damage norms and tear apart our society. They like his racism and accept his crimes as the price they pay to cheer at the show.
8
This column makes the same mistakes that House (and Senate) Republicans are committing.
The motivations behind Cohen's moral Renaissance may be venal or high-minded. It doesn't matter. Why? Because it sure looks like he's telling the truth. And the only people who are in a position to testify to facts with authority are those who were actually there. Enablers or co-conspirators.
The charitable view of moral corrosion is that it is too often an accidental sin...bad choices made while serving a perceived higher good. This is how (I suspect) Brooks rationalizes his own moral sins in making common cause with the pigs in charge of the Republican agenda over the last 25 years.
The first place to check for willful blindness is our own actions. It's the absence of that check that makes Brooks' morality columns so much less effective.
At least Brooks is right on his conclusions, and on the moral of the story. But personally, I take Cohen's conversion as more legitimate than Brooks'. Why? Because Cohen has freely admitted his complicity in the evils that led us to this place.
7
What we need to remember, if we survive this administration, is that sociopaths are often very good at fooling people. We need to fix our system, put in more checks since the legislative branch has surrendered their role.
I don’t think that sociopaths are so rare that we can remain casual about hoping that our system can survive.
4
I believe that David Brooks is correct that Donald Trump is the way he is because he is and has been searching for someone to love him. Like Trump many today are sadly in the same boat looking for love. Unfortunately, the need to feel good about oneself causes many of these people to hate others which is what we also see from Trump and his followers. They hate people of color, migrants, "liberals", LGBT folks and the list goes on. How we find love for these people is not easy but what the rest of us must all do is to NOT hate and to show love even for those we do not agree with. Only in this way can we get rid of the tribal behavior and get our country back to working on the real issues that face us.
4
The republicans sold out our country long ago. Hopefully, people will wake up.
6
Brooks, having spent his entire adult life as a loyal Republican, makes two major errors in this piece. Blinded by Party rhetoric and unwilling to see the reality of Republicanism, he believes his party’s politicians turned off their moral circuits when all evidence points to their never having had such circuits to begin with. Rep. Jordan, for instance, is credibly accused of covering for predatory pedophiles, yet there he sits, elected to the House by his fellow Republicans. As for his “looks good on a bumper sticker” claim that evil acts come back to bite you, were that so, why are there just as many evil people per capita as there were thousands of years ago? The sad fact is, Trump is the embodiment of Republican values and morals. He didn’t hijack the Party, he just made openly displaying immoral thoughts and behavior in public acceptable. If that truly makes Brooks uncomfortable, perhaps it is time for him to join the exodus from the Republican Party.
10
“Every time you assault and stereotype a person you’ve ripped the social fabric”
“Thugs for Trump”
Both David Brooks recently.
This is the hypocrisy of Mr Brooks. He is perfectly willing to throw stones when it suits him, and to claim to be above it when he doesn’t want to deal with his own less than perfect morality.
The thing is- sometimes you have rip out the bad ideas, to call out, as Mr Brooks does here, to weave a strong fabric of society. Mr Brooks is right to call out thugs, but every time he tries to shut down others for civility and society remember that ripping is his way too.
Integrity is not Mr Brooks strong suit.
4
Trump dances before dictators and despots because he loves the bully's challenge of just perhaps taking them down. What he is lacking in common sense he makes up for in a sort of unreasonable daring. Were this only happening in his personal life it would be no concern of ours. As it is Trump taunts other bullies without considering how his action might impact the nation of which he is leader and indeed much of the world. The man neither thinks nor ponders. In many ways this is just as serious as his lack of a moral compass.
1
I hear violins in your piece Mr. Brooks. It must be really hard for thinking Republicans to stomach where their party has ventured. While I disagree with you as I sense that Mr. Cohen has had a moral transformation, I believe that is really not the point. Cohen broke the law many times and is now a convicted felon and is going to jail. The rule of law has prevailed. Furthermore, unlike talking heads in the media, there is nothing in The Constitution that says a President cannot go to jail. In fact, after you impeach a President you can... "but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law." Punishment according to the law. That means jail time. Trump's campaign was morally bankrupt from the start. This is about the rule of law.
4
As my mother always said, “ Don’t worry, they will get their comeuppance”.
1
It is no surprise that the right's bastion of newfound virtue, David Brooks, says "I don’t believe that he is a changed man." After all, it is his ox (the GOP) being gored.
1
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire quotes
This phrase has been running thru my mind for months or maybe two years.
David, I thought you would of quoted this but then your whole party is about "absurdities" for decades and we are witnessing atrocities around the world.
2
Some humans come out warped.
Just like a defective widget in manufacturing process or weirdly shaped M&M.
All the other pieces at the factory undergo the same process, yet some are deformed.
I've heard interviews with Trump's childhood friends. They recall his poor behavior and wildness, disruptive at a young age.
His father sent him to military academy at age 15 because he couldn't stand his upsetting habits and inability to control himself in the home setting. Sent his son away. I've heard Trump refer to this banishment.
In military school, the same. Classmates testify that what we see now - too many odd, obnoxious traits to list - is exactly how they remember him then.
A warped widget.
I'm not too interested in this interesting psychoanalysis of Trump and his cabal.
His followers (a friend of mine included) cherish everything about him that I, and probably you, hate. The lying, cheating, tough talking blowhard who "lifted the stock market, cut regulations and taxes." (like the US economy began on Trump's inaugural day - with no account of the previous 8 years)
So, he's a hero to millions.
But, here's the thing.
He's a zero to even more millions.
And, additional millions view him with a mix of distain and curiosity.
The job in 2020 is allow this last group the comfort and confidence to support the Democrat who will rid us of Trump.
The independent, persuadable voter.
Forget purity and easy dogma.
Give that voter a path and we'll be free.
Free.
2
@Paul King
Good points. Trump was sent to a military academy because he assaulted a teacher at Kew Gardens where he attended school.
I heard it from a teacher who worked there,.\\\
He was born a sociopath and he will die a sociopath.
That is not a condition that can be fixed through therapy.
The problem here is , the Republicans have given him carte blanche to act out hsi revenge fantasies.
And it's taking the entire country down.
If you’re living in an economically depressed area, out of work, and desperate to survive, destroying the system or messing with it at least isn’t such a terrible idea. Why would you promote and support a system that has left you behind or does give a hoot about you. That’s why Venezuelans support leaders who advocate Robin Hood policies. Even if you’re in your late 40s and can’t even get an interview after years of following all the rules you’d find you don’t care as much about your countries respectability or well being. I know it sounds immature but if you’ve experienced what I described above you know what I’m talking about.
2
@BillBo...To what extent are desperate people responsible for their own condition? If you are easily fooled or duped, who is responsible?
1
I generally don't pay a lot of attention when David Brooks goes off into his moral reflections. So often they just boil down to we need more community and we need more religion without reflecting on the quality of either. But this one got me. I don't kid myself that Cohen will ever be clean. He may laud his family, but they don't strike me as a family worth lauding.
What I do find so awful and striking is how the Republicans have doubled down on circling the wagons around their filthy leader. The Democrats represent a range of sentiments in their attitudes toward this administration. Some are relying on Mueller; some want impeachment; some want to emphasize the next election. By comparison, there is barely a Republican who will not jump off a cliff for their Great Leader. Not a single one but Amash asked a question about Trump. They simply have already accepted his filth or pretend he is a normal person.
The guilt is much greater than Trump's alone. Much of it falls directly on Mitch McConnell and his decision to try to stop anything that President Obama wanted. Obama was a threat to the Republicans not because he was a wild eyed radical Black Panther but because he was a thoughtful man who believed he could work across the aisle. But across the aisle the Republicans had only one agenda: to stop and demonize him as an other. They used their racism and misogyny to win. That is their legacy. They are now at the bottom of the swamp with their wannabe dictator.
14
@Ceilidth
Great and moving comment.
2
At his sentencing, Mr. Cohen essentially said, "I made a mistake hitching my cart to this horse. I was wrong and my choice to back Trump has ruined my life."
Too bad he didn't pass on this advice to the Republican representatives who continue to excuse, justify, rationalize, or just plain ignore Trump's behavior.
3
It would be interesting to poll on how many of the Trump’s 40% would willingly want to “ live in his skin - be in his self ” . Or do they not really know what he is ?
Come on, David! Imagine Jack Kennedy's private doctors testifying to Congress in early 1963, or FDR's in early 1935, or George Washington's optometrist testifying regarding that "going blind in the service of my country" speech to former Continental Army officers.
The common thread: betrayal by an embittered, former confidante would put almost any person, including any US President, in a very bad light. This may be about generosity vs greed, but exactly whose generosity, and whose greed?
Today's public is generous to Washington, Kennedy, and Franklin Roosevelt. The public focus is on what they did as president -- absent deep, unproved, pseudo-psychiatric speculation about their personal motives.
My own party, today's Democrats, are as greedy for lost power as ever was any tin-horn dictator. That the 2016 election was an unforced-error loss gnaws at many Democrats who want to blame anyone but Hillary and themselves for the stupidity of the campaign and its result.
Even if Trump was brand-advertising, is that really very different from O'Rourke or Clinton? How do so many elected Democrats, like the Clintons, leave office extremely rich, having never worked in the private sector?
Lastly, please explain, in 300 words or less, how the insatiable ambition of one candidate is morally or ethically superior to the personal greed of another candidate.
Extra credit question: how do so many successful politicians manage both to achieve their ambitions and satisfy their greeds?
Fiscal Republicans forgive everything because Trump gave them tax breaks; religious Republicans forgive everything because he has stacked the Supreme Court with ultra-religious conservatives who would outlaw all abortions, even those nascent pregnancies in the first trimester. That is the "good" that surpasses all evil in their minds.
2
You can ignore, obfuscate, deny, and ignore the truth, but TRUTH is not the property of one “team.”
If the GOP does not grasp this, there WILL be a reckoning...at some point.
1
Republicans and Trump's base have lost whatever souls they might have had in order to get their people installed on the Supreme Court. They've succeeded. Their continued support of a man who also has no soul is disgusting and destructive to our country. There will be a price to pay for them, the country and the world.
Mr. Brooks,
This may have already been said but I am disheartened that you chose the word "may" as in "(Trump) may be a moral cretin." instead of "is" in the 9th paragraph. We are overwhelmed by direct and circumstantial evidence that one of reason can only conclude that Trump is a moral cretin. Let the 35-40% and elected sycophants deal in the imprecise qualified language of "alternate facts (instead of truth), misstated (instead of lied), I am not a scientist (instead deferring to overwhelming expert evidence, etc). I am so tired of people whose opinion I usually respect deferring to the "Emperor really is wearing a beautiful suit that can be seen only by the ideologically pure" type reasoning. Anyway paying attention has know for as long as Trump has been making news that he is a moral cretin. And it was a stretch bordering on absolute idiocy to hold out hope that he would some how change after assuming the office of the presidency.
Dear David,
Donald Trump is not the victim here as you suggest in your first line. He was obviously loved by his parents...a place so many of us begin. Through his privilege, he chose this blatant path of greed and selfishness. Too bad you chose to weave a whole opinion article around this falsenomer. I wonder why you continue to empathize first with the offender?
I do agree with you though, that the Republican party generally has lost its way by continuing the ruse that he is worthy of defense. Surely your skills could be better served by talking to your old cronies and their media who continue to deflect.
Trump does demonstrate the traits of someone who feels unvalidated and in constant need of a pat on the head. His obsessive resentment of Barack Obama stems, I suspect, from coming face to face with something he can't buy - traits of character, self-assurance and comfort in his own skin. Does it sting more because Obama is black and not from a life of privilege - the kind of life that "should" guarantee happiness? That's something we can't know.
1
I say Cohen is still in the process of changing. Let’s see what he’s doing 5 years from now. We know what tRump will be doing. More immorality!
"I would have loved to have been in the strategy session when the House Republicans decided to be incurious about Trump’s sins and crimes but to rip the skin off Cohen."
That has to be one of the best sentences I have ever read! A stingingly accurate description of their shameful behaviour at the hearing.
On hundreds of occasions since trump won the GOP primary, I have thought how interesting it would be to listen in on closed-doors discussions among Republicans. I simply can't believe the vast majority of GOP members of Congress are clueless to an extent that they don't think of trump as a dolt and a blight on their party, even if almost without exception they are staunch defenders of him in public.
It will be very interesting to see if and how they change their tune when trump is in the political rear view mirror, whether he is back in Hollywood, in Leavenworth or in a dacha on the Black Sea.
Finally, I wonder if the Democrats would behave differently if they found themselves saddled with such an awful, despicable, utterly incompetent leader. Not that my imagination is powerful enough to conjure up the image of them selecting someone so terrifyingly narcissistic and ignorant.
It seems that Mr. Cohen is not the only one who conflicted about his actions. You point out that, "I believe that Cohen basically told the truth in his testimony on Wednesday, but I don’t believe that he is a changed man."
Then state Mr. Cohen, "He’s just switched teams and concluded that the Democrats can now give him what he wants, so he says what appeals to them."
So you believe him but think his statements were only slanted to win the hearts of the Democrats?
I am confused by this seemingly conflicted set of viewpoints.
1
At 70 it is not difficult to look at Michael Cohen and understand the forces that shaped his life. Our cultures defined success and it wasn't the face in the mirror that defined winning and losing.
Although Cohen's words ring true in your country where it is the sizzle that matters and it really doesn't matter if it fine marbled aged beef or old shoe leather Michael Cohen has my sympathy.
It matters little if it was Cohen who wrote those words or someone who understood the target audience Michael Cohen said those words perfectly and let us know he understood them and their truth.
Donald Trump is America in 2019 and there are enough of us who understand that not only is Trump a tragic figure but he is a perfect representative of a country so involved in sizzle it has forgotten the joys and sorrows of real steak.
I remember Buckley, Goldwater, Nixon, Bush and Reagan. I was fortunate to experience their world and their reality. I don't hate conservatives I hate conservatism and the wealth of joys and sorrows it denies those who adopt the ideology.
1
The only thing Cohen is sorry about is that he got caught. Otherwise he would have blithely carried on his former bling-strewn path. For goodness sake, a lawyer such as the man in question has learned to be an seasoned and convincing actor. Trump supporters & apologists are so easily conned, obviously. Neither Cohen nor his apologists have changed.
Let’s look for redemption stories elsewhere, Mr. Brooks...perhaps after hollow shells such as Cohen are released from prison and have demonstrated a history of good works in excess of those imposed on them by the law.
In the meantime, supporters such as Brooks, stained as they are by their own collaborations with evil, might consider performing their own acts of penance. There is much to be done.
1
Thank you for overall a wonderful expression of the situation. However, you were needlessly judgmental about whether Cohen is a changed man. Many of his friends think he is. I suspect what you really meant was that we should all wish that indeed he is or becomes a changed man,
Cohen's implication of his Republican questioners as "you are doing what I did" in protecting Trump was breathtaking.
I don't know if Cohen is reformed or not, but I sure hope some members of the GOP dwell deeply on that statement.
David, what you say about Trump and the Republicans is largely true. But what you choose to ignore is the actions of several Democrats on the committee. They often brought up allegations that have been previously demonstrated to be 'false' in the hope that Cohen would fall into their trap and agree with him.
But no. Cohen did not reignite those false allegations. And by doing so, appeared in the media as telling the entire truth in every utterance.
David, you have fallen into Lanny Davis' trap, something that a skilled journalist should never. Interestingly, Davis' good friend and criminal defense attorney Dan Webb, has the skill-set of totally dominating reporters. For those in the dark, Davis has for years been in the good grace of the Clintons. He still is smarting at Hillary's 2016 loss.
I appreciate this David Brooks opinion piece. Whatever issue you may have with what he says, or how he says it, I believe it's crucial to raise the moral question. Clearly, there are enormous differences between facts and opinions. When the weight of the facts point unequivocally in the direction of immorality, for the well-being of our national culture - like a corporate culture - it's important to hew close to the facts - radical truth - and to have thoughtful disagreements to find the best path forward; ideas advocated by Ray Dalio in his Principles book as the best path forward to get at the most meritorious ideas.
Trump; Cohen and the entire administration represent the moral compass of America. They are us. As a society, collectively we have elected this administration and this congress, either by actively voting for them or neglecting our duty as citizens with apathy. We are the ones that need to change the moral compass of the people that lead us. Whether we are up to the challenge, only time time will tell. Meanwhile we sit and watch the circus without lifting a finger.
1
Aside from the debatable questions about Mr. Cohen's moral status, he is providing an invaluable service to the country by cooperating with the investigations and by testifying publicly. He may not be in the process of a true moral awakening but he has certainly taken concrete steps in that direction.
4
An interesting perspective, but so classically Brooks, with one telling omission.
Practically every column follows the same pattern - Brooks tees up the controversy in the framing of, ostensibly, an intellectual, a philosopher contemplating moral and ethical challenges.
But then he pivots and goes for the oh-so-clever slam dunk by then asserting that conservatism is the only logical and rational means to resolve the conundrum.
Except here ...
With Cohen this is all about PERSONAL moral deterioration. So too, the Congressional Republicans have PERSONALLY chosen to pick up the torch as "Thugs for Trump."
Sorry, David, but where is the pivot to conservatism, not as personal compass but as the savior ideology?
"The moral drama is the central drama. Did you, at your crucial moment, side with generosity or greed?"
How about this Mr. Brooks - why ask that, not of individuals, but conservatism itself? Could it be that Trump, Cohen, Congressional Republicans, et al. ... find themselves IN this moral dilemma BECAUSE of the nature of conservatism - at least the GOTP version of it?
Or might that present too harsh a challenge in personal moral growth?
6
David,
I really could care less about Cohen. The real story was how many of those grilling him put party and personal ambition over county.
You addressed that well on the comments on members turning of of their moral compass. This is the same behavior that we saw in the first half of the 20th Century in Europe in places like Italy, Germany, and in Russia. Also in Japan.
We all know where that took the world.
If they keep putting party and their own political power over Country then the provocative questions then becomes...
...When does Sedition move from being an act of tearing up The Constitution to an act of defending it?
5
"Getting arrested seems to have been a good education for Cohen. He now realizes that Trump will not provide him with the sustenance he needs. I believe that Cohen basically told the truth in his testimony on Wednesday, but I don’t believe that he is a changed man.
There is none of the purgation of self and transformation of spirit that happens among people who have truly been altered. He’s just switched teams and concluded that the Democrats can now give him what he wants, so he says what appeals to them. That may be progress, but it is not moral renewal."
As usual, Mr. Brooks, you equivocate when it comes to the Republican Party.
What evidence can we possibly have of Mr. Cohen's moral renewal at this stage, whatever moral renewal is? He passes the smell test for truth-telling, that's the important part.
You had to get this tiny smear in, in order to remain true to the party you've flakked for, for so many years.
3
Money Can’t Buy Me Love-The Beatles
2
Nobody present at the hearings more ably summed up America's slide into moral turpitude than Elijah Cummings.
Yes, the Republicans once more thoroughly embarrassed themselves. Yes, Michael Cohen presented an image of total corruption, both of the president and himself, that will doubtless be problematic for certain individuals going forward. Yes, the whole spectacle was a trip to the dark side, where lust for power and greed were the common denominators.
But, as Chairman Cummings began to speak, no-one could have imagined the power of the moments to come.
For long minutes he mesmerized, pleading with us all, that "we're better than this". His language, demeanor, sincerity, passion, love of country and belief that America can rise from this shameful pit was nothing less than inspirational. The many hours of rancor and ugliness simply faded away as this man showed America where greatness truly lies.
It was the first time I truly felt America has a chance of redemption since Trump came to office.
Thank you, Mr. Cummings, and thank God for you.
9
I am a clinical psychologist. I've been working in clinical settings for 31 years. Even though I don't think Mr. Brooks is a psychologist by training or education, I think his analysis has many very close to the mark suggestions. I also think it's in many ways superior to the analyses my own colleagues in the profession have put out in the past two or so years. Most of which, I'm sorry to say, has the unmistakable odor of hysteria.
1
While reading, and agreeing with Mr. Brooks’ column, I was struck by the anguishing feeling that what’s true of Trump supporters is possibly true for the President’s strongest haters, including myself.
In my daily routine of anger, dislike and nausea over this administration and the Trumpian sycophants both in and out of government, I frequently find myself wishing for ill health for the President and his supporters. This distresses me greatly: if I can seemingly so easily write people off, I am no different than those I revile.
What gives me solace is my love for my family, and the realization that I did not just do well in my 30 years as a teacher, I also did good. In addition, my ability to be touched by the sight of everyday acts of kindness gives me hope that, one day, when this current nightmare is over, I will be able to find the path back to love and acceptance of those with whom I strongly disagree.
6
There's no crisis of American conscience, there's a crisis of Republican conscience. People don't do anything because they know that as long as Republicans control the Senate nothing can be done. If Republicans ever decide to stand up for the rule of law rather than political expediency things will change quickly. But I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen. Mitch McConnell and his followers are every bit as corrupt as their master.
5
I can't believe that our national politics has sunk to such a level as this. This is schoolyard bullying done at the highest level and few seems to check their conscience to check where the truth lies. The truth hardly matters anymore, it is all about winning. Thanks David for delivering this message especially the final quote of my favorite author John Steinbeck.
3
Politicians have always struggled with moral issues regarding other politicians -- especially Republicans. The dilemma is often that their constituents support the involved politician, and they are caught in the middle. So true with Trump! Even though most people believe that Republicans distanced themselves from Nixon and Watergate, a very large number stayed with him for a long time, some until the bitter end. Republicans trashed Obama personally, even when he had one of the most ethical approaches to politics in recent memory. Republicans have also left morality and good sense behind when it comes to policies - failing to support the ACA, even though it was basically a Republican approach to improving health care, passing tax legislation that reduced rates on the rich while giving little to other Americans, complaining about the Federal debt and then increasing it by almost one trillion dollars a year, and so on. So the lack of moral and ethical fiber when it comes to elected politicians and public policy is nothing new for Republicans, or for politicians in general. We know that there are good politicians on both sides, and these are the people we need to support. Ultimately, it will come down to the electorate to decide on whom we elect to office and keep there that will determine the ethics and morality of our democratically elected leaders.
5
@ES: "Watch what we do, not what we say" is as honest as they get. One should watch what they do, listen to what they say, and note the discrepancies.
"Do they think that having anesthetized their moral sense in this case they (Republicans in Congress) will simply turn it on again down the road?"
Of course.
They'll turn it on when Democrats are the subject of inquiry. Because for Republicans at least, and some Democrats, it's not about morality. It's about power.
4
I believe Mr. Brooks is making progress. He is now correctly addressing the total abandonment of morality in the Republican party.
I hope his next step will be to explicitly endorse the election of Democrats in 2020. With that step he can separate himself from many of the Republican hacks that are still hanging on, i.e., Marc A. Thiessen (WaPo).
7
"Nonetheless, his kind of life has an allure for other lonely people who also live under the illusion that you can win love and respect with bling and buzz."
Yes. McMansion culture ascendant.
2
When one does not abide by moral imperatives, has no ethical boundaries, anything goes...as a result evil wins, with its manifestation as 'open hate" and character assassination.
That is what Cohen's testimony revealed, not only for Trump, but also for the Republican Congress people who questioned Cohen.
6
Living as an honest adult is a path and not a destination. I think Cohen is on a path to redemption and living as an honest person. Whether he continues on that path or this is just a convenient detour to try to reduce prison time, cannot be predicted at this point. I am not sure Mr. Cohen knows. I wish him good luck.
Regardless, there is really no rational reason to doubt his testimony before Congress. That every Republican is willing to dismiss it spells enormous problems for the future of the GOP.
11
@Old blue very well stated. thanks for this. I am glad if the entire GOP is destroyed though their support of El Presidente Don Juan Trump.
Thank you, Mr Brooks - your words and succinct insight regrading Trump - wondering Who Withheld Love from Trump's childhood - is exactly what I have wondered
Your words on how the Republican congress people behaved during Cohen's testimony in front of the House Over sight Committee - was acknowledging - out loud - what we all watched - being recorded for all time - of all to see -
I was so upset as I watched the Republicans cold-hearted - void of caring absolutely Nothing - during for their one chance to 'unearth' the TRUTH from Cohen - choose instead to band together like a pack of ravenous wild animals dressed in suits to defame Cohen - while fervently defending Trump -
Drove me to call - Ranking Member Mark Meadow's DC office leaving a voicemail message - as well as calling - Kentucky Rep Comey to speak with his Aide - both times I ask: Does the Congressman realized how he just totally embarrassed himself by throwing away his personal integrity - and in doing so threw away the American people in total allegiance as Trump's minion?
Michael Cohen truthfully said it - that the Republican Congress are behaving just as he - himself behaved for 10 years.
10
Michael Cohen is now telling the truth. I believe every word.
It all fits with what we already know about Trump, the Trump family and the Trump organization. As with a mob organization, we know a lot more than what we can prove in court, but we do KNOW it.
Cohen is a changed man, not because of some epiphany on the road to Damascus, but because he got caught and has had to face the fire. A Rabbi once told me however that it is not our place to judge the sincerity of others. But judgement about the sincerity or character of Michael Cohen is beside the point. Michael Cohen is not President of the United State. Trump is. It is Trump's character that is at issue.
12
This is a real take on Cohen; he has traded sides but still has a lot to process to become a changed man and I hope he makes it. The one thing that I feel was important in this saga was that someone publicly fought back. He did not take down his former boss but perhaps provided a new path. No one seems to question that Trump is Trump but the lingering question is that of morality. How long can you turn your back on it. We turn the other way as long as it serves our purpose. That is what Cohen did.
3
The only thing I disagree with, Mr. Brooks, is that, after watching Wednesday's hearing, I think Mr. Cohen is going through the process to becoming a changed man. He's not there yet, certainly. But on the other hand, the Torah's practice of attonement, as carried out during High Holy Days, seems to reflect that all of us need to change. We need to continue working at it. None of us has completed that journey. Mr. Cohen has become aware that he is not the Scapegoat, even if Republicans tried to heap sins upon him. He is in the wilderness, will be for a few years, but I think he is truly a different man than he was before.
6
Timshel. “Thous mayest” choose to do the right thing. The Republican Party can set itself up as the moral choice because, babies. But the reality of its moral bankruptcy is more and more apparent. If Jordan and Meadows are it’s best and brightest, the GOP will drown in its own morass.
7
Beautiful column, and very moving. This is such a difficult time to watch half our country give in to evil.
8
Is it really that Donald Trump wasn't loved, or is there something so fundamentally wrong with him that love itself could not have changed him?
There are many, many decent human beings walking this earth who have been neglected and abused but still manage to make something of themselves and contribute much to the world around them. And conversely there are others who have received love and thrown it away in their mad pursuits.
Before trying to rescue my mentally ill relatives I was of the opinion that love conquers all. Now I know you can sacrifice everything and turn yourself inside out to help others lovingly, truly lovingly, and change nothing.
I can almost have sympathy for those Republicans who have not given up on this man. Yes, the fact that they have lost their moral compasses is despicable, but having lost them for no good reason will leave them confused and adrift.
What I have learned is that the meaning of love conquers all is not that unflinching support and love can eradicate evil or turn someone around. It is that if we humans are to survive, if we are to conquer evil, we need to continue to love one another while recognizing that evil exists and not allowing ourselves to be dragged into it.
I am a Democrat, but I hope for the sake of this country that Republicans don't continue to let themselves be dragged down by this terrible human being.
9
When there are people in our country that decide to corrupt our voting system to install someone as corrupt as Trump for self serving reasons like eliminating Roe vs. Wade or to stick it to “liberal elites” or make immigrants our enemies then our country is on a failed path. That is how this abomination of a president came to power.... along with cheating/collusion and lying before our very eyes to reach his ultimate marketing goal... the “Trump Brand Presidency”. When we have a stolen presidency that has no intentions of being a good steward of our democratic values and stomps on settled law and our constitution...the idea of America can slip away. Mr. Cohen inspite of his past immoral deeds fixing Trump’s immoral deeds is the ironic hero here. I read his statement before the hearings and then tonight read his closing statement directed specifically at Trump...he said everything that I would have said! Trump never speaks for Americans... he speaks only for himself. Mr. Cohen... thank you for stating UNDER OATH what most of Americans know... this IS a great country and we don’t need a conman saving anything! Trump must go....he is so entirely corrupt and amoral. Mr. Cohen you redeemed yourself today and for that I thank you. It is said that the truth will set one free. Trump will never be free.
10
“Normal people are repulsed when the president of their own nation... allegedly pays off porn star mistresses.“
Why the “porn star” slur against women who use their bodies - legally - to support themselves? How does the fact that at least one mistress produced and acted in pornographic films have any relevance to the topic of Trump's venality?
Criticism is mentioning the person's career as it relates to the topic under discussion: Donald Trump's alleged criminality while holding the office of President of the United States. Malevolent intent is naming their unrelated career choices.
2
Great article Mr. Brooks, you have captured the essence of today's Republicans both those who serve in Congress and those who support tRump. The people that I have known for decades who continue to back and praise this "cretin" you richly wrote about, are mostly shells of who they once were. They have many of the signs evident in cults. Battles with the sanctimonious and obnoxious tRump supporter is important and patriotic . We know that these folks are captured in this and we owe it to them and ourselves to try to restore their perspective. The cost of not engaging is too costly. Like you Mr, Brooks, I would like to have been in that room prior to the Cohn testimony in which Republicans remind each other NOT to wander from shooting arrows at Cohn and ignore the tRump assault on the Presidency and the Constitution that burns all around them.
5
I think Cohen was coached, not changed.
He was coached not to speculate, or pile on, but stick strictly to the things that he was involved with. This added to his credibility.
I don't much care whether he is redeemed or not. I care that he was very credible and that at least some pro-trumpers had to have seen that as well, and reroute some of their own warped moral circuits.
4
It looks like father time or a few extra Big Macs may be the only things that can save this country.
4
I thought Mr Cohen did the most for his credibility with the good things he said about “Mr. Trump”.
It’s taken years, but finally I have something nice to say about DJ Trump: He does not beat his wife.
3
MrCohen is a hero. He learned from his past misdeeds and should have no jail time. The Republican supporters who I am concerned about are the Catholics and evangelicals who turn a blind eye when their candidates abuse of women come out . They need to repent and say publicly I don't support this evil man. Plus they need to speak out daily on doing right while in office for the good of the people. They are just sticking with the GOP for the tax breaks. They are also anti life by getting us into 1000 year wars ,siding with the NRA who supports continuing mass shootings by not creating more laws and stopping the sale of bullets to the public. The churches above have no morality if they keep supporting the evil GOP.
5
Well....more 2 bit psychology from David Brooks. The issue of how the kinds of men (yes men) like Trump rise to power to power and are beloved by many is over his head. For example, Hilter was loved follower and obeyed by many. Scholars with much deeper insight have tried to understand these human impulses. If the Ny times wishes to have someone share their insights in this regard perhaps they should reach out to those with more insight and knowledge about human nature than Mr.Brooks has to offer us.
5
Powerful, beautiful writing
1
Mr. Brooks observations regarding the morality of our current politics is on target. However, referring to Donald J. Trump as a "moral cretin" is a low blow to the people who struggle through life with intellectual disabilities because of delay in diagnosis and treatment of congenital hypothyroidism. A failure of public health systems is to blame for the plight of cretins - people who deserve our defense, care and compassion. Donald J. Trump's vile character is without excuse and demands our recognition and condemnation.
4
I disagree with Brooks here. Jim Jordan doesn't go to work and consciously "turn off" his morality. Jim Jordan doesn't go to church on Sundays and beg baby Jesus to forgive him for engaging in deceit and deflection to defend a pathological criminal egoist.
As crazy as this may sound, I think that the Jim Jordans of the world actually believe Cohen is now lying, actually believe Trump is being unfairly maligned, actually believe that Trump is the victim of a witch hunt--they actually believe that they are righteous actors defending their Savior against Satanic Democrats.
In the same way that religious fanatics elevate fantasy and miracle above rationality and common sense in order to vindicate their faith, so too does Jim Jordan vis a vis Trump. When Trump spews deceit, Jim Jordan literally hears truth. When Trump's enemies speak truths, Jim Jordan literally hears lies.
4
Great column. I expected a false equivalency or worse and you kept straight on point.
1
Brooks: Behind your ¨balanced¨front, you are simply an other Republican trying to discredit Cohen, not on merits, but on his person. Whatever you and Mr. Newman say, Cohen is contributing to reveal the real Trump. Someone that can disregard the Washington Address to ally with foreigners to destroy a fellow American. Wikileaks, Assange, Stone and their beneficiary are now more visible.
3
I wish David Brooks would have stated what entails an appropriate purgation of self and transformation of spirit. Maybe sackcloth and ashes and self-flagellation while repeating "mea culpa" over and over again? Seriously, what would satisfy Brooks?
Michael Cohen was a shady guy and a shady lawyer for a long, long time. That is not in doubt. But, compared to Trump or Manafort--people who are corrupt by nature and will never be remorseful about anything--Cohen was just weak and corruptible. I believe Cohen is truly sorry about the path he's taken in life, and not just because he got caught.
For a guy who is always yammering on about generosity of spirit and looking for the good in others, Brooks exhibits surprisingly little of that charity himself.
7
@CF You are TOTALLY correct. Brooks is arrogant and condescending in the extreme. Sniping at a heroic witness. His smugness nauseates me. I wish the NYTimes would trade him to FOX news for anyone else....
“I believe that Cohen basically told the truth in his testimony on Wednesday, but I don’t believe that he is a changed man.There is none of the purgation of self and transformation of spirit that happens among people who have truly been altered.”
Who is David Brooks to judge what is in a man’s heart? Nice try of pretending to care about the evil that is residing in the White House but Brooks cannot bring himself to go all the way and condemn those who perpetuate it. Instead he lamely says that Cohen is just saying what Democrats want to hear. Brooks likes to write about morality but he too has no spine.
6
@Mary
We are all witnessing the culmination of the republican thrust for at least the past 30 years. Where is Mr Brook's purgation of self?
The pop psychology that MrBrooks uses to defend Conservative thought is both a amusing and painful. I almost made it through the entire column before disgust overtook me. The key word in that sentence is not disgust but almost.
4
Let's be honest. Instead of "Wednesday’s testimony and the crisis of American conscience" the subtitle should be "Wednesday’s testimony and the crisis of American conservative conscience."
6
David Brooks says it all! I have not always been a David Brooks fan, but am now! Those who sell their soul to the devil find that the devil will collect the debt!
1
Glad we have someone like Brooks to tell us when a sinner is truly sorry or just glossing over their sins to "switch teams".
Brooks missed the evil in his party for decades, in fact, since King Ronnie was in the White House. Brooks misses a lot of evil on the part of his "team".
6
About time in these two yrs missed it with Reagan and I do not think he should judge the extent of contrition in mr Cohen. He had a job to do to say what he came to deliver and instead by his own team was flogged without understanding or curiosity. The Republicans have truly taken over the job of fixer. No outcry on lying as the usual fare of each day is pathetic,to say the least. I see young children greatly affected bye this insanity of untruth.
1
I have tried to side with generosity but have too often fallen short, not terminally I hope just as I hope to sink for the last time under the putting green on the generous side.
If as Mr. Brooks suggests, 'Trump [personifies] the worst elements in our culture," then those worst elements are numerous enough to put the morally bankrupt figure into the Oval Office. As such, we own the bankruptcy just as the president does.
Mr. Brooks goes on to write that "Normal people are repulsed when the president of their own nation lies, cheats, practices bigotry, allegedly pays off porn star mistresses." If we accept that this sentiment, and I do, then we are not a normal nation.
And if an entire political party in positions of majority power shows itself to be "monumentally unconcerned by the fact that [its] leader may be a moral cretin," then we are a nation of cretins. We fix this only by facing up to it and taking action sometime between now and November 3rd 2020.
5
Sad but true. Thank John
2
One of the best commentaries on this president and those that support him I've seen to date. Thank you David Brooks.
1
Brooks now has the powers of God, able to see into a person's soul:
"There is none of the purgation of self and transformation of spirit that happens among people who have truly been altered."
Brooks really believes that Mr. Cohen has just changed sides.... continuing to parrot what other die hard Republicans are saying.
My my... look to you own self who in continuing to be a Republican is the one who truly needs purgation and transformation.
2
"Were Republican House members enthusiastic or morose as they decided to turn off their own moral circuits, when they decided to be monumentally unconcerned by the fact that their leader may be a moral cretin?"
Let me fix that for you:
"Were Republican House members enthusiastic or morose as they decided to turn off their own moral circuits, when they decided to accept and even defend their leader's longstanding, extensively documented, and ongoing immorality?"
5
So now politicians need to have the morality of saints ? It seems no one really had a problem with Bill and Hillary who reads this paper and is holier than thou ? Give me a break ...
@Koko Reese, Bill Clinton was a liar, too, and I for one do not overlook his misdeeds. But he was an effective and qualified leader, and one who did not bully and berate whatever portions of the American public and the world that did not align with his views and pay him obeisance. He also didn't make wildly impetuous and potentially dangerous governing decisions based on the whims of his ego. He didn't tout ignorance and vulgarity. People who canonize the Clintons without clear eyes, yes, okay, that is ridiculous, but if you think there is really a comparison between the professional demeanor and aptitude of Bill Clinton and the Tasmanian devil currently occupying the Oval Office...wow.
1
Trump and the people who admire him think that questions of good and evil are for the naive.
4
Good article for Mr. Brooks, except for his judgment of Cohen. How does Brooks know what's in Cohen's heart? He may be right; but I, for one, still believe in redemption.
4
The antisocial uses the methods of the mob. Surround yourself with crooks as your tools, make sure they are crooks, then if they rat, their testimony can be disbelieved. Script on display this week and some in Congress didn't fall into the pit, they jumped.
4
David, a lot of Republicans have sold their soul to the devil. Apparently money and power far exceed the desire for goodness and righteousness. The Democrats are not perfect, but the Republicans exist in a morass of ill will and selfishness.
3
Who or what institution will make the first move to cauterize and excise this cancer - Trump and family, GOP, Americans blaming others and embracing this substandard behavior. It's time. Our country is defiled and we are all sick of THIS behavior tolerated at the highest levels. Jared Kushner, desperately looking for loans from shady governments, is given a security clearance by fiat? Huh...
4
Let's put this morale rottennes in our political sytem.
We have had very dominant figures with morally reprehensible behaviors.
Such as Henry Kissinger was very well known Womanizer ad he was a daily gossip subject even in Nixon close quarters about his womanizing.
Then
Bill Clinton , he is another womanizer and moral failures …….
But Kissinger and Clinton in return has an immense political talent , fill the void created by this moral ineptitude and eventually many normal people tolerate their shortcomings.
On the Other hand Donald J. Trump is an empty shell in every aspect, his only talent is a real estate scheme artist, even in that area he doesn't have high respect anymore.
So this our problem as an America, we come down this road , We choose this path, end the end we are seeing only one thing Donal Trump is a dead end. we must walk back there is no beyond here, this is bottom.
We seriously think about anymore What Trump showed us, do ot go beyond red lines. Particularly Republican party needs a gross resetting. For political victory , everything is on sale is not bring any hope.
It is not about Cohen , he is another parasite feasting on giant one. he just told Trump is a moral void.
Republicans and Democrats , we are all on this boat, please let never be a Trump type of person took over leadership.
2
Let's compare these Three politicians.
Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump .
Their similarity in moral failure was womanizing , extramarital affairs, sexual harassment.
But also You clearly see what is their difference too.
Donald Trump is all negative, void , abhorrent in every aspect of life and human values , other two don't.
Trump was and will be our greatest sin how far we astray from the norms, electing him and letting him sit in White house.
That is our moral failure too, we need a lot soul searching to do not only Evangelists and Republicans.
America sunk so bad in this moral plague we accepted Kardashian family values govern our nation. what is the difference between Kardashian reality show and trump Whitehouse?
2