Brooks is dead wrong when he writes, " The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example. Neither party any longer sees America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity."
The American left and Democrats love America and aim to bring it back to its best self first of all here in America, and secondly as a beacon and an example for the world. In contrast to Democrats are the Republicans and Trump who have betrayed America's role in the world as an exemplar and promoter of worldwide democracy. It is Democrats who love freedom and learning; it is Democrats who recognize that the legacy of slavery days and continuing evidence of oppression must be acknowledged and prompts us to strengthen laws regarding freedom, equal rights, democracy, and human dignity. In contrast are the Republicans in the Senate who block all efforts to defend democracy, who won't defend democracy, who won't consider securing our sacred votes, who refuse to vote for laws that ensure the human dignity of those who seek refuge in America.
Brooks' ignorance of what Democrats believe and do is shocking.
8
Observers of the Hong Kong protests today might consider the "Burma scenario" of 1988. In that year, hundreds of thousands of people in Rangoon and Burma's other major cities and towns rose up against the corrupt and oppressive Ne Win regime. General Ne Win's army officer successors struck back with deadly force: around 3,000 unarmed protesters were killed by troops in Rangoon alone. Thousands more were dragged off to jail.
Some observers believe Deng Xiaoping was inspired to do the same thing to demonstrators in Tian'anmen Square the following year.
Right now, Beijing is carefully considering its alternatives. One of them might be to wait until the protests fizzle out; but that doesn't seem to be happening. Another option is the Burma scenario.
2
“The Africans were oftentimes allied with the antagonist of the Republic. Now, you may want to step back and ask yourself why that might be. It may lead you to a reconsideration of the origins of the nation now known as the United States of America. As opposed to seeing it in the same vein as the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution, you might see it in the same vein as the revolt against British rule in Rhodesia in 1965, and, if so, that might help to shed light on why conservatism is so deeply entrenched in this republic.” - Gerald Horne, historian.
Said David Brooks - "American does have a few problems; just don't blame rich white men"
2
Is a "cub journalist" paid more than a cub reporter or just more representative of the higher socioeconomic orders they deem to serve? Sheesh.
Brooks represents everything that is wrong with America currently.
2
"FREEDOM"! Except for Palestinians.
2
Brooks could be talking about many toung Americans: "There was the same indignant desire not to live in a rigged economy run for the benefit of state-favored oligarchs."
2
"Neither party any longer sees America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity."
Is that a bad joke? America has never been a force for democracy, rather it is the antithesis of it. Read William Blum's "Killing Hope". A detailed account of how American big business and the CIA have done everything - coups to assassinations - to ensure that democracy never comes to pass for the rest of the world. China is a saint compared to the crimes of American tyranny.
1
Actually, this isn't about Democracy but about the simple things in life; like housing. Years ago, Lee Kwan Yew advised China's leaders to form HK in Singapore's mold. Create a Central Provident Fund. Build affordable HBD flats and well organized housing estates.
If governments provide for citizens, it doesn't matter "if the cat is black or white, it only has to catch the mouse"!
In HK, the government backs the big Real Estate Barons, and the oligarchs.
A Singapore styled Social Democracy works, just ask the Swedes, or Danes, Norway; better yet, ask Singaporeans!
3
" rekindle the sense of democratic mission that used to burn so forcefully in American hearts"...
That sense of democratic mission that lit David Brooks' soul as America wrecked first Iraq, then Libya and Syria, seeking to install leadership submissive to American interests.
Citizens could notice that the countries the US chooses to terrorize all have chosen to have some form of socialist government... you know, a government that puts the interests of its people first, having healthcare for all, and free higher education. These countries include Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iraq, Libya, Syria...
As Secretary of State, Hilary supported a coup in Honduras to install a business friendly [especially to US business interests] Honduran as president, because the elected president was more interested in improving the lives of Hondurans than in kowtowing to US business interests.
After the coup, violence skyrocketed, resulting in hundreds of thousands of refugees on the border.
US democracy promotion has resulted in millions dead, wrecked countries, and created immense environmental degradation making it much harder for climate change to be neutralized and the planet to be made sustainable.
The US is not even "over" the Civil War, yet the US blithely goes about the world turning citizens in other countries against each other in order to destabilize a country so the US can install the appropriately pro US/business leadership.
US democracy promotion is evil, and is a sham.
1
Hong Kong is the Ireland of Asia. All my relatives agree. (Maiden name: Collins)
1
"The American right no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners."
The American right, the party of gerrymandering and voter suppression, no longer believes in spreading democracy to anyone. What beacon or example are you talking about?
6
David wrote "The American right no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners. The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example. Neither party any longer sees America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity."
You just couldnt help yourself, could you David. You had to play the false equivalency, both-parties-are-equally-bad, card. Obama did an exemplary job of projecting America as a beacon universal democracy and human dignity, and you know it! And most of the world loved him for it. That is still the spirit of Democratic Party. And any of the leading candidates for the Democratic nomination will stand up for democracy and freedom around the world far more than Trump––a man who regularly praises Xi, Kim Jong Un, Putin and Duterte. That was a weak move David. You're better than that.
4
“The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression...”
Brooks casually throws out these lines, characterizing the left as clueless snowflakes. More false equivalence from this dedicated Republican who has nothing left to say about America.
4
What should Americans be doing to support democrats in Hong Kong as the world's largest police state tries to shut them down?
We support democracy when it is politically, militarily, or economically in our favor. We looked the other way during the Armenian genocide and helped cover it up. Why, Turkey served as a military ally. We have continually supported an oppressive Saudi regime for economic and military reasons. Why do Iranians hate us? Could it be because we backed an evil tyrant for thirty years for economic reasons. We allowed a genocide in Darfur. Why? The were no political, economic, or military reasons to do any thing else. There was a Japanese genocide in China as there was one in Europe. Did we hold tribunals as we did in Nuremberg? Did we force Japanese reparations? Did we make Japan confess or apologize? No we allow the Japanese to stay mum on this as we allowed the Turks to stay mum or deny Armenian slaughter. I could go on and on on this but I will stop here as you get the point.
I am sure some will say I don’t love my country. They are wrong. I recognize we do much good in the world but I refuse to view America through rose colored glasses. We saved the world from the scourge of Nazi and Japanese imperialism and oppression but along the way we interred Japanese Americans and sent a shipload of immigrant Jews back to Europe. We can always be better and can’t if we refuse to see what’s wrong. Woodrow Wilson went to the aid of Armenians during the genocide but totally looked the other way a blacks were lynched in the South. Hypocrisy? I’ll quit here.
3
Meanwhile, Kashmir literally vanishes overnight by a military incursion led by a literally fascism-inspirated political party which is in power right now in India and there's only silence in the West...
4
Mr. Brooks, your dig at the left at the end of this column -- that the left "emphasizes slavery and oppression" and rejects the idea of America as a "beacon" or an "example" -- weirdly ignores your own paper's huge and powerful "1619 Project", the central thesis of which is that it's exactly African Americans (the most reliable voters for the "left", that is) who have pushed America to live up to the ideal that "all men are created equal". As a Democrat, from a strategic point of view, I think it's great that rightists haven't noticed that they have ceded the symbolically powerful territory of "patriotism" utterly and completely to the left. As an American citizen who believes our country is healthier when all strive for those ideals of democracy and equality and opportunity, I hope you and the rest of the right come to your senses.
1
Ar age 24, I came to the United States in 1986 from Seoul, South Korea where I was born and grew up. When I came here, South Korea had a military dictator, and he and his predecessors had killed, tortured, and imprisoned any oppositions, including journalistes and college students. I gave up on any hope of having democracy in Korea and left the country with a crushed heart. 35 years later, they have a president who used to be a human rights lawyer, and the country is much more democratic than Trump’s America. When I see complacent fellow Americans today, I deplore the fact that they have no idea what it’s like NOT to have democracy. Unfortunately, with Trump in the WH, we are approaching there quickly, and the most people in my Midwest have no idea what state our country will soon be in. If only they know returning to democracy will be much harder once we lose it.
Daily, I mourn for my adopted country which I love dearly.
3
Matthew Dowd wrote this the other day, and it bears wider distribution:
"I love America.
And I know America has done grave injustices in its past.
I love America.
And I know America has grave injustices in its present.
I love America.
And it is why I fight for justice and equality in its future.
Understanding all that means I love America."
Simple and beautiful. Concise and precise. Mr. Brooks would do well to learn from Mr. Dowd.
4
The Hong Kong protesters may not be looking to us for help, which even at the best of times would probably not be forthcoming from the US. I don't see what we can reasonably do apart from diplomatically supporting their idea, any more that we've been able to halt the onslaught of other powerful tyrannical regimes. One remembers the Hungarian Revolution just to name one such instance. But I think the Hong Kong protesters should rather be looking at what we, the world's first country to define itself at its inception as a free people have done with our freedom. Within just over two hundred years we have managed to elect a man so alien to our founding principles that the men who met in Philadelphia that long hot summer, had they been able to see where we would take their daring experiment, might not have provided for a president at all. After all, they had a very good idea who would be the first to fill that office, and the moral and political difference between George Washington and Donald Trump is so vast as to beggar human imagination. So Hong Kong, be warned. Gaining the kind of freedom you want is really only a first step.
1
I find it interesting that Mr. Brooks see's the left's response to this current situation we find ourselves in as anything but patriotic. Mainstream political dogma promises stability and the status quo.
What we have seen laid bare is the status quo's true purpose. The protection of power and unequal representation with the majority of the people in this country as useful pawns in the game. We are cynics, numb and forgetful of our true ownership of our freedoms. Why? We have been lied to, patronized and in the end ignored by our representatives in our government. Raw greed, power and a willingness to do anything to protect that power, have now been normalized. When DT positioned himself to take power by any means necessary, those who were meant to stop him, instead, rolled over. He has been supported willingly. The Senate has been de fanged along with any other government institution meant to protect our freedoms. The left's ideology is not the issue Mr. Brooks. Our "Struggle for Freedom" is now going to be focused on those with the willingness to tear down and end our Democracy by the conservative power structures currently in place. Perhaps your focus should be an honest and ongoing critique of that group.
3
The American Right doesn't even want to have democracy in America, why would they ever want it in other places?
6
I can't help but think about Hungary in 1956, rising up against the puppet Communist government and the yoke of Russian suppression. For a time, the brave demonstrators appeared to have a chance, until the tanks rolled in, like the tanks in Tianimen Square, like the brutal putdown of the Arab Spring, like the reprisals in Iran on the part of frightened mullahs.
The Honk Kong protestors ultimately don't have a chance, should the Chinese decide to roll in the tanks.
But still we can dream and hope, which is the driving force of freedom. Not so sure what America's driving force is today, beyond TV and guns.
2
The US will move on to better times when the boomers die off. Old crochety boomers (like me) mistakenly think that we still live in an age of "competitive" capitalism; that socialized medicine in Europe kills people in Europe and Canada (that was long ago); that renewable energy is a hoax; that leftists want open borders. When boomers die off, their mistaken apprehensions will die with them.
In the meantime, our hope lies in watching the young lead the way, like the young people of HongKong.
When people vote to "make America great again" there is a problem. Time doesn't move backwards. Are we supposed to buy an old TV set with rabbit ears? What was so great about Los Angeles covered in smog before the catalyst was invented?
Somehow a con man came along and convinced Americans to vote for a mirage that doesn't exist and never did. Hopefully Progressives can see the Trump tenure as a course correction and move with the current of opinion into the seat of power in DC with a real program that will get things done for ordinary people like the young protestors in HongKong.
2
Doesn't anybody bother reading Chinese history, particularly books like "the Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom", by John Pomfret, on the highly emotional, cyclical, centuries long Chinese American relationship. The Chinese culture does not value individualism and democratic values; they value stability and social cohesion. Hong Kong was never going to be allowed to become a bastion of Western liberal values right off the coast of China. Right now, the Chinese public agrees that Hong Kong cannot possibly be allowed to become a bastion of Western values of individualism right off the coast of mainland China. No amount of complaining or force will change that. Allow those Hong Kong residents who will be in real trouble when the Chinese military (or the Hong Kong police force) crack down to come here, and then let China continue to be the Middle Kingdom. We're probably going to become two superpowers, offering different life styles (and different internets); accept it.
1
Brooks is right when he describes the republican pov but perhaps the democratic point of view can be better expressed by two axioms, either: I'm ok, you're ok or I'm not ok, you're not ok. Both are unfortunate and both are the axioms of the paralyzed parent.We should advocate not only for the brave protestors of Hong Kong but the people of the Mainland and people everywhere who don't have freedom of information , freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. We used to know this, now we can only be aroused by gazing at our own navel. What's wrong with us? RISE UP!!!!!!!!!!!
3
Let's hope Mr. Brooks doesn't get to cover similar protests back home...
1
Every time I read a column by you, Mr. Brroks, I am more amazed at how you go on and on examining phenomena as if through a eyes of an alter boy following in the footsteps of a cleric, swinging a censer as if to purify the air of evil spirits, not bothering to look beyond the skirts of the cleric. But even in your innate need to denigrate in some way Democrats (especially now that you are driven to criticize your own party, you must, for balance, smear the Democrats) you seldom wax completely illogical. How can either party, any faction in the US, except through unbridled hubris and the blindness that it spawns put our country forward as a beacon of anything honorable? It would be only a pose, a lie. If there were once reason to boast in this way, to claim to be the emblem of things honorable those reasons are dead. The Republic party has been feeding on the carrion for decades. If Hong Kong citizens "do not want to live in a rigged economy run for the benefit of state -favored oligarchs," Democrats in the USA, unlike you and your party, do not want to live in a rigged economy run for the benefits of state-favored corporations and its state favored richest citizens.
But, just for the record: please tell me what you mean when you say you are covering the struggle in Hong Kong. Are you there? Did you actually get on a plane and fly there, or are you covering Hong Kong in your easy chair via smart phone? Disabuse me of my cynicism, please.
4
" The American right no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners. The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example. Neither party any longer sees America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity."
Are you serious?
Like all conservatives, you make up your own reality, Mr. Brooks. Your characterization of the "left" is contemptible and selective. Emphasizes slavery and oppression? Wha' The * ?!?! It's more like emphasizes the inequality in America and the suppression of minority voters.
You retreat to the same old trope, which is the only argument conservatives can still use and sound semi-reasonable: Oh Well, Both Sides Do It... What Can You Do, I Guess We Should Just Sigh. But it's wrong. YOU are wrong. And you are culpable for trying to drag the half of the nation that wants to keep democracy down with you and your leader/dictator-wannabe, who has done exactly diddly-squat for democracy in 3 years. In fact he is actively trying to drown our democracy and others, insulting our trusted allies and cottoning up to the world's most despicable dictators/murderers (who no doubt laugh at his buffoonery). Shame! Shame on you and your contortionist equivalencies.
3
Open your eyes! The US has had more protests and political action in the last five years than all other times combined.
Those who have been formerly non-political have stepped up to protest against police brutality, harmful and stupid gun non laws, climate change, and even pro-science! You waspy white guys are losing your Monopoly, but everyone else has woken up and is taking action.
What is needed next is for tech innovators to supply alternative communication methods to the Chinese and other countries who have their platform censored.
Just like the Voice of America and mimeograph machines allowed for flow of information to communist Eastern Europe, this next oppressed generation will endeavor to learn the truth at all costs. The US GOVERNMENT may not step up, but if there's one thing the world's new generation is fantastic at, it's the ability to spread and utilize constantly upgraded tech communication tools.
Trump true to his authoritarian nature is on the side of the bully not the freedom seeking folks as we have seen cage Hispanic toddlers and has praised torture as a worthwhile practice for govts. Ugh we have a fascist leader in Trump cruel and nasty who shows us on the world stage as such a real Ugly American.
3
The column is good. The comments are shocking.
2
This is a critical moment in the life of global democracy. These protests have reach and, hopefully, staying power. The US should make an unequivocal statement of support for the those working to maintain HK's autonomy.
Meanwhile, I wish that David Brooks would stop with the 'both sides' laziness. The idea that "the American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression" is reductionist at best. We can acknowledge that America is scarred by unaddressed racism and is not living up to its ideals while supporting those in the world who also aspire to a more perfect state of being for their nations. There are likely some on the right that believe in spreading democracy, but that's not been the primary objective of Republicans for at least 30 years: they are more interested in spreading capitalism and "free" markets, regardless of who is in charge of the governments of various nations.
1
I hope you're correct about the right and left. Great piece.
Dave, you seem more like a confucian than a taoist. Having said this, I am going to read this with a critical eye.
Mr. Brooks, do you live with blinders on? You don’t have to be a ‘cub journalist’ covering rallies on the other side of the world. to find ‘the same indignant desire not to live in a rigged economy run for the benefit of state-favored oligarchs.’ Open your window and look outside, will you please?
Hong Kong protests are a new pathetic image of the fight for the freedom and the human rights, now in the technology area.
1
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example. Neither party any longer sees America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity"
David among the multitudes of comments that you lay out as fact, this is one of the most offensive. Please stop, telling us what we think. You have no idea what I and many millions of other democrats think about anything. The reason you do not is that you are incapable of hearing what Democrats are saying.
You have the"already got it all figured out" inability to hear.
1
Mr. Brooks looks at the past with rose coloured glasses. America may have been a beacon for freedom lovers everywhere, but the United States never ventured very far in helping out any nascent movements in democracy building. Think back to Hungary in '56, Czechoslovakia in '68, Poland in '81, Tiananmen Square in '89 - we watched but did very little. The reason is simply because it was not in our best interests to do so. Practicality is more important than ideology. The Soviet Union and China were both too powerful to act against, as Russia and China are today. Which is why Russia's recent actions against the Ukraine and the acquiring of Crimea went unanswered, as will China's push back in Hong Kong if it comes to that. The only possible thing that could conceivably stop China in Hong Kong now, and which is why it has not acted already, is it's self proclaimed place in the pantheon of nations as the world's second largest economy. China is desperate for world wide respect, and that I believe is it's only constraint. They are not afraid of the US - they realize we won't lift a finger. We never have.
I worry about Hong Kongers. Granted that the gap between the rich and gap is so wide that this could happen even without the extradition excuse - and CE Lam was no doubt too eager to please Beijing - there is another dimension people have been ignoring.
There are many expats and re-pats, in addition to the national and international shadow boxing going on, egging on the unrest. And things are getting out of control.
You have to wonder how many protesters and supporters have a foreign passport. When I googled the information, 300,000 "Canadians" are in Hong Kong. And how many more with American, Australian and New Zealand passports? These people have a backup plan when things get really messy. But what about others? Granted there are idealistic people like Joshua Wong who have become the elders at their tender age and they are there to stay. But there are others who have made noises who have high tailed out of there when things got ugly. Those who are left behind might end up holding the bag.
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example." suggested the depths of your turpitude.
1
I think if we could wrest our eyes away from the ubiquitous self-help books in our culture (yoga, mindfulness etc.) which only serve to anesthetize and suborn our political instincts and focus instead on books which stress political organization and action, then the likely end result would be a flourishing, vigorous and dynamic democracy.
“We love America just as much as they do. But in a different way. You see, they love America like a 4-year-old loves his mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a 4-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad and helping your loved one grow.”
- Al Franken, Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right
45
@Ken please reflect on your characterization of those with whom you have political disagreements. It does not advance your position.
There has never been and never will be a Brooks column where he doesn't get his False Equivalence faith mentioned somewhere. In this one, it's the penultimate paragraph.
Hey, David, we Democrats firmly believe in spreading democracy, but we're in an emergency right here at home, and are listening to the wisdom of airline attendants: "When the oxygen masks come down, put your own on first before you try to help others." First restore democracy to the United States. Then we can help others. But until we rid ourselves of our own [fascism, kleptocracy, kakistocracy, oligarchy, plutocracy, authoritarianism--pick your term; I don't care], we can't help others. For one thing, it would be hypocrisy.
3
@beaujames
Brooks appears incapable of acknowledging that the historical record shows that the modern Republican party has nearly extinguished democracy, compromise and representative government in exchange for kakistocracy.
Trump, McConnell, Brian Kemp, Karl Rove, Kris Kobach, North Carolina's Republican legislature and most GOP operatives never met a Democratic voter or vote they didn't try to disenfranchise or outlaw.
Brooks Van Winkle is stuck in William F. Buckley's Republican 1983 time tunnel.
4
It is a shame that the GOP whose "saintly" leader once made the famous statement: "Mr G. tear down this wall", now does not even have a peep for the brave people of HK. This is the sorry state of affairs of what the "better" and " more religious" half of the US population.
I fear for the people of HK. They are fighting hard against a tyrannical communist government and no world leader is even remotely standing up for them. What a shame!
1
Cut it anyway you desire, but China is eating our lunch daily. They also have been nibbling at our dinner. The human energy emanating from China is overwhelming; regimented society is working for the Chinese. I, personally, don't condone such a society, but it seems to work for them. Democracy may not be possible for such a diverse group of people under one flag.
Our battle banner of 'American Capitalism' has frayed badly since it divorced itself from private enterprise. Bottomless greed--with small regard for our societies benefit-- will lead our brand of capitalism to self-destruct in the future.
Have your children lean Chinese. The Chinese children study English from early grammar school.
@FJG "In English and Cherman I know how to count down, and I'm learning Chinese" says Werner von Braun.
America is unique among the world in that front line officers enjoy wide legal berth to use lethal force for almost any reason. This has been documented over and over again. You can even watch such videos on youtube.
So its quite astounding to me that Americans have the nerve to criticize and lecture other countries. Are you seriously suggesting throwing tear gas is more violent than shooting somebody with a real bullet?
Where does this arrogance come from? How can you make such claims when it is obvious America is far more violent?
1
@John Doe
America is not in the least unique in giving law enforcement officers wide legal berth to use lethal force. And they are not given that power for almost any reason.
1
@Livonian
American police can shoot people if they perceive a threat. There have been unarmed people shot because the officer thought they had weapons when they didn't. This is why American police can shoot people for "any reason" because all they have to state is they assumed or feared something.
There is no other country that allows local front line officers to use lethal force to the extent America does.
How ironic that, right below David's observation that "There was the same indignant desire not to live in a rigged economy run for the benefit of state-favored oligarchs" is an ad inviting use to listen to Charles Koch(!) talk about innovation.
3
It's disconcerting how our political discourse has deteriorated to the point that we can no longer pass even the most necessary legislation. Guns and healthcare are serious issues that have solutions, but all we do is talk about Trump's worst outrage of the day and how we used to be a better people. Perhaps, as Americans, we've seen our best days. Hope not, but its getting pretty discouraging. The left needs to get realistic about what government can accomplish and the right needs to quit calling anyone who expects government to act a socialist. It's not that hard.
2
David had to try to make Democrats equally guilty. Because, of course.
3
Brooks had me until he made his matter of fact comment about the American Left. No, the American left is not wholly obsessed with our nation's history of slavery and oppression. It can walk and chew gum at the same time.
2
@Daniel Rosemarin
It may be a stereotype, but one which the left has earned.
What in the world have you been smoking or reading, David? If anything has been clear over the last three years, it is that the defense of Democracy is in the hands of the Democratic Party! There is nothing more clear from this administration and its enablers then the facts that their policy and government support the rich and powerful and is not for the citizen.
I admire the folks of Hong Kong for standing up bravely for the rights that Britain should have absolutely protected as it left. I do not know what the answer is for the Chinese government as they deal with this challenge to their authority, but I do hope they will find some way to avoid wholesale violence and not recreate past failures. As their population becomes aware of the possibilities of the world there will be more Hong Kongs
Perhaps this example will indeed inspire us at home in the US to be grateful and use our peaceful method of government change....the ballot this year and next.
3
How can Americans believe that our country stands for democracy and human rights when it so clearly, in the age of Trump, does not?
Our president did not win the popular vote. His victories in three midwestern states, key to his bare majority in the antiquated and pro-slavery Electoral College was likely the result of Russian interference.
Our Congress is bought and sold by plutocrats and is utterly uninterested in overseeing Trump and his corrupt ministers.
Our Supreme Court is rankly partisan and now holds not one, but two, justices that were credibly accused of sexually inappropriate conduct toward women.
This country is now deporting kids with cancer. It imprisons immigrant youth for the "crime" of having brown skin. The United States has executed innocent people.
And, of course, our nation is now, under Trump, eagerly denying the climate change humans cause, doubling down on the fossil fuels that produce it, and thereby consigning the world to immense ecological harm and human suffering.
No, we are not an example.
3
Sigh. He writes so well, sometimes truly moving parables.
Then he blames the left. Or he blames the right a little (but the left made them do it, really. It's the left's fault anyway.)
It's all an infomercial for the Republican party. He won't call a clean game.
It's like watching the umpire change his strike zone, depending on which team is at bat.
5
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example."
Perhaps Mr. Brooks should read "Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes and then maybe he'll get it.
3
You almost said something right... The American right no longer believes in democracy.
The American left fights against slavery and oppression, and embraces the rule of law.
3
David, how about a little history of Hong Kong to preface your opinion? How about a little pathology of the origins of capitalism? How about admitting the pathogene is "greed"? Hong Kong would not exist today without "greed", Foreign greed, Dynasty greed, corrupt Chinese official's greed, Business greed and finally Corporate greed.
The majority people of Hong Kong are oppressed by low wages, extremely high
rents and the fear that HK will be assimilated by China which could threaten their jobs, homes/apartments,
family unity and security.
Is it democracy that they want or is it just a better, more certain existence?
1
@Redliner
I'll take the Hong Kong protesters at their word when they tell us that they want more democracy, rather than the certain existence offered them by their would-be overlords in Beijing.
1
I'm just going to left the attorneys take care of this.
Beautiful last paragraph.
The American Left, good sir, believes in spreading democracy everywhere, in Mississippi as well as in Hong Kong.
5
Hong Kong is indeed where the battle of democracy v authoritarianism is being played out, and for that reason alone the democratic world should focus attention on it and be invested in the struggle. Only because Chairman Xi turned his nation so hard to the authoritarian side, has this struggle commenced and taken its present form.
American leaders, real and imagined, should be advising and otherwise supporting the HK democrats, and their absence probably says alot about the movement's ultimate fate. David is right about both sides of the political spectrum here turning away from their proper identification with them, and about a proper historical perspective.
We know where "The Great Divider" Trump's sympathies are, why he cowardly says nothing of consequence. Where are the putative Democratic leaders, like our presidential candidates, on this issue? Wallowing in the know-nothing retrenchment from leadership and activism in the world, it seems.
3
"The American right no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners."
When has any endeavor to do so succeeded?
6
@Charles
Since you ostensibly object to this characterization, I assume you're of the conservative sort. If so, people of that ilk (I'm moderate liberal) like to cite Ronald Reagan and how he "won the Cold War" by supporting both capitalism and democracy. If you believe that, there's the answer to your question. (If not, American support for European democrats during the 80's was still crucial in breaking down the "Iron Curtain".)
5
@Charles Japan, Germany after WWII are direct examples of U.S. and allies "spreading" (imposing) democracy. There are others that have moved toward democracy with varying degrees of success: former Eastern European Block countries, Korea, Taiwan, some S. American countries, and India, arguably helped along by alliances or other cooperative associations (i.e., British Commonwealth) with the U.S. and other Western Democracies.
7
1918, 1945, 1989. 2003. Germany, Japan, United Nations. Self-determination. Woodrow Wilson. Ronald Reagan. Tear down this wall. “Winds of change” a la Scorpions. Arab spring. Elections in Iraq.
I am not endorsing all the methods, I’m just trying to answer the question.
5
Difficult as it is to see America led by Trump as a beacon of democracy and freedom, people I know on the left still see our country as a beacon. We have minds agile and complex enough to hold two thoughts at once: America has a deeply flawed historical past and present reality, and yet America more than any other country stands for the great ideals of democracy and freedom. Today’s Right, in its supine surrender to Trumpism, believes neither one.
2
Mr. Brooks asserts: "The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example." I couldn't disagree more. This is a straw man argument.
1
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression" ... because they are striving for a more perfect Union that grants more citizens the full freedoms of America's promise. Fixed it.
2
“The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example.” Mr. Brooks, have you been reading the 1619 Project of your own newspaper? You might want to walk over to the desk of Nicole Hannah-Jones and ask her about the flag her father, from a family of Mississippi sharecroppers, insisted on flying at their home in Iowa every day. And then I invite you to see the American left without pigeonholing us with self-serving false dichotomies. We see the oppression and are still inspired by the example.
45
@expat
I don't think David's point is that no one on the left sympathizes with the Hong Kong democrats. There are surely many examples of Americans on both ends of the political spectrum who support them, at least in spirit.
I think David's point that both ends of the spectrum aren't motivated to venture support is correct. As I read it, America's best activism for foreign concerns and projects is drowned in self-concern if not isolationism.
7
@Tom
"I think David's point that both ends of the spectrum aren't motivated to venture support is correct."
David's point is that both parties have stopped promoting democracy abroad. David is dead wrong. The Congressional Republicans and Republican voters who are almost all marching lockstep with Mr. Trump have completely abandoned democratic values both abroad and at home. Though some Democrats, e.g., Senator Sanders, have demonstrated similar isolationist tendencies, most of the Democratic presidential candidates and the vast majority of Democrats are committed to promoting democracy everywhere, abroad and here. The Democrats are the party of democratic values and institutions.
7
@Robert
"The Democrats are the party of democratic values and institutions."
Yet you don't hear much about Dems (like me) supporting the HK dems with more than moral support. Tho it's still early, where are our prez candidates on this? Foreign policy is just not big with Dem candidates now, unless it's the big easy of criticizing "The Great Divider" Trump.
2
The American left -- thankfully -- doesn't speak with one voice. However, David's statement that at least segments of the left do embrace a rather totalizing narrative (better, a counter narrative) of slavery and oppression is quite accurate. I appreciate this article's attempt to revive America's better angel via the Hong Kong demonstrations. It is essential to recognize where our concept and practice of liberal democracy fell short historically ... and continues to do so. However, as I stated in an earlier comment: "democracy is an emergent concept." Here, and in Hong Kong, as well. Why not some democratic synergy?
David, you write that the "American right no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners." My question: does the American right really believe in democracy at all? I will not catalogue the efforts of the American right to restrict the franchise and bully minorities. Trump rarely says anything positive about the aspiration for democracy. I think the American right thinks of democracy as more threatening than blessed.
3
If this were happening in USA, we'd be hearing 'rule if law, rule of law'! Hypocrisy and righteousness however will rule the day and the Trump administration will exploit Hong Kong for a perceived political advantage.
2
"The American right no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners."
I'm sorry, David, but they never really did. The American right would talk about spreading democracy to foreigners, but what they worked to do was establish American hegemony and American client-states--more suppliers and markets for the capitalist engine.
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example."
Oh David. To quote somebody who I expect you still consider a hero, "here we go again."
The American left emphasizes that we are a work in progress with lofty ideals. This is counter to the narrative of Rah Rah America! so often spouted by the right, a narrative that handwaves away and whitewashes so many of our mistakes.
We need to act with a modicum of humility. I think you would agree with that. However, humility is impossible when you cannot acknowledge, correct and learn from your mistakes.
We can be better. That's the modern liberal ideal. That's the ideal of these protesters: we can do better.
2
@Jacob Sommer
Humility, yes. Left-liberal self-loathing, no.
1
Mr. Brooks - Switch ‘Hong Kongers’ with ‘Taiwanese’ then multiply it by a factor of 10,000.
“But there’s something stubborn about the Hong Kongers and deceptively powerful about their cause. Other protesters dreamed of freedom. These people have already lived it. It’s part of their identity. They will prove more ferocious in defense of liberty than the skeptics imagine. Along the way they might rekindle the sense of democratic mission that used to burn so forcefully in American hearts.”
3
What is the point of David Brooks' essay, other than wistful praise of the demonstrators? They deserve it, but their cause is lost. MAYBE they will delay a bit the creeping authoritarianism that China seeks to impose in Hong Kong, but the whole game is up on July 1, 2047, when Hong Kong by treaty comes under total Chinese sovereignty...and dictatorship. The younger demonstrators today will be middle-aged by then and invested in stability. Better that they now seek out places abroad to emigrate...if they have the skills (and many do) to meet other countries' immigration requirements. There was a major outflow of migrants and capital from Hong Kong in the run-up to the 1997 British handover to China. (E.g., the Vancouver, BC property market has never been the same!) I suspect there will be another outflow as 2047 approaches.
3
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example."
You're right. Those of us on the left aren't presumptuous or hypocritical enough to present ourselves to other nations as a "beacon or an example."
The world knows that the United States has the highest percentage of its people in prison of any nation. Is this the example we want other nations to follow?
"Along the way they might rekindle the sense of democratic mission that used to burn so forcefully in American hearts."
Yes, the United States, rather than pretending we're something that we aren't and holding that up as an example to the world, why not look for better examples than ourselves and emulate them?
5
" The American right no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners. The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example. "
Mr. Brooks, do you not see what is implicit in this statement?
The right is uninterested in democracy... their interest is in protecting their gun rights and kicking down on those coming up the ladder. The left, on the other hand, by challenging power with uncomfortable truths, is exercising democracy. Exercise is good for health.
2
It seems to me that many people here being overly defensive and unfair to Brooks when they carp false equivalency and/or hackery for saying: “the American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example.”
Brooks' view is that few U.S. leaders speak earnestly and sincerely anymore about the idea of the nation having a moral mission or a responsibility to spread and advance liberal democracy. The essay would make little sense without this statement about the left. He does not assert any symmetry between the left and the right on messaging, merely that neither uses now the kind of narrative they both once did and he wishes they would again.
As it happens, I think Brooks’ characterization of my fellow liberals and progressives is correct. I’m a lifelong liberal activist and I rarely hear the language of the U.S. as a “beacon or example” from current leaders that I routinely heard from liberal leaders of my younger days like Walter Mondale, Tom Harkin, Ted Kennedy, Ted Weiss, Mike Dukakis, or Mario Cuomo.
But if you don’t think it is a fair characterization of the way the U.S. left tells the story of America and its values today, then dispute it on the merits rather than attacking Brooks for merely saying it aloud. That is just appallingly anti-intellectual.
4
"The American right no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners. The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example. Neither party any longer sees America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity."
That, rather than anything about Hong Kong's prospects, is the most significant observation in Brooks' column. The Right gave up on the concept after Bush's ill-conceived Iraq project, which demonstrated (among other things) that our more liberal values were not the values of others. As to the Left, I would reference Bret Stephens' column, "America the Beautiful."
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/opinion/america-founding-ideals-liberty.html
One other trenchant observation Brooks makes that transcends the situation in Hong Kong: "My guess is that if technology helps the protesters become 30 percent more effective, it helps the state become 70 percent more effective." Most folks still refuse to accept the understanding that the bad guys -- however you choose to define them -- are as smart as the good guys and often more motivated. The internet is a tool in that regard, no different from a screwdriver or a gun.
3
Brooks' characterization of the "left" as embracing only a narrative of slavery and oppression is poppycock.
I consider myself on the left and I see our nation as a beacon, albeit a flawed one, for democracy and human dignity. Making such an over the top claim is par for the Brooks course.
What I do not see is any appetite on the part of Americans on the whole to sacrifice on the behalf of others. What I'm suggesting is that we won't have the back of Hong Kong or Taiwan if China comes on with full power.
We do not see the freedom of either of those two cases as being in our national interest, or at least enough of our interest to risk actual armed conflict. We have no mutual defense agreements with either.
The "left' isn't embracing "a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression," it is simply trying to get Americans to own up to the more unsavory parts of their history. For too long, American history has been taught as one long upward trajectory, in which violence toward and maltreatment of non-whites played only a small part, before people of good faith came to their senses and straightened things out. This is not how American history, or any other history, works. The new narrative is a much, much needed corrective. And we need to accept it and live with it.
1
Freedom is like truth, it has a funny way of showing up where needed. David is right about the right and left political forces in this country: neither is capable of leading a pro-democracy movement. Both have abandoned truth in saying truth is what we say it is, it is what serves our interests. But the very meaning of truth is that it is not what you think it is, it is what it is, whether we are aware of it or not. Do you not see that the progressives are in conflict with Trump not just because of how they differ, but how much they are both making the same mistake in their theory of truth/reality. Because they are the same! This is how we all have used our freedoms; it is all about me and making me my best version. What about the other? Should not your concern be with others, as much as it is about you? Of course both sides will say they are about the other, but that amounts to nothing universal, and is only about their tribe. Until we make a break through in this area, we will not be able to lead the world in the pursuit of freedom.
3
As usual, Americans are infatuated with international evangelism when their own house is on fire, no less here at the NYT. The current fascination is with Hong Kong, and the focus is a narrow sliver of time centered on the present. Let's step back for a moment.
Hong Kong had been a part of the Celestial Empire since the 3rd Century BC. In the 19th Century, the imperialist West barged in to impose its will on a China that was disorganized and weak. Britain did this through a series of military incursions China was unable to resist.
The best known of these were the Opium Wars, whose goal it was to prevent the emergence of popular resistance against the invaders. That was accomplished by thwarting the Chinese government from banning the opium use the Brits were promoting as a way of sapping China's strength, hence the name. Hong Kong was ceded to Britain after the first, Kowloon after the second, The New Territories after that. In the meantime the Portuguese picked off Macau.
In 1999, these territories returned to Chinese rule.
As always happens, nationals who live under foreign occupation become enabling servants of their foreign masters, and gradually adopt their tastes and values, same as happened in Vichy France and South Viet Nam. This creates an internal rift between nationalists and those they see as collaborators.
So what is China supposed to do, give up territory that was stolen from her just because "pro-democracy" hooligans are torching and vandalizing the place?
1
@Migrateurrice I think the protestors in Hong Kong don't want to be swallowed up by China because China doesn't honor human rights and basic freedom. Historically you are correct. But put yourself in the shoes of the protestors in Hong Kong. The fact that you write a letter to the New York Times that can be consumed by whoever indicate that you, too, might not want to live under the dictates of China. If you were a citizen of China you wouldn't be responding to published columns, you would be working. I honor the protestors. People are always right to rise up in spite of who did what historically.
1
@timesguy
We all wear different hats. I wear the hat of a 1st-generation American, a Viet Nam veteran, a professional engineer and a degreed student of history. Unlike most people, I don't wear just one of those and ignore the rest. If one does that, one gets lost in a labyrinth of contradictions.
I refer you to Santayana about those who dismiss history, as you are doing.
Hong Kong is already Chinese territory, how can its residents be "swallowed up"? China implemented a "one country, two systems" policy Instead of just annexing them in 1999. That seems to me to be quite a concession.
Your "China doesn't honor..." statement is so simplistic that it would take a 50-page research paper to fully rebut it.
China is a work in progress that transformed a weak agrarian nation into a strong technological powerhouse in a century. It elevated more Chinese into the middle class than America has people, and they are free to come and go as they please, even travel internationally. The party has and will relax controls gradually. What they won't do is risk the progress that has been achieved. Look at the state our "democracy" is in, from Reagan to Bush x 2 to Trump. Is that what you are recommending to China? "Thanks," they say "but no thanks!"
A majority of Hong Kong does not consider itself Chinese, a colonial legacy. So they have two choices: enjoy the freedom they have without abusing it, or go elsewhere. What they cannot do is slice off what no one disputes is Chinese territory.
2
"America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy "
When was this "mission" added to the Constitution? That document's preamble speaks of "a more perfect union", not "a more perfect world".
Consider the ideal expressed (but sadly abandoned post-9/11) by George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential debates:
"I think they ought to look at us as a country that understands freedom where it doesn't matter who you are or how you're raised or where you're from, that you can succeed. I don't think they'll look at us with envy. It really depends upon how our nation conducts itself in foreign policy. If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us. And it's -- our nation stands alone right now in the world in terms of power, and that's why we have to be humble. And yet project strength in a way that promotes freedom. So I don't think they ought to look at us in any way other than what we are. We're a freedom-loving nation and if we're an arrogant nation they'll view us that way, but if we're a humble nation they'll respect us."
2
This is an excellent point:
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example."
Our nation's founders and the generations who followed have been convicted in absentia of horrible crimes, the worst crime being living by the accepted morality and standards of their times. Our grand national story of the emergence of a democracy from the swamps of monarchy, religious intolerance and, earlier, enslavement by serfdom, have been buried by excessive attention to the sins of those who settled the continent. The success in creating what was for more than 100 years the world's largest, fully functional, single nation democracy is ignored. The efforts of our nation to do away with or ameliorate the many wrongs are dismissed in favor of indicting those alive now for failure to cure all evils or social inequities immediately.
If we do not have a national story we can believe in, we do not have a story to tell ourselves and others.
People of various political views who have not spent time in other nations, nor witnessed the joyous, chaotic uprising of humanity against oppression, don't fully realize the importance of America as a beacon of hope around the world. This is not merely a puffed up attempt to write graciously about our nation. It is a fact: without America as a fact and as a symbol, many millions would lose hope.
4
if our founders were just merely men of their time with its flawed moral and standards why should we revere them? Why should well consider them infallible? Why shouldn't we recognize that the state they create was based on oppression of the part of the population? Why shouldn't we instead recognize men who were ahead of their time and denounced the slavery and fought for their freedom, instead worship men who were hypocrites and not only didn't fight for freedom of others, but were oppressors themselves? Should we hold the democracy where the part of population is denied the basic human right as a shining example?
Amazing. A New York Times columnist who can write an entire article without once using the word, "Trump." Congratulations!
1
Right, the left is just as bad as the right. What garbage.
America once was a beacon in the struggle for freedom with equality was the bait and switch. Maybe it was a beacon to those from Europe, but it certainly wasn't for Africans and Asians kidnapped, enslaved and brought here.
And how many murderous dictators has America supported elsewhere in the world, in Chile, in Greece, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, now Russia?
The vast economic and social inequality between the races and between the genders is no beacon. Imprisoning children in concentration camps at the border is a genuine turn-off.
Brooks says "the American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression." It isn't an "embrace" of an hideous legacy but simply recognizing the truth.
The fact is that most black Americans experience oppression and second-class citizenship. They endure slurs and threats, are denied their rights, and are murdered with great frequency.
And it should be no fault to shine a light on slavery and its ongoing oppression and try to eradicate it.
Slavery remains a permanent stain on America as a nation and a people and resultant racism is as virulent and deadly as it ever was thanks to the right, Mr. Brooks' president and his party.
3
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression..."
Which is exactly why the American left supports liberation and pro-democracy movements from Palestine to Hong Kong. Sheesh, Mr. Brooks, what lengths will you NOT go to to maintain your narrative of "both siderism"? The only enemies of representative government in America are on the right.
3
“The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression,” or so rights Mr. Brooks. What was it that those slaves wanted more than anything? Freedom! Mr. Brooks same as the Hong Kongers.
3
Beautifully said David. It's hard to keep 1.4 Billion people down. Good luck to them and godspeed.
2
David’s conclusion is key - he says America’s “democratic mission used to burn so forcefully.” The implication is clear; we are now undergoing an identity crisis. Trump and the Republicans are testing our resolve to maintain democratic institutions as those institutions are being forced to accept that the white power structure will need to share more of its power and wealth with poor whites, non-whites, non-Christian peoples. It’s a choice. We could choose to become a standard Russian/Chinese style of centralized control with wealth and power reserved for a ruling class (whether that should be called Right or Left, I’m not sure) , or we could choose to model ourselves more on the European / Socialist style of control and elections. For us, both “styles” seem extreme, but that’s where we are. And perhaps what we’re seeing as the first step in resolving this identity crisis is to admit what we've been - which is closer to a colonial empire that is losing its grip, than to a democracy that should serve as a good example for others and ourselves going forward. At this point, our identity as a nation is definitely up for grabs and feels quite unstable and unsettling.
2
David Brooks writes: “The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example.“ I respect Brooks’ ideas but this one is a farcical generalization. The left believes that America IS a beacon of freedom but that our government allows gross inequality. We are fighting for the freedom of all who want to prosper!
2
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example."
Looks like Lord Brooks didn't enjoy reading the ugly American truth in the 1619 Project that exposed the whitewashed lies and bedtime stories of America's imperial history.
Decent societies can handle truth and reconciliation and move forward.
The left isn't spinning a narrative; American history is simply being exposed for the whitewashing it is.
America's laws have systematically worked against minorities for eons.
How many whites have been slapped on the wrist for marijuana possession while non-whites get a prison sentence ?
And the American right NOT ONLY no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners, it has embraced tyranny of the minority and completely rejected American democracy in no uncertain terms.
Sleep-walking Americans could learn a lot about democracy and civic protest from those brave Hong Kongers if they could only muster the energy and humanity to lift their heads up from their Candy Crush and TV shows and pay attention to the right-wing, Randian, Reverse Robin Hood corruption that is Trump and his GOP Horsemen.
Perhaps democracy will one day come to America instead of the complete right-wing sham we have now.
Brooks can do better than false equivalence, but chooses not to.
Rise up, America.
507
@Socrates Thanks! I always look forward to your wise posts, especially this one, acknowledging the importance of 1619 in light of the slam by David Brooks about today's left. His was an important column. Why must there be that divisive line of his that once again jerks us into that left/right paradigm?
24
@Socrates
Why? Brooks gave the ending - fires, humiliated. (Can’t pull the quote.) And, I did rise up, long before it became popular.
1
@Socrates
Give it to him. Every time he opens his mouth, it gets ever more difficult to believe Brooks has ever actually lived in the United States. Or left his room.
21
"The power of the powerless"? "A shift in consciousness"? These two phrases stood out to me like a "beacon" in your column. I used to address you as "Mr. Brooks," but now I just have to call you "dude." Dude, a shift in consciousness only makes oppression more painful. Read Frederick Douglass. The powerless are powerless. They die powerless and have died powerless in the zillions over the course of human history and their consciousness dies with them. Any shift in consciousness, including the almost universal realization, after the Holocaust, that totalitarianism can lead to unimaginable horror, and that to be safer, Jews needed a homeland, has a shelf-life of, well, how long would you put it? Then we "shift" back again into darkness. Shall we talk about the power of the powerless Palestinians? How about a quick shift of consciousness in Israel? Can you really write some of these things without cringing? A commentator who is intellectually dishonest has no moral authority. You are out of your depth.
I wish Brooks and even one if the commenters would suggest what the US could do to pressure China. The comments are just a left right attack, not a forward one.
2
Where is THE Winston Churchill. We shall fight on the land, we shall fight on the.............We shall never surrender
1
Is it slavery or racism that the left dwell on?
If Trump is re-elected will we be in the streets fighting for our freedom with the federal government shooting it's own citizens, and disappearing them like academics and immigrants or even Jews? Think Trump is crazy now? It will be little comfort for those of us that see that coming that his supporters will be crushed too.
1
November 8, 2016. The date “ Democracy “ in America was put into a Coma. Wake up, and RISE UP.
1
“ Homo homini lupus est “ , history keeps repeating , always.
America is not much different than China , just remember the almost genocide of native Indians and exploitation of African slaves .
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone .
2
American governments are not beacon of freedom. All American Presidents have used democracy to further the interest of American hegemony rather to further democracy or human rights. Americans were even reluctant to oppose Hitler at the start of WW II. Yes people around the world to have constitutional democracy and rule of law but have lost faith in Americans to defend such aspiration at any cost.
Best Brooks column in a while. At least until the second last paragraph when he throws in a ridiculous both sidesism. I guess he just can't help himself.
Am I, a die-hard leftist, being lectured by David Brooks on what the best ideals about America leftisism represents? Oh please Mr. Brooks, I can only handle your columns as humor because you're so incredibly out of touch with leftism of any sort. This includes American leftism, European leftism and basically any leftism in the Galaxy.
Who are you, and what have you done with David Brooks?
I always find a Brooks column much more satisfying by skipping the column altogether and heading straight for the comments. He's so predictably white-bread. Thanks to everyone who calls him on it.
2
American liberals are not passionate idealists. They are too wonky; too genteel. The last time we actually got off our butts was in the 1960’s, more than two generations ago. But let’s be honest. I like thousands of others were marching out of fear; of a personal vested interest in not being drafted. Not out of love of democracy. The last Americans who acted like the citizens in Hong Kong fought at Bunker Hill and Ticonderoga. Why aren’t we storming the streets of Washington when our democracy hasn’t been this imperiled in three centuries?
Taiwan.
Bravo!
Chomsky has said for years that America's freedom is a form of manufactured consent. American people are servile and don't know how to protest. They usually come out in the street wearing pussy hats for one dau and then go home. The spirit of freedom is more like the civil movement in the 60s and 70s. But all the interests of American society is always alligned with power. So the ruling class always prevail. Modern Americans will never get anything out of their leaders, who are never beholden to them. There will never be a universal healthcare system and gun violence will continue rob innocent people of their lives.
This oped reads like like it was written by a tired old man after a long flight to the other side of the world. Fortunately, the protesters have a lot more energy to fight for their freedom. I believe that in the end they will win it. They’re sending a powerful to the mainland Chinese and the rest of the world. “We the people, are mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!”
“The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example.” That is such bull, David. Why, why, why do you find the need to do the “both sides” thing? Are you guilty you are a republican? Do you have regrets about your past comments? There is no comparison between Democrats and Republicans right now. One is for democracy the other is for autocracy, oligarchy. Face it...you are wrong on many levels. It angers me that you act as if Democrats don’t want to promote our country as an example. Right now, BTW, we are not an example, we are a mess...see G7.
The best in democracy sheds the pretense that everything is perfect. It is self reflective and critical, something the GOP knows nothing about. Get real, David.
1
Mr. Brooks’ “freedom” currently doesn’t pay enough for my rent or healthcare!! I don’t care what Mr. Brooks calls it, as long as it pays me fair wages for my work and pays enough to cover my rent, education, healthcare, and allows me the time to enjoy the money I earn and allows me to do so in a safe healthy environment where I don’t get shot by sick white men with automatic guns while out in the park. If communism can do it, it’s welcome! If capitalism or freedom or garbage can do it, they’re welcome, too!! as long as it treats me well, I don’t care if it’s called freedom or hell!! So, Mr. Brooks can call it all the “freedom” he wants, if it doesn’t treat me humanely it’s unwelcome!
It is a safe bet that the USA is not going to do anything to assist democracy in Hong Kong. In fact, the billionaires running the Administration and the GOP have no interest in democracy at home either: quite the opposite.
Maybe Hong Kong’s example will encourage saving democracy here??? Maybe we can avoid domination by extremist billionaires now running the GOP, the Administration, a majority on the Supreme Court, and many State Legislatures. Not to mention operating an unparalleled propaganda machine that has almost half of voters glued to Fox News and alternative facts.
44
@John ✅Brews✅
Every democrat rally gives support to the people who live in Hong Kong. I know this because I have family who work in Hong Kong and they happen to be minorities. Students, citizens see the rallies of Warren ,Bernie the crowds and they know what democracy looks like. They know they have to fight everyday to keep it from going off the rails..
We as minorities have always been fighting for our rights and we understand the meaning of freedom. We didnt want to be here but we are here and Wall Street capitalism has enriched the white men who are in charge now.
There maybe some GOP and red states who survive 20/20 but the in your face racism is going down in defeat. We will continually work on gerrymandering , Moscow Mitch, the con man will only be seen on fox News by their loyal fan base. Trump will be erased from the daily talking head mouthpieces.
I do hope Joe Walsh runs for president. the racist videos will be replayed for the world to see who may of forgotten what a low life tea partyer he was. Joe is just Trump a younger version and we will register to vote to show Hong Kong we have not given up the fight against tyranny in any form it is presented.
Mr. Brooks I try to follow your stories but our military police will not keep us from righting the wrongs of this country.
1
I have to admit on one level I don’t get it. Other than preventing criminals being put on trial and obtaining leniency for their own protests, what are the protesters protesting?
On another level, this is probably more about a visceral fear of Hong Kong becoming China, and who wouldn’t understand that?
It would be helpful, though, if the news gave at least some analysis to the specific demands.
The protesters in Hong Kong cannot 'win'. They will lose, and it won't be pretty. Of course I wish them well, and of course I know their cause is just. But China will 'win', no doubt about it.
Actions driven by ideology inevitably leads to catastrophes because they become detached from reality, and this also applies to the ideology of freedom and democracy. In the pursuit of an ideal, lives become secondary. Instead of thinking of what course of action would be best for HK’s future, Brooks would rather see them sacrificing themselves in the struggle for freedom and democracy so that their stories can live on to inspire others in the pursuit of the ideal.
When HK has golf club potential, then we may see something. Till then, he putts at the feet of Xi.
We on the left do believe in "America as a beacon and example," just like the Founders. But we don't believe America should be throwing its military around the world trying to create democracies where none exist. And neither did the Founders.
We do not embrace a "narrative of slavery and oppression." We do think that America should start living up to its ideals and stop peddling a false history, epitomized perhaps by all the statues of slavers put in place by their Daughters to symbolize the oppression of black folks that has continued since the end of slavery. We do think that America is no longer a democracy, not when a minority of the country manages to seize every branch of government through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and welcoming the help of an enemy power, and then uses that power to overrule the majority on issues like gun control, taxes, health care, abortion, immigration... oh heck, just about everything.
We don't have democracy in the United States anymore. Good luck to Hong Kong, and good luck to us.
4
“ Neither Party any longer sees America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity. “ Mr. Brooks, you had me until you introduced that little amuse bouche of false equivalence. Don’t try to spread the blame, and don’t try to reject responsibility for being a
“ conservative “. You helped build that, don’t try to weasel out. I respect you too much for that, don’t disappoint me.
2
I swear to God the sentiment of America being this sort of Messiah turned nation is going to destroy the entire human race. It is so bizarre given the course of history since 1776, it is probably pathological.
2
You could of just wrote your last paragraph and be done, but when your pay is based on the number of words printed we get your Corporate America idealism.
1
Whenever conservatives talk about “freedom” I fee like they’re selling hot air!
What exactly is “freedom?!” What is it that people in Hong Kong would be able to do that they can’t do presently under “freedom?!”
Nothing! It doesn’t bring them better rents, it doesn’t increase their living space in those cramped apartments!
It’s mere hot air sold by deluded conservatives in the west, like Mr. Brooks. To them it really means most of all the freedom to exploit most people in order for a few to get fabulously wealthy, as it is here in the US.
Anybody who thinks about buying into this nonsense should see the lack of affordable healthcare here, or the low minimum wage etc etc, it s pure hot air!
Conservatives love it because it’s never really defined! It sounds good, but when you look at it critically it’s absolute nonsense! Freedom to do what exactly? What difference does it make really in the places where it’s claimed to exist?!
People can still party in the places without it can’t they?!
Nobody in Hong Kong, in my opinion should fool themselves with this nonsense! They’re better off protesting directly for better wages, cheaper rents and increased housing etc. “Freedom” is total nonsense! It’s an oblique amorphous lie that mostly benefits corporations and people like Brooks who write endlessly about it, but it never really means anything beyond nice semantics!
You can get everything “freedom” purports to provide by protesting for that stuff directly! “Freedom” is a myth!!
2
I'm afraid for them. The Chinese government is ruthless and Trump is gutless.
1
I guess the residents of Honk Kong are craving to have somebody like Donald Trump in power…
Thanks for misrepresenting the so-called "American left." You can always be counted on for your sardonic misrepresentations.
1
They will all emigrate.
Mr. Brooks, When you return to this country and before you climb back up your second mountain, I suggest you travel around this country and talk to people on the left and listen to why they are protesting. You vision of the Left is a worn-out cliche!
3
So, does that mean that Palestinian Ian’s have a chance? Talk about tank, bombers, drones and armies squashing freedom seekers.
What Brooks omits is that when Americans take to the streets like they did in Fergusen, they are met with a considerably more militarized response with US police using armored cars and automatic assault rifles. The police in HG seem admirably restrained in their response to a complete disruption of the city and its economy. Imagine our police response if that happened in the good ol USA?
61
Agree and often protesters are also met with media derision. Occupy Wall street for instance.
5
@Sipa111
No, you're wrong. Demonstrations by people of color get suppressed, not demonstrations by white people, which is what we would be envisioning in an HK-type protest here: think the Women's March, pro/anti-abortion demonstrations, the rallies for science and gun violence, etc. Even at the Occupy movement, the police didn't intervene until it dwindled to anarchists and drifters and other elements deemed unsavory and fringe. What's striking and inspiring about the HK protest is that it involves absolutely everyone. (OK, except for cranks, patriot rascals, and assorted malcontents.)
As for the HK police, why do they even show up at these demonstrations except to incite violence? These young students are not the type who would smash windows and burn cars if left alone. The police seem to want give them a target. If a person were conspiratorially minded, she/he might think the two sides were working in tandem, to provide Beijing with video footage.
5
@Sipa111. Thank you. You took the words right off my keyboard.
1
“There’s no pro-democracy graffiti in Hong Kong, no posters or T-shirts, no day-to-day sign that anything is happening”
This is false. You clearly have no idea what you’re talking about, there are Lennon walls all over the city. I walked by one yesterday right at one of the busiest areas of the city in Causeway Bay.
Shameful lies.
2
"America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity."
White Man's Burden, much?
1
In the end the tanks will roll once more and the world will shrug. The money doesn't add up and we wont go to war for Hong Kong.
It's always wonderful to hear an American talk about democracy as though America is the be and end all. It isn't. Not even close. Mr. Brooks seems to have forgotten that the last election was decided by a few people in the Electoral College, despite 3,000,000+ people voting otherwise. The 2000 election wasn't so darned great either, neither is the ongoing gerrymandering of districts that demand Democrats get higher percentages in every election to even stand a chance of winning. And while no system is perfect, we've quickly learned these last three years how utterly weak is ours for reigning-in a corrupt, lying president. Checks and balances we've all been told. Well, we're still waiting to see one. At least with a parliamentary system a prime minister can be called before parliament and censured for lying to the people. And without the horrendous amounts of money involved, politicians are directly beholden to the people who vote for them, not the corporations than fund their lavish lifestyle with open bribes. Oh, sorry, I mean political donations; in the millions that the world is gobsmacked by.
5
Freedom is born and renewed through constant struggle against slavery and oppression. That is the American "narrative" embraced by those you refer to as the Left. From the American Revolution, the Civil War, the struggle for organized labor, the fight for civil rights and the right to vote, the fight for environmental justice, and on and on, the struggle continues. Freedom is not static. It is dynamic. Fear and complacency are the enemies of freedom. The strategy of the Right, demonizing (and now doxxing) the free press, immigrants, Muslims, and political opponents depends upon fear and complacency because they believe, as the Spanish novelist, Javier Marias observed with regard to Franco, that "freedom is the first thing that fearful citizens are prepared to give up. so much so that they often ask to lose it, ask for it to be taken away, banished from their sight, which is why they not only applaud the very person intending to take it from them, they even vote for him.". Perhaps Hong Kong will serve as a wake-up call.
1
What if China lined the streets of Hong Kong with barbed wire? What if China cut off all means of communication with Hong Kong? Internet..cut. Phone lines...cut. What if China fired live shot rounds at its own population, blinding many? What if China imposed round the clock curfew on its people bringing life to a standstill, preventing people from earning basic sustenance? What if China randomly kidnapped people from their homes in Hong Kong calling them preventative arrests? What if? Then it would become Kashmir!
2
Wow. Ridiculous. The left is trying to meet the future, with cooperation, forward thinking and balance. The republicans are trying to move back to the time when power was simple brute force, control and total coercion. The future is for everyone, not just the most imperialistic or destructive, despite the repubs pursuits.
2
Last I checked Hong Kong is part of China, right?
@H Silk
Last I checked the US was part of Britain, Spain, France, Holland. Then those nervy, mischievous, tax evaders decided they wanted liberty, freedom, representation, and due process. Right?
I question the judgment of people egging on Hong Kong to take a more radical position. In the Chinese context it is unlikely to work. Where was Nick Kristof after Tiananmen?
That the left focuses on “slavery and oppression” within the United States might result from the fact that “universal democracy and human dignity” has not yet been achieved on our own soil. Poll taxes, Jim Crow laws, literacy tests, and threats from the KKK served to restrain black voters in the Deep South for a hundred years after the Civil War. And the GOP has continued to seek out ways to exclude people of color from exercising their right to vote. Women were not guaranteed universal suffrage until 1920. Women today still run into glass ceilings, receive lower wages on average, and are often subtly nudged into the role of mother and homemaker as their only proper path. To this day, discrimination against race, gender, ethnicity, orientation, and age exists. Progressive are not against being a “vanguard” or a “beacon,” but, instead, they do want this role. At the same time, they might be weary of being called a hypocrite when democracy and human dignity is not universally realized here in the United States for all of the people.
2
So you would explain to the family of someone who loses a child in Tianenmin Square or shot in Hong-Kong that we’re afraid of looking like hypocrites? Courage does not require certainty. Rather it’s the lack of certainty that makes courage courage.
1
"The American right no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners."
Geez, the American right no longer believes in democracy for Americans.
7
“Occupy Wall Street” part II
or
“Occupy Hong Kong”
Beware when the bankers and the commodity traders get angry!
1
What if China imposed comprehensive curfew? Lined the streets with razor wire so it was divided into tiny impassable zones? What if China cut off all means of communications into and out of the city? What if China brought life to a complete standstill? What if China began firing powerful pellet guns at the protestors? Oh! Then Hong Kong would become just like Kashmir!!!!
"The American right no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners."
Look, the American right has never supported democracy, anywhere. It has only ever supported fascist dictators, whether in Viet Nam, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, Panama, El Salvador, Venezuela, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran...
I'm not sure what historical never never land Mr. Brooks is alluding to, but the American right has always been the anti-democracy, pro-corporate fascist party. Now that they have sealed control over all three branches of the USA's so-called "government," there is clearly no semblance of democracy left in the USA. Sure, you can scream as loud as you want-- just as long as you don't do anything to fight for democracy. For that, you will most definitely end up in prison. As will millions of Hong Kong citizens, very soon.
2
@WR Generally I agree, but "never never" and "always" are a pretty long times. Jill Lepore's new book, "These Truths," puts to rest the contemporary thinking that USA has always been the same left vs right, liberal vs conservative, Jefferson vs. Hamilton. The question of whether we can govern ourselves with rationality and thinking rather that with demagoguery and whim has not yet been answered with certainly. Reading the book, I am continually amazed that only names have changed, the struggle has not.
3
This one sentence in your essay bothered me a lot, "There’s no pro-democracy graffiti in Hong Kong, no posters or T-shirts, no day-to-day sign that anything is happening."
Did you leave the hotel?
That is factually incorrect. There are visible posters all over HK, Google [Lennon Walls Hong Kong] and there are images.
1
“They don’t see the power of the powerless, that sometimes a shift in consciousness is stronger than military might.” Not in Tiananmen, Egypt, Turkey or Syria – all people movements that were crushed. That is the trend now.
“The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example.” As always, David uses the left as a foil. He can’t define his false self without a false enemy.
As far as America being a beacon, it seems the Republican bastardization of Emma Lazarus’s poem as a beacon to the elite of the world doesn’t count in David’s world as another pathetic dismantling by conservatives of the American ethos.
The apotheosis of Republican example, of course, is the dishonorable and execrable Trump.
1
Democrats do see America as a beacon of freedom and democracy. That's why we support the civil rights movement, oppose conservatism (especially the conservative invasion and occupation of Iraq), and try to devise policies that create and maintain a large middle class.
1
Few matters anger me more than this kind of accusation that the left does not love America because we criticize the faults and failures. We criticize to try to move the country to a better place by acknowledging where improvement needs to come. In truth, we who want it better are considerably more patriotic than the "love it or leave it" imbeciles. Brooks mischaracterization of anyone left of him is really tiresome.
152
@Scott ... " few matters anger me more than " self righteously calling fellow citizens imbeciles.
5
@Scott
"Few matters anger me more than this kind of accusation that the left does not love America because we criticize the faults and failures."
And it would be outrageous if Brooks had actually said that. But of course, he said nothing of the kind.
7
@EL
I am a liberal. But I agree. We are so negative that we don't believe in the positive side of our democracy or at least I don't see my liberal friends defending it. Worst still, their intellect, which tends to be negatively critical (although the criticism may be correct), has weakened their passion (for freedom) so much that it immobilizes them. If I begin to praise democracy I know my liberal friends will look at me like I am being naive. We need to be self-reflective on this.
8
I don’t know what Brooks means by stating the American right is no longer interested in spreading democracy while the left promotes a narrative of suppression and slavery. Does this represent a sort of rebuke of both schools of thought? Doesn’t a narrative of suppression and slavery dovetail with the heroic demands of the HK protestors?
2
Just a month ago ambassadors representing 37 countries complimented China on its remarkable achievements on civil rights. Add to that the U.S. president Donald the Ignorer and I do not see much hope for those corurageous brave souls in Hong Kong.
1
Can we please move away from the nonsense narrative of how America was for spreading democracy in the world? This is never been the case. In face there are examples upon examples of America destabilizing democratic regimes to install dictators. Iran, Nicaragua, Vietnam, etc etc. This has always been known to the people of the world. Only Americans are naive or brainwashed enough to think they are that Shining City on the Hill. The only difference with Trump is he kisses up to Dictators who are our enemies. Other presidents just did that to our friends.
2
I read this Op-Ed and think the most important point was missed again.
Hong Kong protestors are on the right side of history, they do not want to be treated like mainland Chinese. They have known democracy and freedom despite British rule... well, it was under British, everything else was in hands of natives.
China's oppression and its examples are well known, what they have done to Tibet and are currently doing to Uighurs... I am very sure people of Hong-Kong know what awaits them.
Instead of looking to America, I know many in HK look to EU and other places. They see Mr. Trump as a buffoon.
And by writing this sentence...
"The American right no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners. The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example."...
thus, is the corrupt, racist, awful governance of Donald Trump been given a mere slap on the wrist!
Had this been Obama's response, I am absolutely sure Mr. Brooks and Mr. Stephens would have been reading him a riot-act every single day.
As long as the intellectual Republican/conservative keeps on looking at the grit, the pebbles, the tree trunks and refuses to see the FOREST for what it is... refuse to acknowledge the deficiencies & dastardly biases perpetuated by conservatives, which have lead our country where no one cares about anything, because our own house is on fire... such articles & by default, such opinions are useless and baseless.
4
It’s time for an “American Way” to surround the capital and encourage our feckless government to act on our behalf.
The pessimism in this piece is disheartening. We are 350 million. They are 535 plus one.
Why does David Brooks always always always need to distort the positions of the Democrats? There are many Democrats who want America to lead the fight for democracy and against authoritarian leaders. He undermines his own credibility and shows a heart that is still filled with hate for Americans who are more humane and compassionate than he.
5
They’re waiving American flags, and banners that say “Make Hong Kong Great Again”.
While our American left marches for socialism and anti-Americanism.
Can we trade our leftist youth for these people yearning to be free?
2
Funny that you characterize such protesters as not wanting to live in a "rigged economy run for the benefit of state-favored oligarchs." If so, then they should aspire toward the situation of some other county, not the US, because today's US is just what your quote so perfectly describes.
6
The Republicans are lockstep behind Trump and his refusal to promote democracy abroad or at home. A few Democrats, e.g., Sanders, have also pushed for policies that give short shrift to democracy elsewhere. But the vast majority of the Democratic presidential candidates and the vast majority of Democrats still strongly believe in promoting democracy and democratic values around the globe. Not sure where David is getting his information (misinformation), when he tells us that "the American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression." Fox? Some of us, David, have not abandoned our traditional aspirations and values.
5
I can’t help but wonder whether this will become our fight as well. How far, if the Trump streak of authoritarianism and minority rule (by oligarchs, multinational corporations, all aided by a new cadre of brown shirts) will this nation descend, further turning its back on our founding principles? Perhaps this is the question lurking in the backs of our minds as we witness what a people—used to freedom and democracy—do when it is threatened.
4
I respectfully disagree with your characterization of the Left as having a national narrative focused on slavery and oppression. Yes, that is part of our focus. But so too is the United States as a beacon - witness our support for refugees and migrants. And consider our sorrow as the current Administrations withdraws us from national alliances and agreements.
5
Communist government leaders dont easily give up their absolute power. Previous US administrations looked the other way as China gained wealth and power often by cheating on trade and stealing patents. Say what you want about Trump but he is the first to call out Xi on these issues.
Trade tariffs are painful for some Americans. Tariffs also expose weaknesses inherent in Chinas economy likey to get worse.
Oppressed freedom seeking groups as Christians, Fulon Gong, Taiwan,people in Hong Kong and neighboring countries are encouraged by Trumps actions vs China. No one has lifted a finger against Chinas communist leadership except Trump,freedom loving folks in Asia recognize that.
Bluster and strategy are two different things. I’m really glad Trump is challenging China on the South China Sea. I am really glad he gave up the TPP that could have been an alliance to share the tariffs instead of placing them all on American farmers and opening them up for going bankrupt and support corporate farming. And in what way is this going to benefit us in the future.
@Lane
It is not true that "he is the first to call out Xi on these issues." This has long been a bilateral issue between the US and Chinese governments, and one of the strategic purposes of the TPP which Trump threw overboard was to provide us with leverage.
Trump certainly is the most bombastic, ignorant and incoherent president to do so, and the first to inflict so much damage on his own constituents in an effort to pressure China to concede. He doesn't understand the Chinese one bit.
1
David, you are missing a lot of the New Left, missing the Creatives who are weaving ceremony and ritual, the Technogeeks exposing industrial and governmental overcontrol into backwaters of resistance with a worker bee pseudo face & Spariticus retinal scan. There are many in Hong Kong crafting a new resistance that they are not advertising... grass weathers totalitarian storms (whether Peoples Republician or Trumpian) better than tall, seemingly strong trees...
1
It's also now time to insist on full independence for Taiwan.
2
If it means using our blood, no, you’re right. It’s not exactly turned out as planned for many of us in our own country, and to take our blood, when it’s all we have (after “they” took it all) - human dignity?
Ah, David, the answer, of course, is simple. Since "the American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression" let them exchange places with those in Hong Kong who would rather come here. This would be a fabulous diplomatic coup for Trump bringing happiness to everyone.
The Republicans under Trump prefers the kind of manageably corrupt environment that flourishes in democracy-ish places like China and Russia.
As long as the ruling junta gets a cut, 'sall good, man. That is the truth of the tax cuts and corrupt "cabinet" running the place now. It's just a cost of doing business.
Don't hold your breath on anything resembling ideals to surface from the US, for at least the next year and a half.
And having abandoned these principles, even temporarily, there goes that moral leadership thing. Why exactly should anyone trust the word of the US into the future?
To the people of Hong Kong...most of us are with you in spirit. But we're fighting for our own ideals and democracy right now. Don't trust the guy in charge over here, even if he changes his tune and acts like he will support you. His lifetime of venial corruption now has a grand stage. And the 1.5 Bn offers him a yuuuge market opportunity.
1
@Brian
China is not "democracy-ish." Not even a little. The other stuff isn't there either. For instance, there is no rule of law. The law is whatever the party says it is.
1
Very good piece David.
So glad you decided to go to HK; hope you have recovered from the jet lag as the 14 hour flight from NY is a formidable experience!
I can’t help but think that much of the current reaction to events in HK is more muted around the world out of concern for the HK’ers. We recognize that they need to be walking a careful line that emphasizes their concerns and desires for the freedoms promised to them in the 1997 Accord but in a largely if not completely, nonviolent way. Civil Disobedience works against powerful regimes much more effectively in the longer run than resorting to throwing rocks or worse. Beijing doesn’t want a repeat of their Tiananmen Debacle particularly in 2019 where any violent repression will be on full display.
Yes, the Western Democracies need to be “with” the people of HK which I believe they already are in spirit. The people of HK have the ball now and they are learning what works best in their drive to assure their rights. Lets hope they succeed as this will be great for all Chinese people and for people all over the world.
1
It started as protest and morphed into rioting reminiscent of the futile "Arab Spring".
The Hong Kong riots are destroying the economic base that was built when the city served as the commercial "front door" to closed China. Now that China is wide open for business, the Hong Kong financial sector will move from the riot-torn city to Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.
The citizens of Hong Kong are demonstrating their unfitness for the semi-autonomy granted them as a special administrative district of China.
1
I have friends here from Bulgaria and Romania who once looked to the US as a beacon of light that helped fuel their resitence to the oppression they were living under. Once here they saw what this country was actually about. Their hunger for freedom, their ability to respond to what was in front of them, their social imagination and passion remained alive.. And within a very short time they saw and encountereed and started resisting the American Nightmare that was their new reality.
3
"...America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity."
I would argue that the "mission" is inaccurate. At this point in time, the only "mission" is to address the extensive problems we have in this country. To do otherwise is both hypocritical and self-defeating.
30
@Karen
1) Not hypocritical. We aren't perfect, but we are a lot better than most places--probably all of Africa, all of South America, the vast majority of Asia, and the vast majority of Europe. Sure, there are problems here, but they don't compare to the problems most other places face. To suggest otherwise is to lack a sense of scale. Most of the world still isn't very democratic, still struggles under governments that lean authoritarian, still has economic struggles greater than our own, still has racism and bigotry far more prevalent than our own, etc. We do way better than other countries in these measures.
Sure, there may be several countries people like to tout as examples--the Scandinavian countries, New Zealand, Canada, Japan--but those countries are the very small minority. Their cumulative population is far less than that of the US and less than 3% of the world's population.
Those countries also aren't perfect--they have their own problems (e.g. the Scandinavian countries are more bigoted than we are). They also do relatively little relative to their size to help the world unlike us. You could say they are selfish in this way.
2. The US has saved millions upon millions of people worldwide throughout our history and we were never perfect then either. Should we have not helped the rest of the world in those instance because it would have been hypocritical? Should we have let millions of people die so America would not be considered hypocritical?
5
@Karen
If you don't think that America has this mission, that is a legitimate POV. But I am deeply curious to know what is hypocritical or self-defeating about the more traditional view of America as "a standard to which the wise and honest can repair," and "rebuke to tyrants and kings," "the last best hope of mankind on earth," that works to "make the world safe democracy?"
For myself, I'm not at all sure it would really be America anymore if we are no longer willing to speak aloud the self-evident truths of human equality, inalienable human rights, liberty, consent of the governed, rule of law, etc.--and act in accordance with those principles.
2
@Karen
There is nothing hypocritical to take "advance universal democracy and human dignity" as a country's mission. In fact, it is a noble goal and I am proud of it. This does not mean that our country is perfect. Or, should this mean the country is (morally) superior. Of course not, far from it. Part of our society is unspeakably ugly. But if we have to wait till everything is perfect no one can help anyone any more. Because no human being can be without fault. And to have this goal is not to say we don't address the extensive problems we have in this country.
2
America just commemorated the 400th anniversary of the first slave being bought and sold on our soil. I am sorry this inconvenient truth offends Mr. Brooks' tender sensibilities but then again David shows the Conservative game plan to deal with facts that complicate their agenda - they trash the people that spread the truth. David doesn't want to believe that you can talk about the ugliness of our country's past and still love what good it has done and what it can be. They chose a candy-coated lie, wrap it in the flag, and denigrate those not spreading their pablum.
For a liberal perspective on Hong Kong and democracy why is the Times allowing Brooks to speak on a subject he is too limited to understand. At this moment liberals are stunned by the actions of Trump and the reaction of the Republican party. Everything we have held faith in regarding democracy, the Constitution, law, the consequences of lying, etc., etc. have been proven false. Voter suppression, a deeply biased Supreme Court, toxic gerrymandering, the very fact that a minority party holds power in the majority of the country - none of these speak well for the democracy that David wants us to celebrate and spread. We are failing as a democracy and if we can't fix what ails us here and have faith that it can't be abused again, why would we want to spread it elsewhere? Hong Kong is justified in defying mainland China but should they look to America's broken system to find hope?
4
America is now intent on navel gazing. The Statue Of Liberty is rusting out. Where once we were intent on defending and encouraging democracy around the world it is no longer a concern. To be that beacon. That inspired gaol is not evident in any of the Democratic candidates who I have read about or listened to. And forget the Republicans. Perhaps we are just trying to save our own democracy.
It is worth remembering the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the U.S. response. The lesson may be to not take sides. Let the Kongers continue to show their independent spirit in the open. Even China cannot control the basic human spirit and God given rights.
2
Any protest launched by the wealthiest individuals in a country of 1.4 billion is doomed to fail. It’s pure utopian boredom and conceit…
“Better and holier than you” can’t bring in a lot of followers.
Just imagine if the one percenters here in America launched the street protests over their personal feelings of being overtaxed and exploited by the rest of a country.…
7
America is not a real democracy.
Voter suppression of African Americans and Latinos
Gerry Mandering
The electoral college
A lobby group such as the NRA can buy Senators to not put a popular piece of gun control legislation to the vote.
Not a democracy.
3
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example."
This statement caught my eye. My first reaction was surprise. What American left are you talking about? Upon reflection, I think the sentence is just poorly worded.
The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes oppression, that America should be a beacon to the world.
Implicit in this sentence is the fact that America currently is not a beacon to the world. I dare you dispute this fact.
Do you know the major difference between the US and Germany? Germany truly sought atonement for their sins. When you experience Germany, there is a real sense of guilt and shame over the Holocaust. In the process of atonement, Germany found unity. "I'm sorry because we're all sorry."
That never happened in the US. A large portion of the country is not sorry and was never sorry. In fact, they resent being accused of wrong doing. They feel they did no wrong.
That brings me to, "The American right no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners." When was the last time the American right believed in spreading democracy to citizens? Certainly not in my lifetime. How can we be a beacon abroad when we oppress our own? Unapologetically.
4
@Andy As a (sigh) long-time Brooks reader, I can confirm that the phrase you mention is not careless, but the whole point of David's political writing. He is a rear-guard "philosopher" for a morally bankrupt GOP, and his smokescreen in this case is one of his favorites: both-sides-ism.
1
When nothing else works, take a cheap shot: “The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example.” Like most conservatives Brooks would rather not tell the truth about America’s past–leaving the wound unresolved, and still bleeding– and instead wants to wrap himself the flag and the comfort of the myth that America is a beacon to the world.
That America was built on the backs of slaves? Who cares when you have the soaring rhetoric of "We shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us," and "America…an endless enduring dream and a thousand points of light"?
For conservatives it’s about the inspiring WORDS about democracy and freedom, not the ACTIONS of actually carrying those words out. To conservatives slavery was the price of freedom - an unfortunate byproduct of a glorious mission arranged by God.
And Brooks makes sure to mention that the anthem of the uprising is “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord,” which he emphasizes is a “Christian song from America.” He doesn’t mention that less than 10% of Hong Kong citizens are Christian, or that, according to protest leaders, the song was chosen only because of its simple lyrics–not its Christian spirit.
Nor does he mention that a previous anthem for the uprising was a song from “Les Miz” called “Do You Hear the People Sing?” which ironically (for Brooks) contains the line “It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again."
6
Mr. B., there is a great American center where, with a clear eyed understanding of our faults and checkered past, we none the less understand our strengths and virtues. No, it is not some jingoistic flag waving nonsense practiced in some corners of this country but a sober view of what we have been and can be again.
A nation that joined Europe to defeat Nazism and Fascism and then with the Marshall Plan put a bankrupt continent back on its feet (while staving off Stalinist expansionist ambitions). A nation that through alliances kept millions from slipping under totalitarian oppression. A nation that changed its immigration code in 1965 to welcome the world, not just the favored few.
So when you despair at the fecklessness and ideological blinkers of both the hard Left and hard Right in our present politics, understand they are loud (and have their media mouthpieces) but not the majority. Freedom still matters. Concern for democratic movements still engages us.
78
@Unworthy Servant What this nation was, alas, is not what it is today.
1
@jdoe212
Oh goodness. I would argue that the US of today is far more true to liberty and equality than the US which fought the Axis. Just ask if you'd rather live in 1943 America as a black person, brown person, Asian, woman, gay or lesbian person, or 2019 America.
Ask yourself if you'd rather be an Afghan post-9/11 or Japanese or German post-1941.
We've come a long, long way, baby.
8
Don't bring "the left" into your head-shaking, Mr. Brooks. Your spin about the left embracing oppressive narratives, and something about "the left" not seeing America as a beacon, rings hallow. Hong Kongers lift up our glorious history of civil disobedience as a beacon of hope. Our politically left leaders are an example, a beacon. From Thoreau to Dr. King to Hong Kong.
6
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example."
This.
2
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example."
The NY Times reporter and originator of its "Project 1619", Nicole Hannah-Jones" repeatedly points out that the only US demographic group that has fully and continually embraced and believed the 1776 notion that "men are created equal" is its black citizenry. If that's not a continued "beacon or example" in the face of injustice, words have lost all meaning.
5
America as beacon for freedom is based on idea of American Exceptionalism which is not in synch with reality.There is nothing that America will do can influence actions of Communist China.Hongkong Chinese need to come into coexistence and understanding with the central government . Youth of Hong Kong should not be given false hopes and encouragement by Western countries which can result in bad outcomes with bloodshed like in Syria and Libya.Unipolar polar world influenced by USA has come to end
Dave, you forgot to mention that quite a number of those Hong Kong people own foreign passports, namely, Canada and US and yet they choose to risk being gassed and shot at by the know-no-bound police. Why? It's because they feel if they don't do anything they probably would regret it for the rest of their lives.
2
The protesters aren't there to rekindle a sense of democracy in us, Mr. Brooks. They're fighting one of the biggest bullies on the planet.
50
You miss his point. America is also fighting one of the biggest bullies on the planet.
3
Brooks is absurd to suggest the American left doesn't care about the United States being a beacon of freedom. We care about it more, not less, than the right, and always have. It is because we believe in democracy that we critique our own country, past and present. The wealthiest and most powerful nation ever need not shrink from self-evaluation and discussion of our past oppressive sins, double-standards, racism, hypocrisy. This is a strength, not a weakness. What the world should see in America is a people with the strength to be honest about their past and present shortcomings.
5
I'm trying to understand why a so far muted police response to protesters in Hong Kong is horrible and wicked but soldiers SHOOTING protesters and medical personnel in Gaza or the West Bank is just peachy.
I'm also trying to understand the differences between Brooks accusing the American left of embracing a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression and say AfD in Germany complaining that there is too much emphasis in German textbooks or culture on the Holocaust or right wing Japanese stating that too much attention is paid to "so-called" Japanese atrocities in WW2 in Korea or China.
Because I'm not seeing any differences.
2
Hats off to Hong Kong folks, true patriots ready, and willing, to defend their right to think, speak and act at will, now in a mortal fight with a despotic Communist regime, so insecure of itself, that it seems willing to crush the best movement showing strength in their beliefs of freedom, and justice; without them peace shall remain a distant dream. And the Communist Party a sick joke in trying to destroy basic human rights, in trying to remove benefits they (Xi) take for granted for themselves. Deeply shameful of course, for chairman Xi to act so cowardly; but even more shameful for our president to sit on the sidelines, complacent in his own egocentric insignificance.
1
We don't embrace slavery and oppression, we admit to it. Meanwhile the dreamers on the right have an image of the great white city on the hill, white being the key word. It's magical thinking, just like a religion. American exceptionalism excuses anything and ignores the difference between right and wrong. We "liberals" are the realists and this country could move forward if its real history were finally universally acknowledged.
2
Left or right, we are a less than stellar species overall. To try to deconstruct to political leanings is pretty simplifying. But David is always determined to do so, and never buries his bias.
1
I was thinking the other day how odd it feels to envy those folks in Hong Kong for taking to the streets.
76
@Dale Irwin
nothing is stopping us, I attend every rally that I can on the weekends for our democrat candidate, I talk to everyone ,if we dont stand up who will?
1
@Dale Irwin
Odd but true!
1
@Tony
Point well-taken. The last time I took to the streets was when the CFPB came to town to hold hearings on their proposed rule to curb, ever so slightly, the rapaciousness of payday lenders. My protest sign now simply serves to remind me to contribute to Elizabeth Warren’s campaign. I’m hoping we can still effect change here in the USA with our vote. But I will definitely attend a Warren rally when and if she makes it to KC.
3
Dangerous grounds for the United States government to comment on internal matters in China. Should we welcome suggestions from China on how handle internal matters in the United States?
It’s willfully ignorant to assert that the U.S. has promoted democracy abroad. A long history of lending financial and military aid to ruthless dictators, actively deposing legitimately elected heads of state, and training death squads to terrorize populations who dare to assert their human rights has been motivated only by the greed of our corporate (read “national”) interests.
1
Kevin: You say it all. The United Stated ill never learn. Vietnam, Iraq, Henry Kissinger. When it comes to foreign intervention both Democrats and Republicans have blood on their hand.
Everyone seems to forget Hong Kong is China.
Hong Kong is not Taiwan.
1
@HistoryRhymes Hong Kong is not a part of China like Shenzen and Shanghai are. To the extent the territory has legal autonomy, they want to keep it that way.
An editorial correction---the right used the spreading of democracy as a ploy to spread imperialism; the left asked America to first create a full democracy at home before spreading it abroad.
2
But slavery and oppression are the facts of the American history. It is maybe inconvenient, that the beacon and the shining example have such dark spots, but it is true. Of course, you can pretend that it did not ever happen, but it makes you a hypocrite not the 'shining example of democracy'.
1
“The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example.”
No, Mr. Brooks, I’m as left as you can get in America, and that’s a lie. My national narrative — the narrative of the Democratic Party — is that this country can and must again become a beacon of freedom. It’s not under the gangster dictator Donald Trump; it wasn’t under George W. Bush, with the most destructive foreign policy since 1776; it wasn’t under Ronald Reagan, who was paid to dismantle the middle class and succeeded. Our values were once embodied by FDR. To become a beacon we need to recover from the relentless 50-year assault on those values by the legions of paid thugs and gangsters who call themselves the Republican Party.
“Neither party any longer sees America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity.”
That next sentence is the story of David Brooks’ columns. It’s the paradigm for everything he writes. From one sentence to the next he shifts to moral equivalency and manages to leave out entirely the word “Republican.” The result is a lie.
The protesters in Hong Kong whom Brooks believes will light a new flame of freedom are going to be crushed, as Donald Trump and his government do nothing to help them. That, Mr. Brooks, is the legacy of your Republican Party: a preference for the destruction of freedom over its celebration. Your moral equivalence is the biggest lie of all.
6
David Brooks writes: “The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example.” He may be missing the larger point. The global appeal of American democracy has always been compromised by our racial history, which is at the heart of the struggle at home against Trump and Trumpism. Perhaps we need to reckon with that history before our beacon will shine again.
5
As we learned from the Egyptian democratic uprising, simply protesting is not enough. The protesters need a realistic, long term game plan that a majority can coalesce around. Because of the enormity and technological sophistication of the PRC, an outright revolution is nearly certain to fail. The protesters should look to incremental victories. As in Egypt, in the absence of a strategy those who value stability will tire of the disruptions and the revolt will lose its popular support.
You've said all. Hong Kong is part of China. The saddest part of the story is that many of the peaceful protestors support the destructive young thugs on the front line, who are essentially separatists. Many of them don't even believe they are Chinese. They call themselves Hong Kongers. China already has the upper hand.
If the United States had a real President, he would insist that China keep its treaty obligations. The deal was, "One Country, Two Systems." Freedom for Hong Kong is thus both a moral right, and a test of whether the Chinese Communists can be trusted to keep the terms of negotiations.
9
The ONLY way for the demonstrators that wish for Democracy will succeed is if America (or the west in general) supports them with actual and tangible actions - it is as simple as that.
For the moment, the United States is involved in a trade ''war'' (the President and republicans imposing crushing new taxes on Americans while ''negotiating'') and is hurting the American/global economy FAR more than it is hurting them.
Aye, there is more technology, and we can see far more of what is going on, but I would remind everyone of just one thing.
We saw the tanks roll in before (and the searing image of ONE man stand up for what was right - to be free).
HE, and that movement disappeared.
7
We would not be a democracy if we could not, if we did not, examine clearly and honestly every aspect of our past, and it's continuing impact on our lives. I, for one, deeply appreciate the current observation of the 400th anniversary of slavery in our country. To see America, the leader of freedom and democracy in the world, taking a hard and analytical look at the inhumane and anti-democratic strains in its past, strains that continue to stress its present situation, ought to be an inspiration of great value to those countries that smother the past and render their 'democracies' stunted and artificial. Enlarging the space for truth ought to enliven and inspire us to grow into an even greater example of freedom in the world. If we don't always struggle for truth no matter what it shows us, and take responsibility for it, we will sooner or later become a lesser and more sorry example of a of freedom, a democratic charade.
12
Mature adults, and those whose livelihood doesn't depend on promoting fiction, can freely accept this country's crimes along with its inspirations.
The Hong Kong protesters aren't embracing our corrupt political system, much less the politics of either or our suborned parties or our foreign policy
It's the American ideal, not the actual America, which may animate some of these protesters.
But, David, we get it: everything is the fault of the "left", for not buying illusions as required by the American Enterprise Institute, for insisting the planet is warming catastrophically, for not being content with a $17,000 ER bill, for wanting to raise your taxes and declining to bomb yet another country on the pretext of freedom and democracy.
11
There are Americans who "desire not to live in a rigged economy run for the benefit of state-favored oligarchs." Some of these Gloomy Guses remember what happened when we stepped in and helped Vietnam, El Salvador, Nicarauga, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya and many other unhappy places. Sad to say, these un-Americans doubt that America ever was "a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity." I hope that Mr. Brooks' sermon will have a tonic effect on them.
8
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example."
As a columnist Brooks can get away with this distortion. Acknowledging that slavery is a big part of the American story is not an "embracing" of it. Face to face he couldn't get away with saying something like this. Democrats have fought for the civil rights of all Americans, for the freedom of people to live their lives unhindered from religious oppression or political domination. They have fought for women's rights, gay rights, the rights of non whites, for the rights of asylum seekers fleeing for their lives. They have been champions of democracy while today's Republican party has found devious ways to create a tyranny of the minority to defy those democratic ideals.
61
@USS Johnston
WELL SAID!
1
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The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes and addresses our collective past so that we may become, alas, a beacon of freedom and equality.
19
Another 'dancing on the head of a pin' column by David Brooks!
RE helping Hong Kong and America not seeing: America is too preoccupied its own counter revolution in no position to be either lecturing or influencing world events.
RE democrats wasting their time with race issues: unfortunately that is the primary issue animating Mr. Trump's base. These modern "know-nothings" apparently represent 40 percent of the nation today and gaining control by gaming the system.
Like the Chinese of Hong Kong, we are in an existentialand Donald Trump is casually telling us the t "Xi is a smart guy and he will figure it out."
Wish David Brooks would figure it out. But I guess his toast is buttered by being the Republican voice in the Times stable of columnists. Tough road to walk.
8
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example. Neither party any longer sees America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity.".
This is not a statement that I would expect from an honest "intellectual", such as David Brooks. Because of the history of slavery in this country and the oppression of various "minorities"that has followed to this day, every American should be concerned about these ongoing domestic issues ,not just Democrats. But to then say that the left ( who are these people?) is not interested in human dignity over the entire world is a grossly unfair statement , made to bolster an argument that tries to put equal blame on the right and left. Why not call specifically out the current Trump and GOP government for ignoring Human Rights around the World and favoring Nationalism?
22
@George Zografi
Agreed! And hello to you, George, from a friend!
I have always appreciated the idealist in David Brooks. This doesn't mean I agree with everything he says, but I believe he tries to keep one eye on what America is supposed to mean, and not just commenting on what America does. Some people find this preachy; some believe that he is a hypocrite because he espouses these ideals while continuing to self-declare as a conservative thinker. But I'm OK with that.
Mr. Brooks understands the tensions and contradictions between the ideal of Americans spreading American democratic ideas to other nations, and what has actually happened in many cases. But he hangs onto the belief (and that is what it is - faith) that, at its core, America does in fact have something going that is valuable, affirming, courageous, and even loving. This, in spite of the evidence that we ourselves don't value those things much any more.
There is still more than a flicker in Liberty's torch, however. The protesters in Hong Kong can still see it gleaming. They cannot articulate exactly how America should help them in their search for something more than the PRC's authoritarian capitalism offers. Perhaps all they want is an affirmation that they are right, the PRC is wrong, and that America still means the things they hope it does.
19
While I won't defend the Chinese system—it's certainly not what I would want—Americans would do well to understand that the country has managed to bring hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in a very short time. That is a stunning accomplishment of which the Chinese government—and many of its people—are deservedly proud. It's one reason the Chinese won't buckle to American demands easily.
10
"There was the same indignant desire not to live in a rigged economy run for the benefit of state-favored oligarchs."
Just replace state-favored with corporate and you've just described the US Mr. Brooks. I don't know what country you're living in Mr. Brooks, but the one I live in has an economy as rigged as it can get.
24
@Angelo Sgro
EXACTLY!
In the 60s, the US sent their finest to Asia to fight for democracy. We all agree it was misguided.
Today, the US (Trump) does not as much pay lip service to those fighting for democracy.
6
America First, coupled with our assumption of democracy as a birth right, renders us as apathetic bystanders. Hong Kongers fear the inevitable. The Chinese will steamroll this literal "island of democracy" on their own terms at their own time. Godspeed to the courageous protesters!
9
A “democratic mission”? A belief in that “mission” is what brought us the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. If America has a mission, it is to act as the exemplary beacon of freedom, not as the hammer of Western zealotry.
8
"There was the same indignant desire not to live in a rigged economy run for the benefit of state-favored oligarchs."
You mean like the one We live ? The people in Hong Kong at least have the guts to take to the streets to protest the rigged system.
Americans permit themselves, in large numbers, to be duped by the oligarchs into blaming immigrants and minorities for their every woe. Indeed our Oligarchs have done an excellent job of turning Americans on each other, rather than on themselves.
33
There is nowhere to learn democracy. The schools teach civics, business concentrate on profits, and politicians focus on dividing the people to win elections. Our democracy today is about defeating the other side while compromise, the life blood of democracy, is a dirty word as we watch it fade in the rear view mirror in a cloud of fake news.
17
@Judith MacLaury well said. Compromise is the only real way to get things done that allows people to get some of what they want and need, in exchange for letting others get some of what they want and need. Compromise isn't something to be ashamed of, or weak. Compromise is being and adult about a situation and knowing that we always can't have everything we want, all the time.
5
@Judith MacLaury, do you think democracy isn't taught in civics classes? Maybe you should visit one of those classes. I don't think you can teach civics in the US without teaching democracy. It doesn't mean the past is whitewashed. I am a proud American but I can see our flaws as well as our good points. That's a mistake David Brooks is making too. He is a pessimist, seeing only the side of our country that brings up our flaws. I am an optimist. I believe in our ideals even though we don't always live up to them. I also understand we have to strive harder to reach those ideals p.
1
@Katherine Cagle
A nation divided against itself cannot stand. As the partisan chasm grows our democracy diminishes. We must learn to be the "united" states of America not blue states versus red states. That's what is not taught in the schools or anywhere else. The lessons we do get are all about how it works (i.e. government and voting), the basic machinery, not about how to feel and live it in your everyday existence.
Yes, I and the vast majority of Americans sympathize with the protesters in Hong Kong, at least theoretically. But I question what can be done on a practical basis. UN condemnation? This wouldn’t even register a blip on China’s radar screen. Tariffs? We needn’t go there. I trust that armed intervention is out of the question for rational people. I’m afraid that jawboning is the only weapon we possess and I doubt it will bear much fruit. For better or worse, Hong Kong is a part of China and subject to the government of China. I’m certain that many millions living on the Chinese mainland would very much also like to have the freedoms that Hong Kongers are demanding. How are we able to assist them? What practical measures could we take? I applaud the aims of the Hong Kong protestors but I believe that these protests are just one step on a very long process that will eventually lead to a more democratic China. China has never been and never will be like the West and we should stop expecting such. First of all, the Chinese think in terms of centuries, not years. It is not in their national character to do otherwise and we should accept that reality. Expecting, nay, demanding some overnight miraculous change in Chinese thinking to produce democracy in China is foolish and counterproductive.
4
Managing change is hard. Democracy is hard and perhaps a Sisyphean task. It is hard to grasp why the Chinese government wants to make this so hard in Hong Kong. Are they afraid that HK will infect the rest of China with a rabbleous demand for personal freedom, or is it an obsessive desire for compliance and uniformity, leading to the Uighurs persecution. One would hope that China would realize that the ancient ways are going away, that is why they are growing and getting strength. Putting down a minor rebellion in HK will hurt them in the long run, or will stifle their march toward world acceptance, or force them to invent a new way to suppress the masses.
1
David Brook again makes same mistake like Trump of equating right to left. Right has destroyed any international collaboration for democracy, human right and environment. It is right that promoted intolerance in US, It is right that has supported dictators every where. Left never did these things. Left never abandoned the right of common person. There is no comparison.
27
@Kumar
Left never did these things? The left has had a " crush" on every dictator in the Soviet Union, China and Cuba.
The "America beacon and example" turned its back to Ho Chi Min when he believed he could count on our support to dismantle colonialism. He got 15 years of war in return.
Even Castro believed he had done us a favor by getting rid of the Mafia empire nominally ruled by Batista. Instead?
The history of liberation movements all over Africa repeats the same pattern over and over. Inspired by the words and proclamation of love of liberty and fight against tyranny, they turned to us in the naive expectation that we meant what we said. It was a perfect bait and switch: we betrayed them and our own principles, and sided with the interests of big business and big money to support military dictatorships around the globe.
Too many examples to count.
26
Unfortunately, the US made the strategic error of assuming that if we got China to open up, become part of the world economic order, it would eventually become an open democracy rather than the authoritarian regime it was, under the excuse of being a people's republic.
Well, all we did was give the authoritarians in Beijing the economic power to rule more effectively, give China the resources to act in more ruthless ways, now under the dictator-for-life, Xi.
He will not tolerate democracy within China; "liberty" and freedom" are concepts contrary to the basis of authoritarian government and will be killed off. China now has the ability effectively make east Asia it's fiefdom and will do so. It will end badly, whether in a military or economic war. Hong Kong will simply be a quaint memory of another time when people thought China could go another way.
9
David, you lost me with this paragraph. If I were your editor, I would have asked for a rewrite. The American left is capable of illuminating our nation’s history of slavery and oppression, while at the same time supporting Hong Kong’s residents by demonstrating in our own streets.
@MassBear - "China now has the ability effectively make east Asia it's fiefdom…"
Yeah, well we've repeatedly tried to make it our "fiefdom" and have repeatedly had our butts kicked. Maybe time to end dreams of Empire and world hegemony?
"Neither party any longer sees America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity."
How did this mission work out in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya? The idea that America has a duty to impose its will on other countries for their own good is undermined by the complete unwillingness to reckon with the failures of this approach beyond a shrug and a mumbled "we meant well."
10
Well, David, look what they have done to Bernie, a man who stood up for the dignities of others, and not when it was convenient, either. And what does he get? When I think of how Bernie has been treated, I’m ashamed of my country.
2
@rebecca1048 The same Bernie that supported the autocratic governments of Maduro, Kirschner and Correa in 2012?
"These days, the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today than they are in the land of Horatio Alger. Who's the banana republic now?"
He would be supporting China today.
3
@Paquito
Oh ya right. Well, the things I hear him hollering for don’t remind of the what I know about conditions in China.
This quote is remarkably revealing, "The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example. Neither party any longer sees America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity." Isn't the question, what is an accurate representation of our history?
For Mr. Brooks the US must deny its long past of enslaving humans and then disenfranchising its citizens to be a "beacon" of democracy. No, I disagree. Eliding the truth of our oppressive history would be closer to the position of the Beijing government while striving to empower all citizens, including oppressed minorities like those in Hong Kong, would bring us closer to a true democracy.
17
I disagree. I think what David Brooks is saying is that the more energetic conversation is about slavery and oppression. What is not happening right now is a multifaceted conversation, where slavery and oppression are acknowledged alongside the positive role this country has played and may play in the future.
8
@Kathleen Stone I’m not old enough to remember the US government promoting democracy abroad and I’m almost 40. It’s not a narrative of “slavery and oppression” on the left that’s holding support for democracy back. It’s the US government not supporting democracy. I can name dozens of countries where we’ve supported right wing dictators over democratic movements during my lifetime. I don’t even know what David Brooks is talking about. When did we ever support democracy? The Egyptian coup we supported was like 6 years ago and we’re trying to force a a coup in Venezuela right now, which whatever that mess is, isn’t principled support for Venezuelan democracy.
1
@Cody
You haven't been paying attention then. Go to the library and dig out the magazines about the "Democracy revolution" of the 1990s.
That the U.S. record of promoting democracy and liberal societies isn't perfect, everyone will grant. Too often we have been venal in our priorities or foolish in our strategies or tactics. But the record isn't all bad; it is mostly a credit. We should learn form the mistakes to be better, not to give up.
Venezuela, which you mention, is a case in point. In the past we have often used military force to try to compel outcomes on nations--and have learned just how stupid that is. So today, even the retrograde Trump administration--stocked with lovers of armed coercion--is obliged by the lessons of the past to instead opt for cooperation with multi-lateral diplomatic and economic pressure designed to benefit the civilian movement attempting to Maduro's coup and restore democracy. (Whether their measures are providing that movement with a boost is another questions. The Trump administration is not noted for its competence.)
Perhaps the American story of making it appear like we are enlightened and have exorcised our demons is anything but. We may not be able to intervene here, but Trump could certainly cheer on the protestors. But he won't because there's no money to be made doing that. And if he did, he would be welcoming dissent, something he, himself, throws out of his own rallies. So this will be like many other things: Iran, global warming, Brexit, mistreatment of other people, and so on that the rest of the world will fall on one side, Trump and the U.S. on the other. And the Russians will widen their smug smile. Thinking they will be the one to fill the void.
5
The U.S. could return to promoting democracy by promoting something it has that no other nation does: unconditional freedom of speech. Without actually attacking any other nation's system, this would implicitly call into question the legitimacy of any regime that can't accept unregulated criticism. And they know who they are...
8
The Hong Kong protest s will fail this time, but it won't be the end of dissent in Hong Kong or China. As more and more Chinese citizens prosper and observe democracy in action, the will eventually produce a Gorbachev-like leader who will lead the Politburo into the light. Even totalitarians get bored and restive. As the lifestyles of the rich and free proliferate, the bureaucrats will want to be free of the burden of confining the population politically. Like kids who get ant farms as gifts, they will eventually tire of controlling the "rat race" and leave the ants alone, and move on to a less predictable search for satisfaction.
3
And while I'm at it, I could also point out, David, that you can't even manage "a shift of consciousness" from Republican to Democrat. But do tell the rest of us how to change the world.
14
David, for some reason you mischaracterize the American left with a false generalization here. Contrary to your statement, the American left is indeed fully backing basic principles of democracy and the U.S. constitution, and not being fixated on "slavery and oppression" as your narrative says.
When in 2020 we get a Democratic president who upholds those constitutional principles, you will see a proper focus and aid put on Hong Kong and its courageous, freedom-loving citizens. Something clearly absent with our oligarchic GOP and the emolument-focused grifter in the White House.
24
While most of this column expresses my hopes, I disagree with the concern that American will not step in.
Sorry, but we really cannot defend Hong Kong. Nor could we defend Georgia. Nor were we able to defend the Hungarians in 1956.
We also could perhaps have applied pressure were we not also in a trade war but that side bar has taken away any chance to help Hong Kong.
Hong Kong was and remains Chinese territory. They will likely win this one.
9
@Terry McKenna
You're quite right. Nor did we get involved in Czechoslovakia in 1968. There have always been limits to US geopolitical power, and a certain degree of caution is in order, especially when other great powers (nuclear armed ones at that) are involved.
But at least in that earlier era, America's president (neither Ike nor LBJ) didn't actively disdain democracy, nor openly take the side of authoritarians, as the current one does.
15
@Jasper that adds to how ridiculous that situation is for Americans who love freedom and democracy.
"My guess is that if technology helps the protesters become 30 percent more effective, it helps the state become 70 percent more effective."
There is an explanation for your observation. The American information technology companies have helped the Chinese Communist Party with everything from facial recognition technology to artificial intelligence. The Chinese have hacked into the American technology and defense companies too. The technology industries in other countries (including Israel) have helped the Chinese Communists too. And yes, China has been busy improving developing its own surveillance and population control technology to suppress the Uyghur muslims in Xinjiang. The Chinese Communist regime clearly has the advantage over the people of Hong Kong.
The people in Hong Kong are on their own in 2019 just as the people in Hungary were in 1955, the people in Prague were in 1968 and the people in Tiananmen Square were in 1989.
10
As the soul and spirit of what used to be known as America seems to have left the building, the rest of the world has no choice but to go it alone. Regardless of whether that's good, bad or in between, it's the truth, and the sooner it's realized, the better. Time to get our own house in order before it's too late.
Vote.
17
"There was the same indignant desire not to live in a rigged economy run for the benefit of state-favored oligarchs."
These days, it feels as if ordinary, working-class Americans are living in a rigged economy run for the benefit of state-favored oligarchs in the form of banks, lobbying groups like the NRA and corporations such as Koch Industries which use campaign contributions, biased think tanks and fact-free media outlets to influence (bribe) politicians and voters.
GOP policies from Reagan to this day have sought to foster economic inequality, which translates to loss of well-paying jobs with benefits, repeated attempts to repeal the ACA, tax avoidance by the wealthiest, failure to address climate change, failure to attend to our infrastructure needs, erosion of our education system, failure to adequately fund our regulatory agencies, the packing of our judiciary system with conservative judges, failure to adequately manage immigration, failure to implement rational gun control, etc.
To date, no officer of any bank has been convicted of and jailed for the massive mortgage-related securities fraud perpetrated by any American "oligarch" on the US that nearly took down the entire global economy following the 2008 crisis. Indeed, the banks were financially rescued by us taxpayers, while the rest of us lost jobs during the recession, live off our savings and "wait" 'til the economy recovered 10 yrs. later.
Are we still a "beacon" or example? Not with Tweety in charge...
22
One of your best columns, Mr. Brooks.
The problem for the minons in the U.S., is that we have been beaten down by the political class, whose avarice and disregard for a country that, at least on paper, preached caring foe one another. But, the issue and the difficulty for America, is more insidous. We are all guilty of ignoring James Madison's vision for our country, as he expressed it the Constitution:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
We are not yet here at the the stage that Hong Kongers are: Fed up with being fed up!
8
The saddest part of this opinion piece is Brooks' assessment:
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example"
Because it is so true. Liberalism has degenerated into being little more than the victim sweepstakes. The American left spends its energy trying to show the world how awful this country is, except to maybe rich white men (who are the perpetrators of everything indecent).
Why should any country aspire to be like us if this is who we are?
9
@Travelers
I agree, and I'm a longtime member of the American left. The left rightly strives for justice at home, but generally speaking are hypocritical beyond our shores. Thucydides' observation that "the strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must" is even more true globally than it is domestically, and yet most of my fellow partisans on the left have abdicated any sense of responsibility for supporting the weak abroad. That this has happened in part by the Iraq debacle and by neocons discrediting of US support for democracy promotion abroad doesn't make it right.
3
@Travelers
Perhaps the first step towards finding our way is a frank assessment of how and where we left the path.
3
@Dale Irwin
Yes, Dale, that seems to be the consistent refrain.
Yet, it is a view that distorts human nature.
Human beings are, innately, brutes. We are no different from other animals except that our capacity to kill far exceeds that of other animals.
Yet in this country, we have risen very far above our human natures. Is there farther to rise? Of course.
But the left these days doesn't see that bigger picture. To them, we are defined by how much farther we can rise instead of by a melting of how far our country has aspired to be better than our natures and how often we have been successful with the problems that remain.
It is a sad lack of awareness of how much better this country has been, for a very long time, than any other country in any other part of history, and of how much we have done for the world.
It is the pride in what we have accomplished that will result in change, not the constant "frank assessment of how and where we left the path." All that does is lead to despair. And all it does is lead to anger--not to action.
When I was a child in Veteran's Village my first playmate was a black child. My parents caught grief from the other Veterans. My father: "he fought too." We have come from that to a Black President, the most awesome man on the planet.
We have a lot to be proud of. The left doesn't believe that, to our peril.
6
Honestly I expected China in the 90"s, when the Land Lease with Britain was over, to become a closed society then.
The only reason the two separate but one Country lasted as long as it did is because the Chinese were smart enough to let Hong Kong's Capitalistic society continue so they would have the money and the backing of the businesses based in Hong Kong to thrive, in order to bring Mainland China the prosperity it so desperately needed. The Chinese have the amazing ability and patience to look and wait because of their "Long View" capabilities. They are a patient culture. and one with thousands of years of history on their side
America has never had that kind of patience or many leaders who take the long view.
Now we are where we are. Capitalism run amok, Freedoms being diminished more than ever under the Trump Administration and the Congressional Republicans. Morality and ethics a thing of the past. Party above Country. Precisely what is going on in China.
Why are we not protesting in the Streets? Because most people in the United States are working 60 to 80 hour workweeks in order to support their families. We seem to value screen time more than healthy discussions of real problems in this Country. This country has candy coated our past History. It used to be that families would discuss what was going on at the family dinner table. Now there are hardly any family dinners. Capitalism is not working for most citizens.
Our only hope is our next election.
5
Some of us who consider ourselves "moderate/centrist" feel caught in a terrible vise. On one side we see perpetual warfare brought on, at least ostensibly, to ensure the spread of democracy and, despite Mr. Brooks' statement, apparently still a favorite of the right wing. On the other side we see lamentations of woe from people who find nothing good about the country we live in. We are perhaps in the same situation as Hari Kumar/Harry Coomer in volume 1 of Paul Scott's Raj Quartet when he foresaw that the decline of national loyalty would lead to ethnic warfare. Is that where we're headed?
4
@JPE
I don't think it is as simplistic as that.
It is a veritable mess in this country at this point.
All you have to do is look at both sides with a logical eye, not as right or left factions, and then let your logic and analysis guide you.
The answer is not simple either.
As nothing is black and white, shades of ugly grey.
But choosing much lesser evil over worst is what it boils down to, like anything else in life.
Decency, respect for others and social justice wins in the end and thus one does land up on the side of the left.
5
Having lived in Hong Kong in the 90s, I cannot see these people backing down. My heart is with them.
12
Hong Kong is a Chinese problem like Trump is an American problem. Cutting to the nitty gritty, Mr. Brooks, American democracy is gone with the wind today, and so is China's two systems, one country. So is our divided U.S.
America is divided like China, just different players in the same world domination game of nationalism run amok. Aren't we all fighting for human rights? For freedom, no matter how we define it in this century?
1
Thank you for this column.
The Chinese, with a long term view of things, will probably be happy to give Trump a face saving trade "deal" if he is willing to assert that Hong Kong is a "Chinese problem," and continues to offer little resistance to their ongoing cultural genocide against the Uyghurs. I am sure that he, and his sycophantic party, will find that acceptable.
Not that long ago, the GOP would have been reminding both the Chinese and Americans how freedom and liberty are not only the goals, but the human rights that belong to all individuals as laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Currently the Trump administration has a committee "re-examining" our commitment to that document as it may get in the way of "economic goals". This is the "new normal," and we are dying the death of a thousand cuts.
Today the protesters in Hong Kong remind us that large numbers of people in the streets create a powerful statement that governments, political parties and the world press cannot dismiss.
If the political stalemate of congress precludes impeachment, and the moral debasement of the GOP precludes Trump's removal under the 25th Amendment, we need to remember this.
8
We Americans are not talking about freedoms as much as we did in times past. We aren't dreaming about futures the way we used to.
We've allowed ourselves to be somewhat like a lap dog, just trying to get through each day. Our spirits have been numbed by all this doubling down and fear of strangers crossing our shores and our borders.
We have had male rule since the beginning of our country and the world's had it since humans first stood upright. Maybe, just maybe, we can hold on to the passion for freedom if we try something never done before in this country, namely,
elect a woman - she certainly could not be worse than what we have.
And who knows, she just may be great. One thing is for sure, she won't wake up every morning or turn out the lights every night thinking only of herself.
Elizabeth Warren or Donald Trump.
The choice is ours.
10
Prospects for freedom in Hong Kong with respect to China?
I don't believe Hong Kong can resist China at all and I think the fate of Hong Kong tells us plenty in the "Free World" about our freedoms. I can't tell how many times in my life I have heard of Hong Kong being not just a sophisticated city but one of the densest concentrations of high I.Q. people in the world.
Yet we rarely if ever have heard over the decades of individual names of people from Hong Kong, namely evidence of actual individuality, democracy, people with individual lives, and today Hong Kong resisting China is just an amorphous mass, a faceless crowd, which makes us ask why bother with resistance at all when apparently Hong Kong is already just a mass of people, that for all I.Q. power the people all apparently think alike, that long ago leadership, individuality, defiance was trained out of them?
And it's a joke hearing about the protests in Hong Kong from official media outlets in the U.S. You have in Hong Kong a faceless, protesting mass reported on from the U.S. by the usual insiders in the news and media, the usual well protected teams of people always ready to be voice of knowledge and control, leaving their own people and people abroad not of insider status as merely protesting mass if reported on at all.
Everywhere today seems herd, with individuality actually safe, officially stamped face of brand, political/economic position, piece of entertainment, etc. What actual face of protest exists?
1
Years ago I read a wonderful, irreverent reference book entitled "An Incomplete Education". In the American Studies section there were two categories: "What you were supposed to learn in High School" and "What you didn't learn until College". As you can imagine, the former was more hagiographic; the latter far less flattering. I'm reminded of this when I read Mr. Brooks. I think that he, like all of us, is a bit deluded in his way, but always means well. I applaud his break with the GOP and I share his revulsion with Trump. He's making great strides, but doesn't fully appreciate the trajectory described above. He keeps getting confused by the fact that "what you were supposed to learn in high school" and "what you didn't learn until college" aren't equivalents, but rather complements. The left doesn't embrace a narrative of slavery and oppression. It simply understands that the college curriculum requires us to own it. Meanwhile, the right has devolved into some kind of primitive grammar school playground. Really, there is no comparison.
41
@g. harlan
The distinction you quote ("What you were supposed to learn in High School" and "What you didn't learn until College".) is why the right wing attacks university curricula under the guise of "free speech" but is mum on free speech in K-12 contexts where there is far more indoctrination and far less free speech. The issue isn't "free" speech, they are trying to stifle the teaching, learning, and discussion of anything other than "what you were supposed" to learn about American history, culture, economics, politics. If they were truly interested in free speech, critical thinking, etc. they would be striving to diversify the speech of mass education.
5
@I dont know, this reminds me of the fourth-grade Virginia history book of my childhood. I still have that textbook for some reason. When I recently started reading it I was astounded at the propaganda. Of course there were wonderful examples (Patrick Henry's Give me liberty speech) of heroic people but there were also fantastical stories like George Washington cutting down the cherry tree and good slave owners. Today's curriculum has made great strides in covering the good, bad, and ugly of American history but in too many communities parents and politicians want to leave out anything critical of our country.
There is something tragic about the Hong Kong protests.
Under British rule the are was on paper less democratic than it is now. But London was motivated to justify its colonialism and made an effort to listen to the people of Hong Kong and their problems and to help them.
Beijing on the other hand is focused on integrating the area. For that purpose it has concluded an alliance with Hong Kong's oligarchs. It is a classic neo-colonialist coalition that excludes the local population.
8
@Wim Roffel
Hong Kong is part of China though.
It wasn't "on paper" less democratic. It was not democratic at all. Hong Kong was stolen by the British as a result of the Opium War.
Neither the British, nor the Dutch, or French or any other European colonialist power made any attempt to listen to colonial subjects or solve their problems. That's insane. Look to the Amritsar Massascre or the Rawagede Massacre to see how the British and Dutch listened and responded to the problems of colonial subjects.
The Europeans were there to rape the land (and people) of resources and transfer wealth to Europe. Well that era ended.
Whatever else China is, in Hong Kong at least, it is not a colonial power.
David. there is more to it.
YES, the young in Hong Kong fight for freedom. But, if you had asked them, the Yellow Vests in France, and those who voted for Brexit would have told you that they,too, fought for freedom.
Underneath the quest for freedom is despair. The young of Hong Kong see no future. Salaries for University educated are lower than in 1987. Rents are non affordable and increase every day. More and more live in "Cage Apartments". They can not start families
And they see that this is driven by immigration from the mainland - still much poorer than Hong Kong. Thousands and thousands streaming in, that forcing up rents and force down wages.
Read the South China Morning Post, David
"Hong Kong university graduates take home less pay than counterparts 30 years ago and one in six ends up in unskilled job, study finds"
Median monthly starting salary of university graduate was HK$14,395 last year, compared with HK$20,231 in 1987"
SCMP, 12/18/2018
15
Brooks illuminates the tactics of the protesters (and somehow grossly underestimates the violence). The protesters are not all polite, just look at the airport sit-ins.
In the process, Brooks has not explained why the protests are happening. He has also forgotten that the vast majority of Hong Kong celebrated when the British lease, that relic of colonialism ran out.
I suggest that Brooks and colleagues do some in-depth analysis about the various trends in Hong Kong instead of this superficial stuff. hong Kong people deserve better analysis..
4
@Svirchev HKers celebrated because they were granted secure terms in basic law, with a promise of democratic elections. Beijing since reneged on those promises, hence the anger.
20
It's unwise at best and possibly immoral to start a conflict you cannot win. Consider if Miami decided they wanted to be free and independent of the United States. Even if their cause was just, it simply would never happen.
Having lived in Hong Kong, I am very sympathetic to the people there. But they need to work for something that is actually achievable.
1
@Greg I guess they should just roll over and give up, eh?
And by the way, Miami is not in a treaty relationship with Washington with special guarantees regarding local autonomy, which is exactly what Hong Kong's relationship to China is. The protesters are trying to force Beijing to honor its commitments. Your analogy is bunk.
@Greg
*****It's unwise at best and possibly immoral to start a conflict you cannot win. Consider if Miami decided they wanted to be free and independent of the United States.*****
Hong Kongers are NOT demanding independence from China, so this metaphor is utterly wrong.
They do want, democracy, though, and if Miami demanded that, I certainly hope the United States wouldn't have any objections.
I think it would probably be counter-productive if America was seen in anyway as instigating or encouraging the protests.
1
"These people have already lived it (freedom)." When precisely did HK 'citizens' have the right to vote for their leaders in the British Dependent Territory, or representatives in England? When were the British governors selected by the HK people? David's winsome belief in the democratic history of HK, not unlike the U.S. belief that they had a 'revolution' when refusing to pay taxes on tea, would be amusing if it weren't the same historic delusion fed to young Chinese citizens with genuine economic problems that choose to embrace a Stockholm syndrome affection for British imperialism. .
3
@john Where do you come up with this stuff? Is it driven by some sort of raging Anglophobia?
Back in 1997, Britain and China SIGNED A TREATY guaranteeing a degree of local autonomy and self-government for 50 years. In recent years Beijing has been trying to chip away at HK's special status in all sorts of insidious ways, and that's driven people there to push back with protests.
To the extent that anybody in HK is asking for the old system back, its probably not because they want to go back to the Victorian age but because personal freedoms were by-and-large a lot safer under the Crown in comparison to the current situation in which, again, A TREATY COMMITMENT is not being upheld.
11
@john Hong Kongers have been living with freedom of expression and trustworthy rule of law. Now that is being taken away by force
@Don Carleton
"personal freedoms were by-and-large a lot safer under the Crown". Classic neo-colonial pabulum. Long live the Queen.
This may sound naïve, but I sense that the underlying contradiction within the CCP is the assumption that most everyone of Chinese ethnicity in the Sino-sphere must be attached to the motherland (祖国) simply because "we are all Chinese; hence, we belong together, united in a communal effort, be it in Macau, Hong Kong or Taiwan".
(At the moment "together", of course, implies "loyal to the party".)
But that is an absolute nonsense, a denial of freedom of self-determination. In the modern world, has any other ethnicity, cultural group asserted the same claim to ethno-political hegemony? Those that have are rightly regarded as backward, primitive in their understanding of human rights.
Hong Kong people, surely, wish their lives to improve; but, to many of them, on deep consideration since long before 1997 (回歸), what PRC represents does not seem like the optimal road to improvement. PRC does not even feel very much like a 祖國 (homeland), at least to the younger generation.
As far as I can tell, they do not hate China; they would simply prefer not to be a part of it.
"We do not want to belong to you. We feel we have a better road to follow."
This, however, is a human sentiment, in the form of deeply held aspirations, the Chinese state is simply incapable of comprehending, of allowing for.
When will the CCP wake up to human diversity?
17
@An American in Sydney
One cannot 'wake-up to human diversity' in a country where more than 90% of the population is 'Han', where 9.9% of the 'minorities' are indistinguishable in appearance from the Han Chinese, where there is no factions based on Religion, where there is one political party, where there is one 'common' national language, and where there is an ancient unitary culture based on family and feudal obligations. What is a better question is why Westerners are unable to perceive this unique status of 1.4 billion of the earth's population. In answer to your question, even Japan and Israel and Mid-Eastern Kingdoms possess a greater diversity in race and religion. China is unique among the world's nations. Diversity is a powerful force. Commonality is also powerful. Neither is universal.
1
@An American in Sydney
And Americans are allowing the same thing to happen here in the States by voting for a Republican Senate and GOP Administration who are doing nothing about the problems we face.
They are slowly diminishing our Freedoms.
Or actually have stepped up the abolishing of our Freedoms Voting Rights by Gerrymandering, Freedom of Choice, Citizens United which has allowed the 1% and Corporations to actually manipulate our elections, rig the Taxes in favor of the 1% and Corporations and Human Rights issues here in this Country.
4
@john
"9.9% of the 'minorities' are indistinguishable in appearance from the Han Chinese" ...
but, they are not Han Chinese, in either language or culture.
There's a robust challenge for the party right there! Because there is unrecognized diversity, ignored distinctions.
The entire population of PRC was not meant to be Sinicized, I'd suggest.
This is something the party is utterly blind to.
2
Freedom is a beacon that burns hot and and deep. While America remains a work in progress and we are certainly challenged by that these days. While there is no assurances that Hong Kong will be successful immediately what we do know is that the courage and determination of people for freedom and justice will prevail. We must be that beacon of hope and light, supporting others in the push for a more just and free world for all.
9
It's too early to say how this wiill play out, and what role Trump might later adopt in this context. Right now Trump is standing up to the Chinese leadership on trade. It's possible that his example is inspiring some stiffening of the spine in Hong Kong. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump eventually stakes out some firmer support for the protestors, at least in a verbal way. Nobody wants a war, but this episode along with the trade battle suggests that the party leadership is not as solid as Xi would like everyone to think. Nobody thought the Soviet leadership would crumble, either, but it did. My visits to China suggest that there is considerable interest even outside Hong Kong in more freedom. Through technology and travel, the people of China are watching what freedom looks like in the U.S., and they like what they see. The U.S. doesn't necessarily have to do anything to kindle a passion for freedom.
1
David .. You speak for yourself, not me or them. “They like what they see here”.. You are kidding???? I hope
David Brooks seems remarkably pessimistic in his opinion.
Yes, the Chinese Communist government is much more powerful than what a little city at the South of China can do. Yes, they have committed atrocities in their few decades of rule (the concentration camps for Uighurs in Northern China for example)
But what people of Hong Kong (or as we call ourselves, the Hongkongers) have shown the world is that you can try. We are doing all that we can, in both peaceful and occasionally more drastic manners, to stand up for our freedom. While nobody will know how this wave of protests will end, we all share the same belief. The Communist Chinese government can try all they can, but once an idea is there, they will never be able to kill it.
13
We know the Republicans have abdicated all their core values in service of easy money and temporary power. But your point about the American left is just as accurate yet rarely talked about. When one mentions the notion of US as bastion and exemplar of freedom and democracy, left leaners (especially those 30 and under) give the eye roll and say something like “we are a racist patriarchy that should get off our high horse — who are we to say we are a beacon to anyone?” I understand their point but their vision is too limited. If they traveled to Hong Kong, or many other places around the globe, or even talked to overseas students from China, Iran, Russia, Turkey or Hungary they might get a sense that the ideals underlying the US still have great meaning around the world. People Fromm these countries can draw on these ideals. And in so doing they can remind us to remember who we are. The very freedom to criticize the patriarchy and racism proves that these defects are not all that we are and have been.
14
@Cal Prof I agree wholeheartedly.
When I think of all our historical shortcomings, it seems to me that that knowledge should be a spur to do better, both at home and abroad.
If the US is to atone for its past, one way would to help get there would be to be the very best global citizen we can be, although I realize that the devil's in the foreign-policy details....And it is sort of a lost cause until we have a "regime change" here at home first.
5
@Cal Prof
“we are a racist patriarchy that should get off our high horse — who are we to say we are a beacon to anyone?"
You say you like democracy but you use snaril words to talk down to the only people defending it.
Compared to most of Europe. America is a backwards third world nation.
I'm based in HK, and there's plenty of graffiti. It's all over the place (not normally, of course, I had never seen any until the protests).
The Lennon Walls the Mr. Brooks cites, however, really are all that one imagines and more. I spent more than an hour at one, even then taking in just a bit of what is on display. And even though many messages are in the beautiful Traditional Chinese Characters favoured by the locals, which I cannot read, the overarching message is clear and powerful.
Noone knows where this will end, but however it does end, the Hong Kong people will be able to know that they tried to push the discourse, to stand up for their dignity, and to hope to slow and guide the reabsorption to China. I wish them well on their efforts.
28
@Matt, nothing can beat the graffiti in Athens!
65,853,514 U.S. citizens voted against the current incompetent in the White House. Call it the left's protest vote. He lost. And yet, in a country thought-to-be a democracy (it's not), our leadership rules with no real mandate. We are controlled by the tyranny a minority. Then, when those on the left dare question the direction our country is taking, they are accused of being "unpatriotic, unAmerican or worse." I'd be willing to bet that if Americans took to the streets in protest today, the first thing the right-wing media would declare is that "anarchists are attempting to thwart the rule-of-law," or worse, they would worry that some poor shop owner's window would be broken or David Brooks might get hurt in a scuffle. You know, when it comes to protest and resistance in the U.S., talk is cheap. When was the last time anyone here was involved in or even saw an effective, large-scale protest?
64
@mrfreeze6
You apparently were not there for the Women's March in Seattle in Jan. 2017?
The contrast between that, and what happened when I was in Chicago in 1968 for the Democratic Convention was amazing. In Seattle we had 175,000 people marching with no violence at all. Trump HATES any display of large numbers of folks that oppose him, and you can bet that it has an effect. It might be the tipping point to get a critical mass of GOP sycophants to sense the turning of the tide and jump ship...then watch them abandon him in droves!
We can, and should, safely take to the streets again, or better yet, call a national strike...all it takes is the right spark, and no organizers trying to focus the message too tightly. I'm waiting for the spark, and I think I am not alone.
2
@mrfreeze6
The Woman's March comes to mind
2
@mrfreeze6 Exactly.
Hong Kongers are dead, fired, or otherwise crushed already, even if they don't know it. Just ask anyone who works for Cathay Pacific. David Brooks is right: China -- the government -- gains more advantages from technology than do the people. (Thank you, Google, for helping the Chinese govt.)
And America? We just want to do business. We'd rather sell iPhones to 1.4 billion enslaved Chinese, than support democracy for a few million Hong Kongers (at our own cost, for heaven's sake!).
What Brooks wrote is worth repeating: "Many suspect that China will eventually crush these protests. They’ll round up leaders and force businesses to fire participants. Many suspect America will never step in to help. The American right no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners. The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example. Neither party any longer sees America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity."
I expect this of Republicans, but why have no Democrats stepped forward to help Hong Kong?
13
@Unconventional Liberal, and just what would you have Democrats do? I lived through the building of the Berlin Wall and the uprisings in Eastern Europe and saw the futility of helping the protestors. Each time I and other Americans saw our hopes dashed. Even in 1989, I feared the same result and was astounded that the protestors at last had won the battle. I support the Hong Kong protestors but don't see anything practical I can do. Trump has no sway with the Chinese government because he is compromised because of his trade war with China. We have intervened in Vietnam Nam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Serbia and other countries. Serbia is our only successful intervention. So just tell me, what do you want Democrats, or anyone else to do?
"There’s no pro-democracy graffiti in Hong Kong, no posters or T-shirts, no day-to-day sign that anything is happening."
One must question whether Brooks might benefit from spending more time in various parts of Hong Kong, or step outside the hotel at all.. One can spot messages spray painted in most neighborhoods around the city, not to mention the Lennon Walls which are put up as soon as some goon tears them down.
12
Years of pent-up fury over the corrosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy, the rigging of the political system, and widening inequality, finally erupted. The extradition bill, which would allow the government to detain and transfer people to mainland China, sparked the eruption, but it was the last straw, not the root cause.
Many young people feel they have no future. They see the economy controlled by a cartel of tycoons in collusion with the government.
They see no chance of change for the better. The chief executive is not accountable to the citizens of Hong Kong. She is appointed by and answers to China. The legislature is structured in favour of special interests and parties subservient to Beijing, with only half the seats filled by direct elections.
There's only change for the worse: booksellers abducted to the mainland in 2016, Beijing’s jurisdiction extended to the express rail terminus a Financial Times journalist expelled, foreigners critical of China denied entry, disrespect for the national anthem to be criminalised, and now protesters and bystanders beaten up while the police look away. The chief executive voice more concern over superficial damage to Beijing’s liaison office by protesters, than serious injuries to innocent people inflicted by thugs befriended by a pro-Beijing legislator.
With no moral authority to lead counting only on Beijing’s support, Chief Executive Carrie Lam will haplessly muddle through at the expense of 7.4 million people in Hong Kong.
37
@Kim, "Many young people feel they have no future. They see the economy controlled by a cartel of tycoons in collusion with the government." For a second there, I thought you were referring to the way things work in the U.S.
62
@Kim
All terribly dreadful signs giving reason to why young people feel they have no future in Hong Kong.
But I don't understand why the protests have no leaders and no statement as to what they want. What do they want? There's an emptiness to the protests - wandering the streets weekend after weekend. Other than the original extradition law being removed, that is.
1
@Kim, young people in the US are saddled with college debt up to their eyebrows. They have postponed marriages. Postponed owning homes. Postponed having children and put their own future on hold. Unless of course if you are a trust fund kid. And your parents are still giving you a huge allowance into your 30s...
1
The American idea remains a beacon. The American reality, beguiled by material abundance, has succumbed to greed, self-righteousness and sloth. The noble original idea can still be recovered, but it will be a battle. The first step will be to see the current reality clearly. Until it gets its own ship in order, present-day America will have nothing of spiritual value to offer Hong Kong or anyplace else.
20
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example."
The New York Times has been publishing a series of outstanding articles as part of the "1619 Project." The title of one article reads "American Capitalism Is Brutal. You Can Trace It to the Plantation." It does emphasize slavery and oppression and not America as a beacon of freedom. Because America, the beacon, has always been a narrow, rather than universal, symbol. The Left has always pointed out that the beacon burns brightly for some, but not at all for others. And this is a huge problem for a country that aspires to be an example for the rest of the world. Finally, thanks to the outrageous Trump presidency, that message is sinking in.
87
@Partha Neogy Yes... but for the rest of the world (which is many more people after all), even a compromised, hypocritical beacon was sometimes a blessing. The Roman Empire had always made use of barbarians troops, but until the 5th Century, it insisted on Romanizing them. Then the Romans -- many of them now Christians -- stopped Romanizing the barbarians. Perhaps they were humbled: was being Roman really that great?
The dark ages followed shortly thereafter.
@Partha Neogy
I recommend "The Weaponization of History":
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-weaponization-of-history-11566755226?mod=hp_opin_pos_3
1
I think that President Trump will help the protesters, when he is back from Europe. He said that Xi Jinping is now an enemy, so look for President Trump to act on the old adage that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." He (President Trump) is quite fearless when it comes to matters of principle and ethics, so I expect that he will take action of some kind, and this will get better.
4
@Robert
What principles or ethics have you uncovered in our dear leader? Really, I've looked and the only thing I've been able to detect is a man of low character who is only interested in his own standing and petty pleasures.
The fearless Trump is a new concept indeed. Perhaps you mean his fearless support of Putin, or his fearless assault upon the dignity of the office he holds?
Sadly Chairman Xi has nothing to fear from this president.
@Robert Dream on. Trump is not interested in democracy. He just called Xi a great person.
@Robert, Do you write for the Onion? Best comedic comment I've read here in the Times in a long time!
1
The both sides inference seems to be that if the American left is focused on exposing the corruption of our own plutocracies and the run-away power Republicans are amassing, we're automatically as bad as the people we wish to be done with. How then, do Americans who want to stop the solidifying of power of the 1% and their Republican toadies, express their protests? It sounds like we're not supposed to protest at all, to gain approval here.
You can only both side it if you don't take it seriously that some of us are terrified of the massive income inequality, the encroaching right wing courts, the gerrymandered landscape, the extra-legality of the Republican party as it chips away at the basis of our government day after obscene day.
In other words, you don't think there is any honor in protesting American corruption and abuse of power, which means that the premise here of caring about the health of our nation, is completely dishonest.
12
Where is US global leadership for democracy? Maybe we could get our heads out of our apples and take a good look around to notice our friends that need our support. While we may have had our WWII and post-war leadership to point to in defense of Churchill's observation that "You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after they have tried everything else", it seems that we may be finding ourselves with no consolation that we've done the right thing as we abandon those in need - Hong Kong, Afghanistan, the Crimea ... Little-by-little and bit-by-bit - it is slipping away from us and if there is no awakening here at home before too long, there may not be much left to salvage and we may find that we've lost too many friends for the US to be once again universally influential on the world stage. Really, gang, who are we becoming? Have we already crossed the Rubicon mired in navel-gazing? It certainly appears that way in these times ...
3
Perhaps Macron, the leader of the free world, will take the lead and help like he has tried to do with the Amazon fires. The US is not longer a great moral nation.
69
At no point in our history has the United States been a moral nation.
1
thanks David. This would be a good moderated debate among Democratic presidential candidates. "How would you support Hong Kong's desire for democracy?"
15
We have lost our moral authority. That happened before Trump, but led to Trump.
29
@Sailor Sam, let us not forget we saw that lack of moral authority with George W Bush’s unilateral invasion of Iraq, which was heartily espoused by David Brooks. How can he suddenly become moral?
1
Confucian ethics: Family, clan first!
If one sees their father steal a sheep, he should not turn his father over to the authorities.
Ethics in China varies from venue to venue. Are the riots really about, not wanting to answer to an authority, who will extradite those wanted for criminal offenses?
1
Brooks; your refusal to acknowledge that the resistance from the left to the Republicans and Trump is the only example here in America of a party that supports the idea of universal democracy and human dignity is another example of how ridiculously biased you are. The recent scholarship on America's history of slavery and oppression only adds to the vision of America being a vanguard nation. Of course, this might be hard to recognize in those too deeply comforted with white male leadership and supremacy.
12
I so admire these protestors in Hong Kong, their determination, fearlessness and resilience. But Americans, for the most part, have resigned themselves to lives of quiet desperation. In many aspects of our lives these days in this country, we are not at all different in any way from the Communist Chinese. Oligarchs do, in fact, run our rigged economy. No one dares vote for union representation any more for fear the oligarch owners of their businesses will simply close up shop and offshore their jobs. The earth has become a literal cesspool, with plastics polluting every aspect of our lives and ruining our oceans and we are the worst offenders. What have Americans done about that? Our planet is literally on fire, hurling towards a day very, very soon when we will have annihilated most species on earth, our own shortly to follow. Where is the outrage? Every minority race is routinely slandered by the highest people in our government and hate crimes are at an all time high. Where are the protests? Mass shootings occur every single day in this country, slaughtering innocent men, women and children. Where is the will to do anything at all to curb this epidemic?
No, Americans have resolved to have a few more drinks, inject another dose of a synthetic opioid, binge on another bag of chips, escape in endless hours of watching the newest violent series about evil people and thanking God they aren't quite as bad as the characters they are watching. Americans are lost.
101
@Rich D: Americans resigned themselves to lives of quiet of desperation...? Seriously?
1
@Rich D
Total nonsense. Just read the comments here and you'll see that the "Don't Tread on Me" spirit is alive and well.
Mr Xi (who your attitude seems to echo) used to claim that the people in Hong Kong cared only for horse racing. We see how utterly insulting that was to the noble people of Hong Kong.
1
The world deserves the unlimited freedom and democracy – so the people are free to do whatever the smart phones direct them to do…
Those who misconstrue personal freedom with the corrupt politicians in power don’t deserve anything better…
If the elections could change anything, it would be banned long ago.
Every time we sent the newcomers to Washington D.C to swamp the drain and rid the capital of the corruption…
Hong Kong will go down. The Communist Party considers itself the vanguard of history and the Hong Kong protestors as corrupt reactionaries. The U.S. will do nothing to help.
We’ve seen this happen before. We will not sacrifice our relations with China for other people’s liberty, while will for our money.
3
Mr. Brooks:
I have been reading your items in various places (NYT and more) and listening to you through various outlets (NPR, Aspen stuff and more) for so many years. You seem more and more confused and lost and uncommitted to to making any choice (recognizing that I make so many ill-advised choices and need constantly to avoid self-validation bias and recognize how often I am wrong). I don't have any understanding where you stand anymore on much of anything. Or if you stand on anything. But there is a little bit of something in this piece. You need to be clearer. It seems to often that you are building your pieces with future plausible deniability and market share in mind. Well done.
Tim Lindamood
5
@Timothy Lindamood Spot on. Brooks has come around personally, and intellectually that The Left is morally, and even economically beneficial to our country's survival. But he's staked himself out as a 'Conservative', and can't bring himself to admit he's been wrong. Like most of them. Now it's just plausible deniability, and whataboutism. Tragic, but he does give us insight into the minds of so-called 'Moderate Conservatism'.
5
Mr. Brooks,
You should apologize in your next column for the disingenuous statement about the American left emphasizing slavery and oppression...as if that is some kind of polarizing action.
You would admit, I would hope, that the American democratic beacon you love so much has not exactly been fair or equitable for African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics.
Let's see, the great American beacon kept Blacks enslaved for 250 years, then allowed systematic disenfranchisement for the next 100 years. The American beacon passed the anti-Chinese act in the 19th century and put loyal Japanese-Americans in barbed wire camps during World War II. The American beacon in the form of Trump is now separating Hispanic children from their parents.
Issues like slavery and oppression should be the concern of all Americans. Sadly, the buffoons who voted for Trump wouldn't agree.
103
I’m surprised Brooks didn’t find some sort of moral equivalence between the Chinese gov’t and the Hong Kong protesters, as he does between the GOP and Democrats seeming every other article.
20
Brooks said “The protesters sample and quote from the great buzz of global culture, which is of course what they are fighting to stay part of.” the revolution transcends petty national borders. England was wrong to give Hong Kong back to China. The new nation has hope and history for food to labor a cause of liberty against Marxist tyranny. Just as England handed back Hong Kong, China must admit its hypocrisy in the face of imperialism and colonialist subjugation.
3
“There was the same turning to America that we see at democracy rallies everywhere, the same sense that America is a beacon in the struggle for freedom, the same expectation that of course America is going to step in and help.”
My company has the regular random drug tests for the employees.
The NYT corporation should enact the same policy.
However lamentable you find the loss of belief ‘in spreading democracy to foreigners,’ after the unspeakable tragedies caused by our war in Iraq, it would be utter folly to still think that the United States can impose a political system on another culture.
2
I would like to help these people fight against the despotic Chinese government, the government that so feared unarmed young protesters that it killed them at Tiananmen. What can the people of the United States do to help? Arm Taiwan more, for leverage?
2
If we went to bat for an oil-soaked monarchy (Kuwait) in the name of "freedom", we should go to bat for a free Hong Kong.
10
“...they might rekindle the sense of democratic mission that used to burn so forcefully in American hearts.“
From your mouth to God’s ear as they used to say. I’m an atheist—but this I will pray for!
2
China needs to find its own way to freedom. The US under Trump is impotent - just like Trump himself. A bag of wind with no direction to sail.
The people of Hong Kong are showing backbone and restraint. The knowledge of their actions and aspirations cannot be contained. It will spread. And if XI takes too heavy a hand, their sales and economy will falter.
Nurture the seedlings.
6
In response to Mr Brooks' kind of shocking closing, I have to say that, while I don't count myself as a Leftist, I do count...from history.com:
'The U.S. government authorized over 1,500 wars, attacks and raids on Indians, the most of any country in the world against its indigenous people. By the close of the Indian Wars in the late 19th century, fewer than 238,000 indigenous people remained, a sharp decline from the estimated 5 million to 15 million living in North America when Columbus arrived in 1492.
I do so wish I had a shiny, clean democracy for Mr Brooks (and for my always-questioning teenager) but we don't. We own our painful truth and our ugly history. That means that all we can do is commit to live our lives differently - with decency, respect, and compassion. Because really, Mr Brooks, WE were the 'foreigners' who weren't welcome.
34
A slight concern I have for myself is I believe the struggle for human dignity never dies, that oppressed people know they are oppressed and don't like it, and that this belief makes me anachronistic. I don't at all mind being wrong.
2
Mr. Brooks wrote convincingly about the Republican Right Wing institution-building, where they have focused on judges and governors and secretaries of state and think-tanks and all the other small forms of power and ideology, to be able to dominate the majority here.
I've never seen a revolutionary movement with the same kind of focus since Russia. China has learned the lesson from Stalin and Mao: don't reduce your totalitarian goals, but practice infinite patience.
All of the revolutionary examples in this article (and more) have come and gone, with little effect; indeed, being decentralized, leaderless, and rudderless is a necessity for movements nowadays to avoid repression.
So how exactly are masses of people supposed to win anything from a well-funded, well-organized manipulative government?
8
As someone who applauded the opening of China to the world following the rise of Deng Xiaoping, I am appalled to now see the trends towards a more open society and rule of law being undermined and reversed under the "leadership" of Xi Jinping. Frankly, I think this reversal engineered by the increasingly authoritarian Xi is what has prompted the protests we are seeing in Hong Kong. The extradition bill that triggered the protests was simply the straw that broke the camels back. I expect that the people of Hong Kong are watching the changes on the mainland with horror and dread. Trump will be gone in six if not two year. Xi is consolidating power for lifetime rule. Just as Trump brings out the worst in American xenophobia, Xi brings out the worst in Chinese xenophobia. Many on the mainland object to the Hong Kong protests but they and the world should be listening to what the people of Hong Kong are telling all of us, a Xi led CCP led China is malevolent. In truth, Xi and the current CCP leadership are actually undermining China's future. They are creating pushback that will not serve China or the world. If leaders like the former Premier Zhu Rongji were at the helm I would feel differently, but unfortunately reform minded leaders have lost out to the authoritarians.
12
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example." When chronicling the failures of the American right, Mr. Brooks feels compelled to invent some balancing failure by the American left. Stop telling us what we think, Mr. Brooks. You just don't be get it.
189
@Jeanne Exactly what I was going to say but more concise and well said.
15
@Jeanne
So, framing how he believes we should think about issues, “telling us what to think,” would literally be the job description of an Op-Ed columnist like Brooks. It is what he is paid for and why people read him. If you don’t want that, why do you read such columnists?
Beyond that, you might at least do us all the courtesy of addressing the merit of his argument. Do you think he is incorrect about the shifting emphasis of the U.S. master narrative among Progressives? If so, why not address that rather than question his motives in mentioning it?
2
Well he’s correct. To be accepted by the left, one must assert that America is not a supporter of democracy and individual liberties but a country designed for oppressing non-whites.
1
I feel deep empathy for the protesters in Hong Kong, but China will never let the island go. Look at Tibet and other places they have conquered by oppression. Economically they are a giant and there is not tradition of democracy in Chinese history to build on. I'd say the outcome is pretty obvious.
8
@Rebecca Hogan, here in Greece they tell us the word empathy originated in Greek, and means the exact opposite to how it is used in the English language! Whoa
1
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example."
The American left is trying to get through to people that the foundation and establishment of our country was predicated on the degradation of others and that legacy has had horrifying consequences that are still very much part of our society today. To this day our quality of life depends on the destruction of the environment and the continued degradation of exploited labor, and the demonization of outsider groups is still a galvanizing force for the political party you continue to be a member of. Sorry to interrupt your efforts to emphasize the goodness and virtue of America; the thing is, too many people have been victimized and subjugated in making that reality possible for what has always been a privileged few.
48
Perhaps the inability to recognize the recent scholarship into America's history of slavery and oppression as a function that advances universal democracy and human dignity is because the scholarship doesn't prioritize white male leadership. This "emphasis" into the glossed over history of America is very useful in understanding why we are going through what we are now with Trump and the Republican party.
18
The news is full of doom and gloom about western democracy and has been for several years now. But objectively speaking, what strikes me is that Ukrainian democracy now unexpectedly challenges Russian authoritarianism, and the same is true for the democratic movement in Hong Kong versus the authoritarianism of mainland China. And you can be there are people in Russia who wish their country could have what the Ukrainians have, and in China too, both inside and outside of government. And this has all happened without the struggling western democracies even trying to turn Ukraine and Hong Kong to their cause. Soft power, indeed.
4
I highly doubt that many Russian people want to have what Ukraine have now. They already had 90s, and nobody is eager to repeat this history. Maybe, Ukrainian future is bright and will be envy of Russians, but right now it doesn't look so good.
Whatever the past or current state of America it is a powerful idea that inspires people around the world. Right now it is inspiring millions of Americans in a domestic fight against a racist autocrat elected with the help of a foreign government. And it is inspiring the protesters in Hong Kong. During the protests at Tiananmen Square it was a model of the Statue of Liberty that inspired the protesters. The Statue of Liberty may not inspire hateful American white supremacists who seem to find inspiration is large walls serving as barriers, but it does inspire Chinese citizens fighting for their freedom. Trump and Xi maybe be able to crush the dreams of millions but they will never be able to crush the idea of America.
20
Do you consider the Trump's ideas equal the American ones? Because contrary to Xi, Trump was elected by what many Americans considered Democratic election. Of course, you can argue it was not democratic, but than you have to ask yourself how powerful the American idea is if it could not establish democratic system in the US for last 250 year.
1
For all of the imagery the Hong Kong protesters don't do a great job of communicating to the rest of the world what their goals are.
4
I think those of us on the Left don't "embrace" the story of America as one of slavery and oppression, but we do accept it. An America that can't accept its truth cannot be a beacon for other countries because hypocrisy and false nationalism obscure the light of our ideals. By admitting that we have often fallen short of our founding principles, we burnish our values, not undermine them. And anyone who has identified as a conservative or Republican over the last few decades has a great deal of introspection to do before offering critiques to any other political faction.
412
@Russell
Life is an evolution, for both individuals and nations.
It is always unjust to judge our predecessors based on current ethics.
In fact, we are not who we are based solely on what we have done in our own lives. We have the advantage of an awareness of the efforts and accomplishments of all those who have come before.
America is still a country of freedom. Just because you don't get everything your own way (and who does?), doesn't mean you don't have freedom.
18
@Russell
At some point "The other guys are worse" just isn't a good enough excuse. I heard a columnist for this paper utter "I hate America" on a NYT podcast after one of her political causes suffered a democratic defeat. She didn't apologize; that was clearly what she meant. It's not hard to find members of the political left expressing the same sentiment on any prestigious American campus; it has been the fashion to do so since LBJ and Nixon.
If you don't have the perspective to recognize the good that this country has done and continues to do as the leader of a system of fair and principled world governance that has brought more peace and prosperity than any previous era, you sacrifice the right to lead. I vote for Democrats more often than not, and I recognize the sin of slavery and racism, in all of its instantiations throughout history. But I will not say "I hate America" to satisfy somebody's idea of virtue, because I do not hate America. I am very fond of and loyal to America, and only wish it the best. The political left needs to abandon its self-righteous virtue signalling, and embrace the country as it is, or they will never be given the power to change it for the better.
19
@Russell, Thank you. Brooks was deeply, deeply out of line there.
26
“There was the same indignant desire not to live in a rigged economy run for the benefit of state-favored oligarchs.”
The question is what the country in the world Mr. Brooks is talking about?
239
"The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example."
Maybe the American left embraces this national narrative because it's true?
What about Reagan's policies in Central America, Bush's wars in the Middle East, and Trump's entire being would make the world think that America is a beacon of anything more than greed, violence, and exploitation? And what better represents America's greed, violence, and exploitation than its shackled slaves toiling under the lash?
209
@617to416 Books can and have been written about America's failures and wrongs; books can and have been written about America's accomplishments and the greatness of its aspirations and principles. A complete picture includes both with a sense of proportion. I am of the school, and I believe Mr. Brooks is as well, that despite the many failures and injustices in America's past and present, the good outweighs the bad. That doesn't mean the injustices should be ignored or forgotten and not redressed, and I don't believe that is what Mr. Brooks is arguing for. Rather I believe Mr. Brooks is fairly critiquing too many on the left for losing sight of what this country has achieved and what it represents in the history of civilization and progress.
22
@617to416
At the peak of slavery, just 1.4% of Americans owned slaves. 1.4% too many, to be sure. But hardly an indictment of an entire nation.
While Reagan, Bush and Trump were, and are, abominations---the nation also elected men like FDR, who helped save the world from tyranny.
Has America sinned? To quote a soon to be forgotten airhead, "You Betcha!" But America haters should always ask themselves a simple question:
On the whole, would the world be better off or worse off without America?
8
@Concernicus
The 1.4%, while widely quoted on the internet, is not accurate. Almost 13% of Americans were enslaved and they were owned by about 8% of American families. In the slaveholding states, about 25% to 30% of white families owned slaves—and in states like South Carolina and Mississippi the percentage of white families who owned slaves was above 45%.
Regardless, the nation's laws permitted slavery decades past the time most other Western countries had abolished it, and the US was only able to end it through a bloody war as so many Americans were committed to preserving it. The brutal and exploitive attitudes associated with slavery run deep in American culture. They are reflected in our treatment of indigenous people, our exploitation of immigrant labour, the horrors of Jim Crow, our celebration of money and unfettered capitalism, and the lack of much of a social safety net to protect those hurt by the excesses of our greed-driven system.
Great often just means big, and much of America's exceptionalism is mostly about its size and the abundance of undeveloped land and economic potential it had through much of its history. Take away size and the various expressions of manifest destiny and I'm not sure America what's left. Do we really love freedom? Are we really a tolerant people? Do we really care about making the world better for everyone? Or do we just want to be left alone to make money?
4
‘There were even the same tactics. Decades ago, the Czechs built “Lennon Walls,” brightly covered walls where people post slogans and encouragement. Today, the Hong Kongers use those, too.”
The world has changed in the meantime. The youth is using the social media these days so the entire world can follow it.
6
Will we Americans ever again realize and treasure the gifts of freedom and democracy we have- however flawed and imperfect? Will we just continue to see the other political side as the enemy rather than as fellow Americans? True inclusivity- academics, union guys, struggling caregivers and retailers, moms, dads, grandmas, room for all races and all religions and all walks of life- ... Can we still appreciate America? Can we learn from Hong Kong?
So easy to criticize and point fingers. Both political sides can virtue signal all day long. It takes self discipline to appreciate and to problem solve. “United we stand, divided we fall.”
There are, of course, those who want us to fall. Could we again see the authoritarian ideas, rather than each other, as the enemy?
32
@Jk Wise words.
Was with you there until the end. The American left still knows that America CAN BE the country that it never was. America is the goal to everyone - including America.
People look at our beacon because we're farther up the mountain; that doesn't mean we don't have more to climb.
318
@Roarke
"I hate this country"
--- Michelle Goldberg, the Argument podcast
Yes, she said it in a moment of frustration, but the NYT left it in the podcast. It's not just Trump who is addicted to talking about "American Carnage". The left has been talking about how it hates this country, its slavery, misogyny, paternalism, capitalism, etc. since Vietnam. When was the last time a left leaning NYTimes columnist had anything good to say about America or Americans? And why are they so unfailingly negative? Because that is what their readers demand of them. For two generations, the standard for demonstrating one's sophistication and higher education in this country has been the ability to argue why America is a force for evil in the world. The latest NYT series on how America is a land of slavery and racism would be funny for its complete lack of perspective if it wasn't so sad to think of the cynical lack of hope and optimism conveyed. Well, the left finally got a president to prove them right, a cartoonish buffoon that matches the lurid put-down that is the evil cartoon image of America portrayed by the left. We have sunk to meet their expectations. The only problem is that getting rid of him may actually require voters to embrace a more positive view of their country; do we remember how?
11
@Roarke I believe that's David's point; the left believes America is bad and always has been, all the evidence to the contrary.
5
@Tom Meadowcroft Thank you Tom for your insightful comment, I would say you are completely right. The truth is that history is very complicated, and it is full of lights and shadows for every country; moral perfection does not exist. Slavery is a part of many countries' history, many European nations as well as indigenous groups such as the Maori heavily participated in the slave trade, some for some time after the the United States abolished it. When the Civil Rights Act passed in the 1960s, the north of the United States was likely the least racist place in the world. It is still much less racist than many European countries with homogeneous populations who accuse Americans of being bigoted. There is a very concerning anti-American narrative going around, and it is filled with falsehoods. Perhaps the issue is that the US deals with its problems in an open and public way, while other countries maintain their issues under wraps.
5
"Along the way they might rekindle the sense of democratic mission that used to burn so forcefully in American hearts." That sense of "democratic mission" was burning in our hearts with the election of President Obama, it felt like a fire that was warming us. Then came Trump. Trump along along with his henchman Mitch McConnell have thrown water on that fire of "democratic mission" and have done everything they can with and (not within) their powers to suppress it, but still the embers burn, and my hope is that the warm fire of "democratic mission" will ignite, catch hold, and burn brightly again on election night in 2020.
127
@Diana and yet citizens in countries all across the world would welcome the ability to democratically elect their governments.
@JTCheek, yes so would I. If you think that we “democratically “ elected out officials, you are mistaken. THINK...Russia, Gerrymander, Voter Oppression...THINK!
It is interesting that the supposed pro-democracy protestor made a comment about how Hong Kong is only 7 million people against 1.4 billion Mainlanders. What does he think will happen if China becomes a democracy? Of course, the 1.4 billion Mainlanders will get their way.
Comments like that make me think it is a bit simplistic to characterize the Hong Kong protestors as pro-democracy. It seems to me that the more prevalent motivation is fear of losing Hong Kong’s special status. The big change over the last 30 years isn’t that Hong Kong became less free (before the 80s, Hong Kong didn’t even have elections). It’s that the Mainland became more free, thus reducing the gap between the two territories. Many of the protestors are actually protesting the increased freedom on the Mainland, which has meant the erosion of Hong Kong’s profitable entrepôt business. I doubt many of Hong Kong’s protestors would actually want China to become a democracy (which would mean Mainlanders could outvote Hong Kong, Hong Kong would lose what’s left of its entrepôt business, and Mainlanders could freely travel to and buy property in Hong Kong).
3
@HO Nice spin. I think if China became a honest representative democracy, then the HKers would have a voice and they could decide even if they wanted to be part of China or not. That's how it should be done.
I think the HKers want freedom. They don't care what happens on the mainland.
6
@HO You are correct to say that the Hong Kong people did not have a full democracy pre 1997, but they did have a sense of personal freedom and a somewhat reliable rule of law that they now fear they are losing. You are also correct that the Mainland had become more free post-Deng Xiaoping, but you neglect to point out that freedom is now being curtailed under Xi Jinping. I see no evidence for your assertion that Hong Kong is protesting increased freedom on the mainland.
12
@HO
HO from Ohio has a typical mindset of a Mainland Chinese who has never been to HK and have no idea of what is going on. The youth of HK cares less about freedom in the Mainland than you thought. They simply want what is promised to them in the basic law concerning universal suffrage and they want to turn their home city into a place more like Northern European countries instead of Shanghai. CCP threatened to take back HK pre-1997 if the British were to introduced election. This is a fact and should not be overlooked. The CCP would never promise anyone under its rule to have any kind of democracy unless the results of the election are pre-determined. This is the situation now in HK and in fully expected when HK was "returned" back to CCP in 1997. HKers were duped.
5
Great article. Win or lose, Hong Kong people are giving me hope that democracy is still considered valuable in this increasingly authoritarian world.
55
Encouraging as the demonstrators in Hong Kong are, the sad truth is that the global trend is away from democracy. Authoritarian figures are in power right in the United States, in Brazil, in Turkey, in Hungary and more. Far right movements have gained ground through Europe.
We can’t change the world. But we can correct course at home and again model to the globe what progressive, responsible, inclusive governance looks like.
21
@NM *****the sad truth is that the global trend is away from democracy.*****
I'm sure I'm not the only one to whom the following thought has occurred, but the cause of freedom has always tended to advance in waves, and then retreat because of the inevitable, authoritarian counter-reaction.
The first democratic wave was that of the Age of Enlightenment, which witnessed the growth of parliamentary democracy in Britain, and revolutions in North America and France. That was followed by a reaction: authoritarian, Bonapartist France, the repressive monarchies of Central and Eastern Europe, the growth of the slave empire in the US South. etc.
A 2nd wave began later in the 19th century with the abolition of slavery in the US, the birth of democratic, constitutional monarchies in Australia & Canada, the restoration of democratic order in France, and the general spread of the franchise, including, eventually, to woman. And then we saw a reaction to this wave with the rise of fascism & the advent of totalitarian Communism.
Anyway, by my count we've had two additional democratic waves since the ones above, and what we're now seeing is the latest anti-democratic reaction -- one characterized by right-wing nationalist populism in lots of countries and, yes, the intensification of repression by the Communist Party of China.
There are no guarantees, and ultimately the acts of very brave people are what everything depends on. But I believe that, ultimately, freedom will prevail.
2
The American veneer of freedom is gone. Everyone can see the truth -- it is America first, and it was never Democracy first. America doesn't even have Democracy at home. There is not much light between Putin, Xi, and Trump.
93
@Alexander K. If we learn nothing else from the Hong Kong protestors, let them be a reminder that the American veneer of freedom is only "gone" if we throw it away. Unlike Hong Kong, which is a few million against 1.4 billion, we are the majority and we don't have to settle for a president who reveres the likes of Putin, Xi and Kim.
161
@Alexander K. I believe that's David's point; the left believes America is bad and always has been, all the evidence to the contrary.
4
I guess we have not to settle, but we did. I don't see 3 months of demonstration. As matter of fact, the probability of the second Trump's term is quite real.
3