David Brooks’ simplistic conception of American history sounds like something taught in a middle school Civics class in 1955, but that’s not the worst part of this missive. Anyone writing a sentence that begins “From Lincoln to Reagan to Bush …” with no sense of irony is so patently absurd that one is left almost speechless. Yes, today’s Republican Party is indeed on the wrong side of immigration, but they are also on the wrong side of women’s reproductive rights, same sex marriage, and race – and here’s the punchline: EVERYONE in America knows it. Anyone who votes for a Republican personally owns their racism, misogyny, homophobia, and xenophobia … even David Brooks.
83
The story of movement conservatism is a decades-long flight from reality and responsibility, pursuing policies that don't work, in search of America that never was.
43
David, its not just 'sloppy and overgeneralized' thinking on a 'receding America', its also _not true_!
How many Americans, much less conservatives, know that the motto on our currency "In God We Trust" was put on there in 1956?
How many Americans, much less conservatives, know that the annual National Prayer Breakfast was only begun by Eisenhower in 1953?
How many Americans, much less conservatives, know that the phrase "under God" was inserted into the national anthem only in 1954?
The entire right-wing meme of an 'America Lost' especially as it relates to a time when a god-fearing, christian nation, was assaulted by liberal-progressives and their PC-hordes…is itself a complete fiction, made to appear to millions as if the very historical foundations of the country are being washed away. In fact, they didn't even exist when your parents were kids. Learn your history, America, and get a grip.
How many Americans, much less conservatives, know that the motto on our currency "In God We Trust" was put on there in 1956?
How many Americans, much less conservatives, know that the annual National Prayer Breakfast was only begun by Eisenhower in 1953?
How many Americans, much less conservatives, know that the phrase "under God" was inserted into the national anthem only in 1954?
The entire right-wing meme of an 'America Lost' especially as it relates to a time when a god-fearing, christian nation, was assaulted by liberal-progressives and their PC-hordes…is itself a complete fiction, made to appear to millions as if the very historical foundations of the country are being washed away. In fact, they didn't even exist when your parents were kids. Learn your history, America, and get a grip.
63
First sentence and Mr Brooks lost me.
Who, I wonder, set sail for North America from Europe in order to "do something exceptional," unless that means "earn money" (English settlers in Virginia who couldn't inherit the estates that primo geniture demanded go to the first-born son) or "avoid Church of England" (Puritans in Massachusetts Bay)? The "American Dream" has always been about making money, whether by acquiring land from aboriginal Americans and farming, including cotton crops worked by slave labors, or by moving where there were, seemingly, plentiful jobs in factories around the turn of the Twentieth Century.
And yes, factor owners in need of cheap labor encouraged the immigration, not to "do something exceptional" but to make exceptional fortunes.
Today's obsession with making money, money, money is nothing new, and it's not especially exceptional now any more than it was in yesteryear.
Who, I wonder, set sail for North America from Europe in order to "do something exceptional," unless that means "earn money" (English settlers in Virginia who couldn't inherit the estates that primo geniture demanded go to the first-born son) or "avoid Church of England" (Puritans in Massachusetts Bay)? The "American Dream" has always been about making money, whether by acquiring land from aboriginal Americans and farming, including cotton crops worked by slave labors, or by moving where there were, seemingly, plentiful jobs in factories around the turn of the Twentieth Century.
And yes, factor owners in need of cheap labor encouraged the immigration, not to "do something exceptional" but to make exceptional fortunes.
Today's obsession with making money, money, money is nothing new, and it's not especially exceptional now any more than it was in yesteryear.
31
I work in advertising and as things have increasingly gone digital I routinely work with Indians, Russians and South Americans who code sites, mobile apps and robust front and back-end architecture. These are high-paying jobs which require a high level of skill. If one wants to look at the jobs Americans are missing out on it's not the backbreaking ones filled by "illegals" which more often than not involve picking fruit, landscaping and other jobs Americans simply won't do, it's highly skilled jobs the vast majority of Americans can't get because their party routinely votes against education and financial aid bills. But it's easier to sit back and complain that something's being taken away from you rathe than going out an taking it back by voting in your own self interest for more accessible higher education and better local curricula focused on the jobs of tomorrow.
34
One thing for sure:
People vote with their feet.
And their feet take them to European cultures,
above all, the USA, and also Canada and Australia, and even Europe itself.
Why?
Because they are better cultures.
Yes, there's land and resources in the USA, Canada and Australia.
But there's also plenty of land and resources in Latin America,
especially Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico,
as well as many countries in Africa.
And not so much land and resources in Europe itself (other than Russia).
So no reason for the USA (or other European cultures) to self-flagellate that it might not be better.
The very fact that so many want to come here proves that it is better.
But it will remain so
only so long as it is not overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
So the total inflow needs to be limited and controlled.
The immigrant population in USA is far more than anywhere else in the world:
Total in the USA: 46 million, 20% of world-wide total, 14% of US population.
No reason whatsoever that the USA needs to be ashamed of those numbers.
Nor to be ashamed of limiting further growth of those numbers:
A cap on total immigration combined: refugees, work-based and family-based.
A total annual cap: one million per year, maybe two million. But no more.
And strong measures to require assimilation.
Otherwise the very culture that is so attractive sinks.
People vote with their feet.
And their feet take them to European cultures,
above all, the USA, and also Canada and Australia, and even Europe itself.
Why?
Because they are better cultures.
Yes, there's land and resources in the USA, Canada and Australia.
But there's also plenty of land and resources in Latin America,
especially Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico,
as well as many countries in Africa.
And not so much land and resources in Europe itself (other than Russia).
So no reason for the USA (or other European cultures) to self-flagellate that it might not be better.
The very fact that so many want to come here proves that it is better.
But it will remain so
only so long as it is not overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
So the total inflow needs to be limited and controlled.
The immigrant population in USA is far more than anywhere else in the world:
Total in the USA: 46 million, 20% of world-wide total, 14% of US population.
No reason whatsoever that the USA needs to be ashamed of those numbers.
Nor to be ashamed of limiting further growth of those numbers:
A cap on total immigration combined: refugees, work-based and family-based.
A total annual cap: one million per year, maybe two million. But no more.
And strong measures to require assimilation.
Otherwise the very culture that is so attractive sinks.
15
Brooks associates "Honest Abe" Lincoln with the Republican Party several times in the piece, and the Republican Party was rightly termed the Party of Lincoln at one time.
However, it is clearly no longer the Party of Lincoln, and has not been so for a long time, at least since Richard Nixon, with his southern strategy, was elected president.
Now the Republican Party is dominant in the former slave-owning states, the states that tried to destroy the Union Lincoln fought so hard to preserve.
Also, it is the Republican Party that has conducted a war on the "common good" that Pope Francis spoke so eloquently about yesterday, using a term that defines what elected officials are to be about: "You (members of Congress) are called to defend and preserve the dignity of your fellow citizens in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the COMMON GOOD, for this is the chief aim of all politics."
Lincoln would have no home in the Republican Party of today, and I also doubt that Ronald Regan would find a home there; nor would Bob Dole, a Republican icon and former senator that could reach across the aisle and was a presidential candidate. Could possibly add John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House, who is resigning in October because he obviously is not sufficiently reactionary.
However, it is clearly no longer the Party of Lincoln, and has not been so for a long time, at least since Richard Nixon, with his southern strategy, was elected president.
Now the Republican Party is dominant in the former slave-owning states, the states that tried to destroy the Union Lincoln fought so hard to preserve.
Also, it is the Republican Party that has conducted a war on the "common good" that Pope Francis spoke so eloquently about yesterday, using a term that defines what elected officials are to be about: "You (members of Congress) are called to defend and preserve the dignity of your fellow citizens in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the COMMON GOOD, for this is the chief aim of all politics."
Lincoln would have no home in the Republican Party of today, and I also doubt that Ronald Regan would find a home there; nor would Bob Dole, a Republican icon and former senator that could reach across the aisle and was a presidential candidate. Could possibly add John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House, who is resigning in October because he obviously is not sufficiently reactionary.
25
I'm not sure "Gone Girl"/"The Gift" tactics by Watergate Plumbers, Lee Atwood (Willie Horton) and Karl Rove (Dirty tricks: see McCain's daughter) were any better. That stuff set the GOP standard for "betrayed essential American faith" and their definition of "by any means necessary".
14
So "the market" has been revered for all "it" does for "us"? Cough, gag, choke, wheeze, wha' ..!?? Ever since its start, that market has been manipulated by wealthy insiders, and today wayyyy too many buyers and sellers have no idea what they're selling and buying, when middlemen buy and sell with very large amounts of "other people's money," much of it retirement pension funds.
If the nativist me-&-mine-firsters take over the GOP, other members of the party, if they are people who care about the future of our country, must dare to oppose the rightists and all the harm they would do to so many. If you don't agree, and can't beat 'em, LEAVE, for pete's sake! Let 'em stew in their own juices and start finding ways to work with those of your fellow citizens who want to stop stalling and get moving forward.
If the nativist me-&-mine-firsters take over the GOP, other members of the party, if they are people who care about the future of our country, must dare to oppose the rightists and all the harm they would do to so many. If you don't agree, and can't beat 'em, LEAVE, for pete's sake! Let 'em stew in their own juices and start finding ways to work with those of your fellow citizens who want to stop stalling and get moving forward.
4
David Brooks is deeply concerned that Republicans' arguing for lower levels of immigration, legal and illegal, is "ruinous to the long-term political prospects of the party" and "bad for the spirit of conservatism." But if he didn't know Melville's works or words like "eschatology" and instead poured concrete for a living he might be more concerned that his wages hadn't increased in decades because anytime his company paid him more it got underbid by contractors using an endless supply of Hispanic immigrants happy to work for $12 an hour.
Since "Donald Trump talks falsely and harshly about Hispanic immigrants" and "today’s immigrants are assimilating as fast as previous ones. They are learning English" I trust that Mr. Brooks raised his children in an Hispanic neighborhood where he could not only save some money on a house but send his kids to school with the children (citizens or not) of illiterate Hispanic laborers so they could benefit from the "greatness that hadn’t yet been achieved."
From the "definitive report": "immigrant groups, such as Mexicans and Central Americans, have an average education of <10 years, and although their children attain an average of >12 years of education, the 2nd generation does not reach parity with ... native-born population."
When Mr. Brooks's basement floods, does it consider it "inevitable" or does he install drains outside the foundation to keep most of the water out and a pump inside to expel that which still manages to infiltrate?
Since "Donald Trump talks falsely and harshly about Hispanic immigrants" and "today’s immigrants are assimilating as fast as previous ones. They are learning English" I trust that Mr. Brooks raised his children in an Hispanic neighborhood where he could not only save some money on a house but send his kids to school with the children (citizens or not) of illiterate Hispanic laborers so they could benefit from the "greatness that hadn’t yet been achieved."
From the "definitive report": "immigrant groups, such as Mexicans and Central Americans, have an average education of <10 years, and although their children attain an average of >12 years of education, the 2nd generation does not reach parity with ... native-born population."
When Mr. Brooks's basement floods, does it consider it "inevitable" or does he install drains outside the foundation to keep most of the water out and a pump inside to expel that which still manages to infiltrate?
7
Everything in this column has been said repeatedly elsewhere. Suddenly Mr. Brooks awakes and notices a problem to be explained. The man has manufactured a career from re-hashing the thoughts of others and stating the obvious.
14
Jimmy Carter preached a sour view of our present circumstances (c.1975) and presided over an oil shortage, a hostage crisis, stagflation, and what came to be called a spiritual "malaise," though he did not use that word. He was replaced by the cheery Ronald McDonald, er, Reagan, who told us it was "Morning in America," and all would be well once our taxes were lowered and we got the government off our backs. Morning in America didn't happen, but in the view of the Tea Party and their ilk, that is because Reaganism was never tried - taxes didn't drop (at least not for the average Joe), and government regulation didn't go away (except for the banks and other international corporations). The Right is now preaching the same remedies, but in a more extreme and desperate mood, because (in their view) half-measures didn't work. Their REAL desire is to hold onto the dominance of the white, male, Christian middle-class, and to reverse if possible the shift in the balance of power to the previously excluded - female, non-Christian people of color, plus the working class and the liberal public-sector middle-class. Demographics are against them, but big money is on their side, so the forces are about evenly matched, leading to a divided government and gridlock. Big money does not get the Republican base what it wants, however. Instead, it buys a pro-big-business agenda that leaves the rank-and-file out in the cold, and madder than ever.
15
Isn't eschatology the study of the end times and often characterized by an anticipation of the Apocalypse? That does not seem to be what Brooks is talking about at all, but something closer to Manifest Destiny. Of course, there are those who look forward to the end times and use this anticipation to disregard issues of climate change and environmental destruction--if the world is going to end soon, why bother to try to save the planet? But I think Brooks needs to clarify exactly what he means and to whom he is attributing these views.
6
these are excellent and also obvious points. more interesting is that anti-immigration politicians are reflecting, rather than leading. I'm a big fan of President Obama, but he spent most of his presidency avoiding risk; that is, avoiding leading. From the affordable care act to dodd-frank and the lack of a deal for bowles-simpson, the president has let others lead and only weighed in once a direction emerged. Although the current batch of politicians display more bombast, they're doing the same thing. as with all topics, it appears that the nyt comments are uniformly focused on bashing republicans under the unstated assumption that the commentators are just smarter and more clear-eyed. I would suggest they also consider the "get something for nothing" democrat party. Democrats, ironically, cultivate a lack of collective citizenship by encouraging their supports to seek benefits that someone else pays for.
5
Today's G.O.P.:
Bigotry
Homophobia
Ignorance
Misogyny
Privilege (for the already privileged)
Racism
Xenophobia
served with vitriol.
And Mr. Brooks, YOU are part of the problem, not part of any solution.
Bigotry
Homophobia
Ignorance
Misogyny
Privilege (for the already privileged)
Racism
Xenophobia
served with vitriol.
And Mr. Brooks, YOU are part of the problem, not part of any solution.
26
Let's ignore, for the moment, that it is not merely "populist" to act as though electing a new People is Treason against the Sovereign, and focus on the distinction between a Nation of Settlers and a Nation of Immigrants: A Nation of Settlers defines its character by founding civilization. This character is very different from the character that arrives "Penniless at Ellis Island" to an established civilization unencumbered by the threat of roving gangs of militants that massacre women and children as well as men. it is a character that must pay strict attention to the interface between Nature and Man in its construction of the foundation of civilization. The mortality rate of such a People is far higher than those who arrive "Penniless at Ellis Island" precisely because those who came later had a civilization. Replacing the founding stock of Americans, particularly by later immigrants slandering them as "genocidal" and therefore deserving of state sponsorship of that replacement, is exactly the kind of thing that will cause the destruction of Western Civilization.
1
Now that John Boehner is resigning, I am sure Jeb Bushe is considering to replace him as Jeb has no shame, that runs in the Bush family.
1
Most Republicans are Republican for fiscal reasons and the belief that GOP will take less Tax dollars away from them. A small fragment are Republican for ideological reasons, anti gay, anti immigrant, anti planned parenthood etc. The problem is that this small minority have huge megaphones with Fox news and Right wing talk radio and so these are the voices we all hear. The Republicans themselves need to take on the megaphones that are stirring up Crazy talk. Until that happens we have only one adult political party in this country, the Democrats.
2
Immigration is not fungible like coal or potatoes. Too much of the political discussion treats immigration as if it were all the same. Fruit and vegetable pickers, while hard workers, are not computer programming technicians, and to lump them all together merely muddies the immigration issues. We need a system of control over immigrants that closes the many huge holes in the dike and now allows hordes of cheaters to evade the law themselves as well as bring in their relatives. The fact that Congress listens to the exploiting employers who lobby the halls of Congress against controls instead of establishing a useful immigration system seems a testament to the powers of corporate greed in overriding the country's needs.
7
I don't think American conservatism differs much from the older conservatism of Europe. Both are primarily interested in preserving the wealth and advantages of the wealthy. Neither has shown much interest in the "promise" of the non-rich. In America, we are advised by the GOP to be grateful to the rich who are our "job creators" and whose need for tax cuts is always legitimate and apparently insatiable. That message blends into republican cynicism and resentment, a truly toxic mix.
14
Although there are times I feels as Mr. Brooks that the GOP is headed for break-up and extinction as did the Whig Party in the mid-19th Century, there is substantial evidence to the contrary: namely, current Republican control of both houses of Congress, and most of the state governorship and legislatures. The drawing of Congressional Districts favorable to Republican electoral prospects virtually guarantees a sizable Republican presence in the House for the next 20 years. And though surely, demographic changes are reducing the importance of the GOP base, and in the short term, they will have difficulty securing the White House, Republicans have plenty of time to slowly adjust their philosophy to fall in line with conservatives like Brooks, who is really lamenting GOP prospects for 2016. Trump's emergence does not bode well for those.
2
It's a good start to finally write about the craziness of the Republican Party of today, David, but it's too little, too late.
4
LIncoln was a liberal/progressive, don't confuse people just because the party ideologies have shifted.
8
According to the U.S. Census bureau, the "immigrant rich" border region of Texas has an adult population that consists of a junior high level of education and lives in poverty. This is the norm, the average. Fear or concern over the spread of this level of ignorance and poverty is a legitimate concern for all those that want the best for their children. To dismiss all concerns over unchecked illegal immigration as racist, to ignore this reality, to talk past each other as the NYTimes so regularly does makes you equally responsible for this issue lingering indefinitely.
2
When white people want to "take back" America and "make America great again," they're talking about the America they grew up in that had been homogenized into a (mostly) white (mostly) Christian confection by decades of extremely restrictive immigration policies. Now they feel alienated by all the brown people around them (Latino, Middle Eastern, Asian) who don't speak English. It no longer looks like the America they grew up in.
And it's just plain old racism and xenophobia. Republicans and conservatives are not comfortable with people who aren't white like they are -- all you have to do is watch the televised Republican National Convention -- and who don't speak English. Republicans just want to take back their country from all these strange people who now crowd around them.
And it's just plain old racism and xenophobia. Republicans and conservatives are not comfortable with people who aren't white like they are -- all you have to do is watch the televised Republican National Convention -- and who don't speak English. Republicans just want to take back their country from all these strange people who now crowd around them.
4
One underlying theme of the tele-conservatives seems to be a desire to purify, first their party, then the country. It reminds me of the purges and denunciations under Stalin & Mao. Eisenhower and Reagan would be denounced as RINOS by this lot.
4
It is the hypocrisy of the Republican stance on immigrants that I find deeply troubling. Despite the strong words spoken in criticism of opportunistic illegal immigrants who are exploiting the system, it is the conservative and Republican business owners and CEOs who sneak those illegal immigrants into their factories, into their commercial farms and orchards, and exploit the ready source of cheap labour.
4
I am really disturbed that Lincoln is considered a free-market conservative and Bush is considered a good example of anything.
Why doesn't Brooks just come out and say that the Republicans are the party of bigotry? THAT is what is wrong with Coulter, Carson, Trump, and so many others.
On the other hand, Coulter, Carson, Trump are faithfully following the example of our Founding Fathers. Use a lot of fancy words and principles to justify institutional bigotry (in the case of the Founding Fathers, slavery).
Maybe all Republicans are not bigots. But somehow all bigots are Republicans. Can you name ONE prominent Democrat who is a bigot? Didn't think so.
Why doesn't Brooks just come out and say that the Republicans are the party of bigotry? THAT is what is wrong with Coulter, Carson, Trump, and so many others.
On the other hand, Coulter, Carson, Trump are faithfully following the example of our Founding Fathers. Use a lot of fancy words and principles to justify institutional bigotry (in the case of the Founding Fathers, slavery).
Maybe all Republicans are not bigots. But somehow all bigots are Republicans. Can you name ONE prominent Democrat who is a bigot? Didn't think so.
8
Too bad Brooks' comprehension of immigration policy doesn't extend beyond the inbred groupthink of the Washington elite.
4
Clearly, the Republican Party is reaping what it has sowed. Since the time of Nixon, the plan has been to marginalize the poor and minorities. As the gap between the rich and the rest grows, their grip on power declines. This result is scary for them, but good for the rest of the country. The conclusion is clear: elect Democrats across the board. That is the party that is looking ahead.
4
"America was settled, founded and built by people who believed they were doing something exceptional"?
Presumably, the Native Americans simply didn't exist? (Or weren't they "exceptional" enough to count?)
And by "America" do you mean the USA, North America, South America, or the Americas?
Almost comical lack of historical perspective...or just very, very sloppy writing!
Presumably, the Native Americans simply didn't exist? (Or weren't they "exceptional" enough to count?)
And by "America" do you mean the USA, North America, South America, or the Americas?
Almost comical lack of historical perspective...or just very, very sloppy writing!
17
Lazy, stupid, rigid, over indulged, and entitled Americans are barely worthy of the same moniker as their ancestors. And, attention NYT readers, there are plenty of them in both parties. The bogus ping pong effect on every issue, with attendant demagoguery, is a race to the bottom. If you put your ear to the ground you can hear the Founding Fathers shifting in their graves.
5
Mr. Brooks did not address those who put the pessimists in office. My concern is with the electorate.
2
"Democrats stink in the exurbs."
Maybe the fox smells his own hole?
Maybe the fox smells his own hole?
It's clear that the wing of the GOP that is against immigration is delusional. They are all for warmongering in foreign lands, and destroying the homes and livelihood of the people who inhabited these places. But are vehemently against immigration.
This country was founded by immigrants and became great on the backs of immigrants (and slaves). And no matter how many generations have passed, we are all the descendants of immigrants and slaves, whether we like it or not. These same people who have benefited from the toil and struggle of their ancestors, now have taken it upon themselves to work tirelessly to deny others looking to provide their families and future generations with the same opportunities.
Their shame and hypocrisy knows no bounds. And if the numbers in the article are correct, it will be to their detriment, because they need diverse, multi-ethnic voters more than the voters need them and their pervasive, hateful, and outdated beliefs.
This country was founded by immigrants and became great on the backs of immigrants (and slaves). And no matter how many generations have passed, we are all the descendants of immigrants and slaves, whether we like it or not. These same people who have benefited from the toil and struggle of their ancestors, now have taken it upon themselves to work tirelessly to deny others looking to provide their families and future generations with the same opportunities.
Their shame and hypocrisy knows no bounds. And if the numbers in the article are correct, it will be to their detriment, because they need diverse, multi-ethnic voters more than the voters need them and their pervasive, hateful, and outdated beliefs.
2
Donald Trump signals the end of the GOP. The party of no. Numbers don't lie and the party refuses to change.
2
You know, one aspect of conservative thought is that if you work hard, take responsibility, and don't blame others for your failings, you will be rewarded with success. More extreme conservatives believe in this without exception. More reasonable ones understand that there are occasions when circumstances beyond our control can overwhelm our best efforts. Henry Ford was in the former category, and he met with many successes. But when his company foundered during the Great Depression, did he take responsibility? Did he say, "Well, I guess I didn't work hard enough?" (which would not have been true.) No, he blamed the Jews. He imagined a great, global Jewish cabal had destroyed his business.
In the last several years, many people who believed that they could not fail because they had done everything right, working hard and taking responsibility, and who had gone through live assuming that the unsuccessful had only themselves to blame, have found themselves in hard times. They don't want to take responsibility and blame themselves. Often, they are not to blame. I know people who firmly believe that everyone is in their place in life because of their own choices, no exception. Yet they claim that their own hard times are the fault of Obama. And they see no irony in that. Is it any wonder that large numbers of Americans, mainly conservatives, have latched onto a group of people to pin their own failings on to?
In the last several years, many people who believed that they could not fail because they had done everything right, working hard and taking responsibility, and who had gone through live assuming that the unsuccessful had only themselves to blame, have found themselves in hard times. They don't want to take responsibility and blame themselves. Often, they are not to blame. I know people who firmly believe that everyone is in their place in life because of their own choices, no exception. Yet they claim that their own hard times are the fault of Obama. And they see no irony in that. Is it any wonder that large numbers of Americans, mainly conservatives, have latched onto a group of people to pin their own failings on to?
9
Great op-ed. Let's hope the selfishness of the far-right Republican crew gets a reality check; it's remarkable when the Pope is to the political Left of the Republicans on immigration, income inequality, and climate change.
2
Share my thoughts? I'd like to, but, you don't post them? I seem to be persona non grata when I post on Mr. Brooks columns. Why?
1
David Brooks' analysis makes me wonder about the future of the GOP. Mr. Boehner's resignation today puts a finer point on the disintegration going on in that party. Some people wonder whether the GOP will break in two and I wonder whether the atomization of American social and political values across the political spectrum will cause both parties to break up eventually.
History shows that American political institutions are not necessarily permanent. Where have the American Vegetarian and Communist parties gone; to name a few. Might the intermediate future bring us an American Conservative Reform Party on the far right; an American Democratic Republican party of the middle and a resurgent Progressive Party on the left?
The atomization I speak of began first with the growth of cable television channels in the 1970's and later with the digital revolution of the late 80's. The confluence of hyper conservatism with those technological advances have brought us to where we are now; and, to where we are going. Hang on, America!
History shows that American political institutions are not necessarily permanent. Where have the American Vegetarian and Communist parties gone; to name a few. Might the intermediate future bring us an American Conservative Reform Party on the far right; an American Democratic Republican party of the middle and a resurgent Progressive Party on the left?
The atomization I speak of began first with the growth of cable television channels in the 1970's and later with the digital revolution of the late 80's. The confluence of hyper conservatism with those technological advances have brought us to where we are now; and, to where we are going. Hang on, America!
1
Unlimited immigration is not sustainable. You can't possibly demandand the taxpayer who are left with the bill, have the responsibility to support the billions of people that would love to come to the US. Politicians were elected to represent the interests of the US citizens only and that is what the law attemps to do. The law that politicians ignore. Weak politicians or worse politicians with a personal agenda are bending to the pressure for unlimited uncontrolled immigration disregarding US citizens and there are clear negative effects on legal US citizens.
3
A wonderful and balanced commentary. Watching the most recent Republican debate, I was struck by how sad and pessimistic all the candidates seemed about the current state of the country at large. It was as if Obama's presidency had effectively left America a vast wasteland of exploded dreams.
I don't think any Republican has earned a shot at leading this country. Republicanism in its current state is a pathetic mix of anger, fear, resentment, and spite. Where is the vision and hope?
I don't think any Republican has earned a shot at leading this country. Republicanism in its current state is a pathetic mix of anger, fear, resentment, and spite. Where is the vision and hope?
4
The Republican Conservative members are gradually making the public think that their symbol of an elephant should be replaced by a crocodile. I am sick and tired of their actions to rob the public of their safety nets. Most of their actions are in support of corporate greed and warmongering, instead f the people that have elected them.
Take a look at the loopholes in the 21 Century Health Care bill they recently passed.
They continue to allow Federal funds given for research to be used to pay for advertising and I suspect lobbying and political campaigns.funds
Pharma no longer have to report all money paid to doctors.
The extension of their "Pay for Delay" tactic that keeps generics off the market longer.
Take a look at the loopholes in the 21 Century Health Care bill they recently passed.
They continue to allow Federal funds given for research to be used to pay for advertising and I suspect lobbying and political campaigns.funds
Pharma no longer have to report all money paid to doctors.
The extension of their "Pay for Delay" tactic that keeps generics off the market longer.
Once again, Mr. Brooks writes about an alternative history that exists only in his own mind. In the 1950's William F. Buckley famously said "A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop". This is what conservatism always has been, is and always will be.
Conservatives have resisted every good thing that has ever happened in society - ending slavery, the reforms of the Progressive Era, Social Security, Medicare, civil rights for African-Americans, women's rights, gay rights, same-sex marriage, protecting the environment etc. etc.
Today's conservatives are no different than yesterday's. They just no longer are able to maintain the thin veneer of optimism and caring about anything other than maintaining the privileges and power of the 0.01% that they sort of used to have. And as their approach of getting votes by stoking the racism, homophobia and religiosity of the unwashed masses gets harder to sustain, they only thing they know how to try is upping the ante.
Conservatives have resisted every good thing that has ever happened in society - ending slavery, the reforms of the Progressive Era, Social Security, Medicare, civil rights for African-Americans, women's rights, gay rights, same-sex marriage, protecting the environment etc. etc.
Today's conservatives are no different than yesterday's. They just no longer are able to maintain the thin veneer of optimism and caring about anything other than maintaining the privileges and power of the 0.01% that they sort of used to have. And as their approach of getting votes by stoking the racism, homophobia and religiosity of the unwashed masses gets harder to sustain, they only thing they know how to try is upping the ante.
4
The concept of American Exceptionalism is trap. It leads to air brushing history, an inability to learn from our mistakes and the successes of others, and frequently to the misdiagnosis of the problems that confront us. The 'recapturing' of past 'greatness' includes a return broad-based discrimination, a continuing exclusion of best practices implemented in other countries, and a blindness to the self-inflicted damages in our attempt to spread our values and, ironically, to improve our security. This leads to the bipartisan folly that we can 'bend the arc of history' to our will.
3
David, isn't it time for you to switch your party affiliation to the Democrats?
3
“Wise men have remarked on patterns of alternation, of ebb and of flow, in human history. …Innovation presses ever forward; conservatism holds ever back. We are reformers spring and summer, in autumn and winter we stand by the old; reformers in the morning, conservers at night. Innovation is the salient energy; conservatism the pause on the last movement.”
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. “The Cycles of American History”
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. “The Cycles of American History”
1
There is no longer an intelligent conservatism, just a cultural backwater of bigots, paranoids, anti-intellectuals and gun hoarders. Surely, it's time to recognize that your "thoughtful conservativism" is an oxymoron in the Republican Party.
And thus, Mr. Brooks, your like-minded colleagues welcome you to the Democratic Party.
And thus, Mr. Brooks, your like-minded colleagues welcome you to the Democratic Party.
6
I guess it bears mentioning that virtually no Republicans are against legal immigration. It is illegal immigration that we oppose. The basic sense of fairness dictates that no one gets to jump the line, in front of those that follow the rules. The fact that the USA allows more legal immigrants than all other industrialized countries combined, shows our compassion. Compare our immigration policies to those of the Vatican City, if you want to see draconian restrictions.
2
David, you should know better. When 1.25 million immigrants came here in 1907 we didn't have the welfare society that we have today. Back then immigrants had to work or they would go hungry. Today, most Americans obtain more benefits from the government than they actually pay in taxes. Our tax system is so out of whack that top 1% pay more than 50% of all income taxes. And please don't talk me about FICA and Medicare taxes. Those taxes don't fund the kind spending that the Dems want. If you add another 10 million people into the system that receive more benefits than they pay in taxes, the system will go bankrupt
3
Once again I am astounded by Commenters' insistence that they ignore what Brooks actually says in favor of chastising him for sins -- both real and imagined -- of the past. Brooks is, for many, merely a Rorschach blot in which they picture all that they fear or all that they hope for. While I hardly agree with all Brooks says each week, those who dismiss what he says on an ad hominem basis are merely cutting off their nose to spite their face.
Brooks writes, "American conservatism has always been different than the conservatism found on continental Europe and elsewhere. There it was based on blood and soil, here on promise." A version of his lament for traditional American conservatism could well be written for traditional American liberalism.
Brooks writes, "American conservatism has always been different than the conservatism found on continental Europe and elsewhere. There it was based on blood and soil, here on promise." A version of his lament for traditional American conservatism could well be written for traditional American liberalism.
1
"America was settled, founded and built by people who believed they were doing something exceptional." I'm sure the slaves who built America burned with the same eschatological fever.
Lincoln a "religious conservative?" Are you talking about the same Abraham Lincoln who wrote a pamphlet defending infidelity? Whose views on religious faith were as inscrutable as, his closest aides maintained, the rest of his being?
It's true the GOP is backward looking, but "inward-looking?" One can dream as much as one likes, Mr. Brooks - that's one of our founding rights (if not our founding crime.)
Lincoln a "religious conservative?" Are you talking about the same Abraham Lincoln who wrote a pamphlet defending infidelity? Whose views on religious faith were as inscrutable as, his closest aides maintained, the rest of his being?
It's true the GOP is backward looking, but "inward-looking?" One can dream as much as one likes, Mr. Brooks - that's one of our founding rights (if not our founding crime.)
4
I don't believe in "American Exceptionalism." I do believe that there are times when we are faced with great challenges and we will answer the challenges...eventually. Nothing more. God does not see us as "special."
1
Mr. Brooks's piece brings to mind Prof. Samuel Huntington's last book, Who Are We?, which was sharply criticized and even called "racist", by many intellectuals. Like all of Huntington's books, however, it raised deep questions about America and what holds us together as a nation and a political culture. Huntington argued that while we are not united purely by religion, ethnic identity, or race, we are losing our original Anglo-Protestant cultural origins that included such values as individualism, religious commitment, and the rule of law. On balance, he saw this as a loss.
I would hope that Mr. Brooks might write a retrospective column on this crucial book, which was published in 2004.
I would hope that Mr. Brooks might write a retrospective column on this crucial book, which was published in 2004.
1
Conservatism is all about rich white people keeping power. Once you understand that, everything else about it becomes blatantly transparent.
6
I just heard on the radio Senator Marco Rubio telling the audience at the Values Voters Summit in Washington DC about Republican House Speaker John Boehner stepping down and the audience erupting in cheers. It is a strange victory when someone like John Boehner gets drummed out of the House for not being "conservative" enough for "today's GOP."
2
You are wrong. About any Republican leadership, there really is none. While the Democrats have been taken in by a president (of the Democrats I like to say) with no connection with capitalism or free enterprise, and thus a major distrust of business. This has brought - generally ONLY by Democrats - Obamacare and Dodd-Frank, and takeover of the health and financial industries. The president's oppressive use of executive orders against companies and favoring union bosses, along with tight regulations - lawless in some cases - against coal, oil and gas - and energy in general. Republicans see his support of gigantic global warming expenditures as bad for the economy which has gone backward in most metrics since his inauguration. Obama's foreign affairs are terrible, causing the world to burn and America's power to crash.
Http://www.periodictablet.com
Http://www.periodictablet.com
1
David Brooks on the road to Damascus.
5
The Republican Party has been the main force behind the back slide of this country. We can look at Reagan and his de regulation, the Dems continuing the trend with NAFTA and the first Bush for his quick war against Iraq for their tirade against Kuwait (who was stealing Iraqi oil) and of course the latest Bush who destroyed Iraq (based on lies and false information) touted torture, and stirred up a hornets nest in the Middle East which continues to sting the world. Boehner came along and forced more polarization between the parties and crippled the functioning of the government. Yes we are becoming a third world country.
In many respects the 1950's and early 1960's were the golden age of America's white working class. Taxes were lower for them, because they were higher for the rich. One third of the work force belonged to labor unions. Employment was secure. Most white male blue collar workers got pay raises every year that beat inflation. Most could afford to support a wife who did not need to work. Many could afford to move to the suburbs. The rates of crime, divorce, and illegitimacy were much lower than they are now.
Republican economic policies would not restore that era. Nevertheless, one needs to understand how good life was back then for most white blue collar workers to understand the resonance of Republican nostalgia.
Republican economic policies would not restore that era. Nevertheless, one needs to understand how good life was back then for most white blue collar workers to understand the resonance of Republican nostalgia.
2
David -- I laud your generosity of spirit, but today's GOP is overwhelmed by Mr. Boehner's resignation. The Republican Jacobins will have their moment, though they have no Robespierre yet.
Figuratively at least, there must be the reign of terror they demand. They seem to have no understanding that it will end in their demise too ... it always does.
I am a reasonably-liberal Democrat; I never would have wished for this, for either the Republican party or our Nation. We need a functional, rational, conservative party with some compassion and conscience.
What we have gotten is a pack of raving nihilists and crazies who will have their moment to cannibalize themselves and their party.
Figuratively at least, there must be the reign of terror they demand. They seem to have no understanding that it will end in their demise too ... it always does.
I am a reasonably-liberal Democrat; I never would have wished for this, for either the Republican party or our Nation. We need a functional, rational, conservative party with some compassion and conscience.
What we have gotten is a pack of raving nihilists and crazies who will have their moment to cannibalize themselves and their party.
6
Thank you, David.
"Out of this backward- and inward-looking mentality" ???
You mean fighting to restore limited government? Not spending monies borrowed from our children's children to support a vast welfare state? How much government do we need Mr. Brooks? Why should the central government control our lives?
One thing Herman Caine got right, Mr. Brooks -- if he was elected he promised to make the federal government less important.
Isn't that worth fighting for?
You mean fighting to restore limited government? Not spending monies borrowed from our children's children to support a vast welfare state? How much government do we need Mr. Brooks? Why should the central government control our lives?
One thing Herman Caine got right, Mr. Brooks -- if he was elected he promised to make the federal government less important.
Isn't that worth fighting for?
What is so seldom mentioned but (to me) is an obvious issue of the last 20 years is the invasion of the right-wing noise machine. People like Rush Limbaugh, Rupert Murdoch (not even an American, for god's sake), Roger Ailes, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly have made themselves stinking rich by splitting the U.S. in two and pitting the sides against each other. The followers of these blowhards are nothing but lemmings, willing to follow them into a dark, nasty future where any act is acceptable if it stops the other side. The behavior of this current crop of "candidates" would be unfathomable if their constituents hadn't been softened up by a steady flow of lies and deceit by these enemies of the people.
God help us all.
God help us all.
8
Mr. Brooks' analysis of current conservative attitudes may be on the money, but certainly not his historical analysis. The Federalist Party increased the residency requirement before an immigrant could become a citizen. The American or Know Nothing Party was staunchly conservative and staunchly anti-immigrant. Madison Grant, who contributed many of the artifacts in the Museum of Natural History wrote The Passing of the Great Race, about white Anglo-Saxon blood being "mongrelized" by immigrants from Eastern Europe. American history is jam packed with xenophobic conservative politicians. There is absolutely nothing new about it.
2
Brooks mentions European conservativism (fascism, really) being rooted in "blood and soil." But isn't that what this conservative reaction is all about (our blood, our soil)?
2
And. . . these are David Brooks's people!
4
Ronald Reagan: highest unemployment rate in U.S. history since the Great Depression. Big Bush: third highest unemployment rate in U.S. history since the Great Depression. Little Bush: hahaha, we all know what happened there. After this record from the last three Republican presidents, why would anyone ever want to vote for another Republican to be president? Why is it still even called the Republican Party, it should be called the Anti-Social Party.
3
People who talk about American exceptionalism forgets that it is built on the demise, and in some cases, the wholesale genocide and extinction, of the Native American people.
It is a reality of the condition of life that, be it the animal kingdom or human beings, we compete for resources for survival. The strong will always take from the weaker. Resources of this earth is finite, especially in the much denser population of present day, and especially when the 1% hog a larger proportion of wealth and resources to themselves.
The true problems of migration nobody like to talk about, besides wars, is the increasingly uneven distribution of wealth. Migration would not happen, at least not at a large scale, if people are happy and thriving where they are. As generous as the United States and Europe can be, we cannot practically "pour" the impoverished people from other continents into them without degenerating them. Prosperous as they may be in comparison, they are nevertheless two smaller boats in the larger boat of the planet Earth. Earth is the larger"boat" we need to keep afloat.
It is a reality of the condition of life that, be it the animal kingdom or human beings, we compete for resources for survival. The strong will always take from the weaker. Resources of this earth is finite, especially in the much denser population of present day, and especially when the 1% hog a larger proportion of wealth and resources to themselves.
The true problems of migration nobody like to talk about, besides wars, is the increasingly uneven distribution of wealth. Migration would not happen, at least not at a large scale, if people are happy and thriving where they are. As generous as the United States and Europe can be, we cannot practically "pour" the impoverished people from other continents into them without degenerating them. Prosperous as they may be in comparison, they are nevertheless two smaller boats in the larger boat of the planet Earth. Earth is the larger"boat" we need to keep afloat.
1
The GOP is constantly telling us they love immigration - so long as it is legal immigration. Great. If you favor it, you should want to make it as easy as possible. Right?
Right now it usually takes years to get a legal immigrant visa. Ten year waits are not unheard of. Why? How long did it take Marco Rubio's parents to get their visa in the 1950's, a few weeks or months? That was during the Cold War, when we had the Soviet Bloc spying on us and threatening us with nuclear weapons. We didn't have anything like the data processing technology we have today. Nevertheless, we allowed his parents, from Cuba, to come to this country to live after going through a fairly brief and easy process. Why shouldn't our goal be to make legal immigration as fast and easy for everyone today as it was for Rubio's parents? If the GOP really approves of immigration, they should be in favor of that.
If they are not in favor of that, however, then we know that they're lying when they claim to support legal immigration. Then we know that they simply don't want foreigners coming into this country and changing the demographics of our population whether they come here legally or not. Then we know it's not lawbreakers they object to, it's people who aren't white and don't speak good English.
Right now it usually takes years to get a legal immigrant visa. Ten year waits are not unheard of. Why? How long did it take Marco Rubio's parents to get their visa in the 1950's, a few weeks or months? That was during the Cold War, when we had the Soviet Bloc spying on us and threatening us with nuclear weapons. We didn't have anything like the data processing technology we have today. Nevertheless, we allowed his parents, from Cuba, to come to this country to live after going through a fairly brief and easy process. Why shouldn't our goal be to make legal immigration as fast and easy for everyone today as it was for Rubio's parents? If the GOP really approves of immigration, they should be in favor of that.
If they are not in favor of that, however, then we know that they're lying when they claim to support legal immigration. Then we know that they simply don't want foreigners coming into this country and changing the demographics of our population whether they come here legally or not. Then we know it's not lawbreakers they object to, it's people who aren't white and don't speak good English.
4
The fundamental problem is that conservatives want to return to an America that never existed. Ronald Regan famously said, "there was no race problem in America when I was growing up." Uumm. Yes, there was. You just didn't see it and didn't WANT to see it.
It strikes me as so funny that conservatives cast themselves as the Realists in the body politic when they look backward for answers and don't even understand the radical and dangerous questions the Founders dared to ask and the hopes and aspirations they dared to express.
Our goal is to move ahead with those radical notions of freedom and equality at the front of our minds, minus the limitations of racial, social and gender inequalities.
It strikes me as so funny that conservatives cast themselves as the Realists in the body politic when they look backward for answers and don't even understand the radical and dangerous questions the Founders dared to ask and the hopes and aspirations they dared to express.
Our goal is to move ahead with those radical notions of freedom and equality at the front of our minds, minus the limitations of racial, social and gender inequalities.
5
Where I usually find some of your columns interesting, David, this was one that reached me and impressed me. "It is another to betray the essential American faith and take a reactionary attitude toward life." David Brooks at his most concise, poignant and eloquent. Thank you!
2
The extreme right has been shaming the moderate right ever since the rise of talk-radio ranting by using terms like RINO. This is no way to get the undecided on your side or to get them to pull your lever in an election. The only people jumping on that bandwagon are those who are only exposed to other people with the same views and they think everyone agrees with them.
"From Lincoln to Reagan to Bush, the market has been embraced for being dynamic and progressive."
There is NOTHING progressive about the "market". Americans are slipping into serfdom as the result of crony capitalism- the only know capitalism on earth.
There is NOTHING progressive about the "market". Americans are slipping into serfdom as the result of crony capitalism- the only know capitalism on earth.
3
The USA is not exceptional - proclaim so many in these comments. If so - explain why half the world is trying to get in. Is it just a human failing to not recognize a universal wonder when one obtains it so effortlessly by birth; and sans sacrifice? Kind of at least roughly explains the comments taking issue with American exceptionalism. It's been a long time since average white guys waded by ashore by the tens of thousands at Normandy, Sicily, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa and helped to save the world from tyranny.
How silly of them to think America was exceptional.
How silly of them to think America was exceptional.
Lincoln was a conservative???? Not by any modern definition.
Also, from the time this posted to Boehner's resignation, the crazy members of the party (in Congress, on the campaign trail, in the fringe electorate) have come to roost. Soon the inmates will be running the asylum (i.e., the House).
Also, from the time this posted to Boehner's resignation, the crazy members of the party (in Congress, on the campaign trail, in the fringe electorate) have come to roost. Soon the inmates will be running the asylum (i.e., the House).
2
When do we move away from using the term "settled" in regard to defining the establishment of the United States? Ours was a conquest of lands that were "settled" by Native Americans, no?
5
Hell freezes over!
I began , as usual , to flip the page after the first paragraph.
But something intuitive compelled me to read on.
Sometimes one has to suck it up and do the right thing -
Well done, Mr. Brooks.
I began , as usual , to flip the page after the first paragraph.
But something intuitive compelled me to read on.
Sometimes one has to suck it up and do the right thing -
Well done, Mr. Brooks.
2
Is there any wonder that a pessimistic mood prevails in the United States, when one branch of government is completely dysfunctional? Here's what Republican Representative Charlie Dent had to say in the wake of Speaker John Boehner's announced retirement:
“There are anywhere from two to four dozen [Republican] members who don’t have an affirmative sense of governance. They can’t get to yes. They just can’t get to yes, and so they undermine the ability of the speaker to lead. And not only do they undermine the ability of the speaker to lead, but they undermine the entire Republican conference and also help to weaken the institution of Congress itself. That’s the reality."
American exceptionalism, indeed.
“There are anywhere from two to four dozen [Republican] members who don’t have an affirmative sense of governance. They can’t get to yes. They just can’t get to yes, and so they undermine the ability of the speaker to lead. And not only do they undermine the ability of the speaker to lead, but they undermine the entire Republican conference and also help to weaken the institution of Congress itself. That’s the reality."
American exceptionalism, indeed.
22
If immigration is such an important public good as Brooks seems to think, why do we even have a border? Let's disband the Border Patrol and ICE today, and just let everybody in who wants to be here. If 11 million illegal immigrants are good, then 111 million will be that much better, yes? Plus look at all the money we'll save when we layoff all of these government employees (sorry you won't be getting your three or four pensions, guys).
We can also obviously get rid of airport Customs and immigration enforcement - everyone is welcome! Please bring your live chickens with you as well! Another two hundred million or so "future Democrats" will always be welcome!! This is the Land of Opportunity, after all. We can't just limit that opportunity to the birthplace-privileged. That wouldn't be fair. Don't worry about the all the new spending and debt this will entail - Paul Krugman says it just money we owe ourselves. Hoo-ray!!
We can also obviously get rid of airport Customs and immigration enforcement - everyone is welcome! Please bring your live chickens with you as well! Another two hundred million or so "future Democrats" will always be welcome!! This is the Land of Opportunity, after all. We can't just limit that opportunity to the birthplace-privileged. That wouldn't be fair. Don't worry about the all the new spending and debt this will entail - Paul Krugman says it just money we owe ourselves. Hoo-ray!!
12
Up until 1880, we had no immigration policy. Hoardes of Irish and Germans came in, and the Chinese to build the railroads. It was the Chinese we were afraid of then, and we instituted an immigration policy. But until that time, anyone and everyone could come, and even then they didn't bring chickens. Stop with your racists comments. I think the open borders was a great idea, is actually how we built and expanded westward. Immigration is new blood, new life. And it is how we became the most powerful nation in the world.
3
Let's have some intellectual honesty. One who thinks immigration can be good doesn't have to think completely open borders is a good thing. A doctor can think a certain amount of medicine is good and can heal a patient yet also know that too much will kill the patient. Chemotherapy is a good example of this.
This comment does nothing to advance the discussion of the problems we're facing.
This comment does nothing to advance the discussion of the problems we're facing.
1
Reductio ad absurdum: a tried, but here not true rhetorical strategy. I take solace in the fact that whenever you or your ancestors came to this country there were nativists complaining just as bitterly about them.
1
I don't think it's "...a sour, overgeneralized and intellectually sloppy sense of alienation." I think the explanation is much much simpler, it's old-fashioned racism. It's couched in different terminology but is no different at its core.
28
Good point. It's racism wrapped in xenophobia tied up with a white protestant native born bow. And the country's been struggling with various strains of it since its first immigrants arrived on its eastern shores. It manifests itself in religion, education, politics, economic opportunity and other aspects of daily life, but I think it also expresses itself as "a sour, overgeneralized and intellectually sloppy sense of alienation". Just hope it doesn't cause the country to implode on itself again (ie:civil war).
The GOP puppet masters are lamenting the state of affairs of their political brand. The "common sense, economic small government objectivist, individualist" wing of the party has been squeezed, leaving the institution stuck within the no true scotsman's fallacy. They can't win an election without the xenophobic white supremacists that make up some 30% of their party, or the 30 some % of "others" in the country. It would be a somewhat stable rational thought for republicans to return to optimistic conservatism but premises, resembling such notions, have been shoved into the fire along with the rest of any strains empathetic/humanistic philosophy. When conservatives and orthodox pundits are proclaiming the pope should stay out of politics, you know the brand is being eroded in real time.
6
I had long ago given up on David Brooks. But this column is one I can agree with and is worth sharing.
16
“It is a party that is characterized by resentments and grievances, by distress and dismay, by the belief that America is irredeemably corrupt and past the point of no return.”
The G.O.P. sounds like Democrats.
The G.O.P. sounds like Democrats.
2
Republican elites, along the coasts and across the country in corporate boardrooms, look with dismay at the increasing backwardness of their own base. You reap what you sow. Conservatives authored most of the policies that led to the de-industrialization of the heartland and the waning of a once-proud American middle class, which inexorably continues its reversion to a seemingly bottomless international mean in the global system. Bitter contempt, hatred of those who are different, and a siege mentality are merely the outward and political expression of a deep economic malaise that grips so many people across the country.
Figure out a way to share the abundant wealth of this great country, and these problems would dissipate considerably.
Figure out a way to share the abundant wealth of this great country, and these problems would dissipate considerably.
21
Couldn't agree more Stefan, but the operative phrase is in your last sentence: " . . .share the wealth. . . ". I am increasingly appalled by the small-minded, mean-spirited, exclusionary, I've-got-mine-Jack nature of today's GOP "conservatives," as best exemplified by the current crop of Republican presidential candidates.
Mr. Brooks, as is so often the case, is right on the money. The quote that sums up the Republican Party today is this one: "The Republican Party is led by people who are profoundly uncomfortable with the changing (and inevitable) demographic nature of our nation. The G.O.P. is longing to return to the past and is fearful of the future. It is a party that is characterized by resentments and grievances, by distress and dismay, by the belief that America is irredeemably corrupt and past the point of no return." This Republican Party is frightened out of its mind--and I mean that literally. Their rhetoric, their agenda, their legislative tactics, their fundraising appeals are all driven by an irrational, unreasoning fear of the changes they see all around them--the sea change in the demographics of this country, the acceptance of gay marriage, the long-overdue calling to account of many police departments for their racist tactics, and the list goes on. Look, I know change is hard and scary. But reacting out of fear never makes it better, and our legislators are under a fiduciary responsibility to act not out of fear, but out of reasoned consideration. My own Democratic Party has had its moments of fear-mongering, but I've never seen anything like the hysterical reaction I'm seeing in today's Republican Party. And the entire country is paying the price.
20
This fits my opinion that they're the party of low-expectations.
Thanks David! Boy, Jeb! is really in trouble. You'd think this would be the perfect time and place for a columnist like DB to throw his weight behind JB as a paradigm of some golden age of "hopeful nationalism". But no. David can find no one. All he sees is Trump and Fiorina. The lunatics have taken over the asylum. Sort of comic through a certain lens but actually very tragic. It'd be better to have two reasonable choices. It'd be good to feel good about the country whichever party won. It'd be nice if billionaires could not buy elections.
7
The GOP doesn't have a voice. I miss Bill Buckley.
4
Buckley was the voice.
As the founder of modern conservatism, William F. Buckley, Jr. famously stated, unequivocally, in the first issue of “National Review” (1955), his conservative mandate was to stand “athwart history, yelling Stop.”
Buckley effectively defined conservatives as those afraid of the future...
As the founder of modern conservatism, William F. Buckley, Jr. famously stated, unequivocally, in the first issue of “National Review” (1955), his conservative mandate was to stand “athwart history, yelling Stop.”
Buckley effectively defined conservatives as those afraid of the future...
And yet, more liberal leaning republicans will not cast their ballots for democrats, thus prolonging this fractured state. How long will this split continue before the inevitable washout comes?
7
"American conservatism has always been different than the conservatism found on continental Europe and elsewhere. There it was based on blood and soil, here on promise."
When I first read this - without my glasses - I thought it said the the continental Europe conservatism was based on blood and soil, but here on "premise." Now that I read correctly, I still think "premise" fits the American conservatism, to wit, the premise (theirs) that they are superior in every way and entitled to whatever it is to which they believe they are entitled.
Europeans have lived through devastating wars of invasions and occupations multiple times, knowing first hand the reality of blood spilled on their soil. "Our" conservatives know only the wars of television ratings, competition for special interest PAC money, and personal coiffures.
Premise or promise, thank you for an informative analysis, Mr. Brooks.
When I first read this - without my glasses - I thought it said the the continental Europe conservatism was based on blood and soil, but here on "premise." Now that I read correctly, I still think "premise" fits the American conservatism, to wit, the premise (theirs) that they are superior in every way and entitled to whatever it is to which they believe they are entitled.
Europeans have lived through devastating wars of invasions and occupations multiple times, knowing first hand the reality of blood spilled on their soil. "Our" conservatives know only the wars of television ratings, competition for special interest PAC money, and personal coiffures.
Premise or promise, thank you for an informative analysis, Mr. Brooks.
8
While i agree in principle with much of what Brooks says in this article, I'm also saddened by the fact that his soaring banalities and trite platitudes regarding America as God's Great Promise for the Entire Physical Universe are exactly what is driving the minds of insane, exclusionary Republicans.
12
David, to paraphrase the old pop song, it's your party and you'll cry if you want to. You've been shilling for the GOP for many years now without shame. Accept your role in this train wreck.
20
American political parties have always been a collection of varied interests and positions. When the old Whig party collapsed a collection of old line Whigs, abolitionists and nativists came together to found the Republican party.
The abolitionist, progressives and Whigs are gone. But the nativists are ever present. This is the one defining element of the original Republican party. Sad but true, the Know Nothings are as powerful as ever.
The abolitionist, progressives and Whigs are gone. But the nativists are ever present. This is the one defining element of the original Republican party. Sad but true, the Know Nothings are as powerful as ever.
5
The Republican strategy of fomenting resentment, fear and racism/sexism in order to justify the protection of the status quo that has been bought and paid for by the ruling class has required that ever broader alarms and bitterness be generated among gerrymandered voters.
The GOP is no longer Grand, just Old, and Party has been replaced by Polarized. The political philosophy has run so amok that the mere acknowledgement of any facet of positivity, of respect for or even listening to any opposing view, is derided as selling out.
There are more people in America than just the embittered, frightened, angry right wing fringe. The GOP has made it impossible for people of good will to even consider supporting their brand.
The GOP is no longer Grand, just Old, and Party has been replaced by Polarized. The political philosophy has run so amok that the mere acknowledgement of any facet of positivity, of respect for or even listening to any opposing view, is derided as selling out.
There are more people in America than just the embittered, frightened, angry right wing fringe. The GOP has made it impossible for people of good will to even consider supporting their brand.
9
Explain to me David how Republicans and conservatives who embrace disruptive economic change and make heroes of entrepreneurs as the supreme expression of individualism are shocked, shocked, at our dissolving social institutions and decry the very social change that their embrace of economic change ensures.
5
It's encouraging to see you taking a few steps towards rejoining the reality based community, Mr. Brooks.
I tend to believe your definition of "conservatism" is a relatively recent political construct, however. Traditionally conservatism is most notable for its repulsion of progress, not its embrace of it. At the founding, conservatives clung to monarchical rule of England. It defended slavery (too many conservatives still do). It rejected the extension of voting rights to the non-landholders, to women, Native Americans and former slaves and their descendants. (And far, far too many conservatives still do.) They are absolutely determined today to prevent Mexican immigrants from voting, preferring instead they continue to exploit them as politically powerless laborers.
Your definition of conservatism seems born of clever marketing, not history. Conservatism, traditionally, idealizes and holds fast to the past. It's always been "progressives" pulling us out of it, with conservatives reluctantly moving forward several decades or more behind them.
I tend to believe your definition of "conservatism" is a relatively recent political construct, however. Traditionally conservatism is most notable for its repulsion of progress, not its embrace of it. At the founding, conservatives clung to monarchical rule of England. It defended slavery (too many conservatives still do). It rejected the extension of voting rights to the non-landholders, to women, Native Americans and former slaves and their descendants. (And far, far too many conservatives still do.) They are absolutely determined today to prevent Mexican immigrants from voting, preferring instead they continue to exploit them as politically powerless laborers.
Your definition of conservatism seems born of clever marketing, not history. Conservatism, traditionally, idealizes and holds fast to the past. It's always been "progressives" pulling us out of it, with conservatives reluctantly moving forward several decades or more behind them.
9
The GOP does want to govern. They bring up social and hot button issues to vote on time and again that they know will never move forward. The first thing they did after the election was vote down the ACA again so that newly elected members could go on record as voting against the ACA. How morally bankrupt can this group be that wants to deny healthcare to as many citizens as possible because they want to preserve the choice on whether to purchase any insurance at all or the choice to bankrupt the rest of us.
I cannot name a single policy that the GOP is for. They have no platform and are completely purchased by corporations and the wealthy with the implicit understanding that they will do nothing and block all progress.
David Brooks helped to build this monster...he actually plugged him in and gave it extra juice.....That is your legacy Mr. Brooks.
I cannot name a single policy that the GOP is for. They have no platform and are completely purchased by corporations and the wealthy with the implicit understanding that they will do nothing and block all progress.
David Brooks helped to build this monster...he actually plugged him in and gave it extra juice.....That is your legacy Mr. Brooks.
11
The America of today is receding into an inward, pessimistic and gradually isolated nation contrary to what the founding fathers thought and fought for. They fought for an America whose greatness would be derived from its moral strength not its military strength; its economic energy not from its political chicanery; and an inviting and welcoming nation not an America that is too protective to see the other side of a positive and progressive immigration policy.
Republicans have misconstrued conservatism to mean adopting hardline and unintellectual approach to issues that would benefit the generality of Americans. Early conservatives were honest and nationalistic and had a clear view of the American promise.
Republicans have misconstrued conservatism to mean adopting hardline and unintellectual approach to issues that would benefit the generality of Americans. Early conservatives were honest and nationalistic and had a clear view of the American promise.
8
Living in Texas has taught me many things but first among them is that if you are an elected official you can't do anything if you are not elected. How do you get elected?
1. You panhandle to every special interest group who has a bank account or collection plate promising to be their obedient slave to get their agenda pushed through.
2. With that money you flood the airwaves appealing to the voters with whatever it takes to get them to show up and vote. Don't like gravity (insert any inane noun here)? If you elect me I will suspend gravity until such time as I can get it abolished!
3. The voters, mostly short term thinkers with little interest or understanding of gravity flood to the polls to get you elected. Once elected you excoriate those who recognize gravity and perhaps everyone else's right to enjoy gravity so the gravy train of money keeps you in office.
4. Anyone who contradicts you is evil, everyone damaged by your actions deserves it. And when you are done enriching yourself you become a lobbyist.
BTW, I am surprised Rep Neugebauer did not stand up yesterday and yell "You are a liar!" to his holiness the Pope
I think I need to vomit.
1. You panhandle to every special interest group who has a bank account or collection plate promising to be their obedient slave to get their agenda pushed through.
2. With that money you flood the airwaves appealing to the voters with whatever it takes to get them to show up and vote. Don't like gravity (insert any inane noun here)? If you elect me I will suspend gravity until such time as I can get it abolished!
3. The voters, mostly short term thinkers with little interest or understanding of gravity flood to the polls to get you elected. Once elected you excoriate those who recognize gravity and perhaps everyone else's right to enjoy gravity so the gravy train of money keeps you in office.
4. Anyone who contradicts you is evil, everyone damaged by your actions deserves it. And when you are done enriching yourself you become a lobbyist.
BTW, I am surprised Rep Neugebauer did not stand up yesterday and yell "You are a liar!" to his holiness the Pope
I think I need to vomit.
11
Why does Mr. Brooks - in the face of readily available historical facts (current, recent and long-term ) and many commenters here pointing out those facts - continue to write fairy tales about the Republican party?
5
We are a fractured country, thanks to Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and others of that ilk. Theirs is a litany of hatred and divisiveness. The whole of the GOP for the most part has subscribed to this policy of promoting hate and fear. I never, ever thought I would see a column from David Brooks acknowledging his Party's failure. He gave an honest assessment of the cancer that has eaten away at the soul of Republicans. Exactly how is this going to change with the likes of Trump, Fiorina, Carson, Cruz, Rubio, and Jeb! being the front runners of the party? The GOP really needs to look in the mirror, and understand what that Party stands for today, because it certainly is not American Ideals as Mr. Brooks has eloquently pointed out today.
8
Who stole David Brooks? Is this the guy who always finds a pony in every republican pile of dung. But this time Brooks nailed root of GOP shortsighted and dangerous thinking. Whoever this new David Brooks is, I hope he sticks around.
8
Talk radio is full of Elmer Gantry types who's real purpose is to keep the listeners tuned in to the next commercial and to get the commentator a following. This is a large factor in present day politics. The listeners are getting brainwashed and even the politicians try to pander to extremism to get votes.
School's out for the Republican Party. No more teachers, no more books, no more David Brooks. Time to move on, David. The party has betrayed you and countless other apologists.
5
Boehner must have read your column and decided to resign because it appears there is no hope for it in his mind and as Harry Reid said today which he could have taken from your column 'The Republican Party of Eisenhower and Reagan is no more"
7
And the reality is... the Party of Eisenhower and Reagan wasn't worth much either. Eisenhower (along with Truman and Kennedy) had chances to keep us out of Vietnam, and they didn't, and Reagan was famous for his racism, Iran-Contra and trickle down economics.
1
Shall we be REALLY honest here? "American exceptionalism," such as it is, is founded on a combination of genocide (of the Native Americans), slavery (of African-Americans), colonialism and hegemony, and an arrogance that is breath-taking in its scope.
The thing most "exceptional" about America is its hubris.
The thing most "exceptional" about America is its hubris.
25
Actually, this term is widely misused, including in this column and in Maani's response; people invent or perhaps project whatever meaning they care to. In fact, however, the usage originates in the history of the Communist Party USA and is summarized in this excerpt from the Wikipedia entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism:
"The exact term 'American exceptionalism' has been in use since at least the 1920s and saw more common use after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin allegedly chastised members of the Jay Lovestone-led faction of the American Communist Party for their belief that America was independent of the Marxist laws of history 'thanks to its natural resources, industrial capacity, and absence of rigid class distinctions'. However, this story has been challenged because the expression 'American exceptionalism' was already used by Brouder & Zack in Daily Worker (N.Y.) on the 29th of January 1929, before Lovestone's visit to Moscow."
"The exact term 'American exceptionalism' has been in use since at least the 1920s and saw more common use after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin allegedly chastised members of the Jay Lovestone-led faction of the American Communist Party for their belief that America was independent of the Marxist laws of history 'thanks to its natural resources, industrial capacity, and absence of rigid class distinctions'. However, this story has been challenged because the expression 'American exceptionalism' was already used by Brouder & Zack in Daily Worker (N.Y.) on the 29th of January 1929, before Lovestone's visit to Moscow."
1
Close. I'd list it thus: 1. Unlimited resources, 2. Slave labor, 3. Inconsequential foreign threats at our borders. Your other points are valid and do have an impact, particularly hubris.
Isn't it ironic that Brooks begins an article about conservatives shedding their nostalgia for a whiter America with an idyllic representation of colonization? "American founders like Alexander Hamilton were aware that once the vast continent was settled the United States would be one of the dominant powers of the globe...that God's plans for humanity would be complete." Really, sir? And what of the millions of indigenous people whose genocide came at the expense of "God's plans"?
Brooks' prognosis is as excruciating as it i emblematic of the real source of the GOP's electoral dilemma: no matter how badly they try to gussy up their vision for the "good 'ol days" of white America, it inherently excludes non-white voters.
You want minority groups to buy into "God's plan"? Make "God's plan" include a living wage for low-income workers. Make it about the reconciliation that the Pope himself called for. Make it one that prioritizes the well-being of poor people before CEOs. Make it one that repudiates manifest destiny for God's sake!
The GOP doesn't need a new attitude towards immigrants. It needs a new vision. Gosh darn it, Brooks, it just might be that conservatism offers the wrong vision.
Brooks' prognosis is as excruciating as it i emblematic of the real source of the GOP's electoral dilemma: no matter how badly they try to gussy up their vision for the "good 'ol days" of white America, it inherently excludes non-white voters.
You want minority groups to buy into "God's plan"? Make "God's plan" include a living wage for low-income workers. Make it about the reconciliation that the Pope himself called for. Make it one that prioritizes the well-being of poor people before CEOs. Make it one that repudiates manifest destiny for God's sake!
The GOP doesn't need a new attitude towards immigrants. It needs a new vision. Gosh darn it, Brooks, it just might be that conservatism offers the wrong vision.
13
"' The G.O.P. is longing to return to the past and is fearful of the future.'"
As the founder of modern conservatism, William F. Buckley, Jr. famously stated, unequivocally, in the first issue of “National Review” (1955), his conservative mandate was to stand “athwart history, yelling Stop.”
Why should Mr. Brooks, or anyone else for that matter, be surprised/shocked by today's conservatism?
As the founder of modern conservatism, William F. Buckley, Jr. famously stated, unequivocally, in the first issue of “National Review” (1955), his conservative mandate was to stand “athwart history, yelling Stop.”
Why should Mr. Brooks, or anyone else for that matter, be surprised/shocked by today's conservatism?
16
Brooks is echoing what has been the conservative mantra since John Adams and the anti immigration laws, along with citizenship, stated in the campaign of 1796. Then the Know-Nothings (1840's) against the Catholics, mostly German and Irish, the anti-immigration groups of the late 19th century against Chinese, and Europeans NOT of north western Europe who were Protestants. Then came the limitations of non-northwestern Europeans who were Protestants in 1920-1921, then. . . . .and so on. Brooks shows the same song, new verse of an old decrepit groups who still think in terms of a Protestant North Western European America. A tragic story of a part of America.
4
It is your party David, and welcome to it. Suddenly the Dems don't seem so bad.
8
Sunny optimist Ronald Reagan said "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help." This was not a reasoned statement about keeping the size and power of government reasonably limited. This was divisive rhetoric which has echoed louder and louder through the ensuing decades. Now we are at the point, thanks to Ronald Reagan's rhetoric and his forebears like Grover Norquist who wanted to drown the government in the bathtub, where a large portion of Republicans mistrust and even hate the government. It is government -i.e. collective effort, not the mythologized rugged individualist lifestyle many government haters imagine themselves living, that has by far the greatest potential to help people get out of poverty, do fulfilling work, and live freely in general.
12
Maybe we should give up a single nation-wide immigration policy for a more customized regional policy. In my town of 85,000 people, we're majority Asian, 1/3 Latino, and maybe 10% white. We are way beyond the point of preventing or slowing down immigration. It does my town no good to build a wall, to track immigrants like FedEx packages, or to increase deportation.
2
"This is the philosophy of the receding roar, the mourning for an America that once was and is now being destroyed by foreign people and ideas."
Corrections:
1. A country that NEVER was
2. NEW ideas.
"Mourning," accompanied by rage, is correct, however. They recognize, if only on the most inchoate level that they have been sold a bill of goods, and that they have lost a war that they were led to start.
Corrections:
1. A country that NEVER was
2. NEW ideas.
"Mourning," accompanied by rage, is correct, however. They recognize, if only on the most inchoate level that they have been sold a bill of goods, and that they have lost a war that they were led to start.
4
Perhaps the American political problem is that one party can only be put in power by having a continuous supply of poor people and the other by despising them.
5
The competition will clang the doom and gloom bells. Dude, Ask not for whom the bells tolls, they toll for TP-GOP
1
With respect, Mr. Brooks just took 16 paragraphs to say that Republicans have become mean spirited.
18
Good for you, Mr. Brooks. This is an amazingly accurate and important assessment.
4
"eschatology
noun
the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul of humankind."
I don't see how Mr. Brooks equates this with "looking forward to a glorious future."
noun
the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul of humankind."
I don't see how Mr. Brooks equates this with "looking forward to a glorious future."
2
On the same day as Mr. Brooks' op-ed, John Boehner is being kicked to the curb by the same ideological mob that he tried to assuage for far too long. As a boy I helped my father swept out the local Republican Party office in Northern Westchester County; my first vote was for Senator Jacob Javitz; I voted for President Ford even though I could tell that Jimmy Carter was also a good man who loved his country and would try to "do right" by all of us; I attended a SUNY campus built from the vision and energy of Nelson Rockefeller. What has become of the GOP in this country is a disgrace and a rejection of its better natures... and of its better men.
10
David remembers the glory days of old.
When we valued ideas and progress.
When the Republican Party were.....DEMOCRATIC!
When we valued ideas and progress.
When the Republican Party were.....DEMOCRATIC!
8
To care about the future one has to care about the earth. In its simplest form, it is to plant a tree that will give future generations shade. Other than Teddy Roosevelt, what Republican ever thinks of planting trees?
13
Today´s Republicans don´t only look back on a fantasized better time to which they bid a fond adiós. They actively look toward the future by gerrymandering electoral districts in the states they control, and pass laws to make it more difficult for entire categories of citizens to vote. In the last presidential election there were, by most accounts, twelve battleground state. President Obama won ten of them, most by very small margins. If the Republicans can render the electorate a little whiter and a little older, they have a very real shot at the presidency in 2016.
4
We ignore at our peril the hard fact that the American public - not a pack of crackpots in the House - is ultimately to blame here. When you have a burgeoning number of citizens who are too incurious or willfully uneducated to be capable of holding up their end of the "democracy requires an informed electorate" bargain, the result is exactly what we're seeing today in the rise of Cruz, Trump, Rubio et al. Never noted for its intellectual prowess as a nation, America has also never been more anti-intellectual than it is right now. Not much can be done to turn the ship of representative democracy around when facing headwaters like those.
14
Sarah,
I am totally with you up until the last sentence. Our headwaters are indeed strong, but that just means we need to paddle harder!
I am totally with you up until the last sentence. Our headwaters are indeed strong, but that just means we need to paddle harder!
2
Paddle and vote in every election and encourage those around us to vote. Too many folks sat out in 2014 and that has brought us to today. Every single vote is important and we all have to participate every single time.
Exactly right, Mr. Brooks.
Those who have, and continue to, immigrate to America are far more likely to be the best rather than the worst in their societies. It takes incredible fortitude and optimism to give up the life you have, all that is familiar, leave family, and head to a new, unfamiliar land and try to build a new and better life. The losers can't be bothered.
If America is exceptional, it is because it is peopled entirely by descendants of such immigrants (even Native Americans are descendants of immigrants - its just that their ancestors got here millennia before those of the rest of us). A genetic selection, if you will, for those inherently optimistic about a bright future, and willing to work toward it.
Sad indeed that the GOP no longer embraces that optimism.
Those who have, and continue to, immigrate to America are far more likely to be the best rather than the worst in their societies. It takes incredible fortitude and optimism to give up the life you have, all that is familiar, leave family, and head to a new, unfamiliar land and try to build a new and better life. The losers can't be bothered.
If America is exceptional, it is because it is peopled entirely by descendants of such immigrants (even Native Americans are descendants of immigrants - its just that their ancestors got here millennia before those of the rest of us). A genetic selection, if you will, for those inherently optimistic about a bright future, and willing to work toward it.
Sad indeed that the GOP no longer embraces that optimism.
9
One of the nation's first historians, a minister named Jeremy Belknap, preached in 1785: “And when we consider the agency of divine providence in succeeding our late attempt to separate ourselves from foreign dependence, we must believe that God had therein not only a kind intention toward us, but toward mankind in general, opening a place for them to flee to from the poverty, oppression and distress, which are so prevalent in other countries.” The American exceptionalism of the Founding generation repeatedly called the United States an "asylum" for the oppressed, a line of thinking echoed in Reagan's 1989 farewell address. This is a far cry from building higher and longer and sturdier walls, as so many on the right call for today.
5
Today's op-ed expresses many of the valuesI uphold but like much of what comes out of the American right what I fear most is not what is said but what is unsaid.
America was to be about the sanctity of law. The separation of Church and State was about the right to believe or not to believe in the God of Moses, Mohammed, Paul or Buddha, Vishnu, and even the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and Paine did not believe in the God of Moses their constitution was designed to protect us all from those that would impose their faith on all of us.
In 1954 the courts incorrectly allowed the words "under God" into the American Pledge of Allegiance. Real American conservatives would recognize that not only does the court allow a dagger to be thrust into the heart of the constitution but it is an insult to the founders who meant their new nation to be a celebration of its people and their abilities.
The gods of the GOP may be worthy of belief and sacrifice but their worship should never have been part of the laws and the constitution. Conservatives supposedly believe in limited government where is that belief when they demand access to our bedrooms and doctor's offices. Now the rhetoric demands access to our places of worship and our very morality. Where are the real conservatives when we need them?
America was to be about the sanctity of law. The separation of Church and State was about the right to believe or not to believe in the God of Moses, Mohammed, Paul or Buddha, Vishnu, and even the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and Paine did not believe in the God of Moses their constitution was designed to protect us all from those that would impose their faith on all of us.
In 1954 the courts incorrectly allowed the words "under God" into the American Pledge of Allegiance. Real American conservatives would recognize that not only does the court allow a dagger to be thrust into the heart of the constitution but it is an insult to the founders who meant their new nation to be a celebration of its people and their abilities.
The gods of the GOP may be worthy of belief and sacrifice but their worship should never have been part of the laws and the constitution. Conservatives supposedly believe in limited government where is that belief when they demand access to our bedrooms and doctor's offices. Now the rhetoric demands access to our places of worship and our very morality. Where are the real conservatives when we need them?
3
"America was settled, founded and built by people who believed they were doing something exceptional."
The NYT loves the word "canard", so I'm going to call it it duck. This is simply isn't true.
Brooks is describing the self-mythologizing of the Plymouth settlers, a relatively small percentage of original settlement. The vast majority did not. They settled for opportunistic reasons, not for the Protestant new-Jeruseleum tendencies that the Puritans, and their descendants (Mormons, Trancendentalists, Quakers, and Massachusetts liberals) did.
Tocqueville nailed the three settlement regions (in a kind of Albion's Seed precursor), with the messianic Yankeedom as the northern tier.
My ancestors came to Virginia and Georgia in the 17th century for opportunistic reasons. It's not "noble", just..... average.
Most people are average. They neither have a pomped-up idea of their motives nor a sense of grandeur. Brooks is selling both, and if people have noticed the disasters of our foreign policy in the last century, that idea and its messianic fervor that we try to impose on others is toxic.
Notice how I haven't really tied this to the original topic, which is immigration. It is no small coincidence that believers in aggressive "exceptionalism" tend to both favor open borders for us, and "opening" recalcitrant societies abroad. Invade the world, invite the world, indeed.
Time for a time out on this holy rolling.
The NYT loves the word "canard", so I'm going to call it it duck. This is simply isn't true.
Brooks is describing the self-mythologizing of the Plymouth settlers, a relatively small percentage of original settlement. The vast majority did not. They settled for opportunistic reasons, not for the Protestant new-Jeruseleum tendencies that the Puritans, and their descendants (Mormons, Trancendentalists, Quakers, and Massachusetts liberals) did.
Tocqueville nailed the three settlement regions (in a kind of Albion's Seed precursor), with the messianic Yankeedom as the northern tier.
My ancestors came to Virginia and Georgia in the 17th century for opportunistic reasons. It's not "noble", just..... average.
Most people are average. They neither have a pomped-up idea of their motives nor a sense of grandeur. Brooks is selling both, and if people have noticed the disasters of our foreign policy in the last century, that idea and its messianic fervor that we try to impose on others is toxic.
Notice how I haven't really tied this to the original topic, which is immigration. It is no small coincidence that believers in aggressive "exceptionalism" tend to both favor open borders for us, and "opening" recalcitrant societies abroad. Invade the world, invite the world, indeed.
Time for a time out on this holy rolling.
4
Brooks writes: "American conservatism has always been different than the conservatism found on continental Europe and elsewhere. There it was based on blood and soil, here on promise."
I'm 66 years old. In my lifetime, that has been the rhetoric, not the reality -- unless we're talking about the dark "promise" of socio-economomic Darwinism and the mythic "promise" of Horatio Alger making it into the 1%.
I am so sick of this delusional "exceptionalist" propaganda.
It's time to acknowledge that the most exceptional about America is its relative youth -- and related sense that it knows it all.
I'm 66 years old. In my lifetime, that has been the rhetoric, not the reality -- unless we're talking about the dark "promise" of socio-economomic Darwinism and the mythic "promise" of Horatio Alger making it into the 1%.
I am so sick of this delusional "exceptionalist" propaganda.
It's time to acknowledge that the most exceptional about America is its relative youth -- and related sense that it knows it all.
5
In order to accept Brooks's thesis, you have to ignore more than half the population of the U.S. at the time. This includes women, African Americans, and Native Americans. America was founded on rape, pillage, terror and murder of these unrepresented groups. To think otherwise is folly.
5
Thank you. Mr. Brooks for finally acknowledging what so many of us have been saying for so long.
I have but two bones to pick,first you fail to touch on the unholy alliance of Republican isms with religious fundamentalism, and second the idea of the free market.
When money is speech then what is free in our political process?
And when a sham pharmacy company can buy a patent and raise a drugs price a hundred fold what is free about markets?
I have but two bones to pick,first you fail to touch on the unholy alliance of Republican isms with religious fundamentalism, and second the idea of the free market.
When money is speech then what is free in our political process?
And when a sham pharmacy company can buy a patent and raise a drugs price a hundred fold what is free about markets?
3
A very good column by Mr. Brooks, something I don't say very often. In point of fact, since the 1970s, the Republicans have been drifting, sometimes running, toward these radical positions. Now, changing demographics and science have made them angrier than ever before, to the point where the powerful want to return to the days when the White Man could lord it over the Natives with impunity, and the privileged classes could do the same to the unwashed masses.
Those days are over, and it would be better for the country were they to acknowledge the fact and move forward rather than backward.
Those days are over, and it would be better for the country were they to acknowledge the fact and move forward rather than backward.
2
If you take from so-called "conservatives" their bigotry and xenophobia, as Brooks would apparently prefer, and if you remove their anti-environmentalism, their adoration of Wild West capitalism and their servile devotion to economic elites, as Pope Francis would apparently prefer, what would remain? Not much, I think.
1
The GOP has stoked the fires of nationalism, xenophobia, bigotry, ignorance and intolerance for a generation, while working at every point to build hatred of government. The combination has proven to be devastating for our country. Of course it has led to pessimism about the future--how could it not? We are all reaping what they have sown.
4
Brooks' analysis demonstrates the same selective nostalgia that he decries in the rest of the Republican Party. America was by no means founded on the kinds of idealism that he describes, nor has its history demonstrated that kind of idealism. The country was not settled, it was conquered, and the indigenous people murdered. After that, it was not idealism that made America so wealthy, it was slavery. And after that, it joined in, and arguably led, the imperialist enterprise of the 19th and 20th century. Nativism kept out the Jews during the Holocaust. What we see ending is not a period of idealism and moral exceptionalism, but a period of unparalleled prosperity fostered by the industrial base of the second world war. That is ending, and it is that economy, with its well paying jobs that required little education, that the conservative Republicans miss.
6
Every time I read David Brooks opinions I come away with the feeling that if I do what I am told by the "exceptional" ones (obey the Lord or lords) after I die I'll be happy. Always the promise of a great future if we wait just a little bit longer for the "hidden hand" to work. It is a interesting contrast to the pope's "live in the present" admonition.
3
good article but i do find that there was nothing dynamic and progressive about Reagan and Bush.
4
Epiphany David?
The only really delusional piece that stuck in my craw was this:
“American conservatism has always been different than the conservatism found on continental Europe and elsewhere. There it was based on blood and soil, here on promise.”
A sweeping statement at the very least and patently horse-pucky at the last. Whatever the Republicans have been seems to have nominal transfer to what they have become. Further, in the modern era it has very consistently been the party of the vaulted American establishment (at the core American Blue Blood).
The notion that American exceptionalism is a single, unified, and immutable thing is delusional. Proclaiming it, and creating and sustaining it are two very different things
The only really delusional piece that stuck in my craw was this:
“American conservatism has always been different than the conservatism found on continental Europe and elsewhere. There it was based on blood and soil, here on promise.”
A sweeping statement at the very least and patently horse-pucky at the last. Whatever the Republicans have been seems to have nominal transfer to what they have become. Further, in the modern era it has very consistently been the party of the vaulted American establishment (at the core American Blue Blood).
The notion that American exceptionalism is a single, unified, and immutable thing is delusional. Proclaiming it, and creating and sustaining it are two very different things
1
The GOP has has been a minority party for a long time. There are lots of ways to characterize the GOP. I most often think of them as the sub-culture descended from the colonial plantation states that lost the Civil War. Of course they are backward looking; they are still fighting that war. But our constitution was negotiated by gentlemen who understood very well the need to accommodate the divergent cultures and goals of the all the people who proposed to form the United States. The governmental system they created represents one of the single greatest achievements of human civilization. Relax - watch it work. It was specifically designed to deal with the situation we are in: factionalism, extremism in the wings, divisive issues, contentious debate, the fight-to-the-finish mentality of the passionate advocates of narrow self-interest. But once the dust settles, we will have a new president, and she or he will be unexpected, improbable - a uniquely American choice. And that candidate will win (I hope) because they tap into the authentic American spirit: Immigrants? Of course we have immigrants. Where else would anyone want to live? Celebrate immigration! Celebrate diversity! Our strength is visible in our ability to absorb and endorse diversity across the entire human spectrum.
4
I would just like to make an observation. As I write this, I am watching the beautiful multicultural prayer service at ground zero. As I flipped through the cable news, one channel has decided not to cover it; you guessed it, FOX, the most watched channel by Republicans. I wonder why FOX would choose not to show Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Christians praying together for peace? Is it possible the right is losing it's mind because it's media sources have so narrowed the scope of debate they can only hear themselves talking?
6
"The major faiths uplift because they are eschatalogical?"
Eschatology deals with the end of the world, something many conservative Christian Republicans are anxiously awaiting because they astoundingly believe it will happen in their lifetime. Why Mr. Brooks finds this "uplifting" begs reason.
Eschatology deals with the end of the world, something many conservative Christian Republicans are anxiously awaiting because they astoundingly believe it will happen in their lifetime. Why Mr. Brooks finds this "uplifting" begs reason.
8
Yeah David, your Republican buddies are nuts.
3
How much of this is just tried and true scapegoating by an economic elite bent on preserving its privilege? It's not obscene CEO pay or transferring entire industries to China that's making you noble white people anxious about the future, it's those swarthy foreigners mowing your lawns.
1
I couldnt agree more with what you wrote.
In addition, the GOP uses language and behaviour to diminish the same office they so desperately covet and seek. I cannot look at anyone of the current candidates and say, this person is presidential and deserves the office. It would be so presidential and easy for one of the candidates to stand up and say, when speaking of President Obama, "that for any differences the GOP may have with President Obama, he did win two terms in office and succeded in putting forth legislation that has helped America". That is a fact and anyone who has done so under the conditions he did, needs to be applauded and recognized".
Instead the GOP makes every effort to make the heaps scorn and lies and does everything it can to destroy the Obama administrations even when he has tried to reach out to the GOP. By doing so the GOP is hurting the office of the President very directly and they the GOP do not seem able to see what they are doing inspite of themselves. Their actions will in the long run, and very sadly make the office of the president not presidential but an office without a president.
i am not American, I am Canadian but I deeply believe American was and can be a great country, I do not feel that as much anymore in view of what the GOP is saying and doing.
In addition, the GOP uses language and behaviour to diminish the same office they so desperately covet and seek. I cannot look at anyone of the current candidates and say, this person is presidential and deserves the office. It would be so presidential and easy for one of the candidates to stand up and say, when speaking of President Obama, "that for any differences the GOP may have with President Obama, he did win two terms in office and succeded in putting forth legislation that has helped America". That is a fact and anyone who has done so under the conditions he did, needs to be applauded and recognized".
Instead the GOP makes every effort to make the heaps scorn and lies and does everything it can to destroy the Obama administrations even when he has tried to reach out to the GOP. By doing so the GOP is hurting the office of the President very directly and they the GOP do not seem able to see what they are doing inspite of themselves. Their actions will in the long run, and very sadly make the office of the president not presidential but an office without a president.
i am not American, I am Canadian but I deeply believe American was and can be a great country, I do not feel that as much anymore in view of what the GOP is saying and doing.
3
The most interesting fact in this column is that the next Republican presidential candidate is going to have to get twice as many non-white votes as Mitt Romney received in 2012.
All I can say, given the current crop of contenders, is good luck with that.
All I can say, given the current crop of contenders, is good luck with that.
2
I agree. So leave the GOP. Take Peter King and the few so-called moderates with you.
2
Ha Ha Mr Brooks, I feel your pain. I just don't understand how you can still be part of, support see a "positive" future in the Republican Party for yourself.
They (the GOP) can't wait to get rid of you as well.
They (the GOP) can't wait to get rid of you as well.
1
"America was defined by its future, by the people who weren’t yet here and by the greatness that hadn’t yet been achieved". Huh?
Finally a column from Brooks that doesn't entirely rationalize the current Republican Party's sorry condition. But I'm still not sanguine about Mr. Brooks, who praised the ridiculous Ryan budget, to take only one disgraceful example, and is complicit it that very condition in a hundred different ways.
At the moment, he's acting as if the party is wrong only in its resurgent nativism... mainly, it seems, on practical and demographic grounds, though he tries to dignify that with historicsim and principled language. In fact, the Republican Party is wrong about virtually EVERYTHING, and exhibits no principles whatsoever.
Even people who oppose abortion ought to regret the wholesale endorsement of phony videos, and the smear of Planned Parenthood by every single GOP candidate. Is Brooks proud of their monthly burning of the Reichstag in some way or other? He certainly never seems to be ashamed, unless this column be deemed an exception.
I'm sure his writings will quickly return to their usual water-carrying for callous ignorance, greedy subterfuge, falsehood and fraud, and that he will resume his role as the charcoal-suited, literate, respectable-seeming media apologist for a party that has become only a criminal gang and a pathology.
At the moment, he's acting as if the party is wrong only in its resurgent nativism... mainly, it seems, on practical and demographic grounds, though he tries to dignify that with historicsim and principled language. In fact, the Republican Party is wrong about virtually EVERYTHING, and exhibits no principles whatsoever.
Even people who oppose abortion ought to regret the wholesale endorsement of phony videos, and the smear of Planned Parenthood by every single GOP candidate. Is Brooks proud of their monthly burning of the Reichstag in some way or other? He certainly never seems to be ashamed, unless this column be deemed an exception.
I'm sure his writings will quickly return to their usual water-carrying for callous ignorance, greedy subterfuge, falsehood and fraud, and that he will resume his role as the charcoal-suited, literate, respectable-seeming media apologist for a party that has become only a criminal gang and a pathology.
5
Mr Brooks wrote - "a belief, dating back to the Puritans, that God’s plans for humanity would be completed on this continent". Well, some of my fore-bearers were those very Puritans.
Perhaps Mr Brooks is correct - that the Puritans really did think this way.
The problem is that people in this country STILL feel this way. Scary. Very scary.
American exceptionalism is based on our firmly-rooted concept of the rule of law. For the commoner as well as the wealthy. In the history of our country we have seen the likes of what Mr Brooks describes, the TParty, John Birch Society, Know-Nothings, etc. We have survived in spite of them.
Perhaps Mr Lincoln was right when he said, at his second Inauguration during the throes of the War of Southern Rebellion, "We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We -- even we here -- hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just -- a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."
Perhaps more people should read the full of what Mr Lincoln had to say, especially those of whom Mr Brooks writes.
Perhaps Mr Brooks is correct - that the Puritans really did think this way.
The problem is that people in this country STILL feel this way. Scary. Very scary.
American exceptionalism is based on our firmly-rooted concept of the rule of law. For the commoner as well as the wealthy. In the history of our country we have seen the likes of what Mr Brooks describes, the TParty, John Birch Society, Know-Nothings, etc. We have survived in spite of them.
Perhaps Mr Lincoln was right when he said, at his second Inauguration during the throes of the War of Southern Rebellion, "We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We -- even we here -- hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just -- a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."
Perhaps more people should read the full of what Mr Lincoln had to say, especially those of whom Mr Brooks writes.
3
It is a few decades too late to become a convert to sensible conservatism. The "reasonable voices" held back too long, attempted to find some sense in the non-sense being spouted by their leaders, accommodated policies that pulled our nation down. And now that the party is going over the cliff and trying hard to pull the country with it, the "voices of reason" are alarmed. Well, all I can say is, we told you so. You didn't listen.
3
Maybe now, Mr Brooks, you can be free of the Republican Party, which now stands for nothing, and put your talents to work looking for reasonable alternatives. It's time to turn your back on this bunch. I suspect, you, too, like Speaker Boehner, can't help but see the light.
2
Brooks article plus Boehner's resignation even for me a democrat is a very cold shower.
We lost GOP , I am sure about that. R.I.P
Last hopes went down the drain.
We lost GOP , I am sure about that. R.I.P
Last hopes went down the drain.
Thank you Mr. Brooks.
The problem with conservatism is that it is (was) not a popular enough movement to elect presidents or politicians on a national scale. so in order to gin up their numbers they have appealed to the baser instincts of some disaffected constituents who have slowly begun to demand that the party answer to them for their votes. It is a dance with the devil that the party can only lose long term. I once was a Rockefeller republican, but as Reagan once said, I didn't leave the party, the party left me.
3
I am all for legal immigration. As a sovereign nation we need to 'vet' anyone who wishes to immigrate to 'America'. We certainly did that for the vast majority at Ellis Island during the vast upheavals in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Is there any reason not to do the same today?
3
The only thing I'd seriously argue with here is that the idea the Right's depending on is a fantasy: America never was the lily-white, happy enclave of family values and hard work and religious piety and guns everywhere and patriotism.
That's a fantasy, cobbled together from biased history books and sermons and Andy Hardy movies and "Father Knows Best." The truth's a lot closer to "Gangs of New York."
That's a fantasy, cobbled together from biased history books and sermons and Andy Hardy movies and "Father Knows Best." The truth's a lot closer to "Gangs of New York."
6
Yes, today's GOP is the master of exploiting nativist racism, and cultural and religious bigotry, for electoral gain, synchronous with its ongoing exploitation of misogyny and homophobia also for electoral gain. Nice of you to finally notice that this will lose the GOP elections a few election cycles down the road. Too bad David Brooks that you and the rest of the GOP establishment can't bring yourself to condemn this morally, and not just electorally, bankruptcy. Now that would be exceptional.
5
Are we sure that our continent was unoccupied before being settled by the colonists?
4
So why, Mr. Brooks, did you support the last Republican presidential candidate, and why will you support the next? Your analysis of how the Republican party has become a despicable group is spot on. Isn't it time to realize and admit that party names are meaningless and what a party stands for right now is all that matters? Vote for a better future. Vote Democratic.
6
I would like to ask Brooks and all Republicans one question.
Golden days of America depicts exactly what years and century.
For me as an Immigrant American raised in Europe and learned America mainly from reading National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, Times and Newsweek , the time frame of this golden age is exactly between 1940 to 1970.
This is the time frame, FDR's ne w deal give fruition and WWII catapulted USA to world #1 country and following 2 decade scientific and economic power was so superior , we landed on moon 1969. Presidents are, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and LBJ. 22 years of Democratic and 8 years of GOP terms.
I am curiously asking to honest Republicans, those in between you continuously uttering the golden days, referring exactly what period?
Golden days of America depicts exactly what years and century.
For me as an Immigrant American raised in Europe and learned America mainly from reading National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, Times and Newsweek , the time frame of this golden age is exactly between 1940 to 1970.
This is the time frame, FDR's ne w deal give fruition and WWII catapulted USA to world #1 country and following 2 decade scientific and economic power was so superior , we landed on moon 1969. Presidents are, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and LBJ. 22 years of Democratic and 8 years of GOP terms.
I am curiously asking to honest Republicans, those in between you continuously uttering the golden days, referring exactly what period?
8
I can answer for Republicans on that.
The Golden Age of America was when exceptionalism. Self-determination, as God intended, for the Founders who wanted Americans of all colors to be free if they could earn it. The pursuit of happiness to be left alone without regulation or the EPA was what Washington was talking about at Gettysburg when he took that one giant leap for mankind. The right to say for yourself, as a free person, that a dollar isn’t worth the paper it’s written on if a balanced budget isn’t. Freedom isn’t free if you get monthly bill for it. Am I right?
We remember a Golden Age because it hasn’t happened yet. Gilded, maybe. But we want the 24 karat one, the age when free men of wealth can be free at last, free at last, unfettered by gravity and thermodynamics to soar like wings of eagles over the socialism of reality.
That’s just a first draft. When Sarah Palin takes over for John Boehner it’ll all be clear as a fish swimming upstream.
The Golden Age of America was when exceptionalism. Self-determination, as God intended, for the Founders who wanted Americans of all colors to be free if they could earn it. The pursuit of happiness to be left alone without regulation or the EPA was what Washington was talking about at Gettysburg when he took that one giant leap for mankind. The right to say for yourself, as a free person, that a dollar isn’t worth the paper it’s written on if a balanced budget isn’t. Freedom isn’t free if you get monthly bill for it. Am I right?
We remember a Golden Age because it hasn’t happened yet. Gilded, maybe. But we want the 24 karat one, the age when free men of wealth can be free at last, free at last, unfettered by gravity and thermodynamics to soar like wings of eagles over the socialism of reality.
That’s just a first draft. When Sarah Palin takes over for John Boehner it’ll all be clear as a fish swimming upstream.
1
Ah, the politics of distraction. Look for some hard evidence for this mass foreign invasion of illegal criminals the GOP is rallying the TV viewing public to fight, and there is none.
Pundits claim the party is following some grassroots base outside the beltway that's forcing the issue to the top. Humbug, the GOP is strictly a top down organization. D. Brooks always waxes on in good college essay form to give us some psycho-social rationalizations, but connecting obscure historical dots, infusing pop sociology 1970s style, and adding grand old enlightenment age theological pronouncements doesn't convince.
As I read in the NY times about Turing Pharmaceuticals business manager, a former hedge fund guy who acquired a 62-year-old drug used for specific infectious diseases, and raised the price of the pill from $13.50 to $750 overnight, I thought, "What a grand extortion scheme". Then I pondered how D. Brooks might wax on in college essay form about neo-con principles, and applaud Republican politicians for allowing natural free-markets to regulate the behavior of this business manager of drug sales. How the loss of some ill fated patients builds character in the rest of us.
Republican politics needs grand theatrical political distractions on TV to stay in power, because it's economic policy agenda for governing is something only a robber baron could like.
Pundits claim the party is following some grassroots base outside the beltway that's forcing the issue to the top. Humbug, the GOP is strictly a top down organization. D. Brooks always waxes on in good college essay form to give us some psycho-social rationalizations, but connecting obscure historical dots, infusing pop sociology 1970s style, and adding grand old enlightenment age theological pronouncements doesn't convince.
As I read in the NY times about Turing Pharmaceuticals business manager, a former hedge fund guy who acquired a 62-year-old drug used for specific infectious diseases, and raised the price of the pill from $13.50 to $750 overnight, I thought, "What a grand extortion scheme". Then I pondered how D. Brooks might wax on in college essay form about neo-con principles, and applaud Republican politicians for allowing natural free-markets to regulate the behavior of this business manager of drug sales. How the loss of some ill fated patients builds character in the rest of us.
Republican politics needs grand theatrical political distractions on TV to stay in power, because it's economic policy agenda for governing is something only a robber baron could like.
6
On "American Exceptionalism" -- It is high time that we grasp the reality that the notion of our country being "exceptional" is (a) somewhat exaggerated and (b) now highjacked and exploited ("Make America Great Again"). Yes, we are a great country in many ways, best reflected in our Constitution, but we are not exceptional -- there are a lot of countries that are certainly as "good" as we are, and we are in fact "worse" than other countries on a number of fronts (fill in the blanks that may occur to each reader). Internationally, we can and hopefully will continue to help lead the world into a survivable future, but we will do it (or not) in cooperation with a world that has another plus or minus 200 countries. So, my vote is to cut out once and for all the "USA, USA" chanting (why did that start?!! -- when a part of us, not a nice part, realized the reality that we are not exceptional and didn't like the feeling). We don't need to worry about "making America great again." We're OK, in fact better than OK, and we can get a lot better.
5
I pretty much agree with everything Mr. Brooks says in this column. As Mr. Brooks acknowledges, it describes a segment of the GOP electorate and its leaders. Maybe even, by some metrics, the dominant segment. But there is another powerful segment that I believe intentionally deploys nativism and xenophobia as a political tool. These are the the ultra-wealthy conservatives and fellow travelers. They have always existed in the GOP, but at least since the New Deal until about 1980, they were a smaller voice in a moderately conservative party. Now, in some ways, with a huge assist from the Supreme Court, they are arguably more effective than since the Guilded Age. In a nutshell, they believe greed is good. They rationalizations are so effective, so pervasive, they truly believe that the more money they accrue, the better America is for it. This has filtered down to the mere wealthy, i.e., the executives in public corporations who in one year can make enough after-tax income to keep their families wealthy for literally generations. Let's not forget about this insidious force, which is happy to appeal to the lower strata of conservative voters by convincing them it is actually the immigrants who are to blame because they (the poorer conservatives) don't have the wealth or opportunities they used to have -- and not the vacuum cleaner above them that is sucking away their future.
6
The Republican body uses the politics of distraction; emotional issues of all stripes, to draw attention away from the economic policies designed to increase the accumulation wealth by the 0.1 percent. Unfortunately complex economic issues don't motivate voters, just lobbyists.
6
The spirit of conservatism in the United States may have been based on promise, but it has always been the misguided promise of reward for exclusion and obfuscation.
5
It would challenge a stoned middle-schooler to come up with something more vapid than David Brooks’ opener here. "America was settled, founded and built by people who believed they were doing something exceptional."--that's ad copy. It’s stupidly, lazily wrong.
The settlers and the Founders built America on one hard specific idea: that there are such things as self-evident truths; and the corollary, that a self-evident truth is self-evident for everyone. The essence of effective participation in the capitalist republic they created was that there were facts, that the facts were the same for everyone in the markets and the courts and the laboratories. This bedrock affirmation meant that a peasant’s child could become a leader, an inventor, a giant of industry, a jurist, regardless of birth and station. No matter who we are or the circumstances of our birth, the facts belong to us all and we must accede to them, like it or not. It’s both humbling and empowering that the fact of fact makes us all equal.
Empiricism is America’s greatest cultural asset. We aren’t addled by mysticism or tradition or folklore as so many cultures have been and still are. We investigate ruthlessly; test; improve; we make progress because stasis and complacency are unAmerican. We learn.
Brooks helped define Conservatism in our time as insane anti-empiricism. I’m disgusted that he shifts blame. It’s not just that Brooks has learned nothing. It’s that he still declines to learn anything.
The settlers and the Founders built America on one hard specific idea: that there are such things as self-evident truths; and the corollary, that a self-evident truth is self-evident for everyone. The essence of effective participation in the capitalist republic they created was that there were facts, that the facts were the same for everyone in the markets and the courts and the laboratories. This bedrock affirmation meant that a peasant’s child could become a leader, an inventor, a giant of industry, a jurist, regardless of birth and station. No matter who we are or the circumstances of our birth, the facts belong to us all and we must accede to them, like it or not. It’s both humbling and empowering that the fact of fact makes us all equal.
Empiricism is America’s greatest cultural asset. We aren’t addled by mysticism or tradition or folklore as so many cultures have been and still are. We investigate ruthlessly; test; improve; we make progress because stasis and complacency are unAmerican. We learn.
Brooks helped define Conservatism in our time as insane anti-empiricism. I’m disgusted that he shifts blame. It’s not just that Brooks has learned nothing. It’s that he still declines to learn anything.
8
Across the political left and right, organizations and the people who define them forever seek to conserve their power and privilege. Whether we cite corporate America longing for unregulated capitalism, unions seeking to restore their power to preserve members' now unaffordable pensions or the Tea Party Republicans pining away for a return to the White Power politics of the 1960's,they all forget that the "future" is an unstoppable force that happens to everything--politics,business, cultural paradigms. We can never "go back". To attempt to hold back change is a fool's errand. Time is not a circle to be turned back on itself. It is an arrow always seeking a future achievement. Today is just the the imperfect past to some better future. That idea encapsulates American Exceptionalism.
1
It is your party that created this monster of ignorance and fear with Donald Trump as its ugly head and the Tea Party holding the rear. But you know that, and as long as the checks from donors and real money party bosses keep coming, those sorry excuses of congress people Republican-leaning stupid people keep electing will continue with the not soon enough self-destruction of one of the most hypocritical and self-centered group of people ever, the Republican party.
4
Is it coincidence that on a day when David and Paul Krugman write complementary, dovetailing columns, John Boehner resigns , not just from his position as Speaker, but from the House itself? I see the influence of Pope Francis on Boehner and on Brooks.
3
Open borders and mass immigration will do far more harm to America than good. I remember what it was like to live here when the population was near the 200 million mark - despite the political and generational rancor of those times the middle class was strong, we had far more open spaces and undeveloped land and the country had a solid identity. The US is now iin danger of becoming increasingly balkanized and overpopulated. Calls to terminate illegal immigration and moderate legal immigration should be heeded.
1
In decrying backward looking republican politicians, Mr. Brooks misses the mark. The problem lies with the voters who would angrily whisk away the politicians who might proffer a different message.
4
Now, they tell us to be good Christians --- I hope he is preaching to his own.
3
You've got a long way to go David. America was already settled when the "founders" of the United States got here.
4
"intellectually sloppy"...Now there's a phrase that really captures the republican party.
Another phrase might be "habitual liars"....another "scaredy cats".
"This pessimism isn’t justified by the facts." Like I said...habitual liars.
Coulter and the rest of the mob who make their livings on the back of this "failed America" are doing the bidding of those who seek an America that more resembles the failed feudal states of old Europe..the oligarchs like the koch bothers. And they're making a rather good living off the lies while the rest of Americans continue to struggle against the tide of all this nonsense.
Job creators, indeed.
Another phrase might be "habitual liars"....another "scaredy cats".
"This pessimism isn’t justified by the facts." Like I said...habitual liars.
Coulter and the rest of the mob who make their livings on the back of this "failed America" are doing the bidding of those who seek an America that more resembles the failed feudal states of old Europe..the oligarchs like the koch bothers. And they're making a rather good living off the lies while the rest of Americans continue to struggle against the tide of all this nonsense.
Job creators, indeed.
7
I think the conservative base knows very well that immigration is part and parcel of the US experience and that it's good for the country overall. What really concerns many conservatives, I think, is the challenge that today's immigration flows pose to maintaining the myths that many white people tell themselves about who they are, and the grave threat that the diversifying population poses to white privilege. In other words, I really think it's about race.
6
The one fact missing from your cogent analysis is the ascendancy of the far right. In the generation following WWII when the middle class flourished, the far right was divided and marginalized.
Before 1970 each party had their disaffected far right wing - the Dixiecrats in the Demacratic Party and the Fred Koch - Ayn Rand wing in the Republican Party.
The Southern Strategy, concocted to fix a similar demographic decline for the GOP, turned out to be a disaster, because it united the far right and enabled them to take over the GOP and transform conservatism into a dangerous reactionary ideology.
There was at the time a kind of vacuum in the cultural identity of white Christian Americans and the far right rushed to fill it with dangerous nonsense. At the same time, hate speech became respectable again among white conservatives. From the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 the Right's hate speech industry boomed.
In the short run hate speech can boost election turnout but in the long run it's a death sentence to freedom.
Before 1970 each party had their disaffected far right wing - the Dixiecrats in the Demacratic Party and the Fred Koch - Ayn Rand wing in the Republican Party.
The Southern Strategy, concocted to fix a similar demographic decline for the GOP, turned out to be a disaster, because it united the far right and enabled them to take over the GOP and transform conservatism into a dangerous reactionary ideology.
There was at the time a kind of vacuum in the cultural identity of white Christian Americans and the far right rushed to fill it with dangerous nonsense. At the same time, hate speech became respectable again among white conservatives. From the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 the Right's hate speech industry boomed.
In the short run hate speech can boost election turnout but in the long run it's a death sentence to freedom.
5
Facts, facts, facts. Conservatives don't need any facts to know the illegal immigrants are the cause of all of our nation's problems. The GOP and Fox News tells them so every day.
7
I just read this article after reading what Jeb Bush said, hope, not free stuff will draw black voters.
A simple minded message, from simple minded men, that's the take away from today's GOP.
How insulting to every American of any color, any religion, etc.
A GOP slogan could be, The race to the past, as they stick to what they know best.
I do know not all Republicans feel this way, but they can't seem to to raise any money to run.
Traditionalism and nationalism together calcify the mind and are very very dangerous.
As far getting free stuff, that honor goes to the wealthiest hands down.
Free stuff, is this the modern version of a poll tax, very ironic.
Hope is the only thing that endures, and will continue, on and on and on!
A simple minded message, from simple minded men, that's the take away from today's GOP.
How insulting to every American of any color, any religion, etc.
A GOP slogan could be, The race to the past, as they stick to what they know best.
I do know not all Republicans feel this way, but they can't seem to to raise any money to run.
Traditionalism and nationalism together calcify the mind and are very very dangerous.
As far getting free stuff, that honor goes to the wealthiest hands down.
Free stuff, is this the modern version of a poll tax, very ironic.
Hope is the only thing that endures, and will continue, on and on and on!
5
I'm glad to see Brooks acknowledge the facts, lied about by political candidates, that the data show that new immigrants, despite mostly coming from poverty circumstances are healthier and less likely to commit crimes than the rest of Americans (in stark contrast to Donald Trump's claims). The rate of their entering our country has also leveled off so that the number leaving and the number entering have offset each other over the last several years. Now we need some realistic assessments of the risk of taking in refugees from the Middle East, which no one but America seems to think is too dangerous to do. I'm tired of political lies being labeled "telling it like it is."
7
Viewing a position, such as opposition to uncontrolled immigration as a sign of some larger spiritual defect in those that hold a position becomes, as in this opinion piece, just an exercise to feel good and sore points. Most Americans are uneasy at uncontrolled immigration and they want something very simple - controlled, rational immigration. We want to know who is coming in, what they bring to the table, and we want to have some ability and commitment to their assimilation into the American fabric. Those who want total exclusion (and there are precious few of those!) and those who want no controls at all (and many of those work at the Times it appears) just talk past each other and fail to help get to a rational middle ground of controlled and fairly substantial immigration. Less demonization of the other side and more conciliation. Substantial controlled immigration is in our nation's interest, and it is part of our past and future.
1
I'm glad you mention the statistics that run counter to the general Republican narrative--today's immigrants are healthier than native-born people, incarceration levels of 18 to 39-year old immigrant men are one-fourth of American men, they are assimilating as fast as previous immigrants and learning English. There is another statistic that runs counter to the Republican narrative (and to the attitude implied by the polls you cite), which is that, for several years in a row, the Obama administration set a record for the number of people it deported. But he is trying to make things better for the whole society on this issue. It is hard to understand what Republicans want.
7
David, would you write from an independent point of view? Write every column from the point of view of what is best "to promote the common good" as John Locke stated is the purpose of goverment.
6
Mr. Brooks, while I philosophically disagree with you often, it is obvious you are a thoughtful man who loves his country and would work with liberals towards its future, which increasingly the wing nuts of your party no longer are, or will. Thank you for this enlightening article - something I have long felt, but could not put into words.
8
"America was settled, founded and built by people who believed they were doing something exceptional. Other nations were defined by their history, but America was defined by its future, by the people who weren’t yet here and by the greatness that hadn’t yet been achieved."
Mr. Brooks, America was settled by people who bamboozled, infected, killed, massacred the natives of the land they conquered; at times they even managed to have a go at cannibalism of their own kind; invented the notion of the "Robber Baron"; mastered the slave trade and for centuries lived of slave labor in the south; it abolished slavery when for the most part it was not anymore economically efficient as per Robert Fogel, Nobel Prize winning economist and professor in the University of Chicago (I guess Mr. Brooks didn't take his course while most likely busy learning about the closing of the American Mind). If all these are called exceptionalism, so be it. I don't want any part of it. The American Exceptionalism is a myth, perpetuated by the rhetoric turned right-wing ideology who cannot even deliver a basic universal health care system to its compatriots; advocate the perpetuation of the inequality in wealth, education, income, you name it. Mr. Brooks in his saccharine prose as is his wont quotes big names and books to keep up appearances. The GOP and all its current Presidential candidates are true practitioners of this ridiculous myth. It is time to forget that and really turn to the future.
Mr. Brooks, America was settled by people who bamboozled, infected, killed, massacred the natives of the land they conquered; at times they even managed to have a go at cannibalism of their own kind; invented the notion of the "Robber Baron"; mastered the slave trade and for centuries lived of slave labor in the south; it abolished slavery when for the most part it was not anymore economically efficient as per Robert Fogel, Nobel Prize winning economist and professor in the University of Chicago (I guess Mr. Brooks didn't take his course while most likely busy learning about the closing of the American Mind). If all these are called exceptionalism, so be it. I don't want any part of it. The American Exceptionalism is a myth, perpetuated by the rhetoric turned right-wing ideology who cannot even deliver a basic universal health care system to its compatriots; advocate the perpetuation of the inequality in wealth, education, income, you name it. Mr. Brooks in his saccharine prose as is his wont quotes big names and books to keep up appearances. The GOP and all its current Presidential candidates are true practitioners of this ridiculous myth. It is time to forget that and really turn to the future.
14
I agree with David’s comments, and as an old anti-war activist (though moderately conservative on economics), I see these reactionary neo-conservative attitudes reflected also in the increasing militarism in this country which Eisenhower futilely warned us about decades ago. We’ve gone from a free people in a democratic republic who are morally justified in defending ourselves when necessary, e.g., the reluctant citizen-soldier of WWII, to crossing the line from republic to empire, ignoring the old Just War Tradition, with war-profiting, torture-condoning chickenhawks sending trusting macho kids to unnecessarily & arrogantly kill the “bad guys” in whatever foreign lands we care to, with tragic, counterproductive consequences, e.g., in Vietnam & Iraq, & enticing other superpowers like Russia & China to do the same.
6
At last a pundit on the right comes to terms with the GOP and its rant about exceptionalism. And Brooks nails it. The exceptionalism sought by the extremists is an atavistic one, a push to return to a more golden age in their views when the Cleavers and their progeny, the Beav, represented America at its most serene and successful. Tripe!
The report he cites near the end of his column, Brooks points out what the study shows about immigrants and assimilation. He didn't quite quote it accurately as the report, published earlier online, says that today's immigrants are learning English faster than previous ones. He also omits an amazing bit of information from the study that shows they are healthier than Americans. Trolls like Trump and the entire Arizona and Texas delegations are always ranting about immigrants being criminal and bringing in diseases. Not true. Brooks, you're scratching at the liberal closet door, is getting louder. I suspect your intelligence makes it harder and harder to condone and support what your party is inflicting on itself and on America. And sadly, the next week will reveal just how exceptional these anti-Americans are if they succeed in shutting down the government and defunding Planned Parenthood.
The report he cites near the end of his column, Brooks points out what the study shows about immigrants and assimilation. He didn't quite quote it accurately as the report, published earlier online, says that today's immigrants are learning English faster than previous ones. He also omits an amazing bit of information from the study that shows they are healthier than Americans. Trolls like Trump and the entire Arizona and Texas delegations are always ranting about immigrants being criminal and bringing in diseases. Not true. Brooks, you're scratching at the liberal closet door, is getting louder. I suspect your intelligence makes it harder and harder to condone and support what your party is inflicting on itself and on America. And sadly, the next week will reveal just how exceptional these anti-Americans are if they succeed in shutting down the government and defunding Planned Parenthood.
8
David Brooks! The horse is out of the barn for you and your Republican sponsors. Where were you when there was still any part of the conservative legacy worth protecting? Your goose is cooked. The eagle has landed, etc.
7
The Republican Party is dedicated to preserving and defending the prerogatives and power of predominately higher income, older. white men. Its policies flow from that single-minded objective.
8
Once the US had patriotism. Now we have naked Nationalism. Not a pretty developement. Funny how those who bleat loudest about American exceptionalism' do the most to make the USA a run of the mill hegemon
4
The GOP is looking more and more like the party of anarchy with a few rules to keep "those people" down. Both parties are stuck in the notion that there is some magical solution. For Republicans it's give the country's wealth to a cadre of monied individuals at the top and they'll make everything good. Democrats want to give everyone a free college education and sit them in an office. Meanwhile farm jobs go begging, technical jobs to keep all the neat machines working are unfilled and we blithely export our manufacturing capability to countries that are not really our friends. These years will truly be looked on as the lost decades, another civil war without the blood.
2
Yes, I think I know how the Trumps and disaffected tea party feels. I, too, long for the time passed when sub-sub-sub mediocrity was something to brag about, when the president was respected if not always liked and certainly not called a liar during a speech. Or repeatedly questioning the president's legitimacy, citizenship, scholarship, his very existence. I long for a time when people of good will but opposing views could debate issues without demonizing their opposition as demonstrated by the latest swarm of republican candidates. I want to go back to a time when civil rights for all were being expanded and leave this time when the republicans want to suppress the vote. A time when a worker could actually live on his wage, was reasonably secure in the future of his job, and even afford healthcare and housing.
Intelligence, wit, civility, honesty, grace in our politicians. Obama has all that but that's become so very old hat in this tea party infused toxic climate. Not even Boehner, chief tea party herder can cope or survive.
Intelligence, wit, civility, honesty, grace in our politicians. Obama has all that but that's become so very old hat in this tea party infused toxic climate. Not even Boehner, chief tea party herder can cope or survive.
5
I wish fur those days, too. If only we ignore those with the megaphones spewing totally distasteful rubbish.
right to the point my friend...this is no longer a civil nation, mostly because of Jobs and his technology, so why expect politicians to be so? the hateful and idiotic rhetoric spewed by the Trumps, Huckabees, Carsons and Christies of the GOP show you that this election will be as tumultuous as 1968, except just more evil. Back then, we as a people backed the president, agree or not, because that is what an American did. Today's Americans feel it is their God Given right to express anything on Twitter, rubbish or not.
Mr Brooks, I'm 55 years young and in my life I cannot remember the Republican Party ever embracing "a style of nationalism that is hopeful and future minded". No, the party has rather embraced fear, division, inequity and a bullying forgein policy. An honest assessment of our country's recent history shows a direct line of connection between the McCarthyism of the 1950's to today's Republican Party.
5
everyone in the world knows this. why don't Republicans?
3
"An America that is being lost." No, Mr. Brooks. You espouse an unjustified hope. It is an America that HAS BEEN lost, owing in no small part to the Republican party which you embrace. The plutocrats whom you never seem to criticize has usurped nearly absolute power for themselves and has demeaned and rendered powerless the 99% who do not cater to their agenda. The stirring vision of democracy as portrayed in Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" has been trampled under foot by the rapacity of the clique of monied elites. They have made a mockery of democracy. Even in Whitman's own day he lamented the demise of his ecstatic portrayal of democracy in his "Democratic Vistas." . It has been on its inevitable descent ever since then.
2
Mr. Brooks, who does his job pretty well given he is a New York Times version of a conservative, does the dirty work for the left in conflating immigration and illegal immigration, a favored tactic of liberals everywhere. And he does so on a day the Washington Post publishes deep reporting on the efficiency and effectiveness of Mexican Cartels in serving heroin not only to major cities but to small town America.
Do conservatives really dislike "others"? Or do they object to an immigration policy, and to immigration law enforcement, designed to perpetuate out-of-date leftist ideologues like the current White House inhabitant?
So to be clear, I, and I suspect many other conservatives, welcome immigrants. We would, however, like to see immigration policy to be based on what helps the country versus who happens to live nearby. And we would like to think that a man audacious enough to push through health care laws opposed by most Americans might find inspiration to enforce the laws he swore to uphold on immigration.
Do conservatives really dislike "others"? Or do they object to an immigration policy, and to immigration law enforcement, designed to perpetuate out-of-date leftist ideologues like the current White House inhabitant?
So to be clear, I, and I suspect many other conservatives, welcome immigrants. We would, however, like to see immigration policy to be based on what helps the country versus who happens to live nearby. And we would like to think that a man audacious enough to push through health care laws opposed by most Americans might find inspiration to enforce the laws he swore to uphold on immigration.
4
Don't read that the Administration is deporting more illegals than prior Administrations?
1
I don't usually agree with you, but this is a perceptive editorial. The one quibble I have is that the American conservatism you espouse may never have existed. Conservatives by their nature are against change, so it is small wonder they are against immigration (forgetting that most are descended from immigrants). They may be thoughtful enough to dislike racism and sexism, but they have been historically willing to overlook these consequences of conservatism. It is like people who harken back to the golden 1950s, while ignoring many of the terrible things that were being brushed under the carpet during the era. They dislike the 1960s because a bright light was shined on the issues.
3
The elephant in the room:
"Out of this backward- and inward-looking mentality comes a desire [by whites] to exclude [others of color]."
"Out of this backward- and inward-looking mentality comes a desire [by whites] to exclude [others of color]."
2
"It is a party that is characterized by resentments and grievances, by distress and dismay, by the belief that America is irredeemably corrupt...." is a phrase that with minor changes applies to the Black Lives Movement. "It is a movement that is characterized by resentments and grievances, by distress and dismay, by the belief that white people are irredeemably corrupt"
David Brooks, come on over to the dark side, you're almost there. And we have cookies.
6
People always want Time to stop at a point apparently ideal to them. I'm a big fan of 1979, for example. Young, healthy, gorgeous girlfriend, parents paying for everything, optimistic and the world ahead of me! Ah well. But I haven't turned it into a political philosophy.
12
Whether or not I agree with David Brooks, I'm always glad to be reminded that there are still real conservatives with functioning brains.
2
I've always felt uncomfortable hearing the phrase "American exceptionalism." Being exceptional is a characteristic declared not as a description of one's self, but something declared by an outside observer. Humility is in order, not swagger.
8
Solution: next election vote against every Republican, for every office, at every level. Be patriotic. Save the country.
4
And what do people who live in fear 24/7 become? Weak, powerless fools who yearn for a savior. This is how the NSDAP arose in the 1930s, thankfully our economy is not similar.
David , you knew very well, your party's more vocal and aggressive base is not understanding your ideas.
Common sense left GOP's this white people dominant part and there is no way to reinstate it.
That is my friend is very is real desperation.
Common sense left GOP's this white people dominant part and there is no way to reinstate it.
That is my friend is very is real desperation.
2
Great writing Mr. David Brooks, thank you.
It is critical that intellectuals such as yourself, take off the mittens when dealing with the right's foibles and sins.
It is critical that intellectuals such as yourself, take off the mittens when dealing with the right's foibles and sins.
2
Boehner sought to damp down the neo-con ideology. Now that he is gone the party is free to self-immolate. Boehner put just a little shine on the party's ugly face. Now the true neo-con face will be fully revealed.
While I am a bit surprised that Brooks wrote this piece, it will seem awfully prescient in retrospect.
While I am a bit surprised that Brooks wrote this piece, it will seem awfully prescient in retrospect.
4
Crocodile tears, David.
2
The GOP is nothing more than a group of white people desperately afraid of black and brown people.
3
I was raised in a right wing family before becoming a Democrat in grad school as the Bush years played out - hard to do otherwise.
The Republican party's decline isn't good for any of us. We live in a country where via gerrymandering politicians choose their voters rather than the other way around, and where super PACs influence politicians to favor the wealthy over the majority. Politicians don't do a great job of acting rationally for our benefit these days because it's often not in their interest.
We need alternatives. We need two parties who compete for our vote and the opportunity to select the best candidate in any given year. Decades of governance by one party is a recipe for poor governance.
Let's stop thinking about our political "team." The team doesn't care about us. The team should work for us, not the other way around. I don't care about the team. I care about smart people looking out for their electorate to improve policies, regulations, outcomes over time. Plenty of problems out there to solve.
For the sake of us all: Republicans, please step up with visions and policies that are inspiration and helpful for all Americans. Like Obamacare, inspired by Romney's results in Massachusetts and an idea out of the Brookings Institute. And then I promise you that you'll have my vote. But you actually have to take credit for rather than running from your good ideas.
The Republican party's decline isn't good for any of us. We live in a country where via gerrymandering politicians choose their voters rather than the other way around, and where super PACs influence politicians to favor the wealthy over the majority. Politicians don't do a great job of acting rationally for our benefit these days because it's often not in their interest.
We need alternatives. We need two parties who compete for our vote and the opportunity to select the best candidate in any given year. Decades of governance by one party is a recipe for poor governance.
Let's stop thinking about our political "team." The team doesn't care about us. The team should work for us, not the other way around. I don't care about the team. I care about smart people looking out for their electorate to improve policies, regulations, outcomes over time. Plenty of problems out there to solve.
For the sake of us all: Republicans, please step up with visions and policies that are inspiration and helpful for all Americans. Like Obamacare, inspired by Romney's results in Massachusetts and an idea out of the Brookings Institute. And then I promise you that you'll have my vote. But you actually have to take credit for rather than running from your good ideas.
4
Among the many excellent Brooks columns in the NYT, this is a standout. The current crises in the GOP are an outgrowth of the Southern strategy that has won elections for many years (and continues to work in the House) but with a complete lack of optimism for the future. Optimism - even unjustified optimism - has always been a characteristic of conservative Americans who have had a major national impact.
History has shown that if you are deeply pessimistic about the future, you no longer feel the need to plan for it or try to mitigate future problems (e.g rising sea levels). The take-no-prisoners political fights in DC arise from this artificially overdrawn sense of an existential crises in American values.
Progressives of all stripes (myself include) should deeply lament the current state of affairs: optimism is essential to the American and project and our democracy is dependent on having two fundamentally healthy political parties.
I am one Democrat hoping the GOP gets is mojo back.
History has shown that if you are deeply pessimistic about the future, you no longer feel the need to plan for it or try to mitigate future problems (e.g rising sea levels). The take-no-prisoners political fights in DC arise from this artificially overdrawn sense of an existential crises in American values.
Progressives of all stripes (myself include) should deeply lament the current state of affairs: optimism is essential to the American and project and our democracy is dependent on having two fundamentally healthy political parties.
I am one Democrat hoping the GOP gets is mojo back.
71
Hostility toward immigrants and racial/ethnic/religious minorities by conservatives is an old story that way predates today's Republicans. It was always there, under Bush, Bush, Reagan, Ike, Hoover, you name the Republican, and a look at the books shows some groupt was being hated and discriminated against.
The root of today's problem is, surprisingly to some, the old cancer of slavery and the civil war. This political moment's wave of revulsion against immigrants has its roots in white southern revulsion to the election of a black president which has its roots in southern humiliation over losing the segregation battle, which (segregation) had its roots in southern humiliation over the loss of the civil war as their vehicle for punishing their black population for siding against them. The lines draw themselves clearly and directly every time we try to trace who has the attitudes and where they come from. The conservative dreamers who do all that looking ahead don't want to ever look in the rear view mirror if it means admitting what lies behind...
The root of today's problem is, surprisingly to some, the old cancer of slavery and the civil war. This political moment's wave of revulsion against immigrants has its roots in white southern revulsion to the election of a black president which has its roots in southern humiliation over losing the segregation battle, which (segregation) had its roots in southern humiliation over the loss of the civil war as their vehicle for punishing their black population for siding against them. The lines draw themselves clearly and directly every time we try to trace who has the attitudes and where they come from. The conservative dreamers who do all that looking ahead don't want to ever look in the rear view mirror if it means admitting what lies behind...
2
The United States political system depends upon electing men and women of good will who act on behalf of the people who elected them. That ideal has decayed. The rich get richer, the poor are mired in poverty, and the middle class has eroded away. Leadership that could build coalitions of good will have evaporated. So, what is there to look forward to?
1
That things can change?
Well Done Brooks spot on.
1
If GOP is the "business" party, why are they so inept at understanding how their actions today will cause untenable outcomes tomorrow?
Yep. You made money speech. Then to keep power, you spent that money fomenting hate and intolerance through your media channels. Now you lament the obvious outcome.
I wouldn't let your team run my lemonade stand.
What are you going to do to fix it?
Yep. You made money speech. Then to keep power, you spent that money fomenting hate and intolerance through your media channels. Now you lament the obvious outcome.
I wouldn't let your team run my lemonade stand.
What are you going to do to fix it?
3
"...inept at understanding how their actions today will cause untenable outcomes tomorrow..."
See Obamacare, Obama Amnesty, Iran Nuclear Deal, TPP...
See Obamacare, Obama Amnesty, Iran Nuclear Deal, TPP...
My impression is that after the WWII victory, with the US largely undamaged, Americans felt a sense of triumphalism. That morphed into a feeling of entitlement, which eventually was not fulfilled. The mighty Detroit automakers' products became lower quality than the defeated Japanese and Germans. People went to college not for an education, but for credentials, earning degrees that did not lead to upper class lifestyles. The government's reasons for going to war became suspicious, corporations became international with no particular allegiance to their American workers or customers, the income gap between workers and upper management increased exponentially, etc. We are no longer "all in this together".
1
This has to be one of the best columns David Brooks has ever written.
The Republican Party desperately needs to show a willingness to adapt to the reality Brooks has eloquently described. Failing that it will become an irrelevant minority party, the party of nasty old white guys who strongly oppose anyone not exactly like themselves.
This current failure to adapt will produce nothing but great harm to our nation. We need both parties to be viable, not just one.
signed
a Democrat
The Republican Party desperately needs to show a willingness to adapt to the reality Brooks has eloquently described. Failing that it will become an irrelevant minority party, the party of nasty old white guys who strongly oppose anyone not exactly like themselves.
This current failure to adapt will produce nothing but great harm to our nation. We need both parties to be viable, not just one.
signed
a Democrat
67
both parties? the GOP ceased being a party when all they want is to stuff Reagan and put him in front of the cameras...there are no parties in this country...just varying degrees of liberals, conservatives, moderates, xenophobes, racists and business types who think they can run a nation
Absolutely!
The demographic of a young nation is skewed to the self reliant productive individual and culture. My party needs to understand we now have a "normal distribution" of cultural Producers and Consumers and we must organize our society to provide for our now mature demographic distribution. Why can't we be arguing about dealing with reality in a fiscally conservative way instead of denying reality?
As an American I want a Government with a Democrat President who represents the hopes of our nation and a Republican Congress to implement our bureaucracy responsibly... is that too much to ask... I will take my answer off line.
The demographic of a young nation is skewed to the self reliant productive individual and culture. My party needs to understand we now have a "normal distribution" of cultural Producers and Consumers and we must organize our society to provide for our now mature demographic distribution. Why can't we be arguing about dealing with reality in a fiscally conservative way instead of denying reality?
As an American I want a Government with a Democrat President who represents the hopes of our nation and a Republican Congress to implement our bureaucracy responsibly... is that too much to ask... I will take my answer off line.
Can we get a Republican Congress that acts responsibly? I wonder? All they can talk about is abortion and immigration and Democrat bashing. I'd like to see that, however.
Good to see Brooks acknowledge the demise of the GOP... but his eulogy is pretty so-so, even though he does acknowledge that the cause of death of the GOP was self-inflicted.
1
Republicans support as much immigration as jobs will allow. Create full employment by replacing the payroll taxes with a 4% VAT and elimination of unnecessary business tax expenditures. Use the charitable tax deduction to create transitional jobs. Once U.S. citizens have sufficient jobs, all will welcome immigrants.
1
American exceptionalism is saying America gets to play by a different set of rules than everyone else. It matches the Republican persona embodied by Trump who likes to tell everyone know how great he thinks he is. When you're great and exceptional, people tell you, you never have to claim it yourself. It's an attitude embodied by those who lack self-confident. The prominence of the word today used in our political discourse reveals the crisis in American culture.
1
The contradiction is that minorities in the U.S. see "American Exceptionalism"as historically meaning everybody shares in the American Dream "EXCEPT" them.
3
Today's conservatives know there's more money in book deals and Fox News gigs than in holding office. Modern conservatism isn't a political stance - it's a job interview for a cottage industry of bigotry and racism that encourages the worst elements of our society.
6
As the population grows, the old capitalism will not work as well. There will need to be oversight, regulation, systems of equity embedded in our markets. The old guard has prospered when the market is unfettered and free. That system has proven unfair, led to massive disparity, and a need for reform. But, The GOP keeps reaching back, resisting reform, clinging to 1950s America that made us great.
Right now, America is divided, dysfunctional, in debt, a nation of hyper consumers, unable to see the forest through the trees, addicted to the here and now profit, enabling too many financiers, valuing "shareholders" more than all citizens.
The GOP keeps offering the same old dish that created this divide and fed the one-percent: low taxes, strong military, de-regulation. Fair taxes, a small and smart military, and market regulation for equity seem absent from current batch of presidential hopefuls.
I believe in 2016 Americans will look to the future, not reach for the past, and continue with Obama's progressive example by electing Biden, Clinton or Sanders. The GOP may be stuck. A fraction of the population may still be reaching for that old America, but most others have moved on, are not afraid of words like "socialism" and "safety net" and "universal health care". Rather, these voters see those words as signs of an evolved society.
It's a good sign that Boehner is leaving soon. Maybe that's a first step toward a Republican evolution, a step toward a new horizon.
Right now, America is divided, dysfunctional, in debt, a nation of hyper consumers, unable to see the forest through the trees, addicted to the here and now profit, enabling too many financiers, valuing "shareholders" more than all citizens.
The GOP keeps offering the same old dish that created this divide and fed the one-percent: low taxes, strong military, de-regulation. Fair taxes, a small and smart military, and market regulation for equity seem absent from current batch of presidential hopefuls.
I believe in 2016 Americans will look to the future, not reach for the past, and continue with Obama's progressive example by electing Biden, Clinton or Sanders. The GOP may be stuck. A fraction of the population may still be reaching for that old America, but most others have moved on, are not afraid of words like "socialism" and "safety net" and "universal health care". Rather, these voters see those words as signs of an evolved society.
It's a good sign that Boehner is leaving soon. Maybe that's a first step toward a Republican evolution, a step toward a new horizon.
4
It may be the first step in a million mile march. They have to break totally down to rebuild. I don't think they can from where they are. The right is falling off the edge. The left is the new right. Or at least probably Hillary Clinton is. Bernie is the new left.
I don't know. The op mariginal tax in th 1950s was about 90%. Not sure that the Republicans really want to go back to that.
1
Boy! You got this one right David!
1
For every self-interested position the GOP may take, the DNC has its analogue, and for its own selfish reasons (e.g. immigrants may make fresh new party recruits). As for money, both parties are at the exact same well. Which is why Americans might be wise to seek a true independent party. Both the GOP and DNC are out of ideas, out of date and out of shape.
13
One is still for things while the other is against everything.
1
To see that GOP pessimism disappear, just let them take the presidency. I've noticed that when there's a Republican president "America is the greatest nation now and ever in the history of the world!" And anyone who criticizes the country or any of its policies is challenged, "Why do you hate America?"
When there's a Democratic president, it's "America is doomed!"
When there's a Democratic president, it's "America is doomed!"
2
Today's GOP is a mere pastiche of the party founded by Lincoln. It embraces none of Lincoln's noble sentiments and intentions. Its swing to the extreme right has spawned its bete noir: Trump. It has reaped what it has sowed.
3
Just another round of GOP exaltation of the "Big Me" - what the good Rabbi Joseph Slovietchik termed Adam I in his book "Lonely Man of Faith" - corroding the community bond and self-sacrifice essential to the America being missed by today's moral midgets.
2
I wonder a bit about the use of the word "eschatological"--the kind of glorious future that word suggests may be more the cataclysmic end of history than a golden age any secular sense. It might be more like the intersection of matter and anti-matter than the triumph of any particular existing perspective.
1
Evidently David fell out of the wrong side of his bed, hit his head and realized he fell into the real world, discovering that the GOP is out of this world. How exceptional (for David)!
2
Mr. Brooks:
Most readers of the NYT already know these things. Just because YOU have now discovered them doesn't mean that you should rush to publish. You have no credibility among the intelligent, thoughtful, and compassionate citizens of the United States. Remember your support for the Iraq war, your rejection of the Iran nuclear deal, your fascination and collaboration with Bill Buckley (aptly nicknamed "crypto Nazi" by Gore Vidal), your wholehearted support for Bibi Netanyahu, your thinly veiled disgust and disrespect for our President, ...? Your columns often reek of dishonesty. This one shows that you actually understand what an insane asylum the GOP has become, and yet you continue to push their agenda. Quit the GOP, apologize for your past sins, then quietly slip into oblivion.
Most readers of the NYT already know these things. Just because YOU have now discovered them doesn't mean that you should rush to publish. You have no credibility among the intelligent, thoughtful, and compassionate citizens of the United States. Remember your support for the Iraq war, your rejection of the Iran nuclear deal, your fascination and collaboration with Bill Buckley (aptly nicknamed "crypto Nazi" by Gore Vidal), your wholehearted support for Bibi Netanyahu, your thinly veiled disgust and disrespect for our President, ...? Your columns often reek of dishonesty. This one shows that you actually understand what an insane asylum the GOP has become, and yet you continue to push their agenda. Quit the GOP, apologize for your past sins, then quietly slip into oblivion.
7
Mr. Brooks here again demonstrates his ignorance of reality. Not long ago, he rationalized the criminal conspiracy to invade Iraq as misjudgments resulting from bad intelligence.
2
With their intention to shut down Planned Parenthood no matter the consequences, Republicans are insuring that poor women, lacking access to contraception, will have more children. Of course, these children will ALL vote Democratic in the future.
Nice going, Republicans. You are now alienating even future voters. Unwittingly, you are insuring American exceptionalism which, of course, requires more forward-looking Democrats and fewer backward-looking Republicans.
Nice going, Republicans. You are now alienating even future voters. Unwittingly, you are insuring American exceptionalism which, of course, requires more forward-looking Democrats and fewer backward-looking Republicans.
1
Has David actually been observing the GOP for the last 25 years? It's a party that left Wall Street a long time ago. Much of its rhetoric has been the only that real Americans are the victims of big government, blacks, immigrants, and Muslims.
It's no wonder that hate Obama... he embodies everything they think is wrong with this country.
Greatness is measured by how big your heart is... not how small.
It's no wonder that hate Obama... he embodies everything they think is wrong with this country.
Greatness is measured by how big your heart is... not how small.
1
Another American idea was the rejection of the European feudal system of lords and serfs, in which a tenant farmer could work hard his whole life but never own his land, or reap the fruits of his labor, while his Manor Lord accumulated riches, built castles, and impressed armies. It was easy to reject feudalism in early America when land was free for the taking; but the American free market system in modern life makes the American dream increasingly impossible except for the brilliant, beautiful, and lucky few. The estate tax exemption has risen from $500,000 to $5,500,000; workers are paid half what it costs to live; people are forced into debt to see the doctor; the value of business is measured in terms of profit instead of benefit to society; the rich pay a pittance in taxes if they pay taxes at all; and bankers who crashed the housing market are bailed out, while millions of families are foreclosed. The American owner-take-all economy is not dynamic; it is stultifying.
Although it is welcome that Mr. Brooks includes immigrants among those who are welcome to give the American idea a try, let us hope that Republicans like him will notice that America today is in essence no better than European feudalism, that the unregulated market system they love is itself blocking for most of us the realization of the American dream.
Although it is welcome that Mr. Brooks includes immigrants among those who are welcome to give the American idea a try, let us hope that Republicans like him will notice that America today is in essence no better than European feudalism, that the unregulated market system they love is itself blocking for most of us the realization of the American dream.
156
What an insightful description of what makes America exceptional. David Brooks hits this one out of the park. But, I'm really saddenned to see how both commentators and the American people refuse to acknowledge the one man who embodies this American spirit of looking forward and onward wholeheartedly - Barack Obama. I don't care if he is liberal or a Democrat or God forbid has socialist leanings, the fact is that no one more than him, in our time, has come to stand for hope and striving for a better future. Everything he has done has been out of a deep seated optimism about the future, not just of the United States but also of the world. He has unflinchingly stared cynicism and fear mongering in the face and delivered on health care for the poor, jobs in the private sector, furthering the cause of gay rights, global climate change action, moving to a nuclear free world, de-militarizing in the Middle East and South Asia (at least unilaterally), engaging with old intractable foes, supporting third world democracies and done all this with dignity, grace and not a hint of scandal. I wonder when sensible people like David Brooks will realise that their conservative messiah was all along their president, masquerading as a liberal !
2
The party that hates entitlements is actually the party that fosters a sense of entitlement. And the entitlement they feel they deserve is the America of the past that they idealize as exceptional. As Brooks rightly says, they have it backwards. They are always looking backwards, out of a kind of smug narcissism. Trump surly is the leader the Republican party deserves, but not the one the country deserves.
2
Put another way, the Republicans circa 2015 are "hippies and social dropouts" of the 1970s.
The so called New Left of that earlier era fed itself on a view of American doom, of overreaching in foreign adventures and military incursions and with visions of the once pristine American wilderness polluted beyond repair. The far right in America now, which has come to dominate the discourse of Republicans, has married itself to "America in decline", proposing themselves as rescuers.
The ritual chanting about "American exceptionalism" is, in fact, a sign of loss of faith in America's future, an unnecessary boasting which betrays the absence of confidence. They want that confidence back and require the defeat of all other conflicting ideas about how to resolve our problems as the absolute minimal sign of reasserting their version of America's grandness. They have built themselves a not so elegant trap.
Absolutism is the brain food of enraged revolutionaries. Democracy requires give and take and rests on a balanced, mature view of the world, not one drawn from a radically retrograde critique.
The so called New Left of that earlier era fed itself on a view of American doom, of overreaching in foreign adventures and military incursions and with visions of the once pristine American wilderness polluted beyond repair. The far right in America now, which has come to dominate the discourse of Republicans, has married itself to "America in decline", proposing themselves as rescuers.
The ritual chanting about "American exceptionalism" is, in fact, a sign of loss of faith in America's future, an unnecessary boasting which betrays the absence of confidence. They want that confidence back and require the defeat of all other conflicting ideas about how to resolve our problems as the absolute minimal sign of reasserting their version of America's grandness. They have built themselves a not so elegant trap.
Absolutism is the brain food of enraged revolutionaries. Democracy requires give and take and rests on a balanced, mature view of the world, not one drawn from a radically retrograde critique.
1
Here, Here!!
But who can we blame? A TV news media that seeks advertisers rather than truth? The Supreme Court for "Citizens vs. United?"
But who can we blame? A TV news media that seeks advertisers rather than truth? The Supreme Court for "Citizens vs. United?"
1
The difficulty is that almost all the analysis I see from the editorial board and from many of the liberal readers consists of a one sided view of the world.
For instance, Obama once said that he wanted to increase college enrolment by Americans. And he also went on legalize five million people from a community which has the lowest rate (lower than African Americans) of going to college.
Liberals tend to do what their hearts tell them to do today. They rarely think of what is going to happen tomorrow. Alas, neither do the Republicans, who deny global warming and seem quite comfortable with stark income disparity.
Denying evolution does not in itself do harm. After the framers of the constitution had not read Darwin who had not been born. But their denial of real problems means that Republicans are thought of as the crazy party.
And so we elect the "less crazy" party. Wouldn't it be nice if at least one of the parties was sane?
For instance, Obama once said that he wanted to increase college enrolment by Americans. And he also went on legalize five million people from a community which has the lowest rate (lower than African Americans) of going to college.
Liberals tend to do what their hearts tell them to do today. They rarely think of what is going to happen tomorrow. Alas, neither do the Republicans, who deny global warming and seem quite comfortable with stark income disparity.
Denying evolution does not in itself do harm. After the framers of the constitution had not read Darwin who had not been born. But their denial of real problems means that Republicans are thought of as the crazy party.
And so we elect the "less crazy" party. Wouldn't it be nice if at least one of the parties was sane?
I don't generally agree with David Brooks' political analyses, but I think this one is on the mark. Add to the Republican sense that the best years are behind us and "America," as they see it, is irretrievably lost, the underlying fear of the future ahead and the desperate need to have that fear rationalized, reinforced, and entrenched by their chosen representatives, and you've fairly accurately described the Republicans I know. It is that fear of the future, of immigration, of difference, and of change that needs to be addressed if we are to embrace this rapidly changing world with any kind of success and rediscover something resembling the attitude of the founders of this nation. I hope we can.
1
Why refuse to distinguish legal from illegal immigration? The US takes in many many legal immigrants each year and the deluge of illegals hurts that process. Why not welcome people who follow the rules? It's curious that people who want the federal government to regulate just about every aspect of peoples' lives advocate a completely unregulated immigration system.
1
I have listened to David on NPR, watch him on the McLear Hour or whatever it was, read him in the NYT and he is evolving away from the GOP as the GOP is racing toward irrelevance. I like him, he is not mean like some of the GOP, it makes me happy and hopeful that other rational GOP'er will reassess their party.
1
David, please explain what it is that conservatives conserve other than the idea that they can get back to the "good ol' days"
4
This column reminded me of a question I've yet to hear answered: when Politicians say we've go to take America back I wonder take it back from whom? Give it back to whom?
1
Brooks finally allowed his intelligence to overcome his ill-directed ideology. Or he is coming to realize which side of the bread will be buttered in coming years and he wants to maintain his pundit position so is changing to suit the times.
1
So, where does this leave American Conservatism? Apparently without any compass at all, as this is the only thing anyone is talking about in the GOP. Mr Brooks, does this mean you will be voting for Hillary if we stay on this course?
The country has reached a watershed in politics when, on the same day, John Boehner and David Brooks - both staunch Republican defenders of conservatism - effectively throw in the towel on their own Party.
210
If Republican party cannot eliminate Ted Cruz type of malignity, Tea party will effectively render the GOP being from Mainstream party to fringe party.
I believe they should fight till that bitter end to take party back.
If ted Cruz mentality owns the GOP , we will shut down federal government for good.
I believe they should fight till that bitter end to take party back.
If ted Cruz mentality owns the GOP , we will shut down federal government for good.
as a teacher of political science, what you are witnessing is the demise of a political party not unlike the Whigs of the 19th century...they just don't know it yet.
Good one, David. The party of Eisenhower has gone off the rails for sure. President Barack Obama has exactly the kind of moderate Republican values that you admire. Maybe one day you will admit that.
1
Your waiting your time quoting a definitive report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. Isn't the GOP the no science party? Where have all the intellects in the Republican party gone? It is a very sad state of affairs.
2
Trump wants "to make America great again." That's a message which must ring especially false to that group which questions any claim to American "exceptionalism." Oh - and that group includes Obama, liberals and most Democrats. To them - simply put - America is not and was not ever great. After all - as Bernie states "slavery is in our Constitution."
Just believe when they state that all the European countries - especially the Nordic ones - are far more exceptional than the US; well - because they have free health care. And no racism. That's it! That makes them more exceptional! This is the dim witted view of the left and those who fail in the American system.
"Losers!" - never a better description than offered by Trump. The fact that no country - ever - has accomplished - has allowed her citizens to achieve to the utmost - does not matter to those who dwell in negativity. Forget it Brooks - they'll never see the light.
Just believe when they state that all the European countries - especially the Nordic ones - are far more exceptional than the US; well - because they have free health care. And no racism. That's it! That makes them more exceptional! This is the dim witted view of the left and those who fail in the American system.
"Losers!" - never a better description than offered by Trump. The fact that no country - ever - has accomplished - has allowed her citizens to achieve to the utmost - does not matter to those who dwell in negativity. Forget it Brooks - they'll never see the light.
Mr. Brooks speaks for that now-rare breed, the thoughtful conservative. This column is a keeper.
1
I can't believe that I just read this in a David Brooks column.
The exceptional America that Hamilton and his contemporaries envisioned would have naturally included a vast immigrant population, the same as they were, foreigners who came to North America. It is quite logical to think that if one has hops for being the the last best hope for our race, to be the best that mankind can be it would naturally include the best of mankind from the world over.
Conservatives do not share this vision or preach this message of hope.
The exceptional America that Hamilton and his contemporaries envisioned would have naturally included a vast immigrant population, the same as they were, foreigners who came to North America. It is quite logical to think that if one has hops for being the the last best hope for our race, to be the best that mankind can be it would naturally include the best of mankind from the world over.
Conservatives do not share this vision or preach this message of hope.
2
The right wing Republican extremists have won -- they forced Boehner out and will shut down the government over Planned Parenthood. There is nothing whatsoever exceptional about the United States with Cruz and his crazy cronies running Congress.
3
Good writing but terrible root cause analysis. For example trade unions which are pretty far left also do not like the current immigration chaos. So are we to assume the trade unions are now republican?
Generally Americans of all stripes believe in immigration provided it is done in and orderly and lawful fashion. Therein is the rub. We don't have immigration problem we have illegal immigration problem and then like squatters in a building they insist they cannot be moved. Our legacy politicians and political parties that are responsible for managing the country have let illegal immigration explode and then use it for whatever political point they can make against their opponent. Pity the poor legal immigrant who jumps through hoops and barrels and has to fit within a defined quota each year. We put them through hell.
No the harsh truth of it is that Dems think they have potential votes in these immigrants so they are trying to weave a narrative around it invoking American values and dreams while Reps are trying to stop it for the same reason along with requiring government and illegal immigrants to respect and adhere to the law. Meanwhile the press runs pathetic stories about the human tragedy of what could happen to illegal immigrants if legal action is taken against them. This is the definition of dysfunction and someone will have to pay for that dysfunction. Nothing is free.
Generally Americans of all stripes believe in immigration provided it is done in and orderly and lawful fashion. Therein is the rub. We don't have immigration problem we have illegal immigration problem and then like squatters in a building they insist they cannot be moved. Our legacy politicians and political parties that are responsible for managing the country have let illegal immigration explode and then use it for whatever political point they can make against their opponent. Pity the poor legal immigrant who jumps through hoops and barrels and has to fit within a defined quota each year. We put them through hell.
No the harsh truth of it is that Dems think they have potential votes in these immigrants so they are trying to weave a narrative around it invoking American values and dreams while Reps are trying to stop it for the same reason along with requiring government and illegal immigrants to respect and adhere to the law. Meanwhile the press runs pathetic stories about the human tragedy of what could happen to illegal immigrants if legal action is taken against them. This is the definition of dysfunction and someone will have to pay for that dysfunction. Nothing is free.
1
Many of the Founders were slavers. They believed they were doing something exceptional. I'd say, they were doing something "exceptional" by "excepting" slaves from any notion of equality.
4
Yes, David, the idea of an America based on the rule of law is dead. Adios to govern by 'law', for that is what the nation has stumbled into by an out of control Executive and Legal branches. This is not more evident in the immigration issues, which if anything come down to no enforcing the laws already on the books. The idea that any new or reformed laws would be enforced is delusional. So, yes we have soured on a belief we are a nation of laws that will be enforced.
1
It's welcome to see Mr. Brooks offer a stern and, so far as it goes, accurate view of the destructive character current Republican mood and mentality. And it's intriguing to note that he does so with only the mildest attempt to "balance" the picture by citing the countervailing flaws among Democrats. However, it's startling to observe that he fails to grasp how grotesque it is to set Lincoln alongside Reagan and George W. Bush.
The comparison between Lincoln and Bush is self-evidently grotesque. But the one with Reagan is perhaps still more telling. Lincoln fought the Civil War and emancipated the slaves. Reagan broke the air-traffic controllers union, conquered Grenada and sold us the snake oil of supply-side economics. True, Reagan was in office when the USSR finally collapsed. But, apart from engaging in a ruinously expensive escalation of military spending, he didn't do anything that his predecessors from Truman and Eisenhower to Carter hadn't done.
By linking Lincoln and Reagan, Mr. Brooks inadvertently underscores how deeply Reaganolatry has skewed our national sense of reality and moral worth.
The comparison between Lincoln and Bush is self-evidently grotesque. But the one with Reagan is perhaps still more telling. Lincoln fought the Civil War and emancipated the slaves. Reagan broke the air-traffic controllers union, conquered Grenada and sold us the snake oil of supply-side economics. True, Reagan was in office when the USSR finally collapsed. But, apart from engaging in a ruinously expensive escalation of military spending, he didn't do anything that his predecessors from Truman and Eisenhower to Carter hadn't done.
By linking Lincoln and Reagan, Mr. Brooks inadvertently underscores how deeply Reaganolatry has skewed our national sense of reality and moral worth.
4
Income inequality is destroying our nation, the Republicans are just along for the ride. So many Americans are struggling to just keep up with expenses, first, by the dual income household and then, by using their homes as personal ATM's. These were stop gap measures and simply did not work as a long term solution. The reason American exceptionalism is dying is our free market is no longer future minded. It's about making as much money as possible for the CEO and the board. Sadly, workers who have experienced large productivity gain, rarely share in the economic pie. Until corporations once again focus on the future: investing in workers, paying corporate taxes to support infrastructure, supporting the communities in which they are located, ordinary people will place blame on the soft targets, immigrants.
4
America's great promise was newness. The entrenched powers of Europe and a rich hereditary aristocracy held all the cards and all the money. "Novus ordo seclorum"--order could be established based on rational justice and opportunity for all, rather than the continuing arbitrary power of a few increasingly degenerate families.
Now we have the Kochs and the Bushes and the Waltons, and the elimination of the Estate tax, and that reboot of opportunity is slipping away via the policies of the GOP and the acquiescence of most of the Democratic party.
Now we have the Kochs and the Bushes and the Waltons, and the elimination of the Estate tax, and that reboot of opportunity is slipping away via the policies of the GOP and the acquiescence of most of the Democratic party.
5
There's a formula to David Brooks' commentaries and how I react to them. Invariably they start off with reasoned expositions, and I'm following along thinking, "This all sounds sensible." I might even learn a new word or two. Eschatology! Then, toward the end, there's a pivot point that slaps me back to my senses and reminds me that Brooks and I are and always will be on opposite sides of the gridlocked freeway: "From Lincoln to Reagan to Bush..." did me in this time. Brooks should know better than to relate Lincoln and his Republican Party to anything resembling the GOP of the 1970's and beyond. But he doesn't. The GOP ditched "hopeful nationalism" so long ago. Business-as-usual rhetorical gymnastics here, once again.
162
Excellent analysis, Steve! Have had the same experience when reading his columns.
Having just read that Speaker Boehner intends to resign, I can't help but wonder if he is resigning in disgust over what the GOP has become.
3
"The G.O.P. is longing to return to the past and is fearful of the future. It is a party that is characterized by resentments and grievances, by distress and dismay, by the belief that America is irredeemably corrupt and past the point of no return."
I guess the first step is admiting you have a problem.
I guess the first step is admiting you have a problem.
Bravo Mr. Brooks. You're coming closer to seeing your Party for what it really is; an organization bent on sowing fear and divisiveness to a voter base desperate to take this Country back to a foggy, idealized version of the past, a la "Leave it to Beaver".
Of course, that version of America best serves those who resemble the show's main characters. Those who don't - growing minorities and the shrinking middle class, are beginning to understand that 35 years of failed Republican conservatism only serves to turn their dreams into disillusioned fairy tales.
Of course, that version of America best serves those who resemble the show's main characters. Those who don't - growing minorities and the shrinking middle class, are beginning to understand that 35 years of failed Republican conservatism only serves to turn their dreams into disillusioned fairy tales.
1
American conservatism may have been based on promise, but no more. You have only to look for who determines the direction of the GOP and to accomplish that you merely follow the money. It is our richest who have reached the strategic high ground of the economy and seek to maintain their personal advantage by the politics of exclusion.
A phrase I've heard over the years from conservatives is, "Do you want them to…", and it precedes a list, a litany, of actions that would separate an American from his money, his livelihood, his position in the social order. It presents a series of awful consequences if "They" are allowed in to claim a share of the American Pie. The meaning is clear that there is not enough to go around. The flow of trickle down is merely a trickle and not enough crumbs fall from the table. There is, it turns out, money in those crumbs that are captured before they can leave the table in order to be sold at market price.
Conservative politics is about exclusion. It seeks to protect not a "Real America" but a "My America"; the America in which "I've got mine" and let's leave it at that. It is a country club conservatism in which the monetarily challenged have no place.
When Herman Cain posited "Nine, Nine, Nine", he might well have been saying "Mine, Mine, Mine!"
We need not say "Adios, America". We need to be open to the future in order to grow with it.
A phrase I've heard over the years from conservatives is, "Do you want them to…", and it precedes a list, a litany, of actions that would separate an American from his money, his livelihood, his position in the social order. It presents a series of awful consequences if "They" are allowed in to claim a share of the American Pie. The meaning is clear that there is not enough to go around. The flow of trickle down is merely a trickle and not enough crumbs fall from the table. There is, it turns out, money in those crumbs that are captured before they can leave the table in order to be sold at market price.
Conservative politics is about exclusion. It seeks to protect not a "Real America" but a "My America"; the America in which "I've got mine" and let's leave it at that. It is a country club conservatism in which the monetarily challenged have no place.
When Herman Cain posited "Nine, Nine, Nine", he might well have been saying "Mine, Mine, Mine!"
We need not say "Adios, America". We need to be open to the future in order to grow with it.
2
Eschatology, not a glorious future but the end of the future
The OED: "The department of theological science concerned with 'the four last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell'." In the context of mysticism, the phrase refers metaphorically to the end of ordinary reality and reunion with the Divine.
For proper care of the future, better to have a "none"
The OED: "The department of theological science concerned with 'the four last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell'." In the context of mysticism, the phrase refers metaphorically to the end of ordinary reality and reunion with the Divine.
For proper care of the future, better to have a "none"
1
David Brooks cites facts to counter what he believes is a false perception among Republicans that our "hopeful nationalism is being supplanted in the G.O.P. by an anguished cry for a receding America." Interestingly, however, Brooks has his own false perceptions about what he calls our hopeful national. He claims our country was "built by people who believed they were doing something exceptional" in contrast to "other nations defined by their history." Exactly. Our denial of our history has allowed us to consider our origins "exceptional." In fact, the United States was created like all other nations - by taking land and resources from people who could not defend them. It was theft and murder played out in a massive, vicious genocidal war against American native peoples coupled with the enslavement of Africans for hundreds of years that "built" America. It was not the beliefs and delusions of doing something exceptional, now understood as propaganda, that allowed us to evolve, for better and for worse, as the country we are today.
While there were certainly some of those who "settled, founded and built" America who had ideals - noble or otherwise, America was, in the main, settled by people who wanted free land, and to escape societies where opportunity had already been seized centuries ago, and those who had it weren't willing to share it. The modern day Republican party is the exact antithesis of this, they've got theirs and aren't willing to share it. Sure, they'll point to the (very rare) exception and say it's still possible, but they do everything in their power to keep what they have to themselves.
2
You think Republican fear of the future will lose it political power? Ha! They control most governorships, the majority of state legislatures, both houses of Congress, and the Supreme Court, not to mention localities. We are in an era when the past looks more attractive than the future because capitalism has failed the hopes of the common man, not that Republicans will admit that. Just because the American prospect appears to an immigrant to be better than the prospect in his homeland does not mean it appears great to a native of this country. The conserving impulse in an age of diminishing resources is perfectly normal and to think increases in population via immigration (Democratic idea) and attacks on family planning (Republican idea) will restore "the future" to what is used to be is foolish. The solution is a self-sustaining economic system worldwide, an abandonment of colonial exploitation so that the natives of all nations can find hope in their own land. A balance between resources and population.
1
On immigration, it seems that if one objects to continuing to allow persons to come here without a visa, or overstay when they come and then that they be treated as law abiding citizens, then one is anti immigrant. This meme is so entrenched that nothings seems to ever penetrate to Brooks and others. One can be welcoming to those who come in peace and lawfulness and still not be welcoming to those who break the laws to get here and many others to stay. How is the data on the performance of those coming legally versus those coming illegally? Is it known and published? So the concern is the failing nature of our nation's ability to uphold and honor its own laws. And our laws have been one of the strengths of our country. I know space is scarce but please, don't confuse these issues all the time, everywhere in the press.
David Brooks cites facts to counter what he believes is a false perception among Republicans that our "hopeful nationalism is being supplanted in the G.O.P. by an anguished cry for a receding America." Interestingly, however, Brooks has his own false perceptions about what he calls our hopeful nationalism. He claims our country was "built by people who believed they were doing something exceptional" in contrast to "other nations defined by their history." Exactly. Our denial of our history has allowed us to consider our origins "exceptional." In fact, the United States was created like all other nations - by taking land and resources from people who could not defend them. It was theft and murder played out in a massive, vicious genocidal war against American native peoples coupled with the enslavement of Africans for hundreds of years that "built" America. It was not the beliefs and delusions of doing something exceptional, now understood as propaganda, that allowed us to evolve, for better and for worse, as the country we are today.
1
It's a bit ironic that Brooks cites " a definitive report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine," as an extreme mistrust of intellectual authority is a trait that is just as deeply embedded as nativism in today's Republican Party. Indeed, anti-intellectualism provides incredibly fertile soil for anti-immigrant hysteria.
4
Mea culpa? No. Immigration is merely a wag-the-dog issue to win support for a recrustian conservatism that seeks to over turn the Roseveltisn revolution and advance the interests of the monied class. Many other issues have been used in similar fashion: the fear of communism and pinkos in the forties and sixties, the exploitation of white fears over affirmative action in the Reagan era, and crime and terrorism in recent years. These eag the dog strategies have allowed conservatives to wear the mantle of the common man while freeing antisocial pirates to grab the nations wealth as thier own. Apologise for that Mr. Brooks.
2
The Republican dilemma is that their polices have created a profoundly unfair country controlled by plutocracy and oligarchy, but they can't admit that this is the case, so they have to find a scapegoat for the malaise being felt by the general population. Blaming the outsider is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Given that this is completely contrary to American exceptionalism, as David rightly points out, one can only hope that this strategy fails miserably and the Republican party pays the price.
1
There is nothing new here concerning attitudes towards immigration in American History. People don't realize that immigration has renewed America not taken away from it, because most of the people who come really want to be here vs. people who just feel entitled
3
Over its relatively brief history, the two major factors in America's growth have been immigration and war. In this way we are not very different from other empires. The formula is: add subjects; consolidate resources. And the two processes are complementary.
Over the past forty years or so, this formula has started to fail. Our wars no longer benefit us. Without the ability to go to war to expand our nation's resources, the ability of our empire to support more subjects is called into question.
But to abandon both tenets of our growth is a recipe for a quick death. And giving up on immigration is to admit defeat. The "trick" to circumnavigate this lose-lose scenario is to find an alternative to war, a gentler, fairer way of consolidating resources for a stable or expanding empire.
The most obvious answer is to double down on the techno-cultural hegemony that is already well underway . Companies like Apple and Google are one leading edge of this new kind of American expansionism, invading the soil of global lifestyle micromanagement.
I hope that America can also lead international technological cooperation on projects to establish climate control, possibly including space projects.
Through these new types of expansion, we could form the basis to continue to add subjects.
Over the past forty years or so, this formula has started to fail. Our wars no longer benefit us. Without the ability to go to war to expand our nation's resources, the ability of our empire to support more subjects is called into question.
But to abandon both tenets of our growth is a recipe for a quick death. And giving up on immigration is to admit defeat. The "trick" to circumnavigate this lose-lose scenario is to find an alternative to war, a gentler, fairer way of consolidating resources for a stable or expanding empire.
The most obvious answer is to double down on the techno-cultural hegemony that is already well underway . Companies like Apple and Google are one leading edge of this new kind of American expansionism, invading the soil of global lifestyle micromanagement.
I hope that America can also lead international technological cooperation on projects to establish climate control, possibly including space projects.
Through these new types of expansion, we could form the basis to continue to add subjects.
1
David won't say it but I will. It's about race, racial fears and racial stereotyping and plain old racism. This is an old tactic of the GOP. Nixon invented the "southern strategy" to demonize the civil rights movement and pull white voters away from the Democrats in the south. Reagan took it to new heights with with his "states rights" platform announced near the murder site of three civil rights workers in Mississippi and and George H.W. Bush gave us his Willie Horton campaign. They were all appeals to white voters and the base stereotypes that many of them held about blacks.
So why should we be surprised that todays GOP is playing the same old race card, this time with a "southwestern strategy" demonizing Mexicans. How many times in the last two years has the media reminded white people that they might be the new minority by 2050?
Today Jeb Bush proclaims that black voters "want hope, not free stuff." This isn't an appeal to black voters. This message intentionally invokes an image of a free loader or welfare mentality of blacks because this very stereotype is prominent in surveys about white views of blacks. Is this a racist image made from stereotypes that have no basis in fact? Of course it is.
Will the GOP be called out for this appeal to racism? The GOP denigrates Muslims, demeans women and now Mexicans. But the most reliable target of political racisms is of course African Americans and our "free stuff" mentality. Hello, It's racism David not exceptionalism!
So why should we be surprised that todays GOP is playing the same old race card, this time with a "southwestern strategy" demonizing Mexicans. How many times in the last two years has the media reminded white people that they might be the new minority by 2050?
Today Jeb Bush proclaims that black voters "want hope, not free stuff." This isn't an appeal to black voters. This message intentionally invokes an image of a free loader or welfare mentality of blacks because this very stereotype is prominent in surveys about white views of blacks. Is this a racist image made from stereotypes that have no basis in fact? Of course it is.
Will the GOP be called out for this appeal to racism? The GOP denigrates Muslims, demeans women and now Mexicans. But the most reliable target of political racisms is of course African Americans and our "free stuff" mentality. Hello, It's racism David not exceptionalism!
5
Two somewhat unrelated comments:
1) Mr. Brooks begins by writing, "...some conservative commentators and Republican politicians who talk a lot about American exceptionalism. But when they use the phrase they mean the exact opposite of its original meaning." However, he offers no definition of either, and I'm unclear as to exactly what he has in mind.
2) I've long argued that the present Republican Party is "broken". By that I mean that it is devoid of any intellectual base, leaving it in a position mostly only to oppose, while recruiting, harboring, and pandering to every brand of irrationality. The latter include, among others, the racist leftover from the old South; the anti-science zealot, the anti-government preacher; and the economic ideologue .
The nation needs a viable second party, not a caricature that provides mostly entertainment of sorts. I'm not at all clear where "exceptionalism" of any definition enters in here (i.e. exceptionally silly?).
1) Mr. Brooks begins by writing, "...some conservative commentators and Republican politicians who talk a lot about American exceptionalism. But when they use the phrase they mean the exact opposite of its original meaning." However, he offers no definition of either, and I'm unclear as to exactly what he has in mind.
2) I've long argued that the present Republican Party is "broken". By that I mean that it is devoid of any intellectual base, leaving it in a position mostly only to oppose, while recruiting, harboring, and pandering to every brand of irrationality. The latter include, among others, the racist leftover from the old South; the anti-science zealot, the anti-government preacher; and the economic ideologue .
The nation needs a viable second party, not a caricature that provides mostly entertainment of sorts. I'm not at all clear where "exceptionalism" of any definition enters in here (i.e. exceptionally silly?).
4
"America was settled, founded and built by people who believed they were doing something exceptional."
I was deeply shocked by reading the first statement of Mr. Brooks essay. How can an educated person write such a statement in 2015? Has he read so little and traveled so little across this great nation that he is ignorant or forgetful of the Native Americans who lived here when the Europeans arrived? Can he ignore the repeated broken treaties and the genocidal wars from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries that cleansed America east of the Mississippi of native peoples?
And how can he ignore the millions of Africans brought to this nation in chains, and the millions more born into slavery, who did much to build the economy of this country? Slavery may not have been a national institution, in that it was limited to the southern states. Still, the explicit recognition of slavery in our Constitution, the ways in which the trade in human beings was financed and insured by financial institutions of the north, and how the economy of the south was built on slavery must be recognized.
If Mr. Brooks statement "America was settled, founded and built by people who believed they were doing something exceptional." is to be read as truth, the truth should understood as America was settled, founded and built by European people who believed that genocidal war on native peoples and human slavery were part of doing something exceptional.
I was deeply shocked by reading the first statement of Mr. Brooks essay. How can an educated person write such a statement in 2015? Has he read so little and traveled so little across this great nation that he is ignorant or forgetful of the Native Americans who lived here when the Europeans arrived? Can he ignore the repeated broken treaties and the genocidal wars from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries that cleansed America east of the Mississippi of native peoples?
And how can he ignore the millions of Africans brought to this nation in chains, and the millions more born into slavery, who did much to build the economy of this country? Slavery may not have been a national institution, in that it was limited to the southern states. Still, the explicit recognition of slavery in our Constitution, the ways in which the trade in human beings was financed and insured by financial institutions of the north, and how the economy of the south was built on slavery must be recognized.
If Mr. Brooks statement "America was settled, founded and built by people who believed they were doing something exceptional." is to be read as truth, the truth should understood as America was settled, founded and built by European people who believed that genocidal war on native peoples and human slavery were part of doing something exceptional.
4
That "sour, intellectually sloppy and over generalized sense of alienation" has a more succinct definition: bigotry. And that monster's voracious appetite has been nourished by the likes of Fox News and talking heads like Limbaugh and Coulter. And it has been ignored, until now, by commentators like David Brooks who looked the other way while his party was hijacked by the radical right.
It will take a lot more than one op-ed piece to undo the damage inflicted this past decade. Look at the field of Republican presidential contenders, each outdoing the next in a race to the bottom. How many are there currently? Eleven? And out of all those, not one has the moral integrity, much less courage or patriotism to stand up against the rabid utterances of Donald Trump and his followers. None are qualified to lead this nation.
If you want your party back, Mr. Brooks, this is a start. But it's going to take a LOT more work from not only you, but many, many others
It will take a lot more than one op-ed piece to undo the damage inflicted this past decade. Look at the field of Republican presidential contenders, each outdoing the next in a race to the bottom. How many are there currently? Eleven? And out of all those, not one has the moral integrity, much less courage or patriotism to stand up against the rabid utterances of Donald Trump and his followers. None are qualified to lead this nation.
If you want your party back, Mr. Brooks, this is a start. But it's going to take a LOT more work from not only you, but many, many others
167
Why, oh why, does every reference to Winthrop's "City Upon a Hill" speech ignore his full meaning? Yes, he said we would be a city upon a hill but in the sense that "all eyes shall be upon us" and "if we fail...." Never did he suggest that we are destined to succeed. Rather that there is a need to constantly work to stay on the path, a path from which we can all too easily fall. What that path is and how to stay on it are not defined, but we have an opportunity for greatness, not a promise. "American exceptionalism" is a creed filled with hubris when it should be a challenge to always strive to do the right thing.
1
What stood out for me here is not the so much the discussion on immigration policy and demographics, but the final indictment of the Republican mindset and it's "reactionary attitude toward life..." Exactly.
As much as I agree with you, David, it may be difficult for you to remain a Republican in the eyes of your fellows after this criticism.
As much as I agree with you, David, it may be difficult for you to remain a Republican in the eyes of your fellows after this criticism.
The problem is not the Republican party per Se. The real problem is that their constituency older white Americans are very afraid for their future. They are either at or close to retirement age. They have no pensions because of the corporate rush to 401Ks. They don't have enough money to retire because of the 2008 stock market plunge. The belief system they grew up with is being swept away by things like the gay marriage ruling. They see many more people of color who speak languages they do not understand. Even having to push a button to get a recording in English is and affront. The fear is real and the Republican party is just reacting to that fear in their core constituency. Republicans have played to these fears since Nixon with his anti communist crusade and the southern strategy. Almost all Republicans are guilty of pandering to these fears because they have to. Their policies have increasingly tilted to the rich and powerful. How else can you get a West Virginia coal miner to vote Republican if he is not very afraid for his future. Dealing with this problem means dealing with the real fears of older white Americans for their future. The Republican party will drop their fear mongering if people are no longer afraid. The obvious irony is that there would be much less hand wringing by Republican leaders if their constituency was not literally dying off. The Republican party is trapped by their short sighted self serving political strategy.
The Republican business model and its platform represent an alternate universe. It is compelled to repeat what is sees as collected offenses by gays and lesbians, pregnant women and immigrants because it has worked tirelessly to define these as a class of miscreants and now has to maintain the offensive.
Listen to Mike Huckabee talk about how every conservative Christian is daily harmed by women seeking abortion or gays and lesbians who seek to wed.
There is never any mention of how his words terrorize the poor woman who truly has an unwanted pregnancy and simply is in no position to mother a child. There is no mention of the wonderful bundle of rights that passes when two people wed.
The base of the problem is all of the money sloshing around for political policy shops and the staff, and all of the Save the Family type foundations who bring suits. But this biggest problem is the incompetent legislators that have been elected in State legislatures and in our US Congress. These come from gerrymandered districts and these men and women have no intention of solving our complex problems. They are one-act ponies. That has become the signature of the Republican Party.
Listen to Mike Huckabee talk about how every conservative Christian is daily harmed by women seeking abortion or gays and lesbians who seek to wed.
There is never any mention of how his words terrorize the poor woman who truly has an unwanted pregnancy and simply is in no position to mother a child. There is no mention of the wonderful bundle of rights that passes when two people wed.
The base of the problem is all of the money sloshing around for political policy shops and the staff, and all of the Save the Family type foundations who bring suits. But this biggest problem is the incompetent legislators that have been elected in State legislatures and in our US Congress. These come from gerrymandered districts and these men and women have no intention of solving our complex problems. They are one-act ponies. That has become the signature of the Republican Party.
1
The Republican Party has not always been "conservative," Lincoln was not, Teddy Roosevelt and the progressives were not. The emphasis on being conservative only started as African Americans gained rights, it was and remains code for "protect white privilege." Anything that fits under this much broader and reactionary tent goes.
An ideology provides answers but also,and more importantly, a framework for analysis that makes the answers coherent. Republicans are not coherent in either. Their analysis denies proven science (climate), negates reality (success of Obamacare, election-proven national support for the President), exalts any myth that fits their pettiness (immigrant crime, Obama is an African Muslin) and avoids finding the truth (no public health research into gun violence). Their solutions include religious freedom and no Muslims need apply, free markets and a fence on the border, individual freedom and gays in shackles, democracy and limiting voting hours, right to life and the death penalty.
All of these fit under their definitionof conservative because it is code for racism, xenophobia and vindictiveness against anything that advances any social group other than whites. This un-definition of "Conservative" has even substituted "Republican" and is beyond question.
An ideology provides answers but also,and more importantly, a framework for analysis that makes the answers coherent. Republicans are not coherent in either. Their analysis denies proven science (climate), negates reality (success of Obamacare, election-proven national support for the President), exalts any myth that fits their pettiness (immigrant crime, Obama is an African Muslin) and avoids finding the truth (no public health research into gun violence). Their solutions include religious freedom and no Muslims need apply, free markets and a fence on the border, individual freedom and gays in shackles, democracy and limiting voting hours, right to life and the death penalty.
All of these fit under their definitionof conservative because it is code for racism, xenophobia and vindictiveness against anything that advances any social group other than whites. This un-definition of "Conservative" has even substituted "Republican" and is beyond question.
2
We have been and always shall be a civilization of immigrants. It takes extraordinary courage to leave one's nation, heritage, family, culture, customs, and legacy behind ... and even more bravery to create new versions of all of these for one's family's future. America was built on this singular belief that we may change our world, and in doing so, change the world.
The anti-immigrant chorus was concocted by recent GOP leaders. Reagan helped craft the last revision. But, after Bush let 11 million illegals over the border it was Obama's fault...and a matter of national security. GOP leaders like Rick Perry, Bobby Jindhal, Don Trump took a Regan-Bush message of working on the immigration problem using it as a club over the Democrats (lets build a wall at the Canadian border too). The only hope for the GOP is a total electoral wipe-out so the Ann Coulters and Mike Huckabees can be washed away and the party rebuild.
JEB's latest statement that black voters don't want free stuff, but 'hope' is more absurd. While he cut funding to public schools and health care, he privatized everything he could with contracts to his buddies, while cutting taxes only for corporations and the rich. Black voters and most other non-GOP voters want fair treatment and are tired of corporate handouts and the non-enforcement of laws. The GOP has no limits to a corporate welfare culture - but accuse the average American of wanting handouts.
JEB's latest statement that black voters don't want free stuff, but 'hope' is more absurd. While he cut funding to public schools and health care, he privatized everything he could with contracts to his buddies, while cutting taxes only for corporations and the rich. Black voters and most other non-GOP voters want fair treatment and are tired of corporate handouts and the non-enforcement of laws. The GOP has no limits to a corporate welfare culture - but accuse the average American of wanting handouts.
What a terrific column, Mr. Brooks! Alexis de Toqueville pointed out that where France is a land and England a people, America is an idea. My family ancestry traces back to the Mayflower but as an American I have never felt about my country the way an Englishman or a Frenchman feels about theirs. You can own a land but you cannot possess an idea. It belongs to everyone. I am proud of this idea, but its value is in being shared, not owned. Those who come here to have a better life today are no different than those who arrived two centuries ago. When American stops being about hope it stops being America.
This column could have been written eight years ago, before the election (twice) of a certain Barack Obama. Anyone watching on TV and observing the demographic makeup of the delegates to the Republican National Conventions over the past decade could see that Republicans are currently on the wrong side of American history. As Pope Francis points out, we are a nation of immigrants, almost all of us, and that is our genius, our future. Republicans will be run over again in 2016 by an evolving nation that is simply leaving them behind.
1
Perhaps David Brooks is ready to join many other Republicans this election and vote for the Democratic candidate. Welcome!
5
The world is changing and determining how to adapt to those changes to preserve what is crucial to live as free people with individual liberties respected should be the goal not retaining the previously known demographic patterns, but many people find that difficult to do. People experience change with feelings of distress, even good change.. In addition, another distressing factor is the lack of control that is associated with immigrants who jump the border, ignoring legal immigration procedures. Many businesses, large and small, eagerly hire undocumented immigrants expecting to slash labor costs and to evade both product and worker safety laws with workers who are both fearful of deportation and just plain complacent about being exploited.
No voter wishes to empower a political party that has an an" attitude that sours the tongue, offends the eye and freezes the heart." The GOP had gone from being the party of Everett Dirksen, where reading his debates in the Congressional Record was a thrill; to the Party of Mitch McConnell, the Tea Party pitch man. Dirksen helped create the Civi Rights Act, McConnell would probably repeal it if he could, along with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
We read a lot about that we are a divided nation. We are. But it is not us and them. It is us and them and them and them and them, etc. It has always been that way. Each party in the USA forms a coalition of several thems and tries to serve their interests to hold the party and its power together. The problem for Republicans is that their coalition is being dominated by an ideological moneyed elite and a hysterical right wing. The other thems are being held hostage. These other thems do share a distrust of the Democratic coalition and that is all they have in common with the two dominating interest groups. The commotion going on now in the Republican Party primary is a process that might signal something is going on that might be fruitful. Trump's proposal to tax carried interest is an example of that commotion. Rand Paul's foreign policy positions are another example. It is all confusing to be sure. It is democracy in action but it is all happening within the Republican Party. It remains to be seen if Republicans can become a conservative alternative and let everyone in the Party decide what it means to be conservative. If it cannot do it, Democrats sneak a small victory in 2016 even with a flawed candidate.
Mr Brooks is nostalgic for the Republican Party he joined as a young convert. Like the America of which modern Republicans mourn the passing, that Republic Party is gone. "This word, conservative. I do not think it means what you think it means." At least not now.
First, a side point: traditionally, American exceptionalism is different than what Brooks is discussing here, which is basically the pretty rhetoric of manifest destiny. Most of the scholarship on "exceptionalism" is focused on the question of why the U.S. - unlike other industrial democracies - has no political party directly representing the interests of working people, and the related issue of why labor unions in the U.S. are politically weak and, comparatively, conservative. That's what makes us "exceptional." But on to the substance...
There is nothing quite like the fear and fragility of white supremacy. When we study the history of "whiteness" in the U.S., and how it is intimately tied to masculinity, nationalism, and other ideas about power (including so-called "exceptionalism"), we can see the modern Republican Party (and many elements of the Democratic Party) in a whole new light.
Right now, white folks committed to white supremacy (or at least its benefits and privileges) believe they can still win elections. What happens when they can't? Will some of them swallow their pride and accept change? Will some of them become bitter non-voters, disengaged from politics? Or will some take up arms?
As a student and spectator of the political process, I'm fascinated to see how this turns out. As a citizen and a human being, I'm terrified to see how this turns out - especially if white people (generally) continue to ignore our own history and what it means to be "white."
There is nothing quite like the fear and fragility of white supremacy. When we study the history of "whiteness" in the U.S., and how it is intimately tied to masculinity, nationalism, and other ideas about power (including so-called "exceptionalism"), we can see the modern Republican Party (and many elements of the Democratic Party) in a whole new light.
Right now, white folks committed to white supremacy (or at least its benefits and privileges) believe they can still win elections. What happens when they can't? Will some of them swallow their pride and accept change? Will some of them become bitter non-voters, disengaged from politics? Or will some take up arms?
As a student and spectator of the political process, I'm fascinated to see how this turns out. As a citizen and a human being, I'm terrified to see how this turns out - especially if white people (generally) continue to ignore our own history and what it means to be "white."
The pessimism and foul mood is the result of Fox News and hate radio spewing their venom 24/7. In this part of Virginia, every (without fail) restaurant (or other establishment with a tv in their waiting room) has Fox News on their TVs.
In addition, when channel surfing, I came across a local church service being broadcast. During their sermon, the preacher was spewing the same venom as Fox News.
If the message is presented often enough, people will start to believe it.
In addition, when channel surfing, I came across a local church service being broadcast. During their sermon, the preacher was spewing the same venom as Fox News.
If the message is presented often enough, people will start to believe it.
1
Mr. Brooks is the token conservative of the NYT opinion page. Why does he, a man of keen observation and sound intellect, maintain his political association with today's G.O.P.?
An overwhelming rejection of Republican candidates is needed to stamp out the hate and ignorance that have risen to the surface in American politics. Will Mr. Brooks and the many other good people who traditionally favor Republican candidates vote their conscience instead of their party loyalty in November?
An overwhelming rejection of Republican candidates is needed to stamp out the hate and ignorance that have risen to the surface in American politics. Will Mr. Brooks and the many other good people who traditionally favor Republican candidates vote their conscience instead of their party loyalty in November?
The Ruby Red GOP has embraced the rhetoric of blame that once belonged to the Nixon is to blame for a rainy day Dems of yesteryear. The movement Dems of that era offered a wild range of candidates ,Scoop to Jessie , that had structural impacts on the party in delegate selection. In practical sense it succeeded in throwing forward second tier centrist Southern moderates that could not control the parties passion.
Social media and the now philosophy will not allow the Ruby Reds to persist in structural changes and Demint defections to think tanks will sap the energy leaving the field open to the Trumpian no nothings and Tail Gunner Cruz's uber zealots....as an admirer of Javits, Rocky, Rudman et al the dearth of a nod to moderation and accommodation is sad.
Social media and the now philosophy will not allow the Ruby Reds to persist in structural changes and Demint defections to think tanks will sap the energy leaving the field open to the Trumpian no nothings and Tail Gunner Cruz's uber zealots....as an admirer of Javits, Rocky, Rudman et al the dearth of a nod to moderation and accommodation is sad.
Well said! Thank you for a thoughtful and helpful piece. Inciting fear and loathing is so destructive to our society and to our individual well-being.
As I read your column today, Archie Bunker's theme song played in my head - 'Those were the days...' For me, that show was the perfect send-up, as it was intended to be. But somewhere along the way, a certain percentage of the population agreed with the lyrics. (Sigh) So here we are, me and my colleagues, laughing along with the late-night comics at The Donald's latest remarks, while the not-so-amusing Marco Rubio talks about women proactively pursuing abortions to benefit financially from the harvesting of fetal tissue. What??? This young man is far more frightening to me than a room full of Trumps. Just when I was feeling relieved that Walker walked...
164
I worked in network television in Hollywood for forty years. There was a persistent rumor that CBS had financed a poll pertaining to "All in the Family"
that found that the show reinforced bigotry in its viewers. The rumor was th
this poll was buried by CBS. I know that the bigots I knew loved Archie.
I remember one guy who would come in the day after the show and say
" did you hear what Archie called them last night?"( referring to black
people). This comment was from a guy who was an avowed racist. He thought Archie's degrading l names for black people were hilarious.
that found that the show reinforced bigotry in its viewers. The rumor was th
this poll was buried by CBS. I know that the bigots I knew loved Archie.
I remember one guy who would come in the day after the show and say
" did you hear what Archie called them last night?"( referring to black
people). This comment was from a guy who was an avowed racist. He thought Archie's degrading l names for black people were hilarious.
you don't have to be that concerned my friend...the likes of Rubio/Huckabee/Carson etc are never going to get the nomination because they can't win nationally...that's what killed Romney; the fact that he had a religious crackpot like Ryan with his dopey smirk, on his ticket to appease the right wing nuts... the GOP is smart if they wrangle a way to run Fiorina because she is the only one of the bunch, except Bush who can't win because of name recognition, who isn't an avowed racist... though I highly doubt that our first female president will have no political experience whatsoever
The current Republican race is remarkable in the degree to which candidates must cater to their ignorant and racist base to be accepted.
Commenters like David Brooks have been challenged to find positive phrasing for the ignorance, racism, and falsehoods fueling the various campaigns.
Many of us wondered when moderate Republican supporters would begin to accept, denounce, and move away from the reality of what the Republican party has become.
Welcome David Brooks.
May others follow your lead.
Commenters like David Brooks have been challenged to find positive phrasing for the ignorance, racism, and falsehoods fueling the various campaigns.
Many of us wondered when moderate Republican supporters would begin to accept, denounce, and move away from the reality of what the Republican party has become.
Welcome David Brooks.
May others follow your lead.
1
I'm shocked. I actually agree with Brooks for once. I don't think that a lot Democrats like me are actually far-left liberals as much as we have to take far-left positions to offset the hard-headedness of tea-party types who see America for what it was, not for what it is and what it still can be. Demographics are changing. I'll still happily call myself " progressive" rather than "conservative" anyday of the week, if I have to label myself, simply because that label denotes continuous improvement, rather than the same-old, same-old of days long past conservatives embrace.
One of the most familiar, and saddest patterns seen among humans is watching those who have "made it" to some sought after place, status, achievement, then turn around and fight to pull up the ladder behind them. Denying -- perhaps truly no longer aware -- of the elements that fortune, the help of others before them or around them, providence, hard-won national policies and programs, and much else, played in their arriving at their sought-for goals, they fiercely complain that they did it all on their own, and that is what all those coming after them must now do: Push the refugees out of the boat; let them die in the desert; no more help getting into college or law school. The current examples of those who have benefited themselves, and then turn against such practices and policies are so obvious they need not be cited.
It is an ugly sight.
It is an ugly sight.
1
What I'm hearing from you, David Brooks, is that the present-day Republican Party, the Conservatives running for the Presidency 2016, "sour the tongue, offend the eye and freeze the heart." Hopeful nationalism, as exemplified by the Democratic Party, is something all Americans aspire to. Have you ever thought of switching parties - as Donald Trump and Ben Carson did? You would make a great polemicist for the Democratic Ethos instead of an apologist for today's G.O.P.!
1
But Lord Brooks, what did you expect from the Republican Party when they decided to double and triple down on the their laboratory-tested Southern Strategy, Bible Belt Strategy and wholesale abandonment of reason, fact and science ?
Did you expect something good or reasonable to come of it ?
The Republican policy of 'abstinence' sex education is a perfect metaphor for their entire platform; there is a complete abstinence of thought to the entire rainbow of GOP policy.
Are all those angry white guys who vote Republican xenophobia suddenly going to get out of their FOX News carnival barker lounges and start picking produce in California's Central Valley for any wage (let alone the minimum wage) once they deport the 11 million illegal immigrants who do a disproportionate amount of all the hard, manual labor in this country ?
Why not just normalize those workers who have already been contributing to the American economy for years and even decades and let them legally participate in the American experiment ?
Will Fox Nation suddenly start cleaning all the office buildings in America and start cutting the nation's lawns when all the illegals are deported to satisfy their xenophobic spite ?
Immigrants tend to be extremely hard workers trying their best to improve their lot in life.
Republicans, as usual, have not thought through their cultured xenophobia.
Cognitive dissonance is the fundamental building block of Republicanism and 'conservative' Greed Over People.
Did you expect something good or reasonable to come of it ?
The Republican policy of 'abstinence' sex education is a perfect metaphor for their entire platform; there is a complete abstinence of thought to the entire rainbow of GOP policy.
Are all those angry white guys who vote Republican xenophobia suddenly going to get out of their FOX News carnival barker lounges and start picking produce in California's Central Valley for any wage (let alone the minimum wage) once they deport the 11 million illegal immigrants who do a disproportionate amount of all the hard, manual labor in this country ?
Why not just normalize those workers who have already been contributing to the American economy for years and even decades and let them legally participate in the American experiment ?
Will Fox Nation suddenly start cleaning all the office buildings in America and start cutting the nation's lawns when all the illegals are deported to satisfy their xenophobic spite ?
Immigrants tend to be extremely hard workers trying their best to improve their lot in life.
Republicans, as usual, have not thought through their cultured xenophobia.
Cognitive dissonance is the fundamental building block of Republicanism and 'conservative' Greed Over People.
8
Americans must believe because the American Idea is an experiment in government, which is not rooted in ancient forms. In America we believe that power, and its legitimate execution, are derived from the will of the governed.
The problem is that an astounding number of Americans don't know this, or if they do, then they don't believe it! They would be shocked to be told that America can only be EXCEPTIONAL when it is in accord with this American understanding of legitimacy, and they must therefore revert to archaic forms.
Many Americans are steeped in biblical explanations for their understanding of origins. Authority is the exclusive province of Jehovah, and earthly institutions are but flawed substitutes for the laws of God, and the Biblical Traditions, which prescribe for the believers.
The truth that the Bible is a book of Mythology, and the anecdotes inscribed there are the result of the magical thinking and eschatological hopes, which were wrapped up in the limitations of the ancient mind to comprehend the physical world: Is completely beyond their conception.
For the Evangelical Republican, American Exceptionalism must be mythical as well, and closely related to the source of all authority, which can only be for them, The Holy Bible. The Constitutional truth of America must therefore be a lie told by the hated liberals who want to steal their freedom. Government cannot be other than the problem in the Biblical scheme: This is how they have been manipulated.
The problem is that an astounding number of Americans don't know this, or if they do, then they don't believe it! They would be shocked to be told that America can only be EXCEPTIONAL when it is in accord with this American understanding of legitimacy, and they must therefore revert to archaic forms.
Many Americans are steeped in biblical explanations for their understanding of origins. Authority is the exclusive province of Jehovah, and earthly institutions are but flawed substitutes for the laws of God, and the Biblical Traditions, which prescribe for the believers.
The truth that the Bible is a book of Mythology, and the anecdotes inscribed there are the result of the magical thinking and eschatological hopes, which were wrapped up in the limitations of the ancient mind to comprehend the physical world: Is completely beyond their conception.
For the Evangelical Republican, American Exceptionalism must be mythical as well, and closely related to the source of all authority, which can only be for them, The Holy Bible. The Constitutional truth of America must therefore be a lie told by the hated liberals who want to steal their freedom. Government cannot be other than the problem in the Biblical scheme: This is how they have been manipulated.
1
Well put except for the "Exceptionalism" fantacy. Exceptionalism from the country that put Japaese Americans in detention camps during WWII, has the distinctio of being the only country to have ever used a nuclear weapon and gave us such luminaries as Joseph McCarthy.
The US is just better than some and worse than others and capable of going astray. We succeeded because we believed in "Liberty and Justice for All."
Not tax breaks for the rich and a shrinking middle class.
Let's hope that someone in the GOP is listening.
The US is just better than some and worse than others and capable of going astray. We succeeded because we believed in "Liberty and Justice for All."
Not tax breaks for the rich and a shrinking middle class.
Let's hope that someone in the GOP is listening.
1
I try not to read Brooks because I think he's a bit vapid. But every now and then he surprises me. I hate that due to the inconsistency. He can't reliably be ignored.
2
Overall, this is a very good column, and I appreciate Mr. Brooks' drift away from the right. I agree with almost everything that he said, but I fail to see a thread from Lincoln to Reagan to Bush. That thread was broken in the 1960s after the Civil Rights Act was passed. Reagan used thinly veiled race baiting in his attack on welfare queens who did not exist. Bush 1 used the threat of rape and murder by blacks to help him get elected, and Bush 2, no need to comment. A better thread would be Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt to FDR, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton and now Obama.
2
Bravo David Brooks, for the simple truth!
1
I am glad David Brooks finally got out of the correct side of his bed today, but I still have one big quibble with this column. The looking backward is not a recent Republican phenomenon; it was there even at the time of Reagan. It was more insidious, however, and not as raw and crude as we see in Trump and Cruz and Carson today.
It was there in Reagan's doctrine that "the government is the problem." It would be hard to imagine a more deeply pessimistic rejection of the basic democratic idea. In it Reagan is basically saying that the democratic experiment has failed, and repudiating Lincoln's idea of a government of the people, by the people, for the people. Where Lincoln says that we are the masters of our own fate, Reagan is saying the exact opposite.
But if we do not control how we govern ourselves, who does? Big money. And how does big money do it? By lying and deceptively presenting its interests as the same as ours. Over time, the lies and deception can only get more and bizarre, until we reach the point that those lied to forget what truth looks like. A bombastic bully is seen as a leader, and a bigot is seen as a gentleman because he speaks in a soft voice. What these people actually say is now beside the point, because it is bound to be aberrant and untrue.
Today's GOP did not just suddenly form itself out of thin air. It has been organically grown and cultivated over several decades. This is what Brooks fails to recognize.
It was there in Reagan's doctrine that "the government is the problem." It would be hard to imagine a more deeply pessimistic rejection of the basic democratic idea. In it Reagan is basically saying that the democratic experiment has failed, and repudiating Lincoln's idea of a government of the people, by the people, for the people. Where Lincoln says that we are the masters of our own fate, Reagan is saying the exact opposite.
But if we do not control how we govern ourselves, who does? Big money. And how does big money do it? By lying and deceptively presenting its interests as the same as ours. Over time, the lies and deception can only get more and bizarre, until we reach the point that those lied to forget what truth looks like. A bombastic bully is seen as a leader, and a bigot is seen as a gentleman because he speaks in a soft voice. What these people actually say is now beside the point, because it is bound to be aberrant and untrue.
Today's GOP did not just suddenly form itself out of thin air. It has been organically grown and cultivated over several decades. This is what Brooks fails to recognize.
2
You reap what you sow. Here's what Republican notions of exceptionalism has included - everyone except laborers; except unions; except blacks; except immigrants; except women's right to choose; except the poor reduced to food stamps; except fair and equitable voting districts; except minorities, the poor, the elderly, and the disabled voting; except diplomacy instead of violence; except, except, except. You know, exceptionalism.
1
Brooks column accurately diagnose the GOP ailment, long lost golden past (ironically that past generally refer to democratic presidential terms) and pessimistic view of USA future.
Now the issue is , who can treat this ailment.
Like Lincoln's word , this is the pill it will cure or kill.
Today's forerunners doesn't seem to be those persons except Kasich.
Now the issue is , who can treat this ailment.
Like Lincoln's word , this is the pill it will cure or kill.
Today's forerunners doesn't seem to be those persons except Kasich.
What's with this eschatology? The tradition of the word is usually associated with the Old Testament prophets like Jeremiah or Isaiah, decrying the Godless, unclean lives of the people who were not preparing themselves for the end-time or the coming Messiah. What have we got to look forward to? Babylonian captivity? Hell?
Here you are lamenting immigration restriction and we can't even get an adequate minimum wage that pays for life's necessities after slaving away for 50 hours a week over a hot grill.
Maybe the Puritans had a different, positive, forward-looking eschatology, compatible with hanging witches and resistant to the heavy casualties inflicted upon them by the diseased and displaced Native Americans.
Idealism has it's place I guess, and maybe the best is yet to come, but history seems to argue for realism not dreamy exceptionalism.
Here you are lamenting immigration restriction and we can't even get an adequate minimum wage that pays for life's necessities after slaving away for 50 hours a week over a hot grill.
Maybe the Puritans had a different, positive, forward-looking eschatology, compatible with hanging witches and resistant to the heavy casualties inflicted upon them by the diseased and displaced Native Americans.
Idealism has it's place I guess, and maybe the best is yet to come, but history seems to argue for realism not dreamy exceptionalism.
This discussion always goes back to winning elections. Until the Republican party can decide to do things for the benefit of the country, they will continue to be nattering nabobs of negativity.
1
I'm waiting for some minority spokesperson to say "American Exceptionalism means everybody except us.Serial Republican references to " American Exceptionalism" seem disingenuous to minorities when you examine our checkered history of chattel slavery, rampant sexism,the American Apartheid of Jim Crow,Native American marginalization and genocide, and anti-immigrant policies.
The continued intolerance of the Republican Party will guarantee its place as primarily a Congressional Party. It's greatest strength will be in relatively homogeneous Gerrymandered house districts. Its serial attempts to impose its sectarian based social value system on an increasingly pluralistic society is a recipe for defeat.It will not win a Presidential election until it adopts inclusion,not exclusion,on social issues. If you are a racist, sexist, homophobe, or anti-ethnic, what political party is the most attractive to you? I'm not saying that the national G.O.P. Is any of those things, but it's not debatable that if you fit one those categories you are you are much more likely to vote Republican. Minorities know this and that reality of intolerance that makes it impossible for Republicans to capture an adequate percentage of minority voters needed to win a presidential election.
The continued intolerance of the Republican Party will guarantee its place as primarily a Congressional Party. It's greatest strength will be in relatively homogeneous Gerrymandered house districts. Its serial attempts to impose its sectarian based social value system on an increasingly pluralistic society is a recipe for defeat.It will not win a Presidential election until it adopts inclusion,not exclusion,on social issues. If you are a racist, sexist, homophobe, or anti-ethnic, what political party is the most attractive to you? I'm not saying that the national G.O.P. Is any of those things, but it's not debatable that if you fit one those categories you are you are much more likely to vote Republican. Minorities know this and that reality of intolerance that makes it impossible for Republicans to capture an adequate percentage of minority voters needed to win a presidential election.
Is it possible that David Brooks finally acknowledges that the Emperor has no clothes?
3
David, this column have any relationship to the recent day spent asking for forgiveness in shul?
Anyway, Mazel Tov. Welcome back
Anyway, Mazel Tov. Welcome back
2
Well said
"The Republican Party is led by people who are profoundly uncomfortable with the changing (and inevitable) demographic nature of our nation. The G.O.P. is longing to return to the past and is fearful of the future." Yes, they want to return to the middle ages where there were kings and peons. Sorry, boys and girls, the vast majority of us do not and OUR votes in the next elections will show OUR dissatisfaction with your antiquated ideas of what America should be.
Bravo, David. This is the kind of column that brings your talents to the fore. Too often you either retreat from politics into musings on the human condition or try to make the best of the mess that Republican conservatism has made (as in you recent column proposing Rubio and Fioirina, a climate change denier and a liar who had fabricated a false story about the Planned Parenthood video during the most recent debate). Then you get slammed by readers because, I think, they feel you're better than that - you have a heart and a brain and it's painful to see you hide them. There is a conservatism you believe in, but, as you write here, today's Republican Party has moved far away from it. Never mind. Be its voice. You won't please the far right, which is what today's Republican Party has become, but you'll at least make a case for a conservatism that we need to revive. And your readers will love you for it.
I long for the days when Democrats were fighting Republicans like you.
1
Sorry Brooks,but the GOP is history.
1
America? The United States? Which of these two names should have been used in the opinion piece you penned today?
Oh gee whiz, Mr. Brooks! Stop torturing yourself and leave the company of racists and come on over to the light! We have conservative Democrats with whom you can debate the abstruse points of the nation's identity, if it pleases you. Your racists really don't care, and what evocative name would Donald Trump call you? How much alienation can you suffer before you throw in the towel?
I'm sure Lincoln would be a huge Republican today. great analysis as usual bobo.
I would guess there is a chasm in the poll results on immigration because too many conservative outlets and pundits conflate legal and illegal immigration. And if these voices are not combining these populations, too many of their listeners are. Send me all of the motivated, smart, law abiding engineers, doctors, lawyers, and Indian chiefs we can get! Just make sure they enter the country in a legal way. Too bad that becoming legal is such a challenge. One side fears people are coming to steal their jobs and the other thinks they are coming here to steal our benefits.
The GOP needs more critics within their grand old party instead of yes men who are clearly insulated from the realities of the 99%. Republicans might have had a moral upper hand during the days of Abraham Lincoln although have participated in the moral decline ever since the rise of Ronald Reagan and his embrace of Corporatism and the trickle down theory of economics. From the era of FDR's Great Society program all the way up to 1980 and the crony Capitalism agenda which has guided Republican philosophy and talking points in which the primary driver of the Party is to ensure that the top echelon of elite wealth is maintained and cultivated by low tax rates, dependence of trade bills which enhance stock market portfolios while caring little about the effects of everyday Americans left in the wake of devastating job losses. Republicans in the 2015 campaign era focus on the right to life for the unborn while cruelly supporting an anti-science agenda which downright denies scientific evidence of climate change. The GOP uses fear mongering tactics to incite its base to rally around anti-immigration, anti-Muslim, saber rattling rhetoric designed to excite the war hawks, anti women's rights agenda which is disguised as Conservative one, designed to protect the unborn against those who seek to sell their "body parts" even if they have to manufacture a spliced video to prove their distortion of truth. The modern GOP of today are the polar opposite of exceptional. stupid.
1
Thank you.
I just don't get all the hatred towards immigrants from south of our border. Sad to say the dislike doesn't come just from conservatives. Some complain that immigrants come here, work, and send money back home. First off, they are working. Someone is giving them the money for the work they do and a lot of it is work we Americans would never consider doing. Secondly, they are sending the money back home to loved ones to make their lives better. I think this is a good investment in our future whether we have loved ones south of the border or not. This supply of money is helping stabilize our neighbor countries. A strong, vibrant neighbor is better than the instability of a region like the Middle East. My landscaper sending money home to his loved ones is better than the US pouring money into our neighbors coffers through the military industrial complex. How about treating our neighbors to the south like what they are, neighbors. To boot, Mexico is a great travel destination and I'm not talking resorts. It's a wonderful, diverse country that world travelers see as a top destination. Give them a break!
Nice to see Brooks break occasionally with his heroes. The republicans are still convince they can win with the white vote if they continue to successfully suppress the votes of non whites and continue to gerrymander the states. Now they are trying to change the way the electoral votes are given based on their gerrymandering so even states the democrats win will go to the republicans. They have no interest in democracy, just winning and if they ever get full control, our democracy will be over.
1
The hateful, bigoted and supremely intolerant rhetoric bleated out on talk radio every day has, unfortunately, created people in their own image. . .
1
You Republican columnists reap what you sow. For years on end you have excused and quietly tolerated the extremism of the radio threesome of Levin, Savage and Limbaugh who own the radio transmission to the rural Republican districts that elect the Tea Party and the folks who just ousted Boehner. You yourself described the bigot and hate-monger Limbaugh as "a good republican who just wants to win"! Why did you do that: because you wanted the votes of the haters that he and his compatriots stirred up every day and twice on Sundays. Now you're stuck with Trump and Cruz. Deal with it.
I suppose its useless to assert that for many people the issue is illegal v. legal immigration. The media and Democrats and their political allies have decided that any discussion that centers around illegal immigration is by definition a discussion about legal immigration, too. I don't blame them, the politics on the tactic are clear cut in favor of doing so.
Nevertheless, if citizens felt that there was regular order in the immigration process, the parties would again be pretty close to each other on the basic subject of naturalizing immigrants, work permits, etc. Republicans often note that Hispanics and other immigrants are usually quite conservative on social and fiscal matters - the "work ethic" meme, for example.
I believe that if an adult came here illegally but has a clean record that spans a number of years, he or she should be granted conditional permanent residency (subject to keeping the record clean - risking deportation if he does not); children should get a shot at citizenship. There has to be accountability for knowingly entering the country illegally and committing misdemeanors (id theft, under reporting income, driving w/o a license, etc) and being denied citizenship is an unqualified statement of accountability. In many practical ways, however, the person's life is changed for the better.
So it all boils down to restoring or establishing border and visa control: establish it and the people will be satisfied and generous.
Nevertheless, if citizens felt that there was regular order in the immigration process, the parties would again be pretty close to each other on the basic subject of naturalizing immigrants, work permits, etc. Republicans often note that Hispanics and other immigrants are usually quite conservative on social and fiscal matters - the "work ethic" meme, for example.
I believe that if an adult came here illegally but has a clean record that spans a number of years, he or she should be granted conditional permanent residency (subject to keeping the record clean - risking deportation if he does not); children should get a shot at citizenship. There has to be accountability for knowingly entering the country illegally and committing misdemeanors (id theft, under reporting income, driving w/o a license, etc) and being denied citizenship is an unqualified statement of accountability. In many practical ways, however, the person's life is changed for the better.
So it all boils down to restoring or establishing border and visa control: establish it and the people will be satisfied and generous.
1
where you're wrong is, that the rhetoric paints all illegal immigrants, hell all immigrants, as coming to the US to soak up free schooling and welfare and so on -- how that jibes with also taking all the jobs I'm not sure. But that's the rhetoric on the right, and it transcends legal or illegal immigration. It tacitly accuses everyone who immigrates as coming to America to steal benefits from citizens. the subtext is clear.
At one time republican economic outlook was that the economy was not a zero sum game, just because I was getting rich did not mean you were being deprived because I was getting rich from an increase in the overall economy.
But listen today to Trump and the other republicans about immigration, they are taking your job(s). the job market has in fact become a zero sum game according to these republicans ??!!??
Logically one wonders how they think they can have an economy that works both ways? I think this is the real problem the republican party going forward faces, is it a zero sum game or not. They need to decide.
But listen today to Trump and the other republicans about immigration, they are taking your job(s). the job market has in fact become a zero sum game according to these republicans ??!!??
Logically one wonders how they think they can have an economy that works both ways? I think this is the real problem the republican party going forward faces, is it a zero sum game or not. They need to decide.
Your evolution of thinking is refreshing and a personal challenge. As the Pope admonished us in his address to Congress we must listen to and be in open dialogue with our fellow citizens and not fall back on ideology and a black and white view of the world. You inspire your readers like me to be better listeners.
All very true, David -- but what is the take-away, for you, and for other faithful Republicans who have seen your party hijacked? Do you simply stay, as you have done, and "tell sad tales of the death of kings?" Or do you DO something? Like, for example, walking out and forming a new party -- one that is true to those American Ideals that you hold so dear? You would lose the next election. Probably more than that. Lyndon Johnson was willing to take that risk when he cut loose the rancid elements of his party fifty years ago, and eventually the party that recovered was better for it. Which Republican today has the guts to believe they can do the same? Is it you?
If I weren't a Democrat, I would say, "Republicans, take heed."
The sounds of the Republicans these days are eerily reminiscent of the nativists of the 1840's and 50's who ironically opposed the immigration of the those who reverenced the predecessor of the man who spoke to Congress yesterday!
The sounds of the Republicans these days are eerily reminiscent of the nativists of the 1840's and 50's who ironically opposed the immigration of the those who reverenced the predecessor of the man who spoke to Congress yesterday!
So let's cut to the chase. Brooks has figured out, as have most intelligent Republicans, that the party is killing itself by it's anti-immigration policies. All the pompous talk about Hamilton, et al., is merely a bit of windowdressing for the main message, which is that, if the Republicans don't cut it out, they are going to lose big, as the country becomes more diverse and, in particular, more Latino.
The American dream is far from dead, but it is living in places other than Republican America. When I posted yesterday on my small family Facebook page, after the terrible incident in Mecca, that my husband and I were concerned about a good Muslim friend of ours who was at the Hajj, my usually voluble white, ethnic family responded with radio silence. Only two people expressed concern.
Our friend, thank goodness, has checked in and is fine. It is clear, however, that uneducated white ethnics are strongly suspicious of anybody who is not a white Christian, and particularly of Muslims amd Latinos. Moreover, such white ethnics are overwhelmingly GOP. The Republican Party, which has spent 30 years courting suspicious, angry, uneducated whites, is now forced to lie in the bed that it has made.
With any luck, the American dream will be reinvigorated by the Democratic candidates and their diverse constituencies – finally, at long last, placing the ignorant racists that the Republicans have been cultivating for three decades, out of the electoral picture.
The American dream is far from dead, but it is living in places other than Republican America. When I posted yesterday on my small family Facebook page, after the terrible incident in Mecca, that my husband and I were concerned about a good Muslim friend of ours who was at the Hajj, my usually voluble white, ethnic family responded with radio silence. Only two people expressed concern.
Our friend, thank goodness, has checked in and is fine. It is clear, however, that uneducated white ethnics are strongly suspicious of anybody who is not a white Christian, and particularly of Muslims amd Latinos. Moreover, such white ethnics are overwhelmingly GOP. The Republican Party, which has spent 30 years courting suspicious, angry, uneducated whites, is now forced to lie in the bed that it has made.
With any luck, the American dream will be reinvigorated by the Democratic candidates and their diverse constituencies – finally, at long last, placing the ignorant racists that the Republicans have been cultivating for three decades, out of the electoral picture.
1
The question I always want to ask people who are spouting off about American Exceptionalism is "who are you talking too, who are you trying to convince?" The phrase means nothing to anyone except ourselves. It is a perfect example of the way we only look inward, never out into the wider world.
1
Whenever Mr. Brooks writes a column like this, I think he's going to end it with "and that's why I am no longer a member of the Republican party." But no, not happening. He's just unwilling to open up his eyes and see that it's not the leaders of the party that are the problem -- it's the membership. He's in a party dominated by nativist, prejudiced, whites who see the world they like slipping away. And he refuses to acknowledge that he doesn't belong there.
3
You speak of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Do you really think that a Republican is going to give credence to science? Come on. Just look at the people running environment and other committees where science dominates. Deniers...
2
No, immigrants that want to become Americans is the American ideal. Not hyphenated freeloaders and Parasites.
An awful lot of the GOP eschatology is very bad indeed. Conservative ideas are not a bad thing, but this new GOP Tea Party just cannot deliver them in a smart & efficient manner! W was not a good President at all, and McConnell & Boehner are terrible congressional leaders! The Republican Party has done nothing more than act like a spoiled child and it is ruining our country. You cannot go back, but you can go forward. Unfortunately, the GOP has NO idea how to move forward.
1
Go back to Political Science 101 and see the difference between reactionaries and conservatives. The Republican party has been taken over by reactionaries, lock, stock and barrel. Everything else flows from this simple fact.
1
America is what it is because of immigration which enabled a small population along the East Coast to expand so rapidly as to take over and to develop into a great and wealth country across the continent in only a century, and to continue to develop into the world's super power in just half a century more. All those many generations of immigrants and their children who liked what they found became self identified Americans, including all those people who oppose immigration, now. While many immigrants returned to their native lands, the vast majority preferred to remain. Conservatives with a few exceptions are people whose ancestors called other countries their homes and came here for the same reasons as do immigrants, today.
Bravo.
And in the long run, the best thing for the Democratic Party is a healthy opposition. Let's hope the fever breaks soon, for all our sakes.
And in the long run, the best thing for the Democratic Party is a healthy opposition. Let's hope the fever breaks soon, for all our sakes.
1
Why even David Brooks has noticed that there may be something wrong with the Republican party. As usual, he quotes from other writers, six of them this time, and never quite gets to specifics, but he seems to have come to the conclusion that some of the current Republican candidates for president may be too pessimistic about immigrants. I'm not quite sure.
The GOP message has become a sad conspiracy theory -- There are others out there who threaten you: your money, your guns, your religion, your mind. Don't let the others infiltrate your country, your community, or your media or they will steal these prized possessions out from underneath you. You will only be safe if you wall yourself off from the world.
1
I'm a big fan of Brooks, we need more thoughtful moderates like him. However, I worry that the left and the moderates don’t really understand the numbers around immigration. How many immigrants has the US let in on average historically? (less than 250k, and basically zero from 1930-1970) How does that compare to today? (today we let in 5x that number even excluding the undocumented…)
Also there seems to be no understanding that historically there was positive selection bias for who came while today there is more negative selection bias (willing to live in the shadows). We don’t have a points system like Canada or the UK. See Gregory Clarks work.
For those that aren’t good with numbers & exponential growth...I like to say immigration is like alcohol…a glass or two of good wine improves a meal, 10 Bud lights does not…
Also there seems to be no understanding that historically there was positive selection bias for who came while today there is more negative selection bias (willing to live in the shadows). We don’t have a points system like Canada or the UK. See Gregory Clarks work.
For those that aren’t good with numbers & exponential growth...I like to say immigration is like alcohol…a glass or two of good wine improves a meal, 10 Bud lights does not…
Mr. Brooks, "exceptionalism" is a 21st century term made up by a Republican to make their propaganda look more real, it did not exist in 1620 or 1776.
Our original settlers were trying to make money off the raw land, as evil as it was and still is perceived, the book "An Economic Interpretation of the US Constitution" by Charles Beard explains the money making motivations of the "founding fathers"..they did not consider exceptionalism, it was greed
History does not mention this until Bush 43 was elected and the fringe groups came out from under the rocks....
You must clarify this....or the column is just another cover story for your party
Our original settlers were trying to make money off the raw land, as evil as it was and still is perceived, the book "An Economic Interpretation of the US Constitution" by Charles Beard explains the money making motivations of the "founding fathers"..they did not consider exceptionalism, it was greed
History does not mention this until Bush 43 was elected and the fringe groups came out from under the rocks....
You must clarify this....or the column is just another cover story for your party
These are some powerful words!
A compassionate David Brooks? NEVER saw that one coming.
Some parts of Mr. Brooks view are almost true, and the identification of the choke points in fading white power and fading exceptionalism are almost believable. The problem is that the exceptionalism was always based on the corrupt taking of land from "savages" to build their place where their god would finish up the world. That conquest resulted in the largest massacre of indigenous peoples the world has ever seen and the complete annihilation of multiple cultures. This was perhaps the first exceptionalism, though it was exceptionally brutal. The US is exceptional in production of arms and weapons of war, and waging the wars. What is exceptional about that is the refusal to adequately treat those who fought the war, and the exceptional shortsightedness of putting wars on credit cards. Then there is the exceptional aversion to facts, and the exceptional ability to make up facts on the fly. There are many exceptional things about the republicans, but none of them are what I have found a good model for living in a sane world.
2
Very high-minded...and revisionist...history, Mr. Brooks. "American free market and religious conservatives have traditionally embraced a style of nationalism that is hopeful and future minded." You have GOT to be kidding: fighting EVERY attempt to move the world to greater participation, from restraints on laissez-faire economics, to (gee. Remember this? Killing people who tried to form unions, ending child exploitation and other abuses; using financial power to call out the national guard to beat people into submission? Have you even looked at the history of labor in the U.S.?) fighting women's suffrage, civil rights (remember the Southern Strategy? Or has that been wiped from history, too?)
The 19th Century, into the 20th did have, indeed, a melioristic, future-oriented view of the world...but it did NOT come from "political conservatives." Some of it came from populists; some from academics; some from people of faith (like Bryan) who advocated for similar social views to those of Pope Francis--NOT from religious conservatives of the time.
Like many conservatives today, you have built a rosy picture of Conservatism throughout our history. Rosy, but untrue.
The 19th Century, into the 20th did have, indeed, a melioristic, future-oriented view of the world...but it did NOT come from "political conservatives." Some of it came from populists; some from academics; some from people of faith (like Bryan) who advocated for similar social views to those of Pope Francis--NOT from religious conservatives of the time.
Like many conservatives today, you have built a rosy picture of Conservatism throughout our history. Rosy, but untrue.
Well, David certainly took a long way out to come a short way back on this one.
Let's face it, Republican right is largely composed of hate mongering, self-serving, ends justify the means liars, sneaks and manipulators. The line between loyal opposition and traitor has become very thin indeed, and their most recent gambit to shut down PP based on a fraudulent video tape, and vicious and mean attitudes towards immigrants just bears it all out. Go liberal David, that's where your new found spirituality is driving you. Do it today!
Let's face it, Republican right is largely composed of hate mongering, self-serving, ends justify the means liars, sneaks and manipulators. The line between loyal opposition and traitor has become very thin indeed, and their most recent gambit to shut down PP based on a fraudulent video tape, and vicious and mean attitudes towards immigrants just bears it all out. Go liberal David, that's where your new found spirituality is driving you. Do it today!
1
I had wondered when character-obsessed GOP apologist Brooks would notice the cancer of malice and ignorance in his party.
There's something rotten in the state of Denmark, David. Keep exploring, I think you're on to something!
There's something rotten in the state of Denmark, David. Keep exploring, I think you're on to something!
1
I think the word Mr. Brooks is looking for to describe the current state of mind of conservatives is "Paranoia".
This is a watershed moment for David Brooks. He has at last taken a stand against the bulk, if not all, of the current crop of Republican candidates. It gave me an extra dollop of pleasure that he added Ann Coulter's xenophobic title in here. Using her as the poster girl for all that has gone wrong with American exceptionalism was genius. And moral and ethical. It is time, well past time actually, that Brooks has finally come out and stood firmly against what he calls "this backward- and inward-looking mentality" and its desire "to exclude." High marks and high five to Mr. Brooks. It took courage to write this column.
1
This column is very honest, and I don't think you've rewritten history. The level of immigrant bashing we're presently seeing is something I've never seen in my lifetime by any supposedly respected politician. Reagan negotiated a comprehensive immigration bill and he's supposed to be the hero of the conservative, who could do no wrong.
I think that Democrats are far too confident, however. The Republicans are quite capable of winning the whitehouse. They have won off year elections handily. Their base is energized and will always vote. The idea that the Republican party is dead or in trouble confuses me. They have The House and Senate, most state legislatures, most governerships; how can you really think they can't win the presidency? If the right people stay home, it's all their's. How long have we gone (Roosevelt doesn't count) with a single party dominating the Presidency?
As clown car as it is, what's going on in the Republican party is very serious and very dangerous. Nobody should underestimate their ability to win elections.
That would be crazy, and there's enough crazy going around already.
I think that Democrats are far too confident, however. The Republicans are quite capable of winning the whitehouse. They have won off year elections handily. Their base is energized and will always vote. The idea that the Republican party is dead or in trouble confuses me. They have The House and Senate, most state legislatures, most governerships; how can you really think they can't win the presidency? If the right people stay home, it's all their's. How long have we gone (Roosevelt doesn't count) with a single party dominating the Presidency?
As clown car as it is, what's going on in the Republican party is very serious and very dangerous. Nobody should underestimate their ability to win elections.
That would be crazy, and there's enough crazy going around already.
2
Ah, finally the recognition that the core of today's GOP is not really conservative. Today's GOP pols are practicing a form of radical politics that would be unrecognizable to the GOP conservatives of the past.
Maybe the real conservatives need to take their party back. we would all be off better for that.
Maybe the real conservatives need to take their party back. we would all be off better for that.
This spirit to which David alludes of an “anguished cry for a receding America” is neither confined to Republicans nor new to the views of Americans. However, to the extent that the left is successful in associating the spirit uniquely with Republicanism, the association certainly damages Republicans. He also takes a liberty in defining American “exceptionalism” as our focus on summoning the future, when others would suggest that it consists largely of the insistence that any American CAN summon the future with enough hard work and grit – despite class and now gender (and sexual orientation), racial, ethnic and religious barriers.
That anguished cry for a present more comfortable because it looks and feels more like the past is a strong thread through ANY human culture, and certainly as prevalent among Democrats as Republicans. Moreover, in our pogroms against indigenous Americans, the Irish, Catholics generally, Asians, and in Jim Crow, we see that this cry is deeply embedded in our history and not a new phenomenon.
But David’s column today is an argument to distance Republicans from a view of immigration rooted in fear of change. To the extent that resistance to immigration by Republicans IS so rooted, I agree with him: fear of change many be understandable but it’s not productive and healthy. I’d just caution that America shouldn’t seek change through immigration as an objective rather than accept it as an outcome.
That anguished cry for a present more comfortable because it looks and feels more like the past is a strong thread through ANY human culture, and certainly as prevalent among Democrats as Republicans. Moreover, in our pogroms against indigenous Americans, the Irish, Catholics generally, Asians, and in Jim Crow, we see that this cry is deeply embedded in our history and not a new phenomenon.
But David’s column today is an argument to distance Republicans from a view of immigration rooted in fear of change. To the extent that resistance to immigration by Republicans IS so rooted, I agree with him: fear of change many be understandable but it’s not productive and healthy. I’d just caution that America shouldn’t seek change through immigration as an objective rather than accept it as an outcome.
Thank you Mr. Brooks. I always read your "opinions" with expectation of the best and listen to your comments on PBS and NPR with interest. You seldom disappoint, even when I don't agree with you. Thank you for your 9/25/15 comments. I find the myopic view of immigration disastrous. Immigrants built this country and would continue to do so because they sacrifice a great deal to come here in order to build a better life for themselves and their families. They have constructive motivations that, unfortunately, most American lack.
Like I said, Thank you for your intellect and honesty..
Natalie Zuckerman
Like I said, Thank you for your intellect and honesty..
Natalie Zuckerman
Two words: shrinking pie.
no, the economy continues to grow. Rep tax policy is just making certain that YOU don't reap any benefit
Given the Southern strategy and its role in electing modern republican presidents, mentioning Reagan and Bush in the same breath as Abraham Lincoln is beyond the pale.
I grew up in the 1960s and 70s, and I have always associated the right with xenophobia and nativism. Perhaps its my partisan bias, but it seems like the rhetoric of exclusion is mainly heard from republicans (especially now days).
I grew up in the 1960s and 70s, and I have always associated the right with xenophobia and nativism. Perhaps its my partisan bias, but it seems like the rhetoric of exclusion is mainly heard from republicans (especially now days).
137
The GOP really began to change becoming the party of the wealthy with William Howard Taft, and has accelerated in raising fear and distrust of government and people who are different since Richard Nixon.
Just remember to include Nixon--Southern Strategy began with his administration.
"This is an attitude that sours the tongue, offends the eye and freezes the heart". Wow, David Brooks has eloquently summarized how I feel when I read many of his columns.
DB's piece is more appropriate for the college speaking circuit: unashamedly liberal, adhering to the notion of "pensee unique", saying things that no left leaning special interest group on campus could object to, even the most radical. The problem with DB is "he has no skin in the game,"that is to say it is easy to be liberal and forward looking if you have not lost your job to a foreign national,or, forced to compete with those from south of the border willing to work for less.DB is blissfully untouched by all that. His comment that immigrants r assimilating at a faster rate is open to question. Few could pass a diction test,,and I speak from experience as an educator. If immigrants r healthier--also open to question--it may be because the taxpayer is picking up the tab for their health care. Again,DB cites no sources to prove his contention..DB's comment that the incarceration rate is less for immigrants is a slap in the face to the African American community, victims of racism going back to the Jim Crow era. DB once wrote that TPP, an overseas trade accord would be good for working class Americans in the" long term." Tell that to the millions displaced by previous trade pacts. When he writes of benefits from such deals for Americans" in the long term," I am reminded of JM KEYNES'S doleful reminder that in "In the long term we will all be dead."
1
Faux News and The broadband and social media have provided cover for the white lost rabble!
AND they are destroying themselves with their support for inept regressive minded candidates who oppose the kind of change needed to elevate their prospects.
It's also ironic that these creationists will be destroyed as a culture class by Darwinian politics.
The ignorant white and uneducated have a very bleak future and will ultimately have to be cared for by the progressives!
Irony worthy of the bard.
AND they are destroying themselves with their support for inept regressive minded candidates who oppose the kind of change needed to elevate their prospects.
It's also ironic that these creationists will be destroyed as a culture class by Darwinian politics.
The ignorant white and uneducated have a very bleak future and will ultimately have to be cared for by the progressives!
Irony worthy of the bard.
if only they were JUST destroying themselves. we're in the boat with them
You're got to be kidding.
Once again the tired conflation of ILLEGAL immigration with legal immigration strikes it's readers of the NYT.
You're smarter than that Mr. Brooks, but not in this article. You insult your readers and add little to the discussion. If you want to talk about American exceptionalism, then at least don't disrespect your fellow Americans who disagree because of ILLEGAL immigration. Make your case but stick to the facts not the elite's and media's talking points.
Once again the tired conflation of ILLEGAL immigration with legal immigration strikes it's readers of the NYT.
You're smarter than that Mr. Brooks, but not in this article. You insult your readers and add little to the discussion. If you want to talk about American exceptionalism, then at least don't disrespect your fellow Americans who disagree because of ILLEGAL immigration. Make your case but stick to the facts not the elite's and media's talking points.
I don't fear immigrants, but what I do fear is the culture that some bring with them. I have read where today's immigrants assimilate into American society, I find that hard to believe. During the great immigration of the 1900's everywhere immigrates landed became an enclave for similar people. In Florida and California today, we have communities where people have lived all their life and know not a single word of English. Frankly, I fear the impact of a large muslim population in America. Not necessarily individuals, but the difference in societies and mores. It's been made plain in many mid-eastern countries that the activist and terrorist Muslims are using a scorched earth policy. With the large numbers of Muslims entering Europe, Europeans are right to be somewhat afraid that the fiber of their nation will be altered. France and England have known for a decade that the growing population of Muslims have a major effect on their nations as a whole. No, I do not think of every Muslim as a potential terrorist, but I do raise my eyebrows at the large numbers of Muslims that are literally invading Europe. Numbers that large support a good assortment of terrorists who are hidden in the faces of those genuinely needing asylum. Germany, I think, is the desired nation because of it's generous social benefits and accepting of people who are different. Why aren't they going to Saudi Arabia, UAE or Iran? They have the ability to care for their Muslim brothers and sisters.
1
David counterposes his favored brand of "progressive" Republicanism against the "backward- and inward-looking" variety of the GOP's nativist wing. The problem is that both versions look to some supposedly golden age - whether past or future - and conveniently overlook the human suffering that exists right now. Under Brooks' variety of Republicanism all we have to do is stop meddling in the workings of the free market and we can all "look forward to a glorious future."
The great irony of American politics is that it is those on the left - the very people whom the right accuse of wooly-headedness and divorce from reality - who seem to be the most grounded. They simply recognize misery when and where it exists and would take steps to alleviate it; meanwhile the conservatives yearn for the imagined paradise.
The great irony of American politics is that it is those on the left - the very people whom the right accuse of wooly-headedness and divorce from reality - who seem to be the most grounded. They simply recognize misery when and where it exists and would take steps to alleviate it; meanwhile the conservatives yearn for the imagined paradise.
100
This is a classic example of sheer dishonesty masked as deep thought. In fact, it is a reminder of how a person will totally avoid a true discussion of the real issues simple for their own dishonest agenda. Brooks is a poster child for deceit.
Republicans aren't against immigration. They are against the one single work Brooks STUDIOUSLY and INTENTIONALLY refused to use in this article.
ILLEGAL. Brooks evidently finds this repulsive word too nauseating to utter. Yet, it is the only REAL word of importance on this topic. Why would that be?
Republicans aren't against immigration. They are against the one single work Brooks STUDIOUSLY and INTENTIONALLY refused to use in this article.
ILLEGAL. Brooks evidently finds this repulsive word too nauseating to utter. Yet, it is the only REAL word of importance on this topic. Why would that be?
Your point that "American conservatism has always been different than the conservatism found on continental Europe and elsewhere. There it was based on blood and soil, here on promise" leaves out much of what differentiates American Conservatism from European. In Europe, conservatives do not oppose universal health care. They don't advocate unrestricted gun ownership. They do not deny scientific facts like Climate Change or Evolution. Most importantly, they don't advocate the idea that the top 1% of their populations should own vast wealth while the rest of society are left out. American conservatism is fueled by elitism funded by Super Pacs of the very rich trying to convince average Americans to support ideas that are not in their best interest. America is exceptional but not in a good way.
3
One of the reasons why the G.O.P. is becoming irrelevant is because they're bad capitalists. They don't actually understand, or want to understand, the market system that they worship--its contradictions, complexities, the dialectical interaction it has always had with the state, and its general amorality. Instead, they prefer to wrap capital in thick layers of ideology, and crown it with a halo made out of cheap consumer goods; the detritus of a failing system.
Their god Mammon is not playing nice anymore--and that sours the mood of the party.
Their god Mammon is not playing nice anymore--and that sours the mood of the party.
1
the poor economic outcomes the gop generates are not from lack of understanding. On the contrary, they understand how to break an economy very well.
Once broken the pieces are there to be picked up on the cheap by those in a position to do so - the very rich. Haven't we noticed that after each gop crash or failure the top rises further?
Once broken the pieces are there to be picked up on the cheap by those in a position to do so - the very rich. Haven't we noticed that after each gop crash or failure the top rises further?
It's also pretty hard to miss the fact that the GOP Presidential race has one black, two sons of Cuban immigrants, one son of immigrants from India and one woman competing for the nomination along with the son of a former President who is married to a Mexican immigrant. Meanwhile - the one who wants to build a massive wall along our Southern border - he was most recently a Democrat.
Maybe it's a bit early for some of the NYT commentators to write obituaries for the Republican Party - a political party that appears to be undergoing a massive internal shift in its composition, its attitudes and its candidates?
Maybe it's a bit early for some of the NYT commentators to write obituaries for the Republican Party - a political party that appears to be undergoing a massive internal shift in its composition, its attitudes and its candidates?
1
"American conservatism has always been different than the conservatism found on continental Europe and elsewhere."
Correct, America had tons of 'free labor' called 'slavery' to achieve profitability when picking those crops (America was primarily an agrarian society in it's early years). By the time of the American Civil War, most of 'continental Europe and elsewhere' had given up this heinous form of 'employment'.
I am sure Ms. Coulter probably ignored this in her latest screed but, heck, she's just 'making a buck' and will say whatever necessary to fill her coffers.
No, Mr. Brooks, your party, the GOP/TP/KOCH AFFILIATE, is now reaping what it sowed with a batch of candidates who dance to the tune of the 1% or who, like Mr. Trump, ARE one of the 1%. The Tea Party snake has 'eaten' the lot of you and your rather soothing words on the message from the Republicans is shattered by the reality of the bigotry, hatred and discrimination this current batch of candidates offers as 'political analysis'.
As usual, whatever your are selling, I'm not buying.
Correct, America had tons of 'free labor' called 'slavery' to achieve profitability when picking those crops (America was primarily an agrarian society in it's early years). By the time of the American Civil War, most of 'continental Europe and elsewhere' had given up this heinous form of 'employment'.
I am sure Ms. Coulter probably ignored this in her latest screed but, heck, she's just 'making a buck' and will say whatever necessary to fill her coffers.
No, Mr. Brooks, your party, the GOP/TP/KOCH AFFILIATE, is now reaping what it sowed with a batch of candidates who dance to the tune of the 1% or who, like Mr. Trump, ARE one of the 1%. The Tea Party snake has 'eaten' the lot of you and your rather soothing words on the message from the Republicans is shattered by the reality of the bigotry, hatred and discrimination this current batch of candidates offers as 'political analysis'.
As usual, whatever your are selling, I'm not buying.
1
What inspired you to write such an honest appraisal of your beloved GOP? I believe Pope Francis's arrival and presence and message has made a profound impact on you. Very rarely, am I on board with what you write but this column inspired me to thank you for your honest evaluation of the GOP's regression.
3
I'm torn between two thoughts. The first being: Who is this guy and where is the real David Brooks? The second: David, it's time to come out of the closet, take the elephant pin off your suit coat and dig the jackass one out of your hidden inside pocket.
Welcome to pragmatic democracy, my friend.
Welcome to pragmatic democracy, my friend.
2
Wouldn't David Brooks feel better just giving up and admitting now that he fits in better with the moderate wing of the Democratic party than with the Republicans?
Isn't it just too difficult to be thoughtful and a Republican these days? You can retain your Burkean traditionalism and incrementalism, and a basic (if qualified) faith in markets, with the so-called centrist Dems.
How can anyone who finds himself saying "this is worth considering," or "maybe there are a few sides to this problem," feel comfortable, even safe in today's GOP? As much and as frequently as I disagree with David Brooks, he's not a fulminator or a shrieker, nor a wind-up artist like Coulter.
I await a public announcement.
Isn't it just too difficult to be thoughtful and a Republican these days? You can retain your Burkean traditionalism and incrementalism, and a basic (if qualified) faith in markets, with the so-called centrist Dems.
How can anyone who finds himself saying "this is worth considering," or "maybe there are a few sides to this problem," feel comfortable, even safe in today's GOP? As much and as frequently as I disagree with David Brooks, he's not a fulminator or a shrieker, nor a wind-up artist like Coulter.
I await a public announcement.
1
Interesting timing of this piece following Pope Francis substantive and magical reminder of the true essences of American values, spirit and exceptionalism.
But Brooks could not bring himself to mention the Pope's remarks, knowing full well that the universal human values about which he spoke -- one's that are the foundation of any civil society -- were a clear repudiation of everything for which today's GOP stands.
But Brooks could not bring himself to mention the Pope's remarks, knowing full well that the universal human values about which he spoke -- one's that are the foundation of any civil society -- were a clear repudiation of everything for which today's GOP stands.
2
I teach expository writing at an inner-city community college in Boston. Most of my students are immigrants from all over the world. Students work hard and grind out papers. They are learning English and they leave my class better writers.
I am constantly amazed with their tenacity, determination and good will. These people will raise their lives and the quality of our country. The image the Republicans present simply does not match my reality, and if we were to buy in to their proposals, we would lose a critical engine for growth and prosperity in America.
I am constantly amazed with their tenacity, determination and good will. These people will raise their lives and the quality of our country. The image the Republicans present simply does not match my reality, and if we were to buy in to their proposals, we would lose a critical engine for growth and prosperity in America.
255
Yes; agreed. IMO, it all emanates from a racism that has led many white males to resent no longer being the dominant being.
2
As a political conservative I'm all for legal immigration. If you want to improve conditions in this country, deport the IRS, EPA and Department of Education instead.
1
If the "whites only" breed of Republicans did a genetic test most would find that they have Native and African American roots. It seems that the American exceptionalism has morphed into a xenophobia that will implode on us as a nation. I wonder how many of the closed Republicans actually heard Pope Francis call to welcome new immigrants, legal and illegal, with compassion. We are greater for our diversity not weaker.
I speak as an immigrant that was welcomed to this country 30 years ago with open arms and generosity.
I speak as an immigrant that was welcomed to this country 30 years ago with open arms and generosity.
1
Since Goldwater's defeat at the polls in 1964, the Conservative Wing of the Republican Party has been spinning a narrative of doom, gloom, negativity, fear, mean-spiritidness, character-assassination, non-compromise, exaggeration, half-truths, fabrications, anti-intellectualism, resistance to facts, provincialism, racism, small-mindedness, unkindness, and stubbornness. Have I left out anything?
They spun this narrative to rally their side and to sell the narrative at the election polls. Unfortunately, it no longer works, and now they are stuck with this self-image that they have created in the eyes of others, and even in their own eyes. Reactionary Republicans are doomed to go down hating.
They spun this narrative to rally their side and to sell the narrative at the election polls. Unfortunately, it no longer works, and now they are stuck with this self-image that they have created in the eyes of others, and even in their own eyes. Reactionary Republicans are doomed to go down hating.
2
If the right wing could magically dispense with Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes and Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.....a lot of the hate might go away. These people keep it going and their hatred is very powerful. If people watch FOX for a half an hour, that's all one needs to see and hear the hatred. If people watch it all day long.....wow.....it will warp one's mind and it has. It has warped millions of minds in this country, preaching their hate. So sad for us all.
I so hope that Republicans are voted out of office completely in the next two or three cycles and then we'll see if it's too late to save America.
I so hope that Republicans are voted out of office completely in the next two or three cycles and then we'll see if it's too late to save America.
2
Since dems never vote in mid terms, and are voting less in nationals, who is voting out the gop?
I cannot trust anyone who claims American Exceptionalism to justify what we cannot do, instead of what we can.
I doubt whether this very fine analysis will have much impact on the Republican party's "sour, overgeneralized and intellectually sloppy sense of alienation." The angry bitterness bubbling up from the Donald Trump town hall meetings is and always has been a powerful current in America, from the No-Nothings to the Klan to the John Birch Society. American Exceptionalism resides in our Constitution and republican form of government—one must not confuse the system with the people born into it: there is nothing "exceptional" about most Americans, other than their exceptional good luck.
1
And this is only one way that the Republicans have gone wrong. Think interstate highway system to get a hint at another.
"American free market and religious conservatives have traditionally embraced a style of nationalism that is hopeful and future minded. From Lincoln to Reagan to Bush, the market has been embraced for being dynamic and progressive."
It is the faith in the free market that has been the undoing of the Republican party and the undoing of our economy… particularly the "dynamic" free market that places shareholders' values above those of our country. The need to reward shareholders at the expense of workers has led to offshoring or factories, at-will employment instead of long-term commitments to employees, and a willingness to compel employees to work long and unpredictable hours at the lowest wage possible. If Republicans want to gain the trust of the voters they need to emphasize the PROGRESSIVE elements of the free market.
It is the faith in the free market that has been the undoing of the Republican party and the undoing of our economy… particularly the "dynamic" free market that places shareholders' values above those of our country. The need to reward shareholders at the expense of workers has led to offshoring or factories, at-will employment instead of long-term commitments to employees, and a willingness to compel employees to work long and unpredictable hours at the lowest wage possible. If Republicans want to gain the trust of the voters they need to emphasize the PROGRESSIVE elements of the free market.
To me the signal of demographic change in the American "face" does not matter. It matters not at all that we are becoming even more multi-cultural than we already are; that we (as a people) are becoming more brown and occidental. The only thing which matters is that the ideals put forward by the Founders; all the American ideals of tolerance, of equality, of certain basic freedoms that are still attractive to the disenfranchised of the world today, are continually promulgated and supported its leadership.
America is not White. American is not even Brown, or any other ethnicity. America is an idea agreed to by its citizenry. The Republicans, as well as ANY in the leadership class who find the idea of our increasingly multi-cultural/racial image repellent, need to recognize that THIS is what needs to be protected. The Idea of America. And it can best be done, it can truly only be done, by practicing the policies of inclusion and not of exclusion.
John~
American Net'Zen
America is not White. American is not even Brown, or any other ethnicity. America is an idea agreed to by its citizenry. The Republicans, as well as ANY in the leadership class who find the idea of our increasingly multi-cultural/racial image repellent, need to recognize that THIS is what needs to be protected. The Idea of America. And it can best be done, it can truly only be done, by practicing the policies of inclusion and not of exclusion.
John~
American Net'Zen
Having just learned that John Boehner is resigning from Congress, I believe Mr. Brooks' analysis of the GOP is - belatedly - correct.
An organized party is on its deathbed when its most ardent defenders leave... RIP, GOP; all hail the Tea Party.
What you reap, so shall you sow.
An organized party is on its deathbed when its most ardent defenders leave... RIP, GOP; all hail the Tea Party.
What you reap, so shall you sow.
Does The Donald know that immigrant men, aged 18-39, are incarcerated at a mere 25% of the rate of American men? If he knows, and possesses more than a single ounce of integrity, he'd be advocating the destruction of the walls we've already built. Not in my lifetime, I'm afraid.
www.endthemadnessnow.org
www.endthemadnessnow.org
The oft-used political tag line for Republicans since Obama won the White House in 2008 is the vile and dreary "take back America." Anyone with a pulse knows exactly what that phrase means.
1
Of course, earlier Americans were full of optimism because there was much space to cover, many things to build, immense amount of land to cultivate. And each one of them felt a contributor and participant to the tasks ahead. Metaphorically, you could look ahead and the horizon extended forever. But the present is already full of construction, the land is taken, huge buildings shorten the horizon, the power, the control, the wealth has been cornered. While there are still possibilities for new adventures, these are restricted to people of specialized skills. The common man, he who was the purveyor of optimism, finds himself in a restricted role. His space has been delimited. He is no longer the builder of the future but a cog in an alarmingly complex machinery. Under these circumstances, flight into nostalgia is the fatal attraction. The trouble with Republican politicians and their followers is that they have lost the ability to imagine a way to the future and, erroneously, keep on proposing restrictive measures whose results lead to further reduction of expectations.
1
Any resistance to change comes down to FEAR — mixed with a bit of prejudice, greed and heartlessness.
3
As a fairly conservative democrat, I believe that we need both parties to make our country great. Democrats don't have the answer to everything, and when it comes to money management, I think republicans come out on top (especially at the local levels of government). I would love to see a republican candidate, who is left leaning on social issues, and conservative on economic issues. Can such a candidate exist?
39
You are wrong. Businesses and the economy do better under Democratic administrations. And as far as deficit spending, Reagan and Bush 43 take the cake.
2
Ah...you want an old-school, Eisenhower Republican! Good luck!
1
Yes, there are such people, but such a candidate would never get the GOP nomination for any national office.
1
It's interesting that Brooks refers to Hamilton, a Federalist, as the founder with a grand vision of the American future. His pick is ironic, as much of the anger and pessimism of "Today's G.O.P." is based upon the false notion that a strong federal government is the enemy of the people. Clearly, this was not a Hamiltonian view.
The pessimism we see in American conservatism is not merely a reactionary "attitude;" it is a credo founded in fear and promulgated, today, by the likes of Ann Coulter. Sadly, there is nothing new about it.
The pessimism we see in American conservatism is not merely a reactionary "attitude;" it is a credo founded in fear and promulgated, today, by the likes of Ann Coulter. Sadly, there is nothing new about it.
130
It must be hard to be smart and kind and a Republican. It's fascinating to watch David Brooks try to deal with the cognitive dissonance. He isn't alone. I have Republican cousins who are really very decent people and they are always contradicting themselves. But the reality of the GOP is Hobbesian and it always has been. Life for 99.9% of us will be brutal and short. We need a government that is just a little bit bigger and stronger than the biggest strongest criminal cartel, or corporation, or bank.
2
A lot of Republican gloom and doom follows from their hatred of President Obama and the simple fact that in almost every case they have been shown to be wrong. He's a two term president, caught and killed Bin Laden, brought back the economy from near ruins, lowered unemployment to record levels, provided a health care program that has benefited millions, instituted American's answer to climate change, opened the door to Cuba, was able to get the Chinese to start a carbon cap and trade program, oversaw a soaring stock market...and the list goes on.
What really gets to conservatives is that they were wrong. They followed television and radio demagogues rather than create a real, fact based policy alternative and now they are left with a true confederacy of dunces running for president. To paraphrase Goldwater - in their hearts they know they're wrong.
What really gets to conservatives is that they were wrong. They followed television and radio demagogues rather than create a real, fact based policy alternative and now they are left with a true confederacy of dunces running for president. To paraphrase Goldwater - in their hearts they know they're wrong.
3
Brooks is being too kind when he refers to conservative "pessimism." The Republican Party's foot-dragging on comprehensive immigration reform, Donald Trump's canard about Mexican immigrants, and Ann Coulter's anti-Semitic rant all point to a pathological racism that is the dark side of American exceptionalism. After all, what's the fun of seeing yourself on the inside if you can't condemn everybody else to the outer darkness?
American Exceptionalism, while Republican dogma, is really just a crock, just a modern day version of Manifest Destiny.
We have an exceptionally high number of prisons, provide exceptionally poor healthcare for our citizens and have an exceptionally bad infrastructure.
How are those all Republican states like Kansas, and all of the old Confederacy doing? Do you want to move there?
We have an exceptionally high number of prisons, provide exceptionally poor healthcare for our citizens and have an exceptionally bad infrastructure.
How are those all Republican states like Kansas, and all of the old Confederacy doing? Do you want to move there?
1
I think too much is made about the current immigration challenges in our country. It is creating soundbites from some of the Republican leadership but I don't think that is driving the broader base of Republican voters. Trump's bluster not withstanding I believe the majority of Republicans respect the contributions and citizenry of immigrants in our country who've come from Latin and South America. I do think the elephant in the room as it relates to immigration, and one that we don't speak about, is the fear of Muslim immigration on the order of what we've seen in Europe. We speak of separation of church and state but cannot ignore our foundational values come from a moral and ethical place that is "western". Ben Carson's remarks generated exaggerated "horror" from all the righteous but let's face it. He was addressing the elephant in the room - the fear of importing a culture that will get the same protections afforded by separation of church and state as the rest of the population, but who's first "loyalty" is not the state.
It isn’t just that they’ve lost hope. It’s more that they’ve cynically discovered that by fomenting fear and gerrymandering the districts, they can retain enough power to remain the center of attention.
Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
David Brooks laments the current state of affairs in the Republican Party while trotting out Ann Coulter as one of the voices of reason?
David Brooks reads Ann Coulter?
What is wrong with this picture?
David Brooks laments the current state of affairs in the Republican Party while trotting out Ann Coulter as one of the voices of reason?
David Brooks reads Ann Coulter?
What is wrong with this picture?
1
It is amazing to me that the GOP is even as successful as it is right now, controlling Congress, Governorships and state legislatures. It all came about with the election of President Obama, seems to be the last gasp of a frightened white majority.
2016 will be interesting but 2020, 2024 and 2028 when Texas will probably be a blue state with two democrat hispanic senators will be an America on the move again.
2016 will be interesting but 2020, 2024 and 2028 when Texas will probably be a blue state with two democrat hispanic senators will be an America on the move again.
At laaast.
1
Actually, nothing in today's Republican Party is worth keeping. Crooked enterprises are led by people who vote Republican for a good reason.
The last worthy principle of the GOP was abolition of slavery. After that, it has had only one over-riding aim: to help the rich get richer at the expense of everyone else.
Once the Republican Party is gone, there will be a return to American Exceptionalism.
The last worthy principle of the GOP was abolition of slavery. After that, it has had only one over-riding aim: to help the rich get richer at the expense of everyone else.
Once the Republican Party is gone, there will be a return to American Exceptionalism.
"America was settled, founded and built by people who believed they were doing something exceptional."
And that line of nonsense is where I stopped reading.
And that line of nonsense is where I stopped reading.
The pessimism grow because the media fans it. Its the media that puts words and thoughts in people's minds. People who live their gullible lives like zombies, are being fed words and brainwashed by TV, social media, print and everything that surrounds them. What the Pope is attempting to do, at last, is to shake us all up, gently so, please understand we are all children of immigrants, we came here to this country to build our dreams and realize our hopes. This stream has to continue, it is our very nature, our DNA.
2
The GOP is no longer a conservative party. It has been hijacked by rightwing reactionaries who want to drag the country back to some mythologized past.
The "moderates" among them want to drag the country back to the Gilded Age of the 1890s, but much of the base wants to go back to 1860. Some religious conservatives want to go back to pre-Enlightenment times.
The GOP is intent on repealing the 20th century.
The "moderates" among them want to drag the country back to the Gilded Age of the 1890s, but much of the base wants to go back to 1860. Some religious conservatives want to go back to pre-Enlightenment times.
The GOP is intent on repealing the 20th century.
2
Shame on you David Brooks. You have finally written a honest and understanding column about an America whose GOP has no forward going vision. Yet you still choose to lie about the past and America's founders.
The later half of the 18th century was the glory days of the enlightenment and the men who framed and wrote the constitution were much as Milton called himself not Puritans but liberal Puritans. Your Alma Mater the University of Chicago has a number of Divinity schools and it is there you should have learned Jefferson, Adams and Franklin did not worship God , they did not believe in predestination they did not even believe in God. They believed in the Creator a cosmic force some might call it science a force that created and then departed. They believed it man's duty to provide the future with better schools, better healthcare and better infrastructure for the generations to come.
The conservative movement is a lie. It is anti American dressed up in fancy red white and blue it is not the America that was meant to be.
The shining city on the hill is supposed to be our city, it is supposed to be a light that tells the world that this is what you can do with freedom, vision, planning and hard work. America was the country to say we are not "under God" we are Americans blessed of free will who will create our destiny. Separation of Church and State means only if you believe in God make him proud of his creation.
The later half of the 18th century was the glory days of the enlightenment and the men who framed and wrote the constitution were much as Milton called himself not Puritans but liberal Puritans. Your Alma Mater the University of Chicago has a number of Divinity schools and it is there you should have learned Jefferson, Adams and Franklin did not worship God , they did not believe in predestination they did not even believe in God. They believed in the Creator a cosmic force some might call it science a force that created and then departed. They believed it man's duty to provide the future with better schools, better healthcare and better infrastructure for the generations to come.
The conservative movement is a lie. It is anti American dressed up in fancy red white and blue it is not the America that was meant to be.
The shining city on the hill is supposed to be our city, it is supposed to be a light that tells the world that this is what you can do with freedom, vision, planning and hard work. America was the country to say we are not "under God" we are Americans blessed of free will who will create our destiny. Separation of Church and State means only if you believe in God make him proud of his creation.
2
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
― John Kenneth Galbraith
Conservatism "stands athwart history, yelling Stop."
― William F. Buckley, Jr.
Come away from the dark side, David. Step into the light.
― John Kenneth Galbraith
Conservatism "stands athwart history, yelling Stop."
― William F. Buckley, Jr.
Come away from the dark side, David. Step into the light.
2
Preaching of a glorious future and actually delivering on - at least some - of those promises is where the GOP falls flat. Belief that the market can solve all of our problems is simple minded not eschatological. Effective government can and should play a role in how this country fulfills this "American promise".
1
There is always danger in generalizations as evidenced by this column. There are folks who are seriously concerned about the direction this country has turned; i.e., it took the wrong fork into the future. I happen to be one of them. My concern has little to do with immigration (although I believe in all fairness that people should wait in line) but with what is happening to the American culture. Rather than building upon our history and culture, there are those in position of authority and influence who appear to be in an all out mode of attacking it. It seems that they wish to bury the past and start over again. Often times it is embedded in the concept of political correctness, only extended to it illogical extreme. As the Pope said in his address to Congress, we should not judge the past by the mores of the present. But that is exactly what is happening and frankly I resent it. Yes, our history is filled with flaws but also much good. So, David, it isn't that many "conservatives" wish to return to the past, it is their desire that our history and culture be respected, past errors corrected and the good aspects built upon rather than fall under the wheels of political correctness gone a muck.
1
I'm not buying it. Over the course of my lifetime, since Reagan, the central policy objectives of the Republican Party have been plutocratic, to figure out a way to dismantle the New Deal, the gains of the early 20th century labor movement, and to orient government policy around the interests of corporations.
This core was, and is, not really a winner electorally. For example, I think the people at large, actually believed in the concept of trickle down economics, for maybe 10 minutes.
So, in order to win elections, Republicans needed an electoral cloaking device.
That device has always been, since Reagan, ginning up fear of the Other and appealing to nativist, racial, sectarian, or bellicose moods and segments of the populace. The common thread of all those appeals, since Reagan, has always been fear, fear of the future, fear of the openness of the future.
The only shred of the sort of spirit of exceptionalism Mr Brooks refers to that the Republican establishment hews to, is in regard to the plutocratic class. They truly tell each other, they are exceptional and the future should be theirs.
But as I said, that won't fly very well in a democracy. So, since Reagan, the public brand of the Republican Party is not sunny optimism, but fear mongering, resentment, anger, and reactionary demagoguery. That is how they get the votes to then legislate for their actual base -- the haves and the have-mores.
This core was, and is, not really a winner electorally. For example, I think the people at large, actually believed in the concept of trickle down economics, for maybe 10 minutes.
So, in order to win elections, Republicans needed an electoral cloaking device.
That device has always been, since Reagan, ginning up fear of the Other and appealing to nativist, racial, sectarian, or bellicose moods and segments of the populace. The common thread of all those appeals, since Reagan, has always been fear, fear of the future, fear of the openness of the future.
The only shred of the sort of spirit of exceptionalism Mr Brooks refers to that the Republican establishment hews to, is in regard to the plutocratic class. They truly tell each other, they are exceptional and the future should be theirs.
But as I said, that won't fly very well in a democracy. So, since Reagan, the public brand of the Republican Party is not sunny optimism, but fear mongering, resentment, anger, and reactionary demagoguery. That is how they get the votes to then legislate for their actual base -- the haves and the have-mores.
1
Mr Brooks correctly states "This pessimism isn't supported by the facts", but fails to acknowledge that facts (nor science) matter in today's Republican party.
That's part of the problem.
That's part of the problem.
1
Why did Trump latch onto fear of immigrants as his hot button issue? It seemed to come out of left field. My guess is that there's a parallel with another demagogue, Senator Joe McCarthy, the anti-Communist lunatic of the early 1950s. Needing a topic for a speech in West Virginia one night. he came across a claim that the State Dept housed some Communists. So he jumped on it and gave a rousing speech which got a surprising reaction. He was onto something. Something that lasted for three years, destroyed many innocent people and disrupted the entire country. Trump needed his own hot button issue. He tied it to his "brand"., I.e., that he's the great builder who could construct an impenetrable wall. Will Trump's rantings on immigration take us down a similar road to McCarthyism? Not likely. Unlike the McCsrthy era, there are too many courageous people to permit that to happen.
1
The GOP's "Southern Strategy" was built on instilling fear and mistrust in white Democrats for anyone they viewed as less exceptional -- as defined by the RNC, Karl Rove, Frank Luntz and others of that ilk. Misinformation and manipulation worked and Republicans took over the south. Nothing has changed in the GOP -- they still work the Atwood angle, instilling fear and mistrust to insure that our elected representatives never find common ground. Look at the crop of mean spirited Republican candidates who are applauded for being xenophobic, homophobic, sexist, and racist. The RNC nurtured these people and now that organization is getting a little nervous that the monster they created is uncontrollable. Beware of Rubio -- he says much of the same thing as the other spoilers but he is much smoother, more refined, slicker in a Bill Clinton kind of way. Unless and until the GOP decides to move away from being a negative and divisive party and begins to seek out exceptional candidates then I think we are all doomed to be governed by a pack of atavistic throwbacks, some slicker than others.
It appears that the GOP of 2015 has slipped into a deep ravine of zenophobia. It is disturbing that the front running candidate spouts a barrage of half-truths and outright fallacies of logic which does not seem to matter to the segment of the GOP electorate which supports such a candidate. If this is not enough, the current conservative ideals of the GOP are in opposition to those of a majority of Americans. The so called exceptionalism of America has been betrayed over the years by failure to promote and provide for health care for all, by inadequate education at the 1-12 levels and by allowing millions of citizens to live at the poverty level. Instead of fear mongering, politicians should focus on the infrastructure of America- implement a better social safety net and real equality for all citizens.
1
[America was settled, founded and built by people who believed they were doing something exceptional.]
Astonishing that a grown, educated man would believe such silliness and that a respected newspaper would pay him to write it.
America, in its early days, was populated by people who were desperate to get away from intolerable conditions at home. Such as the indentured servants who sold themselves into seven years of slavery because there was no work to be got in England and the common lands that had traditionally supported the peasantry were being systematically stolen by a rapacious landed gentry.
That doesn't include the thousands of children who were kidnapped off the streets, shanghaied onto ships, and sold to planters in what is now the South and the West Indies. And that was before African slaves were being brought across the Atlantic in any great numbers. Did they, too, have visions of founding an exceptional nation?
It is estimated that in the one hundred and fifty-or-so years between the founding of the first tobacco plantations and the American Revolution, a half to two thirds of migrants to America came as indentured servants. Some of them might have harbored dreams of building an exceptional City on a Hill; most of them were the helpless poor, jumping out of the frying pan and hoping they weren't going to land in the fire.
Astonishing that a grown, educated man would believe such silliness and that a respected newspaper would pay him to write it.
America, in its early days, was populated by people who were desperate to get away from intolerable conditions at home. Such as the indentured servants who sold themselves into seven years of slavery because there was no work to be got in England and the common lands that had traditionally supported the peasantry were being systematically stolen by a rapacious landed gentry.
That doesn't include the thousands of children who were kidnapped off the streets, shanghaied onto ships, and sold to planters in what is now the South and the West Indies. And that was before African slaves were being brought across the Atlantic in any great numbers. Did they, too, have visions of founding an exceptional nation?
It is estimated that in the one hundred and fifty-or-so years between the founding of the first tobacco plantations and the American Revolution, a half to two thirds of migrants to America came as indentured servants. Some of them might have harbored dreams of building an exceptional City on a Hill; most of them were the helpless poor, jumping out of the frying pan and hoping they weren't going to land in the fire.
3
Hamilton also warned: “A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.”
And Melville observed: “It is not down on any map; true places never are.”
with regard to our country or all "true places"
"Instead the pessimism grows from a sour, overgeneralized and intellectually sloppy sense of alienation. It is one thing to think Democratic policies are wrong." “for there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men ” Melville. Indeed, after years of cultivating the Southern Strategy, distrust of foreigners, patriarchal subservience of women, and raising ignorance to esteem, Republicans are confronted with their own nightmares: Trump, Carson, Fiorina, Paul.
Pope Francis invites politicians to embrace refugees without regard for their origin but focused on their need. Demographics conclude that the current Republican playbook is one of self extinction. Blacks, Hispanics, immigrants women, scientists, workers, children, senior citizens, the sick and their families are all targets of derision, disenfranchisement, revulsion, scorn, and hatred by a variety of Republican policies, platforms, spokesmen, and legislative initiatives. “Reality outran apprehension; Captain Ahab stood upon his quarter-deck.” intent on an obsession with an imagined past, ensnared in what might be, tangled and dragged down, the GOP can only hope that there are enough racists, xenophobes, misogynists, ignoramuses on board.
And Melville observed: “It is not down on any map; true places never are.”
with regard to our country or all "true places"
"Instead the pessimism grows from a sour, overgeneralized and intellectually sloppy sense of alienation. It is one thing to think Democratic policies are wrong." “for there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men ” Melville. Indeed, after years of cultivating the Southern Strategy, distrust of foreigners, patriarchal subservience of women, and raising ignorance to esteem, Republicans are confronted with their own nightmares: Trump, Carson, Fiorina, Paul.
Pope Francis invites politicians to embrace refugees without regard for their origin but focused on their need. Demographics conclude that the current Republican playbook is one of self extinction. Blacks, Hispanics, immigrants women, scientists, workers, children, senior citizens, the sick and their families are all targets of derision, disenfranchisement, revulsion, scorn, and hatred by a variety of Republican policies, platforms, spokesmen, and legislative initiatives. “Reality outran apprehension; Captain Ahab stood upon his quarter-deck.” intent on an obsession with an imagined past, ensnared in what might be, tangled and dragged down, the GOP can only hope that there are enough racists, xenophobes, misogynists, ignoramuses on board.
Since when has conservative dogma been reality based? Am I the only one who remembers Saint Ronald the Bewilderd's yellow rain, polluting trees, and embrace of the Laffer Curve; Nixon's secret plan to end the war; Bush II's invasion of the wrong country? The consistent conservative theme is rhetorical shifts that falsely present themselves as the solution to heartfelt problems that really don't exist, to distract citizens from the fact that their pockets are being picked. Let's not forget that Saint Ronald doubled the national debt while pushing through the largest tax increases in history. And the conservatives love him for it.
2
Mr. Brooks is right about the nation's changing demographics, as well as the danger of the Republican party's stance on immigration, because it's a party in denial. However, there are a lot more problems with conservative values than the immigration issue, and the embracing of minorities. Conservative values have been twisted into a militaristic, aggressive foreign policy, the crushing of women's rights, the determined promotion of an elite that is above the law, and a smug justification for the widening gap between the rich and the rest. Old conservative values prioritized freedom, autonomy, patriotism, a reluctance to engage in militaristic ventures, and reward for hard work. New conservative values prioritize excessive military spending, confrontation on foreign soil, the protection of the elite, and the undermining of the middle class by forcing it to compete with cheap labor overseas. In short, the Republican party - in embracing new conservative values - has mutated into a selfish entity, with little regard for the backbone of the nation. It has become the party of "serve us," rather than the party it used to be, the party of "join us."
182
While reading this Op Ed, I had to look back to make sure I was reading David Brooks' column. Finally the acknowledgement of the dangers of many Republicans (non)ideas. I keep reading David's pieces but often feel he is speaking circles around reality. Finally Mr Brooks is waking up to some degree of truth.
2
Mr Brooks, your party is rotten to the core and has been taken over by bigots and no-nothings. You seem to understand that, yet refuse to take the obvious next step: renounce them and support the other guys.
3
The foul attitudes Mr. Brooks speaks of have been fostered by a morally bankrupt political party that saw the exploiting of people's fears as a clever way forward. Your party, Mr. Brooks, has sewn this monstrous brew of steaming fear and loathing, and you have nothing but yourselves to blame for what you have all become.
1
Isn't the problem that the free market is no longer "progressive" as you put it.
If it ever was.
The free unfettered market preys on folk. It takes their life savings and bursts them in a bubble of risky, if not criminal, speculation on bundled (in)securities.
It canoodles them into leveraging themselves into homes and then leveraging their homes--the sole source of wealth of a majority of Americans--and then it pops that bubble, too.
It hires them as independent contractors or only part time on erratic schedules, works them like dogs, and when they are chewed up, spits them out.
It blood sucks money from well-meaning government programs such as the Pell Grant as it preys on low income students and veterans through the medium of laughable for profit colleges.
Under the aegis of Saint Reagan the GOP version of the free market cries "Privatize," everywhere from public schools to prisons. Profit as the expenses of both the guilty and the innocent.
Our tax code has become a straight jacket, its strings pulled by lobbyists, made to deliver license to corporations who export jobs overseas and cache profits in the Cayman Islands.
What's astounding about the unfettered worship of the free market by the types who are braying after a braying Donald Trump, is that it crushes the very lower middle class white working people who bally ho behind its flapping flag.
If it ever was.
The free unfettered market preys on folk. It takes their life savings and bursts them in a bubble of risky, if not criminal, speculation on bundled (in)securities.
It canoodles them into leveraging themselves into homes and then leveraging their homes--the sole source of wealth of a majority of Americans--and then it pops that bubble, too.
It hires them as independent contractors or only part time on erratic schedules, works them like dogs, and when they are chewed up, spits them out.
It blood sucks money from well-meaning government programs such as the Pell Grant as it preys on low income students and veterans through the medium of laughable for profit colleges.
Under the aegis of Saint Reagan the GOP version of the free market cries "Privatize," everywhere from public schools to prisons. Profit as the expenses of both the guilty and the innocent.
Our tax code has become a straight jacket, its strings pulled by lobbyists, made to deliver license to corporations who export jobs overseas and cache profits in the Cayman Islands.
What's astounding about the unfettered worship of the free market by the types who are braying after a braying Donald Trump, is that it crushes the very lower middle class white working people who bally ho behind its flapping flag.
1
The Republicans are destroying American exceptionalism, because they fail to consider others - they exclude, when they should be including. We should do all things with our fellow man in mind, and how it affects him, but they wrote that part out of the equation. I just dined at a Mexican restaurant the other day. And as I was nibbling away on chips, I wondered, "do you suppose Mexicans eat at American restaurants?" And, then I considered American restaurants - McDonald's? I think it is easy to see where we may have gone wrong. (Not that I don't love my Egg White Delight and coffee on the go!)
The "American free market" in our early years was built largely on slavery. I believe like the pope in the dangers of " unfettered capitalism". Does Brooks suddenly realize that his country club Republican world has been affected by the income inequality he has ignored? It feels as if it is now the astoundingly greedy wealthy and the frightened low information - or downright racist and antiscience- voters who make up the GOP.
1
David, I would think that someone whose son chose military service to Israel over military service to the USA would be a LOT more careful about ascribing an eschatological outlook to our country.
As you well know, some of the most fervent US Congre$$ional support for Bibi Netanyahu comes from Evangelical Christians. Those Christians favor a nuclear armed, bellicose Israeli state as the starting point for Armageddon. Those end days, they believe, will come to the end of the world, and only be
Ie ers in Christ elevated into heaven, while the rest of us, including Jews like you and me, are condemned to eternal damnation. That you could find "eschatological outlook" not objectionable shows that it is not the famously "low information" Republucan voters who advocate against their own interests.
As for this Jewish born athiest, I'll pass on eschatology. You should, too.
As you well know, some of the most fervent US Congre$$ional support for Bibi Netanyahu comes from Evangelical Christians. Those Christians favor a nuclear armed, bellicose Israeli state as the starting point for Armageddon. Those end days, they believe, will come to the end of the world, and only be
Ie ers in Christ elevated into heaven, while the rest of us, including Jews like you and me, are condemned to eternal damnation. That you could find "eschatological outlook" not objectionable shows that it is not the famously "low information" Republucan voters who advocate against their own interests.
As for this Jewish born athiest, I'll pass on eschatology. You should, too.
3
The not so exceptional America ideal idea was and still is white supremacy by enslavement and ethnic sectarian colonial exploitation.
America has 25% of the world's prisoners with 5% of the planets people. Although they are only 13.2% of Americans. Blacks make up 40% of the Americans who are mass incarcerated into the 13th Amendments careful clear exception to the abolition of slavery and involuntary servitude. Blacks make 40% of those on death row. And 80 % of them are there for killing a white person. Even though only 5% of murders are interracial about evenly distributed between the races.
There are more blacks than ever before on welfare, in prison and unemployed. White Hispanics like Cruz, Rubio and Menendez pass themselves off as a being a non-white minority. While the garifuna, mulatto, mestizo, black African and brown Native Mexican majority are maligned and marginalized. Native Americans still suffer on reservations. Asian Americans are confined and defined as this massive catch all that ignores ethnicity and national origin. Puerto Rico, Samoa and Guam are colonies.
My white European roots are in Virginia colony in 1640. My black free person of color roots begin 1790 in Virginia and South Carolina. My black African slave roots began in 1835 in Georgia. My brown Native ancestors came to North America about 14,000 years ago and their heirs were in 1835 Georgia and South Carolina. That makes me black.
Without change, no just God would bless this America.
America has 25% of the world's prisoners with 5% of the planets people. Although they are only 13.2% of Americans. Blacks make up 40% of the Americans who are mass incarcerated into the 13th Amendments careful clear exception to the abolition of slavery and involuntary servitude. Blacks make 40% of those on death row. And 80 % of them are there for killing a white person. Even though only 5% of murders are interracial about evenly distributed between the races.
There are more blacks than ever before on welfare, in prison and unemployed. White Hispanics like Cruz, Rubio and Menendez pass themselves off as a being a non-white minority. While the garifuna, mulatto, mestizo, black African and brown Native Mexican majority are maligned and marginalized. Native Americans still suffer on reservations. Asian Americans are confined and defined as this massive catch all that ignores ethnicity and national origin. Puerto Rico, Samoa and Guam are colonies.
My white European roots are in Virginia colony in 1640. My black free person of color roots begin 1790 in Virginia and South Carolina. My black African slave roots began in 1835 in Georgia. My brown Native ancestors came to North America about 14,000 years ago and their heirs were in 1835 Georgia and South Carolina. That makes me black.
Without change, no just God would bless this America.
3
The pleasure of a Brooks column is mostly in reading the savagely articulate responses, to which I often contribute. David's column this morning hasn't caused the sharp knives to come out. Where is the fun of agreeing with David?
We may wonder why someone of David's intellect and apparent rationality has continued to identify with an ideology that seems to celebrate our worst human instincts. However, rather than criticizing him for not writing this column sooner or for contributing to the modern GOP ethos, I will offer praise, even if it isn't as much fun. I may end up having a better day.
We may wonder why someone of David's intellect and apparent rationality has continued to identify with an ideology that seems to celebrate our worst human instincts. However, rather than criticizing him for not writing this column sooner or for contributing to the modern GOP ethos, I will offer praise, even if it isn't as much fun. I may end up having a better day.
2
Interesting... Does it take a visit from the Pope to remind Republicans that the modern principles that they are advocating are not based upon Christianity and in fact, are not even American by tradition. How far we have strayed. For once, I agree with you, David.
3
Wow what a truthful article from a right winger. Hopefully your party will see the light after the election when the hatemonger Trump is trumped. Maybe then there will be two working political parties in America.
3
If Marco Rubio wants a career in politics...maybe he should become a Democrat.
"I didn't leave the Republican Party, the Republican party left me"
(Sounds sort of familiar, doesn't it?)
"I didn't leave the Republican Party, the Republican party left me"
(Sounds sort of familiar, doesn't it?)
2
"From Lincoln to Reagan to Bush" is not an honest continuum. Except perhaps that the latter two proved the former right: you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
2
"[T]he pessimism grows from a sour, overgeneralized and intellectually sloppy sense of alienation." That, David Brooks, is known as white fear and panic over loss of power and control. And perhaps it reached its fevered pitch when the reality set in that even a majority of white voters could not keep a black man from becoming President of the United States of America. I do believe that all of the racial ugliness and xenophobia of the past few years stems from that fundamental fear and simmering anger that we sense in our everyday cross-racial encounters. I have felt shredded by them in virtually very aspect of my life. What truly singes me is that people refuse to own up to what it really is. Brooks has come as close as anyone today, but not quite there yet. Say it David. Say it someone. Anyone. White people are terrified.
4
It is not so simple since Republicans welcome non-white immigrants from Asia and the Democrats do not. Note that both Indian American governors in the US are Republican and were elected BY Republicans. Most of these Asian immigrants came legally, after satisfying the INS requirement and they have low levels of crime and high levels of education.
What is a mystery is why Democrats do not encourage more immigration from Asia. Maybe because they are not white (smile)?
What is a mystery is why Democrats do not encourage more immigration from Asia. Maybe because they are not white (smile)?
Yes, the GOP uses "the pessimism grows from a sour, overgeneralized and intellectually sloppy sense of alienation . . . to betray the essential American faith and take a reactionary attitude toward life. This is an attitude that sours the tongue, offends the eye and freezes the heart."
But it uses that in the service of donor greed. That is the story sold, but the actual power behind the story is even worse.
The truth is a profound betrayal of all Americans in service of money, the very money interests that were called out by FDR, whose hate he welcomed.
Brooks is correct about the problems with the story told by the GOP. He misses entirely the truth of the GOP we'd get if they won.
But it uses that in the service of donor greed. That is the story sold, but the actual power behind the story is even worse.
The truth is a profound betrayal of all Americans in service of money, the very money interests that were called out by FDR, whose hate he welcomed.
Brooks is correct about the problems with the story told by the GOP. He misses entirely the truth of the GOP we'd get if they won.
2
The political and social revolution begins when innocent people suffer from the Republican and Democratic policies of the Patriot Act which was made for minorities and the People Party members in an attempt to keep them in systematic financial hardship many minor political parties are discouraged by local media and press by denying coverage of political and social events in local libraries. American minorities are discouraged not to take active part in political process which has been dividing America into racial problems which is the main reason we are stuck with old ideologies.
1
Maybe The Pope needs to visit America more often.......
2
Remember Willie Horton? The Republican fear machine has a well established pedigree.
3
The stark reality is that the GOP has shown itself to be no friend of democracy, using every trick to gerrymander districts and fashion a permanent majority in Congress. Questionable campaign financing (cf. Tom Delay), and hatred of those who disagree with them are just two of those degrading tricks.
Now, as Brooks says, the remnants of White power cringe at the thoughts of a New America. They have no confidence in their ability to attract new Americans to their creed. They're right to lack such confidence because when the creed is greed most newcomers find it repulsive. They came to better their lives not to crush the lives of others.
Now, as Brooks says, the remnants of White power cringe at the thoughts of a New America. They have no confidence in their ability to attract new Americans to their creed. They're right to lack such confidence because when the creed is greed most newcomers find it repulsive. They came to better their lives not to crush the lives of others.
3
"hatred of those who disagree with them "
I see plenty of hatred right here and ahem, it is not coming from Republicans.
Perhaps the average Democrat is not hateful, but the readers of the NY Times rarely have anything constructive to say. Their analysis of every problem consists of explain how awful Republicans are and stopping there.
I look for sanity with a sense of desperation and I envy the liberals who believe that their party at least is sane. I wish I felt the same way but the facts are against it.
I see plenty of hatred right here and ahem, it is not coming from Republicans.
Perhaps the average Democrat is not hateful, but the readers of the NY Times rarely have anything constructive to say. Their analysis of every problem consists of explain how awful Republicans are and stopping there.
I look for sanity with a sense of desperation and I envy the liberals who believe that their party at least is sane. I wish I felt the same way but the facts are against it.
You are right.
But remember that the current Gerrymandering system is the result of the Voting Rights Act. Like most things it at first allowed a better representation of minorities but later became election rigging for which ever party was in power in a state house during the Census.
But remember that the current Gerrymandering system is the result of the Voting Rights Act. Like most things it at first allowed a better representation of minorities but later became election rigging for which ever party was in power in a state house during the Census.
True, true, but that is just the beginning of what is wrong with today's GOP.
Legitimate American exceptionalism has been replaced by simple-minded "we're-number-one"-ism, which requires no evidence and brooks no dissent. Legitimate religiously-inspired morality has similarly been co-opted into a cribbed, fearful, and unjustifiable defense of any and all far right policy, as if the Republican party came first and then God joined it. The Christian Right has allowed the GOP to slap a brainless, unbibilical, flag-draped impostor of Christianity over its political party, replacing Jesus with Reagan so that in the name of Christianity they reject their Christian president and are in the process of rejecting the head of the Catholic Church, both for the smallest of reasons: political differences. The current GOP has no principle but knee-jerk reactionism and exaltation of the rich, and has no vision but to undo all social progress and remove compassion and empathy from the public square.
After 30 years as a Republican I recently re-registered as a Democrat, not because Democrats are perfect but because the alternative is to horrible to consider.
Legitimate American exceptionalism has been replaced by simple-minded "we're-number-one"-ism, which requires no evidence and brooks no dissent. Legitimate religiously-inspired morality has similarly been co-opted into a cribbed, fearful, and unjustifiable defense of any and all far right policy, as if the Republican party came first and then God joined it. The Christian Right has allowed the GOP to slap a brainless, unbibilical, flag-draped impostor of Christianity over its political party, replacing Jesus with Reagan so that in the name of Christianity they reject their Christian president and are in the process of rejecting the head of the Catholic Church, both for the smallest of reasons: political differences. The current GOP has no principle but knee-jerk reactionism and exaltation of the rich, and has no vision but to undo all social progress and remove compassion and empathy from the public square.
After 30 years as a Republican I recently re-registered as a Democrat, not because Democrats are perfect but because the alternative is to horrible to consider.
3
What the GOP lacks is self-restraint. Right now you have a bunch of candidates, behaving and speaking in such egregiously narcissistic, greedy, bombastic, bellicose, and belittling ways - that it is made VERY clear that self-restraint has failed. And societal restraint is needed.
Your party views government regulations as anathema and personal rules and regulations (a woman's body is not her own, broken-window policing, for-profit prisons, no raising of the minimum wage, etc) as necessary to keep the poor, minorities, those who protest injustice, in their places.
Your party, David, needs repentance. I say it again: Repent!
Look in the mirror. Then look at the Pope, a humble man, a man of great self-restraint. Who learned that from his Jesuit training. A man of love. Of welcome. Of Mercy.
Your party, David, needs society's rules and regulations. As the Jesuits need their method of 40 Day Ignation retreats. Individualism has dead-ended the GOP. You want inspiration? Look to the Pope!
Your party views government regulations as anathema and personal rules and regulations (a woman's body is not her own, broken-window policing, for-profit prisons, no raising of the minimum wage, etc) as necessary to keep the poor, minorities, those who protest injustice, in their places.
Your party, David, needs repentance. I say it again: Repent!
Look in the mirror. Then look at the Pope, a humble man, a man of great self-restraint. Who learned that from his Jesuit training. A man of love. Of welcome. Of Mercy.
Your party, David, needs society's rules and regulations. As the Jesuits need their method of 40 Day Ignation retreats. Individualism has dead-ended the GOP. You want inspiration? Look to the Pope!
3
I commend Brooks for recognizing that his party currently sustains itself on fear, paranoia, and disinformation. The Republican establishment has aggressively internalized the fact that people respond better to negative impulses and emotions than to positive ones; this approach has served them well in congressional and state and local elections.
Two issues with Brooks' column: First, he credits Reagan and Bush for "embracing the market for being dynamic and progressive." He leaves off the part where they both [while increasing gov't expenditures!] condemn gov't itself as "the problem," thereby creating a massive, long-term dysfunction that has nearly paralyzed and ruined our system of governing. In this respect, Reagan's presidency has been the most damaging to America probably since the Pierce/Buchanan administrations.
Second, the point about markets, while broadly correct, requires far more nuance, analysis and intelligence than the GOP can muster. The market NEEDS regulation. By definition and law, it will exclusively serve its own interests. As technology, globalization, and "world-flattening" increase, there will be many new ways for large multinational companies to benefit their shareholders (and executives) at the expense of workers, consumers, Americans, and the U.S. economy generally. Companies WILL take advantage of those opportunities. Regulation and containment of the market is critically important as PART of the process of making it dynamic and progressive.
Two issues with Brooks' column: First, he credits Reagan and Bush for "embracing the market for being dynamic and progressive." He leaves off the part where they both [while increasing gov't expenditures!] condemn gov't itself as "the problem," thereby creating a massive, long-term dysfunction that has nearly paralyzed and ruined our system of governing. In this respect, Reagan's presidency has been the most damaging to America probably since the Pierce/Buchanan administrations.
Second, the point about markets, while broadly correct, requires far more nuance, analysis and intelligence than the GOP can muster. The market NEEDS regulation. By definition and law, it will exclusively serve its own interests. As technology, globalization, and "world-flattening" increase, there will be many new ways for large multinational companies to benefit their shareholders (and executives) at the expense of workers, consumers, Americans, and the U.S. economy generally. Companies WILL take advantage of those opportunities. Regulation and containment of the market is critically important as PART of the process of making it dynamic and progressive.
5
Give me one republican policy that does. To do the same. Evolution, gun control, war, health care, abortion, climate change. These people are all backward, anti-science, hateful rubes.
3
When Mr Brooks—official apologist for the GOP—acknowledges the dangerously racist and hostile nature of his party, you know how serious things have become. Of course, not a bad word for George W Bush (and by association, Jeb!), for in the end the GOP he and the establishment long for is about big business, not racist populism—something the party was happy to exploit when it thought it could control it. The Koch brother underwrote this movement via the Tea Party, and now they and their compatriots have lost the rudder. Pride goeth before the fall, Mr Brooks.
1
Can America do more to help with the current crisis in Syria and open its doors to refugees? Absolutely. We have a moral obligation and a rich history doing so. But the America of today is vastly different than the America of 100 years ago that had vast empty spaces, was bursting with economic vitality, and had a plethora of manufacturing jobs going unfilled that could allow an unskilled immigrant family to have a roof over their head and some meager food on the table. My Italian grandparents did so and raised a family of 8.
But times have changed and the unskilled jobs available here pay slave wages. It ain't exactly paradise in America anymore, even if you were born here and followed their parents advice about getting a college degree. Just ask the kids with debt up to their ears looking for work in their field unless you have a STEM degree, the current rage. And if you are an immigrant with a language barrier and limited education the prospects are even dimmer. We need to fix income inequality here so that immigrants actually have a chance. Is it any wonder why inner city kids sell drugs when the only other option is a dead end job at Burger king is paying $7.50 an hour?
But times have changed and the unskilled jobs available here pay slave wages. It ain't exactly paradise in America anymore, even if you were born here and followed their parents advice about getting a college degree. Just ask the kids with debt up to their ears looking for work in their field unless you have a STEM degree, the current rage. And if you are an immigrant with a language barrier and limited education the prospects are even dimmer. We need to fix income inequality here so that immigrants actually have a chance. Is it any wonder why inner city kids sell drugs when the only other option is a dead end job at Burger king is paying $7.50 an hour?
1
So much of what I am reading and hearing from politicians, talk show hosts, and yes, even Op-Ed columinists, demonstrates a profound lack on knowledge of our country's past. Worse, I suspect many capitalize on the abysmal lack of historical understanding by US citizens, and freely spin the past to suit their agendas. The founders understood the need for an educated, engaged citizenry to challenge politicians. This was a essential in order to avoid a tryannical government. But somehow that message has gotten buried. Knowing who we are, as a country, with all of the good and bad that entails, is essential. Unfortunately, this is become increasingly difficult. Our educational system has taken a dangerout shift, in that regard, with an increasing emphasis on STEM at the expense of History and other Humanities.
4
"Conservatives have traditionally embraced a style of nationalism that is hopeful and future minded"....Don't no where Brooks has been, but that disappeared a long time ago. It went out the door when the Dixiescrats took over the Republican Party 25 years ago.
3
EXACTLY. The bigots of the Left followed the power into the Republican party during the reaction to the Civil Rights legislation of the 60s and the party has been destroyed by it.
I remember when Republicans supported taking prayer out of school and the Dems (same Dixicrats) at the time fought against it.
I remember when Republicans supported taking prayer out of school and the Dems (same Dixicrats) at the time fought against it.
It's apparently really hard over the long haul to motivate a conservative base only through hopefulness and optimism if you need them to go along with political ideas that are beneficial only to the very wealthy. The Republican Party has been commandeered by demagogues who find it much easier to generate the results they want by fomenting fear, anger, and hatred. Is Mr Brooks just waking up to this?
I usually avoid the most corrosive conservative websites, but yesterday I happened to look at comments made to an acerbic article on the Pope's speech to Congress. Each comment was more foul than the one before it. Without a doubt, they were the nastiest and most profane series of fact-free comments I have ever seen, directed at a man who routinely speaks words of love and acceptance. The Pope's explicit warning against viewing the world as divided solely between good and evil with nothing in between fell on deaf ears among this group. His stance on immigration fueled much of the vitriol, although it was not the only source of ire.
In my observation, almost all the Republican candidates for president have resorted to some degree to riling people up in anger and hatred to make themselves popular. It's a strategy with a long history, and it now seems to have created some sort of parallel Republican universe. A universe where a man like Pope Francis is called the Anti-Christ for his entreaties to us to accept and care for Syrian refugees and other immigrants.
I usually avoid the most corrosive conservative websites, but yesterday I happened to look at comments made to an acerbic article on the Pope's speech to Congress. Each comment was more foul than the one before it. Without a doubt, they were the nastiest and most profane series of fact-free comments I have ever seen, directed at a man who routinely speaks words of love and acceptance. The Pope's explicit warning against viewing the world as divided solely between good and evil with nothing in between fell on deaf ears among this group. His stance on immigration fueled much of the vitriol, although it was not the only source of ire.
In my observation, almost all the Republican candidates for president have resorted to some degree to riling people up in anger and hatred to make themselves popular. It's a strategy with a long history, and it now seems to have created some sort of parallel Republican universe. A universe where a man like Pope Francis is called the Anti-Christ for his entreaties to us to accept and care for Syrian refugees and other immigrants.
363
if you have heard Christie and Huckabee lately you have heard them condemn the Pope as anti catholic and the president as a phony catholic...who are they to condemn anyone for their version of Catholicism? You never hear a Protestant saying things like this...
1
Very well put. It's actually quite frightening that the other major political party has sunk, continues to sink, lower and lower.
1
Richard-Huh? Huckabee is not Catholic! He is a Southern Baptist protestant. Most of those running for president in the republican party are protestant. Christie, Rubio and bottom dweller Santorum are the only Catholics. Obama isn't Catholic either. So what is your point. I think you'd be much closer to the truth if you said you don't hear DEMOCRATS talking like this. This really has very little to do with religion and everything to do with hatred and fear of those who are different. It's just couched in "religion" to make it palatable to the rabid base.
1
While it is OK to use "theology" and "faith" to exalt (or bemoan the loss of) American exceptionalism or idealism, people do see and judge life for themselves. Commentators mostly reflect what certain socio-economic groups see and think from the groups' perspectives.
Your measure of America’s ‘decline’ beginning with the Bush presidency in 2,000 is quite telling (including how he was 'selected' - unjustly to about half the Americans). There is no need to state all that transpired during his term in office - but the vision and hope, the optimism you miss has a cause.
People did see, and decide for themselves what has/is going on in America and how we got here. The "Tea Party" was born out of the bailout of the banks, without a single prosecution. And then those who perpetrated the so-called financial crisis and precipitated the "great recession" from which 90% of Americans have never recovered and remain on "lost" ground, were rewarded richly by Federal Reserve ‘monetary policies’ favoring Wall Street - fraudulently sold to the American people in the name of restoring prosperity to Main Street and creating jobs. Instead it has created great angst in this land, as those in power do even more of the same after eight years of evidence of their failures in the service of the wealthy and corporate interests - no crisis of faith or exceptionalism here!
...cont...
Your measure of America’s ‘decline’ beginning with the Bush presidency in 2,000 is quite telling (including how he was 'selected' - unjustly to about half the Americans). There is no need to state all that transpired during his term in office - but the vision and hope, the optimism you miss has a cause.
People did see, and decide for themselves what has/is going on in America and how we got here. The "Tea Party" was born out of the bailout of the banks, without a single prosecution. And then those who perpetrated the so-called financial crisis and precipitated the "great recession" from which 90% of Americans have never recovered and remain on "lost" ground, were rewarded richly by Federal Reserve ‘monetary policies’ favoring Wall Street - fraudulently sold to the American people in the name of restoring prosperity to Main Street and creating jobs. Instead it has created great angst in this land, as those in power do even more of the same after eight years of evidence of their failures in the service of the wealthy and corporate interests - no crisis of faith or exceptionalism here!
...cont...
1
There are many other problems for the GOP than its fixation on deporting immigrants. Setting aside immigration, the GOP has become a party of elderly, white, male and mostly Southern voters. That is, it has cut itself off from women, minorities, and less than elderly voters. It has mostly given up on the major urban areas of the nation, and exists as a regional party, the South, with swathes of the underpopulated and rural West under its dominion because the Republicans ruthlessly gerrymandered Western and Southern states after the last census. That will eventually come to an end. Frankly, there isn't much worth saving from the collapse of the GOP as a national party. The interesting question is what comes next? I fear it will be even worse than we have seen since the unraveling of the Bush/Cheney admin.
8
So when are you finally going to admit you are a Democrat David? When will you realize that you are the only reasonable person left in your party?
5
There's a very disturbing selfishness that has arisen in the GOP and has gotten stronger since the 80s. (Maybe even before that, but I'm not old enough to remember.) There's a pervasive attitude that "they" (non-white people) have some sort of uber-plan to take all your money and mooch off society. This fear was exacerbated when--gasp!--a black man was elected president. (Surely, he must be a Muslim!)
I am trying to follow the Bernie Sanders model and only put good out into the world instead of focusing (like the GOP) on the (mostly imaginary) negative. The solace I take is that this is the last gasp of the haters. The Millennials are mixed race and seem very accepting. Can't wait to see what they accomplish--hope they work together better than we have.
I am trying to follow the Bernie Sanders model and only put good out into the world instead of focusing (like the GOP) on the (mostly imaginary) negative. The solace I take is that this is the last gasp of the haters. The Millennials are mixed race and seem very accepting. Can't wait to see what they accomplish--hope they work together better than we have.
3
David Brooks:
Do you have any idea what the numbers are? Do you realize that for the past 40 years we've added roughly one New York State's worth of people to the population every decade?
How many people can we add per decade without putting millions of Americans out of work?
How many people can we add without causing major worsening of environmental problems? (Hint, the average immigrant's greenhouse emissions rise fourfold after arrival here.)
How many people can we add without worsening the quality of life for all but the wealthiest?
Did it ever occur to you that the Republican backlash against immigration is driven by people seeing their communities flooded with Spanish speakers while their jobs disappear? Do you have any idea what it's like to be a low/no-skilled American worker with this flood coming in?
And do you realize MASS-immigration is a bipartisan issue? Blue State Oregon voted two to one to kill drivers licenses for illegal immigrants despite that proponents outspent opponents TEN TO ONE. (And fyi I helped put Ed Markey and Eliz Warren in the Senate,and O in the White House.)
Nothing wrong with immigration. But there's a lot wrong when the numbers are out of control and no-one is talking about that.
Do you have any idea what the numbers are? Do you realize that for the past 40 years we've added roughly one New York State's worth of people to the population every decade?
How many people can we add per decade without putting millions of Americans out of work?
How many people can we add without causing major worsening of environmental problems? (Hint, the average immigrant's greenhouse emissions rise fourfold after arrival here.)
How many people can we add without worsening the quality of life for all but the wealthiest?
Did it ever occur to you that the Republican backlash against immigration is driven by people seeing their communities flooded with Spanish speakers while their jobs disappear? Do you have any idea what it's like to be a low/no-skilled American worker with this flood coming in?
And do you realize MASS-immigration is a bipartisan issue? Blue State Oregon voted two to one to kill drivers licenses for illegal immigrants despite that proponents outspent opponents TEN TO ONE. (And fyi I helped put Ed Markey and Eliz Warren in the Senate,and O in the White House.)
Nothing wrong with immigration. But there's a lot wrong when the numbers are out of control and no-one is talking about that.
65
"How many people can we add per decade without putting millions of Americans out of work?"
As many as we like. Every one of those people is also a consumer, also a strong vibrant and available domestic market. They are not just competition for jobs, they are the demand side too. That is, if they get paid.
That's our problem. None of us is getting paid for the vast increases in productivity. The jobs are going overseas, labor arbitrage that provides no market, not to immigrants here party of a healthy economy.
It is the terms of trade, not the size of our domestic body of workers and consumers, which is out of balance and destroying us.
As many as we like. Every one of those people is also a consumer, also a strong vibrant and available domestic market. They are not just competition for jobs, they are the demand side too. That is, if they get paid.
That's our problem. None of us is getting paid for the vast increases in productivity. The jobs are going overseas, labor arbitrage that provides no market, not to immigrants here party of a healthy economy.
It is the terms of trade, not the size of our domestic body of workers and consumers, which is out of balance and destroying us.
4
And yet Republicans see no conflict with increasing numbers and their short-sighted push against both contraception and abortion.
You are wrong on the economics of it. A free market economy is not a zero sum game. The more people that participate, the greater the economy can be.
2
It was Reagan who pulled the US out of the annual Planned Parenthood Conference in Mexico City, and the birthrate in Central America shot back up. It was Reagan and Bush Sr. who empowered the death squads down there in a political fight that caused the flight up north. So it's interesting that conservatives are angriest at the rise in immigration that they played such a large part in.
14
At some point and I can only hope it occurs in my children's lifetime our culture will recognize that the promotion of religious belief whether under the dictates of the ruling class elsewhere or in the guise of our society's "religious freedom" is the medical equivalent of allowing strains of a contagious and deadly disease to remain untreated.
We don't need freedom of; rather freedom from religious belief.
We don't need freedom of; rather freedom from religious belief.
16
David Brooks will be pulling in his check and all reality will be flying in the face of his writing and still he will pontificate about events which history alone has already proven wrong.
If one is so purposefully dumb as to insist the writing wasn't on the wall for the GOP during Reagan's tenure I'd suggest you are truly on the take, if only a psychological level. It was very clear who Reagan was willing to be generous to--most people have eventually figured it out. Welcome? Depends on how you define it. Non-white Indian businessmen were never going to be welcome to most GOP business circles, still are not, with exceptions.
Finally, those markets. Whew, at 57 I can still feel the excitement. Going from the New Deal to the raw deal with the flick of Ronnie's pen.
If one is so purposefully dumb as to insist the writing wasn't on the wall for the GOP during Reagan's tenure I'd suggest you are truly on the take, if only a psychological level. It was very clear who Reagan was willing to be generous to--most people have eventually figured it out. Welcome? Depends on how you define it. Non-white Indian businessmen were never going to be welcome to most GOP business circles, still are not, with exceptions.
Finally, those markets. Whew, at 57 I can still feel the excitement. Going from the New Deal to the raw deal with the flick of Ronnie's pen.
1
"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative"
John Stuart Mill
'nuff said.
John Stuart Mill
'nuff said.
6
What of the small percentage of these rapidly-assimilating immigrants who become climate scientists? Will they have grown sour when they try to promote political action on climate change?
1
Isn't being a conservative mean you resist rapid change of any kind and try to defend the status quo. They oppose any kind of uncontrolled progress. They can't help but dream about the past, worry about the changing present and fear the future. It is who they are.
1
American free market and religious conservatives : Lincoln to Reagan to Bush.
Really?
Lincoln was a republican...but a progressive of his times including unpopular warnings against consolidated wealth:
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”
Sound familiar? You wouldn't here that in any Republican narrative, Lincolns predictions are coming true for the most part.
Add his forward thinking view about labor vs capital, slavery and pragmatic view of religion and you have a smart progressive. In fact, Lincoln was labeled, omg, an atheist in his day and had to print flyers saying he didn't deny the scriptures.
Why? Because he took a Jeffersonian approach to religion and the Bible (no miracles thank you, no faith healing thank you, no abandoment of reason, thank you...people didn't like that back then either).
Lincoln is arguably our greatest president...republican, but no free market and religious conservatives. If the GOP could see more clearly, they might embrace the views of this great man, rather than distort it for their narrow ends.
Really?
Lincoln was a republican...but a progressive of his times including unpopular warnings against consolidated wealth:
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”
Sound familiar? You wouldn't here that in any Republican narrative, Lincolns predictions are coming true for the most part.
Add his forward thinking view about labor vs capital, slavery and pragmatic view of religion and you have a smart progressive. In fact, Lincoln was labeled, omg, an atheist in his day and had to print flyers saying he didn't deny the scriptures.
Why? Because he took a Jeffersonian approach to religion and the Bible (no miracles thank you, no faith healing thank you, no abandoment of reason, thank you...people didn't like that back then either).
Lincoln is arguably our greatest president...republican, but no free market and religious conservatives. If the GOP could see more clearly, they might embrace the views of this great man, rather than distort it for their narrow ends.
6
This article offers excellent insights, and coming from a Conservative, carries weight that not be the case if written by a liberal.
However, exceptionalism is by its very nature, dangerous. It confers a sense of superiority, meaning all others are inferior. It is the kind of thought process that justified the large scale acts of genocide against native Americans to achieve Manifest Destiny. Our exceptionalism led to the extermination of 500 native American cultures.
The ultimate example of exceptionalism is Hitler's Nazi regime, which was so exceptional that it sought to exterminate whole classes of people to achieve its goals, and to eliminate those who were not considered exceptional.
The world would be a far, far better place without exceptionalism.
However, exceptionalism is by its very nature, dangerous. It confers a sense of superiority, meaning all others are inferior. It is the kind of thought process that justified the large scale acts of genocide against native Americans to achieve Manifest Destiny. Our exceptionalism led to the extermination of 500 native American cultures.
The ultimate example of exceptionalism is Hitler's Nazi regime, which was so exceptional that it sought to exterminate whole classes of people to achieve its goals, and to eliminate those who were not considered exceptional.
The world would be a far, far better place without exceptionalism.
5
The wealth and size of the United States is immense when compared to that of European countries. The number of immigrants (legal and illegal) entering the U.S. is tiny next to the number of immigrants trying to enter Europe. If our immigration laws and policies were different, would there be so many "illegals" here? They're illegal because they can't live here without sneaking in. Our ancestors were immigrants not so long ago. Did they have to sneak in? We all know how the original immigrants got here and what they did in order to stay. My parents told me I was selfish when I didn't want to share with my younger siblings. I knew I was right because my toys were my toys.
1
I disagree with the very first sentence of this essay. American exceptionalism is a myth-making construct applied in hindsight to a nation that largely-- for much of its history-- succeeded. The millions of people who settled and founded this country were mostly fleeing poverty, political and/or religious oppression, and societies in which their futures were severely circumscribed and limited. To ascribe a universal mindset that said "We're going to America to do something exceptional" is ridiculous.
218
I think you are being a bit too literal with his idea.
1
Yes it is very ridiculous. So are all the other generalizations and platitudes that DB reaches for in his brave but futile attempt to save the GOP from itself.
1
I feel certain they knew they were going to freedom, if not exceptionalism, including people in my own family's history. Whether they despised the Catholic Church (some did) or kings (some did) or the grinding class structure (some did) they had dreams of a better life here, as today's immigrants do.
This was never a joke for me. When republicans started throwing hate bombs eight or more years ago and calling decent human behavior "politically correct," I knew that this was something I could never support. It wasn't a political opinion, it was something much more, and it still is.
I don't know what's going to happen to your party, but with the recent arrival of the Pope and his message of kindness and love, I know that I do not need to engage with republicans. If you lose, and I hope you do badly, it will be because you are morally depraved and the nation sees it.
I don't know what's going to happen to your party, but with the recent arrival of the Pope and his message of kindness and love, I know that I do not need to engage with republicans. If you lose, and I hope you do badly, it will be because you are morally depraved and the nation sees it.
3
"American free market and religious conservatives have traditionally embraced a style of nationalism that is hopeful and future minded."
I don't think so.
American Conservatives has always embraced a philosophy and policies to defend their advantage and to institutionalize it as entitlement. When they're winning, America is great. When they're losing, America is in decline. I'm 55 and at no point in my life has this not been the case.
I don't think so.
American Conservatives has always embraced a philosophy and policies to defend their advantage and to institutionalize it as entitlement. When they're winning, America is great. When they're losing, America is in decline. I'm 55 and at no point in my life has this not been the case.
2
I feel certain that Brooks knew about Boehner resigning from Congress when this piece was written. Extremists got a little too extreme.
When Brooks finally, FINALLY decides to say a constructively critical word to the worst actors in national politics, we can all agree that today's right wing politics is unhealthy for our nation and must be tempered.
Unfortunately, with Boehner's resignation as evidence, the sickness will be getting worse before it gets better. But that's really good news for the 2016 elections.
When Brooks finally, FINALLY decides to say a constructively critical word to the worst actors in national politics, we can all agree that today's right wing politics is unhealthy for our nation and must be tempered.
Unfortunately, with Boehner's resignation as evidence, the sickness will be getting worse before it gets better. But that's really good news for the 2016 elections.
5
America spends 17% of its GDP on healthcare expenses, a truly exceptional and uniquely American disgrace compared to other countries who spend less and treat more of their citizens to healthcare.
The Republicans, of course, have been screaming about repealing a minor reform (the ACA) to rectify the American healthcare disgrace; one of Republicans' proudest accomplishments is not expanding Medicaid in Republican-governed states to deprive poor working Americans of healthcare dignity and medical care.
That is exceptionally cruel, inhumane. sadistic and even fatal to an estimated 7000 or more Americans every years.
Today's GOP is a giant bucket of misanthropy, spite, fear, greed, xenophobia and ill-will toward others entirely devoid of the Christianity, God and human decency.
Intellectual and moral bankruptcy don't make solid political platforms.
The Republicans, of course, have been screaming about repealing a minor reform (the ACA) to rectify the American healthcare disgrace; one of Republicans' proudest accomplishments is not expanding Medicaid in Republican-governed states to deprive poor working Americans of healthcare dignity and medical care.
That is exceptionally cruel, inhumane. sadistic and even fatal to an estimated 7000 or more Americans every years.
Today's GOP is a giant bucket of misanthropy, spite, fear, greed, xenophobia and ill-will toward others entirely devoid of the Christianity, God and human decency.
Intellectual and moral bankruptcy don't make solid political platforms.
53
The GOP is dead!
3
The same thing liberals said before the 2010 and 2014 midterms.
Then the Republicans booted the Democrats out of power in the House and Senate.
Brace yourselves liberals for another huge footprint in the backside in 2016.
Then the Republicans booted the Democrats out of power in the House and Senate.
Brace yourselves liberals for another huge footprint in the backside in 2016.
Mr. Brooks. First of all I applaud you for your intellectual honesty and courage to be critical of them whom you support politically. Alas, I disagree with your conclusions. Immigration is a wedge issue, like Planned Parenthood, like same-sex marriage, like the national debt....the list is endless and ever-changing. Wedge issues are simply a tool for division and thus political gain, gain gotten at the expense of those whose anger is stoked and given lip service by politicians whose true purpose is to use government as a tool of profit by lowering taxes and cutting regulation. Ultimately in the corridors of Republican power, nothing else matters.
1
What a crock! The ideal that animated American exceptionalism was LIBERTY -- the freedom to provide for oneself and to prosper or fail on the basis of one's talent and initiative. The romantic view of immigration we once held welcomed those seeking liberty. Unfortunately, progressivism hijacked our country, replacing concepts of personal accountability, private property and freedom of association, with a world in which leaders are elected to ration wealth and direct the lives of citizens. Republicans are simply decrying the fact that importing poverty through immigration merely creates the need for more taxation and redistribution, while simultaneously creating more voters who would rather have big government than freedom.
And, by the way, the NYT should stop portraying David Brooks as its resident conservative commentator. Having him holding forth on conservatism is like allowing Rex Ryan to pick the starting quarterback for every team in the AFC East.
And, by the way, the NYT should stop portraying David Brooks as its resident conservative commentator. Having him holding forth on conservatism is like allowing Rex Ryan to pick the starting quarterback for every team in the AFC East.
Bravo, David Brooks! This is really at the heart of the problems of our country today, and now that you've seen this through the lens of immigration policy, you can follow the thread to its other manifestations. This pessimism and sour alienation, yearning for a past that won't recur, is also manifested in the wholesale cashing-out of assets in the US economy by the wealthy and corporations. Infrastructure? why bother? Education? why bother? Why pay taxes to a failed society? This attitude means it's time to take the money and run. And that's exactly what is happening.
4
I guess the footnote to this comprehensive article came not too long after when the (Republican) Speaker of the House announced his resignation and retirement. Obviously he has lost confidence in his party's current messages and future prognosis.
5
Poor David.
We always knew you'd eventually come over to our side.
We always knew you'd eventually come over to our side.
4
David, you are more than welcome to join the Democratic party. My question, why has it taken so long for you realize that the party of Reagan, of Bush, of Bush 2, has always been in your words, "sour, overgeneralized and intellectually sloppy."
7
I always like David Brooks' comments, because even if I disagree, I see him as intellectually honest about what he proposes.
This sets him apart from most of the dialogue we see in the public sphere now.
There is a difference between conviction and rhetoric, between saying something because of what someone believes in and saying something to foment political movement.
Sometimes those two objectives are synchronous, but in the case of the G.O.P. about which he speaks (and not necessarily everyone who has ever donned that cloak) says things which I don't think they actually believe. But what that also means is that those who consider themselves to be left of them, or more moderate than them, should set the example and be forthright about how the nation can be true to the best parts of its heritage, even if those now reciting the declaration of independence look nothing like the founding fathers.
This sets him apart from most of the dialogue we see in the public sphere now.
There is a difference between conviction and rhetoric, between saying something because of what someone believes in and saying something to foment political movement.
Sometimes those two objectives are synchronous, but in the case of the G.O.P. about which he speaks (and not necessarily everyone who has ever donned that cloak) says things which I don't think they actually believe. But what that also means is that those who consider themselves to be left of them, or more moderate than them, should set the example and be forthright about how the nation can be true to the best parts of its heritage, even if those now reciting the declaration of independence look nothing like the founding fathers.
3
The most important point made by Mr. Brooks is that today's GOP is not a conservative party. It is a reactionary party. Too few people are willing to acknowledge that this is the case. Maybe conservatives like Brooks and Wehner will eventually reclaim the label "conservative" for those to whom it really belongs.
308
Nor is today' G OP concerned about America. That party is all about tearing us apart. Good thing in isn't working for them. Another one just bit the dust this morning. Why do Republicans resign when the going gets tough?
Despite years of racist slander our President is still on the job.
Despite years of racist slander our President is still on the job.
1
The reason the GOP is in transition is because there is a schism between Conservatives who are the base of the Republican party and the establishment GOP here in Washington which not.
Donald Trump is the standard bearer for the Conservative Republican reclamation project. And by all measures, he's doing quite well.
Donald Trump is the standard bearer for the Conservative Republican reclamation project. And by all measures, he's doing quite well.
Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle: a column by Mr. Brooks that presents a slight correction to the lunatics running his asylum, formally known as the Republican party.
But, Mr. Brooks, thou doth protest too much, too late. Since the 60s, Republican introduced "hopeful nationalism" with pessimism. Then the idea of the southern strategy was used by Nixon, with the Republicans trying to divide and conquer the white vote. In fact, Nixon's political strategist Kevin Phillips, even admitted it in an interview in a 1970 NYTimes article:
"From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20% of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that...but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats."
Of course Reagan made a speech about "state's rights" when he ran for president in 1980 speaking in Philadelphia, Mississippi, Bush ran the Willie Horton ad, and Bush the 2nd was a visionary and used gay rights as a wedge for the right.
So you're party has been noninclusive for decades now, but the difference is that your party can't win anymore by excluding Hispanics, so I think this is what really has you upset.
But, Mr. Brooks, thou doth protest too much, too late. Since the 60s, Republican introduced "hopeful nationalism" with pessimism. Then the idea of the southern strategy was used by Nixon, with the Republicans trying to divide and conquer the white vote. In fact, Nixon's political strategist Kevin Phillips, even admitted it in an interview in a 1970 NYTimes article:
"From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20% of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that...but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats."
Of course Reagan made a speech about "state's rights" when he ran for president in 1980 speaking in Philadelphia, Mississippi, Bush ran the Willie Horton ad, and Bush the 2nd was a visionary and used gay rights as a wedge for the right.
So you're party has been noninclusive for decades now, but the difference is that your party can't win anymore by excluding Hispanics, so I think this is what really has you upset.
17
Mr. Brooks bemoans the corruption of American Exceptionalism. It's not a corruption. Belief in American Exceptionalism can only lead to the reactionary stance Brooks bemoans, and to nowhere else.
The idea of American Exceptionalism does not simply float in the ether, any more than does any idea. It exists in the real minds of its adherents. There, it does not live long as an abstraction. It must devolve to, "I am an American, and therefore I am Exceptional." Inherent in the idea of being Exceptional is that others are inferior, and incapable of achieving what I have achieved, or simply am by birthright. Inherent in American Exceptionalism is the inferiority of non-Americans. That we are a nation of immigrants exposes the inherent, self-deceiving and ultimately destructive flaw.
When we encounter an individual with a sense of inherent exceptionalism, we rightly treat that individual as a narcissist, as a sociopath. But American Exceptionalism, whether we like it or not, ends up residing in the same part of individual brains as individual Exceptionalism. Others seeking to be our equal are not joining, or validating, or allying with, the "Exceptional." They are a threat to the "Exceptional." The sense of threat is endemic in the narcissist, the fear communicable. Much of a portion of our political culture thrives on that fear.
Mr. Brooks' attempt to identify and distinguish "good" from "bad" Exceptionalism fails for lack of understanding the inherent flaw in the concept.
The idea of American Exceptionalism does not simply float in the ether, any more than does any idea. It exists in the real minds of its adherents. There, it does not live long as an abstraction. It must devolve to, "I am an American, and therefore I am Exceptional." Inherent in the idea of being Exceptional is that others are inferior, and incapable of achieving what I have achieved, or simply am by birthright. Inherent in American Exceptionalism is the inferiority of non-Americans. That we are a nation of immigrants exposes the inherent, self-deceiving and ultimately destructive flaw.
When we encounter an individual with a sense of inherent exceptionalism, we rightly treat that individual as a narcissist, as a sociopath. But American Exceptionalism, whether we like it or not, ends up residing in the same part of individual brains as individual Exceptionalism. Others seeking to be our equal are not joining, or validating, or allying with, the "Exceptional." They are a threat to the "Exceptional." The sense of threat is endemic in the narcissist, the fear communicable. Much of a portion of our political culture thrives on that fear.
Mr. Brooks' attempt to identify and distinguish "good" from "bad" Exceptionalism fails for lack of understanding the inherent flaw in the concept.
2
Many comments are about all of Mr Brooks' other columns, not today's.
This is one of Mr Brooks' best columns, and should be recognised as such.
Many who will vote in the Republican primaries and caucuses sound like they would have joined the Know Nothing party in the 19th century, but that party cannot win a majority in our current democracy, and Mr Brooks proposes the best answer to that Republican dilemma.
As opposed to the other answer: a return to the halcyon days when the US had freedom, meaning every man was free to own slaves; and where we had the democracy of my youth, when the poll tax collectors refused to accept money from non-WASPs (and stamped the records of impecunious WASPs 'paid in full').
I, personally, am glad we no longer live in such halcyon days. And I laud this column by Mr Brooks.
This is one of Mr Brooks' best columns, and should be recognised as such.
Many who will vote in the Republican primaries and caucuses sound like they would have joined the Know Nothing party in the 19th century, but that party cannot win a majority in our current democracy, and Mr Brooks proposes the best answer to that Republican dilemma.
As opposed to the other answer: a return to the halcyon days when the US had freedom, meaning every man was free to own slaves; and where we had the democracy of my youth, when the poll tax collectors refused to accept money from non-WASPs (and stamped the records of impecunious WASPs 'paid in full').
I, personally, am glad we no longer live in such halcyon days. And I laud this column by Mr Brooks.
5
Mr. Brooks, in reality America was settled, founded and built by people who stole the country from the indigenous people, committed genocide, enslaved millions, oppressed woman, exploited children, and destroyed the environment.
Its time you and the rightwing demagoguery stop promoting the myth of American exceptionlism unless you want to talk about the exceptional hypocrisy of America between the words we use to describe it and the reality of it. The sooner we come to terms with the truth of our past the sooner we can turn the myths about the nation's past and present into a reality for the future we can actually be proud of.
by their history, but America was defined by its future, by the people who weren’t yet here and by the greatness that hadn’t yet been achieved.
Its time you and the rightwing demagoguery stop promoting the myth of American exceptionlism unless you want to talk about the exceptional hypocrisy of America between the words we use to describe it and the reality of it. The sooner we come to terms with the truth of our past the sooner we can turn the myths about the nation's past and present into a reality for the future we can actually be proud of.
by their history, but America was defined by its future, by the people who weren’t yet here and by the greatness that hadn’t yet been achieved.
2
America IS exceptional in many ways. Some of those ways are excellent, some so-so and some outright horrible. For the most part, the major group of first settlers came for so many mixed reasons it would be hard to define them all. Even the Pilgrims at Plymouth were not 100% there as members of the religious group, but only interested to make their fortunes.
I've always seen the exceptional of America in the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal..." That this did not actually hold true to life considering we condoned/encouraged slavery and the decimation of Native Americans, but it did hold true for European Americans -- and that is what we were mostly at the beginning of our country, still makes it the most exceptional statement of any country on the face of the earth.
What it is our duty now is to show that we believe what our Founding Fathers wrote in that Declaration of Independence.
I've always seen the exceptional of America in the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal..." That this did not actually hold true to life considering we condoned/encouraged slavery and the decimation of Native Americans, but it did hold true for European Americans -- and that is what we were mostly at the beginning of our country, still makes it the most exceptional statement of any country on the face of the earth.
What it is our duty now is to show that we believe what our Founding Fathers wrote in that Declaration of Independence.
5
Correct analysis, but the intended audience for this message understands no reason or analysis. It needs chastisement.
2
You speak many truths in this article, one being the problem with most Republicans, especially the new crop of those fearful of the future. They are longing for the past… a WHITE past. The problem is best said here in your sceond to last paragraph. "This pessimism isn’t justified by the facts. As a definitive report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recently found, today’s immigrants are assimilating as fast as previous ones. They are learning English. They are healthier than native-born Americans. Immigrant men age 18 to 39 are incarcerated at roughly one-fourth the rate of American men." The Republicans can't abide or deal with anything that has the word science (Sciences) attached.
3
"Major faiths preach an ethos of generosity and welcome." But, Mr. Brooks, not in the swollen ranks of the Right in your party. The quotation above perfectly encapsulates the hypocrisy and rot of those hewing to the mouldy standard of "American exceptionalism." I, for one, find it difficult to believe that this column finds you under the great tent of those who have long seen that the current iteration of the Republican party is more content to make a point than it is to actually offer, if not provide, a path, a view to something that is good, that is unafraid of change, that actually embraces the idea of "American exceptionalism" because it honorably and generously accepts that others, historically unlike themselves, have and can make great contributions to the common good. The conservative commentators to which you make sad reference, continue to see it otherwise, that only a few, the elect, the called, are up to the great task. Therein lies the problem, Mr. Brooks, and you have been a part of the problem for a very long time.
3
Is the American Idea a Democrat idea or a Republican idea?
Or is it a liberal idea or a conservative idea?
I think the American Idea is what each of us make of it.
Or is it a liberal idea or a conservative idea?
I think the American Idea is what each of us make of it.
4
They are painting themselves deeper and deeper into an ideological corner, doubling-down on their intransigence and stubborness. The government shutdowns are like the tantrum of a spoiled child. Their comments and posts on the Facebook pages of their leaders read like a bunch of pre-Civics middle-schoolers who are irate because the GOP-majority in the House and Senate are unable to "impeach Obama, put Hillary in prison, build a wall on the border or send all of them back where they came from."
This would all be very curious and interesting were it not for the fact that they are armed to the teeth and the social chatter seems more and more to speak of violence.
This would all be very curious and interesting were it not for the fact that they are armed to the teeth and the social chatter seems more and more to speak of violence.
8
Since Nixon, the mainstay of Republican messages to voters has been fear of the Other (the poor, African Americans, immigrants, anyone not a Republican etc.). This divisive approach worked for decades, but is failing now. The pathetic thing is that the party has not cared to develop anything else to offer voters. There are no helpful, constructive ideas coming out of the Republican party, and the array of current presidential candidates is a disgrace. As was said in the 1960s, if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Today's Republicans won't even concede there are any problems to be solved (other than keeping Mexicans at bay, and making sure the rich can get richer and that everyone has the automatic weapon of their choice).
11
If American conservatism is “based on promise,” why call it “conservatism”? That’s the Humpty-Dumpty language of advertising — like calling mass-produced stuff “custom made,” or beer in a can “draft,” or images on a TV screen “live,” or a vague and revocable statement of intention a “pledge.”
4
Brooks correctly points out that people on the Left and Right are dissatisfied witb our current state of immigration . But he ignores why.
There has been a concerted effort on the part of the media to confuse immigration with illegal entry. To confuse economic migrants with refugees.
Legal immigration benefits our country greatly. Accepting the best of the best in the world has made our country the envy of the world.
The legal entrant with a PhD from China. The legal entrant who is a whiz at computers from India. The legal entrant woth a great motivation from Paraguay.
Legal immigration also allows us to show our heart. The legal refugees from Vietnam in the 60s and the legal refugees from the Sudan late on.
Americans welcome all of these legal entrants. And the data shows they make us stronger.
But the our elites and media foisted a switch on us. The encourage a flood of illegal economic opportunists to come here. These people may be nice and looking for a bbetter life, but the are also completely uneducated and have a multitude of social issues. The are a massive drain on local social services. The costs are born by our American Poor and Working class. And all the benefits go to the illegal employers.
And this invasion of illegal economic opportunists is labeled "undocumented immigration". It is applauded by our leaders. We get daily propaganda in the media.
But we are not fooled.
Start reporting honestly.
There has been a concerted effort on the part of the media to confuse immigration with illegal entry. To confuse economic migrants with refugees.
Legal immigration benefits our country greatly. Accepting the best of the best in the world has made our country the envy of the world.
The legal entrant with a PhD from China. The legal entrant who is a whiz at computers from India. The legal entrant woth a great motivation from Paraguay.
Legal immigration also allows us to show our heart. The legal refugees from Vietnam in the 60s and the legal refugees from the Sudan late on.
Americans welcome all of these legal entrants. And the data shows they make us stronger.
But the our elites and media foisted a switch on us. The encourage a flood of illegal economic opportunists to come here. These people may be nice and looking for a bbetter life, but the are also completely uneducated and have a multitude of social issues. The are a massive drain on local social services. The costs are born by our American Poor and Working class. And all the benefits go to the illegal employers.
And this invasion of illegal economic opportunists is labeled "undocumented immigration". It is applauded by our leaders. We get daily propaganda in the media.
But we are not fooled.
Start reporting honestly.
1
You must acknowledge one very important silver lining about Illegal immigration.
Is there any single illegal immigrant find a job in federal or state level, NOO
All this illegal jobs are in fact small and medium businesses, agriculture, contractor, restaurant etc.
Every day I saw this living hypocrisy of Don't thread on me stickers on contractor trucks, which is driven by a highly likely white boss, and Latino workers inside , essential base of tea party and Republican right wing nuts.
I never seen single illegal immigrant working in federal or state government job. I saw many illegal immigrants waiting at the entrance of Republican mecca of South Hampton town ( Wall street capitalist summer town), These billionaires cannot afford to hire an normal American landscaper for their mansions ( we didn't forget Romney's gardeners). Then the MOTTO government is the problem. How dare you say that?
Illegal immigrant problem is created , nurtured solely by these private businesses , the very same person takes gun and show up against the illegal immigrants and go back to his business and hires illegal immigrant. Who is employing them, you mainly Republicans, what do you want from them, only one thing, work for only cheap wage , when you done them you want them leave, no future, no retirement,no health care no school for their children. JUST leave my beloved country.
Unfettered cruel, capitalist and conservative republicans are the problem, not government.
Is there any single illegal immigrant find a job in federal or state level, NOO
All this illegal jobs are in fact small and medium businesses, agriculture, contractor, restaurant etc.
Every day I saw this living hypocrisy of Don't thread on me stickers on contractor trucks, which is driven by a highly likely white boss, and Latino workers inside , essential base of tea party and Republican right wing nuts.
I never seen single illegal immigrant working in federal or state government job. I saw many illegal immigrants waiting at the entrance of Republican mecca of South Hampton town ( Wall street capitalist summer town), These billionaires cannot afford to hire an normal American landscaper for their mansions ( we didn't forget Romney's gardeners). Then the MOTTO government is the problem. How dare you say that?
Illegal immigrant problem is created , nurtured solely by these private businesses , the very same person takes gun and show up against the illegal immigrants and go back to his business and hires illegal immigrant. Who is employing them, you mainly Republicans, what do you want from them, only one thing, work for only cheap wage , when you done them you want them leave, no future, no retirement,no health care no school for their children. JUST leave my beloved country.
Unfettered cruel, capitalist and conservative republicans are the problem, not government.
Brooks is an educated East Cost Republican. Even he probably can not seem to abide by the 1%, the NeoCons, and the bigoted, xenophobic Tea Party types who currently get all the attention and drive the party. I appreciate this article, because it shows some hint that he is aware of all this. David, message to you. Give up this folly of tacit support. The GOP is toxic.
22
Once Mr Brooks quoted Ann Coulter, the master of hate speech, it was a bit hard to give any credence to his column.
9
Brooks didn't quote Coulter, he used the title and thrust of her book to illustrate the conservative anti-immigrant theme he finds odious and destructive.
He quoted her with disapproval. Re-read the column, please. He is telling Republicans they're looking backward to an America that never was, instead of looking forward to what America is always becoming -- a better, more just place for all of us.
Really?? Brooks quotes Coulter when criticizing conservatives' backward-looking pessimism. Nothing wrong with that attribution.
"This pessimism isn’t justified by the facts." This pessimism arises from one source: one day white America woke up and found that the President was a black man with an Arabic name. Racism pure and simple is driving the Republican party to become the White Peoples Party. The nostalgia is the nostalgia for the time when White People ran the country without any effective opposition. Each immigrant wave fought to become accepted as white. Now the permanent non-whites (always excluded from white) are gaining power, have gained power, and the pessimistic Republicans can only dream of the days when they ruled the roost.
3
Hence we need mo' BHO. Where an eschatological exceptionalism -- in which "indivisible" INCLUSIVITY duly trumps EXCLUSIVITY "under God" -- seamlessly MOVES FORWARD "in order to form a more perfect union."
1
Right wing media doesn't get nearly the attention it deserves for contributing so significantly to this unfortunate decline in the Republican Party and conservatism. Cowardly politicians don't help, nor to conservative commentators. Those who receive a steady diet of Fox News or consume even more extreme right wing media are experiencing an alternate reality. The GOP candidates are a reflection of the absurdity, especially Trump, the current front runner. The Republicans offer nothing but distrust, pessimism, and sour grapes, not exactly an optimistic view of the future. They appear to have completley lost their sense of humanity, at least judging by their constant attacks on everything and everyone on their disapproval list, even the Pope. The list is long - American workers, women and their reproductive rights, immigrants, refugees, scientists, etc.
8
RHINO
2
Funny! The "H" stands for what?
Or true American while you are just a true Republican
Was apprehensive about reading this column, didn't need another disappointment. Glad I did. Good job David.
1
There is something deeply ironic about the Right suddenly discovering the American Dream is dead since they contributed most to killing it.
That's said, my version of the American Dream has something to do with the Constitution and the huddled masses. The Right's dream has to do with a huge gold block in every corporate pot and absolute control over the government and women's uteruses.
That's said, my version of the American Dream has something to do with the Constitution and the huddled masses. The Right's dream has to do with a huge gold block in every corporate pot and absolute control over the government and women's uteruses.
13