# David Brooks pits the GOP **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 13, 2015, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545 "2015-10-13T14:02:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/41 "2015-10-14T14:56:35Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > I have more respect for bombastic oafs than I have for pretentious twits. I prefer an honest man, even when wallowing in his own ignorance, over a smug hypocrite who thinks he’s oh-so-preciously erudite. > > This models not just how I feel about David Brooks, but why the targets of my SDMB Pit invective are often different from others’ usual targets. … But I won’t mention any names. 🆒 Well, that sort of makes sense, and it does contain the usual amount of irony as well. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/42 "2015-10-14T16:59:53Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > It’s really astounding that folks can’t just say: Hey, good on him for calling out the crazies". The very first sentence of the very first response was to call him a partisan hack. A partisan hack who _criticizes his own party???_ Now that’s the kind of partisan hack I can get behind! Hear, hear. There’s an understandable human logic in killing the messenger for bringing bad news, but when he brings good news…? ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/43 "2015-10-14T18:29:12Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > Hear, hear. There’s an understandable human logic in killing the messenger for bringing bad news, but when he brings good news…? I think it’s a combination of, “Too little, too late” and, “We doubt your sincerity.” I’ve been listening to him on the PBS News Hour for years. I think I have grounds for both of those sentiments. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/44 "2015-10-14T18:47:45Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > …It’s really astounding that folks can’t just say: Hey, good on him for calling out the crazies". The very first sentence of the very first response was to call him a partisan hack. A partisan hack who _criticizes his own party???_ Now that’s the kind of partisan hack I can get behind! Brooks M.O. is to seem like he’s being reasonable when in fact he is being a partisan hack. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Iraq war, when that turned to shit he wrote a very dishonest assesment of what went wrong that on the surface seemed reasonable. On Iraq, Brooks wrote that yes, the US got the intelligence wrong and therefore made a mistake in invading, but that’s just the piece of shit trying to rewrite history and getting people to stop looking to deep into what happened. Paul Krugman also writing in the NY Times has made a hobby of tearing apart Brooks attempts to walk back his mistakes without ever admitting his culpability. His response to Brooks Iraq piece: > [@](#): > > But many influential people — not just Mr. Bush — would prefer that we not have that discussion. There’s a palpable sense right now of the political and media elite trying to draw a line under the subject. Yes, the narrative goes, we now know that invading Iraq was a terrible mistake, and it’s about time that everyone admits it. Now let’s move on. > > Well, let’s not — because that’s a false narrative, and everyone who was involved in the debate over the war knows that it’s false. The Iraq war wasn’t an innocent mistake, a venture undertaken on the basis of intelligence that turned out to be wrong. America invaded Iraq because the Bush administration wanted a war. The public justifications for the invasion were nothing but pretexts, and falsified pretexts at that. We were, in a fundamental sense, lied into war. > **[Opinion | Errors and Lies (Published 2015)](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/18/opinion/paul-krugman-errors-and-lies.html?_r=0)** > > The Iraq war, based on lies, was more than a mistake. Brooks is doing it again here, he’s trying to point out that these fringe Republicans have gone all nutty in the head, without admitting that it is a natural pregression of a movement that Brooks himself enabled. He’s a partisan hack who is able to maintain his reputation of being reasonable with people who aren’t familiar with his body of work. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/45 "2015-10-14T19:15:27Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > Hear, hear. There’s an understandable human logic in killing the messenger for bringing bad news, but when he brings good news…? Again, Speaker Boehner attacked Ted Cruz. The Republican Party is fracturing. Brooks’ OP column shows no particular courage: he is just taking sides on an internecine battle. It’s not like the Tea Party has any respect for the guy. This is positioning not policy, something we’ve seen before. Elucidator is correct though: he talks a good game on Newshour. It’s just that when you lift the hood you find there’s very little there. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/46 "2015-10-14T19:28:59Z")
Well, Brooks is obviously a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He’s one of Them! Trying to pass as human! Can’t compromise with _that_ sort. Actually, the only part of Brooks’ column that I was :dubious: about was the characterization of conservatives as proponents of “steady, incremental change.” 😕:):smack: ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/47 "2015-10-14T20:12:45Z")
Part of Brooks hackery is his longing for a more simple time when American politics was more genteel. > [@](#): > > by traditional definitions, conservatism stands for intellectual humility, a belief in steady, incremental change, a preference for reform rather than revolution, a respect for hierarchy, precedence, balance and order, and a tone of voice that is prudent, measured and responsible. …Citizens may fall into different classes and political factions, but they are still joined by chains of affection that command ultimate loyalty and love… > All of this has been overturned in dangerous parts of the Republican Party. Over the past 30 years, or at least since Rush Limbaugh came on the scene, the Republican rhetorical tone has grown ever more bombastic, hyperbolic and imbalanced… Oh really, so it is only since Rush came on the scene, eh Brooks? How about when Buchanan said to Nixon, “if we tear the country in half, we can keep the bigger half,” or when GOP strategist Lee Atwater, in a 1981 interview, described the party’s southern strategy as, “you start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger” — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff.” Were those utterances representative of the kind of “intellectual humility” and “and a tone of voice that is prudent, measured and responsible?” Or has the conservative movement always pandered to racists while trying to keep half of the nation at the throats of the other half? Brooks rewrites history to make himself look like less of a piece of shit. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/48 "2015-10-14T20:17:55Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > …Elucidator is correct… OK, I admit it, I was right. Working on upgrading my reputation as someone who never admits it when he’s right, so there’s this, at least. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/49 "2015-10-14T20:35:27Z")
The Southern Strategy came into flower in 1968. Maybe Brooks was trying hard not to notice. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/50 "2015-10-14T20:57:08Z")
Has anyone seen David Brooks and Starving Artist in the same room at the same time? ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/51 "2015-10-14T21:22:25Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > Has anyone seen David Brooks and Starving Artist in the same room at the same time? No, but I did once see David Brooks squat-fucking a paper towel tube once. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/52 "2015-10-15T02:50:44Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > Has anyone seen David Brooks and Starving Artist in the same room at the same time? **Starving Artist** “seems like he’s being reasonable?” Since when? ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/53 "2015-10-15T03:46:10Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > **Starving Artist** “seems like he’s being reasonable?” Since when? I’m sure that he thinks he’s seeming reasonable. And he’s not unlike David Brooks in thinking that everything was great back when Eisenhower ran the country. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/54 "2015-10-15T04:46:13Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > I’m sure that he thinks he’s seeming reasonable. And he’s not unlike David Brooks in thinking that everything was great back when Eisenhower ran the country. All change is social decay for guys like that. > **[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Jurassic](https://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=2337)** > > Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Jurassic (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/55 "2015-10-15T07:10:34Z")
I have a hard time reading Brooks not because he is too Republican but because his shtick is some high concept reason for all our problems - if we only got enough roughage we could stop poverty. And he’s a lot smarter than Krauthammer, and doesn’t lie nearly as much. But if he is a hack he is at least a relatively moderate hack. The column - which anyone with half a brain could write - is just another indication of how extreme the Republicans have gotten. They left me behind 15 years ago (it should have been over 20) and they are leaving more behind. I figure the Freedom Clique should be starting show trials in the House Cloakroom soon to condemn false conservatives like Ryan. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/56 "2015-10-15T07:37:55Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I figure the Freedom Clique should be starting show trials in the House Cloakroom soon to condemn false conservatives like Ryan. Back in the old days, it was (relatively) moderate Republicans like Goldwater and Buckley who were running the extremists, such as the “Eisenhower’s a Pinko” John Birch Society, out of the GOP. Then the GOP found it could get absolutely solid support from racist white people by inviting those elements into the party, and now its leadership is unable to run Huckabee off, let alone Trump. So. On a scale of “ **Starving Artist** Hates Clinton” to “Nixon Goes To China” this is hardly ping-pong diplomacy, but seeing one of the Sane Republicans officially call out what the GOP has become is still interesting. It’s a sign that, once again, the moderate consensus (also known as High Broderism) rejects what the GOP’s base appears to want, which is likely a sign that even if the Freedom Cabal can’t be removed from its safe seats, it will continue to have a hard time achieving its goals because it will continue to be unable to swing anyone else to its side on most of its issues. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/57 "2015-10-15T09:59:55Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Back in the old days, it was (relatively) moderate Republicans like Goldwater and Buckley who were running the extremists, such as the “Eisenhower’s a Pinko” John Birch Society, out of the GOP. > > Then the GOP found it could get absolutely solid support from racist white people by inviting those elements into the party, and now its leadership is unable to run Huckabee off, let alone Trump. > > So. On a scale of “ **Starving Artist** Hates Clinton” to “Nixon Goes To China” this is hardly ping-pong diplomacy, but seeing one of the Sane Republicans officially call out what the GOP has become is still interesting. It’s a sign that, once again, the moderate consensus (also known as High Broderism) rejects what the GOP’s base appears to want, which is likely a sign that even if the Freedom Cabal can’t be removed from its safe seats, it will continue to have a hard time achieving its goals because it will continue to be unable to swing anyone else to its side on most of its issues. In an effort to keep extremists within the party, moderate Republicans have gone along with them on abortion, gun control, gay rights, health care reform, tax cuts for the wealthy, global warming, campaign finance reform, immigration reform, foreign policy, financial regulations, and military spending in order to get the one thing they really want. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/58 "2015-10-15T12:16:12Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > Hear, hear. There’s an understandable human logic in killing the messenger for bringing bad news, but when he brings good news…? As I pointed out, 11 months ago he was blaming Obama for being bizarrely and pre-emptively obstructivist and predicting that he would ultimately regret his behavior. Now he is saying that he has been sagely watching the insidious and destructive transformation of the Republican party for more than 30 years. I don’t feel like he is bringing us “news” of any kind. ---
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/59 "2015-10-15T15:46:18Z")
Yeah, to me it just sounds like: Oh no, the Republican party being composed of idiots is now costing us elections rather than winning them! By sheer coincidence, I have at this point in time come to the conclusion that it was a bad idea! It’s nice to see some members of the cult finally discover what the rest of us saw decades ago, but it’s not impressive. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545/60 "2015-10-16T07:35:40Z")
The amount of shit David Brooks gets is kind of pathetic, and it’s not hard to see why it happens. He’s a moderate Republican – relative to what American conservatism has been like for the last decade, he’s barely even that. He criticizes Republicans all the time, he likes Obama (or at least he has in the past), he’s fundamentally pragmatic instead of being ideological, and he takes a hard-line stance on basically nothing. He gets name-checked pretty frequently, much as in this thread, in “Republicans are so crazy even this Republican is bashing them for it!” arguments. (And the people who call him “partisan” legitimately might not know what that word means. Rich Lowry is partisan; Frank Rich is partisan; in fact, the vast majority of political columnists are partisan. Applying the label to Brooks renders it completely meaningless.) But then, being a conservative, he criticizes a Democrat or espouses a conservative position, and the liberal side of the internet mocks him and calls him a bunch of stupid names. He gets far more abuse than any other non-crazy person columnist I can think of (more than the crazies, too, probably). In that regard, he has the misfortune of writing for the NY Times Op-Ed pages and doing segments on PBS, so a few liberals are actually exposed to his ideas. I mean, I can’t remember the last time I saw a post on Gawker e.g. making fun of something from the Wall Street Journal Op-Eds, even though just about everything there is more conservative/partisan/whatever. How is someone going to be able to relate with people who differ from them politically if, as a liberal, David Frickin’ Milquetoast Brooks sets them off? Now, if you want to mock him for spending a third of the year on pop psychology & sociology, then ok. I actually don’t hate some of that stuff – it’s occasionally or thoughtful – but it is also sometimes embarrassing or pretentious. OTOH, if I had to come up with hot political takes three times a week, I’d probably go a little crazy. Fuck, man, can’t I just write about that time I went to church? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-pits-the-gop/734545.md?page=4)