David Brooks Moment of Self-Awareness

People aren't centrists. They want big changes to things. They don't want a lot of nothing. They want one big thing. It's a different thing for everybody. And they want somebody that they think will fight for them. Donald Trump may be a dumb liar but he has presented himself every day as someone that will fight for his people. Kamala told everybody on the left to fuck off, the genocide will continue and we're going to have a sensible border wall. And she was going to put a republican in her cabinet. Am I losing my god damn mind? Does the average democrat voter want a republican cabinet?

well yeah, you fucking idiot, it's haggling, you go well beyond your actual position and make concessions towards reaching it. Congratulations on your fucking birth yesterday

This will be like when all the Republicans agreed they needed to stop being so racist afyer romney before they made Trump their next nominee.

I'll give him this, at least he admits centrism is actually bad politics.

Without reading the article I'm still 99% sure this is a temporary phase for him and he'll be over it next week. People can surprise you but he's a dyed-in-the-wool horseshoe theory dipshit. His entire worldview is based on not only centrism but reasonableness. I assume if he had a rice-sized smidgen of jalapeño - he'd act like the spiciness was sending him into anaphylactic shock. And the "ñ" is too spicy for him too.

Everything by him I've ever read has bromides like the "importance of the fabric of society" and "faith could remerge in American life".

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Ninja edit

I couldn't resist so read the article. His columns usually make me laugh. It's like a third-rate college text book. I can't believe the public considers such people to be intellectuals. "Mushroomed" and "shriveled"? C'mon.

Our education policy pushed people toward the course we followed — four-year colleges so that they would be qualified for the “jobs of the future.” Meanwhile, vocational training withered. We embraced a free trade policy that moved industrial jobs to low-cost countries overseas so that we could focus our energies on knowledge economy enterprises run by people with advanced degrees. The financial and consulting sector mushroomed while manufacturing employment shriveled.

OP - I entirely disagree with you...

[People with only high school diplomas] don’t speak in the right social justice jargon or hold the sort of luxury beliefs that are markers of public virtue. The chasms led to a loss of faith, a loss of trust, a sense of betrayal.

I don't think he's saying that centrism failed. I think he's pushing his usual shtick but it's in an highly unusual tone for him. He's bitter and angry that society doesn't value his beliefs in the center path and religion. Because society and the democrats in particular are on the wrong course - people with only high school diplomas have been left behind.

I visited a Christian nationalist church in Tennessee. The service was illuminated by genuine faith, it is true, but also a corrosive atmosphere of bitterness, aggression, betrayal. As the pastor went on about the Judases who seek to destroy us, the phrase “dark world” popped into my head — an image of a people who perceive themselves to be living under constant threat and in a culture of extreme distrust. These people, and many other Americans, weren’t interested in the politics of joy that Kamala Harris and the other law school grads were offering.

The Democratic Party has one job: to combat inequality.

[...]

The Biden administration tried to woo the working class with subsidies and stimulus, but there is no economic solution to what is primarily a crisis of respect.

I don't think Brooks is in any way sincere about the Bernie Sanders stuff. I think Trump's win shocked Brooks to the core. But Brooks believes in American exceptionalism and all that crap. He'll be back to his old self soon.

I'm just learning that David Brooks, the fucking neocon of yesteryear, is a Democrat now, giving policy advice to the party.

I know this tidbit is making its rounds, but the rest of the article makes it clear that the party will learn nothing as it's smarmy "Hey, I guess people just don't like the educated managerial class for some reason I don't understand, alas we'll have to try to win them back!"

RIP: Those particular brain cells.

I instinctively distrust anyone that drops "priors" into a conversation

Wow, are you telling me that people want policy that inspires them to vote?

For democrats to be in the center they would have to move further left than they ever were in their entire history.