David Brooks doesn’t love us any more and has informed the New York Times that he will no longer be writing about politics in their pages. More specifically, David Brooks doesn’t love the Republicans any more, after seeing the lengths to which they were and are willing to go to maintain power. Brooks particularly doesn’t love Donald Trump any more, saying about Trump,
There’s nothing more to be learned about Trump’s mixture of ignorance, insecurity and narcissism. Every second spent on his bluster is more degrading than informative. That sounds about
right.
Crooks & Liars:
Future historians who want to get a good bead on what things were like during the inmates-running-the-asylum madhouse of American politics in the Year of our Lord 2017 could do worse than study Mr. David Brooks' column in The New York Times today in some detail.
It is no exaggeration to say that Mr. Brooks spent every hour of his professional career boosting Republicans and Conservatism, mocking Democrats and Liberals, and relentlessly positioning himself as America's Most Ubiquitous Conservative Public Intellectual. And yet, in 2017 during the Republican Party's Year of Jubilee -- the year when Mr. Brooks' Republican Party owned every branch of the federal government and Mr. Brooks' Conservative Movement had effectively conquered the media both through direct propaganda efforts (Fox News/Hate Radio/etc.) and by bludgeoning the "mainstream media" into a state of meek complicity -- Mr. Brooks announced that he was suddenly sick and tired writing about Conservatism or politics.
Which means that, other than the brief "Jewels of Nuance" period during the Age of Bush when Mr. Brooks (and every other Conservative writer) felt it was finally safe to let their inner Sean Hannity completely out and use their public platforms to heap unalloyed contempt and slander on the Dirty Libtards, Mr. Brooks has spent most of his career assiduously avoiding any actual, honest reportage on the state of Conservative politics and culture.
David Brooks, whether he would ever admit it or not, is responsible for this “false equivalence” insanity which has overtaken the media, “both sides do it,” ad nausem.
Instead, Mr. Brooks has been in the business of delighting his employers and media colleagues by spinning elaborate fairy tales about how cool the GOP used to be, or how terrific the GOP was going to be in the very near future, or how awesome it would be if we had a third party because both the Republicans and the Democrats sucked so hard. It didn't really matter to his employers and colleagues in what order Mr. Brooks told his three basic lies, and it didn't really matter how quickly reality would overtake them and smash them to bits every single time. All that mattered was that, whatever five-alarm sh*tfire the Republican Party was dancing nekkid around today shrieking about Kenyan Death Panels and Emails and Benghaaazi...Mr. Brooks' could be counted on to deliver 800 words of tapioca explaining that, somehow, Both Sides were always to blame.
Brooks is partly responsible for this Frankenstein’s monster being in the White House, but he won't cop to it.
But of all of those who profited personally, politically and professionally from debasing our media and corroding our politics, the worst of them were those who knew better. Those like Mr. David Brooks, who made a whole career out of building a monster, and then frantically scuttled away and blamed everyone but themselves when the monster they made kicked the laboratory door off its hinges and then ran amok, nearly destroying the country.
These are his final words to us.
One way or another I'm gonna wash that man [Trump] right outta what's left of my hair.
Thanks, David. Don’t worry about anything, we’ll clean up the mess. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass.