Ok, in a sense there's nothing newsworthy in the fact that David Brooks is still out of his fucking mind. Yet I take a sort of perverse pleasure in trying to sort out his thought process. It's idiocy, but something more than
mere idiocy. There is method to the moron, and it's fascinating to witness how far he'll stretch the bounds of sanity in order to stick to that method. He always leaves me wondering where to draw the line between pathological self-deception and the intentional deception of others.
Unfortunatley, Brooks is behind the Times' Select barrier, so I'll have to type in excerpts for those of you interested enough to make the leap...
Here's the teaser for Brooks' article:
Don't Worry, Be Happy
The smartest people in both the Democratic and Republican parties have shifted attention from the past to the future, and a sense of flexibility and promise is in the air.
You want to be one of the smartest people, don't you? Well then cast all those inconvenient facts down the memory hole and inhale deeply. In other words: huff some paint with "the nation's sole remaining optimist," because "all the negativity is a few months out of date."
Why, you might still have sense enough to ask? Well..
The International Monetary Fun predicts that the world economy will grow at 4.9 percent, which would be the second-fastest annual rate in three decades.
On top of that,
Free institutions spread more quickly last year than in any year since 1972, when Freedom House began measuring these things.
And if that weren't enough, both war and air pollution are down.
You see, what's really going on is that people are
suffering a crisis of authority. They no longer have confidence in the institutions that are supposed to maintain order in their lives, whether the topic's terrorism, gas prices or federal spending.
Just forget about why they might be having such a crisis, because even here the news is good. In fact, in Brooks' view, news on the crisis of authority front is especially good.
Not long ago, the temper-tantrum left seemed to be on the verge of capturing the Democratic Party, but now the Clintonite centrists are reasserting their intellectual, financial and political supremacy.
Here's a red flag for all of you who may be on the fence regarding Hillary:
Hillary Clinton is the sort of Democrat people like David Brooks want as an opposition.
Last month, Hillary Clinton gave a proto-campaign speech in Chicago, laying out an economic agenda that Kevin Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute called remarkably centrist. Clinton called for a return to "pay as you go" budget rules.
This is a fascinating bit that demonstrates one of the great virtues of finding happiness by casting the past down the Memory Hole. By referring to Clinton's policy as "remarkably centrist" Brooks and his cronies at the AEI completely discard the damning fact that the Republican side has entirely betrayed its alleged fiscal conservativism. Having forgotten that, they're accordingly spared from recognizing that the great "conservative" regime of Ronald Reagan did exactly the same thing. The liberal economic position has been "remarkably centrist" for 30 years, while the conservatives have sunk the nation trillions in debt.
But don't worry that the labels we use bear no relation to reality! Forget the past and Be Happy! After all,
On the Republican side... most of the news in the next 18 months will be made by John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani.
Republicans, that is, who haven't yet been widely and irreversibly discredited.
This is a party in the midst of fundamental change.
Course it is... I mean, we're talking about John McCain, America's own Luke Skywalker, and Rudy Guliani, Mayor of America. You can sure bet he's not going to drape himself in some bullshit myth of 9/11.
Best of all,
There's ben an even bigger shift in attitudes about how politics should be done. The Stalinist on-message style is passe.
Well, thank golly Stalin has finally gone out of style for a bit. Let's just forget who worked so hard to revive him (Be Happy!). No one's to blame here - it's all just a matter of the shifting attitudes about politics in general. Don't worry yourself by remembering who to assign those attitudes to. That's behavior typical of those
pseudopopulist renegades who rail against the establishment
who are now
being eclipsed by the canny establishmentarians.
Ok, Brooksie, you've convinced me: The more things change, the more they stay the same. What, me worry?
The View from the Grassy Knoll
Some of you have no doubt noticed how well Brooks' delusional presentation fits into the basic scheme of Two Party Dialectical Management.
The Republican Stalinists get into power for a good long time. They sink the country in debt, feed the Military Industrial Beast, foment chaos and misery around the world; and then, after they've just about destroyed the credibility of government, the "centrists" come back into power to keep the crisis of authority from getting out of hand.
It was a close call this time. The "temper-tantrum left" nearly took over the Democratic Party. But Hillary's back to reassert her political, intellectual, and most importantly, financial, dominance. She's going to make things right without ever really addressing what's wrong. This is exactly the sort of Left that the corrupt Right needs: a Left to clean up the mess without raising any unpleasant memories. A Left to prepare the ground for a new season of exploitation.
And if things follow their usual way, that's exactly the sort of Left the Democratic Party will provide.
Is it any wonder Brooksie's an optimist?
There’s a rose
In a fisted glove
And the eagle flies,
Flies with the dove
So if you can’t be with the one you love,
Love the one you’re with
Love the one you’re with
Love the one you’re with