While I have always found NY Times columnist David Brooks to be condescending and misguided on just about everything that he has ever written, his review in the Sunday, October 22, NY Times Book Review provides a revealing insight into his distorted thinking process. He was reviewing the new book "The Conservative Soul, How We Lost It, How to Get It Back" by Andrew Sullivan (Conservative Soul? is that an oxymoron, or what?). In it, Brooks describes Sullivan's contention that the conservative movement has entered an unholy alliance with the forces of religious fundamentalism thus changing it from a philosophy of individual liberty and personal responsibility to an authoritarian group of unquestioning believers that does not "tolerate a diversity of views." While most critical thinkers would find this view to be a searing insight into the obvious, Brooks is enthralled by Sullivan's "characteristic passion and clarity", yet his most telling outrageous statement comes late in the review. Brooks writes,
"The intellectual brutality Sullivan describes in these pages, and which does mark American life, has more to do with bad character and political partisanship that theological rigor, and Sullivan is wrong to claim its roots are religious in nature. The people who are most destructively closed-minded in American are people like Donald Rumsfeld, Ann Coulter and Howard Dean, and they are not exactly religious nuts."
OK, let's see, closed minds.
Rumsfeld, extremely authoritative managerial style, intimidates those who offer opposing opinions, fired General Shinseki, the army you have, not the army you want, yeah, closed mind.
Ann Coulter, perhaps she had a mind when in college and law school but now a caricature of herself as conservative commentator, the mind of a Saturday Night Live spoof of someone who will do anything or say anything for money, oops, did I define prostitute.
And then, Howard Dean, physician, part-time Lt. Governor and then five time elected Governor of Vermont who balanced the budget 11 times and lowered income taxes twice, first serious candidate in opposition to the Iraq War, Chairman of the DNC who advocated a shift from concentrating on swing states to a 50-state strategy where Democrats would maintain a presence and contest elections even where Republicans had strong support (and that's an idea that would never be able to pay off).
What a comparison. A militaristic architect of a deeply flawed nation building exercise gone bad, who's a bully to boot, a psychologically damaged, sociopath ,who is willing to say anything to be outrageous and sell her books, and hardworking Democratic political leader. Can you say he is comparing apples and horseshit? Apparently, because he is intelligent, committed, and effective in projecting his vision of the revival of a robust, dynamic Democratic Party, Howard Dean has been found worthy of inclusion in the David Brooks personal Axis of Evil. It sure makes you wonder what David Brooks has been smoking lately and why they put up with his flawed thinking at the NYT. He seems to have graduated from pot to crack.