Good NYT story. www.nytimes.com/… It is an opinion piece short on facts and data but very interesting.
He says the Reagan orthodoxy of a rising economic climate raises all boats is no longer true. The benefits are not being shared across the economy. Hmm. Does that sound similar to one candidates message?
He mentions the Kuhn concept of paradigm shifts. The Reagan model has become creaky and flawed and does not work today. It cannot be repaired. Despite that, the Right has gone all in on clothing themselves in Reaganism as their patron ideology embracing his model as gospel. They need a new model. It is time for them to have a paradigm shift.
Their model has evolved to its final form of irrelevance. He says the right should embrace the change. Their bankrupted fixed model has stopped growing. It has created Trump, a guy with no ideas and no policies but has captured a lot of their base. The GOP has to reject its fixed mind set and now become seekers to find solutions that make sense in this new technological, global and diverse world we live in. He has some comments on developing a new view of nationalism that I don’t quite grasp but maybe someone else can give content to that.
Reaganism that viewed us as homo economicus driven by Adam Smith principles should possibly be replaced by Emilie Durkheim, the father of sociology, for their ideas. en.m.wikipedia.org/...Émile_Durkheim. He doesn’t know what that will look like but he welcomes the change. I read it to mean more tolerance, diversity and an economy that spreads its benefits more equitably.
He calls Trump a loveless no reciprocity guy who only knows winning or losing. He has no other game. Sounds pretty right wing to me but Brooks says he is smashing the GOP Reagan paradigm, at least the right wing establishment thinks so. Look how desperately they attack him and embrace Cruz as the candidate who can save them!
He says he knows where the dems are going, they are going left. He doesn’t know where the GOP is going but they need to leave where they are and in that sense, Trump is a good thing although Brooks thinks that he is a disaster.
His big issue now is whether he should vote for Hillary or sit out the campaign.
I think this is one area where Brooks and Mark Shields will agree on something. I wonder if there is a PBS News Hour episode where they discussed it with Woodruff.
I think it is significant when you see Conservative talking heads, even so called conservative light guys, discuss not just their own party exploding, but identify the underlying cause as a broken creaky model whose time has passed. Basically, Reaganism. He is curious on what they should replace it with, but he is adamant that it needs to be replaced. It doesn’t belong in today’s world.