David Brooks has a center-right country to sell you

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Saturday November 08, 2008 · 11:42 AM PST

2008/11/08 · 11:42

Pay no attention to David Brooks, ever. His misdirection is subtle, laced with words which sound measured, considered, moderate. He is read by well-meaning liberals eager to flatter themselves as ideologically non-sequestered, non-partisan free thinkers. (Tip: read the National Review instead. It's the least distorted window into the rightists' minds.) But with David Brooks, it's all about the subtext. Let's review his latest sugarcoated message in which Brooks approaches Tuesday's victors in the guise of conciliatory bipartisanship: The events of November 4th, when Democrats picked up at least six senate seats, 20 house seats, the electoral votes of Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, and Omaha, and when a Democrat won the presidency with over 50% of the popular vote for the first time since Jimmy Carter did not represent any leftward movement in the electorate.

Come again, Mr. Brooks? "This was an election where the middle asserted itself."

If I recall correctly, this was an election where Barack Obama was labeled as a socialist, a Marxist, and the most liberal member of the Senate. He promised to raise taxes on a portion of the population and he promised the country universal health care. And he won in a landslide. Even in Indiana.

So, Mr. Brooks, please back up your assertions with something more credible than an October poll that showed that only 17% of Americans trust the government to do the right thing most or all of the time. Perhaps, Mr. Brooks, do you think that this poll could be picking up some of the cynicism resulting from the spectacular failures of Bush? 17% sounds suspiciously close to the percentage of Americans who think that the country is still on the right track. It's also suspiciously close to the number of Americans who still approve of our current President.

To claim that this poll is a referendum on Barack Obama, the New Deal and the Great Society is intellectual malpractice and would be enough to get you kicked out of the American Association for Public Opinion Research. But I guess AAPOR has higher standards than the New York Times.

But then I guess Mr. Brooks is only honest when he isn't talking to a national audience.

And if Americans don't trust government to do the right thing, then this is something which President Obama must rectify. Once people are reminded that government can be a force for good, they'll see cynics like Brooks for the rightists that they are.

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