No, really.
In David Brooks' column blatant promotion of his latest insipid book today, he writes:
Life is an individual journey. This is the lie books like Dr. Seuss’ “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” tell. In adulthood, each person goes on a personal trip and racks up a bunch of experiences, and whoever has the most experiences wins. . . . .
In reality, the people who live best tie themselves down. They don’t ask: What cool thing can I do next? They ask: What is my responsibility here?
This is part of Brooks’ plan to cram everything into his latest thesis: All we need to cure our malaise is to bond together and build our communities, which is part of his running campaign to blame our ills on character, lack of spirituality, and lack of the right kind of values.
That is, everything but the Republican party he cheered on for 35 years until five minutes ago.
He gives up the game in the first two paragraphs:
Four years ago, in the midst of the Obama presidency, I published a book called “The Road to Character.” American culture seemed to be in decent shape and my focus was on how individuals can deepen their inner lives.
But now as he publishes his new book:
It’s become clear in the interim that things are not in good shape, that our problems are societal. The whole country is going through some sort of spiritual and emotional crisis. . . .
the president’s repulsive behavior is tolerated or even celebrated by tens of millions of Americans.
I haven’t seen anything this disingenuous since Tyrion told Sansa that Cersei was sending her whole army North. So things were OK under Obama, and now they suck, and millions of people celebrate a repulsive President because we don’t settle down and work on our community?
Or could it be something else that makes millions of people celebrate the President’s repulsive behavior. Something like his Republican party, egged on by Brooks’s support of Reagan, Bush, McConnell, Gingrich and Ryan policies for 30 years. How did those millions get that way? Were they driven to Trump by lack of community?
Or were they conditioned by 35 years of racism, nativism and demonization of Democrats and minorities, while Brooks wrote columns translating the hate and economic royalism into bite-sized aphorisms acceptable to the totebaggers and Acela corridor elite,* listening to NPR and watching Brooks yuk it up with Shields on PBS?
Now, of course, the Republicans are toxic, so Brooks must either pound his “community” and “values” drums or both-sides everything, as he astonishingly did for immigration last week, as the great Driftglass exposes.
No doubt Brooks’s new book will be on the best-seller list, as he humble-braggingly reminds us his first book was (“{I remember when the editor of my first book called to tell me it had made the best-seller list. It felt like … nothing. “)
I’ll read the Cliff’s Notes.
Nah.
*h/t Driftglass