"They" Still Don't Get It

David Brooks, do you remember him?

Once again he's back pontificating about his incredible insight into a movement he knows nothing about. A cousin of mine sent me the following link: With the following comment, "Eye Opening". David Brooks is frightened: "The Terrifying Future of the American Right - What I saw at the National Conservatism Conference".

Mr. Brooks attended the conference and in his own words:

When I came down to Florida for the National Conservatism Conference, I was a little concerned I’d get heckled in the hallways, or be subjected to the verbal abuse I occasionally get from Trump supporters. Judging by their rhetoric, after all, these are the fire-breathers, the hard-liners, the intellectual sharp edge of the American right.

But everyone was charming! I hung around the bar watching football each night, saw old conservative friends, and met lots of new ones, and I enjoyed them all.

What were you expecting, child rapists hitting you with a skateboard, a "smurf" with blue hair and 49 piercings, confused by how many genders there are? Granted before Twitter ousted me I would Tweet you with smarmy remarks. However, if I ever had the chance to meet you in person, I would address you properly and leave it at that.

Oh goody he enjoyed them all. I will now be able to sleep this evening knowing this important fact.

According to the wise and "Conservative" David Brooks there are 3 strains of the American Right.

First, the people over 50 who have been hanging around conservative circles for decades but who have recently been radicalized by the current left

The second strain is made up of mid-career politicians and operatives who are learning to adapt to the age of populist rage: people like Ted Cruz (Princeton, Harvard), J. D. Vance (Yale Law), and Josh Hawley (Stanford and Yale)

The third and largest strain is the young. They grew up in the era of Facebook and MSNBC and identity politics. They went to colleges smothered by progressive sermonizing. And they reacted by running in the other direction. I disagreed with two-thirds of what I heard at this conference, but I couldn’t quite suppress the disturbing voice in my head saying, “If you were 22, maybe you’d be here too.”

Populist rage? My, what he could talk about, proper enforcement of immigration laws, allowing the U.S.A. to be energy independent? Just to name a couple of current affair topics.

Mr. Brooks was never a Conservative, nor will he ever be. For such an enlightened man he certainly lacks any inquisitiveness or any true observational skills, for example:

The NatCons are wrong to think there is a unified thing called “the left” that hates America. This is just the apocalyptic menace many of them had to invent in order to justify their decision to vote for Donald Trump.

I guess I must be having hallucinations when Antifa and BLM are burning the cities of Portland, Kenosha and Seattle for example. I must be nuts to think that the majority of bannings, timeouts and the like on Social Media Platforms are for those right of center. Often we hear from the Keepers of The Gate, "It was a mistake". The Left are never caught up in the Mistake excuse.

He concludes:

Finally, there is something extremely off-putting about the NatCon public pose. In person, as I say, I find many of them charming, warm, and friendly. But their public posture is dominated by the psychology of threat and menace. If there was one expression of sympathy, kindness, or grace uttered from the podium in Orlando, I did not hear it. But I did hear callousness, invocations of combat, and whiffs of brutality.

I've read and reread his Atlantic article. Not one of the quotes attributed to any of the speakers were of "threat and menace".

It sure seems everything the current "Conservative Movement" believes are not the beliefs of David Brooks. Just what does Mr. Brooks intend to conserve?

The problem with the David Brooks and his ilk can be answered in the question put forth on Twitter several years ago by friend of AoSHQ, John Ekdahl.

posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 02:45 PM

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