Well, we now have proof positive that hanging out at the New York Times will muddle up anyone’s brain. David Brooks, once a semi reliable conservative thinker, has penned a lamentation (”Revolt of the Nihilists”) so full of hand-wringing angst that, as Laura Ingraham quipped this morning, “it makes my hair hurt.”
Brooks says the failure of the “rescue package” (that’s an Obama-ism, BTW, and does nothing to endear me to the concept since I abhor victim mentalities of all kinds) means our political leaders have ”failed utterly and catastrophically to project any sense of authority, to give the world any reason to believe that this country is being governed.”
Apparently for Brooks, defeat of this bill equals de facto anarchy in America.
Brooks then makes a few apt remarks (ok, so he has not completely lost it), but quickly disappoints again:
And let us recognize above all the 228 who voted no — the authors of this revolt of the nihilists. They showed the world how much they detest their own leaders and the collected expertise of the Treasury and Fed. They did the momentarily popular thing, and if the country slides into a deep recession, they will have the time and leisure to watch public opinion shift against them.
No: they showed the world that they were willing to listen to the people who elected them, the constituents in their own districts, who bombarded their offices with variations of “vote no” via email and telephone because they (we) don’t trust the “leaders,” and the “experts” at the Treasury and the Fed. And why the heck should we, after a colossal failure of social engineering the likes of which this nation has never seen…?!
House Republicans led the way and will get most of the blame. It has been interesting to watch them on their single-minded mission to destroy the Republican Party. Not long ago, they led an anti-immigration crusade that drove away Hispanic support. Then, too, they listened to the loudest and angriest voices in their party, oblivious to the complicated anxieties that lurk in most American minds.
Good freaking grief, Mr. Brooks! These House Republicans (and the 95 Democrats who voted with them) are the ONLY people standing up for proper conservative principles, including taking a careful, pragmatic approach to complex problems rather than giving people like Paulson a blank check.
And nobody on the right led an “anti-immigration crusade”: they just asked the U.S. government to enforce its own laws (what nerve, ay?!) As for your take on the ”complicated anxieties that lurk in most American minds,” stick with the op-eds because a gifted psychoanalyst you’re not. The only anxiety we’re having is over whether this bill will really fix what’s wrong, and whether anyone in D.C. is willing to do the hard work of making sure it does.
Now they have once again confused talk radio with reality. If this economy slides, they will go down in history as the Smoot-Hawleys of the 21st century.
So now we’re all just mindless sheep who totter zombie-like after Rush and Laura who are themselves out of touch with real life? Do you have any idea how elitist and left wing that sounds? Perhaps you’d like to come out in favor of the Fairness Doctrine also so we can get a dose of “reality” and not be hypnotized by the likes of the evil Limbaugh?
I can’t quote the rest of your op-ed, because frankly, my hair hurts. My advice to you is stop wringing your pretty little hands and give it some time. A bill will be passed; the markets will not collapse; and all will be well, if a little dicey for a time.
And please stop calling it a “rescue” because that’s one of the words that is turning us off out here in Sheepville.
