The image of the New York Times as the bastion of liberalism is completely over-blown. The paper has a mix of liberal and conservative columnists which is important to enable people to view two (or more) sides to an issue. And while I will admit to rolling my eyes quite a bit and feeling queasy when I read some of the more rabid conservative columnists, it is good for me to do so intellectually.
Yesterday, columnist David Brooks bemoaned the fact that Donald Trump is destroying the wonderful world Ronald Reagan created:
This is a wonderful moment to be a conservative. For decades now the Republican Party has been groaning under the Reagan orthodoxy, which was right for the 1980s but has become increasingly obsolete. The Reagan worldview was based on the idea that a rising economic tide would lift all boats. But that’s clearly no longer true.
We’ve gone from Rising Tide America to Coming Apart America. Technological change, globalization and social and family breakdown mean that the benefits of growth, to the extent there is growth, are not widely shared.
Republicans sort of recognize this reality, but they are still imprisoned in the Reaganite model. They ask Reaganite questions, propose Reaganite policies and have Reaganite instincts.
First of all, Reaganomics did not call for all boats to rise; it called for all yachts to rise and the rest of us to row through their wake with little or no paddle. But Brooks goes on to say how wonderful it is that conservatives will be able to take part in the creation of a new, post-Trump GOP.
Reading this was one of those time when I realized, yet again, that it is good that I don’t believe in violence. When I realized that I can stop myself from vomiting if I really try.
When I realized that to this day, Republicans have no fucking clue about how much damage Ronald Reagan and his philosophy caused our country.
But just now, I read the most wonderful comment to David Brooks, courtesy of a post in the Daily Kos. For those of you who don’t get The Times, or who (like me) read blog comments but not newspaper column comments, here it is for your enjoyment. For your use. So that the cinematic image this commenter used will be forever in your heart whenever you hear or see a Republican.
soxared040713
Crete, IL From Boston, MA 15 hours ago
Mr. Brooks, I don’t know where to begin. It would be impolite for me to tell you that you have lost your mind. Well, I’m willing to be impolite. I sincerely wish that I wasn’t limited to 1,500 characters. I’ve already wasted 227.
Ronald Reagan was evil; he took an axe to the foundation of the American democratic system “government is the problem”, a failure, then set about dividing the country by income and race and section. And smirked when while his clueless base looked the other way while his cronies hogged the government trough they so hated.
Mr. Brooks, please recall the unforgettable scene in Alien. Donald Trump, today, is the awful, bloody thing that forced itself out of the GOP’s breast. It uncoils from the corpse, snarls and snaps at everyone standing around in horror and scuttles off, leaving a clattering, putrid mess behind. The image is violent. After Reagan, H. W., Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, W. and Cheney (and now McConnell, Ryan and the departed Boehner), what on earth did you expect from the wreck?
And how do you get off writing “Trump is loveless. There is no room for reciprocity and love in his worldview.” ? No, there isn’t nor has there been any in the GOP’s since, oh, Richard Nixon (1968).
Mr. Brooks, there will be a post-Trump era because we’re still in the Reagan area. The merest child could see through your references to Thomas Kuhn’s “model.” The GOP’s a complete disaster. You were there at its creation and cheered it on. Happy today?
Yup. The GOP is reaping what it has sown. But why do the rest of us have to deal with it too?
Photo Credit: Dailymail.co.uk
Bravo to soxared040713 for hitting the nail on the head. Now, please hit the real thing for me.
FiftyFourandAHalf 