Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Republicans in disarray!

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute / More like a hand job than the hand jive

More like a hand job than the hand jive

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“Sparring partner” isn’t the phrase I’d use here:

David Brooks, my NPR sparring partner, offered a kind mention of my new book, “Our Divided Political Heart,” in his column today — “engrossing,” he called it — and he both agreed and disagreed with me, which I suppose is a habit for us.

[…]

That’s a longer argument between David and me, and I am sure we will keep having it. In the short run, I’m glad that he picked up on the Hamiltonian idea, and I appreciate his comments on the book. And I have to add, I have told David that one of the rewarding aspects of writing it was the way in which the time I spent researching and thinking about our past allowed me to figure out why he is cross-wise with American politics these days: David is the last surviving American Whig, a pure Hamilton-Henry Clay-Abe Lincoln guy. I hope that more American conservatives will join David in embracing this highly constructive side of their tradition.

I’m sure that if Abe Lincoln were alive, he’d be quoting Steve Sailer in all his columns.

Reader Interactions

87Comments

  2. 2.

    cathyx

    I didn’t click on the link. Was that a quote from Mark Shields? They are very polite to each other. It’s a snooze fest.

  5. 5.

    urizon

    Hey, someone has to replace Mark Shields on The News Hour. Dionne is simply genuflecting appropriately.

  6. 6.

    Keith

    Great, a bunch more old names for Brooks to attach “-ean” to when describing himself.

  7. 7.

    Gin & Tonic

    Thank God I’m not the only one who automatically thinks of Alexander Hamilton every time I see David Brooks on my teevee.

  8. 8.

    jl

    I read in a biography that a racist mob threw rocks at Hamilton and some other Federalists once as they were giving free blacks rides to polling places in an early election. I suppose Hamilton would like Brooks quoting Sailer too.

    From link:
    ” David also writes: “Does government nurture an enterprising citizenry, or a secure but less energetic one?” Here, I would take issue with what I see as a false dichotomy. Does security make a citizenry less energetic and less enterprising? I believe not. Indeed, more secure people are more inclined to take risk. ”

    Gosh, I wonder who made that same argument Dionne does? Would it be Hamilton? (Edit: Ans: yes, it would)

    Brooks has about as much Alexander Hamilton in him as my pet Tillandsia (which I see needs a sprits right now). I think my pet Tillandsia works harder than Brooks does.

    Brooks has zip in common with Hamilton/Henry Clay/Abe Lincoln, as far as I can see.

  12. 12.

    Violet

    David Brooks, my NPR sparring partner

    Oh, that’s cute. I didn’t know that’s how E.J. Dionne refers to his hit NPR show, “Between Two Houseplants with Old White Guys.”

  14. 14.

    jl

    I am looking for omens of a Walker defeat next week. Where might one be found? hmmm….

  15. 15.

    bemused

    Dionne was so polite. Booman’s reaction fits my mood much better saying “David Brook offers us another steaming pile of stupid”.

  18. 18.

    Cato

    @jl:

    He’s going to win in a walk. All the Citizens United Super PAC cash will bury your pathetic recall effort.

  19. 19.

    trollhattan

    @DougJ–may be late in the day but you didn’t sneak the Elvis lyric past me this time, buckaroo.

  23. 23.

    Valdivia

    @Silver:

    I think I am going to thank you already :)

    At least this episode seems to be less horrific than the last one which laid me on my ass for weeks.

  24. 24.

    Cato

    The victory of Scott Walker next week will be a turning point. If he wins, it will be a bad sign for Obambi.

  25. 25.

    dr. bloor

    David is the last surviving American Whig

    I didn’t click on the link, and I was initially hoping it was a Gail Collins quote, as that would have given it an entirely different spin.

    Hey, E.J.–Abe Lincoln would have listened patiently to David Brooks spew during a meeting between the two, and then spent the rest of the day making jokes at his expense.

  26. 26.

    Ash

    This is OT, but I live in DC and there’s at least two or three or those Crossroads GPS (aka Rove’s secret organization to turn us all into his minions) commercials EVERY. SINGLE. COMMERCIAL. BREAK. I’m about ready to throw my television out the window.

  30. 30.

    slag

    “Sparring partner” isn’t the phrase I’d use here

    Maybe EJ is just confused about which kind of boxers he’s actually thinking about. That said, there’s no shortage of homo eroticism in boxing–as with any other sport.

  31. 31.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @jl:

    Brooks has zip in common with Hamilton/Henry Clay/Abe Lincoln, as far as I can see.

    Brooks has obviously never read The Wealth of Nations either, like nearly every last member of the chattering classes.

  32. 32.

    Cato

    @Ash:

    That’s right–it’s for the Senate and Presidential races in Virginia. And it’s juuuuust beginning ;)

  34. 34.

    Wag

    Hey Everyone, read EJ’s post before you knee jerk criticize it. EJ very politlely tells Brooks that Brooks is wrong about everything ans that Brooks is living in a fantasy world.

    There is plenty of snark in EJ’s piece if you open your eyes and turn down your snark filter from eleven, where most of us have our filters set, to five or six, where most of the world lives.

  35. 35.

    El Cid

    The Times’ public editor notes one of the occasions in which the ‘paper of record’ gets its story by copying from the other publications which have been already publishing the story, without acknowledgment:

    THE NEW YORK TIMES’S two-part series on the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community two weeks ago was an eye-opener, exploring the plight of child sexual abuse victims and their advocates as they struggled for justice in the face of religious and cultural pressures to keep the problem under wraps…
    __
    …But what about the other, smaller news organizations and independent journalists who got there ahead of The Times, breaking important elements of the story first, laboring in the face of intense community opposition? No credit went to them in The Times’s series…
    __
    … I sent Carolyn Ryan, The Times’s metro editor, an appeal from Ms. Ludtke to give such credit in part two. But it didn’t happen. And after the second article’s publication, I heard from others complaining about uncredited foundational reporting — scores of articles in recent years — by additional publications, including The Jewish Daily Forward, the FailedMessiah.com blog, New York magazine and more.
    __
    Reading this material, it became clear to me that while there was important new material, many of the essential elements in The Times’s series had been reported previously.

    Well, you’ve got to do something with your billions of dollars in resources, and so it’s best to pretend like only you could possibly handle such a story, and most of the time nobody will ever hear from the people you got your ‘news fit to print’ from anyway.

  37. 37.

    Valdivia

    @Ash:

    I am happy I haven’t been watching tv so I am missing that. I am assuming it’s targeted at the ‘elites’ that live in the district and at Virginians no?

  40. 40.

    jl

    @Wag: I read it. Good snark should be recognizable snark to those who do not know all the details.

    Dionne wrote:

    ” David is the last surviving American Whig, a pure Hamilton-Henry Clay-Abe Lincoln guy. ”

    That is just wrong, or silly, or nonsense.

    So, I disagree. Dionne is either as ignorant as Brooks, or a meritricious hack like Brooks (in schmoozing mode), or he cannot do snark. IMHO.

    Opinions may differ I suppose. If you can point out some effective snark in Dionne’s insipid flow of misleading bland, maybe I will reconsider.

    Does Dionne know he is making exaclty Hamilton’s argument for why some kind of social safety net increases private enterprise and national productivity, from the bottom up? Or not? How would the reader know, unless the reader knew already?

  41. 41.

    Micheline

    This is OT but I can’t help thinking how desperate Mitt Romney is that he has to campaign with the Donald.

  44. 44.

    trollhattan

    @Micheline:

    This is OT but I can’t help thinking how desperate Mitt Romney is that he has to campaign with the Donald

    It’s part of Willard’s master plan to get down with the young voters. Rumor has it there will be a campaign event with the Frito Bandito to haul in the Hispanic vote.

  45. 45.

    Violet

    @Micheline:
    The Donald brings lots of attention and a bit of celebrity flair to Mitt’s campaign. No such thing as bad publicity and all.

  46. 46.

    Narcissus

    Abe Lincoln is a Whig now? I guess you don’t have to take American history to be a member in good standing of the commentariat.

  47. 47.

    patroclus

    @slag: I think sumo wrestling, bowling and curling are pretty much entirely free of homoeroticism.

  48. 48.

    Micheline

    @Cato: In the 21 polls that have been taken the past month, Romney only leads in 3 of them. Moreover, the state polling has shown Obama to be doing much better than the national polling. So suck on it.

  49. 49.

    patroclus

    @Narcissus: Well, at least Lincoln was a Whig while in Congress. But I recently saw a preview of the new Abraham Lincoln, the Vampire Hunter movie, so I’m not exactly sure what party he’s in now.

  51. 51.

    jl

    @patroclus: I took ‘Whig’ to mean anti populist (Jacksonian) Democrat, which I guess fits all three. Lincoln was (Edit: as you say) a Whig in Congress, and I think Clay switched party IDs (such as they existed then).

  53. 53.

    jl

    @Villago Delenda Est: Is that a maxim in Latin? Maybe something some old commie like Julius Caeser said? If so, what is the Latin? The Latin version will come in handy, something tells me.

  55. 55.

    The Other Chuck

    I knew those two categories were going to find each other in no time flat. Or … meh, looks like I missed their convergence by a couple days.

    What’s the over-under on Oakeshott being seen with “Pink Himalayan Salt” before the summer’s over?

  56. 56.

    Narcissus

    @patroclus: Yeah but…that’s like saying Jefferson Davis was noteworthy for being Secretary of War for Pierce. Or George Washington represents the best tradition of British Military service.

  57. 57.

    Heliopause

    Why do these types always talk about Hamilton or Madison or whomever instead of the principles they espoused? Wasn’t the whole point of the Enlightenment…oh, fuck it, never mind.

  58. 58.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    OT: Romney released his birth certificate today, Just before his fundraising dinner tonight with Donald The Rump, proving once again that he will fan any flame (better put, blow anyone) to become President.

    Talk about a low class move.

  59. 59.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Heliopause:

    Why do these types always talk about Hamilton or Madison or whomever instead of the principles they espoused?

    For some (many?) of them, it is because they don’t know anything about the principles the people espoused.

    ETA: For others, it is because they think that their readers won’t know anything about the principles the people espoused and that, as a result, they are free to bullshit and attribute it to a Founding Father (TM)

  60. 60.

    HyperIon

    @Narcissus: well, he was a whig before the republicans existed. he was elected to the house of representatives as a whig.

  63. 63.

    HyperIon

    @Wag wrote:

    There is plenty of snark in EJ’s piece if you open your eyes

    when EJD wrote:

    David is the last surviving American Whig, a pure Hamilton-Henry Clay-Abe Lincoln guy. I hope that more American conservatives will join David in embracing this highly constructive side of their tradition.

    I actually took the final sentence as snark. highly constructive?

    But I have so much trouble telling the difference between snark and sincerity these days. I (not surprisingly) blame DougJ.

  66. 66.

    Violet

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:
    According to Donald Trump’s views, Mitt’s father was a Mexican citizen. And if Mitt’s father wasn’t American, Mitt himself must not be an American.

  67. 67.

    patroclus

    The Texas prima-caucus is tonight and if Craig James wins the Republican nomination for Senate after killing 5 hookers while at SMU, I will be shocked!

  68. 68.

    jl

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:
    ” OT: Romney released his birth certificate source code today ”

    Also, OT, via Wonkette today: the zombie remnants who are (yes, hard to believe) disgracing Breitbart’s Big Hollywood, say that Obama ‘politicized’ Memorial Day by saying the US should fight no more wars, unless absolutely necessary.

    No link, since I assume all good BJers read Wonkette whenever they can.

  70. 70.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Violet:

    But you can’t hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn’t we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn’t this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg – isn’t this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we’re not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!

  71. 71.

    jl

    @Narcissus:

    What points a thing has depends on whether or not you are a highr priced opinion hooker hack.

    ” the point of Abe Lincoln ”

    versus

    ” the point of ‘Abe Lincoln'(TM) “

  72. 72.

    dmsilev

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: Was it the long-form vault copy, and was its authenticity vouched for by three state officials, an umpire from Major League Baseball, and the last surviving heir of Tsar Alexander II? If not, it doesn’t count.

  74. 74.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @gbear:

    Fuck YEAH! That would really put Rmoney on the spot. I think that would be an excellent move. Rmoney’s dad set the standard that his son refuses to live up to. I guess he really wants to outdo his dad…

    in dickishness.

    @Violet:

    Silly rabbit, logic isn’t for Republicans.

    Tricks are, though.

  75. 75.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @jl:

    ” OT: Romney released his birth certificate ‘source code’ today, written in PET BASIC, revealing that Romney is powered by the Commodore 64. ”

    Refix’t.

  79. 79.

    Citizen_X

    @Cato:

    All the Citizens United Super PAC cash will bury your pathetic recall effort.

    “Yes, young Skywalker, I’m afraid your friends are quite doomed.”

  80. 80.

    fasteddie9318

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    OT: Romney released his birth certificate today

    It looks like a “Certificate of Live Birth” to me, which I’ve been told is not in any way the same thing as a “Birth Certificate,” and the fact that Romney released it rather than his long-form birth certificate makes me wonder what he’s hiding.

  81. 81.

    fasteddie9318

    @gbear:

    Obama should release 20 years worth of tax returns before the week is out.

    And reveal 20 years’ worth of donations to the Project to Reanimate Saul Alinsky’s Corpse? Are you mad?

  82. 82.

    fasteddie9318

    Also too, for the record, I’ve always found David Brooks to be more of a Bundy-Dahmer-Boston Strangler type of American, though to be fair I don’t know if all three of those guys can be categorized as narcissistic sociopaths like David.

  86. 86.

    AA+ Bonds

    David is the last surviving American Whig, a pure Hamilton-Henry Clay-Abe Lincoln guy

    Burn it all down

  87. 87.

    Doug Woodard

    Problem: Lincoln was not a Whig for the last 10 years of his life, because the Whig party died, as the Republican party rose from the ashes first to limit slavery, then, under Lincoln, to abolish it. No Whig ever would have been for that. E.j., learn you some history!

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