Great David Brooks quote

[TXlib]

Bestseller list dominated by liberals
Tuesday, October 7, 2003 Posted: 2:23 PM EDT (1823 GMT)

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Bookstore display tables give the distinct impression there is a lot of lying going on in America these days, with President George W. Bush and his top advisers portrayed as the main culprits.
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New York Times columnist David Brooks said the partisan books on Clinton and Bush marked a shift in America to the "presidency wars" from "culture wars" of preceding decades.

"To the warrior, politics is no longer a clash of value systems, each of which is in some way valid. It's not a competition between basically well-intentioned people who see the world differently," Brooks said in a September 30 column. "It's not even a conflict of interests. Instead, it's the Florida post-election fight over and over, a brutal struggle for office in which each side believes the other is behaving despicably."

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This really nails what is wrong with American politics today.

Both sides are unable to see their opposition as anything but stupid, selfish, misinformed, and/or evil.

Of course, our opposition is evil:



See?

[CounterCoulter]

1. Whatever.

Whatever will win the republicans the next election. We hate CLINTON. CLINTON is evil. Oh wait, politics are too mean and personal. This should change, everyone should rally behind Bush.

[Waistdeep]

6. Great name, by the way

Having used a Coulter counter back in my bio research days, I can appreciate the pun.

[Uzybone]

2. Brooks is full of shit

when the GOP was crucifying Clinton again and again he wasnt talking about this. He has no credibility on the subject.

[Old and In the Way]

3. Brooks is a hypocrite of the 1st order

He's worse then most of the RW clowns who don't have his high level rhetorical capabilities. He knows damn well that it was the RW who ran an 8 year campaign to destroy the last popularly elected President. How he can now piously try to equate both sides with the same level of culpability is disgusting.

Sorry Davo, you guys started this and it's your Republican administration that has damaged this country's well being and security; it will be us who will finish it, however....and the payback is gonna be a bitch!

[TXlib]

4. Hypocrite or not, I still agree with his sentiment

It used to be that politics in this country was a give-and-take between two opposing sides that disagreed, but agreed generally that their differences were born of differing worldviews among well-meaning people.

No longer. Both sides accuse the other of being evil.

This is why I think we need a strong 3rd party that can hold its own against the Dems and Repubs. I think politics would be less divisive then.

[MissMarple]

5. Apparently that changed after the 70's. Things really got nasty.

Both sides forgot how to play fair because the continuously polarizing political climate became so contentious. Collegiality in Washington was sacrificed for basic political survival. An interesting description is in "The Radical Center" by Ted Halstead and Michael Lind. Even if you don't agree with everything they put forth, they do make some interesting points.

[pmbryant]

8. How in the world would a 3rd party help?

The reason the politcal climate stinks these days is because of the base tactics of the Republicans, who, via Coulter, Rush, Hannity, etc, inspire their "dittoheads" to believe that liberals are the scourge of the Earth, quite literally.

How in the world would a 3rd party help to change their behavior? Unless, of course, principled conservatives (McCain? Chaffee? anyone else?) split off from the Bush GOP. But that is out of our control.

:shrug:

--Peter

[MissMarple]

9. The two parties are so polarized they shut out other voices, our voices.

It used to be that conservative Dems and like minded Repubs could get together to pass good legislation. They can't do that now with any hope of success. That's why people are so incredibly frustrated with the Beltway Denizens.

The parties are being held hostage by their extremes, they control the choices, they control the process. The vast majority of Americans are in the middle. Until we reform our current, antiquated winner take all election system the voices of most Americans will not be heard.

Reforming our election structure is the only way to make politicians listen. Terry McAuliffe does not care what you think. But he is a great force in the Democratic party. Carl Rove doesn't care what you think. His twisted little soul is dominating our politics. The only way to get anyone's attention is to take back control of our votes.

Some folks have suggested instant run off voting. That would make political powerhouses at least court the votes of more Americans. Dems would have to address the concerns of Greens, etc., Repubs would have to widen their base to pick up fiscally conservative, more socially liberal Republicans and Libertarians. That is, if they want to get the votes they need to win.

The Dems are screwing up the affirmative action thing, the Repubs are totally trashing the smaller government issues.

We may have to take this back one state at a time before we build a critical mass, a tipping point, if you will. But this can be done.

There is no silver bullet, only a lot of people with wooden stakes facing a long dark night of hard work.

[soupkitchen]

7. In politcs all hate is not equal. You can either hate a person who is

trying to provide health insurance for everybody or you can hate the person who is trying to deny certain folks that right.