David Brooks, NYT - it's class warfare, but pitted in terms of education versus ignorance

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

I know it's David Brooks - but there is some scary interesting stuff here that is worth thinking about and discussing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/opinion/05brooks.html?hp
Op-Ed Columnist
The Tea Party Teens

By DAVID BROOKS
Published: January 4, 2010
skip

The tea party movement is a large, fractious confederation of Americans who are defined by what they are against. They are against the concentrated power of the educated class. They believe big government, big business, big media and the affluent professionals are merging to form self-serving oligarchy — with bloated government, unsustainable deficits, high taxes and intrusive regulation.

The tea party movement is mostly famous for its flamboyant fringe. But it is now more popular than either major party. According to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 41 percent of Americans have a positive view of the tea party movement. Only 35 percent of Americans have a positive view of the Democrats and only 28 percent have a positive view of the Republican Party.

The movement is especially popular among independents. The Rasmussen organization asked independent voters whom they would support in a generic election between a Democrat, a Republican and a tea party candidate. The tea party candidate won, with 33 percent of independents. Undecided came in second with 30 percent. The Democrats came in third with 25 percent and the Republicans fourth with 12 percent.

Over the course of this year, the tea party movement will probably be transformed. Right now, it is an amateurish movement with mediocre leadership. But several bright and polished politicians, like Marco Rubio of Florida and Gary Johnson of New Mexico, are unofficially competing to become its de facto leader. If they succeed, their movement is likely to outgrow its crude beginnings and become a major force in American politics. After all, it represents arguments that are deeply rooted in American history.

I agree with Brooks that we are seeing societal schisms that transcend the usual party identities. If liberals don't want to see their country descend into an ignorant, jingoistic, lynch mob mentality that will be directed against THEM/US, then we better start mobilizing with the same unity and passion that is driving a powerful, backwards in time movement.

[Quantess]

1. David Brooks is probably the most sensible of the RW commentators.

[Buzz Clik]

16. For this article, maybe. Normally, he's wandering off on some irrelevant tangent.

He's not as horrible as William Kristol, but he's horrible.

[babylonsister]

2. Might have been good if he hadn't quoted a Rasmussen poll.

imo that negates the whole article. But this is the second one I've seen this a.m. cheering on the teabaggers. Guess they got their marching orders and are invested in making them relevant.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=433&topic_id=108702
Rasmussen Ripped

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7396814
GOP Hanging Their Hopes on Teapartiers

[mucifer]

4. That is simplifying Brooks. He did say he was voting for Obama and not mccain

in the last general election. Not all conservatives are the same.

[babylonsister]

10. That may be, so if he feels the need to cite a poll, why not use one

with more credibility? Because this one suited his needs, more than likely.

[tsuki]

7. I have wondered about these overnight polls. We are polled about

twice a month. With the database in the US so large, how would they not know how we would answer. And it is somewhat suspicious when they ask for the "youngest female in the household" or the "oldest male in the household." I tend to be more liberal than Husband.

I can see the "polls" rigged to a certain percentage before the calls go out. It would not be difficult. And the +/-% of error would account for any "surprise" answers.

[omega minimo]

9. That's jumping out of the article

Who takes these polls anyway?

[elocs]

3. This past summer Liberals and Democrats sure conceded the health care town hall meetings

to the shrill crowds of the teabaggers. Even in Democratic districts the mobs managed to overwhelm them. They did have the drive and passion to mobilize and get their message out while Democrats seemed to think they were a joke and didn't seem to be bothered to get their hands dirty.

By 2012 this may no longer seem like a joke.

[omega minimo]

8. Perhaps because they seemed insane and potentially violent

and security or facilitators were not requiring them to control themselves.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

12. I know that is definitely the impression from the media coverage.

and is probably accurate.

The whole way the HCR process was managed and implementedon the Democratic side was just highly flawed. Democrats spent a large chunk of their time and energy needlessly having house parties and meetings early on (May, June)in the process where at the White House's direction they focused on the already answered question - Do we need reform? instead of focussing on and learning and promulgating and supporting a Presidential/Congressional plan. I think a lot of Dems were just OVER IT by the time the Town Halls rolled around - how MANY times do they have to write, email, have house parties, etc. before they just run out of energy?

I agree the Tea Baggers are no joke. I think their size is exaggerated, but apparently some see them as a convenient kernel to build a power base on. The thing that makes me grind my teeth in impotent rage goes back to media coverage. OCEANS of humanity can march against war and at the RNC, but they are completely and totally ignored and downplayed. 19 TeaBaggers show up in a park and there are 7 TV cameras, national coverage and distorted size estimates that play to their advantage.

We will have to win this battle knowing full well that we can start from the premise that there will be little or no media coverage to any liberal advantage, and that it will be full throated support in the opposite direction. Oh well, no one is watching the news or reading the papers anymore anyway. I take some small comfort in that.

[zeemike]

13. Same as the Brooks Brothers Riot.

A handful of vocal people control the agenda when no one speaks up and makes themselves visible.

[elocs]

22. The squeaky wheel get the grease and the attention. I witnessed this in my own city last summer.

The teabaggers at the health care reform meetings were shrill and loud and mad as hell and did get attention. I was at a pro-health care reform gathering at a city park and the crowd was small in comparison to the teabaggers. It was also relatively quiet and well mannered and really did not garner a lot of attention because the people there did not really appear to be as passionate about their cause as the teabaggers were for theirs.

It seemed like last summer there was a lot of hope for real health care reform that included a strong public option. In the end after all was said and done it sure seems like the teabaggers, outside of killing the reform altogether, sure had their way more than the health care reformers in spite of a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.

[omega minimo]

5. "If......................?"

"Start..............?" :rofl: Good luck with that!! Really.

[omega minimo]

6. Seriesly

The way to really do something at this point would be to stop the goddamned takeover of the public schools by privatizers, a la Bill Gates and Arne Duncan.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/5505

[YOY]

11. Tea Partiers believe in "big government"???

Maybe "big military"...but they sure as hell are not for "big government".

[Xipe Totec]

14. The Educated Class?

It looks as if Brooks just took the label "Educated Class" and slapped it on the Democratic Party. Then he invented a purpose for the carpet remnants of an AstroTurf movement and declared a third party in the making.

This is the type of intellectual dishonesty I've come to expect from Brooks.

To wit:

"The educated class believes in global warming, so public skepticism about global warming is on the rise."

Since Republicans are global warming skeptics, they are not part of the educated class?

"The educated class supports abortion rights, so public opinion is shifting against them."

Since Republicans oppose abortion rights, they are not part of the educated class?

"The educated class supports gun control, so opposition to gun control is mounting."

Since Republicans oppose gun control, they are not part of the educated class?

"The educated class is internationalist, so isolationist sentiment is now at an all-time high, according to a Pew Research Center survey."

Since Republicans are isolationists, they are not part of the educated class?

"The educated class believes in multilateral action, so the number of Americans who believe we should “go our own way” has risen sharply."

Since Republicans believes in unilateral action, they are not part of the educated class?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

20. Similar to the Liberal Elites terminology

But, it is incontrovertible that Republicans DO pander to ignorance.

Remember the Republican debates where they were asked to raise their hands if they believe in evolution? Would you have ever believed that could possibly be the case if someone from the future told you that in 1976? That the Party would devolve so much and that ignorance would take hold so fast?

So, I guess I would have to say that Brooks is agreeing with you that the Republicans are the party of the uneducated. I think it is factually the case.

Democrats/Liberals have always been smeared with "egghead" "intellectual"(as a perjorative) allusions. That's why we get all these "comman man" type Republican politicians, although usually they are fake common men. Yalie Connecticut privileged elitist son W transforms himself into the twanging Texan with a "ranch", etc.

[Xipe Totec]

23. I guess that's my point

Brooks is hiding the partisanship behind this "Educated Class" fig leaf, so he can pretend that the Tea Party is a non-partisan movement that appeals to independents.

[Igel]

28. I don't agree with Brooks' point.

I often don't.

But building on and extending his mistake doesn't advance any kind of reasonableness in the argument. My wife's repub; she's pro-choice. She waffles on gun control.

Bush I and II were repubs. "Isolationist" is not the right word for them, now is it? Moreover, for the second half of his term he was into negotiations, hardly unilateral. This wasn't widely noted in the US because it undermined the reporting for the first 4-5 years.

It's a mixed bag. Political stereotypes are easily no more reliable than ethnic stereotypes. But I *will* agree with Brooks to some extent. A lot of dems--esp. working class dems--are iffy on abortion, anti-gun-control, and as isolationist as many repubs. They disagree on some significant points, and they're enough for politics, but really--Blue Dogs come from somewhere, they're not anomalies in their home districts.

A lot of repubs are as technocrat as many dems. They fervently believe that given their education and experience they're best suited to govern, know what's best for everybody, and if the untermenschen don't acknowledge their superiority it's just evidence that the untermenschen are, verily, untermenschen. Eventually, given time and education, they'll get the untermenschen, the stupids, to understand where their true interests lie--and will recognize that the educated class has been selflessly accreting wealth and power on their behalf. This is a type of education-based hubris, not just right or left, and neither shared by all educated nor denied by all uneducated. (Take my mother as an example of an educated person that directly contradicts Brooks' tea partiers: She's a dyed-in-the-wool dem, a dyed-in-the-wool old-school working-class feminist, and also a dyed-in-the-wool racist--she had a hard time during the dem primaries, yet she avoided PUMA-dom by looking to Obama's degrees, which showed that he wasn't an "average n****r" so she could not just support him but avidly support him. It was important to her that her president be somehow inherently superior to her, not just the best among equals.)

[zeemike]

15. What jumped out at me was this.

"The tea party candidate won, with 33 percent of independents"
That is the same as when Hitler came to power and with the support of the same kind of people.
And Hitler achieved it in the same way...and the good German people thought he was a joke too.

[KharmaTrain]

17. The Power Of The Minority...

It wasn't long ago...until November 8, 2008 that many felt that the popular "mojo" was on the side of the left...the criticism of the booosh regime (well warranted) along with the electoral winds at the Democratic party's back. The motivation was being out of power...easy to blame others and not have to stand on a record. By 2008, the GOOP had screwed things up so badly that many Democrats, and dare I say, liberals and progressives overestimated their popularity among the voters. As we've seen in the healthcare fiasco, that's still the case.

The wingnuts have the motivation these days. Being totally out of power means they can criticize and throw tantrums without having to assume any of the responsibility of their actions past or present. Meanwhile there are liberals and progressives who either don't like the "change" going on or it isn't fast enough. Seems like many felt that once President Obama was elected that was the do-all, end-all...the world would turn from up to down overnight. Problem is they didn't calculate the political climate in the beltway that is resistant to change and the blowback from the right wing once they were "liberated" from the baggage of the booosh regime.

I agree that Democrats need to mobilize and organize better, but it's not as easy when you have a record to run on and that you have people in your party who haven't been comfortable or fully supportive of that record. Too many blame the President as solely responsible for "nothing happening" without understanding that many roadblocks have been put up by the GOOP along with some "Conservodems"...a message that says the job isn't quite done. If anything, it's beginning.

This upcoming election is critical for liberals and progressives to build on the gains of the past 2 elections...or else. Any losses in November is sure to be blamed on a lack of support and turnout by these group...opening the door for rushpublicans to steal elections. To those who are angry, staying home or "voting third party" is exactly what the GOOP is hoping for. It's now up to the Democratic party to pull things together or any chance of real change will be yet another unfilfilled promise.

[stray cat]

19. If the minority (ie tea parties) vote they are the majority!

you don't count if you don't vote

[KharmaTrain]

21. Bingo...

I don't think the tea baggers have enough votes on their own to win any statewide or even seriously contested Congressional races. The only way they succede is when others decide to stay home. That's a problem in off-year elections as there's no big ticket races to get the attention...it all boils down to which party can turn out their own people or not. Last two elections, Democrats benefitted with as many rushpublicans who stayed home than who became Democrats...including the Paulbots who are now part of the teabaggers. The GOOP is banking Democrats are demoralized or uninspired to vote...now the challenge is to the Democratic party to find ways to communicate and energize its base..not only liberals and progressives but unions and minority voters who can make the difference.

[stray cat]

18. We deserve the tea party candidates in office

if those in that group are the only ones motivated to vote - those who don't vote deserve their rule - the trouble is the rest of us will get ruled by them as well

[midnight armadillo]

24. This is the road to fascism

From Robert Paxton...this is the moment when democracies can tip over into an inevitable slide into either fascism or authoritarianism. As quoted here: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009083205/fascist-america-are-we-there-yet
these are the signs of the tipping point.
1. Are neo- or protofascisms becoming rooted as parties that represent major interests and feelings and wield major influence on the political scene?
2. Is the economic or constitutional system in a state of blockage apparently insoluble by existing authorities?
3. Is a rapid political mobilization threatening to escape the control of traditional elites, to the point where they would be tempted to look for tough helpers in order to stay in charge?

I would say that condition #2 is clearly being met. Health care reform, Wall St. reform, etc. is all just being run by the industries being reformed, and the public is clearly pissed and frustrated. David Brooks claims the country is swinging right. I disagree - I think the country handed total control to the Democracts, and are not seeing changes in their favor (which is mostly true, I think, although perception is everything).

If teabaggers land several members into congress in 2010 then 1 & 3 could come to pass as well.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

25. The Tea Party adherents will grow once the funding realities for HCR trickles down

They will call mandates and fines an effective tax.

And no one will abe able to mount an effective counter argument.

There will be rallies and lawsuits and calls for impeachment. Obabma will become the great Socialist, wealth re-distributing Dictator aided and abetted by the Democrats. The Republicans will crow that NOT ONE of them voted for HCR which will probably be the most demonized bill in American History.

Why? Because the Democrats did not have the guts to pass decent reform that wasn't deficit neutral, that wasn't based on taxing the wealthy at pre-Bush rates, that did not effectively lower costs with a public option, that did not include drug negotiation and/or importation, and on and on and on.

No one can say the Dems weren't warned. COUNTLESS columnists and blogs and economists and foundations have all laid out the benefits and consequences of this bill. We are about to enter a shitstorm the likes of which we probably have not seen in our lifetimes.

[YOY]

26. Try telling that to some folks here.

They think that something beneficial actually passed.

[Igel]

29. Why wait?

Some dems are framing the penalty, at least, as a tax because that would grant Congress constitutional permission for the HCR. (The problem being that in a limited government, Congress' powers are essentially enumerated and therefore limited to what's listed).

[Odin2005]

27. K&R