Self-Critical Conservative David Brooks Defends GOP
New York Times syndicated David Brooks strikes limited government advocate readers as a faux-conservative.
With a Hamiltonian regard for big government (federal power can make things better), he also recognizes the need for cutting taxes and lowering the spending. He even exposed the “tax-credit” spending spree conniving which lawmakers engage in to avoid the charge of deficit spending. Instead of granting a massive earmark to a company, lawmakers will offer a tax credit, thus they can claim that they are cutting taxes and helping businesses, when they are still picking and choosing winners and losers while growing the annual deficit and the national debt.
Brook’s pragmatism about the role of government may buffer his credential as a compassionate conservative, yet his thinking has caused him to veer towards placating Beltway Establishment leaders, too, as when he claimed that Obamacare was clearly constitutional, even though Chief Justice John Roberts ended up employing the most tortured logic to justify the 2,500 page monstrosity.
Regarding the current government shutdown and debt-ceiling debacle, Brooks has remained avid critic of the Republicans and Conservative Democrats in Congress who resist Obamacare, first to defund, then delay the individual mandate, and then to repeal the widely despised medical device tax.
He opined that US Senator Ted Cruz’ decision to defund Obamacare at all costs had no exit strategy, and was widely panned by his conservative colleagues. While US Senator Ted Cruz’ twenty-two hour speech galvanized activists around the country, and while he himself may have realized this his speeches and Republican colleagues’ decision to vote for cloture while voting to defund Obamacare were inevitable, Cruz’ outreach, the Democrats’ outrage, and Obama outlier status have pushed the debt, budget, and Obamacare fight to the forefront. Activists across the country are acting out their frustration not through crime, but lawful protest and loyal opposition.
That’s what American government is all about. We the People make our voices heard, share our concerns and frustrations, and expect our leaders to respect our viewpoints with a view towards enacting policies which honor the Constitution and protect our rights.
David Brooks, for his lack of foresight or his oversight to the concerns of media elites, shared some pithy remarks about the Republicans chances in 2014, too, in his latest discussion on PBS News Hour.
The shut-down will not cost the GOP seats in 2014. The reasons, according to Brooks, is that a government shutdown has not affronted the American public as the Democrats had hoped it would. The whole dance is a small issue. Even Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, who has exposed Obama’s media shenanigans about the sequester, has remarked that blame for the government gridlock in Washington will ultimately tarnish Obama’s legacy. “No one remembers who was Speaker of the House. People think of history in terms of presidencies.
With Washington D.C. as the New Hour backdrop Brooks further pointed out that most Americans do not notice the shutdown. DC officials have not blamed Republicans for the halt of public services in Washington, they have blamed the Democrats, specifically Majority Leader Harry Reid. Fearing the media backlash, Reid told DC leaders to be quiet. One state senator in Los Angeles, California Ted Lieu (D-South Bay) has also acknowledged on his own Twitter account that the shut-down has hurt very few people. Just like in 1995-1996, a government shut-down turns into much-ado-about-nothing, and the nothing getting done is hurting no one, either.
If a soft conservative journalist who criticizes Republicans states that the GOP has nothing to lose from the current government shut-down and debt ceiling fight, then the budget impasse should not seem like an impossible barrier to keeping up the fight against Washington profligacy, Obama’s obstinacy, and even Establishment Republican’s temerity.
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