Now Spot gets it. The war in Iraq isn’t about WMD, or democracy for Iraqis, it is about our self-esteem as Americans! At least that is what David Brooks writes in an op-ed piece in the Star Tribune of December 6th. Codswallop. The piece is no longer on the Strib site, but you can probably find it somewhere on the internets.
The subtext of Brooks’ piece is that by opposing the war, you liberals, you are hurting the government’s ability to do anything: fix the hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast, deal with genocide in Dafur, deal with the energy needs of the country, or deal with the Iranians. Americas are just becoming too skeptical and cynical!
Brooks says that more people are “skeptical of [US] plans to mold reality according to our designs.” The notion that reality is moldable by the US is a laughable conceit, about as useful as belief in the Easter Bunny.
Actually, the Vietnam War may have started the slide into skepticism as Brooks suggests, but what really accelerated it was Ronald Reagan’s pronouncement that the government was not the solution, it was the problem. That’s been the theme of the Republicans and pundits like Brooks ever since.
After undermining the idea that government can be useful for twenty five years, now Brooks is sorry that the American people cannot be rallied to an unpopular cause. The amazing thing is that he doesn’t seem to have any idea why.
Tags: David Brooks
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