Bobo's Lament

Even as bad as 2016's GOP race has gotten, with outright fascist impulses, Islamophobia, bigotry, and open racism, David Brooks still cannot name the beast in our midst.

Over the past generation we have seen the rise of a group of people who are against politics. These groups — best exemplified by the Tea Party but not exclusive to the right — want to elect people who have no political experience. They want “outsiders.” They delegitimize compromise and deal-making. They’re willing to trample the customs and rules that give legitimacy to legislative decision-making if it helps them gain power.

Ultimately, they don’t recognize other people. They suffer from a form of political narcissism, in which they don’t accept the legitimacy of other interests and opinions. They don’t recognize restraints. They want total victories for themselves and their doctrine.

Sigh.  Both Sides Do It(tm).

We’re now at a point where the Senate says it won’t even hold hearings on a presidential Supreme Court nominee, in clear defiance of custom and the Constitution. We’re now at a point in which politicians live in fear if they try to compromise and legislate. We’re now at a point in which normal political conversation has broken down. People feel unheard, which makes them shout even louder, which further destroys conversation.

And in walks Donald Trump. People say that Trump is an unconventional candidate and that he represents a break from politics as usual. That’s not true. Trump is the culmination of the trends we have been seeing for the last 30 years: the desire for outsiders; the bashing style of rhetoric that makes conversation impossible; the decline of coherent political parties; the declining importance of policy; the tendency to fight cultural battles and identity wars through political means.

Nowhere in Bobo's piece is the word "Republican" used.  The man has no clue, and will never admit that a generation of false equivalencies by columnists like himself have directly contributed to the situation that the Republican party has 100% created in America.

One party is committing the grave sins that he lists. Only one party is incoherent, bashing, fighting cultural battles through political means.

That party is not the Democratic party.  Donald Trump is not a Democrat.

David Brooks has helped to create the hell he laments today.