Longer™ David Brooks: To a Young Republican

 

Letter to a Fairly Young Republican

Do you have a future in the new multiracial party of the working class?

By David Brooks

Opinion Columnist

• Feb. 18, 2021

Handmade in organic cotton sateen by Bridgetown Bow Ties, $30, via Etsy.

I know what you're thinking, but there's no reason I shouldnʼt be getting a note from a nonfictional young Republican whoʼs spent the last ten years, ever since he got out of his college Young Republicans unit, in Washington, fighting the fight, and feeling disillusioned. I live in Washington myself, and meet lots of young people. Perhaps I spoke at his commencement at Stanford or Hillsdale, or lectured him on Machiavelli in the the Yale Grand Strategy program during my service there from 2012 to 2018 , which would be a little less than ten years ago. Or he could be a relative, you know, or a parishioner at one of the groovy churches I attend, or one of my wife's school friends, or or even my wife herself! The possibilities are practically infinite.

Longer™ David Brooks: Impeachment

Organ grinder and girl, Rosh Hashanah card from Brooklyn, early 1900s. I may wish you another Happy New Year later but Brooks almost certainly won't. Image via The Blog About the Postcards.

Opinion

Yes, Trump Is Guilty, but Is That Any Reason to Get Him All Riled Up?

This political brawl will leave Trump victorious.

By David Brooks

Opinion Columnist

• Sept. 26, 2019

Donald Trump committed an impeachable offense on that call with the Ukrainian president. But that doesn’t mean Democrats are right to start an impeachment process.

Remember, impeachment is a political process, not a legal one. Some people say that means the definition of what constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors isn't a question for lawyers like in a court proceeding but politicians like in Congress which is where impeachment takes place, but I have a quirky original take, which is that it really means nobody's required to impeach anybody, it's just something you can do if you think it's a good idea, like passing appropriations bills, which used to be regarded as a must, but nowadays you just put through a continuing resolution and save yourself all the agita, and don't even think about budgets.

Longer™ David Brooks: Moderate Utopia

If you haven't read Steve's take on this singularly awful Brooks column, or that of Eric Levitz at New York Magazine, you might want to look at them first.

Edmond van Daele as Robespierre in Abel Gance's Napoléon (1927)

Opinion

Reflections on the Late Revolution in America

Or, 'Tis 30 years since: A look back at the Warren presidency from the imaginary future.

By David Brooks

Opinion Columnist

• Sept. 19, 2049

Few could imagine in the second decade of the 21st century that our divided country would ever find peace and unity under the beneficent rule of the Moderate Liberal Party that has now held power for 25 years, though one of them was certainly me, I mean one of the imagineers, for I had always retained my faith in the essential goodness of Americans. 

For others, however, there was a crisis of legitimacy. Many people had the general impression that legitimacy was not what it had once been and was now something different. Others felt that there was too little, or too much. It can't have had anything to do with the United States for the first time electing a president with African ancestry at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, although undoubtedly some people said that other people thought that was illegitimate, because that's how divisive and hurtful they used to be, and then the ones it was said about felt bad.