dagblog - Comments for "George Will: The GOP has become the party of the grotesque"

Yes. In the context of Gary

moat — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 10:24:24 +0000

In reply to Driftglass portrays Brook's

Yes. In the context of Gary Will's argument quoted above, Brooks put an enlightenment veneer on a reactionary enterprise.

As I am certain you already

CVille Dem — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 02:05:57 +0000

In reply to Where were you, Mr. Brooks,

As I am certain you already know, McCain's "come to Jesus moment on health care was 70% retribution against trump for his personal insults, and 30% due to his knowledge that he will die soon and wants to get his ducks in a row.

The reason he didn't do the right thing when Obama was President was 100% retribution and 100% not having the courage to do the right thing.

McCain is just another GOP

NCD — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 01:57:26 +0000

In reply to Where were you, Mr. Brooks,

McCain is just another GOP storm trooper who follows orders.

His nearly vestigial maverickness surfaced for unknown reasons on the recent vote.

He ain't no Lion of the Senate like Ted.

Flake is a Good German

NCD — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 01:50:46 +0000

In reply to Senator Jeff Flake is another

Flake is a Good ~~German~~ Republican and follows orders from The Mango Mussolini.

Driftglass portrays Brook's

NCD — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 01:46:17 +0000

In reply to No argument that Brooks

Driftglass portrays Brook's richly rewarded bloviations in print and on TV as a sop to the media scions of corporate America to obfuscate the reality that the Republican Party has no principles or ideology beyond exploiting the racism, ignorance, hate and anger of The Base to implement an obstructionist, amoral, unethical, and pathetically inhumane agenda.

Where were you, Mr. Brooks,

ocean-kat — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 01:15:05 +0000

In reply to "Brooks is a liberal elite

Where were you, Mr. Brooks, when Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush openly and vigorously played the race card to win the White House? etc

That's the same thing I was thinking when McCain made his big speech before the republican health care vote. Everyone was exclaiming how great it was that he called for regular order and working with democrats. But where was he when Obama tired for regular order and begged republicans to work with him? When he was so desperate for compromise he would have given away so much that democrats would have been pissed with him? If McCain would have worked for bipartisan compromise several other senators would have followed him there. Empty words and no action for the 8 years of the Obama presidency from the famous McMaverick.

Senator Jeff Flake is another

rmrd0000 — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 00:57:59 +0000

In reply to "Brooks is a liberal elite

Senator Jeff Flake is another hypocrite. Flake is promoting his book "Conscience of a Conservative" a title stolen from Barry Goldwater. Flake chastises Republicans for participating in divisive politics. He criticizes b birtherism despite voting for a man for federal judgeship who posted messages supporting birtherism.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/flake-trump_us_59873576e4b041356ec07...

So far, critic Flake has voted in favor of Trump's policies.

No argument that Brooks

moat — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 22:34:43 +0000

In reply to "Brooks is a liberal elite

No argument that Brooks helped make the world you describe. It bears little resemblance to the one he reports living in.

"Brooks is a liberal elite

NCD — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 21:46:23 +0000

In reply to As another G.O.P. water boy,

"Brooks is a liberal elite stuck in a world he never made" ???????? RU kidding?

Driftglass on Brook$: America's Most Ubiquitous Conservative Public Intellectual

David Brooks:

"But we can have no confidence that the Republicans will seize this opportunity. That’s because the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative."

DG - The first version -- favored by every professional Beltway ball-washer in the media -- permits the David Brookses of the world to continue to play the role of the reasonable, detached witness, merely Observing-With-Alarm the final stages of the complete and completely unforeseeable (No one could have predicted...!) psychotic implosion of his Republican Party.

The second version -- the honest version -- puts Our Mr. Brooks (and the rest of his ilk) at the scene of the crime, squarely behind the wheel and driving the getaway car for the Party of God for virtually his entire adult life.

Where were you, Mr. Brooks, when Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush openly and vigorously played the race card to win the White House? When the Right was rising to power on the backs of the poor, the weak and the powerless? When Newt Gingrich and GOPAC taught Republicans to call Democrats "traitors" and "liars" and "unAmerican" in every speech? Where were you when your Dear Leader lied us into a catastrophic war and then lied to us to keep us there? Where were you when Terri Schiavo's mortal remains were being tossed around like a puppy's chew toy for pure, partisan political advantage?

You see Mr. Brooks, as hard as you try to pretend otherwise, you are not an alarm bell in the night warning a sleeping nation of impending disaster.

You are just another symptom of that disaster.

Because, Mr. Brooks, the answer to the question "where were you?" is a simple one : you have been busy being fatally, loudly and very, very profitably wrong about your Party and your Movement your entire fucking life.

And worse -- oh so much worse -- it turns out that, one again, the decadent, America-hating Left has been right all along.

Classic Brooks the "world he helped create" - Iraq War , 2003, Weekly Standard:

...Finally, there is the dream palace of the American Bush haters. In this dream palace, there is so much contempt for Bush that none is left over for Saddam or for tyranny. Whatever the question, the answer is that Bush and his cronies are evil. What to do about Iraq? Bush is evil. What to do about the economy? Bush is venal. What to do about North Korea? Bush is a hypocrite.

In this dream palace, Bush, Cheney, and a junta of corporate oligarchs stole the presidential election, then declared war on Iraq to seize its oil and hand out the spoils to Halliburton and Bechtel. In this dream palace, the warmongering Likudniks in the administration sit around dreaming of conquests in Syria, Iran, and beyond. In this dream palace, the boy genius Karl Rove hatches schemes to use the Confederate flag issue to win more elections, John Ashcroft wages holy war on American liberties, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and his cabal of neoconservatives long for global empire. In this dream palace, every story of Republican villainy is believed, and all the windows are shuttered with hate.

As another G.O.P. water boy,

moat — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 20:52:18 +0000

In reply to Wow, moat, you've sure got

As another G.O.P. water boy, Brooks has also tried to reboot the party to a previous incarnation more than once. In efforts to reflect on the importance of the private wold of values and virtues, Brooks hasn't done much to distance himself from Goldwater's zero sum game of a world of free individuals versus prisoners of economic determinism. Brooks owns 25% of his cake and eats it with a fork.

Unlike Will, Brooks is a liberal elite stuck in a world he never made.