1/18/12

A way of life that will never return? Not so fast!

South Carolina Diarist - NYTimes.com: "I agree with the sentiment, but it makes for an incredibly backward-looking campaign. I sometimes wonder if the Republican Party has become the receding roar of white America as it pines for a way of life that will never return."

'via Blog this'

David Brooks has the capacity to say what is not the case and then double down.

What way of life are we talking about that we need to get back to? Strange fruit evenings? Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney dead in Mississippi?

OK - When we could guzzle gas for pennies a gallon? And smoke all day without a warning? And gather eggs in the farmyard?


Hmm? When the power of corporations was more hidden than it is now? When a GOP President could single-handedly drive a nation to near-bankruptcy on the strength of scare lies?

Brooks actually goes on to suggest that we need to go back to recover some values we lost. Who is he kidding?

Values do not get lost. They are permanent, internal and choosable. Tolerance, democracy, helpfulness and non-idolatry are as available now as they were to Diane Nash and John Lewis on the streets of Nashville in 1962.

If the values Brooks wants to recover differ from these values he is guilty of what we might call pundit pandering.

RECCMENDATION Richard Gordon Quantum Touch

The Slow as Molasses Press