Wednesday morning, Tim Graham at NewsBusters observed how pseudo-conservative David Brooks, who is no fan of Donald Trump, gave the current GOP frontrunner credit for having "destroyed a dying husk" of "obsolete Reagan ideology" in the Republican Party.
That's fascinating stuff, given the catch of the day by Instapundit's Ed Driscoll. You see, 12 years ago, Brooks gave Reagan credit for having transformed the party and conservatism "from a past- and loss-oriented movement to a future- and possibility-oriented one." In other words, even Dense David recognized at the time that Reagan's positive tone and belief in American exceptionalism — a term which the left, up to and including President Obama, has tried to ridicule out of existence — were the foundation for how Reagan, in Brooks's words, "embraced America as a revolutionary force."
Brooks's June 2004 column (also here at the New York Times, where it originally appeared) makes one wonder how the same person could have made the statements he did earlier this week. Here are other excerpts (bolds are mine throughout this post):
Reagan's Promised Land
Of all the words written upon the death of Ronald Reagan, none have recurred more frequently than ''optimist.'' Reagan had a sunny, hopeful disposition, we've been reminded again and again.
But this slights the truth. Reagan's optimism wasn't mainly a personality trait. It flowed from his core convictions and makes no sense if severed from the beliefs that gave it force.
... Reagan agreed with ... old conservatives about communism and other things. But he transformed their movement from a past- and loss-oriented movement to a future- and possibility-oriented one, based on a certain idea about America. As early as 1952 during a commencement address at William Woods College in Missouri, Reagan argued, "I, in my own mind, have always thought of America as a place in the divine scheme of things that was set aside as a promised land."
Reagan described America as a driving force through history, leading to the empire of liberty. He seemed to regard freedom's triumph as a historical inevitability. He couldn't look at mainstream American culture as anything other than the delightful emanation of this venture. He could never feel alienated from middle American life, or see it succumbing to a spiritual catastrophe.
So of course he was an optimist; he knew how the human story ended. While others regarded the Soviet Union as permanent, he couldn't. "My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple and some would say simplistic. It is this: 'We win and they lose,'" he once said.
... it's all really about American exceptionalism. Reagan embraced America as a permanent revolutionary force. His critics came to fear exactly that sort of zeal.
... Reagan's outlook ... was a bold and challenging optimism. The debate Reagan launched is the one we are still having today.
The Jekyll and Hyde mystery behind the 2004 and 2016 versions of David Brooks likely lies in a lack of core principles. When you don't really believe in something, you'll fall for anything. Instead of being a genuine conservative, David Brooks is a guy who wants to sound conservative often enough that he convinces his leftist buddies that he is one, while expending most of his efforts in persuading them that he isn't the supposed monster all conservatives even slightly to the right of wherever he happens to be on any given day simply must be.
Over at PJ Media, Rick Moran also had this to say about Brooks's "dying husk" contention:
... Trump didn't destroy the "dying husk" of Reaganism. That's because Reagan's ideas are timeless. His basic message of limited government, individual liberty, and free markets has been with us since the Founding. Reagan only reminded us of that message's importance.
... And this is what Brooks wants to get rid of? No wonder he's referred to as the dumbest pundit in the business.
Amen to that.
The Founders' ideas are indeed timeless. Reagan's special gift was to emphasize the incredibly positive results flowing from adherence to those ideas.
David Brooks exists so liberals can point to him and say, "See, I know a conservative, and this is what a genuine conservative really is. Everyone else to the right of him is just a wild extremist." Horse manure.
Of course, Brooks is also wrong about Donald Trump. For all his questionable tactics and considerable faults — topics getting their deserved treatment elsewhere — Trump is also attempting to embrace Reagan's positivity in his campaign's overarching theme.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
