Babbling Brooks

By Carl 

I wonder sometimes if David Brooks realizes how self-referentially idiotic he sounds:

Let's say you are president in a time of a sustained economic slowdown. You initiated a series of big policies that you thought were going to turn the economy around, but they didn't work — either because they were insufficient or ineffective. How do you run for re-election under these circumstances?

Do you spend the entire campaign saying that things would have been even worse if you hadn't acted the way you did? No. That would be pathetic. You go on the attack. Instead of defending your economic policies, you attack modern capitalism as it now exists. You blame the system for the economy. You do this with double ferocity if your opponent happens to be the embodiment of that system.

Let's say you're a columnist for the erstwhile "Paper of Record" in a time when events happen that you have no knowledge of except what your handlers and other people whose opinion you respect... why, for the life of me, I can't fathom. You initiated a visit to the Applebee's salad bar to try to sort out your thoughts about an economic system that is not only failing but fails to exist even in the pathetic realm you call "your head," which the medications couldn't fix -- either because they were insufficient or ineffective. How do you look at yourself in the mirror under these circumstances?

Do you spend your days locked away in a meditative state, pondering that things would only be worse if you hadn't sought what pathetically tiny bits of help you did? No. That would be pathetic. You go on the attack. Instead of assuming the fault lies within yourself and perhaps learning a little about basic economics, you attack the people who did. You blame the administration for the economy. You do this with double ferocity if your target happens to be black.

David, seriously: get help. You're not only out of your league (go read Adam Smith sometime -- look in particular about what he said about rich people and taxation (and welfare, the socialist!) and the formation of corporations, which he viewed as the purest of evils, precisely because of the things Bain has been up to), you're out of your fucking mind, son.

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)