I grimace every time Brooks has to talk on the Friday slot, he’s in a tough position. He knows that MAGA is barely two steps away from Nat-Cism and he knows better than to advocate for the MAGAts (whether it’s because he knows the audience or he truly believes they are crazy), but he still (and this is the hard part) has to toe some kind of conservative party line.
He had a fine run for decades being on the conservative side of the room, but now that the conservative side has gone bat shit crazy, he’s suddenly found himself not really knowing what to say. I see that every single Friday.
If he were to retire from this Newshour gig, who would replace him to represent “the right”? Cucker Tarlson? The fine folks at the Newshour did a great job replacing Mark Shields (RIP). I hope Capehart has a long career there.
This is a terrible time to be on the conservative side of the chattering class. They used to be able to stake out positions that bore some relationship to the intersection of conservative-and-republican. Maybe they were stretching in one direction or another, but one could make sense of things in relation to that area. Now there is no intersection anymore of ideological values with the party of Trump, so no wonder they are flailing.
I agree with you here. Brooks looks like a deer in headlights with most of the outright stupidity of the current GOP. But as you say, he still feels compelled to toe that conservative line. I see in him a guy who’s desperately looking around for a time portal back to 1981 he can escape through, rather than admit that he no longer aligns with the current Republican Party. When he’s absent, they bring in Gary Abernathy, who appears to be barely holding onto any semblance of civility. The moderate conservative talking head is rapidly going extinct.
It’s all well and good for chuckleheads like Brooks and Kristol to lament the rise of Trumpism, but they are completely guilty of ushering it into being. For all their faux intellectualism, they have to be truly dense not to see how the GOP has been on this trajectory since the Southern Strategy and accelerated under their lord god Regan.
One he put himself in. Like many establishment Republicans, he helped lay the groundwork for the fascist takeover of his party. Whatever discomfort he shows on-screen ultimately is for show. He’s a wealthy white conservative and is complacent that he won’t be affected by whatever they have in store for the country.
Yes he does! And I wonder, is it because of advancing age, or is it because he just doesn’t know what to say? IMO, it’s the latter.
Ah, right. I don’t know much about who he is, but faint memory of his appearances indicates he’s a bit more MAGA-t leaning and therefore more defensive.
Yep, that’s when it really started to take off, and if they, being intellectuals, didn’t recognize it, that’s serious egg on their face. I’m not that smart, so I’m only recognizing it in hindsight.
I don’t care for Abernathy. Besides using “Democrat” as an adjective, he constantly employs the false equivalency tactic while making his voice sound as reasonable as he can muster. For all that I disagree with Brooks ideologically, he doesn’t typically employ dishonest arguments as most of those on the right do. I suspect that’s why they like him on the Newshour. After I saw Abernathy there the first time, I honestly didn’t think he’d be returning. That shows how hard it is to find a reasonable conservative voice these days. They used to sub in Michael Gerson, but he passed away late last year.
BTW, Brooks and I are the same age, so I don’t want to blame that for his inability to deal with the current reality!
I don’t agree with Brooks, but I can enjoy listening to his take on things every Friday on the Newshour without wanting to punch my TV. I can’t say that about any other conservative chatterers.
I agree with you – I’ve said for years now that Donald Trump is the natural apotheosis of conservative ideology: a xenophobic, racist, isolationist authoritarian. That conservative intellectuals couldn’t see it coming, and are now somehow shocked and appalled by it is … I’m searching for the right word … I’ll generously say “tragic.”
You have a stronger will than I. His glib superiority just turns my stomach.
He’s as “conservative” as most pro-Trumpers. Veiling the same bigoted, self-destructive policies in civil language doesn’t make a reactionary a moderate.
From the generation that grew up with open racism, took ‘venture capitalism’ to such an absurd degree that Oliver Stone of all people made a movie about it, repeat ‘a corporation doesn’t have any other goal but to maximize profits’ like a prayer to ward off illegal action, and fought their hardest to make sure things that made their lives great in retirement were all destroyed on the way (pensions, unions, health care plans) - I reject the idea they abandoned anything.
The damn shame about the boomers is hippies got all the press and so they had this public image of a weed smoking, tolerant, relaxed, collective identity - but the reality was far different - it’s like the avocado toast branding.
