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The Spectacle Blog
David Brooks’s Times column today is a condemnation of the Tea Party (although he doesn’t name it as such) for refusing Obama’s debt ceiling offer to trim entitlements because it includes tax hikes. As Tim Carney notes, though, that offer exists only in Brooks’s brain. It’s likely, too, that the Obama team planted it there — Brooks, famously, is always getting background information from the Obama folks. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the Obama administration is not on the same page as the Tea Party.
By the way, one of Brooks’s complaints about the Tea Party is that “The members of this movement do not accept the legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities.” Certainly anti-intellectualism is problematic, although it’s not obvious how that’s a problem specific to the Tea Party. But the legitimacy of “scholars and intellectual authorities” comes from the value of their work, same as in all other professions.
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More Blog Posts by Joseph Lawler
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/07/05/brooks-vs-the-tea-party
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Casey Abell| 7.5.11 @ 12:22PM
When news breaks we break in...
Bears defecate in woods. Sun rises in east. Tomorrow follows today. David Brooks carries water for Obama.
LC Jackboot | 7.5.11 @ 7:10PM
At least he has perfectly creased trousers.
Ryan Ellis | 7.5.11 @ 12:24PM
Mr. Brooks' condescending advice to the taxpayer movement and the GOP will, I am certain, be taken with all the seriousness it so richly deserves.
Derek Leaberry| 7.5.11 @ 12:34PM
It takes a lot of sand for a moral retrograde like David Brooks to be throwing around insults about Tea Partiers having a lack of "moral decency". What is a lack of "moral decency" and who are the moral degenerate? Perhaps it is someone who supports abortion as does David Brooks? Or perhaps it is someone who supports homosexual "marriage" as does David Brooks? Or perhaps it is someone who supports the homosexualization and feminization as does David Brooks? No, David Brooks is the one who wallows in moral indecency proudly. He's no conservative and should be read out of the conservative movement.
JP| 7.5.11 @ 12:57PM
"By the way, one of Brooks's complaints about the Tea Party is that "The members of this movement do not accept the legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities." "
The "intellectual class", when it comes down to it, is just as self-serving as any other special interest. They are no more to be trusted than SEIU or the Global Warming proponents.
tonypal| 7.5.11 @ 1:05PM
So now we're being lectured to by an "intellectual" who thought Obama was destined for greatness due to the crease in his pants. If I want to hear from a real intellectual, I'll turn to the late William F. Buckley, who famously and correctly stated "I'd rather be governed by the first 2000 names in the Boston telephone directory than by the faculty of Harvard."
Aarradin| 7.5.11 @ 1:05PM
Respect has to be earned. Once you've proven that you are not a reliable source of information, its almost impossible to regain the trust that you've lost. The NY Times has probably done more than any other publication to destroy any confidence that general public has for the "legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities". Paul Krugman alone can take credit for a lot of that.
Also, it doesn't help that the Times has moderate liberals like Brooks writing columns that purport to represent Conservatives. Brooks is not now and never has been a Conservative. Neither is anyone else currently employed by the NY Times.
Deborah D | 7.5.11 @ 4:58PM
Thank you, Aarradin...excellent post. People like Brooks think he (and Obama) deserve respect automatically because they went to an Ivy League school -- that's all they have to prove. And, of course, who are we little people out here in flyover country trying to tell the idiots in D.C. and NY what's true. I grow extremely tired of these people who have lost touch with America.
PCC| 7.5.11 @ 9:52PM
Brooks did not attend an Ivy League school. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago.
Michael L. Hauschild| 7.5.11 @ 1:09PM
Are you sure this is the right Brooks? Sound to me, "It's good to be the intellectual."
Teflon93| 7.5.11 @ 1:12PM
What precisely makes one an intellectual? As soon as you can define that, we can talk about the unreasonableness of the "anti-intellectual", which otherwise is simply defined as "disdain toward those who consider themselves to be 'intellectuals'".
Louis Tully| 7.5.11 @ 1:29PM
the legitimacy of "scholars and intellectual authorities"
No one listens to me, and worse, they mock me!
Waaaahhhh
Oldefarte| 7.5.11 @ 1:38PM
Yeah, those scholars and intellectual authorities are the same ones that are currently occupying the White House and our government, and look to Hades where that has now gotten us all!!!!!
artesian jacket| 7.5.11 @ 1:44PM
Thank you Mr. Brooks, but I have had my fill of being governed by "intellectuals" that claim to know best how to spend my money by virtue of their Ivy League education.
martin j smith| 7.5.11 @ 2:47PM
David Brooks is a Socialist--so who the hell cares what he says. ? I do not. He and this other jerk on PBS whose name escapes me --the Socialist who supposedly took the "other side" but really it was a love fest. Mr Lawler--I am sorry if I am a bit fed up but I am. David Brooks views is NOT NEWS. At least to me--I wonder how many posters really care, but that is for them to say --or not.
Prester John| 7.5.11 @ 3:11PM
"The members of this movement do not accept the legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities."
Of course we do, it's just that scholars and authorities we accept are named Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Franklin, Jay, Hamilton, Morris, Sherman, Lee.......
Kingofthenet| 7.5.11 @ 3:17PM
We don't need no stinking 'Intellectuals' , just cause they can read books and write papers, doesn't make 'em better than me! I gots my Bible, My gun, and Lee Greenwood on the tape deck, all I needs...
Teflon93| 7.5.11 @ 3:47PM
You must be a self-described "Intellectual". You've surely got your Starbucks, your Little Red Book, your Che Guevara, your Birkenstocks, and your Rage Against the Machine on your pink iPod Shuffle.
Isn't there a Gay Pride parade you could be attending instead of hanging around proving what drooling, brain-addled idiots self-identified "intellectuals" are?
Derek Leaberry| 7.5.11 @ 3:49PM
If the economy free falls and food is scarce, Brooks can eat all his 99 cent rack books. He'll wish he took up farming.
martin j smith| 7.5.11 @ 3:54PM
Kingothenet sounds like your template Socialist. S/he sounds rather thin of substance, lacking anything but name calling and resorts to the moral equal of " My mommy is smarter than your mommy". Unless Kingofthenet is mocking Socialists ? ( on purpose or by mistake ? )
PattyMor| 7.5.11 @ 5:07PM
I went to a state supported university. So, I do not have an "elite" education. The only way to balance the budget is to stem the spending. Period. Neither party wants to be the bad guy and the "Bamster has no incentive to trim spending. Why? Because all that money generally flows to his voters.
Kingofthenet| 7.5.11 @ 5:55PM
All the REAL Big money flows to you right wing tax breaks for Exxon,Farmers and the Military-Industrial Complex. Welfare is 'chump change' by comparison.
W| 7.5.11 @ 7:04PM
King, guess who works for Exxon, Boeng, GE, Lockheed, and other member of the "military industrial complex?" Americans, mostly union members, that you pretend to like. GE is obama's favorite corp, with his pal Jeffrey Imelt. The tax code does not list deductions by the term left or right, any business or individual can claim a deduction if you qualify.
your words, military industrial complex, places you as a 60's college student, correct?
LC Jackboot | 7.5.11 @ 7:22PM
Unstated of course, is that somehow any 'tax break' for anyone is somehow immoral. Logically it follows that everyone has some unspecified tax burden i.e. "Their Fair Share" of taxes to be paid. Who has to pay and how much is always left out. The answer is they have NO CLUE about such details. The left NEVER worries about details. As long as the idea fits their ideology it has to be good. When it fails, as they always will, they can duck responsibility and blame it on someone else, with the media at their backs giving them credibility in the blame-shifting. Has ANY liberal EVER 'fessed up about a bad idea, that failed?
PCP Smoker| 7.5.11 @ 8:24PM
I'm a tea party member. Here is my reaction: "Ehh...uggh...uggghh...pant crease...pant crease...me like pant crease...me love pant crease"
Publius| 7.5.11 @ 9:59PM
Wow! You sure made Tea Party members look bad! Now get back on the short school bus and we'll see you tomorrow. You're doing great, really we're proud of you....