Traditionally, candidates who have attracted strong evangelical support have in part emphasized the need to lend a helping hand to the economically stressed and the least fortunate among us. Such candidates include George W. Bush, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum.
But Cruz’s speeches are marked by what you might call pagan brutalism. There is not a hint of compassion, gentleness and mercy. Instead, his speeches are marked by a long list of enemies, and vows to crush, shred, destroy, bomb them. When he is speaking in a church the contrast between the setting and the emotional tone he sets is jarring.
Cruz lays down an atmosphere of apocalyptic fear. America is heading off “the cliff to oblivion.” After one Democratic debate he said, “We’re seeing our freedoms taken away every day, and last night was an audition for who would wear the jackboot most vigorously.”
The fact is this apocalyptic diagnosis is ridiculous. The Obama administration has done things people like me strongly disagree with. But America is in better economic shape than any other major nation on earth. Crime is down. Abortion rates are down. Fourteen million new jobs have been created in five years.
Obama has championed a liberal agenda, but he hasn’t made the country unrecognizable. In 2008, federal spending accounted for about 20.3 percent of gross domestic product. In 2015, it accounted for about 20.9 percent.
But Cruz manufactures an atmosphere of menace in which there is no room for compassion, for moderation, for anything but dismantling and counterattack. And that is what he offers. Cruz’s programmatic agenda, to the extent that it exists in his speeches, is to destroy things: destroy the I.R.S., crush the “jackals” of the E.P.A., end funding for Planned Parenthood, reverse Obama’s executive orders, make the desert glow in Syria, destroy the Iran nuclear accord.
Some of these positions I agree with, but the lack of any positive emphasis, any hint of reform conservatism, any aid for the working class, or even any humane gesture toward cooperation is striking.
But Cruz’s speeches are marked by what you might call pagan brutalism. There is not a hint of compassion, gentleness and mercy. Instead, his speeches are marked by a long list of enemies, and vows to crush, shred, destroy, bomb them. When he is speaking in a church the contrast between the setting and the emotional tone he sets is jarring.
Cruz lays down an atmosphere of apocalyptic fear. America is heading off “the cliff to oblivion.” After one Democratic debate he said, “We’re seeing our freedoms taken away every day, and last night was an audition for who would wear the jackboot most vigorously.”
The fact is this apocalyptic diagnosis is ridiculous. The Obama administration has done things people like me strongly disagree with. But America is in better economic shape than any other major nation on earth. Crime is down. Abortion rates are down. Fourteen million new jobs have been created in five years.
Obama has championed a liberal agenda, but he hasn’t made the country unrecognizable. In 2008, federal spending accounted for about 20.3 percent of gross domestic product. In 2015, it accounted for about 20.9 percent.
But Cruz manufactures an atmosphere of menace in which there is no room for compassion, for moderation, for anything but dismantling and counterattack. And that is what he offers. Cruz’s programmatic agenda, to the extent that it exists in his speeches, is to destroy things: destroy the I.R.S., crush the “jackals” of the E.P.A., end funding for Planned Parenthood, reverse Obama’s executive orders, make the desert glow in Syria, destroy the Iran nuclear accord.
Some of these positions I agree with, but the lack of any positive emphasis, any hint of reform conservatism, any aid for the working class, or even any humane gesture toward cooperation is striking.
29 comments:
Stop reading Tiger Beat writer David Brooks. If an intellectual is one who chooses Presidents based on their pants crease then maybe that word doesn't mean what you think it does. He's a proven fool.
Ted Cruz is an intellectual. David Brooks is just a fashion and gossip reporter.
There's really no comparison.
Joe Wilson managed in two words to say something more important, more courageous, and more accurate than everything David Brooks ever wrote combined when he simply yelled "YOU LIE!"
Deal with that beta pussy pants crease boy.
Obama is driving the nation off a cliff (see, e.g., yesterday's Angeles Forest video) and DAVE is vexed that not SOME (uppity) PEOPLE are taking a tone about it.
It's "brutalism" to "destroy the I.R.S., crush the “jackals” of the E.P.A., end funding for Planned Parenthood." Instead, we should be compassionate in our dealings with fucked up viciously partisan government agencies and cronies which destroy lives, livelihoods, to say nothing of the environment! Anything less is "creating an atmosphere of menace." TFG.
"Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their Wookies."
Unless Cruz ends his speeches in those evangelical churches with that final declaration he's NOT BRUTAL ENOUGH!
The welfare state has been more brutal to minorities than anything else in the world.
The tyranny of low expectations is not soft. It's brutal. It only seems soft because the "compassionate" people never mention or even acknowledge the fact.
Brooks is quite comfortable in his life. People respect him no matter what stupid shit he says. He's achieved all he ever needed, SO DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING!
"The funny thing about that little white speck on the top of chicken shit. That little white speck is chicken shit too."
Caught a little of the Limbaugh show, with the host playing bits of Obama's interview from Matt Lauer. The sycophant asked the egomaniac about people in fear or upset this election cycle. Obama then answered with all the negative things that happened before his Presidency and agreed people would feel down. 7 years as President, and he can't come up with a positive impact he had I the majority of Americans.
And Brooks takes me pen to paper to whine about Cruz being being negative.
As for uncompromising, does Brooks not remember "I won"?
The fact is this apocalyptic diagnosis is ridiculous. The Obama administration has done things people like me strongly disagree with. But America is in better economic shape than any other major nation on earth. Crime is down. Abortion rates are down. Fourteen million new jobs have been created in five years.
But your rights? Eh, they are just words on paper. Right David? What do erosion of your rights mean in the face of economic prosperity. Those who would give up their essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary economic prosperity deserve neither Liberty or Prosperity. Because as of now, government seeks to control both.
As to the economy, of course it's better, we were at the bottom when he started, but it has been the slowest recovery since the great depression, due to many of the same policy mistakes.
The job creation has barely kept up with population growth. The work participation rate is still the worst since the 70's, and after all that spending, which everyone seems to forget. And wages are stagnant. We basically lost 6 - 7 years of real progress. The question is whether or not the country is better off than it would have been if Barack Obama went into a years long comma in January 2009?
Ha ha ha. Brooks. An eminently punchable face.
This morning for some reason the television had sound blabbing away in the room. These shows just love showing clips of Himself without jacket looking up to the camera this time, out of character, vulnerable, human, his daddy self saying, "... come together as one American family..." motherfkg CLICK
Oh you poor thing, remote, I didn't mean it. I'll never push your buttons that hard again.
Soory, D, you don't get to play dat. You don't get to do destroyer of all things American for seven straight years then in the next breath say come together as Americans. No. Your Party must be shaken to its core, for it will never go away, and Republicans must be completely transformed into something else, something capable of keeping jackasses checked. We are divorced. And you are dismissed.
Back to important things, poor remote, there, there, I'll put in new batteries and disinfect wipe off bugger finger prints and shine you up.
<Jacques de la chaîne>
My younger brother said the most remarkable thing. It's embarrassing. Brothers do not speak like this. But he does.
I wrote him saying I'm wearing a favorite shirt and described it. I said it is BRAND NEW and will be kept that way. I told him how I intend to care for it, 1/16 teaspoon soap on handwash cycle and careful drying. He'd recognize the shirt by the helicopter. I said "thank you" that of all trips we've taken, of all I've done on my own, that is the best of all.
The best part was it being so long and affording us doing everything possible.
A couple days later, yesterday, he wrote back saying were it anyone else he'd be jealous. c/p what he said. This kills me. You're going to think, Jesus Christ, gayor the mayor, but he's actually electrician, outdoors, building, roughneck, born again Christian, wife and two boys. He writes:
[But I can't say that because you really made the trip special for me. I remember how happy I was when you said you would go, and I have a lot of super special memories being there with you.
When I first read this email a few days ago, my knee jerk response was how beautiful you looked, I was totally blown away. We were in the hotel thingy in Lahinna for 3 days between the time shares and you fell asleep before we went to dinner and found out about the better than Big Wednesday]
!
Who talks like that? What brother talks like that to his older brother? James does.
If you met James, I dare say, you would like him a lot more than me. Everyone does. Together new people avoid me and go straight to James who has them telling their life stories, their dreams and despairs, their loves and their regrets. It's very odd to see. For me anyway. To test, I'll physically reposition slightly and gauge their repositioning. Yup. It's true. They move to avoid me and be more open to him. But he does not speak like this to them. That's going too far.
He convinced me to go. Our father had just died and the family assembled. I didn't want it to appear we were cutting out. Our mum was still in serious hazard. I don't care to travel on commercial planes anymore. I didn't want to plan a holiday. I was not into it. I just flat don't care about travel anymore. He did a lot of convincing and this is crucial, he paid for it. I think it was expensive. I don't know. My single contribution is finding $20.00 bill on the ground at frozen fruit drink hut. But it was the best time I ever had on vacation with anyone. I'm glad he thinks so too.
Confessions of a pineapple thief. This comes up first thing in a search. But turns out there's a musical group that assembled since called "pineapple thief." No fair. They took the title of my post and named their band after it.
</Jacques de la chaîne>
pagan brutalism ... not a hint of compassion, gentleness and mercy
This is the Gray Lady, after all, but, last I looked, the word was brutality.
And, if we're talking "compassion, gentleness and mercy", two words
Duranty, Stalin.
The few strengths we have in the economy are occurring despite Obama. Energy in particular, and technology outside of the failing ones he loves to subsidize at the expense of the ones that are working. There are also a lot of us in business who if Obama was a permanent problem would just give up and retire, but we keep going with daily increases in costs and regulation coming directly from his policies because we know he will be gone, and that eventually this country will come to it's senses and support the makers instead of the takers.
Can you pass a U.S. Citizenship test?
I'm embarrassed by one of the 2 I missed.
Chip- nice note.
The few strengths we have in the economy are occurring despite Obama.
I agree with Bags... A president can't do much directly to improve the economy, other than cut taxes and regulations, but he can surely and more easily hinder economic growth with more regulations and higher taxes.
What country does this guy Brooks live in?
Where does he live? You can tell by his writing: the state of denial (Washington D.C.).
And he was born a Canadian. You know who else was born in Canada?
HITLER!
Using jackboots as a metaphor should be a second degree Godwin offense. This is especially true as applied to Cruz supporters. I would guess that comfort, fit, and Velcro straps are big selling points when they choose their footwear. And nobody does apocalypse better than Obama. If he hadn't been elected President eight years ago, the ocean's rise would not have been stopped and the inhabitants of most major coastal cities would have drowned in floods.......Cruz has a decent sense of humor, and he becomes more likable with more exposure. He does, however, a scowling , irritable look about him. Charm is not his strong suit......There has seldom been a candidate with a more benign appearance than Romney, but the press managed to caricature him as some kind of animal abuser in weird underwear. Brooks supplies the model for the next thousand put downs of Cruz. There's a good chance they will work.....What I admire about Trump is that he's so much worse than pundits say he is. If Brooks offered a thoughtful, reasoned criticism of Trump's deficits, Trump wild tell him that he works for a failing newspaper and nobody reads him. The Emperor has no clothes, but he's still big enough to kick your butt little boy, so just shut up and go away from his parade.
James Taranto has a excellent takedown of the Brooks article in his Best of the Web column at the WSJ (assume you know how the Google thing works with WSJ paywall articles). Taranto basically says the only person with questionable character is Brooks, not Cruz.
If only it weren't just "the establishment" that hates Ted Cruz.
Eeeeek! Smaller government, lawful government and the constitution! Morals!
David Broooks just wet his man-panties.
David Brooks prefers corruption and incompetence. Wrapped in feel good dry cleaning.
Are we still pretending Brooks is some sort of "Conservative"? IRC, he hated Palin and voted for Obama in 2008.
From my perspective, he's just a slightly younger, Jewish, more liberal version of George Will.
From the SC decision:
"And because petitioner [Texas as represented by Cruz] has assured us that it will not seek to reincarcerate respondent [Haley] during the pendency of his ineffective assistance claim, ... the state is willing to allow the ineffective assistance claim to be litigated before proceeding to reincarcerate [respondent]"), the negative consequences for respondent of our judgment to vacate and remand in this case are minimal."
Texas (Cruz) agreed that Haley had a strong basis for appeal due to ineffective legal assistance (failing to notice the error regarding the dates of the convictions/crimes) and set him free pending the outcome of that appeal.
So what happened to Haley?
Lem said...
The few strengths we have in the economy are occurring despite Obama.
I agree with Bags... A president can't do much directly to improve the economy, other than cut taxes and regulations, but he can surely and more easily hinder economic growth with more regulations and higher taxes.
And even then, the president can propose a tax cut, but it's congress that has to legislate it, pass it, and get it to the president to sign into law. It's still on congress to do so.
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