Daily Clips: March 8th, 2016
David Brooks asks his fellow Republicans to come to their senses: Call me crazy, but if “my” party’s best two options were politicians like Trump and Cruz, I’d ditch my party fast. Blatant racism and bigotry is usually where I draw the line. But Brooks cannot do that. It’s so weird to see in real time. He simply cannot get himself to realize that his party has left him. It’s like watching someone trudge through a terrible relationship where the other person has moved on, but the other person still thinks everything is fine. In meme form, this:
David Brooks circa 2016
Anyways, like all other “middle-of-the-road conservatives,” Brooks is hoping for a brokered convention this summer. He admits that this “would be bedlam for a few days, but a broadly acceptable new option might emerge.” So much for democracy, huh?!
What’s the solution to political polarization in the US?
Fine, the 1860s and the 1960s were bad. But the fact that the nation hasn’t fallen into civil war and our leaders haven’t been gunned down is a pathetically low bar for a first-world country with the greatest military and strongest economy on Earth. Even during the tumult of the 1960s, Congress created Medicare and Medicaid, enacted landmark civil-rights legislation, and passed a sweeping education bill that still serves as the foundation for federal funding of public schools today.
Ever since Obama’s first two years in office, Congress hasn’t done anything except shut down the government and come close to tanking the economy with a near-default on the nation’s debt. Immigration reform stalled. Gun reform went nowhere. Congress can’t even agree to declare war on ISIS, and now that Antonin Scalia has died, it might leave the Supreme Court short-handed for more than a year.
Tolerant white working-class voters, turned off by Trump, may side with Democrats:
Democrats are going after that more tolerant sector with a progressive populism initially and charismatically championed by Bernie Sanders but increasingly advocated by Hillary Clinton as well.
Tweet of the day:
Ted Cruz says his tax plan will "work for you," which is true, if by "you" he means the top 0.1 percent https://t.co/p7m1e2rICm
— Matt O'Brien (@ObsoleteDogma) March 7, 2016
