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The Narrative: David Brooks' Fantasy World

By Big Tent Democrat

David Brooks builds a fantasy world where his favored polices, tax cuts, would have been rational policy in response to the Great Recession:

The Democrats could be heading toward a defeat of historic proportions in November, but it is possible to imagine a scenario in which things might have turned out differently:

On Dec. 16, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama and his senior aides gathered for a briefing on the state of the U.S. economy. It was horrifying. The economy was on the verge of collapse. There was little prospect that robust growth would be returning anytime soon. Many of the president-elect’s advisers had been reading histories of the New Deal. They had ambitious plans to address the crisis: federal jobs programs, new building projects, new spending initiatives. This was no time to worry about deficits, they said. This was an opportunity to address needs that had been neglected for decades.

Obama, in this fanciful version, held up his hand. He told his aides to put away the history books and reject the New Deal comparisons. Unlike in 1932, Americans today have a raging distrust of Washington, he observed. Living through a crisis caused by excessive debt, they will viscerally recoil at the prospect of federal debt without end. “Somehow,” Obama concluded, “we have to address the crisis without further terrifying the American people.”

(Emphasis supplied.) Brooks' fantasy and the reality of policies that would work are unconnected. Consider the words he puts in Obama's mouth. "Unlike in 1932, Americans of today have a raging distrust of Washington." Put aside the new revelation that Herbert Hoover had inspired deep trust in Washington, Brook's imaginary Obama does not ask what the right policy is for the crisis, rather what policy would play best politically. Brooks is not imagining a Profile in Courage here. More . . .

It gets better. Brooks, who centers his argument on the fear of government debt, imagines Obama's response to this fear as - wait for it - tax cuts. Because in Brooks' mind (as in every Republican's mind), debt caused by tax cuts is not really debt.

The stimulus package, [Brooks' imaginary Obama] continued, should rely heavily on cutting payroll taxes. This, he argued, will send a quick jolt to the economy without concentrating power in Washington. It will deliver a sharp psychological boost to the middle class. It might even be bipartisan. Obama noted that John McCain had a $445 billion stimulus plan along these lines and his fellow Republican senator, Mel Martinez, a $713 billion plan.

Yes, because the problem was psychological you see. Americans are too stupid to realize that government debt is, well, government debt. Brooks' fantasy continues:

Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic committee chairmen were upset. For decades they’d been storing up spending proposals. This was their chance to pass them all. The president told the House speaker that she would get many of her priorities, but not in a 100-day rush. Privately, Democratic aides developed a political strategy they called Save Nancy From Herself.

She may know San Francisco, they warned, but she doesn’t know America. If she has her way, the Democratic Party will spiral back to 40 percent support and she’ll be minority leader again.

This is the liberal overreach nonsense that Time magazine is selling. It is, of course, a flat out lie. Obam got his way. No one else.

But Brooks' entire fantasy is a lie, and a deliberate one. This is part of The Beltway Narrative that will seek to blame progressivism for their own failings.

Indeed, this David Brooks column tells you all you need to now about how foolish Obama has been to seek the favor of people like Brooks. It is a revealing column - both about Brooks and the foolishness in the Obama set that wooed Brooks.

The consequences of this foolishness will be the beatdown Dems will receive in November. The Beltway Dems get all the credit for it.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 03, 2010 (boomark / email).