Title : "Highly educated metropolitan elites have become something of a self-enclosed Brahmin class."
link : "Highly educated metropolitan elites have become something of a self-enclosed Brahmin class."
"Highly educated metropolitan elites have become something of a self-enclosed Brahmin class."
The self-enclosed Brahmin David Brooks concedes at the outset of "Did the F.B.I. Just Re-Elect Donald Trump?" (NYT).But the Trumpian propaganda turns what is an unfortunate social chasm into venomous conspiracy theory. It simply assumes, against a lot of evidence, that the leading institutions of society are inherently corrupt, malevolent and partisan and are acting in bad faith.
If only Trump were careful and merely posited a hypothesis.
Ironically, Brooks is simply assuming that. It doesn't ring true to me. When does Trump do that? All the time? Everyone the regime attacks he presumes is virtuous? That's an overbroad assumption about overbroad assumptions.
Trump’s political career has been kept afloat by elite scorn. The more elites scorn him, the more Republicans love him.
Republicans? A lot of Republicans hate him. I don't think the word you want there is "Republicans." Maybe: Republicans minus the self-enclosed Brahmin Republicans, plus a lot of untouchables Democrats think are supposed to be Democrats.
The key criterion for leadership in the Republican Party today is having the right enemies.
The only key criterion Trump had was appeal to outsiders. His enemies were people with leadership in the Republican Party.
Into this situation walks the F.B.I. There’s a lot we don’t know about the search at Mar-a-Lago. But we do know how the Republican Party reacted. The right side of my Twitter feed was ecstatic. See! We really are persecuted!... The investigation into Trump was seen purely as a heinous Regime plot.
Purely? I've about had it with Brooks and his "simply"s and "purely"s. The Trump side is always about just one thing — no complexity, no nuance. That's the mindset of Brooks's self-enclosed Brahmin class. They are sophisticated and multi-faceted. Those other people are shallow dolts.
At least for now, the search has shaken the Republican political landscape. Several weeks ago, about half of Republican voters were ready to move on from Trump, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll....
He's talking about a poll that asked who Republican voters would vote for if the presidential primary were held today. 49% said Trump. That means they picked him over everyone else as the candidate. Coming in second was Ron DeSantis, with 25%. Trump was still blowing DeSantis away, and DeSantis is offering to carry on the Trump tradition (without all the extra baggage).
I wouldn't say that's Republicans "ready to move on." It's more like Trump triumphant.
Why was the trigger pulled on the search? Wasn't it about a fear that Trump's 2024 momentum was getting out of control? They just misjudged how people would react to the Mar-a-Lago raid. Now, I suppose they need to try to say, the raid was entirely nonpolitical, just following normal procedure, without any thought for whether it would increase Trump's power, which, unfortunately, it did.
In a normal society, when politicians get investigated or charged, it hurts them politically....
"Normal." Who made it abnormal? Brooks is too self-enclosed to self-examine. "Normal" is another one of his unacknowledged simple assumptions.
What happens if a prosecutor charges Trump and he is convicted just as he is cruising to the G.O.P. nomination or maybe even the presidency? What happens if the legal system, using its criteria, decides Trump should go to prison at the very moment that the electoral system, using its criteria, decides he should go to the White House? I presume in those circumstances Trump would be arrested and imprisoned.
Here you go with those presumptions again. Brooks is still holding out hope of containing the Trump monster. The man must be put in a cage! It's the only way. But it's this overreach that puts you and your highly educated metropolitan elites in an ever-worse position to do the one thing that you need to do: Be better than him and win the contest!
I also presume we would see widespread political violence from incensed Trump voters who would conclude that the Regime has stolen the country.
And there's your knee-jerk accusation — talk about simple assumptions! — that Trump supporters will be violent. I guess that's the last desperate hope: violence. From the other side. Those maniacs will lose their mind!
In my view, this is the most likely path to a complete democratic breakdown.... ... America absolutely needs to make sure that Trump does not get another term as president....
Are you for or against democratic breakdown? To say "America absolutely needs to make sure that Trump does not get another term as president" is to say there's a higher priority than having a democratic election and seeing who gets chosen by the people. You're saying we can't trust the people. They are deluded and stupid.
My impression is that the F.B.I. had legitimate reasons to do what it did. My guess is it will find some damning documents that will do nothing to weaken Trump’s support.
What are you picturing that's "damning"? You guess it won't weaken Trump’s support, but it will nevertheless be "damning." I can't think what this material would be. Something in the documents — not just that he took some documents that, under a statute, he wasn't supposed to take — but there's something revealed in these documents that we don't already know? What would it be? Dear Diary, I know I lost the election, but I'm just too ashamed to admit it....
Brooks concludes:
I’m also convinced that, at least for now, it has unintentionally improved Trump’s re-election chances. It has unintentionally made life harder for Trump’s potential primary challengers and motivated his base.
Unintentionally?! Brooks seems to be admitting what Trump supporters think: The raid was intended to hurt Trump's political chances. I don't think that's what Brooks intended to say. I think he wanted to portray the raid as neutrally principled FBI professionalism grounded in devotion to the rule of law.
It feels as though we’re walking toward some sort of storm and there’s no honorable way to alter our course.
No honorable way but we absolutely needs to make sure that the enemy is defeated? If Trump wafted those 2 ideas, the self-enclosed Brahmin class would be accusing him of fomenting insurrection.
But the Trumpian propaganda turns what is an unfortunate social chasm into venomous conspiracy theory. It simply assumes, against a lot of evidence, that the leading institutions of society are inherently corrupt, malevolent and partisan and are acting in bad faith.
If only Trump were careful and merely posited a hypothesis.
Ironically, Brooks is simply assuming that. It doesn't ring true to me. When does Trump do that? All the time? Everyone the regime attacks he presumes is virtuous? That's an overbroad assumption about overbroad assumptions.
Trump’s political career has been kept afloat by elite scorn. The more elites scorn him, the more Republicans love him.
Republicans? A lot of Republicans hate him. I don't think the word you want there is "Republicans." Maybe: Republicans minus the self-enclosed Brahmin Republicans, plus a lot of untouchables Democrats think are supposed to be Democrats.
The key criterion for leadership in the Republican Party today is having the right enemies.
The only key criterion Trump had was appeal to outsiders. His enemies were people with leadership in the Republican Party.
Into this situation walks the F.B.I. There’s a lot we don’t know about the search at Mar-a-Lago. But we do know how the Republican Party reacted. The right side of my Twitter feed was ecstatic. See! We really are persecuted!... The investigation into Trump was seen purely as a heinous Regime plot.
Purely? I've about had it with Brooks and his "simply"s and "purely"s. The Trump side is always about just one thing — no complexity, no nuance. That's the mindset of Brooks's self-enclosed Brahmin class. They are sophisticated and multi-faceted. Those other people are shallow dolts.
At least for now, the search has shaken the Republican political landscape. Several weeks ago, about half of Republican voters were ready to move on from Trump, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll....
He's talking about a poll that asked who Republican voters would vote for if the presidential primary were held today. 49% said Trump. That means they picked him over everyone else as the candidate. Coming in second was Ron DeSantis, with 25%. Trump was still blowing DeSantis away, and DeSantis is offering to carry on the Trump tradition (without all the extra baggage).
I wouldn't say that's Republicans "ready to move on." It's more like Trump triumphant.
Why was the trigger pulled on the search? Wasn't it about a fear that Trump's 2024 momentum was getting out of control? They just misjudged how people would react to the Mar-a-Lago raid. Now, I suppose they need to try to say, the raid was entirely nonpolitical, just following normal procedure, without any thought for whether it would increase Trump's power, which, unfortunately, it did.
In a normal society, when politicians get investigated or charged, it hurts them politically....
"Normal." Who made it abnormal? Brooks is too self-enclosed to self-examine. "Normal" is another one of his unacknowledged simple assumptions.
What happens if a prosecutor charges Trump and he is convicted just as he is cruising to the G.O.P. nomination or maybe even the presidency? What happens if the legal system, using its criteria, decides Trump should go to prison at the very moment that the electoral system, using its criteria, decides he should go to the White House? I presume in those circumstances Trump would be arrested and imprisoned.
Here you go with those presumptions again. Brooks is still holding out hope of containing the Trump monster. The man must be put in a cage! It's the only way. But it's this overreach that puts you and your highly educated metropolitan elites in an ever-worse position to do the one thing that you need to do: Be better than him and win the contest!
I also presume we would see widespread political violence from incensed Trump voters who would conclude that the Regime has stolen the country.
And there's your knee-jerk accusation — talk about simple assumptions! — that Trump supporters will be violent. I guess that's the last desperate hope: violence. From the other side. Those maniacs will lose their mind!
In my view, this is the most likely path to a complete democratic breakdown.... ... America absolutely needs to make sure that Trump does not get another term as president....
Are you for or against democratic breakdown? To say "America absolutely needs to make sure that Trump does not get another term as president" is to say there's a higher priority than having a democratic election and seeing who gets chosen by the people. You're saying we can't trust the people. They are deluded and stupid.
My impression is that the F.B.I. had legitimate reasons to do what it did. My guess is it will find some damning documents that will do nothing to weaken Trump’s support.
What are you picturing that's "damning"? You guess it won't weaken Trump’s support, but it will nevertheless be "damning." I can't think what this material would be. Something in the documents — not just that he took some documents that, under a statute, he wasn't supposed to take — but there's something revealed in these documents that we don't already know? What would it be? Dear Diary, I know I lost the election, but I'm just too ashamed to admit it....
Brooks concludes:
I’m also convinced that, at least for now, it has unintentionally improved Trump’s re-election chances. It has unintentionally made life harder for Trump’s potential primary challengers and motivated his base.
Unintentionally?! Brooks seems to be admitting what Trump supporters think: The raid was intended to hurt Trump's political chances. I don't think that's what Brooks intended to say. I think he wanted to portray the raid as neutrally principled FBI professionalism grounded in devotion to the rule of law.
It feels as though we’re walking toward some sort of storm and there’s no honorable way to alter our course.
No honorable way but we absolutely needs to make sure that the enemy is defeated? If Trump wafted those 2 ideas, the self-enclosed Brahmin class would be accusing him of fomenting insurrection.
Thus articles "Highly educated metropolitan elites have become something of a self-enclosed Brahmin class."
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