….[or High School Musical 4: The Beltway]
I’m sure that many of you have read David Brooks’ recent column in The New York Times (or should I say tirade), where he rants on and on about the evils of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly. However, what Mr. Brooks also did in his column—either intentionally or unintentionally—was to display intense disdain for the listeners and viewers of the above entertainers and pundits when he wrote that those entertainers expressed themselves using “spittle-flecked furor” and that they “represent a mere niche of the Republican Party”. Robert Stacy McCain wrote an excellent blog about Mr. Brooks’ obvious disdain for conservatives titled, “David Brooks Hates You” that is a must read. But, I feel that David Brooks displayed another emotion in his dreadful column besides just hatred, and if you will bear with me, I would like to translate Mr. Brooks’ column by reading between the lines and deciphering what he really means.—
“For the life of me, I can not understand why all of those bitter, xenophobic, Bible-thumping clingers love O’Reilly, Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity so much—particularly Limbaugh and Beck. I mean, why do hayseeds love those two chubby, former addicts more than me?! Don’t they all know that I am the favorite “conservative” of the liberal elites? Sure, O’Reilly , Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck might all have sky-high ratings and millions of listeners/viewers (and Beck has unheard of ratings for an afternoon slot), but I write for The New York Freaking Times!! And, I’m frequently on Meet the Press and PBS (shows so prestigious that they do not need actual viewers)—and people who listen to NPR love me (they can listen to me and get a free tote bag). That’s got to mean something. You see, I’ve got the much more sophisticated audience, so the Republican base should really appreciate me and listen to me more, instead of paying so much attention to what bloviators like Limbaugh and Beck have to say. But hey, all of us over at The Times realize that the Republican party is “no party of Einsteins”, so they really don’t know what’s best for them, do they? Oh well, you know what “they” say—a prophet is least appreciated in his own land.
Now, about Glenn Beck—God I hate that chubby, weeping Mormon, and all of his stupid viewers. Beck thinks that he’s so cool just because he was able to expose corruption in the NEA and ACORN, force Van Jones to resign, and inspire hundreds of thousands people to descend on DC in order to protest the Obama Administration’s big government programs. But so what? That’s nothing really. Don’t these bitter clingers who watch Beck know that I wrote “Bobos in Paradise”? Sure, nobody really read it, but all of the elite intelligentsia bought it to put on their bookshelves so that people who attend their cocktail parties would think that they were smart and well-read.
Furthermore, I am famous for my pearls of wisdom, such as saying that Sarah Palin isn’t ready to run for vice president because “experience matters” and calling her a “fatal cancer on the GOP” simply because she doesn’t think like me (see embed below). Now granted, Senator Obama had less real experience when he ran for president than Sarah Palin had when she ran for vice president. However, that’s really neither here nor there, because Barack Obama is much more like ME and runs in MY circles, whereas Sarah Palin does not—and that’s what those hayseeds who watch Beck, instead of listening to me, don’t understand. I mean, don’t they know who I think I am?
Also, I wasn’t a big fan of how Hannity, O’Reilly, and particularly Beck, yammered on and on about Van Jones until he resigned. (By the way, you all know that I really do have enough influence to get someone to resign if I wanted them to, right?) OK—so Van Jones may be a nutty 9/11 truther and a self-avowed communist, but he’s a friend of my colleague, Thomas Friedman. And besides, Van Jones is a lot like me in that we are both Ivy League educated elites. Furthermore, Jones also wrote a book that no one really read, but that elites like to display on their book shelves in order to create the impression being well-read. You know, come to think of it, maybe Thomas Friedman was on to something when he floated his idea of the US having a one party autocracy similar to that of China. I mean, it would be nice if me, Thomas Friedman and Van Jones ran things, because we know so much more than the troglodytes in the Republican base who listen to Limbaugh, Beck, O’Reilly and Hannity, but I digress.
And finally, I am no fan of the way O’Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck relentlessly attack Barack Obama, because I have a serious man-crush on him. We have exchanged emails and I was extremely impressed by him. Unlike the Republican base who likes Beck, Limbaugh, O’Reilly and Hannity better than me, Barack Obama understands me and respects me. He can even read my mind.
Maybe President Obama will invite me to go with him to the next big White House gala. That would be awesome! We could talk all night about me, and then HIM, and then me again. (I just hope Obama doesn’t ask Chris Matthews to go with him instead of me. I know—next time President Obama calls me, I can three-way call Chris Matthews and I can trick him into saying something bad about Obama, but I digress.) Then, all of those bitter hicks in the Republican base can see how cool I really am, and then they will be sorry that they never listen to me.”
—Translation: You’re David Brooks and you’re jealous.
(H/T to Stuart Schwartz of The American Thinker for the title.)
This diary was originally posted on The Minority Report.
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
This is hilarious Susannah! and accurate. nt
clowngirl (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 12:13AM EST (link)Thanks clowngirl....
Susannah (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 12:23AM EST (link)I’m glad that you liked it.
Brooks has gone under my own bus
TNJim (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 12:42AM EST (link)along with Peggy Noonan, Michelle Bernard, John McLame, Joe Scarborough, I could go on. Thing is about Brooks’ Times piece, Rush was right all along. Too bad it took the election of a socialist to wake people up, but oh well.
BTW, Erick Brockway and I are making this viral on twitter
Hashtags R us!
Thanks Jim....
Susannah (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 12:47AM EST (link)You’re awesome.
Brooks is self-serving.
Loren Heal (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 1:41AM EST (link)It’s his defining characteristic, I think.
In this case, he’s lashing out at talk radio because it is A) a safe target and B) what Obama would want and C) above all, going to increase the number of people who read his crap.
Not me.
Oh, and recommended.
–
Join the Concord Project, and follow @lheal, if you dare.
Thanks Socrates....
Susannah (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 1:53PM EST (link)Oh, and excellent analysis of Brooks.
Just by seeing the title only before reading your piece,
Husker (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 2:00AM EST (link)I could picture Brooks writing the word ‘troglodyte’ at least once citing his ‘real’ disdain for us commoners.
Are you sure you’re not Brooks in disguise? /sarc
Well done.
BTW Rec’d
Thanks Husker...and no I'm not Brooks in disguise....
Susannah (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 1:58PM EST (link)….Thanks again for the recco.
That would be some disguise.
Loren Heal (Diary) Thursday, October 8th at 1:39AM EST (link)ahem.
–
Join the Concord Project, and follow @lheal, if you dare.
Wonderful job, Susannah! You managed to make
janis (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 11:03AM EST (link)David Brooks sound as snotty as he really is. Just from watching him in the past, I’d say he was one of those kids in high school who was so inwardly focused that he made everybody else nervous. The kind who everyone privately predicts will either be a huge success or a maniacal serial killer.
And instead he ends up writing for the NYT. What a comedown.
Thanks Janis....
Susannah (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 2:17PM EST (link)….Oh, and hilarious analysis of Brooks.
Guys, if you're curious, my diary made the Morning Read on The Hill's Blog Briefing Room....
Susannah (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 2:25PM EST (link)….And, so did Erick Erickson (the link is below).
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room
Thanks so much for tolerating my shameless self promotion.
Congratulations!!!!! nt
mom2oneson (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 3:05PM EST (link)Thanks....
Susannah (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 3:11PM EST (link)Dittos on the congrats. nt
TNJim (Diary) Thursday, October 8th at 12:27AM EST (link)Thanks so much Jim....Oh, and Beaglescout informed me....
Susannah (Diary) Thursday, October 8th at 1:01AM EST (link)…..that Robert Stacy McCain wrote a blog today in response to my diary here (that was really nice of Beaglescout to let me know). Anyway, I was extremely psyched when I found that out (the link is below).
http://rsmccain.blogspot.com/2009/10/david-brooks-and-all-of-those-bitter.html
I tried to post a comment there,
TNJim (Diary) Thursday, October 8th at 1:32AM EST (link)selected wordpress, since that’s what is used here, but it didn’t take. I was dittoing Aaron and added “I tend to click recommend on her stuff before I even read it now. I know I won’t be disappointed”
.
I do the same for mailloux’s stuff, and Art is quickly becoming a favorite, too. I like the way he usues his experiences in government to drive his analogies home.
I agree Jim....
Susannah (Diary) Thursday, October 8th at 2:14PM EST (link)Mailloux and Art are both excellent bloggers. They are two of my favorites, and I end of reccoing almost all of what they write.
Oh, and thanks for trying to comment on RS McCain’s blog–I appreciate the effort and the compliment.
Why Is He Pretending?
lukematthews (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 6:31PM EST (link)For heaven’s sake, the man is a blatantly obvious collectivist that believes the ‘little’ people are not capable of making decisions about their government much less their own lives. Why is he even pretending to be a conservative? Is the New Obama Times so desperate to have someone who will assume that label they are using him as a foil? Are the wingnuts in the establishment this stupid they think this kind of rhetoric or posing will gain them any power or authority? I cannot believe someone could be this duplicitous and still sleep at night. Oh, that’s right, he’s a statist. All hail to the state.
What a moron.
Hilarious and recommended.
spainishirish (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 7:37PM EST (link)Several lines made me laugh out loud, particularly the one about ESP.
Brooks almost has gone beyond parody and is a target-rich environment, but this is solid as usual, Susannah.
Thanks spainishirish....
Susannah (Diary) Wednesday, October 7th at 9:45PM EST (link)I appreciate the kind words.
Brooks didn't go the Ivy League
helveticus Thursday, October 8th at 1:19AM EST (link)He went to the University of Chicago. It probably still galls him he wasn’t good enough to get in to Yale , Princeton, or Harvard,.
Well, I was told that the University of Chicago is an Ivy League equivalent....
Susannah (Diary) Thursday, October 8th at 2:03PM EST (link)…But, then again, maybe I’m prejudiced because my grandfather went there. What I probably should have said was that, “Both me and Van Jones went to elite, prestigious universities.”
Susannah, this was great writing
Cheryl (Diary) Thursday, October 8th at 1:26AM EST (link)I read it the other day and laughed by butt off. Great job and recommended by this California Dittohead!
“A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America, than the whole force of the common enemy.” –Samuel Adams
“The administrative state has inserted its big paws into our houses, from the toilet bowl to the light socket. Now if it would just stretch those paws from the one to the other at the same time, we might begin to recapture the spirit of ’76.” –Scott Johnson, Powerlineblog.com
Thanks Cheryl....
Susannah (Diary) Thursday, October 8th at 2:08PM EST (link)….I’m glad that you liked it and that it made you laugh.
I was worried that I might have found it funny, but that my sense of humor might have been different from most people’s.
Susannah: Thanks so much for your Brooks slam -- my guess
ColdWarrior (Diary) Friday, October 9th at 1:08AM EST (link)is that David Brooks never was, nor ever has been, a member of the Republican Party — that is, he’s never been a precinct committeeman.
As is true about much of the “chattering class” in D.C.
I much prefer taking advice from people who deign to speak as “Republicans” who have actually “served” their country in some capacity, either in the political realm as an elected official or as a member of the military who actually picked up a rifle — my review of Brooks’s bio shows nothing like that — he’s just so much smarter than the rest of us!
I doubt he was even a “lowly” precinct committeeman!
Thanks again and keep writing!
ColdWarrior
www.theprecinctproject.com
In 2012, will YOU become a “voting member” of the Republican Party in your precinct?
Where it all started. Twitter @kaltkrieger
Unified Patriots.
Learn how to GOTV at The Concord Project and at Procinct and
It's amazing how many of the "experts" have never
Achance (Diary) Friday, October 9th at 3:41AM EST (link)actually done anything, and I don’t consider a short stint as a political appointee as having done anything either. The only qualification for most appointed positions is “friend of the governor” or “friend of the President or Secretary.” A resume that shows only graduation from college and then becoming staff or an appointee only shows that you have good connections, or more likely good parents, and is no indication of skill.
In Vino Veritas
No, thank you CW....
Susannah (Diary) Friday, October 9th at 12:46PM EST (link)….For all of your hard work as a precinct committeeman.
And, I agree with you and Art that Brooks probably never has been a member of the Republican Party or done a whole lot outside of journalism.
All I ask for is one ..concrete ..provable ..instance of .....hate
AKSteveB (Diary) Saturday, October 10th at 4:32PM EST (link)from Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity or any of the talk show guys and gals. I liked Brooks for a long time, and always thought yall were too harsh on him. I guess yet again, others saw it before I did.
Hell is other people – Sartre