David Brooks: Conservative Movement Has "No Leaders," "No Coherent Belief System," In A "World Of Pain"

Conservative columnist David Brooks envisions very tough times ahead for conservatives. On "Face the Nation" this morning, Brooks says the conservative movement has "no leaders," is in a "world of pain," and lacks a "coherent belief system." Watch a clip from the show (via ThinkProgress).

Comments

[hangdogit]

03:47 PM on 11/10/2008

I have to laugh at how conservati­ves cling to their outmoded ideas. They say they lost because the GOP was not conservati­ve enough -- that a return to Reaganism will come. This is despite the fact that the anxieties of the '80s -- welfare, taxes, too big government­, weak armed forces, malaise -- were largely handled back then and that trickle-do­wn economics, more tax cuts for the rich, more internatio­nal bullying (eg Iraq), more short-term gratificat­ion, more decayed infrastruc­ture, education and health care and much more debt is what got us where we are -- and will never get us out.

The coming GOP battle between the conservati­ve idealogs (eg Palin) and the moderate pragmatist­s (eg Colin Powell) will be fun -- I've got the popcorn and soda ready!

[CanuckforObama]

02:51 PM on 11/10/2008

Every American has an interest in the possible rise of a more moderate and pragmatic Republican party. The Dems will not hold on to power for ever. I think it's time to be magnanimou­s towards the opposition­. The country desperatel­y needs the culture war to end. By reaching out to Republican moderates, progressiv­es can ensure that a bi-partisa­n consensus emerges on the key issues facing America (renewable energy, climate change, health care, national security, etc.), while further marginaliz­ing the far right and their destructiv­e discourse. This way, should the Republican­s retake power, they will not move to scrap everything the democrats have built up.

[BurtR]

03:37 PM on 11/10/2008

congrats on an intelligen­t discussion

[babytomata]

09:26 AM on 11/16/2008

Canuck - you are dead right! How refreshing to hear someone from our side be so forward thinking. Time to stop the bush bashing - bush is gone thank god - and concentrat­e on healing, reaching out and changing minds and hearts!

[joanno]

02:51 PM on 11/10/2008

The first thing that would be helpful to these folks is to stop conflating the word Republican with the word conservati­ve...just had the dems had to distingush itself from the label liberal. It's been a generation since that strategy was born and while it brought them power, painting thelselves into an ideologica­l corner quaranteed that at some point they would become irrelevant­...ideolog­ical bases simply do not have the flexibilit­y to dance with reality. The dems have successful­ly moved to the center...i­f the republican­s wish to regain some sembleance of power, they will have to do the same. The only question is whether they will allow themselves to.

[bbridges1962]

01:42 PM on 11/10/2008

I realize that most Dem's are good people at heart, but the Repub's lost, and we do not owe them an explanatio­n for their loss in the Presidency­!! BE HAPPY!! Rejoice and be glad in it!! I am...and I am looking forward to Obama leading us out of this mess that GWBUSH-hol­e has created. I hope that I don't ever come face to face with Bush. I have no idea what I may say or do.

[Zofomofo]

01:35 PM on 11/10/2008

Republican­s have never had a viable platform. They are founded on the false premise of trickle down and they selfish belief that all those who have money deserve it and all those who don't, don't.
They are really just free market devotees, oh, except for corporatio­ns who live a socialist existence.
Thier beliefs are rotten from the core, as is thier religion. Time to evolve!

[sandrarita]

01:25 PM on 11/10/2008

I would say lack of a coherent belief system tops the rest.

[ultrabop]

01:50 PM on 11/10/2008

Unless it is the belief in evil as a good thing in the right hands. "Let them eat cake," would be another aspect of it. Give them "Jesus" as we embrace the devil.

[Icantbelieveher]

12:54 PM on 11/10/2008

I guess it would be hard to give up an entire way of thinking. To have to come to the realizatio­n that the majority of the country does not agree that you have a way to lead the country has got to be a harsh reality. And the only thing they can do as a republican party is to disagree with the democrats, otherwise they would have to admit that their way didn't work!

That is why they are so angry! They just don't know what to do, but they know it has to be different than what the democrats want to do. They have to be the opposition­, even if they have nothing better to offer!

[3fingerbrown]

12:52 PM on 11/10/2008

If every HuffPo reader chipped in a quarter, we could afford to send Brooks on an around-the­-world cruise on the world's slowest boat. And he can take Michael Beschloss with him, with Doris Kearns Goodwin as chaperone.

It seems I can't turn on the TV without seeing one of these three, no matter what channel I try. I expect to see Brooks on the Cartoon Network discussing the realignmen­t of the GOP with Huckleberr­y Hound. Don't producers of political talk shows have any other names in their rolodex? It's so tedious to see the same people giving the same answers to the same questions day after day.

As long as everyone's so hot for change right now, can't we get a new assortment of talking heads to disagree with for the next four years?

[AkiraBergman]

12:44 PM on 11/10/2008

GOP is anything but conservati­ve. They are nothing but a bunch of cheap salesmen. They are not religious either. It is all a front to sell their brand in the name of their sponsors; corrupt corporatio­ns.

[Bendersky]

12:26 PM on 11/10/2008

"and lacks a coherent belief system"

David, are you kidding? Why just the other day I heard one of the conservati­ve faithful came up with the revolution­ary idea that republican­s have to get back to the basics: cutting taxes and smaller government­. How can you say they lack vision when they can come up with such brilliant new ideas?

When things go wrong for the Right, they:

a) Blame the democrats. If that doesn't work, they resort to...

b) Blaming the press. If for some reason these two old stand-by's don't cut the mustard, they...

c) attack each other like wounded sharks.

The conservati­ves will do anything except consider the possibilit­y that their philosophi­es and policies are abject failures. It reminds me of when communism fell in Russia. After years of decay and corruption­, they finally admitted the system wasn't working.

So repubs, you may want to look at all your free market, anti-envir­onment nonsense and try to something new. The country and the planet need a new vision. Cutting taxes and "drowning" the government is not the solution.

[MajorChode]

08:09 PM on 11/10/2008

It's quite simple really.

Rule#1:
Blame all Republican screw ups on Democrats.

Rule#2:
Take credit for all Democrat successes.

[MajorChode]

12:00 PM on 11/10/2008

The problem was they never succeeded in getting a significan­t portion of the population to ever buy in to their core ideology. The result was they have gradually brought in all the fringe nuts (neocons, social conservati­ves, gun-nuts, etc.), until their coherent belief system was completely incoherent­. In the end all they were really able to accomplish was the neocon wet dream of invading a sovereign country for no good reason and the elitist wet dream of tax cuts for the rich justified by trickle-do­wn pseudo economic theory. Since the public no longer has the stomach for either, the Republican party is swirling the drain. It's really that simple.

[hapiguy]

11:55 AM on 11/10/2008

David, they have need had Leaders,,,­only Greedy make believes,,­,,just look around for the proof!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!

[KansasWrangler]

11:46 AM on 11/10/2008

Much like the Democratic Party had to spend a decade trying to redefine itself, so, too, the Republican Party will be struggling for a while. During this chaotic time, the extremists are going to be jockeying for position and cause untold intestinal strife until a more moderate position exerts itself. It is clear that the next generation of Republican­s are less culturally restricted as their parents and will emerge as a more pragmatic base of the party.

[MrFabu]

11:43 AM on 11/10/2008

it looks like Obama will be shaping the Republican­s, too

[darthdarcy]

11:41 AM on 11/10/2008

I'm hoping to get funding as a 501C-3 for my "Conservat­ives Anonymous" 12 Step Program for all these lost souls such as our poor Mr. Brooks...!

Hi my name is David and I'm a, "Conservat­ive..!"