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

[Bushwillresign]

I thought the republican party was made up of rich people, who think they are better than others because they have more money.
I thought the republican party was made up of religious people, who think they are better than others because their religion is better than the others.
I thought the republican party was made up of racist people, who think they are better than others because their race is better than others.

At first I thought that each republican did not necessarily have "all" of these problems, however upon further review, if your not against it, you are for it.

[trisha08]

Wow. The GOP really learned a lot from this loss. Look who is lining up for 2012.

Palin: far-right evangelical
Romney: far right mormon
Huckabee: far right baptist and Fox host

Let's just call the GOP what it really is: RACP "Real" American Christian Party.

[spartanmom]

Don't forget that Romney is a recent convert to the far right.
When he wanted to be governor of a liberal state he was pro-choice and his conversion coincided with his White House aspirations.

[DaOne]

And we care about this why?

[swift goat pet for truth]

As a lifetime liberal, I say we NEED an EFFECTIVE opposition party.
An effective opposition helps refine ideas, helps to keep from reaching too far, helps originate ideas that are useful and practical, but may not occur with our mindset.

To me, this is one big failure of the GOPers. They thought they knew it all, and ignored exploring ideas that did not fit in with their pre-determined mind set.

Plus, of course, the Dems were really ineffective in their opposition. That is what worries me about being in the majority. They were a lousy opposition. Can they be effective in the leadership role.

[bonofide]

Excuse me, I just found out my World`s Tiniest Violin was out of tune.

[btanner]

Not that the self-righteous conservatives would even read any of the comments, but here's what comes to mind when I think of conservati­ves/conser­vatism: intrude into other people's lives by telling them how they should live their lives and what they can and cannot do, don't want to pay taxes to the point of breaking government down, government has a role in promoting businesses only but not in improving the lives of its citizens, don't care about the environment, don't care about civil rights and social justice, anti-abortion but pro-war, really want to make the US a theocracy.

[BushisLiar]

They are not anti-abortion, they are anti-choice, if they were truly anti-abortion they would support sex education and promote the use and availability of contraceptives which would greatly reduce abortions. The whole "pro-life" stance is just another ruse to allow them to foist their backwards religious superstitions upon others.

[spartanmom]

Right

If they were really anti-abortion on the grounds that it was murder there could be no exceptions for rape or incest.

Morally a consensually conceived fetus has as much right to life as one that is the result of rape or incest.

If they really believed their own rhetoric, they would not be softening their stand to better market it.

[swift goat pet for truth]

And their "pro-life" stance ends one second after birth.

[lauram]

They're against helping people w/social programs because those social services take away a big "product" from the churches. See, if you're down and out, according to the conservative theology, you should be a burden to your family, not to society as a whole. If you're down and out w/no family, you should be helped by the churches - IF you adhere to their dogmas. So, when you offer someone social services through the government w/o forcing them to listen to lectures on the loving-god-created hell, you're taking away one of your primo carrots. The church is a business and they don't like when the gov't coopts their product offerings.

[Jabo22]

I predicted a split in the Republican party back 92, when I left them.
I couldn't take the whole religious right thing.

Well the split has begun and it took a long time for it to happen. We know we'll get the crazy religious right half, I only hope the fiscally conservative half breaks cleanly from that half.

No anti-stem cell, creationism for this has been conservative.

[montemalone]

It would seem the fiscal responsibility platform has shifted to the other side.
At least I hope so.

[PghMike]

The Republican Party has been a mix of three incompatible groups for years now, and now the wheels are coming off.

One group are the Reagan Democrats. They hate affirmative action and welfare, feeling that others are being given what they had to work for. They're not particularly socially conservative, however.

Another group are the pro-big business Republicans (nee Rockefeller Republicans). These folks talk small government, but really want the government to provide them with protection. These are the folks like Henry Paulson, who's pouring hundreds of billions of dollars of tax payer money into banks that made very bad bets, the auto industry, who've made bad decisions for years, and the backers of the nuclear energy, who require liability limits. The key is that these people are in businesses that that are greatly affected by the actions of the Federal government. Some of their programs are probably good for the US, and others bad, but all in all, these folks are pragmatic.

The third group are the values conservatives -- the people who hate gays, and want to teach creationism instead of science. They're strongest in the deep south.

We can make serious inroads in the first two groups, leaving the Republicans with a tiny core.

[spartanmom]

do you think the republican embracing of the deep south social conservatives is a result of the southern strategy?

After all, the southern churches are self segregating

[fetchezlavache]

There is a fourth group, also incompatible with the others: the Neo-cons are for world-wide American hegemony, to be won through wars on multiple fronts.

[OmnesOmnibus]

No one in the Republican Party cares what Brooks thinks. If you're looking for the real Ivy League elite, it's him. He's like Joe Lieberman, he really has no party. Remember, this is the guy who thought that Palin did well in her debate, ugh.

[WoodyCPM]

Why does anyone care what David Brooks thinks? He's been consistently wrong about everything. He's smarmy and shallow and intellectually pretentious.

[swift goat pet for truth]

How is that different from Bill Kristol?

[bobdob]

This is what's wrong with American politics. The Republicans want to WIN, even if winning is meaningless and only damages the country. They'll cause trouble and raise opposition not because it's good for America, but because they want to gain the upper hand.

I don't think it'll work this time. We're on to the scam, and we're keeping an eye on the bastards. So go for it, Republicans. Dig the hole even deeper. This isn't an ideological struggle anymore. It's about Americans losing their jobs, about the economy being in the crapper, about global warming destroying the planet. And what put us there? Partisan support for a lousy president and lousy policy. No more. No damn more. It's time for you people to get with the program and start doing what's right for America--not what's right for your damn political party.

[montemalone]

The only ideology they have is greed.
More money.
More power.
More control.

Selfish, hateful, greedy.

[sposton]

Democrats beware! Neocons migrate to where the power is.

[WyomingJack]

If the conservative movement ever wants to build a coherent message, they need to go to the dictionary and look up the word "conserve.­" And then build from there.

Instead, they have allowed wacko extremist who have absolutely no interest in conserving anything, who actually bad-mouth most things relating to conserving, hi-jack their movement with their convoluted rhetoric.

Spend, spend, spend. Waste, waste, waste. Exploit, exploit, exploit. What part of conserve don't they understand?

[BPCentrisAmerican]

That's a great point, look up conservatism in any dictionary, the world has little in common with the Republican Party, except the resistance to change part.

[DevRock]

End of discussion! Bravo!

[veteran1964]

Also they need to wake up and smell the roses and realize that we are not in the 1950's. All they talk about is abortion, taxes and war.......­..........­......Get over it Republican­s....There are multi millions of us that don't like war, unless we are attacked..­...We want our troops taken care of totally...­..We want an inclusion of ALL people....­........Hi­spanic, black, Muslim, Asian, white, brown pink, yellow, purple....­.ALL people. You Neocons only bring in your 90 year old friends that are on their death beds...Get over it Republicans. If you want a good party, talk to America and not the America that you think....

[Grunty1]

Excellent post.

[fetchezlavache]

I have never understood why the Republicans are so set against conservation of nature and resources. I suppose the corporate profit line trumps these concerns.

[hu.man]

Conservatism took a giant step backwards by not forcefully speaking up against Bush administration's military intervention in Iraq. It was the neo-conservatives who hijacked the Ronald Reagan revolution and shred it into pieces. Along the way, the icons in the movement like Pat Buchanan and Bill Buckley resisted Bush's wanton foray into his nation building idealistic fantasy. But their resistance never gained traction which is a testament to the growing power of neocons. It would be very interesting to see if the conservatives manage to regain part of their Reagan revolution mystique in the coming months or are we going to see a continued trend of neocon ascendancy? The path to come back for conservatives is through the neocons. I can't see any other way.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

The parents of the current neo-cons, the neo-liberals took down the Democratic Party over Vietnam with the Domino Theory, the same players, avid ant-communist than, anti-Islam now. Avid internationalist warmongers, political parties and countries have little to do with it, as long as there goals are meet.

[alainv]

Wow ! This neocon nutjob finally said something true after lying like a rug for the last twenty years. I geusse we should all go out and start reading his collumn right now . Good grief , just go away and dont let the door hit you in the @$$ .

[Johnmac371]

ugh! breaks my heart.. no really.

[Grammy3]

George Bush has been a very successful president.­....He was installed in office to enrich the wealthiest Americans and so he did! Let the Republicans stew in their own juices and maybe a decent opposition party will result. I doubt it, though, as these clowns think they need to become 'more perfectly' conservative and that will appeal to us. You know, no universal health care, more tax breaks for the wealthy and some crumbs for the rest of us, more military interventiion. Yeah, good luck with that!