New York Times:
It was interesting to watch the Republican Party lose touch with America. You had a party led by conservative Southerners who neither understood nor sympathized with moderates or representatives from swing districts.
David Moore: Public Opinion and Health Care: Fearmongering on the Right
When forced to express an opinion specifically about Obama's plan, most poll respondents will. But if permitted, they will also admit that they really don't know much about it.
Gary Hart: "Obama's Test" or Ours?
But what if most Americans, unlike perpetual Washington insiders, are neither liberal nor conservative? What if, instead, we live our lives on a future-past continuum?
Simon Maxwell Apter: Who Called Ms. Manners?
Are New York Times readers, and ESPN viewers really well-served by commentaries that essentially boil down to, "Don't be rude; it's not really helpful to anyone?"
Op-Ed Columnist - A Moderate Manifesto - NYTimes.com
David Brooks: Sarah Palin "Represents A Fatal Cancer To The ...
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Obama? Liberal? Ha Ha Ha. Look who's running the government David. The people who OWN it.
Another real Canadian agrees with Hafling 67. And I lived 30 years in the US and saw my father get full health coverage (Cleveland school system) with so much red tape that they were sending checks before the bills came in. What did all that overhead and three feet of invoices cost? Not $53 per month like my coverage in British Columbia. I've been through a mastectomy, chemo, and all the trimmings without ONE complaint about the system...and this was in the wilds of Northern Ontario, not exactly Toronto.
Our health care system is our most cherished possession . Da_mn right that no politician dares touch it. And don't buy the idea that we're taxed to the max. We like to say that as part of our persona. The idea that someone could lose his home or "go broke" due to catastrophic health costs is a horror story limited to south of the border.
I'm also laughing at the sudden realization by many voters that the very legislators who are blocking this "socialistic" government health care are enjoying it themselves. If that isn't the last word in hypocrisy. Fight on, Yanks. You can do it!
Thanks for that. We have some really crazy right wing fascists here in the states.
David Brooks has actually written some thoughtful columns and gone against the grain, much to my surprise and delight. But on this one, he ran off the rails shortly after the first sentence. I didn't even finish it. As soon as I got to the part about the polls showing Americans coming to their senses and losing enthusiasm for health care reform, I (figuratively) ripped up the page and threw it away in disgust.
It's the right wing noise machine, the media propaganda attack on health care reform that is affecting, confusing, demoralizing the people. It's all the lies and distortions and fear mongering that is causing them to hesitate, to wonder. It's the lack of a strong voice for our side that is the problem, always the problem, ever since Reagan was elected.
Progressive policies are not what's wrong in this country. It's the people who are doing their best to destroy them.
As if David Brooks has a clue what middle America thinks. I'm sitting right here in the middle, and I'm more left than Obam or the other Dems ever thought of being. And, I'm not alone. As to polls, face it David, Americans' views change with the wind. Most of us don't understand what healthcare reform is going to do. So if the paper says, it's going to cost us, approval will go down. If the paper says, it will lower costs, everyone is back on board. We are an easily manipulated people. That should not be a reason for changing one's core principles, if you have any.
David, I never seem to have a hard time reading your articles. You have a fine dry wit, use language well... damn it, I just like reading you. That you are consistently partisan doesn't even bother me. I just find you preferable to the whining of Rush, and the utter, and pure insanity of Pat Bucannan. But Brother you got this all wrong. The Liberal agenda you fear so much, could work. It could make America a much better place, and it is not Obama who bothers us. We express dissatisfaction with the process. We have not lost faith with him, we have seen that it is almost impossible to get anything done in this climate, and with our system. Obama does not seem to want to take this fight where it needs to go. Lobbyists and our elected officials, who have been corrupted by Big Money. This is what is depressing us and why he is losing the public. We are not all that patient. This is war. Fighting them would be a real liberal agenda. To fix this we need public financing and term limits. Both push your Conservative buttons. In your mind it's a first amendment issue. For me it is going to mean the difference between a functioning Democracy, and what we have now. Will you kindly address this?
imagine that... a national press organization that goes beyond innuendo and bullet points. How much better would our lives be if our press really did the "hard" work and published truth in lieu of repercussion. The problem we are facing is due to the fact that we have the same old people doing the same old stuff - in both politics and our press. We need new blood everywhere.
Amen.
Is this the same David Brooks who confessed on national television the other day that he was f.ondeled by a Republican male senator for an entire night at a dinner party?
An entire night?! Sounds like he didn't mind it.
lindsey at it again?
and Liberal Idol is behaving like a real American, thank you.
Libs..YOU DONT OWN THIS COUNTRY..can you learn from the republican????
As long as she/he is honest and has something to add besides "no"
I'm afraid not. We learned as children how to lie and cheat. Luckily we grew out of it.
I, for one, have learned a LOT from Republicans recently - like the definition of hubris for example. The tawdry sexual immorality of "christian" politicians for another. The geography of the Appalachians for yet another...
The Republicans are FULL of information, among other things. PLEASE teach us more!
Mr. Brooks doesn't have any problem with $1 trillion to save Wall Street.
Or $3 trillion down the rat hole in the mid-east wars.
But health care fo all Americans? According to Brooks we can't afford it.
Please!
what about the 3 trillion down the iraq rathole
oh, that went to halliburton, never mind
Miss Brooks is just spoiling for another invite to one of them fancy rethugli'kin fundraisers, where some old, unnamed Senator can once again put his hand on David's inner thigh (and who knows what else) throughout the whole meal.
If a majority of Republicans bought in to David Brooks political/ social philosophy, as reflected in his columns, they'd give the Dems a run for their money absolutely.
Ugh.
why don't all the democratic, democracy haters go muck up sites where people might actually believe some of the lies that they spew so freely on decent sites.
Thank God for David Brooks. Hopefully, this will get the Democrats' attention, and they will go back to the drawing board on health care reform. The "reforms" proposed are bad ones, and most people know it.
People should take a look at the bill proposed by Ron Paul in March H.R. 1495.
oh my, of course anything obama proposes is hidious, outrageous, socialism. health care is just fine in this country. isn't it. ha! to say that his ideas are bad ones is the most ridiculous statement ever made. repubs would not have ever brought it up, let alone put any effort whatsoever to try to change it. the stuff written on here is beyond the pale.
The health care reform proposals from the Democrats in the House are bad.
Health care reform is needed. So is Medicare reform! The plans that have been proposed do nothing but increase cost and make the government bigger. I don't see how adding another government run health care program to the ones we already have will do anything to lower costs for the taxpayers.
Government should get OUT of the health care business.
I don't think God has anything to do with David Brooks.
However, despair, fear, and ego have everything to do with him.
Millions of dollars in BigPharma ads have left folks with reservations about Obama's healthcare plans?
Gee. That's shocking. Absolutely shocking. Don'tcha think?
Ron Paul? You mean the anti-choice libertarian? Does he have something to say worth listening to?
Tyche, you sure fired them up, they are starting to eat their young.
what?
You mean the Ron Paul who has government-funded socialist health care? If he had any integrity he would renounce these socialist benefits, and shop for health insurance on the open market like the rest of us have to.
brooksie is whining about spending and the budget
brooksie was a big fan of the bushies
the bushies added 5 trillion at least to the federal debt
what does the country have to show for it ?????
5 trillion bought what??
good points! !
David Brooks, needs to be put out of his miseries.
David Brooks needs a pack of breath mints -- his rantings are nothing but foul rhetoric polluting the air
Rachael will be gone soon. Her ratings are plunging. She has lost 65% of her audience since October of 2008. Can she still get her job back at Air America?
Tr@ll status: High.
Then who would you have to complain about?
I never complained about Rachael. I watched her show a few times. Its like the Jerry Sienfield show. Its a show about nothing, only its not funny.
What utter nonsense! In fact, Rachel has really been in the groove of late. Her expose of The Family and C Street has been fascinating. All political shows see slumps in between elections and during summer hiatus.
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First Posted: 07-21-09 01:14 AM | Updated: 08-20-09 05:12 AM