Calling Democrats' Bluff (DAVID BROOKS, NYT)

[sellitman]

Here is another misguided Repugnacan editorial. His email is noted below. Have at him DU'ers. --Kevin


May 8, 2005

By

Don't take people at their word. Don't listen to them when they tell you how to be virtuous.

They're faking it. They don't care about virtue, or you or the common good. They're just taking opportunistic potshots under the guise of sermonizing. They're just a bunch of hypocrites.

This little bit of moral philosophy is drawn from the political events of the past few years.

Over this time, Democrats have been hectoring President Bush in the manner of an overripe Fourth of July orator. The president should be summoning us to make shared sacrifices for the common good. The president should care for the poor, and stop favoring the rich. He should make the hard choices and impose a little fiscal discipline on government.

Sometimes you had to walk through Democratic precincts in a gas mask, the lofty rhetoric was so thick. But now we have definitive proof that they didn't mean it. It was all hokum.

More: http://babyurl.com/Ftp6DX

E-mail: [e-mail]

[Skink]

1. I usually wear a gas mask when reading Brooks....

:wtf:

[Old and In the Way]

2. David Brock........

Because every parade needs someone to follow the elephants....

[oppositionmember]

3. What utter bullshit...

and dishonest manipulation of the facts, as though Bush's "plan" is anything other than another ploy to torpedo SS.

[MichiganVote]

4. Look, the middle class is tapped out. Utterly and completely tapped out

[Celebration]

5. just emailed him

We told him to drop the privatization program and we would talk about it. He hasn't done that. REALITY CHECK.

[ixion]

6. why even post this garbage?

Brooks is an idiot. 'nuff said.

[Martin Eden]

7. My reply to Brooks

The Democrats aren't bluffing, and the only thing they're trying to obstruct is the dismantling of Social Security.

Conservatives have been ideologically opposed to Social Security since its inception, and the Bush plan is not to "reform" or to "save" but to destroy this popular and effective program.

If Bush would drop his insistence on private accounts, the Democrats would would work with this administration in an honest effort to solve the system's long term solvency problem.

Bush has identified the problem as one of solvency, but his privatization scheme would divert funds from the system and cost $trillions to implement. The federal government has a much bigger solvency problem, with annual budget deficits in the hundreds of billions of dollars that are the direct result of this president's reckless fiscal policies. Grover Norquist's "starve the beast" strategy is in full swing.

And you expect the Democrats to work in good faith with a president who has repeatedly misrepresented the costs and motives of his policies? Medicare faces a much bigger and more immediate crisis, partly because the prescription drug bill was railroaded through Congress by an administration that lied about its costs and gave the biggest benefits to the pharmaceutical industry by refusing to negotiate lower drug prices on behalf of the American people.

Progressive indexing for Social Security, as implemented by the Bush administration, would significantly cut benefits for the vast majority of Americans -- not just those classified as "wealthy."

If the Democrats participated in Bush's thinly-disguised scheme to dismantle Social Security, I would lose my last ounce of respect for them. I used to have respect for the Republican Party, even when I disagreed with them -- but no longer. Under Bush, they are simply not to be trusted.

The first few lines of your column were right on, when applied to what the political right wing of this country has become:

Don't take people at their word. Don't listen to them when they tell you how to be virtuous.

They're faking it. They don't care about virtue, or you or the common good. They're just taking opportunistic potshots under the guise of sermonizing. They're just a bunch of hypocrites.

This little bit of moral philosophy is drawn from the political events of the past few years.

That David Brooks is a shill for these charlatans demonstrates what he has become -- or perhaps always was.

[wallwriter]

8. What a complete f***head

Sure Brooks. Take Bush at his word rather than acknowledge that this is just another book-cooking snowjob aiming to screw the poor and middle class while gigantic impending crises of the federal budget go ignored.