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March 15, 2005

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

Sayeth Brooks:

Instead, many made demagogic speeches about Republican benefit cuts, as if it is possible to fix the system without benefit cuts. Many ginned up the familiar scare tactics designed to frighten the elderly.

Isn't there an editor of some sort working at the New York Times? Because this quote isn't a subjective opinion or an ideological argument, it's a plain lie. Even if Social Security's problems were orders of magnitude larger than they are, even if the Trustees' most pessimistic projections materialized and the Baby Boom proved even larger than we feared, we could, if we wanted, divert defense-spending and raise taxes. We could cut other programs and sell bonds. We could do all sorts of things that, while painful, would never ever require a reduction in benefits. And, as the situation actually is, the fiscal issues are minor and all we need is something simple and, for most Americans, painless, like rolling back Bush's top-bracket tax cuts or raising the payroll cap. We do one of those things and Social Security is totally, entirely, fixed, no benefit cuts needed.

Y'know, I'm not even sure what to say about this. Brooks is just breathtakingly duplicitous here. Having spent the column doing his reasonable guy schtick ("In this case, both parties are wrong: Republicans should pet puppies more than they do and Democrats should stop throwing them out of moving cars just to watch them die"), he delivers, as an offhand recognition of a reality neither party is honest enough to face, a factually indefensible claim. In most lines of work, you'd get fired for such blatant dishonesty. With Brooks, it's become his M.O. His columns, at least the ones that aren't totally inane, end with a completely incorrect, highly partisan assertion that he makes believable by presenting it as a criticism of both parties but which, in reality, is a critical part of the Republican argument. So Brooks legitimizes the right's case by presenting it as a rejection of both parties. Very effective, but how does he sleep at night?

March 15, 2005 | Permalink

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Tracked on Mar 15, 2005 12:25:59 AM

Comments

Deep confession time: I liked David Brooks when he wrote in The Atlantic. I looked forward to his columns there. I didn't agree with them but the writing was good and the ideas were interesting (most of the time). But ever since he started at the NYT it's like he took a bunch of stupid pills and then got stupid. Seriously, it's like a mediocre writer with some good prose decided to just suck at everything as though he were the person who wrote high school prep rally scripts to defend his absurd manichean view of a complex post-platonic world. Oh wait, it's not like that at all--it is exactly like that. Ass.

Posted by: Justinian | Mar 15, 2005 12:44:18 AM

Totally true. He was great in the Atlantic. What hhappened afterwards I'll never know.

Posted by: Ezra | Mar 15, 2005 12:56:17 AM

"... how does he sleep at night?"

A rhetorical question, I know, but one to which we happen to have been informed of the answer.

In some long profile somewhere (the Times, even?) when he took over the NYT columnist slot, he said that he drinks a couple of shots of whiskey before bed each evening.

(Sadly, I couldn't find this quote in a couple of minutes of Google searching.)

Posted by: Swopa | Mar 15, 2005 1:01:07 AM

... in belated fairness to Brooks (since I still can't find the quote), it may have been only one shot. At least that he admitted to. :-)

Posted by: Swopa | Mar 15, 2005 2:15:19 AM

"In this case, both parties are wrong: Republicans should pet puppies more than they do and Democrats should stop throwing them out of moving cars just to watch them die"

Fantastic!

Posted by: Brad Plumer | Mar 15, 2005 2:30:50 AM

What happened? Well it is the fate of many a public intellictual. You see, he got himself a meme. Though they run the range free and pure, the memes can be roped by wiley men and women. In 2000 he wrote that cover article in The Atlantic about the Red and the Blue. As though he were Solomon, Jesus or at least Stendahl (what with the red and the black). See, the good folk of America--and Greece, Rome, France, Britain, and all the others for the last 3000 years--they cotton to a dichotomy that puts them in the right. And that's the beauty of the Blue and the Red. Whoever you are in that symbology, you are the one who wins. If you don't believe me, then email me and I will explain it to you with sources. So David Brook got himslef and meme, and idea...and he ain't letting it go. 'Cause he ain't smart enough for a NYT column...neither am I...I understand...but then again, I don't have the realestate to fill, so I don't envy him... It's a shame really. Poor man, so swamped with a lack of knowledge.

Posted by: Justinian | Mar 15, 2005 3:46:21 AM

I am a bad speeler (sic).

Posted by: Justinian | Mar 15, 2005 3:54:03 AM

To say David Brooks lied is not exactly news. But the specific lie is not really new either. The only way to reduce deficits is to cut expenditure has been standard faire for the GOP for decades.

Posted by: pgl | Mar 15, 2005 9:51:19 AM

Personally, I think Jesse did the best takedown of Brooks' crapola here.

Posted by: verplanck colvin | Mar 15, 2005 10:11:52 AM

I can not even get past the titles to his op-ed pieces, they alone tell the tale of buffoonery that is to follow.

Posted by: Rook | Mar 15, 2005 11:27:08 AM

He was great in the Atlantic.

Not. Brooks engaged in nothing more than idle speculation employing cute terms like 'bobo' that had about as much to do with actual sociology as so-called 'intelligent design' has to do with biology. Entertaining writing shouldn't be mistaken for informative writing. Anyone who seriously thought Brooks would be anything more than a bemused partisan hack didn't read him very critically in the past, IMO.

Posted by: David W. | Mar 15, 2005 12:06:29 PM

Isn’t it quaint the way he goes after those dastardly militant bloggers.
Meanwhile, the party base has grown militant with rage. The Howard Dean hotheads declare that they hate the evil Republicans, making compromise seem like collaborating with Satan.
You know that Josh Marshall is just such a hot head.

Posted by: Michaelw | Mar 15, 2005 12:09:58 PM

Speaking of liars, check out Kash's post (Angrybear) on the spar between Sen. Clinton and Dr. Greenspan. I had to comment as me thinks Dr. Greenspan is playing very fast and loose with the truth.

Posted by: pgl | Mar 15, 2005 2:39:32 PM

Ezra, it's okay for him to lie. He's a Republican.

Posted by: ChristianPinko | Mar 15, 2005 10:37:25 PM

brooks when the univ of chicago, which, iirc, sure ain't unlv or cj's school of cosmetology as far as academics go.

just you have a certificate of a good education doesn't mean you're smart.

i don't know why they run him. blackmailing the sulzbergers?

Posted by: harry near indy | Mar 16, 2005 6:18:59 AM

brooks would be much better received if he was in the atlantic, say 200 miles s/sw of the azores

Posted by: rolandsong | Mar 16, 2005 8:45:23 AM

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Posted by: peter.w | Sep 15, 2007 5:13:05 AM

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