Stupid, Stupid Pundits

David Brooks (free Times Select week, and look what we get stuck with. I want my Krugman):

In some ways, this election reminds me of the 1974 Democratic sweep. The
Republicans have screwed up. Democrats have surged in. But the result leads not
to a liberal tide but to Jimmy Carter, who in 1976 ran as a conservative
anti-political reformer who won on fiscal discipline and with the support of Pat
Robertson.

This election didn’t define a new era, but it marks the end of an old
one. If Democrats are going to take advantage of their victory, they will have
to do two things. They will have to show they have not been taken over by their
bloggers or their economic nationalists, who will alienate them from the
suburban office park moms. Second, they’ll have to come up with ideas as big as
the problems we face. Their current platform consists of small-bore tax credits
and foreign policy vagaries about, say, “redoubling” our efforts to get Osama
bin Laden. (Why not retripling or requadrupling?)

Um, so because Carter ended the era of liberalism and Democratic dominance by running as a conservative, Democrats should run away from the more progressive elements of their base and run as conservatives? What is Brooks trying to say here? I really cannot figure it out. It is nice to see that he understands the past, but for Democrats that understanding should translate into the future by embracing the blogs and grassroots, something they have run away from for long enough. Our victory was achieved by embracing progressive ideas and candidates, not machine-backed, milquetoast, Republican lite ideas and candidates (nice try, Rahm).

By the way, what is an economic nationalist? Is this the new vogue term for people who are anti-CAFTA and Republican versions of "free trade?" I have never heard of it before.

Moreover, Democrats need to come up with ideas? Brooks is an idiot. There is a trove of information on this. A ten second Google search for Pelosi's website yielded this document, and I am sure the DNC has more. Here are some small-bore tax credits and foreign policy vagaries:

1. Implement 9/11 Commission proposals to secure our ports
2. Raise the minimum wage
3. Make college tuition tax deductible and cut student loan interest rates
4. End tax giveaways to big oil companies
5. Fix the Medicare prescription drug benefit program by negotiating lower prices and promoting stem cell research.

Of course David Brooks and his all-seeing eye know better without examining anything. That is why he is an all-knowing, all-powerful pundit.

Brooks is both intellectually lazy - he cannot draw the correct conclusion from mountains of evidence - and dishonest - he either avoided looking at Democratic plans alltogether or lied about their content - and should be let go from his job. Would any normal, hard-working American be treated any differently?