David Brooks is a New York Times columnist with whom I've certainly had my share of differences over the years, but today's column has some very wise passages:
Many of my fellow Trump critics are expressing outrage, depression, bewilderment or disgust. They're marching or writing essays: Should we normalize Trump or fight the normalizers?
It all seems so useless during this transition moment. It's all a series of narcissistic displays and discussions about our own emotional states.
It seems like the first thing to do is really learn what this election is teaching us. .... It's stupid to react to every Trump tweet outrage with your own predictable howls. It's silly to treat politics and governance purely on cultural grounds, as a high school popularity contest, where my sort of people denigrates your sort of people....
Those of us in the opinion class have been complaining that Trump voters are post-truth, that they don't have a respect for expertise. Well, the experts created a school system that doesn't produce skilled graduates. The experts designed Obamacare exchanges that are failing. Maybe those of us in the professional class need to win back some credibility the old-fashioned way, with effective reform....It's tempting to get so caught up in his outrage du jour that you never have to do any self-examination. But let's be honest: It wouldn't kill us Trump critics to take a break from our never-ending umbrage to engage in a little listening.
