I’ll give him this, at least he admits centrism is actually bad politics.

Without reading the article I’m still 99% sure this is a temporary phase for him and he’ll be over it next week. People can surprise you but he’s a dyed-in-the-wool horseshoe theory dipshit. His entire worldview is based on not only centrism but reasonableness. I assume if he had a rice-sized smidgen of jalapeño - he’d act like the spiciness was sending him into anaphylactic shock. And the “ñ” is too spicy for him too.

Everything by him I’ve ever read has bromides like the “importance of the fabric of society” and “faith could remerge in American life”.

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Ninja edit

I couldn’t resist so read the article. His columns usually make me laugh. It’s like a third-rate college text book. I can’t believe the public considers such people to be intellectuals. “Mushroomed” and “shriveled”? C’mon.

Our education policy pushed people toward the course we followed — four-year colleges so that they would be qualified for the “jobs of the future.” Meanwhile, vocational training withered. We embraced a free trade policy that moved industrial jobs to low-cost countries overseas so that we could focus our energies on knowledge economy enterprises run by people with advanced degrees. The financial and consulting sector mushroomed while manufacturing employment shriveled.

OP - I entirely disagree with you…

[People with only high school diplomas] don’t speak in the right social justice jargon or hold the sort of luxury beliefs that are markers of public virtue. The chasms led to a loss of faith, a loss of trust, a sense of betrayal.

I don’t think he’s saying that centrism failed. I think he’s pushing his usual shtick but it’s in an highly unusual tone for him. He’s bitter and angry that society doesn’t value his beliefs in the center path and religion. Because society and the democrats in particular are on the wrong course - people with only high school diplomas have been left behind.

I visited a Christian nationalist church in Tennessee. The service was illuminated by genuine faith, it is true, but also a corrosive atmosphere of bitterness, aggression, betrayal. As the pastor went on about the Judases who seek to destroy us, the phrase “dark world” popped into my head — an image of a people who perceive themselves to be living under constant threat and in a culture of extreme distrust. These people, and many other Americans, weren’t interested in the politics of joy that Kamala Harris and the other law school grads were offering.

The Democratic Party has one job: to combat inequality.

[…]

The Biden administration tried to woo the working class with subsidies and stimulus, but there is no economic solution to what is primarily a crisis of respect.

I don’t think Brooks is in any way sincere about the Bernie Sanders stuff. I think Trump’s win shocked Brooks to the core. But Brooks believes in American exceptionalism and all that crap. He’ll be back to his old self soon.