In today’s column, David Brooks offers an irresponsible assessment of Donald Trump, hailing him as a “straight-talking, obnoxious blowhard” who, his admirers believe, might actually get things done. Wishful thinking! Mr Brooks himself concedes that Mr Trump is an overgrown boy “thrilled to have acquired a gleaming new bike, and doubly thrilled to be showing it off.” That’s not our frankly elitist view of accomplishment. It’s no surprise that we don’t like Donald Trump, but Mr Brooks’s column makes it necessary to insist that we do not tolerate him, either.

Now, I don’t mean to say that Donald Trump is going to be president or get close. There is, for example, his hyper-hyperbolism and opportunism standing in the way.

[snip]

But I do insist that Trump is no joke. He emerges from deep currents in our culture, and he is tapping into powerful sections of the national fantasy life. I would never vote for him, but I would never want to live in a country without people like him.

We disagree. We would be happy to banish Donald Trump to some other country that might actually benefit from his Gospel of Success. As for “deep currents” and “powerful sections of the national fantasy life,” we recommend the movies or, if absolutely necessary, team sports. There is obviously no place in political life for fantasy.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 19th, 2011 at 10:30 am.