Republican columnist & commentator David Brooks said the following after the White House insult of Zelenskyy

[Swede]

Last edited Mon Mar 3, 2025, 01:10 AM - Edit history (2)

“I was nauseated, just nauseated. All my life, I have had a certain idea of about America, that we're a flawed country, but we're fundamentally a force for good in the world, that we defeated Soviet Union, we defeated fascism, we did the Marshall Plan, we did PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) to help people live in Africa. And we make mistakes, Iraq, Vietnam, but they're usually mistakes out of stupidity, naivete and arrogance."
“They're not because we're ill-intentioned. What I have seen over the last six weeks is the United States behaving vilely, vilely to our friends in Canada and Mexico, vilely to our friends in Europe. And today was the bottom of the barrel, vilely to a man who is defending Western values, at great personal risk to him and his countrymen."
“Donald Trump believes in one thing. He believes that might makes right. And, in that, he agrees with Vladimir Putin that they are birds of a feather. And he and Vladimir Putin together are trying to create a world that's safe for gangsters, where ruthless people can thrive. And we saw the product of that effort today in the Oval Office."
“And I have — I first started thinking, is it — am I feeling grief? Am I feeling shock, like I'm in a hallucination? But I just think shame, moral shame. It's a moral injury to see the country you love behave in this way.”

Kudos to highplainsdem for the link below.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/brooks-and-capehart-on-the-implications-of-trumps-altercation-with-zelenskyy

[Deuxcents]

1. More of this, please

[creon]

16. Yes

More of this.
Make them bear the full wieght of disapproval
Every day, all day. with no respite.
no relief.

then, kick it up a notch.

[Blues Heron]

2. Pukes like you helped, that's where the nausea comes from - it's a deep sense of guilt eating at you

Cuz you know you helped put him there by lying about the dems at every turn. Suck it up creepy brooks guy, this is on you

[FalloutShelter]

4. This...I call them the grave robbers.....

They gleefully brought the body parts to the lab to construct the monster. For money.
Now that the monster is rampaging, they want to act shocked.
The self righteous ass hats in the fourth estate brought us here.

[summer_in_TX]

26. Don't blame David Brooks.

Did you know that he voted for Barack Obama? I feel sure he voted for Biden too.

I've not witnessed him lying about Dems at every turn. Not that I read him all the time, just now and then. And I read one of his books. He grew up in a conservative world view but he was too smart to fall for Trump, and too principled.

Besides, Brooks was never a political operative, just a thinker and writer.

Rick Wilson acknowledges his own fault in the rise of Trump as does Joe Wilson and a number of former Republican activists. Maybe you've conflated them.

[CTyankee]

32. FWIW, Brooks taught a course at Yale a while back. It's "not nothing" that Yale would do this.

[BaronChocula]

63. Did you mean Joe WALSH?

By all accounts, Joe "You Lie" Wilson is still a dyed-in-the-wool confederate unhinged reich-wing trumpy douche.

[summer_in_TX]

73. No, Joe Walsh is a fierce anti-Trumper. Still conservative, but very much pro-democracy.

I've followed him since early in Trump's first administration. It didn't take long for his eyes to be opened about Trump's criminality and the threat he posed to democracy.

[BaronChocula]

75. My mistake

You stated "Rick Wilson acknowledges his own fault in the rise of Trump as does Joe Wilson."

It seemed like you meant Joe Walsh and not Joe Wilson.

[summer_in_TX]

76. Yikes, my typo.

I do mean Joe Walsh, not Joe Wilson. Thank you!

[BaronChocula]

78. I only spotted it

because it's the type of typo I'd make.

[femmedem]

34. David Brooks did not advocate for Trump. He says he votes D 70% of the time.

From "Confessions of a Republican Exile: published by The Atlantic last October:

"Politically, I’m a bit of a wanderer. I grew up in a progressive family and was a proud democratic socialist through college. Then, in the Reagan-Thatcher era of the 1980s, after watching the wretched effects some progressive social policies had on poor neighborhoods in Chicago, I switched over to the right—and then remained a happy member of Team Red for decades. During the era of social thinkers like James Q. Wilson, Allan Bloom, Thomas Sowell, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and Irving Kristol, the right was just more intellectually alive. But over time I’ve become gradually more repulsed by the GOP—first by Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay, then by the Tea Party and the Freedom Caucus, and now, of course, by Donald Trump."

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/10/trumpism-republican-party-exile-david-brooks/680243/

[Blues Heron]

39. He slammed dems at each and every turn - I heard him every time I tuned in to Brooks and Capehart

He is most definitely part of the problem for spreading his disgusting, smarmy smirking anti dem propoganda.

Fuck that smug asshole. Happy member of team red?

[johnnyfins]

44. Intellectually alive?

Really? More like intellectually dishonest.

[Ursus Rex]

53. That "intellectually alive" list is murderer's row of disingenuous suckups and propagandists.

He's got a knack for writing AND SOME GREAT CONNECTIONS, but he's no great mind and is not qualified to name one. LOL at Thomas Sowell and Jeane Kirkpatrick being some kind of profound thinkers.

AT LEAST he had the presence of mind to recognize utter vileness when he finally saw it (DeLay, Gingrich, etc)

[elocs]

41. I'm going to put you on ignore now so I don't need to even see anything more from you. n/t

[Blues Heron]

61. why are you a big brooks fan or something? I cant stand his idiotic smarmy style.

[brush]

52. Good poinits. The sentiment I agree with but Brooks is no different than the FAFO rethug voters...

who are now regretting voting for a convicted criminal.

[Cha]

3. Not anymore, Dude. Everything TSF Touches

Dies.

[dalton99a]

5. Kick

[CanonRay]

6. People can have a spiritual awakening

especially after a great shock. I'm willing to hope it's that.

[llmart]

70. Don't know if you've ever read any of his latest books but...

he admits that he has evolved from who he was as a younger man. He speaks and writes about it often. I do believe that his wife had a hand in that process also.

After hearing him speak about his evolution as a human, I am willing to give him kudos for being a man who actually evolved as he got older, unlike most men.

Would that every Republican would be so honest about their moral failings of the past and change.

[Hekate]

7. I've had my disagreements with Brookes, but he just hit all the right notes. He speaks for me.

[oasis]

11. Same here.

[AZProgressive]

8. I would say Iraq had ill intentions behind it

Considering those who profited off the war including Cheney's companies. They knew Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 but we still attacked the wrong country.

[Seinan Sensei]

21. All the 911 hijackers were Saudis

[hibbing]

25. A war based on a lie

I found DU during the corporate media promotion of that god awful war.

[mahina]

31. And Brooks championed it.

As long as we don't forget, we can forgive. We are going to need a lot of former republicans and they do listen to him.

[displacedvermoter]

49. Ditto Vietnam

A nasty end product of the falling apart of the worldwide Colonial system.

[Blues Heron]

9. He owes us all an apology, a resignation, and a pledge never to utter another word on TV or in print ever again

Fuck this fraud

[BaronChocula]

64. Blue Heron, you are on fire

and I LOVE it!

Fuck David Brooks. I have as much use for him as I do libertarians. He has zero influence on anybody as he wanders the wilderness of disaffected goppers who were wrong all along, but have yet to apologize. Why is he still even a thing?

[Blues Heron]

65. Thanks Baron! I am definitely down to my last nerve here! Appreciate it!

[BaronChocula]

66. No problem!

I know how it can get. I sometimes have to remind myself that in the end we're all on the same side here.

[maspaha]

10. David Brooks facilitated the MAGAt rise....

….David Brooks needs to STFU

….just sayin’

[CoopersDad]

12. Recommended. More of this please.

When the other side comes around to agree with us, we need to encourage them.

[Cirsium]

60. Has he?

Some Republicans are embarrassed by Trump now because he is revealing the ugly truth about what the GOP has been up to all these years. Trump is not an aberration, he is the logical extension, the inevitable culmination of the last 50+ years of Republican political thinking.

When the other side claims to come around to agree with us, we need to question their motives.

[C_U_L8R]

13. An apology would be a good start, Brooks

[lindysalsagal]

14. As if they couldn't see this coming. It was all published in the Project 2025 and heralded at cpac

[highplainsdem]

15. Swede, here's the source for what you posted. Maybe add this link to the OP?

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/brooks-and-capehart-on-the-implications-of-trumps-altercation-with-zelenskyy

[Swede]

19. Will do.

Thanks

[highplainsdem]

20. You're welcome!

[dchill]

17. Hack says what?

Fuck that guy.

[Ponietz]

18. All of this was foretold in Helsinki, 2017

Brooks is figuring it out 8 years too late. Fucking imbecile just wanted his tax break.

[John1956PA]

23. Yes. Trump took the side of Putin over that of the FBI.

Trump betrayed our country in 2017, and he continues to do it to this day.

[Sparkly]

22. At what point will Mr. Brooks pressure Republicans to DO something

recognizing that this man is not upholding his oath of office, and may even be a danger to the country??

[LudwigPastorius]

24. Brooks has a moment of self awareness.

[calimary]

77. Ya think?

[JHB]

27. Brooks has spent his entire career making this happen

Too little, too late, Davey-boy.

It's time for you to retire and take up fishing. Your opinions are less than useless, so opine on nothing weightier than what is the best spot in the stream to catch something.

[pattyloutwo]

28. That PBS news segment was excellent

[markodochartaigh]

29. Well,

"...but they're usually mistakes out of stupidity, naivete and arrogance..."
Add greed and utter lack of moral compass, and you just about have Trump.

[mahina]

30. I welcome him to the moment but do not forget for a moment how he shilled for the war against Iraq that had

zero basis in reason nor in our values.

Still I welcome him.

[SheltieLover]

33. Not nauseated enough to switch partied?

Actions speak much louder than words.

[femmedem]

35. I believe he has, based on this quote from his article in The Atlantic last October:

"In Blue World, I find plenty of people who are fighting against all the things I don’t like about Blue World. In Red World, however, far fewer people are fighting against what’s gone wrong with the party. (There’s a doughty band of Never Trump Republicans, but they get no hearing inside today’s GOP.) A culture or organization is only as strong as its capacity to correct its mistakes.

All of this leaves me on the periphery of Team Blue, just on the edge of the inside, which is where I believe the healthiest and most productive part of American politics now lives.

I’m mostly happy here. My advice to other conservatives disaffected by MAGA is this: If you’re under 45, stay in the Republican Party and work to make it a healthy, multiracial working-class party. If you’re over 45, acknowledge that the GOP is not going to be saved in your lifetime and join me on the other side. I don’t deny that it takes some adjustment; I find it weird being in a political culture in which Sunday brunch holds higher status than church. But Blue World is where the better angels of our nature seem lately to have migrated, and where the best hope for the future of the country now lies."

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/10/trumpism-republican-party-exile-david-brooks/680243/

[yardwork]

38. Like he ever went to church!

He's such a jerk.

[lonely bird]

36. A little info on ARC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_Responsible_Citizenship#:~:text=cohesion%20and%20purpose%22.-,Organisation,and%20Brexiter%20Sir%20Paul%20Marshall.

My wife found a YouTube video of Brooks giving a presentation at ARCForum. So, I googled ARCforum and found the link.

Basically, imo, Brooks and ARC are longing for the 1950’s without racism. Furthermore his comments regarding the Republican Party becoming a party for working class people shows he either doesn’t get what the Republican Party has been for literally decades or he is naive.

Sure, I will accept his displeasure and raising alerts about Trump but, imo, his wistful longing for the Republican Party is for something that hasn’t existed for more than eighty years perhaps even going black to Reconstruction when they abandoned the former slaves in order to do business with the South. The election of 1876 was the sign.

Btw, we didn’t defeat communism.

[bagimin]

37. Recommended

[orangecrush]

40. K&R

[mdbl]

42. This is how any sane person would think

Will the insane magats get it?

[Montauk6]

43. Hey, what does this balled up first draft say at the end... hmmmm

"But why won't Obama lead?" wtf....

[wordstroken]

45. Wow!! Powerful! And so true.

Thank you for posting, Swede.

[UpInArms]

46. He should feel PERSONAL moral shame

He created this monster … he should figure it out and get out there and stop his own fucking Frankenstein

[Wingus Dingus]

47. He says what I am feeling. This is exactly it.

Watching us become the villains of the world, when I thought we were a flawed but ultimately moral nation up until six weeks ago. The aberration that happened from 2016-2020 wasn't an aberration after all--we are bad people now.

[turbinetree]

48. Hey Brooks your about a day late and dollar short.................go the fuck away.............

you helped enable this shit show.........................for years ....................with your libertarian BS..............

[dwayneb]

50. Interesting and all true - but Brooks really isn't a rightwinger

He describes himself as "on the rightward edge of the leftward tendency—in the more promising soil of the moderate wing of the Democratic Party."

Doesn't make his words untrue. But it's not like some MAGA commentator making these statements. Most "Republicans" all greenlighting EVERYTHING scumbag Trump and his puppet Musk are doing. They will happily throw our freedoms in the trash and advocate for a Fascist New World Order.

[AmericaUnderSiege]

51. This happens about every two decades.

We can argue matters of degree, but the disgust in the pit of my stomach is the same I felt watching George W. Bush smirk and gloat about causing mass death; the same I hear in accounts of what Reagan did to a whole quarter-century of New Deal democracy; and what I hear in the voices of older generations talk about Richard Nixon's parade of nightmares.

The point is not to talk down the fierce urgency of now, but know what and who this guy is, and it's for damn sure not an American or a President (he's literally not on the second point - the Constitution is clear on this). So our honor is beyond his reach.

[Kid Berwyn]

54. About time, Brooks.

Seems the Moonie shine is wearing off.

[Ritabert]

55. The only thing that made this guy palatable was Mark Shields

I remember him whining about the cost of lunch at Dulles Airport during the pandemic. He showed his bill of $70. Unfortunately he didn't mention that the burger and fries cost $15 and the rest of the bill was top shelf liquor.

[Mr. Mustard 2023]

56. David Brooks is a paper intellectual

who I don't trust. If he is indeed against Dipshit Donald, then welcome him to the fight as we need everyone but don't trust David Brooks, and the moment we win, kick Brooks to the curb.

[UTUSN]

57. K&R, excellent. Been busy to look for a couple of his things.

[Playingmantis]

58. Once again some here attack possible allies..

Who will change sides when they know Trumpers will take revenge and those on the other side will still attack them?
Are some trying to discourage defections?

[Swede]

59. You see posts "I can't believe they still worship Trump" yet can't resist denigrating when someone finally gets it.

I don't get that. They aren't our new buddies, but they no longer support trump. Enemy of my enemy...

[Blues Heron]

62. Dont be naive - a couple of those 75 dollar shots and brooks will back to slamming dems in no time

[SleeplessinSoCal]

67. "trying to create a world that's safe for gangsters, where ruthless people can thrive."

That's our new economy.

How many billions do scammers haul in per year?

[republianmushroom]

68. NAILS IT !!

[Bluepinky]

69. I'm glad he said it, but he doesn't go far enough.

It’s not all Americans that he should be angry at, it’s his Republican Party that has been corrupted by money and power. Our country has been advancing to this point since Reagan came into power; now we’re a full blown oligarchy, where the financial pursuits by the wealthy have destroyed American values and principles.

And no, David, the Iraq War was not a mistaken war due to naïveté, it was a war of greed and power.

So this is on you and Republicans like you. You’re only condemning Donald Trump, I don’t hear you condemning your fellow Republicans who enabled all this.

[C Moon]

71. Nothing new for the gop: remember the Battle of Baghdad? The gop has always lied and cheated to get rich.

trump is just taking it to a ridiculous level.

[Evolve Dammit]

72. And he has seen it all. My reaction after almost 70 years is the same. We are being destroyed from within. nt

[cab67]

74. He shares some of the blame.

David Brooks is very intelligent, and he's clearly capable of introspection - but not enough of it. His early support of the GWB administration, and its stupid decision to invade Iraq, played right into the forces that are currently ruining the country.