Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was. His words are responsible; his character is inspiring. But his actions betray a transformational liberalism that should put every centrist on notice. As Clive Crook, an Obama admirer, wrote in The Financial Times, the Obama budget “contains no trace of compromise. It makes no gesture, however small, however costless to its larger agenda, of a bipartisan approach to the great questions it addresses. It is a liberal’s dream of a new New Deal.” [emphasis added]Brooks now sees only two possible reactions to the embarrassing new realization: either go right with the "Rush Limbaugh brigades" - something too distasteful for a New York Times columnist to consider seriously - or get the moderates to "assert ourselves". As he puts it:
We’re going to have to take a centrist tendency that has been politically feckless and intellectually vapid and turn it into an influential force.The problem with Brooks' preferred solution is that it is, to put it simply, metaphysically impossible. Anyone who hasn't completely throw off the bonds of reality must admit the simple truth that the philosopher Parmenides taught about 2,500 years ago: you can't get something from nothing. Applied to Brooks, it means that fecklessness and vapidity (the nothing) simply can't result in influential force (the something).
We are in the current mess because the "moderates" refused to face reality. Forced now to accept the distasteful truth of their self-delusion, only a die-hard dreamer could propose further flights of fancy. Reality-in-small-doses is not a realistic option. It is, in the end, nothing more than the last gasp of the intellectually vapid. May it rest in peace; soon!
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