{"id":121825,"date":"2025-03-09T09:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T09:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/you-cant-oppose-marjorie-taylor-greene-and-then-think-what-al-green-did-was-totally-fine\/"},"modified":"2025-03-09T09:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-03-09T09:17:13","slug":"you-cant-oppose-marjorie-taylor-greene-and-then-think-what-al-green-did-was-totally-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=121825","title":{"rendered":"You can\u2019t oppose Marjorie Taylor Greene and then think what Al Green did was totally fine."},"content":{"rendered":"
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David Brooks on Trump\u2019s speech to the nation on Tuesday night and the current plight of the Democratic Party:<\/p>\n
There were a lot of dramatic moments for people to think: Wow, that\u2019s a good guy. The moment with that cute kid, DJ, who wants to become a cop and who is suffering from brain cancer. Widows were recognized.<\/em><\/p>\n
And I thought the Democrats should have just sat there. When Marjorie Taylor Greene behaved shamefully, a lot of progressive commentators were rightly offended. Then last night you had the screaming and Al Green\u2019s removal. You have to have some intellectual consistency. You can\u2019t oppose Marjorie Taylor Greene and then think what Al Green did was totally fine<\/em>.<\/p>\n
I thought the Democrats were losing their way until the response. I thought Elissa Slotkin\u2019s response was excellent. She spoke in a way that appeals to swing voters. She didn\u2019t talk like she was coming out of Washington, D.C., or some faculty club. She talked about the big issues in a big way, in a way that appeals to people who are undecided. That was the kind of message the Democratic Party can build on.<\/em><\/p>\n
And this:<\/p>\n
I would advise Democrats to take some time off. They\u2019re not in control. They don\u2019t have power. But mostly a lot of the categories Democrats have used to understand reality don\u2019t describe actual reality.<\/em><\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think Democrats have coped with the fact that they\u2019re more the party of the elites now than the party of the working class. I don\u2019t think they expected so many Black and brown voters to go for Donald Trump, and it just takes an intellectual revolution to adjust.<\/em><\/p>\n
And they have to make some fundamental decisions. Do they want to work really hard to once again become the party of the working class? Is that even possible? Joe Biden tried with good economic policies \u2014 a large percentage of his policies helped working-class voters. It did him no political good because you can\u2019t solve with economics a problem that\u2019s fundamentally about culture and respect.<\/em><\/p>\n
Or, maybe they should accept the fact that they\u2019re the party of the college educated and urban classes, and that\u2019s who they are, and they\u2019re going to represent those people and hopefully build some majorities around those people.<\/em><\/p>\n
Going back to the 19th century, Andrew Jackson \u2014 who\u2019s the closest politician we\u2019ve ever had to Donald Trump. He was a narcissist, he was power hungry, and didn\u2019t fundamentally know what he was doing to screw up. And lo and behold, Andrew Jackson made a terrible decision to close the Second Bank of the United States and the end result was, basically, a decadelong depression.<\/em><\/p>\n
So Democrats right now have to wait for Donald Trump to screw up. I think the tariffs may be that screw-up. The policy toward Ukraine may be that screw-up. I\u2019m assuming that a guy who doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s doing will make some major errors and then the Democrats will see some opportunities.<\/em><\/p>\n
And this:<\/p>\n
And I would say if you\u2019re a Democrat with progressive values, there are some ways you\u2019ve won the country over: on gay marriage, on L.G.B.T.Q. rights. But the high school sports thing is probably a step too far right now, and it may, frankly, forever be a step too far.<\/em><\/p>\n
And so my advice is to focus on the values that really help win elections. If you\u2019re running in a political campaign, be true to your values in ways that win elections.<\/em><\/p>\n
And this:<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026in my view, the highly educated people have created a caste system in America over the last 70 years. People with high school degrees die eight years sooner than people with college degrees. People with high school degrees, their children fall four grade levels behind kids from other families by sixth grade. They\u2019re four grade levels lower. And Trump says: \u201cI\u2019m with you guys, the working class.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
And Democrats have gotten on the wrong side of both those gigantic issues. And those are epochal issues. And he builds on that in a lot of different ways. And he did so Tuesday night just by celebrating the kid who wants to become a cop. He\u2019s not celebrating the kid who wants to become a neuroscientist.<\/em><\/p>\n
And this:<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a Bruce Springsteen song from 2012 called \u201cWe Take Care of Our Own.\u201d That song has a brilliant double message which is, \u201cWe love our people and we take care of our own.\u201d But it\u2019s also, \u201cWe\u00a0<\/em>only\u00a0take care of our own.\u201d And Trump does this. It\u2019s all about the in group and the out group. \u201cWe take care of our own, but those people in the out group, they\u2019re the enemy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
And I travel a lot. In my travels, most people are just incredibly generous, in red and blue states, and so I find on a local level people go out of their way for each other. But it\u2019s at the national level, and when you\u2019re dealing with strangers, and especially when you\u2019re dealing with the world through the prism of the media, then the nastiness becomes so easy. Trump plays on an abstracted negativity or an abstracted hatred that I don\u2019t think shows up all that often \u2014 it does obviously sometimes, but in day-to-day life.<\/em><\/p>\n
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