New York Times columnist David Brooks — a favorite of the Left — took a slap at the tea party movement and discussed his disdain for ideological principles yesterday at Duke. His solution to the country’s problems: centrism. Translation: let’s all abandon our beliefs and move to the middle.
Brooks insists the solution lies with America’s third ideological tradition: centrism. He said centrists want “a limited but energetic government to enhance social mobility,” but find themselves hampered by an insufficient fund-raising apparatus and an inability to spread their message.
Still, Brooks remains hopeful that the system can change.
“I maintain my optimism against all sanity,” he said. “There has to be change in intellectual landscape, change in the institutional landscape and change in the political landscape.”
I couldn’t disagree more. The beauty of democracy is that we engage in a battle of ideas and principles upon which to govern. Centrism is for those who hold few, if any, guiding principles.
