David Brooks slams GOP "incompetence caucus"

Link

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/opinion/the-republicans-incompetence-caucus.html?_r=0


A weird contradictory mentality replaced traditional conservatism. Republican radicals have contempt for politics, but they still believe that transformational political change can rescue the nation. Republicans developed a contempt for Washington and government, but they elected leaders who made the most lavish promises imaginable. Government would be reduced by a quarter! Shutdowns would happen! The nation would be saved by transformational change! As Steven Bilakovics writes in his book “Democracy Without Politics,” “even as we expect ever less of democracy we apparently expect ever more from democracy.”

This anti-political political ethos produced elected leaders of jaw-dropping incompetence. Running a government is a craft, like carpentry. But the new Republican officials did not believe in government and so did not respect its traditions, its disciplines and its craftsmanship. They do not accept the hierarchical structures of authority inherent in political activity.

and

Really, have we ever seen bumbling on this scale, people at once so cynical and so naïve, so willfully ignorant in using levers of power to produce some tangible if incremental good? These insurgents can’t even acknowledge democracy’s legitimacy — if you can’t persuade a majority of your colleagues, maybe you should accept their position. You might be wrong!

 

Who?

 

This is the stuff Brooks does. No surprise he wrote this. Having said that, he is right about the contradictory message. That's what allowed to Tea Party to take root (cue inevitable Starman cut and paste). Big goverment conservatives are right in the middle of the party's current uncertainty.

 

Scintillating analysis. Thanks!