David Brooks has written a dandy column begging the Republicans to get their act together and come up with proposals of their own -- rather than just shoot down Democratic proposals and recommend a year-long "freeze."
What Brooks doesn't seem to understand is that these are not Republicans. Really. I'm not kidding. Most active Republicans in Congress resigned regretfully and/or with deep sighs of relief by the end of 1996. They were clearer about the direction their right wing colleagues were taking than Democrats are even now. (One exception is Joe Biden who has been eloquent about the other side of the aisle all during the Bush administration.) Many of the old Republican old guard went politely and discreetly; but most of them vented later in interviews and in print. It's worth taking a look back at what they said about what had happened in the Republican caucus.
These pod-people coopted the Republican label. They have managed to get Democrats to treat them like humans -- you know, like the old opposition, like colleagues, like real Republicans. The sooner Democrats catch on to what's been happening (right in front of their eyes and for more than 14 years), the sooner we'll be out of the mess. As long as the media and as long as many bloggers continue to treat the pods as just annoying jerks, the longer we'll be stuck in the mud. The mud gets deeper by the minute.
David Brooks has been remarkable in separating himself from the current edition of the Republican party. Now he needs to step back, look at them, and realize that they're not just bad Republicans, they're both sillier and more dangerous than any Republican he used to respect. They are polished and focused destroyers of comity and democracy. We should stop kidding around them and focus on turning them off.
(See also Andrew Sullivan's theories. Sullivan and Brooks, both conservatives, are now writing much more intelligently about the threat from the right than any on the left. Oh, and put Andrew Bacevitch on that list.)
