New York Times columnist David Brooks, a frequent critic of President Trump, said Saturday’s Women’s March in Washington and other protests like it will do nothing to substantially undermine the new administration.
In an op-ed published Tuesday, Brooks said such protests “can never be an effective opposition to Donald Trump” because their key issues — abortion, gender equality, climate change — mostly concern the people who were already in opposition to the president.
“All the big things that were once taken for granted are now under assault: globalization, capitalism, adherence to the Constitution, the American-led global order,” he wrote. “If you’re not engaging these issues first, you’re not going to be in the main arena of national life.”
The march on Saturday was highly attended and received massive news coverage. But, Brooks said, the impact on the national dialogue is minimal.
“People march and feel good and think they have accomplished something,” he said. “They have a social experience with a lot of people and fool themselves into thinking they are members of a coherent and demanding community. Such movements descend to the language of mass therapy.”
Some on the left felt that Brooks diminished what they believe to be a wide movement on par with the Tea Party in 2010.
On Twitter, liberal writer Adam H. Johnson shared Brooks’ column and commented, “God, can you please shut the f—k up.”
Elizabeth Plank, a writer for the liberal Vox website, said of Brooks’ column, “Here’s the patronizing white male take on the Women’s March you didn’t ask for.”
