New York Times columnist and self-taught psychiatrist David Brooks says there’s no way he can vote to reelect Donald Trump in 2020. But without even knowing it, he just made the best case possible for ensuring that Trump gets another four years in office.
Brooks is one of those conservatives who isn’t really concerned with politics so much as he is with assessing the “character” and “virtue” and “principles” of every Republican who runs for something. And so winning an election or passing a conservative agenda in Congress is always kind of beside the point for Brooks. What’s important to him is that even if every Republican who runs for president from now on loses, well, at least Brooks will be able to say each one of them was a good egg.
Case in point, Brooks in his latest column this week frets that people like him — which is to say, those who at least purport to care about low taxes and the appointment of conservatives to the Supreme Court — may have to vote for Elizabeth Warren next year.
“Warren represents a policy wrong turn, in my view,” he wrote, “but policies can be argued about and reversed. Trump represents a much more important and fundamental threat — to the norms, values, standards, and soul of this country.”
Brooks may be more concerned with the “norms,” the “values” and the “soul” of America, but for any conservative or Republican who actually cares about policy issues, Brooks’ argument actually points towards voting for Trump.
Brooks, you see, is wrong on his central claim. Policies can’t simply be “argued about and reversed.” Sure, in theory they can. But what is the last major liberal screwup that has actually been undone by Republicans? Obamacare is almost entirely still here. Medicare and Social Security are still bankrupting the country.
As Trump has learned, it’s almost impossible to permanently undo a disaster started by a previous administration. Congress will almost never help and anything a new president tries to do unilaterally is frequently kicked down by the courts.
With a President Warren, every conservative voter who hates Trump should ask himself: Which one of her crazy policies are they willing to see permanently enacted into law? Is it her promise to abolish private health insurance? Is it her plan to fling open the southern border and welcome in every poor and sick person south of Texas?
Reelecting Trump is the only way we avoid either one of those things, at least for a little while longer. But if Trump loses, well, Brooks can feel happy again that “the soul of this country” is once again on the rebound.
