Quote Of The Day

Glenn Greenwald, summarizing the vision of our political elites these days, as epitomized by David Brooks:

It has long been the supreme fantasy of establishment guardians in general, and David Brooks in particular, that American politics would be dominated by an incestuous, culturally homogeneous, superior elite "who live in [Washington] and who have often known each other since prep school." And while these establishment guardians love to endlessly masquerade as spokespeople for the Ordinary American, what they most loathe is the interference by the dirty rabble in what should be their exclusive, harmonious club of political stewardship, where conflicts are amicably resolved by ladies and gentlemen of the highest breeding without any messy public conflict.

David Brooks' Political Dream

Back during the days of President Clinton trashing the place, it became pretty clear to me that Washington, DC, was a tight, small minded little society that would make hillbillies look like world-traveling renaissance men in comparison. Little since then has done anything to dispel that notion. It doesn't matter whether it's Democratic politicians talking about their base, or Republicans talking about theirs, the overwhelming sense of the place is that when you're there, you're clued into what's going on, and everyone else are a bunch of hicks. You can't expect anything more of a place that could brand a narrow-minded clown like David Broder the "dean" of its journalism class.