Podcast: David Brooks’ Delusional Nostalgia

In the latest issue of The Atlantic, David Brooks traces his ideological journey from being a social democrat in college to a conservative once he entered the work world to a moderate Democrat today. “I fell in love with conservatism in my 20s,” Brooks wistfully reflects. He goes on to note:

I started reading any writer on conservatism whose book I could get my hands on—Willmoore Kendall, Peter Viereck, Shirley Robin Letwin. I can only describe what happened next as a love affair. I was enchanted by their way of looking at the world. In conservatism I found not a mere alternative policy agenda, but a deeper and more resonant account of human nature, a more comprehensive understanding of wisdom, an inspiring description of the highest ethical life and the nurturing community.

Over at The Nation, I took issue with the way Brooks provided a romanticized view of conservative history: 

Most of Brooks’ essay is taking up by giving a very selective and potted account of some of the great conservative thinkers who enthralled his young mind, teaching him the value of prudence and the organic evolution of society. The roll call of names includes Edmund Burke, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. A few oddball intellectuals are thrown in: Willmoore Kendall, Peter Viereck, James Q. Wilson, and William F. Buckley.

This history is weirdly denuded of complexity and particularity: Hamilton and Jefferson were foes and they surely influenced liberals as much as conservatives. Both were revolutionaries, as was Lincoln. Even Theodore Roosevelt was a reformer. 

We get Burke the lofty exalter of “little platoons”—but not the Burke who absurdly enthused over Marie Antoinette and the age of chivalry, the Burke who derided the “swinish multitude,” or the Burke urged a total war against France. Willmoore Kendall is just name-dropped, with no mention of his support for Joseph McCarthy, his advocacy of pre-emptive war against the Soviet Union, and his promotion of biological racism. James Q. Wilson’s thoughts on morality are quoted without reflection on Wilson’s key role as a promoter of mass incarceration.

I have much more to say about the way Brooks manhandles history than I was able to get into the column. So I was happy to take the opportunity to talk to Doug Bell, frequent guest of the podcast, about Brooks and the true history of American conservatism. One major theme of our discussion is the way in which Brooks has been elevated by liberals, such as his editors at The New York Times, as the respectable face of conservatism which only serves to obscure the true nature of right-wing politics. 

If you enjoyed this podcast, you might also want to listen to recent similar episodes including What Happened to Naomi Wolf? and What Happened to Glenn Greenwald? and What Happened to Christopher Hitchens?

(Edited by Emily M. Keeler)

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