David Brooks, the Lindsey Graham of Republicanish writers of op-eds, wrote one on March 18 titled “No, Not Trump, Not Ever.” Unremarkable, really, as he and his ilk are firmly united in their opposition to Trump as well as their disdain for voters, who “are rarely wise but are usually sensible.” At last though, he’s begun to understand the appeal of Trump.
This is key piece right here:
…many in the media, especially me, did not understand how they would express their alienation. We expected Trump to fizzle because we were not socially intermingled with his supporters and did not listen carefully enough. For me, it’s a lesson that I have to change the way I do my job if I’m going to report accurately on this country.
Politicians, pundits, commentators, etc–all the dinosaurs that are being called “the establishment”–have been so completely out of touch, its astounding. They’ve struggled to understand Trump’s rise, penning any number of articles trying to make sense of it. And all too late, Brooks now almost gets it.
What Brooks has not yet grasped, I think, is that for so many people–and not just angry white gun-toting southerners–politicians have let them down for so long and such an extent that they are willing to overlook a lot of Trump’s negatives for the simple fact that Trump is not part of the political-industrial complex. That structure has proven corrupt, condescending, and incapable of solving America’s problems, and Trump is the only one that represents a real threat to it.
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