David Brooks: "this administration will not sustain itself for a full term"

[brooklynite]

The New York Times

If the current reign of ineptitude continues, Republicans will eventually peel away. The Civil Service will begin to ignore the sloppy White House edicts. The national security apparatus will decide that to prevent a slide to global disorder, it has to run itself.

In this scenario, the crucial question is how to replace and repair. The model for the resistance is Gerald Ford, a decent, modest, experienced public servant who believed in the institutions of government, who restored faith in government, who had a plan to bind the nation’s wounds and restored normalcy and competence.

Personally, I don’t think we’re at a Bonhoeffer moment or a Benedict moment. I think we’re approaching a Ford moment. If the first three weeks are any guide, this administration will not sustain itself for a full term. We’ll need a Ford, or rather a generation of Fords to restore effective governance.

[madokie]

1. In an honest and just situation

this would never have happened. I can't see tRump lasting much longer

[BeyondGeography]

2. But at the end of the day, it's the boomers who wrecked the government

Not the GOP. This is how that column ends:

...These tasks aren’t magic. They are for experienced professionals. The baby boomer establishment polarized politics, lost touch with the voters and paved the way for Trump. We need a new establishment, one that works again

Brooks can string a few good paragraphs together, but he still wins the gold in self-delusion.

[apcalc]

6. I disagree with the substance of that paragraph.

Polarization has been happening over the course of many years and has been a process. It began probably with Nixon and Watergate and was certainly underway during the Reagan administration. These men and those that worked closely with them on policy were not baby boomers.

[BeyondGeography]

7. It's an excerpt from the column

False equivalency on steroids.

[jetcat]

11. This "lost touch with the voters" nonsense

gets on my last nerve. The majority of "the voters" voted for Hillary, and lest we forget (and for those on the right who appear never to have known), Democrats had net legislative gains. Those real-world voters are just so inconvenient.

[Paladin]

12. Count on David Brooks to end up steering a column into a ditch.

He has it right about trump not making it a full term. But ending up with a brain-dead trashing of baby boomers? Please....

[Laura PourMeADrink]

3. The sooner the better before too much damage done. On a totally selfish note, hope I don't lose

50% of my IRA again. I am sure others feel the same way. Makes me want to put it all under my mattress.

[JustAnotherGen]

4. We didn't need David Brooks to tell us that n/t

[joshcryer]

5. Goes without saying.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Their "base" is so foaming-at-the-mouth entrenched from 30 years of RW bile

that "a Ford" will not only be unacceptable, but would be drawn and quartered as a "left-wing RINO".

This is NOT 1973/1974 in terms of the GOP masses, their group-think, and the controllers of their "message". It is too late for them to find a "Ford" or any other "moderate/liberal" Republican. Especially when their own "establishment leadership" has consistently talked like anti-establishment lunatic shit-stirrers themselves in order to appease the Faux Snoozes, Limpballs, Hannitys, and O'Reillys of the modern RW messaging era.

[NewRedDawn]

13. Nail meet hammer!

[GoCubsGo]

9. I don't think it will sustain itself six months, let alone a full term.

But, it's still terrifying to think about what could/will happen between now and then.

[Vogon_Glory]

10. Too bad anyone even close to Gerry Ford has been primaries out

The Tea-bag crowd and the loonies are in charge of the Republican Party and the only cavalry they have left are likely to lead them into a second Little Big Horn.

[Sherman A1]

14. It will be interesting to see

how this unravels.