Breaking News: Bobo Still a Jerk

David Brooks, who never met a complex idea he couldn't totally misrepresent via an inane metaphorical or imaginary binary, starts his latest column, "Liberal Suicide March," with:

It was interesting to watch the Republican Party lose touch with America. You had a party led by conservative Southerners who neither understood nor sympathized with moderates or representatives from swing districts.

…It's not that interesting to watch the Democrats lose touch with America. That's because the plotline is exactly the same. The party is led by insular liberals from big cities and the coasts, who neither understand nor sympathize with moderates.

Yin. Yang. Peas. Carrots. Laverne. Shirley. Left ball. Right ball.

I could write an entire dissertation on why his mindless "second verse, same as the first!" framing is just more of the same fulloshit fuckery in which he regularly trades, but suffice it to say that the Republican Party did not lose touch with America just because of conservative Southerners. It wasn't just conservative Southerners who got a bug up their collective ass to try to "reform" Social Security. It wasn't just conservative Southerners who stopped the government in its tracks to try to "save" Terri Schiavo. It wasn't just conservative Southerners who catastrophically botched the response to Katrina. It wasn't just conservative Southerners who gifted a glorious government hand-out to pharmaceutical companies. It wasn't just conservative Southerners who outed Valerie Plame. And it sure as shit wasn't just conservative Southerners, nor even mostly conservative Southerners, who were the primary architects of the Iraq War.

As it happens, most of the architects of the Iraq War were northern, urban elites—and most of the conservative media shills who sold the war were, too.

As for the "liberal suicide march" of the "insular liberals from big cities and the coasts, who neither understand nor sympathize with moderates," I daresay if the Dems are having any problems at all with flyover libs like me, it's that they're not being progressive enough. We've got enough Right in this country; their problem is failing to give us enough Left.