Brooks Fills Buckley Void

It has been accurately stated that the most significant loss to American political scene with the passing of William F. Buckley is a voice of reason.  Buckley had the uncanny knack of successfully exposing many of the destructive elements and individuals within the “so-called” conservative movement.  

The rationale, and thus the accuracy of the statement, stems from Buckley’s exposing and thus obliterating the John Birch Society’ influence as well as discrediting  an endless list of charlatans calling themselves conservatives.  If Buckley were still able to wet his pencil it is assured the Tea Party, Donald Trump, the constitutional obstructionists and the host of other crackpots now occupying center stage for the GOP would have been sent packing long before they got a foothold in our political process. 

 

There is one voice trying to fill that void today.  It is New York Times syndicated columnist David Brooks.  Brooks, however, does not have the bully pulpit that Buckley had.  No television show, no national magazine, no repeated appearances on the most popular television programs, no unified Republican and conservative support.  He does have NPR and PBS where he can be digested on a regular basis and of course his columns – in era when asking people to digest 750 words rather than the a sparse 250 characters of information is viewed as overly taxing.

 

A sampling of Brook’s wisdom and what Buckley would be saying today is most evident in Brooks’ evaluation of the current crop of Republican candidates, as recently expressed on the PBS News Hour.

 

“Yes, Ted Cruz is making headway.” “…you begin to see little signs of liftoff.

 

“Trump has sort of ceiling-ed out. Carson is collapsing. And Cruz is somehow beginning to get some momentum from Iowa and elsewhere. And so people are either mimicking him, which Rubio is doing a little by adopting some of the dark and satanic tones (of) Cruz…” “… if you watch a Cruz speech, it’s like, we have got this enemy,…we’re going to stomp on this person, we’re going to crush that person, we’re going to destroy that person.”

 

“It is an ugly world in Ted Cruz’s world. And it’s combative. And it’s angry, and it’s apocalyptic… it’s dark… and, frankly, harsh. It’s (primarily)…We’re on the edge of the abyss. You need a tough guy to beat that back. And that’s his personality. “

 

“That’s not Marco Rubio’s personality. He’s…been running the youthful optimism campaign, but he’s beginning, to prevent Cruz from getting liftoff, to mimic sort of that, (angry Cruz)… it’s a mistake, because inauthentic —almost never works. And so, if… Rubio starts to go like Cruz, he just doesn’t look like himself, and that bothers people.”

 

If someone more mainstream (Rubio, Kasich, Christie, Bush) does not emerge from the eventual ashes of trash now dominating the GOP, a schism is very likely to occur, the possibility of which would never have never been considered in a political arena influenced by Chairman Bill.