November 15, 2024

"Democrats lost because everyone except for whites moved in the direction of Donald Trump this cycle."

Said the sociologist Musa al-Gharbi, quoted in David Brooks's new column, "Why We Got It So Wrong" (NYT).

I thought that was a good quote, but I don't care about this column otherwise, because if you were "so wrong" before, why would I look to you for right answers now? I skimmed it. I get the impression Brooks thinks we should move beyond identity politics... now that the identity groups have trended toward Trump.

68 comments:

Democrats Love Waste Fraud Abuse/ Rachel Maddow = Lying Psycho said...

The Democrat Media Industrial Complex has no credibility.

wild chicken said...

It would be funny if all these experts were just guessing or wishcasting for pay.

Aggie said...

Everybody has stopped listening to them, yet they still won't go away. The funding has to dry up first.

Jamie said...

And we'd better protect the filibuster, too! And the Electoral College might also be worth saving... Gerrymandering is a powerful weapon against racism, don't forget that!

Drago said...

Brooks will forever be a decade behind but always available for 2000 words after the fact to feed the FauxCon Explainer Silo.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"Identity politics is one of my principles, and if you don't that principle, I have others."

- David Brooks (allegedly)

Kate said...

Poor Brooks tries to dope slap his friends, but he's not forceful enough. The Nation, of all places, has an article with some swing behind the hand.

gilbar said...

David Brooks's new column, "Why We Got It So Wrong" ..

what'd ya mean "We", white guy?

narciso said...

As in sprockets he no longer amuses me

gilbar said...

yes! the filibuster is a historic NECESSITY! It's IN The Constitution!!!

Dude1394 said...

Agreed, the media is just so off base that it's ridiculous. Paul Krugman spouting nonsense when everything he has said was wrong, is another one. Just a waste of electrons.

mccullough said...

Always wrong, never in doubt

Dude1394 said...

Looking at the NYTimes opinion pieces, so many, so many know know what the democrats did wrong, and they knew it all along, but didn't want to say anything to hurt their team.

Money Manger said...

Yes, the NYT hired him to say "they". But he's gone native and now it's "we". Lord Haw-haw.

gilbar said...

wasn't David Brooks the guy that wrote that he wanted to pull off O'Bama's sharply creased Trousers, and suck him off?
I can't remember.. All i'm saying is.. Who The HELL was David Brooks ?

Former Illinois resident said...

Brooks is representative of the Blob elite, can't see beyond his own DC beltway bias. Have friends who live in DC beltway, and in Big Blue cities who think in accordance with NYT talking-points. No other opinions tolerated; if published in NYT, then must be 100% factual truthiness. Our progressive-elite class thinks they're always genius and right, pontificating on all topics; anyone who doesn't agree with their viewpoint is labeled as evil MAGA dolt.

Gusty Winds said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ambrose said...

“Everyone except whites” still divides humanity into little racial subgroups, and assumes that is a highly predictive model of behavior. Go away.

Eva Marie said...

“I get the impression Brooks thinks we should move beyond identity politics... now that the identity groups have trended toward Trump.”
That’s the best description of the Democrat Party I’ve read. Democrats will support any cause they think will put them in power. The reason they want power is because they think they are the best people to be in charge. They are the party of the good.

Wince said...

Babbling Brooks.

Jaq said...

Who would have figured Stephen A. Smith for one of these black manosphere guys questioning Democrat orthodoxies and ripping Oprah a new one. I did not have that on my bingo card.

RCOCEAN II said...

Hello? The Democrats did NOT lose "everyone except whites". 80 percent of blacks voted D. Jews voted D 70-30. Hipanics still voted majority D, as did Asians. All that happened is that instead of 2/3 of Asians/Hispanics voting D, it was 55-45.

In California, the minorities are the majority. As a result, every D gets elected no matter what. I assume the same is true in NY. We haven't gone "Beyond identity politics". All that's happened is that Trump was so good (for an R) at attracting minority votes, and Kamala was so bad at attracting Hispanics/Asians that we got Trump.

Run Mike Pence, Nikki, or Chris Christie in 2028 and you'll be back to Hispanics voting 2-1 Democrat.

RCOCEAN II said...

Is there anyone more out of touch then David Brooks? I mean besides Ross Doughnut and David "You're a bad Chrisitian and a racist" French.

Iman said...

and now is teh time ven ve dance!

Texasyankee said...

The NY Times should fire it's columnists and editorial writers and start over. They don't have to be conservative but they should not have a consistent record of being wrong.

n.n said...

Diversity (e.g. racism, sexism) politics. Lose your religion. #HateLovesAbortion

Robert Cook said...

Trump's victory proves 76 million dunces wake up every morning in America.

Dave Begley said...

David Brooks hasn't moved beyond identity politics. Check out his piece in The Atlantic re: the Ivies.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

No, Cookie, Harri's total is only about 74 million

And it's the idiots who voted for the idiot.

But, I'm glad that now that the election is over you're willing to admit that giving power to dunces like Harris is a bad thing

Greg The Class Traitor said...

While Brooks clearly isn't qualified to tell us about the voters, he is qualified to tell us what idiots his side are.

So long as he focused on that, the column might be worthwhile

Jaq said...

Aww, Cookie. Show us on the doll where Trump hurt you.

Aggie said...

That's a great conclusion; Your powers of observation and insight continue to amaze. 76 million people are wrong, they must be. Are you writing this from a cafe, abroad somewhere? Are you wearing your beret, and smoking a Gauloises?

Maynard said...

We, the unenlightened trash, prostrate ourselves to your intellectual and moral superiority, Cookie.

CJinPA said...

Wall Street Journal today:

The New Driving Force of Identity Politics Is Class, Not Race
The nation is increasingly voting along class lines, not racial ones. That could upend how we have thought about politics for decades.

JAORE said...

Jim Cramer for Treasury Sec.!

Shouting Thomas said...

Sorry, Cookie, no communism for you. We’ll continue to prosper in our false consciousness.

Christopher B said...

He's not correct about it being 'whites', either (Steve Hayward @ Powerline)

Per Patrick Ruffini the only cohorts out of a very wide range of demographic divisions that moved more Democrat in 2024 were Whites 45+, White College Men, White Urban, and Postgraduate Study, and all of those moved Democrat no more than 4%. Whites in general moved 1% more GOP.

rehajm said...

Cookie is feeling better I see...

Jaq said...

When the Democrats kicked the working class to the curb, this was inevitable. It turns out that the Democrats find working people yucky and think that they have crass tastes. This is something that that moron Trump noticed and decided to exploit to become President.

The Democrats thought that when they sold out working class voters, they would have nowhere to turn.

Bob Boyd said...

"We"

Goldenpause said...

Brooks is living and working in an elitist bubble and is trying to explain to his fellow elitists what the Great Unwashed are up to. Like a stopped clock, he gets the correct time twice a day.

Jaq said...

Who would have thunk that Mallory from Family Ties would turn out to be a bit of a Trumper, well, she's happy that he won, and Alex would turn out to be a loony liberal. I guess that's why they call it "acting."

Bill R said...

So Brooks has discovered people think of themselves as individuals. Excellent!

The Russians have an expression for this kind of thing. "He discovered America", they say.

phantommut said...

Whatever puts identity politics behind us is a good thing.

Jupiter said...

Hey, Cooks. The thing is, if Harris had won, you still wouldn't be happy. In all the years you have whinged in this comment section, I have never once seen you write a favorable word about anything. Whatever the World may offer, it won't be what Cookie ordered.

Jupiter said...

"I get the impression Brooks thinks we should move beyond identity politics... ".
Yes, and he's probably about ready for a new wife, too.

Eva Marie said...

So much for identity politics:
https://x.com/citizenfreepres/status/1857438037384319153?s=46

CJinPA said...

Until Trump, the Dem calculation was correct. Working class (whites, especially) had nowhere to turn. In 2016, 15 candidates challenged Trump in the primary and one gave a crap about these forgotten voters.

The bigger news, if the WSJ headline is correct, is that American might be saved from the ethnic conflict we've been rushing toward. We're going to be a majority minority nation by 2040 or so. No nation in history has ever done what we're attempting to do. If we vote purely along racial lines, we're done as a nation.

Ice Nine said...

What's with this "Cookie" pet name thing? This guy hates you.

Lazarus said...

"Identity politics" has become a pejorative. People who take pride in being for "diversity, equity, and inclusion" won't admit to supporting "identity politics" and may even condemn it. Even those who are urging people to vote their identity believe that they are speaking for the common good and that it's their opponents who are practicing "identity politics." Even if it looks like Brooks has changed, he probably hasn't.

BUMBLE BEE said...

August 9, 2024 Mike Rowe w/VDH beats the WSJ to the clue!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-bgX9eQ58w

Talk about class warfare. WSJ keepin it dim?

PM said...

The correct analysis is "We are not as smart as we think we are. Even in retrospect."

Hassayamper said...

Don't forget David Frum and Jen Rubin. Worthless.

Dixcus said...

It is not surprising that Kamala Harris ... an Indian ... the dot variety ... not the Elizabeth Warren variety ... couldn't attract Asian or Black votes.

It was a cool scam they tried to pull, and her "Negro accent" is way better than say ... Ted Danson's ... but alas.

Kakistocracy said...

Whether or not progressives are ready to accept it, the evidence all points in one direction. Moderate voters have not deserted the Democrats; the party has pushed them away.

RonF said...

"if you were "so wrong" before, why would I look to you for right answers now?"

Because before he was working off of assumptions based on his own biases, but now he's looking at actual data.

Jaq said...

Stop Selling! We already elected him!

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"What's with this "Cookie" pet name thing? This guy hates you"

And we (I, at least) revel in it.

To be fair to Bob, he just stated, albeit unintentionally, the Donk's problem, far more succinctly than Brooks.

loudogblog said...

So many of the Democrats still will not admit that they were wrong. Most of my Democrat friends (of which I have none) started screaming that Trump only won because of racism and misogyny the day after the election. They still think that Harris was the perfect candidate and deserved to win.

Christopher B said...

Jee, how did that happen? I was told when Biden was elected that "the adults were back in charge" and that he was going to unify the country. Kamala Harris even said "nothing came to mind" when asked what she would do differently than Joe Biden. You mean he wasn't popular?

loudogblog said...

"Touch my monkey!"

Former Illinois resident said...

Well he nailed it, didn't he? Influence of Oprah and Obamas is gone, except for those AWFL ladies.

Rabel said...

I was able to read the column here.

Plus the comments! The top two are Nazi references and the next few mostly deny Kamala's weaknesses.

Rabel said...

Well, my link didn't work. I got there by clicking through Brook's byline.

Big Mike said...

After the 2016 election Brooks vowed to go out into Trump country and understand what motivated Trump voters — if that sounds like Jane Goodall and her chimpanzees, yes, I got that vibe too.

If he ever got west of Newark I’ve seen no evidence of it in his writings, but at least now he doesn’t have to travel very far if he wants to talk to Trump voters since there are plenty these days right there in New York City. For that matter the whole western half of Long Island is MAGA country.

Big Mike said...

Awww, people need to cut Cookie some slack. Remember that slogan “Workers of the world unite!” — well ten days ago they did unite, and they voted for Trump.

tcrosse said...

Kamala's great advantage is that she isn't Trump. This is enough for her supporters to overlook her shortcomings.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, slicing and dicing people into identity groups, crazy as it is, isn’t the real problem. What Obama and his consigliere Axelrod added to the mix was setting each group at another’s throats. So women were not just an identity group (crazy as it may seem that a single working mother in Appalachia has much in common with a wealthy liberal denizen of the Upper West Side) but they are an oppressed identity group, and the identity group known as “white males” (aka the “patriarchy”) are their oppressors. But moving the identity group called “Jews” into the “oppressor” category seems to have started the unwinding.