David Brooks calls himself a “Whig.” By that, he means that he believes in incremental change driven largely by local actors and the free market, and in targeted federal investment to boost the economy and address social issues. In my parlance, even though he’s Jewish, he’s a CD.
Brooks is in despair about politics at a national level, and with reason. His beloved GOP has been exposed by Trump as a white nationalist party with a “starve the beast” tax cutting economic program. The Democrats are clearly moving left. What’s a poor Whig to do?
The dilemma is real. But what Brooks doesn’t seem to realize is that he had a president who agreed with him on incremental change and public investment just a few years ago. Brooks was too loyal to the GOP to provide any meaningful support to the Obama agenda when it was on the table. Now he’s paying the price for it, and he has nowhere to go.