David Brooks: The GOP doesn't realize "this is a Joe McCarthy moment" — history will judge them for where they stood

It's strange to think that one's position on Donald Trump is worthy of historical import, but it will be

Published April 29, 2016 12:20PM (EDT)

David Brooks   (AP/Nam Y. Huh)
David Brooks (AP/Nam Y. Huh)

In his Friday New York Times column, economist David Brooks argued that unbeknownst to itself, the Republican Party is having "a Joe McCarthy moment" -- meaning that history will judge people by "where they stood at this time," and that those "who walked with Trump will be tainted forever after for the degradation of standards and the general election slaughter."

He wrote that America will, after this election, need "a new national story," because up until now, "America’s story has been some version of the rags-to-riches story, the lone individual who rises from the bottom through pluck and work." That story doesn't work anymore, because as the relative successes of the Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders campaigns have demonstrated, people believe that system is rigged:

I don’t know what the new national story will be, but maybe it will be less individualistic and more redemptive. Maybe it will be a story about communities that heal those who suffer from addiction, broken homes, trauma, prison and loss, a story of those who triumph over the isolation, social instability and dislocation so common today.

We’ll probably need a new definition of masculinity, too...

Read the rest at the New York Times...


By Scott Eric Kaufman

MORE FROM Scott Eric Kaufman


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2016 Gop Primary Donald Trump Elections 2016 Joe Mccarthy New York Times Paul Krugman Ted Cruz