David Brooks

[libertango]

...has a column in the New York Times that's almost incoherent, wherein he discusses... Howard Dean's incoherence.

Here's how the column ends:

"The only problem is that us rural folk distrust people who reinvent themselves. Many of us rural folk are nervous about putting the power of the presidency in the hands of a man who could be anyone."

What he's making fun of is Howard Dean speaking to an Iowan audience beginning, "Us rural people..." Brooks then says, "Dean grew up on Park Avenue and in East Hampton. If he's a rural person, I'm the Queen of Sheba."

Yes, that may be where Dean grew up. But Dean moved to Vermont a quarter-century ago. Vermont, last I checked, was one of the most-rural, least-urban states in the union.

But what's also strange here is what the Queen of Sheba has to say in this last paragraph. America is perhaps most famous for people re-inventing themselves. Brooks himself has written an entire book about the remaking of the Boomers, Bobos in Paradise.

And it seems to me that not that long ago, a native of New Haven, Connecticut, a graduate of Andover, Yale, and Harvard, a guy who was an alcoholic, a drug-user, and family ne'er do well, reinvented himself as a sober, faithful, stupid, Christian guy from Texas.

To be sure, George W. Bush didn't win the election last time, aside from a 5-4 straw poll... But a lot of "rural folk" voted for him.

But I guess the Queen of Sheba was too busy surveying his domain to notice.

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UPDATE: I just sent this as an e-mail and a fax to the Times.

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UPDATE 2: Josh Marshall agrees.

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Some rural people voted for a succession of New Nixons.

[ferahga.livejournal.com]

That's the beauty of masks, it seems.. we can wear one to fit any situation. But none are more dangerous than those who wear them convincingly in positions of great influence..
just ask all the families of slaughtered iraqi's.