StephenKMackSD's Blog

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/opinion/01brooks.html?src=recg

One of the Stars of the Aspen Ideas Festival, Mr. David Brooks, here takes aim at his latest victim Ms. Diane Ravitch, a highly respected scholar, theoretician and advocate in education and schools. He opens by giving Ms. Ravitch a good dressing down for her, to our thinkers own thought, ideologically inspired critiques of the American Educational System and its’ obvious deficits. Mr. Brooks excels in the art of nearly free-floating high minded critiques that reflect his penchant for overarching metaphors, that most times caricature the subjects actual thought. He resembles that great American pop artist Walt Disney in the realm of the pseudo-intellectual, which makes him the perfect embodiment of the Aspen Ideal of never ending self-congratulatory rhetoric. We can observe that Ms. Ravitch is on the ‘left’ and Mr. Brooks is on the ‘right’ in the most reductivist of terms of this presentation, of the good and the bad in Mr. Ravitchs’ career as advocate and partisan in the Education Debate: the political crux of the matter, here, being her once supporting No Child Left Behind then changing her mind. Here are quotes from the Wikipedia entry for Ms. Ravitch that will clarify:

“While she originally supported No Child Left Behind and charter schools, Ravitch later became "disillusioned," and wrote, "I no longer believe that either approach will produce the quantum improvement in American education that we all hope for." In the major national evaluation, 17% of charters got higher scores, 46% were no different, and 37% were significantly worse than public schools, she said. High-stakes testing, "utopian" goals, "draconian" penalties, school closings, privatization, and charter schools didn't work, she concluded. "The best predictor of low academic performance is poverty—not bad teachers."^[8]”

“Ravitch said that the charter school and testing reform movement was started by "right wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation," for the purpose of destroying public education and teachers' unions.^[9] She reviewed the documentary Waiting for Superman, directed by Davis Guggenheim, as "propagandistic" (pro-charter schools and anti-public schools), studded with "myths" and at least one "flatly wrong" claim.^[10]”

 Mr. Brooks never tires of giving those ‘left-wingers’ what for, as part of his duty as watchman of the republic, a duty he takes mighty seriously. As one of his regular readers I can attest that Mr. B. is always on point, when it comes to ideological enforcement, embroidered with mitigating intellectual rationalizations, while hewing to a simulacrum of argumentative rationalism: one might even say that that is his singular talent.

Political Observer         

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/opinion/28brooks.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

The latest David Brooks column titled 'Convener in Chief'' needs a set of definitions for key terms to make comprehension a real possibility:
David Brooks: A full time apologist for Plutocrats,Cleptocrats,Wall Street Thieves and both wings of America's only real political organization The Property Party.
The Age of Austerity: A definition and a political convenience that allows obscene corporate profits while the people foot the bill. This is brought to you by the same people who brought you the Financial Reform of 1999 and the Crash of 2008.
Management Styles : A way of rhetorically framing your bald-faced apologetics for demonstrable Republican Party incompetence. 
Chris Christie: A brash outspoken authoritarian personality with notes of corruption, double dealing and contempt for the law; a perfect candidate for the admiration of our esteemed scribbler.
Insurgent Approach: A handy metaphor, a bloated rationalization for corrupt intellectuals, who front for thieves and liars
Rahm Emmanuel: Another authoritarian from the other branch of the Property Party, carrying the Summers/Geithner baggage with pride and, of course, arrogance.
Power and Mass: Intellectual bloat masquerading as thought.
Speed and Dexterity: Another instance of intellectual bloat masquerading as thought.
John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, unrealistic, immature vision of the power of the presidency: Ah, the pleasures of partisan attacks against this liberal icon and the National Hero Myth.
Henry V at Agincourt: Historical bloat in service to partisan polemic.
President Obama has renounced that approach. Far from being a heroic quasi Napoleon: Irony and rhetorical indirection meaning it’s opposite.
All his life, Obama has worked in nonhierarchical institutions — community groups, universities, legislatures — so maybe it is natural that he has a nonhierarchical style.: No Real World experience running a company dedicated to profit at any cost. He is not an aggressive, unapologetic Capitalist.
Obama’s actual governing style emphasizes delegation and occasional passivity. Being led by Barack Obama is like being trumpeted into battle by Miles Davis. He makes you want to sit down and discern.: Leadership is always Authoritarian, Aggressive and Masculine never Feminine and Passive.
(Obama) He has ceded the initiative to the Republicans, who have dominated the debate by establishing facts on the ground.: The Paul Ryan Fake Economic Proposal and the political necessity of Austerity as the key to our National Greatness as argued and advocated by both wings of The Property Party.
Now Obama is compelled to engage.: Become more Aggressive i.e. Masculine.
If he can overcome his aloofness and work intimately with Republicans, he may be able to avert a catastrophe and establish a model for a more realistic, collegial presidency.: Republican self-congratulatory hyperbole mixed liberally with the magic of indirection and conscious deceit.
The former messiah will have to become a manager.: The coup de grace of this political homily, framed by platitudes drawn from American Political Theology.    
Almost Marx