The Gingrich Revolution In Reverse

Conservative New York Times pundit David Brooks sees the handwriting on the wall. Obama will win and the Democrats will control the House and Senate. Therefore:

What we’re going to see, in short, is the Gingrich revolution in reverse
and on steroids. There will be a big increase in spending and deficits. In
normal times, moderates could have restrained the zeal on the left. In an
economic crisis, not a chance. The over-reach is coming. The backlash is
next.

That sounds pretty good to me. We need a Keynesian "over-reach" like a second New Deal, it seems to me. As for a backlash, what backlash happened after the first New Deal? We had decades of prosperity and won a world war, and we had LBJ's Great Society, the war on poverty, and the institution of Medicare for our seniors. Things changed for the worse only after conservative saint Ronald Reagan destroyed progressive taxation, broke the unions, championed deregulation, and poisoned Americans minds with his hatred of government. We're now paying the price for going down that disastrous path. Bush Junior even tried to destroy Roosevelt's great legacy, Social Security. Fortunately for our seniors, he failed.

Conservatives like Brooks and Gingrich will just have to sulk. Their day has past. They almost destroyed America with their policies. Hopefully, we can recover with a Gingrich revolution in reverse, a contract for America rather than a contract on America. That can't happen too soon.

Jim

Brooks: What Now?

The only thing now is to try again — to rescue the rescue. There’s no time
to find a brand-new package, so the Congressional plan should go up for another
vote on Thursday, this time with additions that would change its political
prospects. Leaders need to add provisions that would shore up housing prices and
directly help mortgage holders. Martin Feldstein and Lawrence Lindsey both have good proposals of the sort that could lead to a plausible majority coalition.
Loosening deposit insurance rules would also be nice.

I rarely agree with David Brooks, conservative columnist at the Times, but today he gets it right. The "bailout" must include provisions to help average Americans, directly helping mortgage holders. Brooks also clearly acknowledges that the Republicans and McCain are to blame for the demise of the bailout. Let's see what happens today.

Jim

What Happened To Hillary?

New York Times columnist David Brooks on why Hillary's campaign is losing: she defines herself as a "fighter," but...

"...this is a country in the midst of a crisis of authority, a country that
has become disillusioned not only with one president, but with a whole system of
politics. It’s a country that has lost faith not only with one institution, but
with the entire set of leadership institutions. The cultural context, in other
words, allowed for a much broader critique, a much more audacious
vocabulary.
And Barack Obama leapt right in. "

Brooks makes the point that people are looking for something other than the same old partisan bickering, and that's what Obama promises. Whether or not he'll be able to deliver on that promise if elected is another matter entirely.

Jim