It is
getting to the point that I can’t read certain columnists, the hand-wringers of
the left (you know who you are) topping the list.
But imagine
my surprise when the folks who I traditionally don’t agree with, those
wrestling with their conservative souls under this most preposterous of
presidents, air the most surprising and freshly baked views.
I wrote
in this space recently about the “Tribal” column in New York magazine by Andrew
Sullivan. Because this is what I do for my time’s-of-the-essence mobile
phone-using friends, I’ll do another link to it here. (Deserves a re-reading,
anyway.) http://nym.ag/2jJPMXU
Then,
last Friday (Sept. 22), I came upon a piece of similar, responsible quality by
conservative columnist David Brooks of the New York Times. http://nyti.ms/2y7cpvH
Brooks
writes about Sam Francis, a political thinker who the pundit resurrects in an attempt
to explain how exactly we came to this excruciating moment in US political
history. In short, Francis saw the potential for a demagogue who could
articulate what the vast majority of white America wanted, which began with a sound
rejection of both parties of the ruling class.
Brooks
closes with this:
“Trump
is nominally pro-business. The next populism will probably take his ethnic
nationalism and add an anti-corporate, anti-tech layer. Google, Facebook,
Amazon and Apple stand for everything Francis hated — economically, culturally,
demographically and nationalistically.
As the
tech behemoths intrude more deeply into daily life and our very minds, they
will become a defining issue in American politics. It wouldn’t surprise me if a
new demagogue emerged, one that is even more pure Francis.”
Next: Running for Your Life: Last
Week of Symbolists !
