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As regular readers will know, David Brooks is my favourite columnist. Yes, he is frequently wrong about things, as every columnist should be, yes, he is occasionally guilty of over-interpreting or misrepresenting the social science material he draws on, and yes, he does quite a lot shifty manoeuvring to stay in favour with whoever's in power. But his columns are deeply rooted in wide reading and first-hand reporting, he is exceptionally funny, and above all, he has mastered the fine art of saying big things in 800 words.
This week's column, on Newt Gingrich, is a beautifully executed assassination, a masterpiece of more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger demolition. Brooks begins by explaining why, "Of all the major Republicans, the one who comes closest to my worldview is Newt Gingrich." Gingrich, unlike most leading Republicans, doesn't believe or pretend to believe that all government is bad. He has long been an advocate of limited but active government - a government that acts as a spur to private enterprise and pursues the wider public good. But his wonkish enthusiasm can take him too far:
He has no Hayekian modesty to restrain his faith in statist endeavor. For example, he has called for “a massive new program to build a permanent lunar colony to exploit the Moon’s resources.” He has suggested that “a mirror system in space could provide the light equivalent of many full moons so that there would be no need for nighttime lighting of the highways.”
I’m for national greatness conservatism, but this is a little too great.
But then Brooks really sticks in the shiv. The real problem with Gingrich isn't his policies, it's his character:
In the two main Republican contenders, we have one man, Romney, who seems to have walked straight out of the 1950s, and another, Gingrich, who seems to have walked straight out of the 1960s. He has every negative character trait that conservatives associate with ’60s excess: narcissism, self-righteousness, self-indulgence and intemperance. He just has those traits in Republican form.
Link to column.
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