Richard Spencer

November 11, 2008

When I read this morning that David Brooks thinks the “battle lines … in the fight over the future of conservatism have been drawn between moderates and traditionalists [my emphasis],” I thought he meant us. Well, not exactly. It seems that in Brooks’s mind the trad camp is led by Sean Hannity and Grover Norquist, so I guess Brooks and I simply don’t agree on terms.

The Republican civil war might be breaking down as Brooks describes, but that only means that both sides are acting willfully ignorant of what led to the GOP’s demise in the first place. And a trad-moderate war is actually quite convenient for someone like Brooks, as it ensures that Republicans are unlikely to pinpoint the neocons as the group that led the push for the war the entire country so passionately hates (no matter what they feel about abortion or Bush’s proscription drug extension.)

The best moment in the piece comes when Brooks laments, “traditionalists have the institutions.” Can Brooks name a neocon who suffered career-wise after recommending the Iraq fiasco or a single large, mainstream conservative institution that took a hard stand against the war? With “enemies” like the trads, do David Brooks and the neocons need friends?