[lbo-talk] Brooks: Combat Prudentialism!

[Brad Mayer]

Wacko NYT OpEd columnist DAVID BROOKS shows that the American political
psychosis is regime-wide and is hardly limited to the Bush gang.  And it
includes Kerry, with whom Brooks is delighted.

Except for one little problem:

"The one big problem they are not addressing — and are actually making
worse — is the creepy tone of prudentialism that envelops this campaign.
Nobody is passionate about John Kerry. Primary voters embraced him in a
calculating frame of mind. Party leaders talk about him ambivalently.
Even Kerry seems coolly calculating about himself."

"He has not communicated a consuming sense of mission that emanates from
the soul and transcends political self-interest. You can position a
candidate intelligently, and the Democrats are doing that. You cannot
fake that sense of historic calling that actually inspires people."

IOW, Kerry needs to not merely put forward an insane political program; 
in the present American political environment, he has to act as crazy as
his program.  It works for Bush:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/04/opinion/04BROO.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists