A moderate manifesto: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/opinion/03brooks.html.
Don't agree with everything; but there are some good points. Here were some quotes I liked:
"Those of us in the moderate tradition — the Hamiltonian tradition that believes in limited but energetic government — thus find ourselves facing a void. We moderates are going to have to assert ourselves. We’re going to have to take a centrist tendency that has been politically feckless and intellectually vapid and turn it into an influential force."
"But beyond that, moderates will have to sketch out an alternative vision. This is a vision of a nation in which we’re all in it together — in which burdens are shared broadly, rather than simply inflicted upon a small minority. This is a vision of a nation that does not try to build prosperity on a foundation of debt. This is a vision that puts competitiveness and growth first, not redistribution first."
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David Brooks is one of those people that I would want to sit down for a beer with so that he would let me pick his brain. For a president that ran on a policy promising going through budgets line by line with a scalpal has allowed a democratic congress to push through every earmark policy that had been swept under the carpet during Bush's reign, while giving into republicans doing the same exact thing. Is this his way of compromise? Brooks is right to point out that the size of government is going to be growing to a size larger seen in history. It will be interesting to see how Obama can actually make a system that is already inefficient, more efficient by increasing the size of it. Obama's "vision" should have changed once the current recession came; he should have realized that this was one of the worst times to try to redistribute wealth in this country (assuming there is a good time to do so). Word to Obama: view the tapes of your debates, take out your scalpal, roll up your sleeves, and bring out the "tough guy" chicago politican to whip your congress into shape.
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