Brooks Gives Wall Street a Hand Up

In his column on Obama's second inaugural address, Brooks writes the following absurdity:

"I am not a liberal like Obama, so I was struck by what he left out in his tour through American history. I, too, would celebrate Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall, but I’d also mention Wall Street, State Street, Menlo Park and Silicon Valley. I’d emphasize that America has prospered because we have a decentralizing genius."

It's so hard to take David Brooks seriously. Does he really think that Wall Street and Silicon Valley haven't gotten enough attention and public benefit over the past 12 years or, in the case of Wall Street, over the past 200 years? Our economy and public policy are built around Wall Street's needs.

Out of whack

The whole point of Obama's focus on things other than Wall Street, etc., is that public policy has been so disastrously weighted toward Wall Street for so long that we need a determined, sustained effort to recalibrate. Wall Street and Silicon Valley are doing just fine. They don't need marquis treatment in a presidential inaugural address. The rest of society could use a little attention.

Who are you?

It's not clear that David Brooks knows, himself, what he believes. His intellectual conflict is on full display in this column, which is really two columns. The first half is praise for progressivism; the second half is an attack on progressivism.


David, please settle your internal conflicts before dragging readers through your inability to decide who you are and what you believe. Right now, you're everything and nothing.