Lessons in Rhetoric From David Brooks

link here to article

I posted this article primarily as a means of describing the "fair and balanced" rhetoric that defines David Brooks. He always describes at least two extremes and stakes out the middle ground for himself. It turns out that the middle ground is also conservative ground. There is also a theme that runs through most of his reporting. Human beings are not clever enough to develop grand schemes that are workable. This is the foundation for conservative distrust of governments that advocate reform.

In this article he describes three unworkable schemes that show the implicit hubris that he opposes. Bankers thought they knew what to do and they were wrong. Democrats tried to use Keynesian policy to stimulate the economy and that didn't work, and Republicans believe that tax cuts are a panacea. This frames the issues just as he likes it. He then stakes out the middle ground for himself. It turns out the the middle ground is the traditional conservative position on how to grow an economy. All of the proposals that he makes fall under the heading of "supply side economics".
The role of government is to focus on things that make business, and therefore the nation, more productive and competitive. In other words, government should not play an active role in the market. This contrasts sharply with the views of Keynes who believed that the government needed to run deficits during recessions and surpluses when there was price inflation. He did not believe that the economy was self correcting. In other words, government should play an active role in the economy in order to provide full employment and price stability. Keynes was even critical of Wall Street. He did not believe that speculation in the market for existing securities was the best way to allocate capital to its most productive uses. He believed that government needed to play a role in allocating capital to socially useful purposes. Conservatives call this industrial policy and this is a cardinal sin. Markets and not government should allocate capital to whatever purpose markets determine.

The lesson that we should learn from David Brooks is that framing the debate is the way to win debates. He has framed the debate so that the middle ground is occupied by a conservative view of the economy and society. Its best to leave things as they are.