David Brooks On The New Traditionalism

David Brooks is tired of the culture war that has been the weapon used by his favorite political party since Richard Nixon invented the "silent majority" in response to the counter culture that developed in the 1960's.  He seems to recognize that Donald Trump captured the culture war and used it to take over the GOP which didn't take it seriously enough.  He tried to ward off Trump by promoting "reformed conservatism" and nominating Marco Rubio as the leader of a movement that did not exist.  He lost that battle and he has invented a new idea to replace reformed conservatism.  This op-ed describes his idea of new traditionalism.  He argues that is superior to the old traditionalism which was at the center of the culture wars spawned by the GOP and which set the stage for Donald Trump.  It would be nice if the old traditionalism could be infused with the spiritualism that Brooks advocates.  However,  Donald Trump's supporters are not eager to become Buddhists.  They seem to prefer anger to love and spirituality.  Moreover, GOP leaders are not ready to promote community over individualism.  Nor are they ready to give up the idea of utility maximizing individuals which is at the heart of their worship of a market based society. David Brooks is desperately seeking an alternative to replace the political party that he can no longer promote.