David Brooks is worried that the U.S is in the midst of an authoritarian power grab. He thinks nobody is doing anything about it and he’s very upset.

David Brooks is very upset because he likes his stable, well-off, hyper educated, well-read and well-connected life, and he has begun to suspect that this is the real deal, and knows from history and from looking around the world that authoritarianism is bad for educated well-off people and their bank accounts, not to mention their ability to travel freely and be welcomed internationally. For someone like Brooks, the prospect of being denied the cosmopolitan perks you’ve been accustomed to for your whole cushy life is radicalizing. So now he demands that the people rise up and put an end to the authoritarian takeover.

To defend his lifestyle, and his position, and his self-concept- all the comforts he takes for granted.

I have a suggestion for David Brooks. I want him to take a 5 year break from publishing articles in reputable newspapers and magazines. I want him to go hang out with normal people who work for a living and mostly live check to check and don’t have a college education.  I want him to shut the fuck up and listen to people when they try to explain to him why the country and system he is so attached to and wants them to rise up and fight for looks very different for the majority who have never had access to the perks and luxuries he takes for granted. 

Which is not to say that we want authoritarianism. In fact,  we have been the main force of opposition to it from day one,  and ultimately it will fail because of us. Brooks can not see our pushback, our strategic actions, mutual aid, and resilient ground level organizing, because sadly, he can not see us.

His article in the Atlantic 10/12/25 is several thousand words of elite navel-gazing. It is written by, for, and about a panicked elite. Ironically, it is pieces like this one that drag out the same old neoliberal establishment patronizing party tricks- brainstorming how to explain better to Americans what they should want,  so they’ll vote the « right » way- that serve as the best and most salient explanation for why Donald Trump has once again been given power, despite his obvious inability to wield it responsibly. It is not, in most cases, because people are stupid. It is not, in most cases, because people are cruel. I think more than anything else, Trump’s appeal is in his willingness to shine a light on the smarmy, self-important elitism of David Brooks and his ilk. Americans are smart enough to see that there are haves and have nots, winners and losers in our society, and that increasingly the winners have distanced themselves from the losers to the point that they can tell themselves that 80% of the country either doesn’t exist or doesn’t matter. And people are justifiably angry at being disrespected or disappeared by elites, and then aggressively gaslit when voting time rolls around.

Is Donald Trump the answer? Obviously not, but many people experience catharsis when he aims venom at comfortable cosmopolitan elites like David Brooks on their behalf.

What is the answer? The answer lies where it always lies, in America and everywhere else- with the people. We know us, we respect us, we trust us, we empower us. I think we can all agree- left, right and everything in between- that we deserve a government of, by, and for the people. The culture war has been running cover for the class war for far too long.  We need a new generation of diverse working class voices to step up and grab both the spotlight and the scepter.

Oh, and one last note for David Brooks-

The best thing America ever came up with was the public library.  We read books, too. Some of the wisest and best-read Americans- some of our greatest thinkers- are poor. Maybe you should interrogate your assumption that the poor and the working class are stupid, and instead engage in a good- faith effort to find out what our lived experiences are and what we feel and think about the current state of the nation.

Keep in mind what Mark Twain said: « I never let school get in the way of my education ».