"By DAVID BROOKS
Published: October 26, 2008
David Brooks explains some political realities in this excellent piece. I find myself firmly in the "third tendency." It partly explains why I have been unhappy with the both presidential candidates. While Brooks makes the case that McCain is also of this "third tendency," I don't fully agree because he chooses to style himself as a maverick, without describing the positions/beliefs about which he is a maverick. If he were truly of the "third tendency," he would have taken musch stronger stands on the principles that Brooks lays out.
I understand that Brooks is trying to let McCain down softly, but if he was so misshapen by his campaign handlers, that does not speak to his leadership. He certainly is less gifted with rhetoric than Obama, but he has far more substance. It's clear to me that American voters have swallowed the rhetoric.
"There are two major political parties in America, but there are at least three major political tendencies. The first is orthodox liberalism, a belief in using government to maximize equality. The second is free-market conservatism, the belief in limiting government to maximize freedom.
But there is a third tendency, which floats between. It is for using limited but energetic government to enhance social mobility. This tendency began with Alexander Hamilton, who created a vibrant national economy so more people could rise and succeed. It matured with Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War Republicans, who created the Land Grant College Act and the Homestead Act to give people the tools to pursue their ambitions. It continued with Theodore Roosevelt, who busted the trusts to give more Americans a square deal.
Members of this tradition have one foot in the conservatism of Edmund Burke. They understand how little we know or can know and how much we should rely on tradition, prudence and habit. They have an awareness of sin, of the importance of traditional virtues and stable institutions. They understand that we are not free-floating individuals but are embedded in thick social organisms."
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