Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

David Brooks: The Brutalism of Ted Cruz
The New York Times ^ | January 12, 2016 | David Brooks

Posted on 01/12/2016 7:51:54 AM PST by EveningStar

... Traditionally, candidates who have attracted strong evangelical support have in part emphasized the need to lend a helping hand to the economically stressed and the least fortunate among us. Such candidates include George W. Bush, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum.

But Cruz's speeches are marked by what you might call pagan brutalism. There is not a hint of compassion, gentleness and mercy. Instead, his speeches are marked by a long list of enemies, and vows to crush, shred, destroy, bomb them. When he is speaking in a church the contrast between the setting and the emotional tone he sets is jarring.

Cruz lays down an atmosphere of apocalyptic fear. America is heading off "the cliff to oblivion." ...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016issues; brutalism; cruz; davidbrooks; oped; tedcruz
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-51 next last
To: EveningStar

Brooks, you are a flaming schmuck.


21 posted on 01/12/2016 8:05:33 AM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder (This space for rent.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar
Poor David, he just doesn't realize that Cruz gets more support with every column of his that demonstrates his disdain for the Senator.

David, you're a Putz...lmao.

He's running scared with the GOPe herd, thanks to Trump and Cruz. Their days at the trough are coming to an end.

I'd be really pleased if Peggy Noonan got a new hairdo, too. It's really annoying, the way she continually tosses her head, or playing with her hair while giving her vaunted opinions on the Sunday shows.

22 posted on 01/12/2016 8:06:25 AM PST by Night Hides Not (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Mississippi! My vote is going to Cruz.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

Pagan brutalism = I am not intelligent enough to comprehend what he is saying so therefore I feel intimidated. If Cruz is pagan brutalism this little wallflower of a writer would have had a grand ol time during colonialism


23 posted on 01/12/2016 8:06:35 AM PST by Jarhead9297
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

Wow, he is making Cruz sound like the entire nation of Iran.

So Brooks, maybe we should cancel the Iran deal then? They scream “Death to America” every chance they get.


24 posted on 01/12/2016 8:08:39 AM PST by Titus-Maximus (It doesn't matter who votes for whom, it only matters who counts the votes - Joe Stalin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

Trump is brutal. Cruz is cold. Regardless, both of them are usually right and there comes a time to carry out the trash.


25 posted on 01/12/2016 8:10:55 AM PST by Psalm 144 (The mill grinds exceedingly fine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

David Brooks:

“I’m a pundit, more or less paid to appear smarter and better than I really am”


26 posted on 01/12/2016 8:11:55 AM PST by kcvl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

The New York Times republi-poodle barks!

Yes! All New York Times subscribers need their pre-conceived ideas confirmed by the hand selected vichy-servative, David Brooks, that Cruz is just plain mean.

Perhaps it would help if he put an exclamation point after his first name. Then it would be a sign that he means well, like the other favs of the NYT crowd. Let’s hear it!

Hillary!
Jeb!

Ted!


27 posted on 01/12/2016 8:12:09 AM PST by kidd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar
The best conservatism balances support for free markets with a Judeo-Christian spirit of charity, compassion and solidarity.

David, you're going to catch hell over that statement, clearly implying that Islam is bereft of a spirit of charity or compassion.

He's right about that, but CAIR's going to have a field day with that.

It makes my day when I can hoist an elitist on their own petard. lol

28 posted on 01/12/2016 8:12:15 AM PST by Night Hides Not (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Mississippi! My vote is going to Cruz.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

Brooks has acknowledged his religious outlook has changed. “I don’t talk about my religious life in public in part because it’s so shifting and green and vulnerable,” he told NPR. “... I don’t really talk about it because I don’t want to trample the fresh grass.”


29 posted on 01/12/2016 8:14:34 AM PST by kcvl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar
So far I've seen the words "brutalism" and "satanic" associated with Cruz.

These people are in need of serious help although I think they might be too far gone.

30 posted on 01/12/2016 8:18:28 AM PST by grimalkin (For the Statist, liberty is not a blessing but the enemy. - Mark Levin, Liberty and Tyranny)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

While Brooks was critical of Christians who he said erect “walls” to separate themselves from the secular world. He applauded authentic Christian joy, which he said could build a “ramp” to the secular world.


31 posted on 01/12/2016 8:19:43 AM PST by kcvl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

And even worse - “SATANIC”!

“Brooks cites Cruz’s ‘dark and satanic tones’”

“Ted Cruz is making headway. There’s ... you begin to see little signs of liftoff. Trump has sort of ceiling-ed out. Carson is collapsing. And Cruz is somehow beginning to get some momentum from Iowa and elsewhere,” Brooks said. “And so people are either mimicking him, which Rubio is doing a little by adopting some of the dark and satanic tones that Cruz has.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/cruz-satanic-217552

There are definitely many people in the GOP establishment with no fear of God!

They think they can borrow from God’s Word to promote their agendas.

They aren’t far off from the Democrats. The two politicians who thought it nothing to try to exploit the Bible for political ends after 9/11, Tom Daschle and John Edwards, were Democrats, each most unwisely quoting Isaiah 9:10 out of context as some sort of comfort, when they were words of defiance that clearly brought God’s judgment.

Now that the GOP is formally trying to make itself a fiscally conservative but socially liberal party, and rid itself of God and His Word, and evangelical Christians, it can expect to reap what it sows.


32 posted on 01/12/2016 8:23:02 AM PST by Faith Presses On ("After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations...")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rovenstinez
Sometimes it is difficult to stand up for the rule of law.

Too difficult for Ted Cruz to do, apparently, since he chose to cover up for a violation of the law:

In 1997, Michael Wayne Haley was arrested after stealing a calculator from Walmart. This was a crime that merited a maximum two-year prison term. But prosecutors incorrectly applied a habitual offender law. Neither the judge nor the defense lawyer caught the error and Haley was sentenced to 16 years.

Eventually, the mistake came to light and Haley tried to fix it. Ted Cruz was solicitor general of Texas at the time. Instead of just letting Haley go for time served, Cruz took the case to the Supreme Court to keep Haley in prison for the full 16 years.

(emphasis added)

We've already had enough corrupt Presidents who elevate human misdeeds above the rule of law. We don't need to add Canada Cruz to the list.
33 posted on 01/12/2016 8:33:41 AM PST by Gandalf the Mauve
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

David Brooks should just slink off into the obscurity he deserves.


34 posted on 01/12/2016 8:39:58 AM PST by sauropod (I am His and He is mine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

If these shmucks knew as much about evangelical/fundamentalist Christianity as they pretend to know, they would realise that the the topic on which Lord Jesus spoke the most was hell. I wonder what they would say about that? Would they say that it was “unChristian” of Jesus to speak so often on such an offensive, distasteful subject? I believe that they would, without the slightest awareness of the irony of it, because they have already taken it upon themselves to deny the Bible and redefine “Christianity” apart from almost everything to be found in its foundational text, the Bible. The only verse they can ever remember off the top of their heads is the one about “judge not”, and they don’t even get that one correct, in context.

Oh, but they don’t believe in hell either. You could wonder why they even bother pretending to be any kind of a Christian, or pretending that it matters if someone else claims to be one, especially of the evangelical/fundamentalist variety, when they don’t even believe in any of the tenets and doctrines of Christianity, especially the ones which might cause them discomfort in their sin? My answer is that they don’t really believe, they had to pretend to be Christians or be concerned with Christianity in order to try to destroy Christianity from within. This, of all other battles the left is fighting or has fought, is the one they are going to lose, when the day comes in which every knee shall bow and every mouth shall confess that Jesus is Lord. There may be only a tiny remnant of true Christians remaining before that day, but that’s not news, the Bible tells us that the way is narrow, and the path to hell is broad.


35 posted on 01/12/2016 8:41:08 AM PST by mrsmel (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Night Hides Not

Brooks,”Oh look, ISIS cut my arm off, but that is ok. Our nation is in sad shape, oh was I too mean saying that, but we can do a little better if we try hard. If not, we will go down further, but we are good people at heart.”


36 posted on 01/12/2016 8:43:28 AM PST by taterjay
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: JPG
Hit ‘em with your purse, David!

With his Prada? Are you inthane! (pardon my lisp)

37 posted on 01/12/2016 8:43:58 AM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: JPG
Hit 'em with your purse, David!


38 posted on 01/12/2016 8:45:47 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: kcvl

The Bible tells Christians to “be ye separate”. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. The world is doing its best to make it impossible to be Christian and in the world, in as far as earning a living, educating your children, and the necessitites. They are forcing Christians to be ever more separate from the world, by making the world so hostile to Christianity. This may not be completely a bad thing, at least in the US and western nations, where Christians have become so worldly that we need a good winnowing, to separate the wheat from the chaff.


39 posted on 01/12/2016 8:46:39 AM PST by mrsmel (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: mrsmel

Indeed.

And I’m starting to believe we are getting the worldly candidates imposed on us because they reflect who we actually are as evangelical Christians.


40 posted on 01/12/2016 8:56:50 AM PST by Faith Presses On ("After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations...")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-51 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson