David Brooks’ Essay Demands a Reply

Dear David,

I was quite surprised by an op-ed you published in the New York Times on September 4. You made numerous claims that are simply not accurate. I have admired your work over the years, but this column shocked me. Although you said you will vote for Harris, your vote for her will count for nothing compared with the harm that your erroneous attack on Democrats will do.

You claimed that “People like the red model more than the blue model,” and that “the fastest-growing states by population are mostly governed by Republicans, including Florida, Texas, Idaho, and Montana. The fastest-shrinking or -stagnating states are mostly governed by Democrats, including New York, Illinois, California, Pennsylvania and Hawaii. The red model gives you low housing costs, lower taxes and business vitality. The blue model gives you high housing costs, high taxes, and high inequality.”

If people like the Red model more than the Blue model, how come no Republican candidate for president has won the popular vote since. 2004? If things are better in the Red states, how come nine of the top ten states for longevity are Blue states?

Texas and Florida have not accepted Medicaid funds to expand the provision of health care for their poorest residents. Such states have a higher death rate than those that accept funds.

We might also judge states in terms of abortion restrictions. The harm that is being done to women who could not access needed care surely should count against the Red states and three of the Red states you name have restrictions on abortion.

Your claim that Blue states have higher inequality is simply not true. According to Wilkinson and Pickett, the top ten states for inequality are Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana, West Virginia, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, South Carolina, and California. Blue wins 9 to 1!

Wilkinson and Pickett’s research has shown that countries and states with greater inequality have higher rates of most problems, including infant mortality, lower life expectancy, obesity, mental health disorders, and violent crime. There is evidence that in more unequal countries, even the wealthiest people have a lower life expectancy. And when it comes to inequality, the U.S. is number one!

You argue that the U.S. is more dynamic economically, while Europe is stagnant, with lower disposable income and slower corporate growth. That may be true, but Europe also has fewer children living in poverty, better and cheaper health care, less inequality, greater life satisfaction, and greater longevity.

You criticize Democrats for wanting “to expand the welfare state so that our social insurance system would look more like Europe’s.” Well yes, Democrats are aware of the fact that the U.S. has one of the highest rates of child poverty and that it contributes to the higher rate of child abuse and neglect and the cascade of problems that result from abuse and neglect.

We will not address these disparities unless we dramatically reduce economic inequality. Kamala Harris’ focus on economic policies will increase the income of the millions of Americans who constantly struggle to provide for their families. The steps include increasing the minimum wage, making it easier to form unions, increasing taxes on the wealthy, ending the incarceration of Black and Hispanic men, breaking up monopolies, and requiring all states to fully fund the Affordable Care Act.

Your most surprising claim is that Republicans have the moral high ground. You say that Democrats believe that “Individuals get to choose their own definition of when human life begins. Any form of family and social life is OK so long as the individuals within it give their consent.” On the other hand, Republicans live “in a universal moral order with permanent standards of right and wrong, within family structures that have stood the test of time, with shared understandings of, say, male and female.”

Yet somehow these moral standards tolerate the vile misogynist attacks that Trump and his acolytes constantly spew, as well as the approval of rape and sexual molestation, the lying, the self-aggrandizement, the fraud, and the disrespect for the military and people who have disabilities.

Over the years of reading your columns, I noticed that every once in a while, you would write a piece like this one, as though you were trying to make sure that you retained your conservative bonifides.

Yet I know from reading so much of what you have written that you have a commitment to ensuring the wellbeing of every person. I submit that the facts that I have laid out suggest that, on the whole, the policies and values that the democrats are pursuing are more likely to create the world that you and I believe is needed.

Warm regards,

Tony

Anthony Biglan, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist,
Oregon Research Institute
President, Values to Action
2324 West 28th
Eugene, Oregon 97405
541–953–0002
https://www.valuestoaction.com/
@Abiglan

541–953–0002

https://www.valuestoaction.com/

@Abiglan