OPINION - Shields and Brooks 8/21/2020

"Shields and Brooks on Biden’s DNC performance, Trump’s RNC approach" PBS NewsHour 8/21/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including reaction to the Democratic National Convention and Joe Biden’s acceptance speech, what to expect from President Trump at the Republican National Convention next week and concerns about delays in U.S. mail service ahead of the election.

Judy Woodruff (NewsHour):  The Democrats spent this week making their case for a Joe Biden presidency.  Next week, it's the Republicans' turn to argue for four more years for President Trump.

But, tonight, it's the analysis of Shields and Brooks.  That is syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

It is so good to see both of you.  We have seen you — you have seen us too much for the last four nights, but we're so glad to have you back.

David, the Biden campaign is putting out positive vibes tonight.  They're saying:  We think we did really well.  We raised $70 million over four days.  A lot of people were watching.

How do you think they did?  What stays with you?

David Brooks, New York Times:  What is that Beach Boys song, "Good Vibrations?"

Yes, they have earned them.  They had a convention that vastly exceeded expectations, certainly my expectations.  They had a candidate who delivered an address with a fierce urgency that you can't fake, actually.

And they had Barack Obama, Michelle Obama.  They had a series of remarkable performances that I think, for the first time in this campaign, not only generated opposition to Donald Trump, but generated some general and genuine enthusiasm for Joe Biden.

Judy Woodruff:  Mark, what do you — what's your takeaway?

Mark Shields, syndicated columnist:  I couldn't disagree more.

No, Judy, it was a…

(LAUGHTER)

It was a very, very positive convention, make no mistake about it.

Barack Obama being the big surprise.  After four years of Democrats waiting for him, his being circumspect and restrained, he arrived with a full-throated indictment of Donald Trump, and Donald Trump's failure to lead, and Donald Trump's failure to protect the country in its great crisis, and basically made the case that Donald Trump did not devote the time, energy, effort, and probably did not have the capacity to be President.

But I think — and I agree with David about Joe Biden.  It was — in many respects, it was a great advantage to have the remote convention, because Joe's tendency often is to win everybody in the room, and which he tries to do and does when he's speaking.

But, here, he had 24 minutes.  It was — he stayed within himself.  He made the case, I thought, compellingly.

But, more than anything else about the convention, to me, I was reminded of the words of the poet Maya Angelou, who said, people will forget what you did, people will forget what you said, but people will not forget how you made them feel.

And the vignettes about Joe Biden from Greg Weaver of Amtrak, who suffered a heart attack, a conductor.  Joe Biden knew his children, his grandchildren.  Joe Biden, as Vice President, reached out and contacted him in a barbershop in New York City to be sure how he was doing, that Joe Biden, the way he treated the elevator operator at The New York Times.

Judy Woodruff:  Right.

Mark Shields:  He didn't get the endorsement of The New York Times.  He got her endorsement.  She nominated him and said that there's more than room in his heart for himself.  There's room for me and so many others.

And, finally, as you commented, Brayden Harrington, the 13-year-old, brave, courageous young man from New Hampshire, who revealed that Joe Biden had told him:  We're in the same club, we're stutterers, and helped him and gave him the courage.

And I think that came through probably more strongly than anything else, and I think to Joe Biden's advantage.

Judy Woodruff:  So, David Brooks, did they do what they needed to do?  And did they miss the mark on anything?

David Brooks:  Yes, they did three-quarters of what they needed to do.

What's impressive about the Biden campaign is that they had a theory about two years ago, and they have stuck with the theory.  The theory is that the country is exhausted and wants a uniter.  And they ignore Twitter.  They ignored a lot of the left-right thing.  They just pursued that theory.

What they did not do is go to the heart of this electorate, which is working-class voters in the Upper Midwest.  It's sort of mind-boggling to me.  In 2016, Hillary Clinton made a colossal error by ignoring those voters in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, and such places.

And if the Democrats lose those states again, the indictment — and a correct indictment — will be that they made the exact same mistake in 2020 as they made in 2016.

And I think it's just because they don't have the vocabulary or the cultural knowledge to know how to talk to those voters.  I just think there are not enough people in the Democratic Party who emerge from those communities and know what concerns them and know how to talk to them.

And it could just be an inherent error and shortage in the party.

Judy Woodruff:  Mark, do you agree?  They failed to reach these voters in the heartland, many of them white working-class voters?

Mark Shields:  Well, I think Joe Biden has an enormous advantage over Hillary Clinton in that respect, just in his natural rapport and his record in dealing with working people and working issues.

But the Democrats have to be wary of becoming a party that — where people shower before work, instead of after work, who don't work by the hour, who don't pack a lunch.  And I think that remains a problem.

But Donald Trump's doing everything he can, as he did with Goodyear, in trying to boycott Goodyear tires in Akron, Ohio, and a great American company, to lose — to win back for Joe Biden and the Democrats this group.

I thought the biggest mistake of the night, Judy, of the entire four week — week was your coming to us when John Legend and Common were singing…

(LAUGHTER)

… and asking us…

(LAUGHTER)

I mean, I have heard nothing but unmitigated criticism of what the hell we were saying, when people wanted to hear them.

And what was David — what was David Brooks' bestselling album, they wanted to know.

Judy Woodruff:  Well, we have heard some of that as well.  And we apologize to anybody who thought we made bad decisions.  But we try our best to get it right.

Mark Shields:  OK.

Judy Woodruff:  But, David, OK, now it's the Republicans' turn.  It's President Trump's turn.

What does he need to do next week?

David Brooks:  Well, first, scare people.

(LAUGHTER)

Show that this is a country in disorder, crime is rising, violence in Portland.

Talk about China, which the Democrats did not do enough.  Talk about the threat and say, hey, I might not be as nice as Joe Biden, but you need me.

And I think that's the key thing.  And the second way Trump will say you need me is, they didn't talk about their policies at their convention.  But what they really stand for is the Green New Deal and opening the border and all that.

I expect the Republican Convention, weirdly, to be weirdly more policy-oriented.

The final odd thing about the Republican Convention this year, which is unprecedented in my lifetime, in all our lifetimes, is that the 2012 nominee would be not welcome there.  Mitt Romney would be not welcome there.  John McCain, if he were alive, would be not welcome there.  George W. Bush, the last Republican President, would be not welcome there.  George H.W. Bush, the previous Republican President, would be not welcome there.

This is a party that's utterly transformed, and the previous nominees will just be not welcome at the party as it currently exists.

Judy Woodruff:  Mark, as you look ahead to what the Republicans need to do next week, what are you thinking?

Mark Shields:  I think it's fair to say, Judy, not only would they not be welcome, but not one of the four would want to be there at that convention, which also speaks volumes about the change in the Republican Party.

I think that they have got a tough, uphill fight.  I mean, Donald Trump has spent 40 — four years concentrating on his base.  And, Judy, this is going to be a different election from 2016.

Forty-six percent, regardless of how acutely it's distributed electorally, is not going to be enough to win the White House back.  And he's got to expand.  And I don't know where he goes to expand.  All he does is drill down on his own side.

And I really feel, if anybody has any extra empathy, they ought to extend some to the people who are trying to put together this Republican Convention, because I think his whims are changing it from hour to hour, and the direction it's going to take, and the message it's going to deliver.

And I just — I really think it's an uphill — it's an uphill struggle from here, politically, to make a theme, to develop a theme.

What are you going to run, on sleepy Joe, after Joe Biden just ran — gave a 24-minute speech that was the equal of any given?

Fox News, before the convention, asked, do you think Joe Biden has the mental acuity to be President, in a poll, and 47 percent said yes, and 39 percent no.  They also made the mistake of asking it about Donald Trump, and 51 percent said, no, they didn't think he had the mental acuity.

So, there's two themes that have kind of gone by the board, sleepy and mental acuity.

Judy Woodruff:  Well, one of the things the President has been talking about — and we heard about it earlier in the program and just now from viewers, David — is what's going on with the Postal Service.

The postmaster general went before the Congress, a bunch of senators today, got grilled over that.  He assured them that everything's going to be fine.  But a lot of Democrats are saying, this is something they need to — we need to watch.

How serious an issue is this?  How much do you think it's going to play a role in this election?

David Brooks:  Well, Donald Trump's comments are a serious issue, because they will serve to proactively delegitimize the election if it comes out in the way his followers don't like.

And so they will have an excuse.  And they will say, see, Donald Trump said this all along.  It was those mail-in ballots, a system that we know is honest.

As for what's actually happening in the post office, I think much — vastly too much is being made out of this.  The Postal Service is a service in financial trouble.  The amount of mail is down sharply.  The nature of the mail has shifted from letters to packages.

So, shifting over from some of the sorting machines for letters to other things, and making room for packages processing machinery seems to be just the normal thing you do.  There's no evidence that I have seen that any of this is done with bad motives, other than try to save the Postal Service.

We get 160 million voters maybe or so, probably less.  The Postal Service delivers 430 (sic) pieces of mail every day.  There should be some expectation, as there has been all these centuries, that they can do this job and that they're going to do this job.

And if we — it's worth watching.  But, so far, I don't see any evidence that the Postal Service has become some sort of corrupt and untrustworthy institution.

Judy Woodruff:  Mark Shields, only about 30 seconds on the Postal Service.

Mark Shields:  I don't think — Judy, I don't think that anybody is suggesting the Postal Service is.

We're talking about the leadership.  And the old line, you don't talk to the monkey, when you can talk to the monkey grinder — Donald Trump has made quite clear what his intentions are.  He does not want millions of Americans voting by mail in the middle of a pandemic, in which the United States has paid a greater price in personal lives and suffering than any industrialized nation and many non-industrialized nations in the world.

And this is obviously a priority of his that far exceeds the pandemic itself.  He [Trump] keeps talking about it, and says on the record that, if people vote by mail, the Republicans — if everybody votes by mail, the Republicans will never win another election.

I think we need all the light, all the sunshine, all the antiseptic and dyspeptic we can keep on this story.  And I look forward to the hearings on Monday.

Judy Woodruff:  We will keep covering it.

And we thank you both after really an extraordinary week.

David Brooks, Mark Shields, thank you.

TRUMP ERA - "My Dear Country"

"My Dear Country"
by Nora Jones

'Twas Halloween and the ghosts were out,
And everywhere they'd go, they shout,
And though I covered my eyes I knew,
They'd go away.

But fear's the only thing I saw,
And three days later 'twas clear to all,
That nothing is as scary as election day.

But the day after is darker,
And darker and darker it goes,
Who knows, maybe the plans will change,
Who knows, maybe he's not deranged.

The news men know what they know, but they,
Know even less than what they say,
And I don't know who I can trust,
For they come what may.

'cause we believed in our candidate,
But even more it's the one we hate,
I needed someone I could shake,
On election day.

But the day after is darker,
And deeper and deeper we go,
Who knows, maybe it's all a dream,
Who knows if I'll wake up and scream.

I love the things that you've given me,
I cherish you my dear country,
But sometimes I don't understand,
The way we play.

I love the things that you've given me,
And most of all that I am free,
To have a song that I can sing,
On election day.

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 3/15/2019

"Shields and Brooks on New Zealand massacre, 2020 Democrats’ ideology" PBS NewsHour 3/15/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to analyze the week's news, including hate and tragedy in New Zealand, President Trump’s aggressive and “reckless” rhetoric and the latest updates from the field of 2020 Democratic Presidential candidates.

Judy Woodruff (NewsHour):  And with that, we turn to the analysis of Shields and Brooks.  That is syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

Hello to both of you.

We're going to get to politic in just a moment.

But, David, I want to start with this terrible massacre at two mosques in New Zealand.  We just talked to our guests it.

What does it say about — I was going to say about where we are in terms of tone.  What does it say about us as a human race right now?

David Brooks, New York Times:  Well, we're seeing a culture cry in pain and rage and alienation, a culture that's divided, that is isolated, where people are lonely, committing suicide at high rates.

And one of the things some lonely people with existential angst do is, they turn into fanatics.  And that's been the case all through history.  And we're just at a moment of just cultural pain.  And you get these horrific outbreaks.

Some of it is gentle, relatively gentle, screaming at each about politics.  Some of it is really bad, the suicide and the murder rate, the opioid rate.  And some of it is horrific, which is these mass shootings that we see across Western society.

And it's just the definition of our cultural moment.  And the thing that Kathleen Belew said, I think, is worth repeating, that it's a movement.

Judy Woodruff:  Right.

David Brooks:  And it used to be a movement or even a terror army was a group of people who had some internal structure and internal structure and institutions.

But now they're radically decentralized webs organized by the Internet.  And so, just because they have never met anybody — each other doesn't mean they're all part of one thing.  And they are part of one series of fanatical ideas.

And what's interesting is how they wink and nod to each other through their statements in their Internet or through their statements in their manifestos.  And so they're quoting — this guy was quoting somebody — the guy in the Pittsburgh synagogue.  And that's just a scary form of movement.

Judy Woodruff:  For them, it's all of a piece, Mark, even though they don't have a leader.

As David said, Kathleen Belew was saying a moment ago, this is — they're all about eliminating everybody who isn't white.

Mark Shields, syndicated columnist:  Yes.  No, I agree, and I was struck by Kathleen Belew's remark that it's a white power movement and a social groundswell.

And I can't help but think that the amplification and strengthening of this institution or this movement has occurred through the Internet.  The idea that if somebody held those beliefs in the past, there was almost a sense of isolation, because they were so widely unacceptable to most people.

But now you get ratification, you get validation, because you can talk to people, whether it's somebody who is going after Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston or the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh or in New Zealand yesterday going after Muslims at prayer.

And it truly is — it's worldwide in its movement.  And it's obviously not based on anything other than that sense of anger, resentment, alienation, and hostility.

David Brooks:  It should be pointed out the tendency to go after houses of worship is not an accident.

Mark Shields:  No.

David Brooks:  It is a form of anti-religion.  It's faith or a movement of hatred.

And this has not been the first time in history that we have had this, and so you get these war — moral wars.  Somebody pointed out that, when the printing press was first created, people thought it would herald in an age of peace, because we could all talk to each other through the written word.  And we got hundreds of years of religious war.

And so open communication can have these horrifically negative effects.  And Ryan O'Lieber (ph) said back in the '50s that existential anxiety, if you don't know what your moral purpose is, you turn into a fanatic, because this sort of white or black or any kind of racial power movement gives you a very clean moral logic.  You know what your purpose is in the universe.  And you have a clear enemy you can go kill who are inhuman.

And so it cures all your existential anxiety, because suddenly everything is literally black and white.

Judy Woodruff:  But you don't really right now, Mark, have an effort to condemn it, to say this is wrong.

I mean, it's on the margins.

Mark Shields:  No, we all know it's wrong.  I mean, it is.

I mean, but how do you confront something that is almost subterranean?  I mean, it's not something that we run into, most of us, in our carpool or daily.

There was just one moment yesterday on Capitol Hill, when the most powerful Democrat in the country quoted the most popular Republican President of the last century.

And I would just like to read it.  And it just said, thanks to the — quoting this President:  "Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we're a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, always leading the world to the next frontier.  If we ever close the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world will soon be lost" — Ronald Reagan's last speech to the American people.

(CROSSTALK)

Judy Woodruff:  Nancy Pelosi.

Mark Shields:  And it was quoted by Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, at the luncheon for the Irish Prime Minister yesterday, Donald Trump sitting there as she said this.

But, I mean, wow.  I mean, it's just one of those moments you say, we are not who we were.

David Brooks:  Yes.

And it's an assertion that what joins us across race is more important than what divides us.

Mark Shields:  Yes, exactly.

Judy Woodruff:  Well, we're talking about — you made the segue to President Trump.

And I was going to ask this in the context, David, of the 12 Republicans yesterday in the Senate who went against the President on his emergency declaration on the border.

But what has come up in the last day or so is a comment the President made in an interview with Breitbart News, the right-wing Web site.  And he said — and he was condemning Democrats and saying they were the left.  He said it's tough.

But he went on to say: "I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, support of the Bikers for Trump.  I have the tough people.  But they don't play it tough, until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad."

I'm contrasting that with what President Reagan said.

David Brooks:  Yes, again, he left out the Brownshirts.  It is classic authoritarianism.  It's almost Mussolini-like.

I happen to think it's compensation.  As a friend told me, a friend of Donald Trump's told me that he's terribly afraid of confrontation in person.  He will do it over the Internet, but he won't do it in person.  And so he needs to project toughness.

And he admires toughness in the Saudis and Putin, in the North Koreans.  And that's his highest virtue, but it's something of a blustery front, which is typical of bullies.

Mark Shields:  Reckless beyond belief.  I just — I can't believe it.  Words matter, especially the words of a President.

And he's not talking to Breitbart or any particular group.  Whenever the President speaks, he's speaking to all of us and for all of us.  And this was criminally reckless.  It was almost sanctioning, if not condoning, any act of violence by one of his supporters, armed supporters, against a political critic, a political opponent, saying, I understand it.

I contrast — I just contrast it with the words of a Reagan or a Kennedy or any other President.

AMORAL PRESIDENT - Khashoggi Decision

aka "Amorality by all Presidents"

Trump will sell his soul for money to anyone.

"With Khashoggi decision, Trump places strategic interests above human rights" PBS NewsHour 11/20/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump announced he will not sanction Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  The President indicated he had no intention of breaking with the longtime American ally.  Nick Schifrin reports, and the Washington Post's Fred Hiatt joins Judy Woodruff to analyze the administration's response to the international incident.