David Brooks:
No, this is the core tension in the MAGA movement. Basically, Trump took a party which was a dynamist party, free markets, capitalism, lots of technology, lots of progress, lots of immigration, the free movement of free people and free products, and he imposed upon it a reactionary, let’s take care of ourselves.
So there are these two intellectual tendencies within the party, which is, we need immigrants because we want to have the best companies in the world, but we also have to take care of ourselves.
And a lot of the people who voted for Trump have been left behind by the go-go change the last 20 years. And so you see these two tendencies within the party. And so I think we’re going to see this kind of tension not only on immigration, but on trade, on tariffs, on housing policy, economic regulation.
This is the central split. And I’m more on the Ramaswamy-Elon Musk side. But I have to say they’re unbelievably condescending in the way they express themselves, by calling people ignorant, Ramaswamy saying you people don’t know how to raise your kids, basically, and making the cardinal error, which always triggers me.
In his little tweet, he said, more math tutors, less sleepovers. If you want to give your kids something cognitively demanding, don’t send them to a math tutor. Send them to sleepover with 12-year-old kids. That’s cognitively demanding.
(LAUGHTER)
