David Brooks on 'Why America Needs a Mass Movement – Now'

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KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Trump administration’s constant flouting of court orders, its conversion of ICE into a massive paramilitary organization, its extortion of universities and corporations. It’s all prompted political commentator David Brooks to pose what he calls the question of the decade: “why hasn’t a resistance movement materialized here?” A self-described moderate, Brooks says we’re naive to think Trumpism will end in three years; rather, if unopposed, “global populism of the sort Trumpism represents could dominate for a generation.” We talk to Brooks about how he assesses the No Kings protests and how he’d build on past social movements to counter the tide of populist authoritarianism. We also talk to him about why learning to see other people more deeply can help build meaningful alliances, a concept he develops in his book “How to Know a Person,” which was just released in paperback. Guests: David Brooks, opinion columnist, The New York Times; contributing writer, The Atlantic; commentator, PBS NewsHour Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:35.0	From KQED. Welcome to Forum. I'm Nina Kim. David Brooks, the longtime conservative turned
0:42.9	Republican exile because of Trumpism, has said he's not a movement guy, but in his new
0:48.7	Atlantic cover story, and since last April really in the New York Times, Brooks has been calling
0:53.7	for one, a mass movement,
0:55.6	a national uprising strong enough to reverse a raging tide of authoritarian populism.
1:01.2	Quote, the second Trump administration has flouted court decisions in a third of all rulings
1:05.4	against it. It operates as a national extortion racket, using federal power to control the
1:10.0	inner workings of universities,
1:11.6	law firms, and corporations. It has thoroughly politicized the Justice Department and turned ICE
1:17.0	into a massive paramilitary organization with apparently unconstrained powers. Public officials' first
1:24.1	duty, Brooks says, is to put the law before the satisfaction of their own selfish
1:28.4	impulses. That concept is alien to Trump. David Brooks is also commentator for PBS News Hour and his
1:36.2	23 book, How to Know a Person, was just released in paperback. Welcome to forum, David.
1:42.9	Great to be back. Thank you. So I just read from
1:46.4	that long list of things Trump and his administration have done, and it's only some of the things
1:51.0	you noted. How do you think we should understand what the purpose of these moves are? Because
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