You're listening to another episode of No Fair Remembering Stuff, the Tuesday edition of

The Professional Left Podcast, and available wherever you get your podcasts, and at our website,

pro-leftpod.com, where you can also contribute to this podcast. There's a Patreon button

at our website, or you can mail us a letter and or contribution at the Professional Left podcast, P.O. Box 9133, Springfield, Illinois, 62791.

And it's not safe for work. In part one of last week's episode, one of the most dangerous men in American politics, we took a deep

dive into the career of David Brooks, mostly during the weekly standard phase of his career.

We didn't go all the way back to Brooks's days at the Wall Street Journal, or five minutes he spent

at the Chicago News Bureau, where he visited one of Chicago's high-rise slums once or

maybe twice, and decided that the entire liberal project has been an unmitigated disaster

because that level of scholarship is best left to people like Rick Pearlstein.

Instead, in keeping with the mission of this podcast, we want to

explain and contextualize the deep toxic influence David Brooks and his many imitators have had

on American politics. You may remember from part one of this story how David Brooks made a

speedy and incredibly awkward transition

from his liberals are terrorist-loving idiots, weekly standard persona, to his both sides are

equally bad, and a GOP renaissance is just around the corner, which was his New York Times persona.

And here is a brief David Brooks timeline for those of you keeping track at home.

David Brooks in 1999 believe the Republican Party was awesome, and lefties are idiots.

David Brooks in 2000, the Republican Party is awesome, and the lefties are cranks.

David Brooks, 2001.

George Bush is a fucking awesome, gargantuan tax cutting genius, and those tax cuts are easily affordable and the lefties are crazy for saying otherwise.

And may I just interrupt for a moment?

...