David Brooks

Fundamental issues are suddenly up for debate, thanks to a burst of intellectual creativity.

Principals are the key to success.

I’d like to think it’s possible to be fervently anti-Trump while also not reducing everything to a fairy tale.

What’s needed is reform of our core institutions to address the bad byproducts, not fundamental dismantling.

What's that old proverb? "He who sups with the devil needs a long spoon." Or better, the guts to get up from the table.

He may be able to unify the nation in the effort to keep his incompetence contained and crises averted.

Over the past few days we’ve seen what happens when you assign someone a single identity. Pollsters assumed that most Latinos would vote only as Latinos, and therefore against Donald Trump. But a surprising percentage voted for him. Pollsters assumed women would vote primarily as women, and go for Hillary Clinton. But a surprising number … Continue reading The danger of a dominant identity

CLEVELAND — On the surface, this seems like a normal Republican convention. There are balloon drops, banal but peppy music from the mid-1970s and polite white people not dancing in their seats. But this is not a normal convention. Donald Trump is dismantling the Republican Party and replacing it with a personality cult. The GOP … Continue reading The death of the Republican Party

Donald Trump has done something politically smart and substantively revolutionary. He is a Republican presidential candidate running against free trade and, effectively, free markets. By putting trade at the top of the conversation he elevates the issue on which Hillary Clinton is the most squirrelly, where her position reinforces the message that she will say … Continue reading Donald Trump and the coming political realignment

Columnist David Brooks looks back at civil rights movement and sees the spiritual power of self-discipline on the offensive.

New York Times columnist David Brooks tells the sorry tale of the Obama administration's big bet on green technologies.

New York Times columnist David Brooks delights in the return of a moderate Mitt Romney after a debate performance that Brooks says breaks with the tea party.