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Thoughts from San Diego on Law, Politics, and Culture
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September 28, 2003
The House Conservative By Tom Smith My fellow Right Coaster Mike Rappaport told me about a famous speech by Malcolm X (I think) in which he distinguished "house [slaves]" and "field [slaves]". (For "slaves" X used an offensive word.) House slaves loved their masters. They were smooth, polished and careful never to upset their masters. Not field slaves. They were rough, dirty and hated their masters. Malcolm X said he had always been a field [slave]. Brooks is a house conservative. He is careful never to say anything that would overly upset liberals. He is oh so nice on the Leher News Hour. For this reason, he is less interesting than Mark Shields, who really is knee-jerk liberal, but at least he's a two fisted one. I read about half of BoBos in Paradise. I stopped with the impression that here was I guy who spent far too much time thinking about what other people thought about people who spent a lot of time thinking about what other people thought of them. That is, a guy really hung up on making the right impression. It's not a harmless vice. It leads Brooks to say ridiculous things like, the bias against conservatives in the academy is unconscious. Please! If Brooks really believes this, he hasn't done his research. If he doesn't, then he shouldn't write as though he does. I prefer field conservatives, like Charles Krauthammer. |