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Immigration reform actually favors conservatives

DAVID BROOKS

Published May 8th, 2013 - 12:05AM

The opponents of immigration reform have many small complaints, but they really have one core concern. It’s about control. America doesn’t control its borders. Past reform efforts have not established control. Current proposals wouldn’t establish effective control.

Immigration, not guns, is the issue that can hurt the GOP

DAVID BROOKS

Published April 21st, 2013 - 12:05AM

Liberals are furious, but the gun issue will not significantly damage the Republican Party.

Thatcher pulled Britain from brink of defeatism

DAVID BROOKS

Published April 10th, 2013 - 12:05AM

The 1990 Tory coup against Margaret Thatcher was the most intense political event I’ve covered. The Conservative politicians who were trying to remove her from party leadership and the prime minister’s office knew they were toppling a person who was their political and moral superior. They knew she had earned the right to face the country in an election one last time, rather than be deposed by the supposed lieutenants in her own party. They sensed there would be some Shakespearean retribution for the act of disloyalty they were engaged in. They went around rubbing their hands like Lady Macbeth trying to expunge the sin even as they were committing it.

Quality early education translates into a brighter future

DAVID BROOKS

Published February 19th, 2013 - 12:05AM

Today millions of American children grow up in homes where they don’t learn the skills they need to succeed in life. Their vocabularies are tiny. They can’t regulate their emotions. When they get to kindergarten they’ve never been read a book, so they don’t know the difference between the front cover and the back cover.

Mounds of data dispel some commonly held assumptions

DAVID BROOKS

Published February 6th, 2013 - 12:05AM

If you asked me to describe the rising philosophy of the day, I’d say it is data-ism. We now have the ability to gather huge amounts of data. This ability seems to carry with it certain cultural assumptions – that everything that can be measured should be measured; that data is a transparent and reliable lens that allows us to filter out emotionalism and ideology; that data will help us do remarkable things – like foretell the future.

GOP needs to construct a 2.0 version of itself

DAVID BROOKS

Published January 30th, 2013 - 12:05AM

On the surface, Republicans are already doing a good job of beginning to change their party. Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana gave a speech to the Republican National Committee calling on Republicans to stop being the stupid party, to stop insulting the intelligence of the American people.

Republicans should brace for a Democratic onslaught

DAVID BROOKS

Published January 20th, 2013 - 12:05AM

President Barack Obama’s second inaugural comes at an interesting moment, what you might call the end of the era of the Grand Bargain. Throughout his first term, Democrats and Republicans didn’t achieve a Grand Bargain on spending and taxes, but there was a sense that history was moving in that direction.

Hagel gives Obama cover for military cutbacks

DAVID BROOKS

Published January 9th, 2013 - 12:05AM

Americans don’t particularly like government, but they do want government to subsidize their health care. They believe that health care spending improves their lives more than any other public good. In a Quinnipiac poll, typical of many others, Americans opposed any cuts to Medicare by a margin of 70 percent to 25 percent.

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