Analyst David Brooks visits Centre College ahead of its vice presidential debate; dishes on the candidates, and gives a speech telling young people they’re not as special as they’ve been led to believe.
Brooks, a New York Times columnist and PBS/NPR commentator, made the comments when he recently visited Centre College in Kentucky, where the vice presidential debate is slated for Thursday.
The Cento campus newspaper reported that prior to a speech by Brooks, he hosted a powwow with campus reporters, college Democrats and Republicans, and student government representatives.
Brooks predicts VP contenders may verbally tussle: “Presidential candidates pull in their claws and want to seem more dignified. The men at the bottom of the ticket are the most interesting.”
Brooks also told students that the budget and Medicare are the most important topics Thursday.
“It all comes down to how Joe Biden attacks Paul Ryan on the Republican budget and how well Ryan can defend it,” Brooks said. “Medicare is a real weakness for Romney as well. Biden is going to attack Romney and Ryan on Medicare by saying that they want to throw granny out in the street. It’ll be up to Ryan to defend their stance.”
After his conversation with students, Brooks gave a “Distinguished Press Lecture,” in which he delved in part into the country’s narcissistic tendencies and how that plays out in politics:
He described the U.S. as having transitioned from “a self-effacing culture to a self-expanding one.” He claims that this shift occurred sometime between the 1950s and the 1960s and that it has laid the path for America’s political destiny.
“We have told a generation of young people that they are special and they believed us,” said Brooks.
“American culture has become fairly egotistical. It’s become a lot harder to govern this country due to this cultural shift.”
He attributed the rise in polarity to this spike in narcissism.
“If you think you think you own 100 percent of the truth, then you feel that people who disagree with you are just in the way.” This lack of character is what Brooks correlated with the lack of strong leadership today.
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