New York Times columnist David Brooks, never one to shy away from dramatic pronouncements, is now demanding a full-blown “national civic uprising” against President Donald Trump. Writing in the Gray Lady, Brooks urged universities, lawyers, businesses, nonprofits, scientists, and even civil servants to coordinate and form a “rival power” to confront the administration.
The Media Research Center quickly flagged Brooks’s call to arms, noting the language sounded dangerously close to revolutionary talk.
He's No Patrick Henry: NYT’s David Brooks Burps Up Call for ‘Uprising’ Against Trump https://t.co/1lmFFIQyx3
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) April 21, 2025
But here’s where it gets weird. After calling for revolt, Brooks suddenly turned the spotlight on his own side. “I ask you to try on a vantage point in which we anti-Trumpers are not the eternal good guys,” he wrote. “In fact, we’re the bad guys.” Wait, what?
Brooks admitted the liberal elite – his crowd – has spent decades taking over professions, locking out everyone else, and patting themselves on the back as forces of “progress and enlightenment.” He even slammed their nonsensical buzzwords like “problematic,” “cisgender,” and “Latinx,” correctly pointing out they just alienate normal, less-educated folks.
He conceded it makes perfect sense why working-class Americans might flock to someone like Trump, who battles the self-serving establishment Brooks is part of. While still calling Trump a “monster,” Brooks blamed the elites for creating the conditions for his rise.
“We can condemn the Trumpian populists all day until the cows come home,” Brooks concluded, “but the real question is when will we stop behaving in ways that make Trumpism inevitable.” It’s quite the admission, though maybe a little late, coming from inside the belly of the beast. Naturally, the column stirred the pot, with some praising his supposed honesty and others blasting his weak critique of the very institutions his elite friends run into the ground.
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