David Brooks' dumbest column since his bogus Red State/Blue State analysis [View All]

This is so lame, so superficial, so blatantly false, it's easy to imagine Judy Woodruff and Bill Schneider discussing its "brilliance" at length on today's Inside Politics. The always "fair and balanced" Note over at ABC News certainly thought it was well worth reading. Will the "affluent teachers" and "decorators" of the Democrats overcome the "simple, straight talking men and women of faith" of the Republicans? Will the disorganized disciples of "self-expression" defeat the "organized and calm" defenders of "loyalty and formality"? Let David Brooks guide you through the minefields of thought and then YOU decide!

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/15/opinion/15BROO.html

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The percentage of voters with college degrees has doubled in the past 30 years. As the educated class has grown, it has segmented. The economy has produced a large class of affluent knowledge workers — teachers, lawyers, architects, academics, journalists, therapists, decorators and so on — who live and vote differently than their equally well-educated but more business-oriented peers.

Political scientists now find it useful to distinguish between professionals and managers. Professionals, mostly these knowledge workers, tend to vote for Democrats. Over the last four presidential elections professionals have supported the Democratic candidate by an average of 52 percent to 40, according to Ruy Teixeira and John Judis, authors of "The Emerging Democratic Majority."

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Knowledge-class types are more likely to value leaders who possess what may be called university skills: the ability to read and digest large amounts of information and discuss their way through to a nuanced solution. Democratic administrations tend to value self-expression over self-discipline. Democratic candidates — from Clinton to Kerry — often run late.

Managers are more likely to value leaders whom they see as simple, straight-talking men and women of faith. They prize leaders who are good at managing people, not just ideas. They are more likely to distrust those who seem overly intellectual or narcissistically self-reflective.

Republican administrations tend to be tightly organized and calm, in a corporate sort of way, and place a higher value on loyalty and formality. George Bush says he doesn't read the papers. That's a direct assault on the knowledge class and something no Democrat would say.

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